11 Best Songs of the Week: Cheekface, Julien Baker and TORRES, Miki Berenyi Trio, Momma, and More
Feb 28, 2025
Welcome to the sixth Songs of the Week of 2025. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, 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 11.
Today we announced Issue 74, The Protest Issue. It features Kathleen Hannah and Bartees Strange on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
We’re also hoping to get 600 new (or renewed) subscribers on board in the next three months and so we’re offering 30% off subscriptions right now.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last week, we have picked the 11 best the last seven days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.
1. Cheekface: “Living Lo-Fi”
Los Angeles-based indie rock trio Cheekface have been teasing a new album, Middle Spoon, on social media for about three weeks and as promised, it was released earlier this week. They also shared a video for the album’s latest single, “Living Lo-Fi.” Stream the album here.
Ben Epstein and David Combs directed the “Living Lo-Fi” video, which guest stars fellow musician Chris Farren and centers around a music video shoot gone wrong.
Cheekface is vocalist/guitarist Greg Katz, bassist Amanda Tannen (formerly of stellastarr*), and drummer Mark “Echo” Edwards. Greg Cortez produced and recorded the album at New Monkey Studio and 64Sound in Los Angeles. Tannen did the album’s cover artwork, as is always the case with the band. Cheekface surprise-released a new album, It’s Sorted, in March 2024. It was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2024. Middle Spoon is the band’s fifth album.
Julien Baker and TORRES (aka MacKenzie Scott) are releasing their debut album together, Send a Prayer My Way, on April 14 via Matador. This week they shared its third single, “Tuesday,” which is sung by TORRES and about a girl she had a crush on in her youth and the resistance to it from the girl’s mother.
A press release says the song “centers on trying to overcome and heal from the guilt, shame and religious abuse that so many people experience discovering their identity and growing up Queer.”
Send a Prayer My Way is considered a country album. The duo released their debut single together, “Sugar in the Tank,” in December only days after the two beloved queer indie rock singer/songwriters performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. When the album was announced they released its second single, “Sylvia,” which made our Songs of the Week list.
The album has been in the works since the two first performed together in 2016 and one of them suggested that they one day make a country album.
TORRES released a new album, What an enormous room, in January 2024 via Merge. In August 2024 she teamed up with Fruit Bats for the collaborative EP, A Decoration, also on Merge.
Baker’s last solo album was 2021’s Little Oblivions, which was followed by the accompanying B-Sides EP, both released via Matador. Little Oblivions was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2021. Read our Protest Issue interview with Baker, where she discusses the album, here. Also listen to our Under the Radar podcastinterview with Baker here.
Miki Berenyi Trio—led by the former singer/guitarist with 1990s shoegaze, dream pop, and Britpop band Lush—are releasing their debut album, Tripla, on April 4 via Bella Union. This week they shared its third single, “Big I Am,” via a music video. Sébastien Faits-Divers directed the song’s video, which was filmed at the Consortium Museum (Contemporary Art Center) in Dijon, France.
The song tackles macho aggression and toxic masculinity, including misogynistic social media personality Andrew Tate, as Berenyi explains in a press release: “I’ve witnessed 50+ years of the trends in masculinity and frankly, nothing much changes—as ever, there are good men and there are shit men, and there are boys who can be misguided but easily mature into the best of their sex. But this latest incarnation of ‘winning’ the sex war is a laughably infantile and wilfully regressive new low.”
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. When the album was announced, they shared another new song from it, “8th Deadly Sin,” via a music video. “8th Deadly Sin” was also one of our Songs of the 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.
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.
Brooklyn-based band Momma are releasing a new album, Welcome to My Blue Sky, on April 4 via Polyvinyl/Lucky Number. This week shared the album’s third single, “Bottle Blonde,” via a music video self-directed by the band.
Momma is Etta Friedman (songwriter/vocalist/guitarist), Allegra Weingarten (songwriter/vocalist/guitarist), Aron Kobayashi Ritch (producer/bassist), and Preston Fulks (drummer).
