We recommend: The best new global music
Editor’s note: We’ve pulled together the best new tracks and albums—both international and Indian—that dropped in the last four weeks. Tune into August’s playlist on splainer’s Spotify.
‘Taste’ by Sabrina Carpenter: The young pop sensation of the year keeps going from strength to strength. Featuring lush guitar tones and bubblegum hooks, this delightfully catchy track is from her new album ‘Short N’ Sweet’ which came out on August 23.
‘Thirsty’ by Tinashe: This song from the Kentucky-born singer of Zimbabwean heritage is R’n’B at its most welcoming—effortlessly cool melodies set to a laid-back, hi-hatty beat. Playing some of the vocals in reverse is just the added cherry on top.
‘Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça Ira!)’ by Gojira, Marina Viotti, Victor Le Masne: The stand-out performance from the Paris Olympics opening ceremony has finally been made available to stream. We’ll miss hearing the spoken word by a headless Marie Antoinette, but this version retains the sonically rich marriage of opera and metal.
‘PowerNerd’ by Devin Townsend: Canada’s funnest heavy metaller is back with a new single featuring his signature ‘wall of sound’—punchy riffs combined with hyperpop sensibilities. The full album will be released on October 25.
‘Only The One Who Brought The Bird Can Make It Sing’ by Tigran Hamasyan: The Armenian jazz maestro ditches his piano-based bread and butter compositions for a more synth-and-bass soundscape. The result is endlessly earwormy, aided by hard-hitting drum patterns and beautifully harmonised vocals.
‘Guess’ by Charli XCX featuring Billie Eilish: This flirty and saucy number from Charli XCX’s much talked-about album ‘brat’ is steeped in the energetic party girl vibe. The drop right after Eilish’s chorus is frantic and fun, so you can let your hair down with it.
‘Trouble’ by Meshell Ndegeocello: From the album ‘No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin’, this is a deeply moving track, which uses a blend of spoken word poetry and heavenly tones from gospel music. And the seemingly sparse drums help you keep pace with the touching lyrics.
‘That’s How I’m Feeling’ by Jack White: For all its lyrics about self doubt and need for strength to carry on, Jack White’s song from his new album ‘No Name’ is all things classic rock. The frantic guitar, the urgent vocals, and the garage band-like sound make this a song you can blast in the car.
‘California Sober’ by Post Malone featuring Chris Stapleton: Post Malone may be embracing his country era with this song off his album ‘F-1 Trillion’, which is his first all-country outing. The lyrics talk about the fleeting nature of a good time, but this song is a good time, through and through. It’s just two boys having fun on a country road—what’s not to like?
‘Yo Me Estreso’ by The Linda Lindas featuring Weird Al Yankovic: Speaking of fun collabs, this track by the teen band The Linda Lindas is all kinds of enjoyable. The title translates from Spanish to ‘I stress myself out’. The mariachi influences on this track, coupled with the eclectic accordion sound that Weird Al Yankovic brings to the table, makes a great listen.
‘I Will Not Go Down’ by Amythyst Kiah featuring Billy Strings: An almost anthemic track about picking yourself up and charging forward, Amythyst Kiah apparently wrote the hypnotic chorus in a journal as a teenager. That, coupled with the rhythmic strings and beating percussion, makes for an engrossing listen.
‘Taambdi Chaambdi’ by Kratex and Shreyas: An Indian new release that we’d love to champion on this list is the extremely groovy and addictive party track ‘Taambdi Chaambdi’ which translates from Marathi to “bronze skin” or “brown skin”. There’s an easy energy to the all-Marathi rap that occupies the bulk of the lyrics and the hook will get your foot tapping wherever you hear it.
Addicted by The Chainsmokers, Guru Randhawa and Jonita Gandhi: This unlikely collab makes for an absolute banger! The lyrics are in English and Punjabi. Though the song passes off as usual dance music at the club, it is super catchy.
‘I Wear My Roots Like a Medal’ by Dhee: The Sri Lankan Tamil singer—who got famous with her breakout hit ‘Enjoy Enjaame’ with Tamil rapper Arivu—is back with a highly personal song that is about finding her roots. Also danceable, the song is embedded in the fun koothu beats from the traditional drums. Check out the awesome music vid here.
August 2024’s best albums
‘Melodies of Atonement’ by Leprous: This is the eighth album by the five-piece Norwegian band that has found a genre-bending sweet spot between frontman Einar Solberg’s operatic vocal range and the rest of the band’s abilities to create artsy yet dynamic arrangements. With introspective and melancholic lyrics, diverse guitar-and-strings-driven songwriting and an MO of challenging the listener’s expectations, prepare for a demanding yet rewarding listen.
‘I Lay Down My Life For You’ by JPEGMAFIA: Last year, he turned heads in the hip hop space with his weird and wonderful collaborative album with Danny Brown. Now, the American East Coast rapper takes his experimentation to the next level by embracing garage rock, in all its grungy fuzziness and punk aesthetic. What could have been an unmitigated disaster is instead an irresistible 41-minute record that may leave you scratching your head at times but is never ever boring.
‘Wild God’ by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: After a trilogy of albums dabbling with electronic genres to create an ambient vibe with powerfully meditative lyrics, this legendary Australian act returns with a modernised form of the more accessible bluesy-artrock sound that defined their early years. Despite this stylistic reversion, the powerful influences of their 2010s era are deeply felt in this record—creating a nice sonic bridge between the old and the new. At 66, frontman Nick Cave hasn’t lost a step, and neither have the rest of the “bad seeds”. Long may this late-career surge continue.
PS: Standout tracks from each album have been added to splainer’s August 2024 playlist on Spotify!
