Welcome to the second Songs of the Week of 2025. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, and Scotty Dransfield helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 30 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 10.
Over the holiday break we posted our Top 100 Albums of 2024 list. We also put together a 10-hour Spotify playlist featuring at least one song from every album on the Top 100, as well as some honorable mentions.
Issue 73 is still out now. It features Maya Hawke and Nilüfer Yanya on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last week, we have picked the 10 best the last seven days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.
Strange had this to say about the song in a press release: “I realized a couple years ago that if music is really going to work out long-term, I want/need more fans. Of course—it’s a timing and numbers game—but race is a powerful component too. I don’t see a lot of people like me in the indie space making long term livings on their records. I worry people may have a hard time connecting to me because I don’t look/sound like them. That I’m fun to root for, but not actually supported. This song is about how much that worries me—fully understanding that a lot of these neurosis are of my own making.”
Strange first worked on Horror with Yves Rothman and Lawrence Rothman, before finishing it with Jack Antonoff after he worked with Antonoff’s band Bleachers.
A press release says the album is about “facing your fears and becoming feared.”
The press release adds: “Strange was raised on fear. His family told scary stories to teach life lessons, and at an early age, he started watching scary movies to practice being strong. The world can be a terrifying place, and for a young, queer, Black person in rural America, that terror can be visceral. Horror is an album about facing those fears and growing to become someone to be feared.”
Strange further elaborates: “In a way I think I made this record to reach out to people who may feel afraid of things in their lives too. For me it’s love, locations, cosmic bad luck, or that feeling of doom that I’ve struggled with for as long as I can remember. I think that it’s easier to navigate the horrors and strangeness of life once you realize that everyone around you feels the same. This album is just me trying to connect. I’m trying to shrink the size of the world. I’m trying to feel close—so I’m less afraid.”
Horror includes “Lie 95,” a new song that Strange released in July. When the album was announced he shared its second single, “Sober,” which was one of our Songs of the Week. Then he shared its third single, “Too Much,” via a music video. “Too Much” was again one of our Songs of the Week.
In November, Strange released the new holiday-themed standalone single “Xmas” that isn’t featured on Horror but did just make our Songs of the Week list.
Strange first garnered attention for covering a string of The National tracks, including on Say Goodbye to Pretty Boy, his EP of National covers released in 2020 on Brassland, a label run by members of the band. He was born in Ipswich, England, but grew up in Mustang, a largely the white and conservative rural town outside Oklahoma City, before launching his music career in Washington, D.C. In between he also worked in the Obama administration.
This week,Miki Berenyi Trio—led by the former singer/guitarist with 1990s shoegaze, dream pop, and Britpop band Lush—announced their debut album, Tripla, and shared a new song from it, “8th Deadly Sin,” via a music video. Tripla is due out April 4 via Bella Union.
Tripla includes the band’s debut single, “Vertigo,” which was released in May 2024 and was #1 on our Songs of the Week list that week.
After Lush, Berenyi was also in the band Piroshka and for the trio she is backed by two members of that band—Berenyi’s life partner KJ “Moose” McKillop (of ’90s shoegazers Moose) and guitarist Oliver Cherer. Miki Berenyi Trio (or MB3 for short) is a full on collaboration between the three members and not just a Berenyi solo project. Tripla is the Hungarian word for “triple,” named in a nod to Berenyi’s Hungarian father.
Bella Union is the label founded by Simon Raymonde, formerly of Cocteau Twins, a band previously associated with Lush. Bella Union also released the two Piroshka albums.
“8th Deadly Sin” addresses the climate crisis and “the absolute disrespect for Mother Earth,” as McKillop puts it in a press release.
Berenyi had this to add about the single: “Simon Raymonde instantly picked this out as a single and it immediately went down a storm when we played it live. I can’t pretend that I am in a position to lecture others over their green credentials but there’s a broader philosophy in the song that I can relate to—humanity hurtling toward its own destruction, which (to me) applies as much to wars and social intolerance as it does environmental issues.”
Sébastien Faits-Divers directed “8th Deadly Sin” video, which combines live footage filmed in Dijon, France with artwork by Chris Bigg.
Bigg, who did the artwork for Piroshka and contributed to all of Lush’s album artwork, also did the artwork for Tripla. The artwork incorporates photography by Martin Andersen.
Paul Gregory (of Bella Union labelmates Lanterns on the Lake) mixed the album. The album was recorded at home and the trio have also taken a DIY approach to touring. “There is something very ‘grass roots’ about what we’re doing,” says Berenyi. “There’s no point following the ‘announce the album, then tour, then record the next album’ route—we just want to wring as much enjoyment out of this as we can, and hope that it resonates somewhere!”
In 2022, Berenyi released her acclaimed memoir, Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success, and the trio was partially born out of the need to perform at book events.
Berenyi did a joint interview with Australian dream pop artist Hatchie in The ’90s Issue of our print magazine, where she discussed her memoir and Lush. Buy a copy directly from us here.
Pirohska, which also features former Elastica drummer Justin Welch, released their second studio album, Love Drips and Gathers, in 2021 via Bella Union. Read our interview with them about it here.
Pirsoshka also contributed to our Covers of Coversalbum in honor of our 20th Anniversary, where they covered Grandaddy’s “The Crystal Lake.” Berenyi was also one of the artists on the cover of our 20th Anniversary Issue.
The Weather Station (the project of Toronto-based singer/songwriter Tamara Lindeman) released a new album, Humanhood, today via Fat Possum. Earlier this week she shared its fourth and final single, “Mirror.” Philippe Léonard directed the song’s video.
In “Mirror” Lindeman sings: “You were dousing your fields in a chemical rain, you were cutting my arm to transcend your own pain / Oh but god is a mirror - everything is.”
“The confrontation is gentle, because I’ve been there too,” Lindeman explains in a press release. “But life and nature is a giant biofeedback machine. What you put out there responds. And you respond; you can’t help it. That’s what is always happening. That’s one of the many things I meant when I said ‘god is a Mirror.’”
Lindeman adds: “I wanted the song to warp and disintegrate; to come in and out of being like the imaginary scaffold that holds up a fantasy or cognitive dissonance. In the end, the band grows garbled and comes apart, giving way to a suspension of synth and string textures. I wanted it to feel like being bathed in light; maybe the light I was talking about in the song.”
Previously The Weather Station shared the album’s first single, “Neon Signs.” Lindeman co-directed the “Neon Signs” video with Jared Raab and the single made our Songs of the Week list. Then she shared its second single, “Window,” and announced some new tour dates. Lindeman co-directed the song’s video with Philippe Léonard and “Window” was also one of our Songs of the Week. Then The Weather Station shared the album’s third single, “Body Moves.” While we weren’t doing Songs of the Week posts in mid-December, when “Body Moves” was released, we included it as a bonus cut in our first Songs of the Week of 2025
Lindeman co-produced Humanhood with Marcus Paquin, recording it in the fall of 2023 at Canterbury Music Company. The main backing band on the album is drummer Kieran Adams, keyboardist Ben Boye, percussionist Philippe Melanson, reed-and-wind specialist Karen Ng, and bassist Ben Whiteley. The album also features Sam Amidon, James Elkington, and Joseph Shabason. Joseph Lorge mixed the album.
4. Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory: “Trouble”
Sharon Van Etten is releasing a new album written and recorded with her backing band, The Attachment Theory, simply titled Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, onFebruary 7, 2025 via Jagjaguwar. This week they shared its third single, “Trouble.” They also shared a video of the band performing the song live at the Church Studios in London. Check out both the studio and live versions of the song below.
In a press release, Van Etten had this to say about the song: “‘Trouble’ is about the idea of having to coexist with people you love who have opposing views, and not being able to share deep parts of yourself and your narrative based on someone else’s beliefs. It’s about when there’s that big part of you that someone who loves you can’t know because it’s not something they want to hear or are willing to learn about or understand, and those painful realizations when you choose to love and respect someone else’s needs over your own to salvage a relationship.”
