Fenne Lily
Hypochondriac
“I’m freaking out / Now I’m sick and waiting for a moment to stop and not feel so much,” sings Bristol’s Fenne Lily in this pretty darn perfect self-isolation anthem. If you like Sharon Van Etten’s chugging brand of emosh guitar-pop but always wished she had a better working knowledge of the Clifton suspension bridge, Fenne is your woman.
Waxahatchee
Can’t Do Much
Any other song that saw someone airily gushing: “I love you till the day I die,” over jaunty country guitars might induce a lethal saccharine overdose. But Katie Crutchfield manages to avoid unpalatable sugariness thanks to the ever so slightly annoyed resignation with which she moons over the object of her affection. “I can’t do much about it now,” she sighs, like the last thing she needs right now is to fancy someone this much.
Dream Wife
Sports!
The rightful heiresses to Le Tigre’s punky-disco party, Dream Wife have made a hard-hitting, hard-sweating workout tune that will nestle nicely next to Eye of the Tiger in that “Running” playlist you keep adding tunes to but never actually use. If anything’s going to make you look forward to huffing round the local park, it’ll be having this spangly, mathy thrash racket in your ears.
Perfume Genius
On the Floor
It’s strange to think that the cutting edge of experimental pop sounds a bit like mid-80s Wham!, but here we are. This glimmering, majestic track slinks and jerks with joy. It is bested only by its video, which sees Perfume Genius in a mucky tank top, covered in mud and sweat while throwing himself into some of the finest choreography this side of FKA twigs’s Tuesday Zumba class.
Thundercat
Fair Chance
You think harps can’t be funky? Thundercat’s latest – produced by Kendrick Lamar collaborator Sounwave – seamlessly bridges the gap between fluttery medieval ballad and pensive slow jam. A tribute to Mac Miller, it features guest vocalists Ty Dolla $ign and Lil B in a mournful mood, but there’s hope here, too, not least for fans of Greensleeves.