Wednesday’s “Elderberry Wine” and the best new songs out now

Each week, The FADER staff rounds up the songs we can’t get enough of. Here they are, in no particular order. Listen on our Spotify and Apple Music playlists, or hear them all below.

Bounty Law, the latest solo project from rapper/poet James Massiah, is a slick masterpiece that calls back to his work alongside Dean Blunt in Babyfather as DJ Escrow. On “Later,” he steps out comfortably over a bouncy, breeze-blown beat, reassuring a romantic interest that she can always come see him if she needs love. He projects the cool confidence of someone who lets the world come to him. —Raphael Helfand

The latest drop from Fat Randy, who market themselves as both “Boston’s worst noise rock band” and “Connecticut’s best Hoobastank tribute band,” is a piece of gnarled, spiky hardcore. Stephen Friedland’s cracking vocal line drips with venom while knotted power chords, slappy bass licks, and explosive drum fills blot out the sky behind him. In the gaps between these elements, dark, rasping distortion sends sparks flying across the track’s parched surface, threatening to burn the whole thing down. —RH

Philly’s They Are Gutting a Body of Water might be at the forefront of the exciting “shoegaze” scene currently unfolding in the Northeast, but the sonic influences of the band itself are not so singular. On new single “AMERICAN FOOD,” released on the new three-way hybrid record label of Julia’s War / Smoking Room / ATO Records, songwriter Douglas Dulgarian dabbles with post-punk and Duster-influenced post-rock, spoken-word verses mixed with pitched-up, Auto-Tuned melodies that whisper and hiss. The initial darkness of the track gives way to some gauzy guitar work and a mantra-like melody: “Tell me there’s a better one, and I’ll get a gun.” —Cady Siregar

Elderberry, when not prepared correctly, acts as a toxin to the body, inducing nausea and vomiting. But when given proper care, it makes a tasty and rich red wine. This is worth knowing going into Wednesday’s “Elderberry Wine,” their first new music since releasing their breakthrough album Rat Saw God. The album propelled the band to stratospheric heights, but major upheaval was going on behind the scenes. Close collaborators Karly Hartzman and lead guitarist MJ Lenderman ended their years-long relationship, prompting questions about the future of the band and Lenderman’s involvement. Lenderman sings and plays guitar on the track, and appears in the accompanying video, his vocals always pairing together wonderfully with Hartzman’s; but when Hartzman and Lenderman sing about how “the best champagne tastes like elderberry wine,” it’s inevitably both loving and bittersweet. —CS

I spent last weekend diving into U.K. soul singer Lucy Park’s new EP Good Graces, a lovely batch of smoky-lounge R&B helmed by Park’s honeyed voice which sits somewhere in between Lianne La Havas and Feist. The star of the project is closer “Plumeria,” on which she warms up a lover over a spacey funked out beat. Divine. —Steffanee Wang

Double Virgo is Bar Italia’s Jezmi Tarik Fehmi and Sam Henton, who’ve been making music under this project before bar italia gained significant hype in 2022. “bemused” is one of two new songs from the group since 2023 and it’s a welcome return. It’s like if a grunge band tried their hand at stomp-clap music (those “ooh ah ohs”) but executed it with such style it became something else entirely. —SW

For Those I Love’s 2021 debut was an intense and grief-stricken album born of a mourning ritual, which also meant it may well have been a one-off. It’s a pleasant surprise, then, that David Balfe is back with a new song that focuses on the degradation of his home city set to a shimmering electronic beat that later explodes with a burning rage. —David Renshaw

“I can hear what you’ve been dreaming from my side of the bed,” Avery Tucker sings to a lover at a crossroads in life on his new song “Big Drops.” It’s a crunchy and heartfelt indie rock song co-written with Alaska Reid that finds the former Girlpool member in protector mode. “Put my arms around you and say baby just get out of your head,” he sings while seemingly acknowledging that the relationship is slipping away. —DR

The bass in London singer-songwriter Mark William Lewis’s voice gives everything he sings an imposing weight. On “Tomorrow Is Perfect” he casts his eye across the metropolis and captures the details that spark a light inside him. From stadium lights to the bark of a willow tree, Lewis picks apart the texture of a city one observation at a time. The song also marks the first artist release by A24 Music, an offshoot of the powerhouse indie movie studio. —DR

Rarely in 2025 has a debut EP displayed such range so convincingly as the self-titled debut from Tracey. The anonymous London duo’s first four-song release is enchanted with love in all its forms: “All I wanna do is fuck / fuck / fuck / fuck” chants a robot voice over “Sex Life,” their breakout song fusing classic dubstep with electroclash seediness. “Take Care,” the project’s concluding song, couldn’t be a starker contrast: a guitar ballad that starts with a timid acoustic guitar and gradually blossoms into a swell of orchestral strings, distortion, and organ. Tracey’s plea for tenderness — “Take care, take care / What you do to me” — is heart-rending. Just when it becomes almost too much to bear, a scorching guitar solo climaxes the track, and a release valve is opened. —Jordan Darville

If anyone has a reason to flex, it’s fakemink. Unquestionably the hottest rapper in London’s underground right now, fakemink has reached a level of hype that can lure a reclusive Ecco2k out for a guest appearance. Mechatok, another Drain Gang affiliate, produces a beat colliding dream-pop guitar with rave electronics, but mink is still firmly in his own inimitable lane: “Try to dress like me, we are not the same / I’m a winner, man, this rap shit is a fuckin’ game.” Taking the most compelling elements of indie sleaze (like massive, melancholy Crystal Castle electro) and retooling them for fakemink’s strengths is what makes “MAKKA” stand out. — JD