Today's Top Tune

LA neo-soul group The Altons will release their new collection of songs Heartache in Room 14, on Valentine’s Day, but we don’t need to wait to share the love. They’ve generously gifted us with the early single “Your Light” — a dreamy, declaration of love with a call-and-response chorus for you to chime in on.

Let’s call him a polymath, cause these are just a few of the skills he’s aced: singing, rapping, playing bass and producing music… It's Dylan Cartlidge whose song “New Day” is a soulful, joyful antidote if you’re having a dreary time of it.

Two decades after his debut with Animal Collective, Noah Lennox (best known as Panda Bear) delivers more of the signature sound we’ve come to love via his latest single ahead of new album Sinister Grift, “Ferry Lady.” But don’t take our word for it, LA singer-songwriter Jessica Pratt is among the first to experience and review Panda Bear’s first album in five years. She says: “On Sinister Grift, Panda Bear cuts a lone figure, bracing himself against the winds of fortune and calamity. Noah’s pure and poignant lamentations are less elusive this time around, as though our narrator has awoken from a sobering dream. Singing a familiar round on an imperiled path, Panda Bear presents a set of torch songs conveying hard-fought wisdom, buoyant despite the load they bear.”

LA-native songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Kowloon will soon deliver his sophomore album. His latest track finds him stepping into a sound that plucks from 80’s new wave, to African Highlife — intertwining his dulcet tones into a bopping beat on “Heart Begins With You.”

Mexican band Karen y Los Remedios stir cumbia and downtempo sound together into their own heady blend. Their 2023 album Silencio — an exploration of epiphanies that come from sitting with silence — caught the ear of fans and critics alike, and now has a remix issue that includes “Las Muchachas,” reworked here by Mexican Institute of Sound.

It’s been seven years since we last got new music from Benjamin Booker, but don’t despair — a new album is on the way! Lower is out January 24, with the first taste being “Same Kind Of Lonely,” a track full of fuzzy guitars and whispered singing. Benjamin says: “I was thinking a lot about existence and the natural world — how things that start off so beautiful are often twisted into something unsettling or sinister. Maybe the disconnect between the natural state of things and the modified state of things is the source of a lot of pain, suffering, and loneliness in the world.”

Amayo, the Nigerian-born former frontman for Afrobeat collective Antibalas, strikes out on his own with his debut solo album, Lion Awakes, out January 17. The record is dedicated to his grandmother, a shamamic medicine woman, and Amayo’s Kung Fu practice. “Black Magic Sister” offers up a chorus of voices which Amayo says is, “about offering blessings for an abundant mindset. It’s also a prayer for twins and a wish for those who lost close ones.”

It’s the last day of the year, and what better way to celebrate the end of 2o24 and the rise of 2025 than with LA-based artist Declan McKenna, who started his own new chapter this year by taking control of his music by self-releasing his recordings. Let’s pop the cork on “Champagne.”

One of our favorite musicians and producers, Tom Misch, has recently unveiled his new EP, Six Songs. A master at R&B-infused, smooth, soulful melodies, we share “Colourblind” featuring Loyle Carner.

Brazilian native Rogê has been referred to as LA’s samba king, shedding new light on a classic sound. Joyous and sunny, “A Força,” or “strength” in english, is off his new Latin Grammy-nominated album Curyman II.

KCRW shared a copious amount of new music with you in 2024. One of the bands that we fell in love with and might still be just a tinge under the radar is the Chicago-based indie rock trio Dehd. After a banner year, including their debut on Morning Becomes Eclectic and their HQ courtyard performance at Summer Nights, we’re spotlighting “Magician,” a track they will be sure to perform throughout the world as they tour in 2025.

Brooklyn electronic artist bad tuner enjoys blurring the lines between genres and shifting gears unexpectedly. On this Christmas day, we share the joyful, infectious, retro sound of “make you love” to get you and Santa dancing.

Tank & The Bangas are up for Best Spoken Word Poetry at the Grammys this year for their album The Heart, The Mind, The Soul, with each song a chapter chronicling the powerful journey of Black womanhood. “I want for poetry to get that much more respect and for even more young people to get into the expression of poetry,” Tank expresses. “I want it to be seen as even more cool again. Poetry has always been my first love because it loved me back, it loved me before music even.” We’ll let the words flow on “Ghetto Earth.”

We got a great throwback for you today: Earlier this year, just around their tenth anniversary, Canadian band Alvvays celebrated the release of their self-titled debut album that immediately connected them to newly-minted fans. Gently caustic and full of bite, “Archie, Marry Me” led a generation through the pros and cons of marrying young while saddled with student debt as they navigate the perils of relationships in the long run.

New Orleans Grammy-winning artists Hot 8 Brass Band are putting the finishing touches on their new album due in late February 2025, so while we wait, let’s take in their signature party-marching-band sound on the title track “Big Tuba.”

Coming up from the rock clubs of Denver, CO, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats need no introduction as they’ve played a mind boggling amount of concert halls, festivals, and arenas throughout the USA since their debut back in 2015. South of Here is their fourth studio recording and contains the gem “Call Me (Whatever You Like).”

LA indie rockers Peel Dream Magazine — whose name pays tribute to the late BBC DJ John Peel — recently released their fourth full length album Rose Main Reading Room. It’s perfect for soul-stirring listening via headphones: lying on the floor in a dark room, on a train watching the landscape, or waiting for your holiday flight at an airport terminal. Astute at weaving transportive personal stories, Peel Dream Magazine shares “I Wasn’t Made For War.”

It’s been a meteoric year for North Carolina-based singer, songwriter, and guitarist MJ Lenderman — a man who unsurprisingly found himself on many year-end “Best Of” lists. His keen balance of wit and sadness is clear on “She’s Leaving You.”

Ibiza- based duo The Ting Tings skyrocketed to international fame in 2008 with a couple of insta-classic bangers —“That’s Not My Name” and “Shut Up and Let Me Go” — off of their debut album We Started Nothing.. And subsequent albums have only refined their sound. A new album Home, their first in six years,, is due on Feb. 28, 2025. Inspired by classics from Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan and Christopher Cross — here is “Danced On The Wire.”

Thai-born, Canada-based drummer, producer, and composer Salin gifts us with an edgy mix that conjoins the sound of her native homeland with 70’s psychedelia from West Africa. The track is called “Puaj,” which is Thai for the indigenous bamboo jew’s harp that provides such a heady mix. “Each note tells a story, echoing the lives and experiences of those who play it,” says Salin. “It’s a reminder that music is a universal language, transcending borders and uniting us all in a shared experience of joy and creativity.”