New music from Lil Nas X, Just Wondering, Mysie, aespa, Tai Verdes and Japanese Breakfast, plus spotlight artist VC Pines

Hello, and welcome to the last Now Hear This column! Don’t start sobbing just yet, though. This is the final one because Now Hear This is turning into a newsletter, packed with the latest headlines, comment, new music picks, the playlist, and monthly giveaways! So make sure you sign up and get all of that sent straight to your inbox every Friday morning, starting from 4 June.

It’s the grand final of Eurovision tomorrow so I’m a little distracted (those outfits are something else). But let’s take a look at some of the best new releases out this week.

Lil Nas X has dropped another curveball, “Sun Goes Down”, following the delightfully sexual “Call Me By Your Name (Montero)”. Here, he shows his vulnerable side, in a song delivered like a letter to his younger self. Up and comers Just Wondering are also in a contemplative and nostalgic mood, with their beautiful new single “Bicycles”. Mysie, too, with the mesmerising “Seven Nights”. I adore Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen – two glorious queens – teaming up for “Like I Used To”.

I love Guvna B’s collaboration with D Double E, “Very Original” – it starts out in eerie fashion but has some wonderfully playful moments. A new obsession takes shape in K-pop act aespa’s single “Next Level”, and I continue to be impressed by the songs from Japanese Breakfast’s forthcoming album, Jubilee. “seaside_demo” from LA-based newcomer SEB explores the soothing impact sunsets had on the artist’s anxiety.

“One of the main things that helped me, when I first started to experience major anxiety, was looking forward to catching the sunsets,” he says. “I remember how madly in love and comforted I was with all the colours and so I knew that’s how I wanted my music to sound.”

Tai Verdes has dropped his debut album, TV, a sun-dappled project filled with songs about isolation, self-love and mental health. I went into raptures over Lord Huron’s fourth album, Long Lost, which you can read more about here (plus my colleague Annabel writing about Billie Marten’s excellent third album). Also check out our albums critic Helen Brown on the debut from rising superstar Olivia Rodrigo, here.

Listen to all of that and much more on the Now Hear This playlist.

Also, quickly, a little shoutout for a very worthy project from Billie Eilish and Deutsche Telekom, who are launching a campaign to support Gen Z with their future careers. It’s based on research that shows 61 per cent of Gen Z-ers are anxious about their career prospects, while more than half don’t know if certain careers they might want to pursue will even exist in the future. The campaign is accompanied by a short film featuring a version of Eilish’s single, “My Future”, and featuring a cameo from the Grammy-winner herself. Watch the film here.

My spotlight artist this week is VC Pines, a brilliant London-based artist who’s about to share his new EP, Concrete. Check out my Q&A with him below and listen to his latest single, “Smoke Without Fire”.

Hello! We've met (over Zoom at least) but tell our readers about yourself

Wassup! I’m VC Pines, an alternative soul artist from London. I try to use my temporal lobe epilepsy and synaesthesia to write my music, it’s all very nostalgic and I try to use the colours I see in my head to paint the songs.

What were the influences and inspirations behind your EP?

I grew up on a mix of soul/Motown and punk CDs. So my childhood in a music sense was this mix of Marvin Gaye, Bobby Womack, Isaac Hayes mixed with Iggy Pop, The Stranglers and Ian Dury. The first album I discovered myself was The Speakerboxx/The Love Below by Outkast when I was around 10? And it blew my mind. It’s all so dynamic with this constant energy buzzing throughout both sides of the album. I honed in on all of that, especially some of the 70s stuff like Isley Brothers musically, and I’ve been told there a little flashes of the clash in some of the vocals but I’m no critic haha... I love what Childish Gambino did with the Awaken My Love album instrumentally with influences from Bootsy Collins and Funkadelic, mixed with the harshness of some of the deliveries on that album so that was definitely an inspiration at points.

What's on your playlist right now?

Loads of Nick Hakim, Tyler The Creator, Xenia Rubinos, Celeste, King Krule, MF DOOM, St Vincent, Yaya Bey n loads more.

What do you have lined up for the rest of the year?

My new EP Concrete is out on 26 May, I’m working on a headline run for early next year and also playing a sold out intimate show at St Pancras old church on the 28th July with my live band The Violet Collective. And of course loaaaadds more music coming out this year and next. I can’t wait to keep putting out music and tour as much as i can!