The Attachment Theory is Jorge Balbi (drums, machines), Devra Hoff (bass, vocals), and Teeny Lieberson (synth, piano, guitar, vocals). While they have previously backed Van Etten on some of her solo work, this was the first time that the singer/songwriter/guitarist wrote and recorded an album in full collaboration with the band.
“For the first time in my life I asked the band if we could just jam. Words that have never come out of my mouth—ever! But I loved all the sounds we were getting. I was curious—what would happen?” says Van Etten in a press release. “In an hour we wrote two songs that ended up becoming ‘I Can’t Imagine’ and ‘Southern Life.’”
Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory was recorded at The Church, Eurythmics’ former studio in London, and was produced by Marta Salogni (Björk, Bon Iver, Animal Collective, Mica Levi).
“Sometimes it’s exciting, sometimes it’s scary, sometimes you feel stuck,” Van Etten says of fully collaborating with her band on the album. “It’s like every day feels a little different—just being at peace with whatever you’re feeling and whoever you are and how you relate to people in that moment. If I can just keep a sense of openness while knowing that my feelings change every day, that is all I can do right now. That and try to be the best person I can be while letting other people be who they are and not taking it personally and just being. I’m not there, but I’m trying to be there every day.”
On Wednesday night she was the musical guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she performed “Ankles” with a string section and was clad in the same dress she wore in the “Ankles” video. Watch the performance here.
Bridgers, Baker, Blake Mills, Bartees Strange, Hozier, Madison Cunningham, Collin Pastore, Jake Finch, and Melina Duterte all contributed to the new album.
Dacus wrote most of the songs on the album between fall 2022 and summer 2024. “I got kicked in the head with emotions,” she says in a press release. “Falling in love, falling out of love…. You have to destroy things in order to create things. And I did destroy a really beautiful life.”
Of the album’s title, Dacus adds: “You can’t actually capture forever. But I think we feel forever in moments. I don’t know how much time I’ve spent in forever, but I know I’ve visited.”
The video for “Ankles” was filmed in Paris and features actress Havana Rose Liu alongside Dacus, who plays someone that has escaped from a famous painting. The album’s cover artwork is a different painting of Dacus by visual artist Will St. John.
For the new tour, Dacus has partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 per ticket goes “to providing critical relief and long-term recovery support for individuals, families, and communities impacted by the devastating LA wildfires via the PLUS1 LA Fires Fund.”
Listen to our in-depth Under the Radar Podcast interview with Dacus on Home Videohere.
This week, New York-based quartet Florist announced a new album, Jellywish, and released its lead single, “Have Heaven,” with an accompanying music video. Jellywish is due out April 4 via Double Double Whammy.
Jellywish follows the band’s self-titled album from 2022 and 2019’s Emily Alone, which was essentially a solo album from singer/guitarist/principle songwriter Emily Sprague. Florist is Sprague, Jonnie Baker, Rick Spataro, and Felix Walworth.
In a press release Sprague says the album is purposely complicated. “It’s a gentle delivery of something that is really chaotic, confusing, and multifaceted,” she explains. “It has this Technicolor that’s inspired by our world and also fantasy elements that we can use to escape our world.”
Or as the press release puts it: “On Jellywish, Florist explores life’s big questions without offering silver linings, morals, or definitive answers. Instead, the band asks perhaps the most difficult of questions: Is it possible to break free from our ingrained thought cycles and pedestrian way of life? That, Florist posits, may be the only way to be truly happy, fulfilled, and free.”
Of the new single, Sprague says: “We enter an observational fever dream about floating through liminal space between lifetimes, individual perceptions. There is reflection on our connectedness in joy and suffering through the wish for a peaceful place for our spirits to live and land. ‘Have Heaven’ establishes the world of the album to be not quite always lucid, but rather a perspective that is blended into the worlds of the magic and death realms swirling around us. The chorus is a chant that pleads for a better symbiosis between these worlds, and between our earthly forms trying to survive alongside each other, bound to the systems we must exist within.”
Animator Kohana Wilson made the song’s video. By Mark Redfern
Hadreas had this to say about “It’s a Mirror” in a press release: “I wake up overwhelmed even when nothing is going on. I spend the rest of the day trying to regulate, which I prefer to do at home alone with my thoughts. But why? They are mostly bad. They also haven’t really changed for decades. I wrote ‘It’s a Mirror’ while stuck in one of these isolating loops, seeing that something different and maybe even beautiful is out there but not quite knowing how to venture out. I have a lot more practice keeping the door closed.”
Glory once again finds Hadreas teaming up with long-time producer Blake Mills and keyboardist/co-writer/life partner Alan Wyffels. The album also features other previous collaborators, including guitarists Meg Duffy (aka Hand Habits) and Greg Uhlmann, drummers Tim Carr and Jim Keltner, and bassist Pat Kelly. New Zealand singer/songwriter Aldous Harding also guests on one song.
On Glory, Hadreas says that he was more open to input from his band and collaborators. “I’m more engaged with the band and the audience,” he says. “I’m still on some wild tear, but there’s more access and it’s more collaborative, in a way that makes it better, but also scary—because it feels more vulnerable.”
Samia announced a new album this week too. Bloodless is due out April 25 via Grand Jury Music and this week she released a video for its first single, “Bovine Excision.”
“I was drawn to the phenomenon of bloodless cattle mutilation as a metaphor for self-extraction—this clinical pursuit of emptiness,” says Samia of the song in a press release. By Mark Redfern
9. The Pill: “Money Mullet”
Isle of Wight-based duo The Pill were back today with their fourth single, “Money Mullet,” a sharp and raucous takedown of the divisive haircut that refuses to fade into obscurity. With its scuzzy, high-octane guitars and biting humor, the track embodies the chaotic energy that has become the band’s hallmark.
Blending raw power with unapologetic wit, “Money Mullet” joins their growing collection of raucous singles where The Pill dismantle societal conventions and gender norms with relentless, tongue-in-cheek ferocity.
“Please be sure to show your hairdresser (your girlfriend) this song before embarking on another mullet,” says Lily Hutchings, guitarist and vocalist for the duo. “Our fourth single, ‘Money Mullet,’ is a hate song. Sorry, we just really don’t like them.”
New York-via-Chicago-based rock trio Horsegirl are releasing a new album, Phonetics On and On, on February 14, 2025 via Matador. This week they shared its third single, “Switch Over.” Guy Kozak directed the song’s video, which features the band watching itself perform in the same room.
Horsegirl previously shared the album’s first single, “2468,” via a music video. “2468” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then shared its second single, “Julie,” and announced some new EU and UK tour dates. While we weren’t doing Songs of the Week posts in mid-December, when “Julie” was released, we included it as a bonus cut in our first Songs of the Week of 2025.
Phonetics On and On is the band’s sophomore album and the follow-up to 2022’s Versions of Modern Performance. Horsegirl is Penelope Lowenstein (guitar, vocals), Nora Cheng (guitar, vocals), and Gigi Reece (drums). In the fall of 2022 the band relocated to NYC for Lowenstein and Reece to attend NYU. In January 2024 the trio returned to Chicago to record the album at The Loft, with Welsh singer/songwriter Cate Le Bon producing.
Read our review of Versions of Modern Performancehere. By Mark Redfern
Welcome to the first Songs of the Week of 2025. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Mariel Fechik, Mark Moody, Matt the Raven, and Scotty Dransfield helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 30 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 13. It was a packed week for new songs, including a lot of album announcements, so there was a plethora to choose from.
Over the holiday break we posted our Top 100 Albums of 2024 list. We also put together a 10-hour Spotify playlist featuring at least one song from every album on the Top 100, as well as some honorable mentions.
Issue 73 is still out now. It features Maya Hawke and Nilüfer Yanya on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last week, we have picked the 13 best the last seven days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.
