The Best Five Songs Released This Past Week Pt. 43

Noteworthy album & EP releases:

Superhuman, Ferris & Sylvester
Candydrip, Lucky Daye
Forbidden Feelingz, Nia Archives
Heavy Metal Flower Petal, Phebe Starr

In chronological order:

“All I Ever Asked” – Rachel Chinouriri
Release date – March 8

When you see an artist on Spotify you’ve never heard of and realize she has 1.6 million monthly listeners, you know you’re officially old. Rachel Chinouriri, a 19-year-old singer songwriter from Croydon, South London, is back with her new single “All I Ever Asked,” a song that comes after “So My Darling,” a single on its way to 5 million streams on Spotify alone.

“All I Ever Asked” premiered as Clara Amfo’s Hottest Record In The World on BBC Radio 1 on March 8. Speaking of the single, Chinouriri said: “‘All I Ever Asked’ was inspired by a breakup my friend was going through and it made me reflect on a similar situation I was going through too.”

“This Is a Life” – Son Lux, Mitski, David Byrne
Release date – March 8

Just a little over a month ago, Mitski released her highly anticipated follow up to Be The Cowboy with Laurel Hell, and she really did NOT need to give us yet another track, but I’m certainly not complaining! This time, Mitski has teamed up David Byrne and Son Lux: the latter tasked with scoring the music for the the A24 film Everything Everywhere All At Once: the first of a whopping 49-track album that’s out on April 8.

“Even though we knew from the moment Daniels asked us to score this film that it would push us in new and unexpected directions…What emerged was our most ambitious undertaking to date,” Son Lux said in a press release.

“Feels Like” – Lucky Daye
Release date – March 11

I’ve been on an R&B kick and I don’t think I’ll ever let it go! Lucky Daye’s newest album, Candydrip, is David Debrandon Brown’s first full-length release since 2019, and features contributions from artists like Smino, Lil Durk, and Chiiild.

Lucky Daye speaks on the album as “the idea of flavors versus Painted, which was about colors. These are a bunch of different flavors of songs, giving you ear candy in different ways” (Painted is Lucky Daye’s last full-length release).

“Feels Like” is such a light, bouncy and fun track: one that I think is perfect as an introduction to the rest of Lucky’s discography.

“Believe” – Caamp
Release date – March 11

Caamp, a band that I once ruled off as dad rock, is back with a new single ahead of a tour with The Lumineers. “Believe,” a song that very much sounds like one of my longtime faves The Head And The Heart, is the Ohio natives’ first single ahead of their next album, Lavender Days, which drops on June 24. The track, and most of the album, was produced by Caamp and Beatriz Artola (Fleet Foxes, Adele, Sharon Van Etten) and additional production from Brad Cook (Snail Mail, Waxahaatchee, Indigo De Souza), aka some of Staged Haze’s favorites.

“This Is How My Voice Sounds” – Ferris & Sylvester
Release date – March 11

When Issy Ferris and Archie Sylvester crossed paths in 2017, it was a sign of fate. The duo, now a couple, have been making music together ever since, camping out in a cottage outside of London during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic to work on their debut album together. Superhuman dropped on this past Friday, and though I haven’t had a chance to listen to the entire thing yet, I am absolutely blown away by this track. Issy’s rasp is so gorgeous and hits so genuinely with the depths of the lyrics.