Freshly Squeezed, Vol. 93: Cory Stewart, Mitch McAteer, EXNATIONS & more

Welcome to Freshly Squeezed, a weekly new music playlist: spanning country, pop, EDM and urban, mainstream and other.

Queer icon Cory Stewart takes our hand and pulls us onto the glittering dance floor with his latest dive-bar banger. With “Happiness in Heartache,” the pop reporter acts as a narrator, of sorts, as he tells a sorrowful, weary tale of a woman succumbing to her pain and seeking any numbing agent possible. “He breaks you down to bits to make you his own,” Stewart sings, addressing the gloom of such an existence. The beat then kicks in, and while you wipe away the waterfall of teardrops, you become hypnotized inside clouds of rainbow-woven synths. It’s just a temporary fix, but we’re so here for it.

Funky and fresh, alternative pop group West Coast Weekend let their guards down on “Heart Attack.” It’s as firmly planted in the present as it is indebted to the rich history of soul music; it appropriately soars through fluffy pop clouds, without discarding a cool, mesmerizing aesthetic. “You were the ghost over my shoulder / Out in the light,” the lead singer works his trepidations right into the song’s backbone, casting a spooky forecast over the melody. A debut single is hard to get just right, but the sunny LA band works double-time to offer up something sweetly addicting.

Irish singer-songwriter Mitch McAteer pours gravel from his voice. It’s an unmistakable tone that’ll send chills down your spine. On his new song “I Hate That I Love You,” the first taste of his upcoming EP, he yanks his own heart from his chest as an act of defiance to completely cut any and all emotional ties. “Darling, I hate that I love you / But I don’t hate you…,” he cries and tears at the night. The misery has swollen the air around him, sweltering and thick with flies, and it’s very clear the catharsis might not be nearly enough to relinquish him of the past.

The latest iteration contains gems from Madelin, Brad Byrd, Caroline Spence, Delta Rae, EXNATIONS, Slenderbodies, D.B. Rouse, Nick Fradiani, August Knight, Holiday Sidewinder, Kim Petras, Joy Williams, Emily Chambers, Almost Owen, Mari Dangerfield and countless more.

In all, we’ve got 30 new tracks to wake up your senses. Get to listening!

Each playlist will be refreshed every Friday morning/afternoon. We reserve the right to update anytime during the week, so make sure you bookmark this page.

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