Editor’s Note: Anyone who says there isn’t good music coming out these days — and quite literally, every day — simply isn’t paying attention. Vanyaland’s compilation feature The V List highlights the best in new music, both homegrown and national, over the past month, pulling together the sounds that have soundtracked the website in recent weeks. It’s all the stuff we’re bumping here at Vanyaland HQ, one new bop at a time.
Wet Leg, ‘catch these fists’
Wet Leg doesn’t want your love — they just wanna fight. The whipsmart English band returned with a new single, on April Fool’s Day no less, and it’s a noisy number dubbed “catch these fists” that’s sure to cause a ruckus. The punchy track is the first taste of Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers’ sophomore album moisturizer, set for July 11 release via Domino, and it sets a provocative tone as the band fend off unwanted advances from a belligerent bloke as their new-age dance-punk sways, struts, and somersaults in every direction. It kinda reminds us of Elastica. Everyone’s gonna love this SOTY contender, yeah, and it should sound dope on the live stage. Says Teasdale on the album’s writing process: “We focussed on: Is this going to be fun to play live?” We know the answer, we hear the answer.
Pulp, ‘Spike Island’
Don’t look now, but Pulp’s masterful 1995 album Different Class, perhaps the high-point of the Britpop phenomenon and maybe the most re-listenable of all the iconic albums of that incredible year, turns 30 this fall. And while Jarvis Cocker and the gang, minus the late, great bassist Steve Mackey, have recently returned to the live stage, even announcing a pair of September gigs with LCD Soundsystem in Los Angeles, the idea of new music seemed a bit far-fetched. But Pulp have always warned us to expect the unexpected, and this month deliver a palatable new single called “Spike Island,” which on first listen feels to align a bit more with the cinematic This Is Hardcore era of the band, with electronics from the Separations period and perhaps a tinge of Cocker’s solo work. The video features the classic cut-outs from the Different Class album period, giving the visual a nostalgic feel as the song comes across as warmly modern. If anything, it’s pretty interesting. The groovy “Spike Island” is the first offering from Pulp’s forthcoming album More, set for release on June 6, the band’s first new album in 24 years, dating back to 2001’s wildly underrated We Love Life.
The Beaches, ‘Last Girls at the Party’
We’ve been so busy blaming our ex over the past year or so that we totally slept on The Beaches dropping a couple of delectable new jams. But the white-hot Toronto band isn’t worried about any of that, as the unfuckwithable guitar-pop unit is purely concerned with what’s up next, and fast on the agenda is a night out soundtracked by boisterous new bop “Last Girls at the Party.” This firecracker retains the playful intensity of 2023’s Blame My Ex — a wildly re-listenable and whipsmart record that’ll stand proud as one of the decade’s best. “We’re four crazy girls who like to have fun together, and are literally always the last to leave,” frontperson and bassist Jordan Miller says about the new single. Arriving with this potent party-starter and -ender is word of the new Beaches album, titled No Hard Feelings and out August 20 via AWAL. Our only gripe is that the record hits a little earlier in the summer, as the gals’ breezy and infectious sound is just pitch-perfect for spring and summer, but hey, we’ll just blame our ex for that, too.
The Wants, ’87 Gas’
Sometimes you listen to a song, and sometimes a song listens back. And when it does, it can draw us into a different realm, one where our notion of what is real and what is fantasy becomes as blurred as our motivation to conquer all the daily routine tasks presented before us. The Wants understand the undertow-like allure of this feeling, as the New York City electronic post-punk trio offer up a hypnotic seance of a single dubbed “87 Gas” that deposits us at an American convenience store serving as a portal to something more, both inward and expansive. “It’s a playful reflection on youthful ambition and rebellion rubbing up against alienation and monotony,” The Wants say of the track. “The song’s mantra and instrumentation chart the repetition of daily life. As fantasy and reality grow further apart, the tension between the two can ultimately drive you crazy.” This transportive head-trip tune is the first single from the band’s forthcoming album Bastard, out in June. This is the way, step inside.
Lorde, ‘What Was That’
It appears that Lorde summer is upon us, just when we need it most. Fresh off a pop-up performance at Washington Square Park in New York City and a surprise appearance with Charli XCX at Coachella in California, our alt-pop queen Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor has returned with a striking new song called “What Was That” — and it has us skipping over to Genius to tattoo the lyrics on our bruised and broken brains. “MDMA in the back garden, blow our pupils up / We kissed for hours straight, well, baby, what was that?” Lorde offers up as her familiar pop sincerity shines through. “I remember saying then, ‘This is the best cigarette of my life’ / Well, I want you just like that.” This fevered new track is Lorde’s first new release in four years, and was co-produced by Lorde, Jim-E Stack and Dan Nigro. Check out the music video below, which was filmed during the Washington Square Park appearance earlier this week.