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From<\/strong> New York New York\u2019s Paul Grimstad has the kind of strange bio that befits his clowny, 70s-inspired avant-pop. Born in the midwest and based in New York since the 90s, Grimstad is a literature professor at Yale, has written essays on Jimi Hendrix and Alan Turing for the New Yorker, and has composed music for a number of films, including last year\u2019s The Sweet East, to which he contributed Evening Mirror, a charming hypno-folk track featuring lead actor Talia Ryder. He\u2019s also an actor, and has small parts in Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s new Thomas Pynchon adaptation One Battle After Another, as well as Marty Supreme, Josh Safdie\u2019s ping pong biopic starring Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet and Gwyneth Paltrow.<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s Songs, his debut album, released this month alongside Music for Film, a compilation of his scores. A maniacal odyssey of prog, jazz, boogie rock, psych and pop, Songs pays homage to the hi-fi chaos of 70s art-rock classics such as Todd Rundgren\u2019s A Wizard, a True Star, rarely staying in one lane for more than a couple of minutes across its breakneck 16-track, 40-minute runtime. Performed, produced and engineered entirely by Grimstad, Songs is catchy, hilarious and terrifying in equal measure: passages of sleek funk-pop rub up against snatches of psychotic haunted-house laughter and songs indebted to Philly soul at its sleaziest. Grimstad is an astoundingly talented producer, and it\u2019s a credit to his skill that, despite all the bird coos and whiplash-inducing changes of pace, Songs is a delight to listen to \u2013 lush and ludicrous in all the right ways. Shaad D\u2019Souza<\/em><\/p>\n
Recommended if you like<\/strong> Todd Rundgren, Congratulations-era MGMT, Connan Mockasin
Up next<\/strong> Songs and Music for Film released 30 September; forthcoming acting roles in Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s One Battle After Another, out on Friday,<\/a> and Marty Supreme (January 2026)<\/p>\nThis week\u2019s best new tracks<\/h2>\n