New Music Friday is intense. Hundreds of songs drop from artists around the world, and you’re supposed to somehow find the best ones. It’s fun work, but it’s time-consuming — so we at Billboard Dance want to give you a hand. Each week, we sift through the streams and dig in the digital crates to present the absolute must-hears from the wide breadth of jams.
This week, the music industry continued into uncharted waters with the coronavirus pandemic postponing festivals including Coachella and Beyond Wonderland and effectively canceling Miami Music Week. Meanwhile, those who’d had tickets for Ultra Music Festival remain in limbo as the festival announced that it will not issue ticket refunds after the festival was canceled last week.
Indeed, it’s a strange and scary time for the music industry and world at large. But music can lift the spirits, so let’s dig into the best new dance tracks out this week.
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Porter Robinson, “Something Comforting”
We could all use something comforting right about now. As the entire world comes to a screeching halt, Robinson calms our anxiety with a slice of sentimental sweetness. It’s a bittersweet tune representative of his own battles with creative blocks and depression. He explained in a video on Twitter how the song began in 2015 at the lowest point in his process. “I was really beginning to question whether or not I would ever be able to make music again,” he says, “and that was a very, very scary through to me.” The song’s first candy-future instrumental hook was the first bit of music Robinson made that he knew he liked. It made him excited, and though it would take another five years to finish the song, it reinvigorated his spirit. It was almost the lead single, mostly because of how much Robinson adores the clipped vocal hybrid at the end. Let this song’s music box melodies wrap you like a warm blanket, and celebrate “Something Comforting” in these troubled times. — KAT BEIN
Solardo & Eli Brown, “My Life”
After Solardo and Eli Brown lit up superclubs last summer with Ibiza favorite “XTC,” the Brits have teamed up once again on a new single, “My Life” for Ultra Music. This collaboration, like its predecessor, is a cryo cannon-whooshing, tech-house burner with wailing diva vocals and rave-y synth stabs — the kind of track that gives you a second fist-pumping wind on the dance floor at 2am despite sore arms and jelly legs. From 2020, Solardo and Brown turn back the time machine dial to 1988 by sampling Adeva’s debut single “In and Out of My Life,” which has been borrowed over the years by artists like OnePhatDeeva (aka ATFC), Eric Prydz, Logistics and Grafix. More than a kiss-off to an ex who won’t go away, the song is testament to the timelessness of house music, over 30 years later and toughened up for a new generation of clubbers. — KRYSTAL RODRIGUEZ
Two Feet, “Maria”
Two Feet today releases his debut album, Pink, with the LP arguably already triumphant given the challenges the artist born Bill Dess overcame while making it. Despite an on-the-rise career that included big time festival appearances and massive streaming numbers, in 2018 — with his mental health in a serious state of distress — Dess spent ten days in a psych ward. After checking out, he turned his attention towards writing the music that would become Pink. The album’s standout single “Maria,” is a darkly seductive siren song that, like the rest of the album, slickly marries digitally rendered beats and achingly soulful guitar. (For additional evidence, check the album track “Felt like playing guitar and not singing part 2.”) — KATIE BAIN
Yaeji, “Waking Up Down”
You know that Radiohead song “Fitter Happier” from OK Computer? I think about that song at least once a week as I struggle to be a successful, productive human being. It’s kind of depressing, though, and I’ll now be turning to Yaeji’s groovy mantra “Waking Up Down.” The song’s bi-lingual lyrics are a sing-along to-do list tackling everything from drinking water to cooking healthy meals and being a kind to friends and family. It’s an honest song, one that honors the darkness and anxiety within us all, but it ultimately ends in triumph. The animated music video helps tell the song’s dynamic story. Yaeji created all the anime-inspired cartoon characters and finished the clip with help from her friend Annie Zhao and production Studio Yotta. It’s the first official single from her forthcoming mixtape What We Drew 우리가 그려왔던, which sees Yaeji dive deep into new artistic mediums and hones in on the themes of friendship, family, gratitude and support. — K. Bein
Loud Luxury, “Gummy”
Throughout the tracks shared thus far from Loud Luxury’s debut EP, Nights Like This, is vivid imagery of living in the moment, from the title track’s blurry nighttime escapades to “dancing tipsy in the street” with your hopeful happily ever after in “Cold Feet.” The Canadian duo’s third single from the project “Gummy,” provides another stereotypical picture of youth and reckless abandon, as vocalist Brando (who featured on their 2017 breakthrough “Body”) narrates a steamy, moonlit moment in the backseat of a car. A melancholy musing turned bubbly earworm, expect “Gummy” to soundtrack many flings this summer. In the meantime, Nights Like This drops Mar. 27 on Armada Music. — K.R.
Breakbot, “Be Mine Tonight”
Breakbot’s particularly bright and funky strain of French has always been a fan favorite (his 2010 track “Baby, I’m Yours” came in at No. 24 on our list of The 60 Greatest Dance Songs of the Decade) and today the producer returns with another win in “Be Mine Tonight.” The track is an undeniable amalgamation of funk guitar and disco strings and vocals from Delafleur. The track has blue chip bonafides as well, soundtracking a new Chanel ad starring Pharrell, American actress and model Margaret Qualley, Belgian musician Angèle, fellow French producer Sébastien Tellier and French actress and singer Isabelle Adjani. Vive le star power. Vive le Breakbot. — K. Bain