The Flaming Lips shared a brand new song 'Flowers of Neptune 6', mellow and pretty, the video features frontman Wayne Coyne in his signature plastic bubble; Canadian secretive cowboy Orville Peck released 'No Glory in the West', an outlaw-country song; Wayne Phoenix released a new video, explicit and moving 'Mood'; Ghanaian Afro-dancehall and reggae star Stonebwoy released 'Le Gba Gbe (Alive)' - a song all about positivity.

'Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America' by the 1975 and Phoebe Bridgers is just great (and a wee bit closer to what she usually does); 'Keep it Chill! (In the East Vill)' is a witty and thoughtful and hopeful new song by the singer and comic Jeffrey Lewis; instrumental trio GoGo Penguin shared their beautiful and meditative 'Kora'; the indie-star of the moment Waxahatchee covered Caroline Polachek's 'So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings'; Orville Peck released his first Columbia song 'Summertime' about "biding your time and staying hopeful"; Andrew Bird's 'Capital Crimes' touches the issue of giving IQ tests to death row inmates, whose life was spared if they scored below 70; The Tallest Man on Earth beautifully, of course, plays and sings the folk song 'Mole in the Ground'; Purity Ring's 'I Like the Devil' is piano-driven, dark electro-pop with a great video (below); 'Chosen Family' by Rina Sawayama is a grandiose ballad, which is rarely a good direction, but in this case it's a nice, catchy song with an important message; remember rap-metal? - Kool Keith and metal duo Thetan have a new take on it, with dark and slow 'Let's Take a Trip'; Thao and the Get Down Stay Down shared a psychedelic alter-pop song 'Phenom' with a video shot entirely within Zoom; 'Rider' is lush and dramatic, but Skylar Gudasz’s voice would be more than enough to dedicate two minutes for her new song; black metal turned trip hop turned synthpop band Ulver shared their new song 'Little Boy', presumably about the atomic bomb; "the drums and the bassline and the rhodes and the synths and the horns and the strings!!!" - RJD2 said about his new song '20 Grand Palace', and he's right.

“I grew up fairly lonely, feeling pretty outcast and alienated. So my translation of that into a country and western star was to be this lone cowboy figure” - new country singer Orville Peck told the Guardian. He is finishing his European tour, in his regular outfit - cowboy clothes and a mask (there's information […]

NME was at the Visions festival where they found that the new breed of British guitar bands prioritise intensity and weirdness. Scalping "blends techno, blackened punk and noise in a refreshing, boundary-crossing direction", Black Country, New Road play rip-roaring punk, Orville Peck is a kind of masked cowboy-cum-Elvis impersonator, Squid - "punk but not without […]