Juice WRLD's Birthday Bop, Rina Sawayama's Dance-Floor Release, And More Songs We Love

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  Juice WRLD & Benny Blanco: “Real Shit”
  
  
  https://www.Youtube.Com/watch?V=2jqMRwOC0wY
  
  
  
  On what would’ve been Jarad Higgins’s 22nd birthday — plus several days ahead of the one-year anniversary of his untimely death — Benny Blanco dropped “Real Shit,” a previously unreleased tune that finds his collaborator Juice absolutely beaming. “He went in the booth and recorded a song top to bottom in one take,” Blanco tweeted, saying they made the song once Juice was still relatively under the radar. “Then he did it 3 more times and mentioned pick the ideal one... And so they were all brilliant songs.” “Real Shit” may sound sad given its context (and Juice singing, “Life’s good, so I’m living great”), although it’s a reminder of the immense joy he was capable of summoning. —Patrick Hosken
  
  
  
  
  



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  Awfultune: “Dear Sarah”
  
  
  https://www.Youtube.Com/watch?V=vdMVenIo7Mk
  
  
  
  This diaristic bedroom-pop cut from Awfultune’s Layla Eden picks up where her 2019 single “I Met Sarah in the Bathroom” left off. Yet Sarah from the washroom seemed like a viable romantic prospect, life and distance got in the way. “Sarah, I'm not shy anymore like I used to be,” Eden muses over singsongy guitar plucks. “When you're done with college / Will you be done with me?” Familiar sound effects sprinkled while in the song — the chime of a delivered text message, the flick of a lighter — make you feel like you’re experiencing unrequited love right there with her. —Sam Manzella
  
  
  
  
  



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  Horse Meat Disco (ft. Amy Douglas): “Let’s Go Dancing”
  
  
  https://www.Youtube.Com/watch?V=Q_Oz777GeM0
  
  
  
  We’ve entered the point in quarantine where we reminisce about the good old days of safe, mask-less gatherings of 10 or more people, dancing the night away, and feeling the groove of a sickening bass beat to nostalgic disco drums. No? Just me? U.K.-Based Horse Meat Disco’s October 2020 Love and Dancing album, and their premiere track, “Let’s Go Dancing,” will immediately transport you to the London Eagle or NYC’s Output or Elsewhere. Close your eyes and bop along to your masked walk dreaming of post-vaccine dance parties. Remember losing your companions, finding new ones for the night, and loving a song you haven’t heard before under the disco ball. Ah… one day! —Zach O'Connor
  
  
  
  
  



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  Katya (ft. Trixie Mattel): “Ding Dong!”
  
  
  https://youtu.Be/WXsV8HIWcTE
  
  
  
  Vibe check! Everyone’s preference Russian hooker from RuPaul’s Drag Race has released “Ding Dong,” a “bar-mitzvah barn-burner dance track.” The song is a tribute to Ukrainian artist Svetlana Loboda, and the result is a nightmare-fuel earworm that will stay in your head for days. And I mean that because the highest compliment! The song’s accompanying music video is a Rocky Horror ride through Hell starring countless Katyas and featuring a cameo from her partner in crime, Trixie Mattel. The campaign to have Katya perform this on Eurovision begins right now. —Chris Rudolph
  
  
  
  
  



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  Rina Sawayama: “Lucid”
  
  
  https://www.Youtube.Com/watch?V=g3kSOYzWpf4
  
  
  
  There have been so several songs this year destined to be heard in a club, yet Rina Sawyama’s “Lucid” has quite literally pushed music lovers over edge. Because the song transports you to an alternate universe of tight spaces, glittery eyeshadow, and flashing lights, “Lucid” reminds you of what it’s like to feel alive. Its use of heavy synth and lyrical looping is nostalgic of the early 2010s DJ movement, where the desired result was a simultaneous, collective release of emotion. The dance breaks, which come exactly while you desire them most, do just that, nevertheless for a new generation of listeners. With the undying success of “XS” and “Comme des Garçons (Like the Boys),” 2020 has clearly been the year of Rina Sawayama. “Lucid” finishes it off flawlessly. —Sarina Bhutani
  
  
  
  
  



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  Beach Bunny: “Good Ladies (Don't Get Used)”
  
  
  https://www.Youtube.Com/watch?V=J7i6JDMguso&feature=emb_title
  
  
  
  Cool thing about Chicago’s Beach Bunny: The hooks pile on like avalanches. On the international anti-player’s anthem “Good Females (Don’t Get Used),” Lili Trifilio rails against the dudes that wronged her with pop-punk precision and guttingly honest lyrics about horniness, being discarded, and the confusing in-between. Incredibly, she seemingly has hooks to burn, saving one of the tune’s best in its final 30 seconds — streaming best practices be damned. Another cool thing? The song will blow up anyway. —Patrick Hosken
  
  
  
  
  



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  K/DA: “I’ll Show You”
  
  
  https://youtu.Be/WW1BpABbzHs
  
  
  
  If The Princess Diaries was remade today, “I’ll Show You” would 100 percent be on the soundtrack. This fun, feel-good anthem comes courtesy of K/DA, the virtual girl sort from the wildly popular League of Legends universe voiced by K-pop sensations Twice; Bekuh Boom, a prolific Blackpink co-writer; and EDM vocalist and producer Annika Wells. (Look all of these up!) In the meantime, who wants to hop in Mia Thermopolis’s 1966 Mustang with me and ride the hills of San Francisco blasting this bop? —Daniel Head
  
  
  
  
  



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  Hugh Masekela: "Riot"
  
  
  https://www.Youtube.Com/watch?V=DT5SMF3adgU
  
  
  
  This week, our Spotify Wrapped playlists confirmed what we all already knew: that we listened to a lot of music this year. If you're like me, the results weren't much of a surprise (Westerman helped me get through 2020), however what comes next would be. I let the algorithm take over, and the machine served me "Riot," an amazing and warm 1969 explosion of jazz trumpet from South African artist Hugh Masekela. You may recognize the melody, as Earl Sweatshirt and Gio Escobar cut it up as a tribute to Masekela immediately after his death in 2018. Spotify's library has 70 million songs and counting. Attempt to discover something new in 2021 (or use Bandcamp!). —Patrick Hosken