Billie Eilish
NDA
With its Pyramid stage-sized synth wobbles, Billie’s gutsy take on growing pains is her finest pop moment yet. Weird plucked strings evoke a sneaky fairytale villain, as she works out relationship boundaries – full of paranoia and privacy – in real time (“Had a pretty boy over but he couldn’t stay / On his way out, made him sign an NDA”). There’s a break from whispery vocals for a powerful climax that makes you squirm in your seat.
Laura Stevenson
Don’t Think About Me
If her day job as one of America’s best if most underrated songwriters doesn’t work out for Laura Stevenson, her surreal lyrics could make for a poetry bestseller. But it would be criminal to miss out on the air-punching power pop showcased in her latest single, a tackling of heartbreak that’s as knotty and sticky as spaghetti chucked at the wall.
Kississippi
Moonover
There’s not a pop genre that Zoe Reynolds doesn’t like, or that she can’t pull off. On Moonover, the Philly DIY artist wonders what Taylor Swift’s 1989 would sound like on a budget of a tenner and pulls it off with Solero-sweet vocals, sunny riffs and some vinyl scratching that your fave nu-metal band would trade their tribal tats for.
Little Simz
I Love You, I Hate You
Little Simz’s real-talking raps always felt like seeing straight into her churning brain, but her music never seemed as big as it does now – a throwback to jazz and funk with the drama of a James Bond theme. She deftly cuts through the pomp with clear-eyed fury directed at her absent father, with bars that make your armhair stick up like a nailbrush.
Troye Sivan
Could Cry Just Thinking About You
If you’re used to listening to Troye’s raunchy pop with a box of tissues they’ll come in handy here too, on an extended version of an interlude from his last EP. Amid swoony Beach House-esque synths, the lyrics are so personal that they feel like stumbling on a secret Finsta – the perfect soundtrack as Hot Girl Summer fades into Sad Boy Autumn.
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