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.
Dove Ellis, “To The Sandals”
Singer-songwriter Dove Ellis has been whispered about for months in the British music scene and his debut single, “To The Sandals,” shows why. The indie folk song has a rustic quality to the guitar playing, loose and homespun, while Ellis’ vocals take center stage, conjuring memories of Jeff Buckley’s soaring theatrics. He’ll join Geese on tour in what is looking like the line-up of the fall. —David Renshaw
Sword II, “Even If It’s Just A Dream”
Atlanta trio Sword II’s new album Electric Hour was recorded during a tricky living situation; a basement flood and their neighbors getting raided by the FBI led to a sense of paranoia. “Even If It’s Just A Dream” is a moment of escape served with a side of squelchy fantasy. Dreamy guitars cushion vocalist Mari González as she sings about a Cronenberg-esque surgical procedure that results in pregnancy. “At our transfusion I’ll still be screaming with her,” she sings in what has to be the year’s most unlikely romantic gesture. —DR
Dexter In The Newsagent, “eighteen”
There is a vulnerability in “eighteen,” the latest single from British artist Dexter In The Newsagent, that perfectly captures the feeling of adulthood crashing into view. “I’m getting older can’t you tell?” she asks over throwback R&B production that speaks as much to TRL nostalgia as the crew of Jim Legxacy affiliates she belongs to in London. Fears over moving out and going grey are rendered with a sense of gravitas by an artist who has an exciting future awaiting her. —DR
Iglooghost, “Metal Newt”
On his new Bronze Claw Iso EP, English producer Iglooghost is both SoundCloud rapper and underground rave selector. The mutant closer “Metal Newt” is an easy highlight: every nook Iglooghost explored on the previous songs converges for one sinuous, searing flex. The range of laser-sighted melodies and chrome-plated percussion brings to mind an endless sea of metal fingers skillfully creating new connections. —Jordan Darville
Guitar, “Every Day Without Fail”
Shades of Ovlov, Weezer, and the grease at the bottom of a pizza box color the latest single from Portland rockers Guitar. “Every Day Without Fail,” from their new album We’re Headed To The Lake, out October 10 via Julia’s War, is gritty and peppy all at once, its occasional veering into sludged-out jams only heightening its appeal. —JD
Veeze, “L.O.A.T.”
L.O.A.T. — short for Lamest Of All Time as dubbed by Detroit MC and FADER cover star Veeze — might not be the most inspired acronym but the heat level of the song that bears its name is high enough to absolve it of its cheesiness. He sounds sharper, in that deceptively blurry way of his, than he did on his last few releases. “I quit drugs like every day, tomorrow, I’ma try again,” he raps. What more is there to say? —Raphael Helfand
múm, “Kill the Light”
Icelandic collective múm have been constructing weird, glitchy, airy songs for nearly three decades now. “Kill the Light” is a true slow burn that revels quietly in its ample negative space before blossoming into a lush folk anthem that marches, albeit at its own easy pace, toward the sense of an ending. —RH
Machine Girl, “Rabbit Season”
For Matt Stephenson, Machine Girl’s mutant-in-chief, the rabbit is most interesting because of the holes one can get lost in when it follows the furry critter into the ground. That’s also the case for MG’s new song “Rabbit Season,” which starts off as a sparse industrial track led by the firm hand of a synth bass but soon explodes into a maelstrom of haywire sounds that underscore Stephenson’s paranoid vocal freakout. —Raphael Helfand