This Week’s Best New Music: Nick Ward, Ixaras, Merci, Mercy & More

It’s been a HUGE week for new indie, hip-hop and EDM releases – not only did we get fresh new tunes from some of Australia’s finest up-and-comers, like Nick Ward (who just dropped All Your Life), merci, mercy (who blessed us with Angel) and ixaras (whose new cut salt is destined to be a hit), but the international heavyweights were out in full force: d4vd came in hot with his wicked new banger There Goes My Baby, for example, while Ice Spice delivered another instant classic in Did It First (with Central Cee), and Artemas got his fans going absolutely mental with dirty little secret.

With all of that in mind, now seems like as good a time as any to remind you – or clue you in, if you didn’t know already – that we have our very own playlist dedicated to bringing you the best new music from the underground and beyond, fittingly named Purple Sneakers’ Best New Music. We update it every Friday with more than a dozen of the brand new tracks we simply can’t get enough of, giving you the ultimate soundtrack to power your weekend.

You can listen to Purple Sneakers’ Best New Music on Spotify (here) and Apple Music (here) – and make sure to hit us up on Instagram or Facebook to let us know what songs you’ve been loving!

Here are just a few of our personal favourites from this week’s update to the playlist...

Nick Ward – All Your Life

WHAT HE SAYS: “When I was ten, I made my first film using family photographs on iPhoto with a Foo Fighters song, which sparked my interest in filmmaking. Ten years later, after our grandma passed away, we found a suitcase of unseen photographs and super-8 footage filmed by our grandfather during their journey from Malaysia to Australia, which we used in the All Your Life music video and album cover.

“[The lyric] ‘I really hope you’re happy all your life’ reminded me of scenes in movies where characters said farewell – never to meet again – but still wished the other person a happy rest of their life. As someone who struggles with their mental health, those words felt like an impossible idea to live up to, but something to chase anyway. I’ve never consciously made ‘sad’ or ‘happy’ music, but I’m proud to call this my most life-affirming song.”

merci, mercy – Angel

WHAT SHE SAYS: “Angel is about being constantly sad and tired but not allowing that to stop you from being a hottie. It's the perfect song to get ready to, to ensure you remember to be yourself and not care what others think.”

ixaras – salt

WHAT SHE SAYS: “I wrote it to be an aid to myself in the moving-on journey. It's a song about moving on and realising someone isn't good for you but being really conflicted because you don't want to leave but realising it all at once, and that overwhelming feeling.”

Also featured in this week’s update to Purple Sneakers’ Best New Music:

• d4vd – There Goes My Baby

• Confidence Man & IN2STELLAR – BREAK IT DOWN (ON THE BASSLINE)

• GRAACE – Honey

• Anna Lunoe & Y U QT – Only Love

• Artemas – dirty little secret

• Moses Sumney – Gold Coast

• Jude York – Monaco

• Sycco – Touching And Talking

• Ice Spice – Did It First (with Central Cee)

• Chanel Loren – Bubble Wrap

• Dera Meelan, Caru – See No Evil (ft. Church & deadforest)

• annie hamilton – slut era

• Letoa – SPEED

• Toro y Moi, Kevin Abstract & Lev – Heaven

• Ben Gerrans – I Wanna Be

• Fcukers – Homie Don’t Shake

• Church – The Story Of Perseu

• James Pepper – Passion (ft. KLP)

• Mickey Kojak – Nobody Else But You

Listen to the full playlist on Spotify below – or head here to save/follow on Spotify, and here to save/follow on Apple Music.