Friedman and Weingarten wrote “Bottle Blonde” and collectively had this to say about it in a press release: “We wrote this song as a letter to our past selves, when we were 23 and 24, stumbling through an extremely grueling tour that ended up taking a huge toll on our hearts and minds. We both had bleached hair and were in the midst of making huge decisions that would change our lives and also our perceptions of ourselves. The song started out as kind of an affirmation to our younger selves, that everything would be ok if you just follow your heart, but now looking back on it the lyrics could also be read as us talking to each other.”
Ritch produced the album, which was recorded live with the full band at Studio G in Brooklyn.
“With this album we were less concerned with sounding cool and heavy and rock & roll and much more focused on good, clean songwriting that hopefully inspires people to sing along and mean every word,” said Weingarten in a previous press release.
In 2023 Momma released the single “Bang Bang.” It was also one of our Songs of the Week, but it’s not featured on the new album.
Momma’s last album, Household Name, came out in 2022 via Polyvinyl.
11 Best Songs of the Week: Fontaines D.C., Youth Lagoon, Perfume Genius, Lael Neale, and More
Feb 21, 2025
Welcome to the fifth Songs of the Week of 2025. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, 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 11.
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.
We’re also hoping to get 600 new (or renewed) subscribers on board in the next three months and so we’re offering 30% off subscriptions right now.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last week, we have picked the 11 best the last seven days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.
1. Fontaines D.C.: “It’s Amazing to Be Young”
Irish five-piece Fontaines D.C. released a new album, Romance, last August via XL. Today they released a brand new single, “It’s Amazing to Be Young,” via a cinematic seven-and-a-half-minute music video. The song itself is only three-and-a-half minutes long, but the video also features moments for dialogue and plot. Below is both the video and the audio-only YouTube video for the song.
As he did Romance, James Ford produced “It’s Amazing to Be Young.” The song will be released on limited edition 7-inch vinyl featuring the new B-side “Before You I Just Forget.”
Fontaines D.C. features Grian Chatten (vocals), Carlos O’Connell (guitar), Conor Curley (guitar), Conor Deegan (bass), and Tom Coll (drums).
Deegan had this to say about the new song in a press release: “‘It’s Amazing to Be Young’ is a song that was written in the presence of a newborn child—Carlos’ child. It sounded more like a lullaby or a music box then, but with the same lyric—‘it’s amazing to be young.’ The feeling of hope a child can give is profound and moving, especially for young men like us. That sense of wanting to create a world for them to grow up in happily. It’s a feeling that fights against the cynicism that can often overtake us in the modern world. So we wanted to declare which side we were on—it really is amazing to be young. We are still free, and want to make that feeling spread. We want to protect it for the others around us, and maybe in doing that, can also help protect it for ourselves.”
Director Luna Carmoon had this to say about making the new video: “I love this new track—it’s one of my favorites Fontaines have done and I love that I got to complete the trilogy of videos for it. It was all natural and kind of a surprise that the three videos came together. I’ve got to work with such a beautiful team and was really given the space and breath to create the worlds that automatically came to me when hearing the music. I feel like we’re living in this weird time where romantic love is being pushed to the side, and sex and love is unvirtuous and no longer what people want to see. I don’t believe that at all. I love that these two people have fallen in love with themselves, and I wanted to see them fall in love with each other. I planted the seed after I did the carjitsu video (‘In the Modern World’) and then I had a couple of days to write the video for ‘It’s Amazing to Be Young.’ There are a lot of odes to Santa Sangre it. It also reminds me of my first short film Shagbands.”
Fontaines D.C. are interviewed about Romance in our current print issue (Issue 73). Check out our in-depth interview and photo shoot with the band by buying the issue directly from us.
Romance is the band’s fourth album, the follow-up to 2022’s acclaimed Skinty Fia (which was #1 on both the UK and Irish album charts), 2020’s Grammy-nominated A Hero’s Death, and 2019’s Mercury Prize-nominated Dogrel. It finds them working with producer James Ford for the first time.