1. Blondshell: “T&A”
Blondshell(aka Sabrina Teitelbaum) will release her sophomore album, If You Asked For a Picture, via Partisan Records on May 2. It was announced this week. Once again working with producer Yves Rothman, who also worked on her acclaimed self-titled debut Teitlebaum promises a more biographical nuanced album. This week she also shared a new track in the form of the “accidental love story” “T&A,” accompanied by a video directed by Hannah Bon. Featuring three rescue dogs (Luna, Rooster, and, aptly for this site, Radar) paired with male counterparts, the video offers a nuanced take on the “men are like dogs” adage. It delves into the idea that the loudest barks often come from the most frightened, hiding any vulnerability beneath a tough exterior.
Discussing the song, Teitelbaum says, “There’s a Rolling Stones song on Tattoo You called ‘Little T&A,’ and at one point in the song, he says ‘tits and ass,’ so I’m borrowing that. I think in music, it’s easy to see things as either more sexualized or more romantic, and I wanted this to be both. I see it as a love story—maybe not the most fairy tale love story—but I wanted it to feel like a really narrative song, where one thing leads to another and then you end up somewhere you didn’t expect. Normally that’s not how I write, but I wanted a song like that.”
The album’s title, If You Asked For a Picture, is drawn from Mary Oliver’s 1986 poem “Dogfish.” In the poem, Oliver reflects on the complexity of sharing one’s story—deciding what to reveal and what to hold back. These were the same questions Teitelbaum considered while writing the new album. “There’s a part of the poem that says: ‘I don’t need to tell you everything I’ve been through. It’s just another story of somebody trying to survive,’” Teitelbaum explains. “Something I love about songs is that you’re showing a snapshot of a person or a relationship, and showing a glimpse into a story can be just as important as trying to capture the entire thing. Sometimes it’s even truer to the entire picture than if you tried to write everything down.”
The forthcoming album promises a more introspective and layered narrative than its predecessor. Teitelbaum reflects, “The first record feels really black-and-white to me. This record has more questions.” By Andy Von Pip
2. SPELLLING: “Portrait of My Heart”
This week, SPELLLING (aka Chrystia Cabral) announced a new album, Portrait of My Heart, and released its lead single, title track “Portrait of My Heart,” via a music video. Portrait of My Heart is due out March 28 via Sacred Bones. Check out the single and the album details, as well as her upcoming tour dates, here.
Cabral had this to say about the new single in a press release: “When the lyrics for the title track came together, it really started to morph everything in this more energetic direction, instead of this more whimsical landscape that I’ve worked with before. It started to become more driven, higher energy, more focused. And I have a big affection for it because of that. I love that it feels like it withstood transformation, which is something I always want to aspire to with things that I make. I want them to have this sense of timelessness. It could exist like this, or like that, or like this, but this is the one for right now.”
SPELLLING’s last regular album was 2021’s The Turning Wheel, although in 2023 she released SPELLLING & the Mystery School,a collection of re-envisioned versions of songs from her previous albums re-recorded with her touring band. Said band is featured on Portrait of My Heart: Wyatt Overson (guitar), Patrick Shelley (drums), and Giulio Xavier Cetto (bass). The album also features Chaz Bear of Toro y Moi (who sings on the duet “Mount Analogue”), Turnstile guitarist Pat McCrory, and Zulu’s Braxton Marcellous. Cabral worked with three producers on the new album—The Turning Wheel mixing engineer Drew Vandenberg, SZA collaborator Rob Bisel, and Yves Tumor producer Psymun.
This week,Japanese Breakfast (aka Michelle Zauner) announced a new album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women), and shared its first single, “Orlando in Love,” via a music video. She also announced some new tour dates. For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) is due out March 21 via Dead Oceans. One song features legendary actor/musician Jeff Bridges. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as the tour dates, here.
For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) is the follow-up to Jubilee, which was our #1 album of 2021 and landed Japanese Breakfast on the cover of our print magazine (buy a copy directly from us here or read our cover story interview here). In 2021 Zauner also put out her acclaimed debut memoir, Crying In H Mart, on Knopf. The book debuted at #2 on The New York Times’ Hardcover Nonfiction Best Sellers List and is being adapted into a film.
Speaking of all the success she had with her last album and memoir and how it impacted the new album, Zauner says in a press release: “I felt seduced by getting what I always wanted. I was flying too close to the sun, and I realized if I kept going I was going to die.”
Blake Mills produced For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women), which was recorded at Sound City in Los Angeles, where classic albums such as After the Gold Rush, Fleetwood Mac, and Nevermind were also made.
The press release describes the new single in greater detail: “On the album’s lead single ‘Orlando in Love’—a riff on John Cheever’s riff on Orlando Innamorato, an unfinished epic made up of 68 ½ cantos by the Renaissance poet Matteo Maria Boiardo—the hero is a well meaning poet who parks his Winnebago by the sea and falls victim to a siren’s call, his 69th canto (even in the lofty realm of classical myth Zauner has a soft spot for innuendo).”
This week, Deep Sea Diver (the band led by Jessica Dobson) announced a new album, Billboard Heart, and shared a new song from it, “Shovel,” via a music video. They have also announced some tour dates. Billboard Heart is due out February 28 via Sub Pop. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as the tour dates, here.
Deep Sea Diver is singer and multi-instrumentalist Jessica Dobson, drummer Peter Mansen (also Dobson’s partner), and keyboardist Elliot Jackson. Billboard Heart is their first album for Sub Pop.
Dobson has previously also performed in The Shins and in Beck’s band. Billboard Heart also features Dobson’s former The Shins’ bandmate Yuuki Matthews, Caroline Rose, and Greg Leisz. Dobson produced the album with Andy D. Park (who also mixed the album), with additional production from Adam Schatz. Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone mastered the album.
Dobson and Mansen directed the “Shovel” video with cinematographer Tyler Kalberg. Dobson had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘Shovel’ is one of the most angular and dualistic songs I’ve written, and I wanted to do a one-shot video that captured the grit, rawness, and intensity of the song. Simply put, it is me digging and dancing with a shovel in the middle of the night, desperately looking for beauty in dark places. Influenced by Lynch, the Cohen brothers, Nick Cave, and the sweet dance moves of Kate Bush.” By Mark Redfern
5. Doves: “Cold Dreaming”
Manchester-based trio Doves are releasing a new album, Constellations For the Lonely, on February 14 via EMI North. This week they shared its second single, “Cold Dreaming,” via a music video. Hingston Studio directed the video.
Previously Doves shared the album’s first single, “Renegade,” via a music video. “Renegade” was one of our Songs of the Week.
Constellations For the Lonely is the band’s sixth album and follows 2020’s The Universal Want, which was their first album in 11 years after an eight-year hiatus. The band launched writing and recording sessions for the new album as early as 2020.
Doves is Jimi Goodwin (lead vocals, bass) and brothers Andy Williams (drums, vocals) and Jez Williams (guitar, vocals).
The band wrote, recorded, and produced the album in Greater Manchester, North Wales, and Cheshire. Long-term collaborator Dan Austin contributed additional production. Constellations For the Lonely finds Goodwin taking a bit of a step back, with him contributing in the studio, but not touring the record. The Williams brothers will be sharing lead vocals live.
Andy Williams had this to say about the new single in a press release: “‘Cold Dreaming’ is a song about forgiveness. Trying to forgive and move on. As a minimum, these days, resilience is the thing that you need more than ever, certainly as a musician. Perhaps the lyrics do touch a bit on what we’ve been through.”
Doves have released five albums: 2000’s Lost Souls, 2002’s The Last Broadcast, 2005’s Some Cities, 2009’s Kingdom of Rust, and 2020’s The Universal Want.
