Tracks we love right now, in no particular order.
Each week, The FADER staff rounds up the songs we can’t get enough of. Here they are, in no particular order. Listen on our Spotify and Apple Music playlists, or hear them all below.
Yves Tumor & NINA, “We Don’t Count”
“We Don’t Count” is a rare thing in the algorithm-driven streaming age: a genuinely interesting collaboration. Yves Tumor and NINA of bar italia voices don’t exactly coalesce as much as they clash in an appealing way; Yves’ is a passionate rock star howl and NINA’s more deadpan and disaffected. There are sparks in the abrasive way these two bounce off one another. —David Renshaw
Lord Spikeheart, “ANVNNAKI”
Kenyan death metal paragon Lord Spikeheart is dropping REIGN, a three-track EP to follow his brain-rattling 2024 sophomore album The Adept, in September. On its first single “ANVNNAKI” he’s laser focused, spraying shouts, growls, and guttural howls over chugging guitar power chords from Vena Konda and booming drum synths from French super-producer Brodinski. —Raphael Helfand
Snooper, “Worldwide”
Buoyed by the success of their cartoonishly fun debut album Super Snõõper, Nashville DIY band Snõõper invested their money in a drum machine and got to work on making more music for punks to dance to. “Worldwide” is the first taste, a song with frantic energy that has vocalist Blair Tramel singing about having no fun while her bandmates buzz around her manically. Alongside the programmed beats and scuzzy guitars, it creates something akin to Devo for the 2x-speed generation. —DR
Quadeca & Maruja, “CASPER”
Quadeca’s explosive new album Vanisher, Horizon Scraper closes with “CASPER,” on which the Los Angeles artist subs out his pleasantly muddled vocals for spoken-word lyrics from British band Maruja’s Harry Wilkerson. The song’s first few minutes play like a prelude to the apocalypse, pummeling toward a full-band breakdown that hurtles toward the end of everything. —RH
Quinn, “lowlife (they think i’m crazy)”
On her new EP lowlife, quinn demonstrates once again why she’s one of independent rap’s most exciting artists. Its thrilling title track begins with a melancholic bubblegum vibe of the end credits of an anime, surrounded by drums that make you want to sweep everything off your desk and start pounding them out. It’s fun, but when quinn switches it up in the climax for a dubby exhale, the song becomes essential. —Jordan Darville
Del Water Gap, “How To Live”
Del Water Gap makes pop music that’s as scientifically precise as a Taylor Swift song. “How To Live” sounds like a page out of the 1989 book with a coursing, windswept hook about feeling unsatisfied with life and being a “man with a thimble fighting a flood” over racing drums. Just when it feels like the song’s out of breath, a big bridge comes in to knock you over. —Steffanee Wang
james k, “Doom Bikini”
I just wanna walk around Brooklyn with my wired headphones and low-waisted flared jeans blasting this trip-hop dream of a song on repeat, which sounds like feeling equal parts existential, sad, and sexy. —SW
Magic America, “Play The Drums”
Philadelphia band Magic America have only released a couple of singles but they’re already picking at the relationship between band and audience on their addictive new track “Play The Drums.” “I’m gonna write my little songs and sing them pretty so you sing along,” Evan King teases through a vocal effect that amplifies his hooks and a creeping darkness (he later refers to having bodies in his closet) on an ostensibly sweet song. Magic America emerged from their local thriving shoegaze scene but “Play The Drums” suggests they have bigger, poppier ambitions. —DR