Our review of essential new singles, this week also featuring Westside Cowboy, Acopia, The Plan and Total Wife.

Bathing Suits – ‘I Can Be A Freak’

Out of the hedonism of indie-sleaze emerged a fiercer take on the dancier elements of post-punk. Across the pond, artists adapted the pulsing drive and funk elements of the genre, while here in the UK, a more brash style of New Rave surfaced through artists like Late of the Pier or Ladytron. Lately we have been seeing a return to this style, only with more muscle and bite, and Leeds newcomers Bathing Suits firmly bear this stylistic flag on their blistering new single ‘I Can Be A Freak’. Glitchy and bracing, ‘I Can Be A Freak’ is the dance-punk equivalent of a burglar alarm. Distorted kicks and hi-hats scratch through while jackhammer basslines throb amongst the maelstrom of repeating samples of “I can be a freak”. Delayed and longing guitar lines seep out, bringing a slight gothic edge; a welcome respite from the weight of the track. One for the dancefloor, one for your headphones, one to go deaf to in only the best way. (A. L. Noonan)

Vanity Fairy – ‘Queen of Queens’

A glimmering renaissance has graced our ears in recent years. From the acid-dipped psychedelic pop of Magdalena Bay to the crossover sheen of Jessie Ware, a rise in glitterball infused dance-pop has seen a welcome and wholly fabulous return. With the release of ‘Queen of Queens’, Vanity Fairy must be placed within the annals of contemporary disco titans. Thundering out the blocks with shimmering synths and bubbly bass-wah low end, ‘Queen of Queens’ wouldn’t be out of place were you to hear it for the first time in Paradise Garage or at a Hackney Wick loft party. Vanity Fairy’s vocals are wild and puckish, evoking Kate Bush had she decided to cut a single with Giorgio Moroder, detailing the soaring highs and anxious lows of a new relationship. ‘Queen of Queens’ chorus is nothing short of disco magic, and the perfect soundtrack to hot summer nights full of promise, wet dancefloors and blossoming romance. (A. L. Noonan)

Westside Cowboy – ‘Drunk Surfer’

In stark contrast to the jacked up, boyish psychobilly zip of their last single, ‘Drunk Surfer’ is a markedly more tempered and emotionally tapped-in, straight down the line indie rock offering from Westside Cowboy. Unafraid to showcase and have fun with their varied arsenal of written material, on this track, the Manchester group perfect the formula for tender, accessible guitar music that can take on multiple meanings depending on who or where or why you stumbled upon it. Whether you’re linking arms with your bestie in a festival field at dusk, or absolutely losing it in your kitchen making soup with your grandparents, it seems as though Westside Cowboy are making music for everyone, anywhere. ‘Drunk Surfer’ serves as the final single from their highly anticipated debut EP ‘This Better Be Something Great’, out today via Nice Swan/Heist or Hit. (Hazel Blacher)

Acopia – ‘Real Life’

Acopia walk a tightrope between emotional intensity and sonic restraint, and ‘Real Life’ is an unfaltering balancing act. Live instrumentation moves in and out of electronic production, adding grain to the track’s suspended haze. Intricate rhythms flicker with precision while ethereal vocals drift like a dream, delicate, hypnotic, and just out of reach. Rooted in dream-pop, the Australian trio draw sonic influence from the intimate, soft-focus sound of shoegaze and the textured edges of post-punk. ‘Real Life’ is the third single leading up to Acopia’s third album, ‘Blush Response’, set for release this September. The lyrics are minimal, delivered like a gentle hush on the refrain: “Wasting my days / Watch it grow old / Back to default”. Repeated like a quiet mantra, the words carry the weight of obsessive love, emotional fatigue, and the persistence of life’s repeating patterns. ‘Real Life’ lingers like a dreamy whisper, subtly urgent and deeply affecting, and Acopia prove that sometimes the softest sounds cut the deepest. (Isabel Kilevold)

The Plan – ‘Patterns’

The Plan this week announced their new album ‘Mountain View’ alongside the release of single ‘Patterns’, shared via Divine Schism. The single expands outwards from a post-punk framework, and a guitar riff winds maniacally upward over insistent vocals that feel reminiscent of Australian group Terry in their punkier moments. The chorus then explodes into a stretched-out melody that feels far more psychedelic than punk rock. This taste sets the listener up for the epic outro, which zooms further out with a drilling distorted guitar sound and epic echoing vocals. ‘Patterns’ is so densely packed that it comes as a surprise, as you resurface at its close, that only three tight minutes have elapsed. (Lloyd Bolton)

Total Wife – ‘make it last’

Recalling the dreamlike shoegaze hyper-fuzz of my bloody valentine’s ‘loveless’ – that is, if the distortion needle was pushed firmly into the red zone and its mainframe was hacked by a glitchy, robotic ghost – ‘make it last’ is the blazing new offering from Nashville’s Total Wife. The new track serves as the second single from the duo’s upcoming record ‘Come Back Down’, releasing via Philly tastemaker label Julia’s War, and sees the group – formed of Luna Kupper and Ash Richter – simmer a drone of bristling, fuzzed out guitars and processed vocals into a piping hot brew of experimental, wall-to-wall noise euphoria. Speaking on the track’s lyrical themes, Richter elaborates that, while the song initially began as “kind of a horny song”, retrospectively, ‘make it last’ now serves more as “a love song to the road” and “an ode to time passing veiled by the excitement of living.” (Hazel Blacher)