We go way back with Doves, they were interviewed about Lost Souls in our very first print issue in 2001 and we have covered every album since. By Mark Redfern
6. Hamilton Leithauser: “Knockin’ Heart”
This week, Hamilton Leithauser of The Walkmen announced a new solo album, This Side of the Island, and released a new single from it, “Knockin’ Heart,” via a music video. This Side of the Islandis due out May 7 via Glassnote. Check out the album details here, as well as his upcoming tour dates, including a March residency at Cafe Carlyle in New York City. It’s his seventh annual residency there.
Leithauser co-produced the album with his wife Anna Stumpf and The National’s Aaron Dessner. Leithauser worked on the album in his home studio in New York City, The Struggle Hut, but finished it at Dessner’s Long Pond Studio in Hudson Valley, New York.
Leithauser had this to say about the new single in a press release: “‘Knockin’ Heart’ is sung by an estranged, stoned lover on their way home, who is dying to get a message through to someone who is probably not listening. It is ‘I will love you for life if you’ll let me.’ I wrote and recorded it one evening and put it away for over a year. I knew I liked it, and I didn’t want to mess anything up by trying to perfect it. It was the last song I played for Aaron when we got together, and the first song he helped me work on. I’d say he raised the ceiling and lowered the floor on the entire thing sonically. He actually used a funny bass technique he said he’d used on a Taylor Swift song, which I got a kick out of. I gotta say his bass sounds fantastic. Now there are three basses on it! One of mine and two of his. That is a first for me.”
Leithauser shared the album’s title track in December.
Bonnie “Prince” Billy: “Downstream” (Feat. John Anderson)
Dirty Projectors and s t a r g a z e: “Uninhabitable Earth, Paragraph One”
Franz Ferdinand: “Hooked”
Great Grandpa: “Junior”
JJULIUS: “Brinna ut”
Manic Street Preachers: “People Ruin Paintings”
Mogwai: “Fanzine Made of Flesh”
Pale Blue Eyes: “Rituals”
Rose City Band: “Radio Song”
Sharper Pins: “I Can’t Stop”
Squid: “Building 650”
Σtella: “Adagio”
Tunng: “Snails”
Dean Wareham: “You Were the Only Ones I Had to Betray”
Here’s a handy Spotify playlist featuring the Top 13 in order, followed by all the honorable mentions:
Bonus Cuts:
These two songs came out in mid December when we weren’t doing Songs of the Week lists, as there weren’t that many worthy new songs to write about. But we still wanted to belatedly highlight them.
Welcome to the 38th Songs of the Week of 2024. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Matt the Raven, Scotty Dransfield, and Stephen Humphries helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 30 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 10.
Issue 73 is out now. It features Maya Hawke and Nilüfer Yanya on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last week, we have picked the 10 best the last seven days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.
1. Father John Misty: “Mahashmashana”
Father John Misty (aka Josh Tillman) released a new album, Mahashmashana, today via Sub Pop. We were sent an advance press copy a couple of months ago and so there are two album tracks not released as pre-release singles that we’ve been loving and wanted to include on Songs of the Week. The first of those is the epic nine-minute opening track, “Mahashmashana.”
The Weather Station (the project of Toronto-based singer/songwriter Tamara Lindeman) is releasing a new album, Humanhood, on January 17, 2025 via Fat Possum. This week she shared its second single, “Window,” and announced some new tour dates. Linderman co-directed the song’s video with Philippe Léonard. The new North American tour dates stretch from late March to early June. Check out the tour dates here.
In a press release, Lindeman says the video was “filmed on the island of Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs, Quebec late one night with a battery powered projector, with many attempts to get that one perfect take. Philippe’s note to me was ‘you are the window.’”
Previously The Weather Station shared the album’s first single, “Neon Signs.” Lindeman co-directed the “Neon Signs” video with Jared Raab and the single made our Songs of the Week list.
Linderman co-produced Humanhood with Marcus Paquin, recording it in the fall of 2023 at Canterbury Music Company. The main backing band on the album is drummer Kieran Adams, keyboardist Ben Boye, percussionist Philippe Melanson, reed-and-wind specialist Karen Ng, and bassist Ben Whiteley. The album also features Sam Amidon, James Elkington, and Joseph Shabason. Joseph Lorge mixed the album.
This week, New York-via-Chicago-based rock trio Horsegirl announced a new album, Phonetics On and On, and shared its first single, “2468,” via a music video. They also announced some tour dates. Phonetics On and On is due out February 14, 2025 via Matador. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as the tour dates, here.
Phonetics On and On is the band’s sophomore album and the follow-up to 2022’s Versions of Modern Performance. Horsegirl is Penelope Lowenstein (guitar, vocals), Nora Cheng (guitar, vocals), and Gigi Reece (drums). In the fall of 2022 the band relocated to NYC for Lowenstein and Reece to attend NYU. In January 2024 the trio returned to Chicago to record the album at The Loft, with Welsh singer/songwriter Cate Le Bon producing.
Eliza Callahan directed the “2468” video, which was choreographed by Alexa West.
Read our review of Versions of Modern Performancehere.
5. Fat Dog: “Peace Song”
South London five-piece Fat Dog released their debut album, WOOF., in September via Domino. This week they shared a brand new track, “Peace Song,” via a music video. The song features a children’s choir.
Joe Love fronts Fat Dog and the band also features Chris Hughes (keyboards/synths), Ben Harris (bass), Johnny Hutchinson (drums) and Morgan Wallace (keyboards/saxophone).
When the album was announced, the band shared its lead single “Running,” via a music video. “Running” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its next single, “I am the King,” via a music video. It was also one of our Songs of the Week. The album’s next single, “Wither,” was released via a music video inspired by ’90s video games and was also one of our Songs of the Week.
Love produced the album with James Ford and Jimmy Robertson. Influences mentioned in the press release include: Bicep, I.R.O.K, Kamasi Washington, and the Russian experimental EDM group Little Big. WOOF. includes the band’s previously released first two singles, “King of the Slugs” and “All the Same.”
“A lot of music at the moment is very cerebral and people won’t dance to it,” says Hughes. “Our music is the polar opposite of thinking music.”
6. Franz Ferdinand: “Night or Day”
7. Goat Girl: “gossip”
8. World News: “Smoke an Angel”
9. Bartees Strange: “Xmas”
10. Good Morning: “Soft Rock Band”
Honorable Mentions:
These songs almost made the Top 10.
Courting: “Pause at You”
Samantha Crain: “Ridin’ Out the Storm”
Kim Deal: “Nobody Loves You More”
Disgusting Sisters: “Killing It”
Sophie Jamieson: “How Do You Want to Be Loved?”
Ela Minus: “UPWARDS”
Conor Oberst & Craig Wedren: “Justice to a Scream”
Open Head: “N.Y. Frills”
The Pill: “Woman Driver”
Here’s a handy Spotify playlist featuring the Top 10 in order, followed by all the honorable mentions:
13 Best Songs of the Week: Elbow, Doves, Saint Etienne, Squid, and More
Nov 15, 2024
Welcome to the 37th Songs of the Week of 2024. We didn’t do a Songs of the Week last week because we were still reeling from the election results and also artists, labels, and publicists were smart enough not to release too many songs last week. This week’s list thus covers the last two weeks and having said all that, the Top 2 songs were actually released last week (and are both bands from Manchester, England). We’re also partying like it’s 2001, as the Top 3 artists this week were all going strong in the early 2000s.
This week Andy Von Pip, Matt the Raven, Scotty Dransfield, and Stephen Humpries helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 30 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 13.
Issue 73 is out now. It features Maya Hawke and Nilüfer Yanya on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last two weeks, we have picked the 13 best the last 14 days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below. By Mark Redfern
1. Elbow: “Adriana Again”
Elbow released a new album, AUDIO VERTIGO, in March via Polydor/Geffen. Last week they returned with a brand new single, “Adrianna Again,” which is said to be from a yet to be officially announced new EP due out next year. The single is accompanied by a cheeky music video, as it features a completely different band performing the song. The band in question is Novacane, who are a new band also from Manchester.
