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 go through different pockets of pop and alternative music, from RAMONA confronting the noise of celebrity gossip in “GAGA” to BINI revisiting the breezy thrill of P-pop with “Unang Kilig.” Elsewhere, Harry Styles slips into a hypnotic groove on “Pop,” a spiraling earworm that turns repetition into its own hook, while New York duo Fcukers keep the party alive with the sleazy house-pop pulse. Whether you’re in the mood for a guitar-driven comeback, a bright pop rush, or a dancefloor anthem that refuses to let the night end, this week’s selections cover the full spectrum.
A topsy-turvy world for the rock n’ roll girl
Andrea Brillantes’ musical persona RAMONA doesn’t suffer from being a colorful pop-rock fantasy where rage drifts without direction. The project works as an alter ego that answers back to the scrutiny surrounding her public life. In “GAGA,” RAMONA addresses the whirlwind of accusations and commentary that often follows celebrities. Brillantes eases through the intense performance while the song’s producers, Tim and Sam Marquez of One Click Straight, handle the track’s backbone. Their guitar lines and percussion add that alternative rock spice to the mix. The result stands as a direct statement instead of slipping into theatrics. —Elijah Pareño
Lights, Camera, Action for the Biggest Girl Group
The nation’s girl group BINI returns to the spectacle of love teams in their latest single “Unang Kilig.” The group has taken several English releases to an international audience, yet this track circles back to the breezy pop writing that first connected with listeners. Songs like “Lagi” and “Salamin, Salamin” sit within that lineage, where melody carries the feeling as much as the lyrics do. “Unang Kilig” moves in that same direction. The song lands on a straightforward pop guideline: a clear hook, bright energy, and a reminder that the group’s sense of melody still holds steady. —Elijah Pareño
The Windmill Scene’s most artsy rock star of the moment
One night, black midi’s Cameron Picton decided to form a new band out of the depths of his psyche. This time, the brutal progressive rock figure from the Windmill scene introduces a different beast. In My New Band Believe’s “Numerology,” Picton describes the strange comfort of disappearing into a crowd. Chaotic instrumentals swirl through the track, with banjos, violins, and manic drumming piling on top of each other. The arrangement gathers into a dense wall of sound, the kind where a listener can slip inside the noise and stay there for a while. —Elijah Pareño
A hypnotic, spiraling pop earworm
I’ll reserve my thoughts about Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally for another day, but one of my favorite tracks on Harry Styles’ latest album is “Pop.” It’s a well-thought-out song, restrained in production, though the lyrics talk of losing oneself to something or someone. The more clever aspect of the songwriting is in Styles singing, “I do it and do it again” over a quick, thumping 12|8 beat, which sounds round and hammers home the feeling of spiraling or being stuck in a cycle. At risk of sounding like a nerd, that time signature — while neither particularly special nor rarely deployed — is the same one used in Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Run Away With Me” and Tears For Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” Styles was clearly determined to make an earworm with “Pop,” and it works. —Pie Gonzaga
A sleazy house-pop cut begging for replay
A few days ahead of their TV debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, New York-based electronic duo Fcukers returned with the single “if you wanna party, come over to my house.” The title’s a bit of a mouthful, especially in comparison to other recent releases like “Play Me” and “I Like It Like That” or 2024’s “Bon Bon.”
Two years after releasing their EP Baggy$$, the two-piece continues making catchy, ’90s-inspired dance music. In “if you wanna party,” vocalist Shanny Wise still talk-sings in that cool, mildly coquettish affect, repeating lines over a quick house beat and Jackson Walker Lewis’ sizzling synth bass. It’s a formula that works for Fcukers, and we can expect more of this sleazy, energetic dance-pop on their forthcoming debut album Ö. —Pie Gonzaga
A bedroom pop act goes boom
American singer-songwriter Grace Ives and Clairo used to move in the same ward of the Khia Asylum reserved for intimate, low-fidelity bedroom pop artists whose parents are connected to the music industry. But while Clairo has successfully escaped nugudom through consistent album releases and the critically acclaimed Charm, Ives is just beginning to break out as more listeners catch on to the rollout of her upcoming album Girlfriend. Her latest single, “Stupid Bitches,” is louder and bigger in scale than anything she’s done before. The pop-rock track evokes The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony” in its strings and drums, but retains Ives’ love for filtered vocals and searing lead synths.
The musician is also as honest as ever. With her 2022 debut album Janky Star, Ives solidified herself as a talented “hot mess.” But where past songs used to see her reserved and mumbling confessions, “Stupid Bitches” is all rage (and still, some mercy). She sings, “I will let you take it out on me / But next time, kindness over honesty / But stupid bitchеs can’t hurt me.” As Stan Twitter likes to say, “She walked into that studio mad as hell,” and, might I add, hungry for greatness. —Pie Gonzaga
