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. Turn up, tune in, and tune out.
Very rarely does the musical calendar deliver like it did last week. Not only did Queen Bey resurface to share her Juneteenth anthem "Black Parade," reclusive rapper Noname gifted the world with her first single of 2020 — a one-minute track powerful enough to course correct a misguided rap battle. With City Girls and Teyana Taylor also sharing albums, there's more than enough gold to dig into this week.
"Black Parade" - Beyoncé
Queen Bey shut down the internet again with this Juneteenth anthem.
"Song 33" - Noname
Noname is the new vanguard.
"I Know The End" - Phoebe Bridgers
Phoebe Bridgers goes where you've always wanted her to: the screamo deep end.
"That Old Man" - City Girls
If City Girls made nursery rhymes.
"Cry" - Ashnikko ft. Grimes
This is how you do pop-punk for the new age.
"KLK"- Arca ft. Rosalía
"KLK" sounds like tuning a radio: discombobulating but oddly coherent.
"Crimson + Clover" - Pom Pom Squad
Brooklyn's Pom Pom Squad offers up a sticky, petulant, and unnerving version of the Tommy James + The Shondells classic.
"American Cars" - Annie
Norwegian pop star Annie resurfaces after 11 years with a sublime synth-y wave.
"Don't Kiss Me In Public" - Special Interest
Jagged, ebullient rock/noise/disco for smashing the patriarchy.