Last week, Manchester-based trio Doves announced a new album, Constellations For the Lonely, and shared a new song from it, “Renegade,” via a music video. Constellations For the Lonely is due out on February 14, 2025 via EMI North. Hingston Studio directed the “Renegade” video. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork here.
Constellations For the Lonely is the band’s sixth album and follows 2020’s The Universal Want, which was their first album in 11 years after an eight-year hiatus. The band launched writing and recording sessions for the new album as early as 2020.
Doves is Jimi Goodwin (lead vocals, bass) and brothers Andy Williams (drums, vocals) and Jez Williams (guitar, vocals).
The band wrote, recorded, and produced the album in Greater Manchester, North Wales, and Cheshire. Long-term collaborator Dan Austin contributed additional production.
Andy Williams had this to say in a press release: “Looking at everyone’s lives over recent years, and considering the news at the moment, ‘Renegade’ feels a lot more loaded in retrospect. We wanted to go for a dystopian feel, thinking about Manchester itself over the next century or so. A totally imaginary thing… Blade Runner set in our home city.”
Doves have released five albums: 2000’s Lost Souls, 2002’s The Last Broadcast, 2005’s Some Cities, 2009’s Kingdom of Rust, and 2020’s The Universal Want.
We go way back with Doves, they were interviewed about Lost Souls in our very first print issue in 2001 and we have covered every album since.
3. Saint Etienne: “Half Life”
This week, British indie-pop trio Saint Etienne announced a new album, The Night, and shared its lead single, “Half Life.”The Night is due out December 13 via Heavenly. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork here.
The Night is intended to be an immersive album listened to in one sitting. A press release describes the album like so: “The Night delivers an ambient escape from the chaos of daily life, capturing the essence of the after-hours. The album takes listeners through layered tranquility, offering calm to restless minds and a gentle respite from modern life’s relentless pace.”
Saint Etienne produced The Night in collaboration with composer and producer Augustin Bousfield. They recorded it from January to August 2024 in two locations in Saltaire and Hove. The album follows 2021’s I’ve Been Trying to Tell You.
The band’s Pete Wiggs had this to say about the album in a press release: “It was great to all be in the same studio together again up at Gus’s in Bradford, we realized that it had been several years since we’d actually done that, sprawling out on the carpet, mugs of coffee in hand, sheets of lyrics and half ideas for titles lying around us.
“We wanted to continue the mellow and spacey mood of the last album, perhaps even double down on it, but it’s a very different album, not based on samples; songs, moods and spoken pieces drift in and out whilst rain pours down outside. It’s the kind of record I like to listen to in the dark or with my eyes closed.
“‘Half Light’ is about the edge of night, the last rays of the sun flickering through the branches of trees, communing with nature and seeing things that might not be there.”
Saint Etienne’s singer Sarah Cracknell says: “It was so good to be back in the studio together after recording the last album remotely. One of my favorite songs on the record is ‘Preflyte,’ it made me cry when I sang it for the first time.”
The band’s Bob Stanley adds: “We wanted The Night to be a calming album, warm and serene, but at the same time we wanted to create something gorgeous and dense.
“We were trying to find the state that’s between being awake and asleep, that dream space, with half forgotten thoughts drifting in, bits of TV dialogue, place names, streets, or football grounds you’ve never even been to. You feel very receptive to sound and half-covered memories when you’re in that state.
“Rain noise runs right through it. It was designed to gently wash away the stuff in your head that keeps you awake at 2am.
“I think The Night sounds really three-dimensional. A lot of that is down to Gus Bousfield who played the guitars and did a wonderful production job. Recording it in his studio, with so much light and space, has helped to shape it too. The three of us brought in our own songs, but lyrically we were all in tune with each other without having to swap notes first.
“You could think of it as one continuous, single track. It’s definitely a headphone album.”
This week, British experimental post-punk five-piece Squid announced a new album, Cowards, and shared its lead single, album opener “Crispy Skin,” via a music video. They have also announced some tour dates. Cowards is due out February 7, 2025 via Warp. Takashi Ito directed the “Crispy Skin” video. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as the tour dates, here.
Cowards is Squid’s third album and the follow-up to 2023’s O Monolith and 2001’s debut album, Bright Green Field. Squid features Louis Borlase, Ollie Judge, Arthur Leadbetter, Laurie Nankivell, and Anton Pearson.
Cowards was recorded at Church Studios in Crouch End, London with Mercury prize winning producer Marta Salogni and Grace Banks. Longtime collaborator Dan Carey, who recorded the band’s first two albums, provided additional production. John McEntire (of Tortoise) mixed the album and Heba Kadry mastered it.
Judge had this to say about the new single in a press release: “‘Crispy Skin’ was lyrically inspired by a dystopian novel Tender Is The Flesh I read where cannibalism becomes the societal norm and humans are manufactured and sold in supermarkets. I think when most people read books like these they picture themselves as the sort of person that would take the moral high-ground within these narratives. The track was written about how the reality of having a moral-compass in these stories of desperation and horror would be extremely difficult. If I was actually in that world, I probably would be the coward in this instance.”
Takashi Ito, whose video for the song is an adaptation of his award-winning experimental 1995 short film Zone, had this to say about the video: “A film about a man without a face. His arms and legs bound with ropes, still without even a quiver in a white room. This man, enwrapped in wild delusions, is also a reconstruction of myself. A series of unusual scenes in this room that expresses what lies inside me. I tried to create a connection between memories, nightmares and violent images.”
Of the new album, Borlase says: “We were thinking of an album of great songwriting. Simple ideas that resonate in a very different way to O Monolith, which was dense and complex.”
Judge adds: “Touring fed into this record in a way that I didn’t initially realize. Every song has a specific place anchored to it, places that all five of us have visited together, like New York, Tokyo, and Eastern Europe.”
In January, 2024 Squid shared a new song, “Fugue (Bin Song),” which was recorded during the O Monolith sessions.
This week, British shoegazers bdrmm announced a new album, Microtonic, and shared its lead single, “Half Life.”Microtonic is due out February 28, 2025 via Rock Action. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as the band’s upcoming tour dates, here.
Vocalist and guitarist Ryan Smith had this to say about the new single in a press release: “The themes surrounding ‘John on the Ceiling’ are that of confusion and doubt. When something ends and another starts, you lure yourself into a false sense of security that the mistakes made won’t happen again. This happens over and over until you are paralyzed in limbo. Can people ever truly change?”
Microtonic is the Hull-based band’s third album and the follow-up to 2023’s I Don’t Know. The new album features Sydney Minsky Sargeant of Working Men’s Club and Olivesque of Nightbus.
Smith had this to add about the album: “I felt very constrained writing a certain type of music to fit the genre [we were known for] but something lifted and I felt more free to create what I want. And what I seem to be doing at the moment is a lot of electronic music—taking influence from different spans of electronica, from dance music to ambient and more experimental sources.”
Bdrmm is Ryan Smith (guitar, vocals), Jordan Smith (bass, synth and vocals), Conor Murray (drums), and Joe Vickers (guitar).
Welcome to the 35th Songs of the Week of 2024. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Mark Moody, Matt the Raven, Scotty Dransfield, and Stephen Humpries helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 20 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 10.
Issue 73 is out now. It features Maya Hawke and Nilüfer Yanya on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last week, we have picked the 10 best the last seven days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.
1. Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory: “Afterlife”
This week, Sharon Van Ettenannounced a new album written and recorded with her backing band, The Attachment Theory, and they have shared its first single, “Afterlife,” via a music video. They have also announced some EU and UK tour dates. Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is due out February 7, 2025 via Jagjaguwar. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as the tour dates, here.
The Attachment Theory is Jorge Balbi (drums, machines), Devra Hoff (bass, vocals), and Teeny Lieberson (synth, piano, guitar, vocals). While they have previously backed Van Etten on some of her solo work, this was the first time that the singer/songwriter/guitarist wrote and recorded an album in full collaboration with the band.
