The prospect of a new Jay Som album after six years would be exciting no matter what the lead single sounded like, but damn. “Float” is a startling, spectacular return for Melina Duterte’s project. Teaming with Jimmy Eat World frontman Jim Adkins, Duterte channels that band’s radio-friendly approach to rock, brilliantly reframing her pop-punk and emo adolescence for the modern indie rock landscape. As she and Adkins sing about the onset of an overwhelming, exhilarating, vaguely distressing love, the music mirrors that sentiment: guitars, drums, and vocals adding up to something irresistible and exhilarating. Don’t fight it; “Float” is one of the most purely pleasurable rock songs in recent memory. —Chris

“I’m a coward cause I know/ That I can’t say no/ To a life round here/ That I don’t even own.” Ouch. The new Shame song, “Quiet Life,” is very different from is ecstatic predecessor “Cutthroat.” “Quiet Life” is “’about someone in a shitty relationship,” vocalist Charlie Steen explained, and that emotional weight makes the song as devastating as it is invigorating. The rockabilly sound fits the English post-punks well, and hopefully there’s more of it on Cutthroat. —Danielle

Since their rapid-fire 2019 debut album This World Is Too Much, Restraining Order have been destined for greatness. The hardcore crew has more energy and charisma than most of their peers, and they know how to shred. The Future Fortune lead single “Know Not” is no different. At less than two minutes, the anthem rages with a ferocious catchiness and frontman Patrick Cozens’ vocals are as commanding as ever. There are no reprieves — only pure rock and roll. It’s a formula that’ll never fail them. —Danielle

Angel Du$t mastermind and Baltimore icon Justice Tripp is one of the most fascinating figures on the underground guitar-music landscape today. He’s one of the all-time great hardcore bruisers, and he could keep doing that forever, but he’s also got a psychedelic-explorer side and a gift for sunburst melody. “The Beat” goes deeper into hardcore-bruiser territory than most Angel Du$t tracks. It’s a fire-breathing riff-beast of a song, it’s two minutes long, and it’s about beating you up. All that stuff is fucking awesome. Even in this mode, though, Angel Du$t’s desire for transcendence shines through. There’s just a hint of space-rock in that breakdown, and it makes all the difference. —Tom

“God is real/ I wouldn’t joke about this/ I’m not kidding this time,” self-proclaimed agnostic Cameron Winter confessed on his 2024 solo album Heavy Metal, the words “this time” suggesting the potential of mutability. When you can’t help but feel worthless yourself, the Geese frontman seemed to say, it’s not difficult to be seduced by the concept of some higher power. However, on “Taxes,” the lead single to Geese’s forthcoming album Getting Killed, Winter is fed up with this supposed hierarchy: “I should burn in hell/ But I don’t deserve this/ Nobody deserves this.” If all sins are equal in God’s eyes, how could eternal damnation be moral?

“Taxes” isn’t self-righteous, but it is self-assured. Over a sweeping, Americana-inspired instrumental, Geese posit that fate isn’t predestined, and we’re all solely responsible for our own successes and pitfalls: “Doctor! Doctor! Heal yourself,” Winter belts with a palpable sense of liberty. “I will break my own heart from now on.” There’s no point in waiting until you’re at the pearly gates to determine whether or not you’re a good person, “Taxes” implies. It’s hellish enough on Earth; trust yourself enough to be your own God. —Abby