14 New Songs Out Today to Listen To: heavens to betsy, Beck, and More – Our Culture
There’s so much music coming out all the time that it’s hard to keep track. On those days when the influx of new tracks is particularly overwhelming, we sift through the noise to bring you a curated list of the most interesting new releases (the best of which will be added to our Best New Songs playlist). Below, check out our track roundup for Wednesday, August 19, 2026.
heavens to betsy – ‘ain’t never goin’ back’
heavens to betsy – the duo of Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker and Tracy Sawyer – are releasing their first project since their split in 1994. Kill Rock Stars will issue an archival album called Baby’s Gone on October 16, and the first single, ‘Ain’t Never Goin’ Back’, is out today. It’s one of eight demos featured on the release, which also comprises the EPs These Monsters Are Real and Direction. The newly unveiled demo was tracked in February 1992 with assistance from Bratmobile’s Molly Neuman. “I wasn’t sure if I would ever revisit heavens to betsy, and then when we started talking more about it, and feeling how relevant the subjects are today, almost even more so than they were back then… it just seemed like just the perfect opportunity to be doing this,” Sawyer shared. “Just to know each other again as adults and as mothers, it’s really cool. Once we started playing again, it was like muscle memory.”
Tucker added: “Molly’s such a leader, and she’s… such an intellectual. She grasped right away that it was important for young women to have these tools to express themselves… She was so confident and so unafraid to just be like, ‘Yeah, why don’t I just record that for you? I’ll just check out the Tascam from the AV library at Evergreen and do it.’”
Beck – ‘Disappearing Act’
Beck has shared ‘Disappearing Act’, a hauntingly lush single from his forthcoming album Ride Lonesome. It arrives on the heels of lead single ‘In the Night’.
Sorry – ‘Tom Will Smack Your Ass’
Sorry are back with a new single, ‘Tom Will Smack Your Ass’, which might be one of their catchiest. It arrives with a video by FLASHA Prod (Asha Lorenz and Flo Webb) ahead of their appearance at Green Man Festival. “No bums were harmed in the making of this video – thanks to everyone who contributed,” Lorenz clarified.
Geologist and Kyle Simon – ‘The Opening’
There’s never been album like The Sirens, the just-announced LP from Animal Collective’s Geologist. I mean this literally, having only heard today’s preview, ‘The Opening’: a collaboration with visual artist Kyle Simon, the record comprises a single composition harnessing the light of the full moon. The pair decamped to Simon’s Farrington Observatory in Joshua Tree, and the artist describes their process as such: “The telescope is fitted with optical sensors and light-sensitive detectors called photodiodes/ As I rotate the scope towards different objects in the night sky, it collects light from stars, the moon, and planets. This raw light is converted into an electrical signal via an analog amplifier and then sent to Brian’s modular synthesizer rig as control voltage — a signal format that can modulate pitch, filter, rhythm, and other sonic elements in real time.”
So Faint – ‘Fully Slow’
Lyn Heinemann and Broken Social Scene’s Hannah Georgas have launched a new collaborative project called So Faint. Their first single, ‘Fully Slow’, is warmly affecting, and despite its title, pretty driving. It’ll appear on the duo’s self-titled debut, which will be released on October 16 via Georgas’ new label, Beetle Bomb Records. “‘Fully Slow’ is about wanting someone who you know deep down will never want you back, but still fantasizing that they do,” Georgas explained. “I’ve always been very prone to pointless intense crushes that remain completely internalized. I can construct a full storyline about what might happen and never do a single thing about it.”
She added: “I’ve been thinking about putting out music on my own label for awhile. I’ve watched the way music gets released change so much since I first started out, and now so much of that process falls on the artist. For me, it felt exciting to build a team I really know and trust and create something that feels personal. At the end of the day, I just want to put this music out into the world. I’ve worked really hard on it with Lyn, and I’m excited for people to hear it.”
