Ah Fridays, our favourite day of the week. While we are looking forward to spending our oncoming weekend lazing in the sun, we're also in high spirits because well, the final day of the working week also marks the arrival of the biggest and best tunes, and we've certainly got some good ones in store for you to feast your ears upon. Just be sure to pick your favourite at the bottom of the page!
For starters, singer-songwriting royalty Lana Del Rey finally released that song that's been all over TikTok, an unreleased track from her lauded Ultraviolence era. Plus, Foo Fighters are back in the game, with yet another ear-worming single with a sorrowful, heart-rending centre.
But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's take a look at last week's tracks, and the one that you all decided as being the best of the lot. At the top spot, with 32.26% of the votes, was The Hives' first song in over a decade, Bogus Operandi: a remarkable and welcome return!
Following on in second place was Bring Me The Horizon's Lost, with 22.58% of you sharing the love for this Oli Sykes-led ketamine-infused, electronic riffy banger.
And, taking home the bronze with 19.35% was The Dirty Nil's Celebration. Nice one, chaps.
For this week's best tunes, check out the list below:
Lana Del Rey - Say Yes To Heaven
Previously-unreleased, this “new” track from Lana Del Rey was pinched from her Ultraviolence era in 2014, and has since been doing the rounds on TikTok, with snippets of the song being used in countless videos. Commencing with a delicate and reflective guitar melody, the singer-songwriter drips out honey-soft sedating lines, as if humming a story about hopeless doomed romantics, coloured by her familiar bittersweet melancholy. 'I've got my eye on you' she sighs, innocent, yet with a hint of warning. Why this beautiful song was ever shelved we'll never know.
Foo Fighters - Under You
The Foo Fighters’ forthcoming But Here We Are album comes with the simple dedication “For Virginia and Taylor” in memory of the passing, last year, of both Dave Grohl’s mother and his best friend, Taylor Hawkins. On the surface, Under You is a typically effervescent arena-ready Foo’s banger, but the lyrics throughout are heartbreaking, dealing with bereavement, grief and hurt. “Someone said I’ll never see your face again,” sings Growl at one point. “Part of me just can’t believe it’s true. Pictures of us sharing songs and cigarettes / This is how I’ll always picture you.” But Here We Are is set for release on June 2 via Roswell Records/Columbia Records.
PVRIS - Love Is A…
This new taster single from PVRIS’ upcoming album Evergreen (scheduled for release July 14 via Hopeless Records) is inspired by the phrase ‘la petite mort’, which means ‘little death’ in French, and is a term used for an orgasm. Styled as a slick and shadowy pop number, Love Is A is complete with auto-tuned lyrics that frame the concept of love in a murderously sultry darkness. Seductive and moody, Gunnulfsen purrs proactively alarming lines such as ‘I would drown in your holy water’ and ‘Treat me bad like I’m no one’s daughter / Body bag, baby I’m a goner’, with even a hat-tip to the horror classic of Stephen King’s The Shining: ‘Redrum in my bedroom’.
Bully - Change My Mind
Melancholic angst spreads through murky clouds of distortion, as Bully, aka Alicia Bognanno, lays her vulnerabilities bare with sorrowfully astute lyrics such as ‘And when you ask me how I’m doing / I say that I can’t complain / After all it’s unattractive for me to burden you with shame’. It’s wistful 90s-style grunge, led by granular guitar tones as fuzzy as a pair of warm socks, with aching vocals that may leave the heart feeling heavy. Like what you hear? Bully’s new album Lucky For You is due out June 2, which we guess…is lucky for you.
Durry - Who’s Laughing Now
This Weezer-meets-Biffy Clyro ditty was first released as a demo on social media two years ago and quickly went viral. Now, brother/sister indie duo Durry have shared the track’s official version, albeit with rewritten tongue-in-cheek lyrics that explore the story of its original success. Initially a song about cynicism, the newly-updated Who’s Laughing Now sees the pair bask smugly in their new fortunes, with middle-finger-flipping lyrics that point and snicker at the people who once shadowed their lives in insecurity: ‘The tv said that I would never get a girlfriend unless I had a six pack and smoked cigarettes / Well I've got a couple extra pounds and hottest girl in town and she don't mind having a little more of me to go around’.
Oxbow - Icy White & Crystalline
The fierce second single from Oxbow's forthcoming Love's Holiday album, due for release on July 21 on Mike Payton’s Ipecac label, comes with an in-your-face ‘live’ video directed by former Louder contributor Kiran Acharya. Guitarist Niko Wenner says, "Icy White & Crystalline began as a blown-out ferocious rehearsal phone-recording we've aimed to match in high fidelity, the bridge another improv, the two joined make a classic Oxbow banger we’ll doubtless rock live for as long as we plug-in. Enjoy!” Vocalist Eugene Robinson adds, “This video almost killed us to make”, without saying exactly why. Intriguing.
Klubber Lang - Warhound
Dublin’s Klubber Lang have excellent pedigree, with members having served time in long defunct Dublin alt. rock bands Mexican Pets and Revelino, plus Ricky Warwick’s short-lived post-Almighty trio (sic): Def Leppard fans will also recognise the name of keyboardist/producer Ronan McHugh. Warhound is scuzzy, bass-heavy noise rock in the vein of The Jesus Lizard, Tar and Girls Against Boys, with dark, horror-tinged lyrics which David Yow would be proud to have penned: “It is time to bring the Warhound / Make this place spick and span / Lay out the frozen rats / Taxidermied this and that.” Lovely.
Meryl Streek - If This Is Life
Meryl Streek’s Venn Records debut 796 was one of the best punk rock albums of 2022, signalling the arrival of a powerful, incorruptible new voice in Irish music. A brand new standalone single not on the album, the deceptively upbeat If This Is Life was written about “the shit show housing crisis and reckless incompetent government in Ireland” and features guitars from Pete Holidai from legendary Irish punk band The Radiators From Space. “We've still got the same corrupt government turning a blind eye and not admitting their mistakes,” says Streek. “It's an absolute joke, and people need to start speaking up about it.”
