Halsey Channels Britney Spears & 9 Other New Songs Out This Week

Halsey pays her dues to formative Y2K-era pop in this wistful lament about the pitfalls of fame. There’s an instantly nostalgic feel to its sound, thanks to skillful interpolations of Brandy’s “Angel of Mine” and “Lucky” by Britney Spears — a tune the singer always felt was sung “directly to [her].” Fittingly, Halsey’s autobiographical lyrics evoke that same spirit, as each raw and aching line rolls off her tongue like a story recounted to friends.

There’s no shortage of braggadocio on this booming, Travis Scott-assisted banger from Ice Spice’s highly anticipated debut album Y2K! The rappers deliver their verses like a duel for supreme buoyancy with plenty of self-referential flexes, including a clap-back from Ice seemingly in response to critiques of her “custom Dolce” bodysuit at a Vanity Fair party: “Oh sh*t, she showing her thong.”

Let this be a warning: If you’re partying with Kacey Musgraves, you better not dip without bidding her farewell. In this sparse and haunting track from her upcoming expanded edition of Deeper Well, country-pop’s resident and wizened stoner delivers a somber rebuttal to the Irish exit dripping in bitter devastation.

Finally, a slinky and synth-y Grand Theft Auto anthem for the shotgun riders more focused on looking hot in the side-view than they are on taking the wheel.

This garage-rock manchild-kissoff thrasher starts off low-key until it explodes as the Spanish girl group cranks up the crunchy guitars. If there were a soundtrack for being the coolest girl in school, riding in a convertible, and giving your ex a cathartic middle finger, it’d be this.

Sorry to the Lone Star State, but mxmtoon isn’t mincing words on this breakup pop ditty with a country twist. Ironically, it’s a dreamy and fiddle-driven tune that pairs nicely with the breezy, festival-ready fare dominant in Austin — a city whose only benefit, she sings, is its “exits have more room to run away from you.”

Funky basslines are so back, baby. On the latest taste of their upcoming ’70s-inspired album Paradise State of Mind (which arrives on Aug. 16), Foster the People attempt to ground themselves over psychedelic beats. Amidst handclaps and rogue sound effects, the indie popsters seem to finally grab hold of time, if only for three-and-a-half minutes.

The competition for bro-country collab of the summer is tough. Still, this genre-blending reimagination of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” — featuring not one, but two references to The Devil Wears Prada — is so undeniably catchy that I was looking up pickup trucks on Carvana after my first listen.

With delicate acoustics and diaristic proclamations, MUNA’s Katie Gavin encapsulates the head-rushing feeling of infatuation on her debut solo single. While her band’s discography is rife with emotional bangers, Gavin accesses new layers of vulnerability on her own with just enough saccharine to make for the perfect aftertaste.

With a whistling chorus, well-placed horns, and unbridled optimism, indie-pop quartet Saint Motel gives us a groovy slow jam that sounds like a Valencia Instagram-filtered day in L.A. — minus all the traffic.