New Music of the Day, January 24:

Spector, "Untitled in D"

2018's still young, but I doubt we'll get much better lines than "You're not like the other guys/ Institutionalized." Unless it's "Tell me everything/ I've forgotten/ Not excluding/ How to be a human being." Musically, this is very different from anthemic early Spector tracks like "Celestine" and "Chevy Thunder"--the songs that sent Fred Perry-clad lads into a slamdancing frenzy when I saw the band perform in London a few years ago. But Spector's aura of sardonic cool and witty lyrics are still intact.

New Music of the Day, January 23:

Phlake, "IKEA Episodes"

Even though I've never actually stepped foot inside an IKEA--(Shocking, right? What have I been doing with my life?)--I've still been in enough big-box retail stores to find this song's lyrics incredibly relatable: "I've been stuck in here for days/ I'm all alone up in this maze." White boy soul music usually feels a little affected; Justin Timberlake's recent output is a good example. But I think Denmark's Phlake might have the right idea about locating their soulful lament in a specifically upper-middle class milieu and malaise. In fact, I think they should record a whole album of this and call it #WhitePeopleProblems. I can just imagine some of the other tracks: "(Sometimes I Feel Like I Got) The Wrong Latte" and "Spin Class (So Sore)."

New Music of the Day, January 22:

Sea Girls, "What For"

"What For" was also the title of a 1988 single by James, and this song reminds me a LOT of British indie rock from that era. I think it's the combination of the quirky lyrics ("I could take off all my clothes/ Lay down bare in the snow/ What for?"), the percussive electronics, and the jangling guitars. But interestingly, this oh-so-1988 song also fits in perfectly with the current crop of 2018 UK indie rockers. In fact, one of my favorite bits, the barked "Hey!" in the chorus, feels very now.

New Music of the Day, January 21:

Gianni, "I'll Be Fine"

If there's one thing Millennials are good at, it's producing introspective, downbeat dance music. What separates this single from Australia's Gianni from a very large pack of similar songs are its memorable lyrics, an earworm that captures a young man's dislocation and depression: "When I wind up in the middle of night/ Walking through the streets till the morning light/ Telling me that I'm alright/ I'm not fine/ No, I'm not fine."

New Music of the Day, January 20:

GoldFish, "No One Has to Know"

South Africa's GoldFish are one of my favorite dance acts right now--I think it was their radical reworking of Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box" that sold me on them--and this track off their new album shows them at the top of their game. "No One Has to Know" starts off as a sultry tease, with the female vocalist cooing that "No one has to know where we go, we go, now." But soon the drums kick in, the song heats up, and before long, it's wallowing in an orgy of sax.

New Music of the Day, January 19:

The Lightning Year, "Crystaleyed"

They've only released three singles so far, but The Lightning Year might just be my favorite new band of 2017. I got to see them at Great Escape in Brighton last May, and they're also a great live band, although their live sound is much rougher and more psychedelic than their sound on record. "Crystaleyed," for example, is a crisply produced pop single, which chugs along with increasing momentum for the first minute, then has a surge of melodic energy around the 1:00 mark, and an even bigger surge--the killer chorus--around the 2:00 mark.

New Music of the Day, January 18:

Denny, "Girls Like You"

I discover a lot of new bands through Soundcloud, and often there's no mention of where the bands are from. So the first few times I heard Denny's "Girls Like You," I was sure they were a British band. After all, this song basically sounds like The 1975 with the fey affectations cranked up to 11. But no, it turns out that they're from Minnesota, which evidently has its share of campy Anglophiles who love 1980's gated drum sounds.