“For the first time in my life I asked the band if we could just jam. Words that have never come out of my mouth—ever! But I loved all the sounds we were getting. I was curious—what would happen?” says Van Etten in a press release. “In an hour we wrote two songs that ended up becoming ‘I Can’t Imagine’ and ‘Southern Life.’”
Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory was recorded at The Church, Eurythmics’ former studio in London, and was produced by Marta Salogni (Björk, Bon Iver, Animal Collective, Mica Levi).
Susu Laroche directed the “Afterlife” video, which features footage of the band debuting some of the album’s songs in London’s iconic 100 Club during the recording of the album.
“Sometimes it’s exciting, sometimes it’s scary, sometimes you feel stuck,” Van Etten says of fully collaborating with her band on the album. “It’s like every day feels a little different—just being at peace with whatever you’re feeling and whoever you are and how you relate to people in that moment. If I can just keep a sense of openness while knowing that my feelings change every day, that is all I can do right now. That and try to be the best person I can be while letting other people be who they are and not taking it personally and just being. I’m not there, but I’m trying to be there every day.”
Earlier this week, Soccer Mommy, the musical project of Nashville songwriter Sophie Allison, unveiled her latest single, “Abigail,” as a final teaser before the release of her highly anticipated album Evergreen, which came out today. The dreamy track, inspired by the video game Stardew Valley, is a love letter to Allison’s in-game wife, Abigail, accompanied by a nostalgic, ConcernedApe-inspired music video that shows Allison’s avatar trying to win over her beloved.
“Abigail” follows earlier singles “Driver,” and the more acoustic-led “Lost” and “M,” contributing to the evolving soundscape of Evergreen.
Allison explained her vision for Evergreen, saying, “I wanted it to feel like you’re laying outside, eyes closed, the sun is on you, and you can feel the warmth and flowers and trees.” She hopes the album can offer listeners a sense of peace and renewal, even in darker times. By Andy Von Pip
3. Momma: “Ohio All the Time”
This week, Brooklyn-based band Momma shared a new song, “Ohio All the Time.” The single is out now via Polyvinyl/Lucky Number.
Momma is Etta Friedman (songwriter/vocalist/guitarist), Allegra Weingarten (songwriter/vocalist/guitarist), Aron Kobayashi Ritch (producer/bassist), and Preston Fulks (drummer).
They collectively had this to say about the new song in a press release: “We wrote it about a summer when we were on tour, and it felt like everything in our lives changed within a one-month span. We wanted the video to capture that youthful feeling, like the world is brand new and everything is ahead of you. We went upstate to our friend’s house near Hudson to film, and just spent the whole day goofing off and running around.”
Austin, Texas four-piece Good Looks released a new album, Lived Here For a While, in June via Keeled Scales. This week they shared two new songs, “Damage Control” and “Chase Your Demons Out.” We liked them both, but “Chase Your Demons Out” won out to make the main list, while “Damage Control” makes the honorable mentions list further below.
Frontman Tyler Jordan had this to say about “Damage Control” in a press release: “I wrote this song in two parts—the first during a rough patch in the relationship, and the second after we finally broke up. I was listening to a lot of Big Star when I started writing, and you can definitely hear their influence in the chord progression. It’s not the most gracious breakup song, but it’s a photo of a feeling and a moment in time.”
“Chase Your Demons Out” was written close to the release of the band’s 2022-released debut album, Bummer Year, and, as a press release puts it, the song “explores the group’s feeling of knowing they are older than most of their indie rock peers releasing a debut album.”
Jordan adds: “That gave us some distinct advantages in being ready for the road ahead. This song is about standing on the edge of the future, feeling prepared for a moment you’ve been working toward your whole life.”
The British band World News are releasing a new EP, Mindsnap, on November 14 via Pie & Mash Records. This week they shared another song from it, “Junkie,” which has a Stone Roses flavor to it. Previously the EP’s title track also made our Songs of the Week list. By Mark Redfern
6. Great Grandpa: “Doom”
7. Anna B Savage: “Agnes” (Feat. Anna Mieke)
8. Ezra Furman and Alex Walton: “Tie Me to the Train Tracks”
9. Darkside: “Graucha Max”
10. Cameron Winter: “Vines”
Honorable Mentions:
These songs almost made the Top 10.
Amyl and The Sniffers: “Jerkin’”
Good Looks: “Damage Control”
HotWax: “She’s Got a Problem”
jasmine.4.t: “Elephant”
Manic Street Preachers: “Hiding in Plain Sight”
Romy & Sampha: “I’m On Your Team”
Skeleten: “Viagra”
total tommy: “SPIDER”
Here’s a handy Spotify playlist featuring the Top 10 in order, followed by all the honorable mentions:
10 Best Songs of the Week: Ducks Ltd., Haley Heynderickx, Confidence Man, Heartworms, and More
Oct 18, 2024
Welcome to the 34th Songs of the Week of 2024. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Mark Moody, Matt the Raven, and Scotty Dransfield helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 20 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 10.
Issue 73 is out now. It features Maya Hawke and Nilüfer Yanya on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last week, we have picked the 10 best the last seven days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.
1. Ducks Ltd.: “Grim Symmetry”
Toronto-based duo Ducks Ltd. released a new album, Harm’s Way, in February via Carpark. This week they shared a new song, “Grim Symmetry,” that was recorded during the Harm’s Way sessions but didn’t end up on the album. It features backing harmonies from Julia Steiner (of Ratboys) and Margaret McCarthy (of Moontype).
“Grim Symmetry” follows “When You’re Outside,” another new song the band shared in May that was also recorded during the Harm’s Way sessions.
Ducks Ltd. is Tom McGreevy and Evan Lewis.
“This is actually one of our older songs,” explains guitarist/vocalist McGreevy in a press release. “We wrote it early on in the Modern Fiction writing process, and the demo was a favorite among the people we shared those with, but we didn’t quite get it right when we tried to record it for that album. We always liked it though, so we kept it around and tried it again when we were tracking Harm’s Way. It didn’t end up quite fitting the vibe of the album, but we did manage to get it to where we wanted it to be, so it’s exciting to finally share it.”
McGreevy had this to say about the rest of the tracks on the album in a previous press release: “They’re songs about struggling. About watching people I care for suffer, and trying to figure out how to be there for them. And about the strain of living in the world when it feels like it’s ready to collapse.”
Portland, Oregon’s Hayley Heynderickx is releasing her sophomore album, Seed of a Seed, on November 1 via Mama Bird. This week she released another single from the album, “Gemini.”
While no quote from Heynderickx on “Gemini” was provided, a press release describes the meaning behind the song in greater detail: “‘Gemini’ is about imperfection, letting oneself understand and accept that there is no immutable beginning but one long, winding, journey full of mistakes. More importantly is the revelations that the deepest learning, and potential for growth, comes through the process of failure. Acceptance and growth churn under Heynderickx’s deft fingerpicking, at once melancholic and resolute. ‘Gemini’ is a reminder that every day is a new day, and that new day is ripe with potential.”
Heynderickx’s core band on the album was Daniel Rossi on drums, Denzel Mendoza on trombone, and Matthew Holmes on electric and upright bass. The album also features electric guitarist William Seiji Marsh and Caleigh Drane on cello.
The album is due out digitally on November 1, with a physical release scheduled for December 6. By Mark Redfern
3. Confidence Man: “Sicko”
This week, Confidence Man, the Australian electro-pop mavericks, now based in London, released “Sicko,” the latest single from their third album 3 AM (LA LA LA), which came out today via Casablanca. While known for their high-octane, dance-infused sound, “Sicko” embraces a more subtle ‘90s indie-dance crossover vibe, a little less frenetic than much of the album but still unhinged and unmistakably Confidence Man.
The single arrives alongside a stunning black-and-white video that almost resembles what might happen if you tried to make a musical based on Reservoir Dogs and Trainspotting—stylish, edgy with a gritty film noir sensibility and laced with a dark, twisted sense of humor.
