Real Estate (feat. Amelia Meath): Paper Cup

From Real Estate’s forthcoming album, The Main Thing (out 28 February), “Paper Cup” features the band’s frontman Martin Courtney singing with Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath. The song, which has tinges of airy island rock, details Courtney’s bouts with career-based anxiety. “Paper Cup is a song about getting older and realizing that this thing that I fell into doing over 10 years ago—being a musician, writing songs, …

Dan Deacon: Become a Mountain

Dan Deacon’s “Become a Mountain” combines classical and airy indie, and references Deacon’s time spent creating music of both genres. (Deacon’s upcoming album Mystic Familiar will mark his return from four years of film scoring.) The sprawling song—beginning with keys and whispered vocals—builds over its four minutes, eventually turning into an ethereal piece that’s laden with strings. Deacon explains in an accompanying announcement that meditation …

Listen Up

A posthumous single from Mac Miller, a live performance by Mykki Blanco, magnetic folk-pop melodies and more new music this week

Albon: Big Sur Theme The warm, folk-pop melody of LA-based singer-songwriter Albon’s “Big Sur Theme” evokes sun rays on the mountainous strip of Californian coast. Albon (aka Alexander B Lappin) wrote the song on a trip through the area and took inspiration from the orcas in the water beside. Woodwind instruments join strings and light percussion to build the beautiful soundscape, ribboned together by Lappin’s …