Fakemink and Suzy Sheer return to the indie disco with Braces

There’s loads of music out there, and sometimes it’s hard to keep up.

Rather than letting the algorithm dictate your music taste, you can listen to Rated by THE FACE – a playlist that’s lovingly curated and updated by our (human) editorial team every week.

Fakemink – Braces

Fakemink kicked off 2025 with a bang by dropping Easter Pink, rapping over a synthpop beat which would have flooded indie club nights and been pinned to thousands of Myspace pages had it dropped back in ​‘07. The UK underground star has teamed up with Easter Pink producer Suzy Sheer once again to repeat the same trick, and Braces might be just as addictive. Over pulsating bass, ghostly vocal samples and euphoric synths, Fakemink reels off lyrics about Givenchy, blunts and After Eight mints. Sonically, Braces is among Fakemink’s more referential tracks, but he somehow makes it feel like the freshest new music that’s out there right now. DR

Steve Lacy – Nice Shoes

Steve Lacy is full of beans, and no wonder. Nice Shoes is the first song he’s released in three years, and it seems he’s unleashing a lot of pent-up energy. ​“If I had a dollar for the friends I would fuck/​I could buy a pair of really nice shoes” he sings over a bouncy breakbeat in the opening line. There’s a touch of melancholy, as Lacy sing-speaks repeated bars of ​“Make it stop!” for the chorus, contrasting some unashamedly horny lyrics (​“My dick is getting hard again/​At the thought of you and me holding hands”). Towards the end of Nice Shoes, Lacy briefly reverts back to the distinctive crooning that made him famous with the likes of Bad Habit. That’s before the breaks erupt once more, for a worthy sonic climax. JW

Dijon – Yamaha

Dijon and his pal Mk.gee crafted the drunken R&B sound that brought the best out of Justin Bieber on his album SWAG. After appearing on SWAG highlight Daisies, Dijon has (sort of) surprise dropped his new album Baby, and the slick-but-scuzzy funk-pop anthem Yamaha seems to be one of the LP’s most loved tracks. There are moments where it sounds like The 1975 played through a dodgy Bluetooth connection – and that’s not a diss. DR

Elias Rønnenfelt & Dean Blunt – tears on his rings and chains

Look, we hate to say it, but after that mini heatwave on Friday (which we suspect was the last), autumn feels tangibly close. To get in the mood, and stave off seasonal dread, it’s best to make a playlist and this new song by Danish crooner Elias Rønnenfelt and Dean Blunt – who also struck gold on this year’s Lucre EP – perfectly fits the bill. Over a bed of gentle acoustic guitars, Rønnenfelt sings sweetly, ​“All my troubles fading when I hear from you/​Any issue sent to the back of the queue” before closing the song with a string of unselfconscious ​“yeah, yeah, yeahs”. Soothing stuff for the drizzly days to come. TL

EYDN – Gold ft. Rainy Miller

I don’t know much about EYDN, other than the fact they’ve signed to Rainy Miller’s Fixed Abode label (a promising sign), but I do know that Gold is one of the most beautiful tracks I’ve come across this year. With rattling cymbals, warm bass, delicate guitar loops, nonchalant vocals, and an appearance from their new label boss, this shadowy duo have created a hypnotic soundtrack for tipsy strolls through the buzzing city at sundown. DR

M. T. Hadley – Why Is It That Way?

Six years on from his debut LP, Empty, M. T. Hadley is back with a deceptively euphoric-sounding single. Trawling through heartbreaking stories of a broken world, (“I can’t imagine how hard that must be /​To be born somewhere but have to flee /​Holding nothing but your memories”) Hadley simply asks, why does it have to be that way? accompanied by bright synths. The single is joined by an ambitious music video of painstakingly collated images – 357 in total – collected from Google Maps, which fit into four categories: horror, wonder, opulence and curious beauty. From Hard Rock Cafes in Azerbaijan to stunning coral reefs in the Maldives, the full list of locations can be found in M. T. Hadley’s Insta bio – for those of you with too much time on your hands, that is. TL