New Music Friday: 2/13/26

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"you and forever," Bleachers
The times we're living in can make it easy to cast a jaundiced eye at the type of rafter-rattling sincerity that Bleachers offer; perhaps paradoxically, those selfsame times can also render us more susceptible to the power of a really well-written anthem to love and hope and all that good stuff. In other words, I've had my ups and downs with this band over the last decade and change. Having seen them live, I can confirm that their concerts come closer to the rock 'n' roll transcendence that Jack Antonoff is clearly trying to achieve, while their studio efforts can be kind of spotty. This track — the leadoff single from their upcoming Everyone for Ten Minutes LP — comes closer to hitting the bullseye than anything I've heard out of Bleachers in a fair bit. If you're inclined to resist a song that isn't shy about wanting to stir the soul, you'll spit "you and forever" out like lima beans, but if you're in the mood to Feel Things — or just too exhausted to fight it — this should do the trick quite nicely.

"Dancing on the Wall," MUNA
No one projects that "crying at the club" vibe quite like MUNA, and with "Dancing on the Wall," they prove they haven't lost their ability to blend heartbreak with surging synths and good beats you can easily dance to. The song doesn't represent anything new, lyrically or musically — the wall in question is one the protagonist's partner has put between them, you see — but it's still catchy as hell, and if you've liked MUNA's music in the past, this should leave you feeling fine about their upcoming Dancing on the Wall LP.

"City," Claire Rosinkranz
Most songs that try to sum up the dizzy thrill of a perfect date are all soft-glow lyrics set to a ballad beat, so I suppose part of the reason I'm so charmed by "City" is that Claire Rosinkranz takes a different approach. Instead of straining to convey all-encompassing infatuation, this track is bouncy and a little silly, with an irresistible chorus whose dead simple melody and naggingly insistent vocal rhythm perfectly encapsulate the feeling of hoping something never ends. A perfect pop song.

"Best of Our Possible Lives," Boy Golden
As I was telling Friend of Jefitoblog Jason Hare yesterday, I've been making a concerted effort lately to remind myself that no matter how stressful and anxious things might feel, there are things about this time that I'm really going to miss someday. This isn't an original thought, of course; in fact, it's the soothing heartbeat that runs through this song, the title track of Boy Golden's just-released sophomore album. The record, which finds singer-songwriter Liam Duncan doing his best to grapple with the nature of life in three-to-four-minute increments, closes out on a suitably reflective note, with Duncan promising, "We can own our place in the mess of things / Find our way in time / In the best of our possible lives."

"That's My Girl," Carol Ades
This song is cotton candy with chords, which I mean as a warning as much as it is a compliment. I can picture a certain kind of listener recoiling from the stickers 'n' rainbows sound of Carol Ades' vocals, and dismissing the song's glassy cascades of shimmering guitars as derivative, and even arguing that its soaring chorus marks it as the type of thing that Nina Gordon would have left off her debut solo album. I couldn't necessarily argue against any of that, but all the same, I'm fully in the bag for "That's My Girl" — there ain't a thing wrong with shimmering guitars and soaring choruses, and you're never too old for stickers and rainbows. At least I hope not, anyway.

"Miss You," Ms. Ray featuring Nourished by Time
Sophisti-pop ahoy, bitches! If I were wearing a hat, it'd be fully off to whoever programmed the synths on this track, because they couldn't do a better job of capturing the peak of the Jupiter 8/Fairlight era. I feel like I'm listening to Kate Bush having a baby with the Blue Nile while Swing Out Sister administers the epidural. Very much looking forward to diving deeper into this discography.

"Man's World," Cat Clyde
You don't necessarily need the language of poetry when the strength of your conviction is powerful enough to carry your song on its own. Case in point: "Man's World," which offers a hard-hitting hint of Cat Clyde's upcoming Mud Blood Bone album. There's no artifice here, just the raw pain and disappointment of a woman lamenting the ways in which selfish and destructive male behavior prevent her from being at peace with the world or expressing herself fully. You've heard songs like this before, sure, although perhaps not ones that come this heavily armed with guitars primed to rattle the fillings in your molars. Cool video, too.

"Remedy," Leven Kali
According to his bio, Leven Kali was born in Holland and raised in Southern California, which might go a certain way toward explaining how he learned to blend Sade's jazzy Euro-soul with more straight-ahead R&B sounds. Our latest glimpse of his upcoming LK99 album, which is scheduled to arrive next month.

"Bullet," Tiffany Stringer
Speaking of cotton candy with chords, here's a delightful little trifle that offers the 100,000th variation on the tried and true story of a jilted lover hearing that their cheating ex is finally settling down and tying the knot. Tiffany Stringer's "Bullet" is nominally a country pop song, which is to say it sounds a little like something Taylor Swift might have recorded between Speak Now and Red, which she was still fiddling with the dial between Nashville and NYC; it has a handful of "country" touches, but it feels like they were included in order to try and curry favor with certain program directors. Perceived cynicism aside, Stringer's an appealing singer, and even if it's a little silly that it took four people to write this thing, the results are still cheerfully, undeniably catchy.