Five Songs, No Filler

Welcome to Five Songs, a weekly series/newsletter for paid Hearing Things subscribers in which we each choose a new song we like and write about why we can’t stop listening to it. Generally, these aren’t necessarily the most popular or trendy tracks (though we reserve the right to opine on pop and/or trends if we wish), but rather ones that take some digging to find, that highlight our varied tastes, and that speak to us in particular. We have a good feeling these songs will speak to you, too.

For this inaugural edition, we’ve got everything from Y2K fantasies to delicately crushing plugg daydreams to sky-scraping ambient jazz to playful country-funk to an R&B bloodletting courtesy of a beloved movie star. There are also a couple of Must Hear tracks—i.e., songs we really, really love—thrown in for good measure. So enjoy these friendly recommendations from actual human music journalists, and let us know what you think of them in the comments!