Every week, we bring you #SOUNDCHECK — your destination for the best new music that hit the web over the course of the week. Because you should always be prepared when someone passes you that AUX cord. This week's roundup features 10 of our favorite emerging and established artists.
The closing track to Midnights is also its most quietly powerful as Swift admits to being the careful conductor behind all of her relationships and success. Perhaps that was already a given, but to hear her claim it with pride rather than shame feels like a gift. (YouTube)
Weeping strings, visceral, high-octane lyricism, and Alex Turner’s sepia-shaded vocals make up Arctic Monkey’s most sumptuous and adventurous song on The Car. (YouTube)
Against “Sunset”’s organic, seafront-invoking Balearic instrumentation, Caroline Polachek’s alien-like pop howls sound even more otherworldly. (YouTube)
Kelela’s version of a rave meet-cute sounds as delirious, chaotic, and uniquely beautiful as you’d expect. (YouTube)
Drain Gang VP Thaiboy Digital is deep in his feelings on “True Love,” his version of an effusive boyband serenade. (YouTube)
There’s such an infectious, unbridled joy bursting from Smino’s eclectic-sounding rap that one can’t help but also feel hyped up while listening. (YouTube)
NorCal singer Dora Jar delivers a gorgeously hazy lo-fi ballad that feels like gazing into the San Francisco bay through morning fog. (YouTube)
Baby Rose’s uniquely rich and textured voice is on raw and powerful display on her noir nocturne, “Go.” (YouTube)
With self-effacing lyrics like, “There's a part of me I hate, that hopes that maybe you still want me” on “Ill,” it’s no wonder Alexander 23 is resonating with Gen Zers everywhere. (YouTube)
This blushing bedroom pop song by Toronto band Pony captures the youthful romance of lovesickness. (YouTube)