Fronted by Sugar Bones (Aidan Moore) and Janet Planet (Grace Stephenson), and backed by masked musicians Clarence McGuffie (Sam Hales) and Reggie Goodchild (Lewis Stephenson), Confidence Man are set to scale new heights with 3 AM (LA LA LA) as they continue to evolve their sound. Talking about the album, Sugar Bones says, “It’s 3am, it’s never not 3am, and we party all the time.” Janet Planet adds, “It’s hard. It’s fast. It’s basically Muhammad Ali, and your ears are everyone he ever boxed.” By Andy Von Pip
4. Heartworms: “Warplane”
This week, South London artist Heartworms (aka JoJo Orme) announced her debut album Glutton for Punishment, which will be released on February 7, 2025 via Speedy Wunderground. Alongside the album announcement, she shared her new single “Warplane,” accompanied by a video directed by Gilbert Trejo.
“Warplane” showcases Heartworms’ passion for military history, with lyrics that paint a vivid picture of an air battle. She explains, “The opening lyrics set the scene of a dogfight in the air while civilians are witnessing it take shape. My imagination is always out of my control, and my love of Spitfires even more so, so I couldn’t help but make this about a spitfire pilot.”
Heartworms dedicates the song to William Gibson Gordon, a Spitfire pilot who was killed in action at the age of 20, adding, “The song ends how I imagine his falling Spitfire sounds to me, like an angel losing its extraordinary wings.”
Produced by longtime collaborator Dan Carey, Glutton for Punishment broadens Heartworms’ sound, combining post-punk with more melodic, pop-oriented influences. “With my EP, people kind of pigeonholed me into post-punk,” she says. “I was like, ‘Cool, I can do that, but I can also do way more’—I can do post-punk, but I can also be poppy and catchy, and this album represents that. I think people might be surprised when they hear it.”
Discussing the album’s themes, Heartworms reflects: “I’ve been chastised my whole life; made to feel as if I didn’t belong, punished for not fitting into a perfect image of how a growing woman should be. When you’re told something enough times you start to believe it. I often find myself locked into an unhealthy cycle of craving harsh discipline, greedy for the familiarity it brings but terrified of the consequences—better the devil you know. But this album doesn’t just reflect my own experiences; it reflects those of the people in my life and the stories of others that I think need to be heard.”
Read our 2023 Heartworms interview HERE. By Andy Von Pip
5. Father John Misty: “She Cleans Up”
Father John Misty (aka Josh Tillman) is releasing a new album, Mahashmashana, on November 22 worldwide via Sub Pop. This week he shared another new song from it, “She Cleans Up,” and announced some new tour dates. Destroyer will be the support act on the tour. Check out the song and tour dates here.
When the album was announced Father John Misty shared a new song from it, the near-seven-minute long “Screamland,” via a music video. The song featured Alan Sparhawk from Low on guitar and was one of our Songs of the Week.
14 Best Songs of the Week: Ela Minus, Kassie Krut, The Weather Station, Lauren Mayberry, and More
Oct 04, 2024
Welcome to the 32nd Songs of the Week of 2024. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Mark Moody, Marina Malin, Matt the Raven, Scotty Dransfield, and Stephen Humphries helped me decide what should make the list. It was a very strong week for new tracks, so we considered over 30 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 14.
Issue 73 is out now. It features Maya Hawke and Nilüfer Yanya on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last week, we have picked the 14 best the last seven days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.
1. Ela Minus: “BROKEN”
This week, Colombian artist Ela Minus officially announced her upcoming album, DIA, set for release on January 17, 2025, via Domino. The announcement came with the launch of her new single and music video, “BROKEN.”
Following her acclaimed 2020 debut, acts of rebellion, DIA represents a significant evolution in Ela’s oeuvre. The album blends innovative production techniques with a more profound sense of self-reflection, moving beyond the intimate energy of her debut to explore broader themes. After spending three years crafting snippets of songs across Colombia, Mexico, and various locations in North America and Europe, Ela recognized the need for greater honesty in her lyrics.
The album’s lead track, “ABRIR MONTE,” introduces DIA with lush tones that evoke the idea of opening new paths. Ela describes the phrase as a common expression in her homeland, symbolizing exploration and growth. The single “BROKEN” follows, featuring vibrant synthesizers and a danceable beat while addressing themes of suffering and resilience. Ela comments, “I started writing this thinking I was perfectly fine and finished writing knowing I was not.” By Andy Von Pip
2. Kassie Krut: “Reckless”
Kassie Krut is a newish band and this week they announced that they have signed to Fire Talk and they also released a new single, “Reckless,” via a music video. The trio features former members of Palm, Mothers, and Body Meat. Guy Kozak directed the “Reckless” video.
Kassie Krut started out as a solo project for former Palm member Kasra Kurt, but grew into a full fledged band also featuring Eve Alpert (also of Palm) and Matt Anderegg (Mothers, Body Meat). Palm was a Philadelphia math-rock band that disbanded in 2023.
Krut had this to say about the single in a press release: “‘Reckless’ is an exercise in restraint. We challenged ourselves to write a song with one bass note, one drum beat and just a couple simple chords. Sometimes we experience self-doubt so it was fun to create a tougher version of ourselves—someone who’s fast and mean—as well as playing with the misconception that Kassie is an individual and not a band. Also our project name is a little strange so we took the opportunity to spell it out for the listener.”
The “Reckless” video was filmed in part at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kozak had this to say about directing the video: “The idea of a museum visit came early on, as did the idea of the name spelled out with hands and signage. I like that the track works as a sort of introduction to the band, and I wanted the video to work in a similar way. I love this song!”By Mark Redfern
3. The Weather Station: “Neon Signs”
This week, The Weather Station (the project of Toronto-based singer/songwriter Tamara Lindeman) announced a new album, Humanhood, and shared its first single, “Neon Signs.”Humanhood is due out January 17, 2025 via Fat Possum. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork and some upcoming UK and EU tour dates here.
Lindeman co-directed the “Neon Signs” video with Jared Raab.
“I wrote ‘Neon Signs’ at a moment of feeling confused, upside down, at that moment when even desire falls away, and dissociation cuts you loose from a story that while wrong, still held things together,” Lindeman says in a press release. “The song came with multiple strands entwined; the way that something that is not true seems to have more energetic intensity than something that is, the confusion of being bombarded with advertising at a moment of climate emergency, the confusion of relationships where coercion is wrapped in the language of love. Ultimately though, isn’t it all the same feeling?”
Linderman co-produced Humanhood with Marcus Paquin, recording it in the fall of 2023 at Canterbury Music Company. The main backing band on the album is drummer Kieran Adams, keyboardist Ben Boye, percussionist Philippe Melanson, reed-and-wind specialist Karen Ng, and bassist Ben Whiteley. The album also features Sam Amidon, James Elkington, and Joseph Shabason. Joseph Lorge mixed the album.
Earlier this week, Lauren Mayberry, singer with Scottish electro-pop trio CHVRCHES, announced her debut solo album, Vicious Creature, and shared a new song from it, “Something in the Air.” The exact release date for the album has yet to be announced, only that it will be out later this year on Island. The tracklist and cover artwork also have yet to be shared.
“‘Something in the Air’ is a song that really came out of nowhere,” explains Mayberry in a press release. “I was in London finishing another song with my friend, co-writer and producer Dan McDougall. We were taking a break in the shared kitchen in the studio complex when a pretty iconic British musician, who I won’t throw under the bus here, came in and started making conversation about electricity, 5G and how it’s making us all sick. Dan and I went for a walk around the block before going back to the studio and were unpacking those theories, and why people want to believe them—and the chorus lyric just appeared.”
A press release describes the album in greater detail: “Vicious Creature is both a startling new era in Lauren Mayberry’s artistry, and the culmination of two decades of the band life that came before. Across its songs she writes about sexuality and empowerment from a profoundly personal perspective for the very first time, reconnecting with the icons of her youth in Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, PJ Harvey, and Kathleen Hanna, and with the influence of ’90s British girl groups like All Saints and Sugababes.”
