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 list of songs has something for every mood. From the seductive pulse of Sudan Archives’ “My Type,” where electronic tension flirts with exhaustion, to the fever-dream swagger of Man Made Evil’s “Sawang Sawa.” Cate Le Bon’s “Love Unrehearsed” poetic minimalism echoes in the distance while Frost Children’s “Position Famous” warps 2010s EDM euphoria into hyperpop chaos. Together, these tracks blur genre lines and emotional boundaries, offering release, reflection, and rhythm in equal measure.
Man Made Evil, ‘Sawang Sawa’
Groovy, slick, and oozing with so much swagger
“Sawang Sawa” feels like a fever dream that doesn’t want to cool down. Man Made Evil fuses psych rock’s sprawling ambition with R&B’s sensual pulse, crafting a track that sways as much as it hits. Aloy Navarro’s vocals glide over fuzzy guitars and slick drum fills, cutting through the haze with an almost hypnotic pull.
There’s something immediate and tactile about it: the way the rhythm coils, and how every chorus blooms and collapses without losing grip. “Sawang Sawa” sounds like exhaustion turned ecstatic, its title doubling as both a frustrating diss track and a form of catharsis. In a local scene where genre lines blur by the day, Man Made Evil pushes that boundary even further, showing how groove can coexist without compromise. —Elijah Pareño
Sudan Archives, ‘My Type’
The dance floor glitches out with charm
Sudan Archives has mastered the art of leaving no crumbs. Every release feels like a world contained in motion, and “My Type” spins right in the center of it. The track is sleek, flirtatious, and relentless. It rides on a pulsing BPM built for late-night stamina, where synths flutter between sharp percussion as her vocal runs dart in and out of the groove. There’s a flawless delivery in how she holds back, letting the beat flirt with chaos but never collapse. It’s the kind of track that tests how long you can keep your body moving before your mind catches up. By the time it fades, you realize it’s done exactly what it set out to do: seduce, exhaust, and restart the cycle. —Elijah Pareño
A two-minute eruption of noise, release, and rebirth
“LAZY i”, the opening track to the long-awaited debut album from Filipino musician Jason Fernandez’s hazylazy, feels like an unbottled exhale. Over two breathless minutes, Fernandez’s vocals echo through a storm of crushed guitars and relentless drums, a wall of noise that never lets up, only widens. Here, release is rendered in distortion, catharsis built from chaos. After six years of singles, an EP, and slow-burn buildup, “LAZY i” sets the tone for a record, ANTAGONISMS, that finally cracks open: loud, unguarded, and alive. —Pie Gonzaga
Cate Le Bon, ‘Love Unrehearsed’
Melancholy in flanging guitars and exquisite restraint
Off her seventh album Michelangelo Dying, Welsh art-rock luminary Cate Le Bon crafts a song as elegantly desolate as a half-lit gallery. “Love Unrehearsed” is all ghostly flanging guitars and spectral space, with a texture that evokes Cocteau Twins. Its chorus slips in the album’s title like a quiet revelation, while Le Bon’s voice lingers in the ache of the finishing lines: “And you are so cruel / but I get swept away / in your love / unrehearsed.” It’s melancholic yet composed, betrayed but beautiful, proof that Le Bon remains one of indie rock’s most deliberate architects of mood. —Pie Gonzaga
Frost Children, ‘Position Famous’
Delayed-gratification dance track gone hyperpop divine
The opening track to SISTER, the sixth album from American electronic pop twins Angel and Lulu Prost, is a sugar rush of anticipation. It takes over half the song to build up to its euphoric drop, teasing the dopamine hit of a dance break that finally arrives like a wave of confetti.
“Position Famous” recalls the feel-good EDM of the 2010s; except now, that sound has been warped and reclaimed by the alternative acts like Frost Children. The duo is also currently working with German singer Kim Petras on what looks to be the best music of her career, so I’m excited for that. —Pie Gonzaga
Men I Trust, ‘To Ease You’
A deceptively simple sophisti-pop ditty
Men I Trust have a knack for making calm sound radical, and “To Ease You” is no exception. Opening the second half of Equus Caballus, Emma Proulx’s voice drifts through a haze of soft basslines and glassy guitars, a sonic mirage that feels deceptively simple. But underneath, the production folds in layers of post-punk tension, pulling the listener into a deeper, darker place than Men I Trust usually explores. It’s a clean break from the breezy polish of their earlier catalog — a signal that they’re building something denser and more introspective.
“To Ease You” teases the album’s transformation without giving too much away, offering calm before a different kind of storm. It’s the band’s most patient and careful songwriting to date, knowing full well that the quietest track often leaves the longest echo. —Elijah Pareño