Looking for some motivation to help power you through the start of another work week? We feel you, and with some stellar new pop tunes, we’ve got you covered.
These tracks from artists including Mabel, Lauv, Nilüfer Yanya and more will get you energized to take on the week. Pop any of these gems into your personal playlists — or scroll to the end of the post for a custom playlist.
Coolest Pop Song of the Week: Luke Hemmings, “Benny”
Luke Hemmings has not had a ton of downtime over the past decade. The lead vocalist of 5 Seconds of Summer was a kid at the moment he became famous, about to turn 18 years old when the Australian quartet released their self-titled debut album in 2014; five albums and countless tour dates later, Hemmings is 27, squarely in adulthood, having seen the world and trying to push himself into unexplored corners of his artistry.
“Benny,” from Hemmings’ newly released solo EP Boy, takes a melancholy approach to a hectic lifestyle: “Will I be saying goodbye from a dark hotel room? / Living on the sidelines, what am I supposed to do?” Hemmings asks, his voice glumly reaching for alternatives. Yet the rhetorical questions and muted vocal take create an effective tension with the song’s dreamy synth beds. Hemmings never pushes the song toward the anthemic territory he’s covered well with 5SOS, but the quieter aspects of “Benny” come through amidst the soothing production, as if he’s tucking his confessions inside the prettiest package possible.
5 Seconds of Summer have impressively evolved their sound over the decade, becoming one of the more reliable pop-rock groups on the planet; now, Hemmings is doing the same with his solo work, following the 2021 debut When Facing the Things We Turn Away From. A song like “Benny” deserves to find a listenership beyond 5SOS completists, and hopefully will lead Hemmings to even more ambitious solo work.
Here are some more new pop songs worth checking out this week…