Mayberry’s debut solo single, “Are You Awake?,” was released in September 2024 and was one of our Songs of the Week. Then in October 2024 she shared her second solo single, “Shame,” which also made an appearance on our Songs of the Week list. In March she released her third solo single, “Change Shapes.” There’s no word yet if these songs are included on Vicious Creature.
CHVRCHES are signed to Island in America and EMI in England. The band’s last album was 2021’s Screen Violence, which came out via Glassnote.
Mayberry was one of the artists on the cover of our 20th Anniversary Issue in which she was interviewed about Screen Violence. Buy the issue from us directly here.
Cutouts is the band’s third album and the quick follow-up to Walls of Eyes, which came out in January. In fact, Cutouts was recorded during the same period as Wall of Eyes. It was recorded in Oxford and at Abbey Road Studios in London. The album features string arrangements by the London Contemporary Orchestra. Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke painted the album’s cover artwork while making the album.
Bartees Strange has announced a new album, Horror, and shared a new song from it, “Sober,” via a music video. Horror is due out February 14 via 4AD. Below check out “Sober,” followed by the album’s tracklist and cover artwork.
Strange produced “Sober” with Jack Antonoff, Yves Rothman, and Lawrence Rothman. He had this to say about it in a press release: “This song is about falling short in a relationship, over and over and drinking because of it. I think this is something a lot of people can probably relate to. Being in love, but not being the best at showing it or feeling successful within it. And being afraid that this is something you’ll always deal with because you never really saw a better example of how love works.”
Strange first worked on the album with Yves and Lawrence Rothman, before finishing it with Antonoff after he worked with Antonoff’s band Bleachers.
A press release says the album is about “facing your fears and becoming feared.”
The press release adds: “Strange was raised on fear. His family told scary stories to teach life lessons, and at an early age, he started watching scary movies to practice being strong. The world can be a terrifying place, and for a young, queer, Black person in rural America, that terror can be visceral. Horror is an album about facing those fears and growing to become someone to be feared.”
Strange further elaborates: “In a way I think I made this record to reach out to people who may feel afraid of things in their lives too. For me it’s love, locations, cosmic bad luck, or that feeling of doom that I’ve struggled with for as long as I can remember. I think that it’s easier to navigate the horrors and strangeness of life once you realize that everyone around you feels the same. This album is just me trying to connect. I’m trying to shrink the size of the world. I’m trying to feel close—so I’m less afraid.”
Horror includes “Lie 95,” a new song that Strange released in July.
Strange first garnered attention for covering a string of The National tracks, including on Say Goodbye to Pretty Boy, his EP of National covers released in 2020 on Brassland, a label run by members of the band. He was born in Ipswich, England, but grew up in Mustang, a largely the white and conservative rural town outside Oklahoma City, before launching his music career in Washington, D.C. In between he also worked in the Obama administration.
10 Best Songs of the Week: The WAEVE, Mogwai, Deep Sea Diver, Father John Misty, and More
Sep 20, 2024
Welcome to the 30th Songs of the Week of 2024. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Marina Mallin, Matt the Raven, and Scotty Dransfield helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 30 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 10.
Issue 73 is out now. It features Maya Hawke and Nilüfer Yanya on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last week, we have picked the 10 best the last seven days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.
There are two album tracks not previously released as singles that we loved and wanted to include on this week’s Songs of the Week list, with the epic near-eight-minute long song “Druantia” being our favorite. “Song For Eliza May” is also below at #3.
The band shared the album’s title track, “City Lights,” in May. It was one of our Songs of the Week. When the album was announced in June, they shared its second single, “You Saw,” via a music video. It was also one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its third single, “Broken Boys,” along with a live performance video for the song. “Broken Boys” was #1 on our Songs of the Week list.
As with their debut album, James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Florence & The Machine, Foals, HAIM) produced City Lights. As with their last album, the album features Coxon on saxophone, among other instruments.
Coxon and Dougall first met backstage at a charity concert in London in 2020 and soon the idea was hatched for them to collaborate.
“I didn’t know when I was going to work again or try writing again until Rose came out and said, ‘How about we try writing together?’” says Coxon in a press release.
“When I listen to the first album, I can hear me and Graham getting to know each other through making the record,” says Dougall.
They not only hit off musically, but romantically, falling in love and having a baby daughter together, Eliza, who was born in August 2022.
“The band had an identity this time around so we had a little bit more of a framework to know how we might operate,” says Dougall of the differences between recording to the two albums. “But obviously, the circumstances were quite different.”
Dougall was also one of the artists on the cover of our special 20th Anniversary print issue, where you can read an exclusive interview with her.
2. Mogwai: “God Gets You Back”
This week, Scotland’s Mogwai shared a new song, “God Gets You Back,” and announced a 2025 world tour. The single is out now via Temporary Residence Ltd. and Rock Action. Hand Held Cine Club (Justin and James Lockey) directed the video.
John Congleton produced the song. In a press release the band’s Barry Burns says that he felt the song “needed some melody or vocals, but I couldn’t come up with the lyrics so I asked my 7-year-old daughter to make some up, and she did and I sang them.”
Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite had this to say about the tour dates: “We are immensely excited about heading out on our first worldwide tour since the pandemic. We’re going to some brilliant places and can’t wait to perform our new songs.”
The WAEVE’s other album track we loved, “Song For Eliza May,” is an ode to the couple’s daughter.
Dougall says she was initially reluctant to write songs about her daughter. “I was really resistant for a while to even consider referencing it,” she says. “But actually, when I realized that I could use that experience to explore bigger themes—watching what’s happening in the news, all these terrible atrocities and the world falling apart. And in tandem with that, thinking about how life evolves and how my own sense of self has developed. It became a really good vehicle for the songwriting process.”
4. Deep Sea Diver: “Billboard Heart”
Yesterday, Deep Sea Diver (the band led by Jessica Dobson) shared a new song, “Billboard Heart,” via a music video. It’s the band’s first single for Sub Pop, which have just announced that they’ve signed Deep Sea Diver. It is the first taste of a new album, which is due out in early 2025.
Deep Sea Diver is singer and multi-instrumentalist Jessica Dobson, drummer Peter Mansen (also Dobson’s partner), and keyboardist Elliot Jackson. Dobson and Mansen directed the “Billboard Heart” video with cinematographer Tyler Kalberg.
Dobson had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘Billboard Heart’ is a song that felt like a strange transmission, a new emotion, and a spirit-filled dream when it came. It is my nod to the simplicity of my favorite Tom Petty songs and to my love for Wim Wenders’ film Paris, Texas. The feeling of standing in the lonesome desert, embracing every particle of yourself, even the ones that are hard to look at, and fighting for your spirit to move through this world without entanglement. It is about being present and embracing the future while wholeheartedly letting go of any amount of control that I think I have in this life. ‘Billboard Heart’ is both a longing for something that may not exist and a place where I can be free.”
Dobson has previously also performed in The Shins and in Beck’s band.
5. Father John Misty: “Screamland”
This week, Father John Misty (aka Josh Tillman) announced a new album, Mahashmashana, and shared a new song from it, the near-seven-minute long “Screamland,” via a music video. The song features Alan Sparhawk from Low on guitar. Mahashmashana is due out November 22 worldwide via Sub Pop (except for the UK and Europe, where it’s a Bella Union release). Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as Father John Misty’s upcoming tour dates, including some newly announced UK and EU shows, here.
Tillman produced Mahashmashana with Drew Erickson and Jonathan Wilson executive produced the album.
Estefania Kröl directed the “Screamland” video and had this to say about it in the press release: “The video is a visual journey through the depths of ‘Screamland,’ capturing the essence of both the music and the artists. Father John Misty blends seamlessly into the scene, becoming a part of the city, a living echo of ‘Screamland.’”