Listener’s Songs of the Week: New tracks from Baynk, Sabrina Carpenter, and Gracie Abrams

By Baynk

Expat Kiwi now in LA, Baynk – Jock Nowell-Usticke – neatly takes his electro-pop into a dreamscape Californian glow with Feel and – coupled with the equally weightless, simultaneously released Blood single – drip-feeds two more tracks from his much-anticipated Senescence album, the follow-up to his 2022 groundbreaking Adolescence. Summer comes early with these songs. – Graham Reid

By Sabrina Carpenter

Sabrina Carpenter has been dethroned from the top spot on the US Spotify charts... by herself. Her breakthrough single Espresso released two months ago has been streamed over 500 million times. Her follow up Please Please Please with a music video featuring her Saltburn star boyfriend, Barry Keoghan, is on track to do the same. Great marketing tactics aside, she nabbed pop producer behemoth Jack Antonoff for the track’s catchy, soft 80s synth production. She also maintains her trademark explicit, lyrical wit, crooning “don’t you dare embarrass me motherfucker.” She’s been in the pop game for 10 years now, but she’s finally on a trajectory to true mainstream stardom. – Alana Rae

By Gracie Abrams

The bedroom pop singer-songwriter – the daughter of Hollywood heavyweight JJ Abrams – is taking a moodier route with her latest single Close to You. Opening with a heavy bass shudder, Abrams descends into an addictive, fast-paced chorus that hits the catchy pop spot while maintaining a cohesive story – the Taylor Swift effect, some may say. Abrams’ complete second album, The Secret of Us, arrives June 21. – Alana Rae

By Tiki Taane & Arli Liberman Ft. Louis Baker