New Music Sunday: The Best 5 Songs Released This Past Week Pt. 5

Hey hey hey! Here are the best five songs released this past week. Check out the previous post in this series here.

Noteworthy album & EP releases:
The Sky Is Bleeding, Biig Piig
The Land Beyond The Light, Claire George
Nightmare on Elmfield Road, Cloves
Harmony House, Dayglow
Sparkles & Debris, Lydia Ainsworth
Long Lost, Lord Huron
Sour, Olivia Rodrigo
L(only) Child, salem ilese
are we?, slenderbodies
TV, Tai Verdes
Scaled and Icy, Twenty On Pilots
Greatest Hits, Waterparks

“Stop Making This Hurt” – Bleachers
Release date – May 18

I’ve been waiting for this day for so long! Bleachers just announced their new album, Take The Sadness Out of Saturday Night, set to drop on July 30. The new single “Stop Making This Hurt” was based off a line that was stuck in lead singer Jack Antonoff’s head for many years, born out of coping with a loss and depression, then eventually heightening during COVID when the realization set in that the band wouldn’t be able to play live shows for a very long time. In a press release, Jack discusses the meaning behind the song: “I found myself banging at the door of the next phase of my life and to open brings up all the darkness from the past and what’s holding you back.

“Savage Good Boy” – Japanese Breakfast
Release date – May 19

While I’m the first to admit that I haven’t been super into all of Japanese Breakfast’s music in the past, I have really enjoyed all of the singles leading up to the next album, Jubilee, set to drop on June 4. This song immediately caught my eye when a press release hit my inbox about the music video’s guest star: actor Michael Imperioli of The Sopranos (a show I am currently binge watching for the first time and almost finished with). The song was inspired by “billionaires buying bunkers,” lead singer Michelle Zauner says. Read more about it via DIY Mag.

“Violet!” – Waterparks
Release date – May 19

If you haven’t already, be sure to get Houston-born pop band Waterparks on your radar this year. Don’t know where to start? I’ll help you! Their fourth studio album Greatest Hits just dropped via 300 Entertainment: home to artists like Megan Thee Stallion and Maggie Lindemann. Though the band has been around since 2016, I’ve only started to become familiar with them earlier this year, and I’m curious to see how their sound is received in the boy band space where artists like LANY have already hit their peak (at least in my opinion).

“i deserve 2 b alone” – Tai Verdes
Release date – May 20

I was today years old when I realized that Tai Verdes, who just released his debut album, is the artist behind the viral TikTok song “Stuck In The Middle,” AND that he was a contestant on MTV’s Are You The One – specifically season six. I recognize this person because I binged the show during quarantine. Regardless, there’s a handful of gems on Verdes’ new project, and I believe his track “A-O-K” is now getting some radio play. “i deserve 2 b alone’ toes the line between alternative pop, hip hop and rap music, and though we continue seeing more artists releasing what is essentially genre-less music, I still found this song’s flexibility refreshing.

“brutal” – Olivia Rodrigo
Release date – May 21

I know what you’re thinking: ANOTHER Olivia Rodrigo song on your weekly best of playlist?! I’m sorry, I can’t help it! Though I think I had more of a mixed critique on the album more than most people (or at least of those who are talking about it online), there are absolutely some standout tracks on the album that are worth being mentioned, and “brutal” is one of them: a debatably perfect opening track for an album. The song follows the pop punk formula of “good 4 u,” an edgier sound that’s sadly not as prevalent on the album, but one that Rodrigo should definitely keep in her bag of tricks moving forward. You know how many teenagers want to scream along to their favorite artist about not being able to parallel park? A lot of them. And me too, cause I can’t really parallel park either.

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