5 new releases we love: A sexy, riff-heavy collision, a bracing alté debut, and more

Clairo, “Bags”

[Fader Label, May 24]

It’s that classic story: Boston teen writes lo-fi pop song for simple keys and click track, murmurs it straight into webcam while wearing a school sweatshirt and earbuds, and racks up 33 million-plus YouTube views. More than just a charming earworm, Claire Cottrill’s “Pretty Girl” (and the appealing EP it appeared on) was marked by a preternaturally sophisticated sensibility—emotive yet deadpan, understatedly arch, and deceptively unpolished, like more sedate, ironic Alessia Cara. Now the self-started (sort of, maybe) 20-year-old known as Clairo is back with “Bags,” where she retains her uncanny calm but jettisons synth-pop for dream-pop guitars. It’s warm music played cold as ice, naturalness meets artifice, with shades of Au Revoir Simone and Beach House, destined for a David Lynch project. “Bags” is the first single from Clairo’s debut album, Immunity, which comes out August 2. [Brian Howe]

Miley Cyrus, “The Most”

[RCA, May 31]

“The Most,” the closing track on Miley Cyrus’ brand-new six-cut EP She Is Coming, will likely receive the least bit of attention, as it doesn’t sport any cool collaborations with RuPaul or Ghostface Killah, and Cyrus doesn’t swear once in it. Nevertheless, it’s far and away the best song on the release. It’s a sweet anthem, presumably to Cyrus’ newlywed husband, Liam Hemsworth, bringing to mind her earlier pop-country hits like “The Climb” or even “Malibu” from 2017’s Younger Now. In her appealingly raspy twang, the singer unfurls a heartfelt, self-deprecating love song (last line: “I don’t know why you still believe in me”), backed by a disparate but epic combo of primitive percussion, steel guitar, and breathy strings. It’s the kind of emotive country ballad her godmother, Dolly Parton, would appreciate. She Is Coming is part of the lead-up to Cyrus’ seventh studio album; here’s hoping that record contains more songs like this one, fewer like “D.R.E.A.M.,” or “Drugs Rule Everything Around Me.” [Gwen Ihnat]