Openly LGBTQ+ artists are releasing tons of great music, now more than ever. To help you with this extremely good problem to have, them. is selecting the best songs released by queer musicians on every New Music Friday. This week, we’re highlighting tracks by Chika, Mitski, Laura Les, Loraine James, Lucy Dacus, Luna Li, Adult Mom, and a compilation from Trax Only. Check them out below and see earlier music roundups here.
Chika: “My Future” (Billie Eilish Cover)
It’s an understatement to say that Chika is an excellent rapper. The 24-year-old artist has already landed a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist this year after releasing her debut studio EP, last year’s Industry Games. Now, with her new cover of Billie Eilish’s “My Future,” an homage to the pop star who won last year’s Best New Artist category, she shows off her vocal chops. On the stripped-down track, Chika sounds at ease as she glides through the vocal runs she’s added to the original song’s melody, before launching into an original rap verse. “Bitch, I might be/The new GOAT,” she raps, manifesting her future success. Considering the growth she’s showing so early in her career, and the release of her Once Upon a Time EP today, there’s no doubt Chika has a bright path ahead.
Mitski: “The Baddy Man”
It’s been a long three years since the release of Mitski’s last studio album, 2018’s Be the Cowboy. So long, in fact, that when I received a courtesy “new Mitski!” text from a kindred spirit (another depressed bisexual), I thought I was being pranked. “Could it be...?” I wondered, clicking the nondescript Soundcloud link with a little skepticism — and it was! In true Libra fashion, my generous queen had re-emerged from her hiatus to give us yet another song we didn’t deserve. Thus came “Baddy Man,” a track off her forthcoming score that’ll accompany This Is Where We Fall, a graphic novel by writer Chris Miskiewicz and artist Vincent Kings, out this May via Z2 comics. At once both canonical and futuristic, the track fits perfectly into the Neo-Western cinematic universe she introduced us to in her aptly-titled preceding project. Ever the sonic alchemist, Mitski stands her ground amidst even the most seasoned traditional country vocalists, and I would follow her on horseback into the sunset any day.
Laura Les: “Haunted”
Before Laura Les was known as half of the duo 100 gecs, she was making solo music as osno1 and self-releasing experimental mash-ups of Ciara and hardcore band Story of the Year onto SoundCloud. Today, the boundary-pushing musician releases her debut single as Laura Les, entitled “Haunted,” which seems to signal the beginning of a new chapter for her solo work. The track starts out with sweet, candy-like nightcore synth plinks, until a frantic chorus of her shrieks suddenly heightens the song’s tension. “Mirrors shatter when I’m passing/Broken glass and crashing/Little blurry stars scattered all across my room,” she sings in the verse, tapping into a self-deprecating quality that somehow reads as both endearing and fantastical. If there’s anyone who could merge two feelings as disparate as “cute” and “spooky,” it’s definitely Laura Les.
