Dear listeners,
I was delighted to learn, in Steven Kurutz’s recent profile of the Philadelphia-based musician Kurt Vile, the name that Vile has given the recording studio in his basement: “OKV Central,” as in “Overnite Kurt Vile.” The studio is a kind of musical man cave, where Vile spends some solitary time after his wife and two teenage daughters have gone to bed. Kurutz refers to Vile as “the slacker poet of modern indie rock,” and Vile provides further evidence in the way he describes those nocturnal hours he spends in OKV Central: “I get a lot of my KV world and my KV mind together around then.”
You’ll step right into KV World — a place of tuneful, easygoing benevolence — on the first track of today’s playlist, “Zoom 97,” a song from Vile’s upcoming album that I’ve had on repeat this week. (The title of the album is an expression of plain-spoken, heart-on-his-sleeve KV poetry: “Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me.”) This brief digest of some of my favorite new songs released in recent weeks also includes an electric earworm from the British breakbeat enthusiast Nia Archives, a gorgeously atmospheric tune from the R&B deconstructionist Nick Hakim and, astonishingly, the first new song released by a Beastie Boy in more than a dozen years. Ch-check it out.
Also, as some readers astutely pointed out, a correction to last week’s Amplifier is in order: I mistakenly claimed that the upcoming Rolling Stones album will be the first to feature a credited appearance by Paul McCartney. This is not so. McCartney played bass on “Bite My Head Off,” a blistering track from the 2023 Stones album “Hackney Diamonds.” I will now play it 10 times in a row, loudly, as my penance.
Listen along while you read.
1. Kurt Vile: “Zoom 97”
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever compare Kurt Vile to the Bay Area rapper E-40, but I hear an echo of “Choices” in the hiccuping “yup!” that punctuates the verses of this lovely song.
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
2. Iceage: “The Weak”
I’ve been digging the singles I’ve heard so far from the long-running Danish punk band Iceage’s upcoming album “For Love of Grace & the Hereafter.” This one has a shambolic energy and a rather pessimistic refrain — “life is for the weak” — that the frontman Elias Ronnenfelt manages to deliver like a galvanizing cry.
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
3. Nia Archives: “Boys in Blue”
On her 2024 full-length debut, “Silence Is Loud,” the British musician Nia Archives found a way to blend a love of jungle breakbeats with pure pop sensibility. She pulls off a similar trick on this single from her upcoming second album, “Emotional Junglist,” which brings a frantic sense of forward momentum to a taunting, sing-songy melody.
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
4. Yard Act: “Redeemer”
The first offering from “You’re Gonna Need a Little Music,” the forthcoming album by the British post-punk band Yard Act, is this rumbling rocker, which lurches on with a sustained sense of menace. “I start fights in my own head,” seethes James Smith, who delivers the entire song through gnashed teeth.
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
5. Nick Hakim: “Real Here Now”
The Queens-based multi-instrumentalist and producer Nick Hakim was one of the many guest musicians onstage when I saw Dijon play in Brooklyn last year, and the two artists’ shared sensibility is apparent on this haunting, soulful new single from Hakim. “My brother knows a little magic,” he sings in a tender croon. It must run in the family, because Hakim certainly conjures some of his own here.
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
6. Mike D: “Switch Up”
Listen all y’all: The eternally cool former Beastie Boy Mike D has released his debut solo single, at the precocious age of 60. “Switch Up” isn’t so much a bold statement of purpose as it is a playful, beat-driven sonic collage, but after the long silence that followed Adam “M.C.A.” Yauch’s tragic death in 2012, it’s heartening to hear a Beastie Boy just having fun on a record again. It’s also sweet that he made the track with his two sons, Davis and Skyler Diamond, who play in a band called Very Nice Person. Your move, Ad-Rock.
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
The Amplifier Playlist
“6 New Songs You Should Hear Now” track list
Track 1: Kurt Vile, “Zoom 97”
Track 2: Iceage, “The Weak”
Track 3: Nia Archives, “Boys In Blue”
Track 4: Yard Act, “Redeemer”
Track 5: Nick Hakim, “Real Here Now”
Track 6: Mike D, “Switch Up”
Read past editions of the newsletter here.
If you’re enjoying what you’re reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here.
Have feedback? Ideas for a playlist? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at theamplifier@nytimes.com.
