Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

5 songs you need to stream this week: John Legend, Ty Segall and more

best songs to stream
YouTube/KEXP
Every week, there are hundreds of thousands of new songs hitting the airwaves. It’s too much for just your two ears to handle: With all those options, you can’t be wasting your time on tracks worthy of a thumbs-down click.

But don’t worry, we’re going to save you the hassle. We listen to some of the most-hyped and interesting songs each week and tell you which are worthy of your precious listening time.

Here are our top 5 songs to stream this week. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our Spotify page for a playlist of our weekly picks, which can also be found at the bottom of this post.

John Legend — Penthouse Floor (Ft. Chance The Rapper)

John Legend - Penthouse Floor (Audio) ft. Chance the Rapper

The latest single from John Legend is a bass-driven jam which seems perfectly timed. “All this trouble in this here town/All this shit going down/When will they focus?/On this,” Legend croons to begin Penthouse Floor, the lead single about wealth inequality from his upcoming album Darkness and Light, which hits shelves on December 2. Chicago’s Chance The Rapper echoes the soul singer’s downtrodden proletariat sentiments later in the track, exclaiming, “My folks downstairs still waiting in line/They never been in these rooms never stayed with these folks/never laughed at the news/never hated these jokes.” They may have been laid down well before the current political climate, but these words cut deeper now — a reminder that we always need to pay attention to all levels of wealth and stature.

Amazon iTunes

Ty Segall — Orange Color Queen

There’s a gorgeous, distinctly post-Bowie quality that we love about Ty Segall’s latest single Orange Color Queen — a clean acoustic number with billowy harmonies, a fully-orchestrated guitar interlude, and multiple tempo changes. The first-released song from his recently-announced (and still-untitled) LP which will hit shelves on January 27 of next year, we hope there is plenty more where this came from.

Amazon iTunes

Jason Isbell — Speed Trap Town

Speed Trap Town - Jason Isbell - 11/12/2016

The songwriter’s songwriter Jason Isbell recently performed several of his most soul-searching singles on A Prarie Home Companion, now under the direction of the great Chris Thile. But none are as powerful as Speed Trap Town, a song about meaning and loss in small town America.

Amazon iTunes

Midnight Faces — Germanium

Midnight Faces - Germanium (Live on KEXP)

If there’s a better song for your daily run than Midnight Faces’ Germanium, we’d love to hear it. Great guitar and bass tones meet a steady-rolling, eighth-note drum groove, pulling your body forward for the entirety of its five minutes.

Amazon iTunes

Cigarettes After Sex — K.

K. - Cigarettes After Sex

A steaming cup of coffee, a weekend morning, and Cigarettes After Sex’s K. are a match made in indie-rock heaven. A lovely ballad about falling in love that is light on frills, the Brooklyn band’s new single is soft and introspective, gently lulling you into a slow-paced day of thoughtful self-examination.

Amazon iTunes

That’s it for now, but tune in next week for more tunes and check out our playlist loaded with our recent selections below:

Editors' Recommendations

Parker Hall
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Parker Hall is a writer and musician from Portland, OR. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin…
What is hi-res audio, and how can you experience it right now?
Dlyan Wireless Headphones

High-resolution audio, hi-res audio, or even HD audio -- whatever you decide to call it (for the record, the industry prefers "hi-res audio"), it's a catch-all term that describes digital audio that goes above and beyond the level of sound quality you can expect from a garden-variety MP3 file and even CDs. It was once strictly the domain of audiophiles, but now that major streaming music services like Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, and Qobuz have embraced it, almost everyone can take advantage of what hi-res has to offer.

But what exactly is hi-res audio? What equipment do you need to listen to it? Where can you download or stream it? And does it actually sound better? We've got the answers.
What does the term 'hi-res audio' mean?

Read more
How to download music from Spotify for offline listening
How to download music and podcasts from Spotify: The downloads folder.

If you're a Spotify Premium user paying that premium Spotify fee, chances are you've taken at least some time curating playlists, liking songs, and using the platform's easy-to-use (and recently revamped) user interface to discover new and old music.

But sometimes all that music or your favorite podcasts aren't available if you find yourself without an internet connection to stream them from — like on a long plane ride or weekend camping trip in the sticks. That's where Spotify's offline listening feature comes in handy, allowing you to download playlists, albums, and podcasts through its desktop and mobile apps so you can still rock out while you're off the grid.

Read more
How to switch from Spotify to Apple Music
Spotify and Apple Music transfer on a smartphone.

Spotify is the world's most popular music streaming service for a reason. It has a massive catalog of music and podcasts, is full of cool music discovery and sharing features, and is really easy to use.
However, with its recent price increase and the fact that it still hasn't joined most of its peers in offering a hi-res audio quality option, you may be considering jumping ship for its closest competitor, Apple Music, which counts lossless hi-res tracks, mind-bending spatial audio, Dolby Atmos Music tracks, and a catalog that rivals Spotify's among the many attractive reasons to switch.

But there's one problem: you’ve spent a lot of time creating playlists and marking songs and albums as your favorites in Spotify. Is it worth the switch? Will all that hard work be lost in translation?

Read more