Looking for some motivation to help power you through the start of another work week? We feel you, and with some stellar new pop tunes, we’ve got you covered. These tracks from artists including Jeremy Zucker & Chelsea Cutler, Mt. Joy, Yukimi and more will get you energized to take on the week.
“I’m dreaming of all I ever wanted,” Bishop Briggs sings, stretching out the word “dream” to glide a little bit longer before following falling back down with, “was it ever good for me?”
The chorus to “Good For Me,” a darkly pretty meditation on achieving longtime goals as your identity evolves, buttresses Briggs’ tone with a dream-pop arrangement built around a driving beat and gradually deepening guitar chugs. Her voice, which has often been deployed as a hurricane-level force in the past, bends and lilts here, simmering in the question rather than finding a declaration.
Eight years ago, the UK native hit it big with “River,” a soul-rock anthem that crossed over to alternative radio and reached the top 5 on the Rock Airplay chart. Briggs continued finding success at the format, with seven entries on the Hot Rock & Alternative chart across her first two studio albums (2018’s Church of Scars and 2019’s Champion) on Island Records; a half-decade later, the singer-songwriter is now in her thirties, a new parent, still grieving the tragic loss of her sister, Kate McLaughlin, and operating outside of the major label system, while delivering the most revealing and emotionally resonant songs of her career.
“Good For Me,” the latest offering from new album Tell My Therapist I’m Fine (out this Friday through Virgin Music Group), crystallizes the album’s compelling juxtaposition of Briggs figuring out the possibilities of the next phase of her career while simultaneously settling into her skin. Songs like “My Serotonin” and “Shut It Off” allow Briggs to keep rocking out, but she now turns up the volume to emphasize her lyrical darts rather than shout over them. Meanwhile, Briggs mourns her sister and also utilizes her grief to push herself forward — in “Mona Lisa on a Mattress,” for instance, she doubles her voice and sings about a broken romance, “Kate would always say, I should run away,” as a means of finding resolution through a memory.
In the center of the album is “Good For Me,” the subtleties of its production and the maturity of its lyrical perspective slowly blooming and hooking the listener. Briggs has experienced several life changes since her last album, and is wondering what she’s even chasing anymore — but the care given to that exploration makes the song, and its host album, worth absorbing in full.
Here are some more new pop songs worth checking out this week…
Not surprisingly, a duet titled “A-Frame” that’s released in mid-October has every intention of soundtracking your cozy autumn hangs, and Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler continue their fruitful collaborative streak with a lovely song about escape to cabins and campfires.
London dance star Camden Cox specializes in arms-thrown-up euphoria, and “Lost and Found” pivots from a dramatic spoken-word intro to one of the best drops of the fall without breaking a sweat (okay, maybe a sweat was broken).
Yukimi Nagano has spent years helping Little Dragon conjure danceable indie-rock, and on her debut solo single, she grooves along instead of pushes the beat, letting the production fuzz and piano chords lead the conversation on the head-knocking “Break Me Down.”
Dom Dolla thrives alongside a skilled vocalist, and Tove Lo can sink her teeth into any house-adjacent dance production; together, they turn “CAVE” into a shuffling, shape-shifting ode to full-body yearning that gives the singer’s feelings of desire plenty of room.
As Mt. Joy has grown by leaps and bounds as a live act, the group has continued polishing its studio product: “She Wants to Go Dancing” is slinky and upbeat but proudly idiosyncratic, as Matt Quinn’s voice morphs into a pleading quiver midway through.