Welcome to Songs You Need to Know, our weekly rundown of the best music right now. The Rolling Stone Philippines team is constantly sharing things to listen to, and each week, we compile a ragtag playlist of songs that we believe every music fan today needs to know. Whether it’s the hottest new single or an old track that captures the state of the present, our hope is that you discover something for your musical canon.
This week’s songs are varied in their wide sound selection and the craziest backstories leading up to their creation. Ranging from Lola Amour’s “Lambing” and its overtly cheesy premise of chilling out with blaring horns to Olivia Rodrigo’s comeback single “drop dead,” where she teaches all the girls to stay happy in the saddest of breakups. Additionally, songs like Slayyyter’s “BROKE BITCH FREE$TYLE” prioritize the barrage of distortion over its blistering club beats, while “EVERYTHING I’VE EVER WANTED” numbs the imposter syndrome of pop artist Tiffany Day.
A giddy pop-rock comeback
Olivia Rodrigo seems pretty happy for a girl recently rumored to be broken up with British actor Louis Partridge. Since she dropped “drop dead,” the American pop-rock singer’s latest music video has amassed over 14 million views as of writing, which only goes to show how hungry people have been for her comeback. The single comes ahead of her third studio album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, which is set for release on June 12.
In the video, Rodrigo twirls and runs around the Versailles palace grounds as the track bursts into a bridge of guitars à la “Don’t Delete the Kisses” by Wolf Alice. If the album’s release on Philippine Independence Day means anything (we see you, pinsan), we may be in for an emotionally liberating record. “drop dead” makes you feel that way: unabashedly in love and unshackled from the rules of astrology (“Pisces and a Gemini / but I think we might go really nice together”). —Pie Gonzaga
Hugot’s gone more atmospheric and bittersweet
The pop rock trio Nameless Kids comes right in with their trademark gleaming, synth-led rock music in their latest single “Sinungaling.” If anything, the band’s headed in the right direction in terms of pushing this hazy, more fuzz-drenched reverb texture. Emotive performances from both vocalists Nhiko Sabiniano and Kim Allen, along with their instrumentals, effectively gloss over their sensibilities of rock music. For the latest single, the band was able to insert their years-long, crafted, serviceable pop music that they’d go head over heels for. However, “Sinungaling” has an epic chorus to boot in this fresh direction. These are all net positives. Nameless Kids are going there, clearly. —Elijah Pareño
Brash and thumping, like being in a bar fight
When the rollout for WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA started in August 2025, there was a grand total of four people I could talk to about Slayyyter. But after she released the album to critical acclaim in late March, it landed at number one on Billboard’s Top Dance Albums chart in April. This month, she also took a victory lap by making her Coachella debut in a packed Mojave tent, and then topped it all off with a new single, “BROKE BITCH FREE$TYLE.”
The Missouri pop singer comes on riotously in “BROKE BITCH FREE$TYLE.” She raps about loving trashy girls and wearing Ann Demeulemeester boots with gas station sunglasses, her vocals overloaded with distortion. With a thumping beat, the track packs the punch of liquor and the first pungent spray of a Victoria’s Secret body mist, and I would not have it any other way. —Pie Gonzaga
Funky and groovy music in the nightlife scene
Lola Amour makes date nights sound over-the-top on their latest single. The funky rock unit is back with a mission. Their latest offering titled “Lambing,” is a little bit more flirty compared to their previous singles. In the track, you hear chants like “yo!” and “chill” that are partly endearing and cheesy. With Pio Dumayas embodying an almost unrecognizable baritone voice, the listener can already hear the band’s progress in their more robust, detailed, and careful approach to making a love song work from its brass sections to its bright key solos. “Lambing” has the biggest pros for the funk to get this infectious. —Elijah Pareño
That glitchy feeling of sadness and yearning
In the age of indie sleaze revival and electroclash comebacks, there lacks a human element to the whole synth flourishes, the glitchy crashouts, and the almost deadpan delivery that takes over the genre. Enter Tiffany Day, the viral vocal singer on TikTok turned Club Classic-coded pop star, injecting an “emo” approach into the music. In her latest album HALO, one of its highlights, “EVERYTHING I’VE EVER WANTED,” sees Day questioning the reality of someone loving her back. As the track reaches its penultimate electronic dance music drop, the singer experiences a euphoric feeling in a more genuine, sonically striking approach to the autotune instrument, capturing the feeling of yearning in the digital age. —Elijah Pareño
Filipino rap invokes Azealia Banks’ bratty club-readiness
When she isn’t working the night shift as a nurse, Filipino-Canadian emcee Han Han is making music or performing “Bakunawa” with Ruby Ibarra, Ouida, and June Millington, fellow musicians from the Filipino diaspora. Han Han a.k.a. Haniely Pableo’s music, like Ibarra’s, speaks of the experiences of women and immigrants, themes she’s known well since moving to Toronto in 2006. But one of the most surprising and impressive characteristics of her work is how she could take these themes and inject them into fun, club-ready tracks.
The 2014 song “Kanadyan” starts with Han Han rap-singing the lines “Mula ng pagkabata ay ako ay tinuruan / sa nakakatanda, dapat daw maging magalang.” She speaks over kulintangs and other Filipino percussion, but these are fused with an 808 club beat that could easily be found in the works of M.I.A. and Azealia Banks. There’s also a wit and attitude with which Han Han talks about cultural norms surrounding respect that I just find infectious. When she sings, “I listen to the old me / ‘cause the old is wise,” I sing along. —Pie Gonzaga