Haywire – ‘Interstate Love Affair’
Boston hardcore outfit Haywire have announced their new album, I Don’t Wanna Say Goodbye, arriving October 2 via their new label home, Roadrunner Records. The anthemic, boisterous lead single, ‘Interstate Love Affair’, arrives today alongside a video directed by Luis Hernandez.
Biita Houdei – ‘Night Fright’
Biita Houdei has unveiled a new single from her upcoming LP, This Bed Was Made For Me. The nimble, self-reflective ‘Night Fright’ comes paired with a music video directed by Seth Naugle and Sam Falconi. “This song represents two distinct relationships – one of them rooted in difficulty and turmoil, the other blossoming into something effortless and gentle,” Houdei shared. “The music video follows alongside the lyrics quite closely. I am fighting with the old version of myself in that first relationship, as it seems to be common that we can turn away from our true nature when another person prompts negativity. But as you stay in those difficult relationships, those behaviors can very much intrude and meld into your own. I suppose it’s about breaking free. This music video was so clear in my head and these two incredible filmmakers, Seth Naugle & Sam Falconi, always seem to pluck the imagery right out of my brain. I am so thankful to our incredible crew who give their time and talents this – and that they all deeply believe in the arts, even when the team is small and the resources are depleted. The video was executed using all practical effects – that’s something worth noting.”
Wolf Alice – ‘Hit the Sky’
Wolf Alice go alt-country on ‘Hit the Sky’, a new track from the just-released The Clearing: B Sides. “Hit the sky is a demo we made in Seven Sisters that we revamped a bit with James Gavin on fiddle and Julia Cumming on BV’s a year or so later,” Ellie Rowsell shared. “It’s about encouraging someone you love to be themselves, because you can see how fabulous they are!”
Actress – ‘Withending’
Actress has unveiled a new single, ‘Withending’, from his forthcoming album Radical Frame. Built around delicate, gradually fragmented piano, the track is accompanied by a video from director Anna van der Velde.
Yuma Koda – ‘kopkino’
Tokyo-based artist and composer Yuma Koda has announced his debut album, Amid Kinos, out October 2 via Newhere Music. Collaborators on the record include Brooklyn-based guitarist and songwriter Mei Semones, composer-vocalist LUCA, Julia Shortreed of Black Boboi, Osaka-born, Munich-based drummer Shinya Fukumori, and Yuma Abe of never young beach, among others. It’s led by the mesmerizing new single ‘kopfkino’, which takes its name from the German compound word combining Kopf (head) and Kino (cinema), used to describe the involuntary process of the imagination playing out scenarios like a film in the mind.
Teenage Fanclub – ‘There Was You’
Teenage Fanclub have previewed their upcoming LP, Do Not Dare To Dream, with a new tune called ‘There Was You’. Following lead single ‘Day In the Sun’, it arrives with a video once again filmed on location at Black Bay Studio on Great Bernera and the surrounding coast by longtime collaborator Donald Milne.
World News – ‘The Way It Goes’
London post-punks World News have announced their debut LP, In Purgatory, which will be out October 16 on Pie & Mash. The new single ‘The Way It Goes’, according to singer Alex Evans, “was mostly written and demo’d back in 2020. The lyrics don’t possess too much of a story, but are more phrases, thoughts and collections of words of how I was feeling at the time. The album has a few songs on it similar to this that were written a few years ago, whilst some of the other tracks were written more recently, and in some cases weeks/days before hitting the studio. We’re all very excited to share the album with everyone.”
Strawberry Hands – ‘What Plant Jumps Over Me?’
Philadelphia songwriter Jacob Brunner has shared a new single from his upcoming Strawberry Hands LP, A Jazz Blessing for the Animal. The woozy, disorienting ‘What Plant Jumps Over Me?’ comes paired with a Marissa Losoya-directed video. Brunner describes it as such: “A binary-form inquiry into the bipolar spectrum: breathlessly enjambed, stream-of-consciousness verses ride a swaggering groove of equal parts grandeur and anger. Then the star burns up, time slows down, the frequencies grow heavy, and I am left in the dark with questions about the burden of consciousness.”