Five songs you need to hear right now!

Five songs you need to hear this week are in, and it’s a wild cross-section of what’s shaping music right now.

Robyn breaks a seven-year silence with pure dopamine, Charli XCX returns with cinematic electro-pop, Jean Dawson leans into shadowy Cold Wave, FKA Twigs delivers a soaring dance ballad, and Gen Z revives a cult Trip-Hop gem from Locust. This is the sound of culture moving in real time, and our team has it all on repeat at Activaire HQ. Dive in and hear what’s defining the moment.

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Robyn – Dopamine

Robyn is one of dance-pop’s most iconic names. Her thirty-year-long career has defined what electronic pop music really means, with her 2010 album ‘Body Talk’ often being cited as one of the most important pop albums of that decade. Last year, Robyn became a favorite name amongst Gen-Z for her appearance on Charli XCX’s remix record, reigniting buzz around her name and becoming an exciting time for her career. Last week, the Swedish pop icon made her return with her first solo release in seven years, ‘Dopamine’, exploring her adoration for dance music through glittery arpeggios, sleek synth washes, and larger-than-life vocal performances.

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Charli XCX – Chains Of Love

Charli XCX made waves in every corner of the music industry last summer with her genre-defining hit album ‘Brat,’ a record that, to many fans, felt like the culmination of all her sounds and styles spanning her over decade-long career. It was a celebration of the impact she has on pop music, and has gone on to become one of the most memorable albums of the decade. After a year’s worth of touring, the British Pop icon has made her return for Emerald Fennell’s 2026 reimagining of Emily Brontë’s 19th-century novel, ‘Wuthering Heights,’ scoring the entire film’s soundtrack. This week, the second lead single, ‘Chains of Love,’ leans into her adoration for electro-pop balladry, with dramatic string sections paired with growling bass lines and steady drumming, all perhaps inspired by Kate Bush’s debut hit single, similarly titled after Brontë’s novel.

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Jean Dawson – Prize Fighter

Jean Dawson has been one of Activaire’s favorite artists for years. Known for his mutating styles and strong visual presence, Jean Dawson has never been one to get too comfortable, always pushing himself to try new sounds with each album. His last full-length record, 2024’s ‘Glimmer Of God,’ explored the delicacies of eighties R&B, Post-Punk, and nineties Trip-Hop, expanding from his traditionally rap-punk tendencies into more expansive territories, developing on the future sounds of R&B pioneered by Dijon and Mk.gee. This year, Dawson released his final set of songs for his era, fully leaning into the benevolent warmth of his new concepts. One highlight, ‘Prize Fighter’, is based on the sounds of the 2010s Cold Wave movement, setting a more gothic mood for Dawson’s open-air vocals and dramatic, Prince-like performances.

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FKA Twigs – HARD

FKA Twigs has been one of Pop music’s hardest-working names this year. After releasing her long-awaited fourth album, ‘EUSEXUA,’ in January, the artist spent her summer already teasing her follow-up, ‘Afterglow.’ Where ‘EUSEXUA’ explored decades of English dance music, ‘Afterglow’ is a series of steady-set tunes leaning into the driving grooves electro-pop has to offer. The track, ‘HARD,’ is a soaring dance ballad, defined by its blend of whirring layers, her airy vocals, danceable grooves, and titillating synthesizers.

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No One In The World – Locust

The internet has been an integral tool for Gen Z in discovering essential bands of decades prior. For movements like Shoegaze, Gothic Rock, Jungle, Trip-Hop, and more, dozens of once-underground and independent bands have come into the spotlight thanks to the ever-powerful nature of search engines. Mark Van Hoen’s IDM-Trip Hop fusion project, Locust, is one of Gen Z’s most recent discoveries, with Spotify’s algorithm pushing the dream-like waves and textures of his 1997 album ‘Morning Light’ through recommendations and curated highlights. It makes sense why: the record is a series of lush, dramatics that are so popular with younger audiences, which is why they fell in love with bands like Slowdive (Neil Halstead has a writing and performance credit on this record), Massive Attack, and Aphex Twin. In particular, the track ‘No-One In The World’ is a modern-made Trip Hop essential, which Van Hoen performed for the first time this month at the Los Angeles-based, multi-generational festival And Always Forever, along with an eclectic list of names like Bassvictim, Drop Nineteens, Martin Rev, Somewhere Special, and plenty more, mixing current-day electroclash with alternative legends of the past. Hoen also released a remix record dedicated to the song, reimagining this song for newfound fans of the Trip-Hop sound.

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You can find these songs and many more in our “Now Playing at Activaire HQ” playlist on Spotify. We update it weekly, so be sure to hit that heart button.