“You said I was a loser / said I was a boozer” has got to be one of the best opening lyrics of the year so far, good thing it’s matched with an equally great song. Wild Child is the EP opener of Baby Alpaca’s forthcoming debut EP, an EP of which we premiered the jaw-dropping Sea of Dreams a while back. Wild Child is, as the song suggest, a bit more adventurous but never a distant cry from the soft pop-rock we know from Baby Alpaca. 

HAERTS follow up their much buzzed debut single Wings with All The Days, a song that feels like both pop and band at the same time. It has a very classic feeling to it and by the time you’ve reached the bridge you’re already floating to a different world, a truly beautiful place where you get to hear songs this good all the time.

Young Hunting are one of the bands we’ve kept our eyes on since the early days of DN that are yet to release a proper album. Three years in the making, the LA quintet have finished it (“it” is titled Hazel), and as the saying goes: it was worth the wait. You’ll have to wait a little longer to hear it in full (perks of being a blogger), but combine these two new songs Baby’s First Steps and Wrecking Ball with all of this and you’ve basically heard the album (kind of). Soothing, dreamy indie rock, think early Grizzly Bear or Fleet Foxes. Hazel is out on June 11 via Gold Robot.

Clare Maguire is taking a step back from her big-sounding, bombastic pop on Light After Dark (honestly one of the most underestimated pop records of the past few years) on this new demo Changing Faces. Her powerful voice did stay the same (perhaps even better in this minimalistic setting), both in emotion and range, a thing we’re thankful for as she’s got quite the voice. Combine this with the cover of Joni Mitchell’s The Last Time I Saw Richard she put up a few weeks back and you’ll be sobbing before you know it.

“Is this the end of our love?” asks Freddie Dickson in The End - no dear Freddie, this is just the beginning. He made us fall in love with him grace to Shut Us Down, his Lana Del Rey-reminding stunning debut single. His 4-track debut EP Shut Us Down counts more of the flat beat’ed, mystified love songs we crave for. We’d be shocked if this guy didn’t go places. Shut Us Down is out now via Heart Throb and streaming in full below.

Enigmatic outfit Kids of the Apocalypse have been tucked away in the studio, figuring out a way how to end the world and remixing DN darlings London Grammar. Wasting My Young Years becomes somewhat of an anti-thesis to the song itself in this buzzing (literally) remix, with singer Hannah sounding like she’s about to get wasted instead of wasting. KOTA bring chaos and to the delicate piano tune: doomsday has never sounded this much fun.

Sinead Harnett is matched by purple and green tints in the video for her future club closer Got Me, the first proper single of the London-vocalist and Disclosure/Rudimental/…-collaborator. Produced by the duo compromised of Eats Everything & Lukas, Got Me drifts right between pop and club, with this radio/video edit working as an appetiser for the proper 6 minute version.

Just like any of their music, the first video of London trio London Grammar is something of pure beauty. It’s a shake black & white affair for Wasting My Young Years featuring the band  and a bunch of corpses floating around in various spaces - the more intense the music, the more corpses around.

MOVEMENT are three boys from Sydney, who have been hard at work these past few years and recently signed to Modular (hard work always pays off). Feel Real is the first single of the three-piece, which reminds us of The xx, but rather a version of that three-piece without Romy and with Jamie going crazy on the steel drums (you could also exchange Oliver for Sampha, actually). You could dance to it, but you could also just jam to it in your bedroom - balearic yet romantic, meet your new favorite band.

MØ still blowing everyone else out of the water with her badass mix of pop and hip-hop, new single Waste of Time being everything but that. The basic beat in this new song is clean but sick and with MØ’s vocals as a topping, you know it’s going to be a lovely mess. Waste of Time is also the first single of her forthcoming debut full-length, which is set for a release on RCA Victor/Chess Club “when it’s done.” Hear the song below, which comes with a little video in true MØ style.