Pop-rock phenomoneon 5 Seconds of Summer are back with the delicate “Older”, featuring American singer-songwriter Sierra Deaton. The track is taken from the four-piece’s upcoming fifth studio album, 5SOS5, due September 23rd, as they mark ten years as one of the biggest boybands on the planet. Musing on the necessity we can feel to spend our lives with that particular special person, “I don’t wanna get older, without you on my shoulder” they croon, intertwining with the ethereal coo of Deaton. A sublime slice of musical bliss is served!

Three-piece Clean Bandit are practically veterans in the music business these days with over eight years passing since their breakthrough mega-hit “Rather Be”, featuring a then, basically unknown Jess Glynne. However, the trio’s effervescent amalgamation of sounds remains very much at the forefront of pop as they continue to handpick collaborators at the vanguard of a diverse array of scenes. Namely, in this kinetic, late-summer jam “Sad Girls”, they combine the lustre of Afrobeats international trailblazer Rema and Essex rap riser French the Kid, for an infectious earworm. Sad by name, but nothing else.

Let’s just say this: we have never clicked a stream link faster than when we saw You Me At Six and their new track “No Future? Yeah Right” creep into the new music Friday inbox. And sure enough, with their signature bellowing chorus coming in full force within the first 10 seconds, the angsty tendencies of our old-school indie-rock playlists were safely brought back to life. A nod to the raw and chest-rumbling production of their earlier efforts, “No Future? Yeah Right” thuds with an intensity you can almost taste — leaving us shaking with anticipation for the release of their eighth studio album, Truth Decay.

If you feel like you’ve heard the Mumford and Sons-esque guitar-pop of Rosa Linn’s “Snap” before, then it’s because you have. Well, at least if you were strapped into the magic of the Eurovision Song Contest at the start of the summer. Despite the usual novelty numbers that hit the stage in Turin, there’s always one or two genuinely airtight pop songs that emerge from the contest, this year, one of which being Armenian entry, Linn’s “Snap”. Now being released officially, as part of the 22-year-old’s landmark deal with major US label Columbia, the artist, who still lives with her mum at home, looks set to truly “Snap” in her own words, with real chances of being Armenia’s first ever global musical export.

East-London, genre-fluid artist Deyaz shares affecting new cut “Bitter”, exploring his previous struggles with addiction. Over insistent production, the artist laments “But I’m still bitter / just like the drink in me it lingers,” however, it’s the soaring melody of his vocals that emerge the centrepiece. Following the release of debut project “WHY NOT”, Deyaz recently delivered a mesmerising turn on the prestigious Later… With Jools Holland, and he’s hinted at another body of work being on the horizon. One thing’s for sure, if he keeps dropping tracks with as much of a hold on us as “Bitter”, we will always be ready for more.

Cambridge-based DIY-popstar Cavetown returns with unassuming, diaristic track “1994”. A track about getting passed the over-thinking that consumes our minds in life’s many challenging situations. “I’m working on defining the line between what’s really wrong versus what is made up in my head, because it’s the parts that aren’t real that I end up feeling quite guilty about,” they say of the track. Despite modest, no-frills delivery, Cavetown has had a mammoth run of success in a global context, exceeding a billion streams and achieving platinum status in America. With a recent collab with beabadoobee also under their belt, “1994” is just another weapon in their gently but assuredly fired arsenal.

The complexities of grief and persevering through life after loss are told deftly on DARKOWA’s “Searching the World”, an uncategorizable blend of genres, that takes in everything from y2k R&B, hyperpop, and electro. “I’ll wake up when I’m over you,” the Oslo-native sings in the slinky, ironically-danceable track. A futuristic, club-ready take on grief is just another idiosyncratic offering from DARKOWA, pulled off with aplomb – it’s no wonder she’s a mainstay on our playlists.

RJ Thompson calls on a significant other to embrace the unknowns of the future on the uplifting noughties rock-pop of “Rescue You”. Amid magnetic hooks, “everytime we shoot for the moon, every time we fall too soon, I could rescue you” Thompson beams on the track, which is so uplifting it makes us feel like we could get through anything. The perfect attitude to hurtle towards the weekend’s adventures, and of course, life’s more serious stuff too.

Norwegian-hailing, Denmark-based scandi pop queen in the making, Nicola Høie is only onto her second single and we already feel ourselves depending on her for irresistible defiant heartbreak jams. Previous single “Secrets” was all about ridding ourselves of relationships that are simply no good for us, and on her latest single, she asserts: “You can never buy my love”. Adding Høie to our break-up/moving-on playlist, literally, right now.