The 15 best tracks from the last couple of weeks, new music from the US, UK, Australia and Poland. Heavy on the women-with-guitars indiepop / garage rock front, plus music wearing the influence of Bon Iver, Hot Chip, The Clean, a great Drake cover from Holy Ghost! new Kurt Vile and Mogwai.

Cults ‘Were Before’
Like a more focussed, sexier, 21st Century version of early Saint Etienne. This, one of the highlights from their second album Static, is a slow build with to the 2 minutes 10 seconds mark when the bass line and vocals kick it up a notch for a killer pay off.
[Cults]

Warpaint ‘Love Is To Die’
The first track taken from their eagerly awaited follow up to 2010’s The Fool find’s the LA band refining their gothy art rock, with the influence of Radiohead and early Cure swimming through the rubbery bass line and arpeggiated guitar riffs.
[Warpaint]

Best Coast ‘Fear of My Identity’
Another track from the LA duo’s Fade Away EP after ‘This Lonely Morning’ was featured in ITP #43. This one originally appeared as one side of a ltd edition Record Store Day 7” back in April but is getting well deserved wider release.
[Best Coast]

Blank Realm ‘Falling Down the Stairs’
First featured back in February (ITP #26) with ‘Cleaning Up My Mess’, this Brisbane band have a taste for woozy new wave, with touches of the Velvet Underground and 80s Flying Nun.
[Blank Realm]

Go Violets ‘Wanted’
Brisbane all girl indie pop band destined for hugeness.
[Go Violets]

Upset ‘Back To School’
90s alt-rock indebted female fronted indie rock from former Vivian Girls and Best Coast member Ali Koehler, sometime La Sera guitarist Jenn Prince and Patty Schemel formerly of Hole.
[Upset]

Kevin Morby featuring Cate Le Bon ‘Slow Train’
Second track lifted from Woods bassist / Babies founder’s debut solo album Harlem River (‘Miles Miles Miles’ was featured in ITP #41, back in September). Here, he enlists the help of Welsh singer songwriter Cate Le Bon for a languorous, laid back number.
[Kevin Morby]

Worriers ‘Precarity Rules’
Literate indie rock from project fronted by New Jersey’s Lauren Denitzio, featuring guitars both chiming and fuzzy.
You can stream the whole Cruel Optimist album over on their label’s Soundcloud page.
[Worriers]

Dum Dum Girls ‘Lost Boys and Girls Club’
First single from the forthcoming Too True, due out the end of January. Once again co-produced by Richard Gottehrer and Sune Rose Wagner. On the Dum Dum Girls blog, Dee Dee says ”Do you hear Suede?  Siouxie?  Cold-wave Patti?  Madonna?  Cure?  Velvet and Paisley Undergrounds?  Stone Roses?  Cuz I did.”, and this definitely has the feel of a slowed down Suede song.
[Dum Dum Girls]

Holy Ghost! ‘Hold On, We’re Going Home’
Brooklyn DFA affiliated electronica duo deliver a synthpop cover of one of the highlight’s from Drake’s near million-selling Nothing Was The Same.
[Holy Ghost!]

Bokka ‘Town of Strangers’
Electronic Pop from Poland.
[Bokka]

Marley Carroll ‘The Hunter’
Driving post-Hot Chip electropop.
[Marley Carroll]

James Vincent McMorrow ‘Cavalier’

Irish singer songwriter has been digging around in the box marked Bon Iver / 21st Century r n’b.
[James Vincent McMorrow]

Kurt Vile ‘Feel My Pain’
First taste of the extra-seven-tracks-deluxe version of Wakin’ On A Pretty Daze due out this month is a beaut. Some lovely acoustic guitar and laid back vocals from KV.
[Kurt Vile]

Mogwai ’Remurdered’
After this year’s excellent score for the supernatural French TV drama Les Revenants, Mogwai tease their next studio album Rave Tapes with some intriguing, more electronic sounding post-rock.
[Mogwai]