The band was formed in Dublin but is now based in London. Ideas for the new album started to form while they were touring the U.S. and Mexico with Arctic Monkeys. Then the band members went their separate ways for a while, before reconvening for a three weeks of pre-production in a North London studio and one month of recording in a chateau near Paris.
In 2023 Chatten released his debut solo album, Chaos For the Fly. Read our interview with him about it here. By Mark Redfern
2. Youth Lagoon: “Gumshoe (Dracula From Arkansas)”
“Someone said my music makes them feel like they died in the forest, and I’ve honestly never heard a better compliment,” Powers says of the new song in a press release. “I don’t think I have a song that’s more suited for that description than ‘Gumshoe.’ I usually write out of pure love, delirium, or just to get the devil off my back, and this one checks all three boxes…it may be the closest I’ve come so far to finding real freedom in music.”
Powers adds that the song is “a love letter to my 1990s small-town boyhood—taking all of those fragments of memory and stitching them into a present-day folktale. I grew up homeschooled in a house full of brothers where there was enough mischief and make-believe to make any mother crack. Our world was whatever we wanted it to be, and I don’t think that ever changed for me.”
Powers says the video is “a stew of home movies, family archive, and footage I took just a few months ago around my current neighborhood.”
Rarely Do I Dream is the fairly quick followup to Heaven Is a Junkyard, released in June 2023 via Fat Possum.
The album was inspired by home videos of his childhood that Powers found in the fall of 2023 in a shoebox in his parent’s basement.
“When I took the tapes home and popped in the first one, it was my brother Bobby and I at the state fair. I was 4 years old choking on a corn dog,” Powers said in a previous press release. “If anything’s a summary of life, that is.”
He then started recording moments from the home movies off the TV and sampling some of the audio to work it into songs. “What I was really consumed with was how much I could zoom in on my actual history,” said Powers. “I wanted to really make someone feel like they were inside my living room in 1993, but rearrange the furniture a bit. Something about combining that level of hyperreality with fairytales of devils and detectives weirdly felt like the truest way to immortalize these pieces of my family.”
“The more I rewind the tapes of my life, the more I can hear the voice of my soul,” Powers added. “This isn’t nostalgia. Life’s much more messy than that. It’s a dedication to all the parts of who I was, who I am, and who I’m going to be.”
Powers recorded the album with co-producer/mixer/engineer Rodaidh McDonald (Weyes Blood, The xx, Gil Scott-Heron).
As Youth Lagoon, Powers released three albums: 2011’s The Year of Hibernation, 2013’s Wondrous Bughouse, and 2015’s Savage Hills Ballroom. Then he retired the name in 2016 and released two albums simply as Trevor Powers: 2018’s Mulberry Violence and 2020’s surprise-released Capricorn. All before returning to Youth Lagoon for Heaven Is a Junkyard.
3. Perfume Genius: “No Front Teeth” (Feat. Aldous Harding)
Perfume Genius (aka Mike Hadreas) is releasing a new album, Glory, on March 28 via Matador. This week he released its second single, “No Front Teeth,” which features New Zealand singer/songwriter Aldous Harding. It was shared via a music video for the song directed by Cody Critcheloe (who also directed Perfume Genius’ “Queen” video). Hadreas and Harding both star in the video, alongside longtime Perfume Genius band member and co-writer Alan Wyffels.
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.
On Glory, Hadreas says in a press release 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.”
This week minimalist singer/songwriter Lael Neale announced a new album, Altogether Stranger, and shared its first single, “Tell Me How to Be Here,” via a self-directed video. She also announced some tour dates. Altogether Stranger is due out May 2 via Sub Pop.
Altogether Stranger finds Neale returning to Los Angeles after three years of living in rural Virginia. She was born and raised in Virginia before moving to Los Angeles then back to VA during the pandemic and now back to LA again. The video for “Tell Me How to Be Here” superimposes images of LA on top of a double exposed Neale as she sings the song.
“On returning to Los Angeles I felt like an extraterrestrial landing on a dystopian planet so I’m writing from the perspective of a being from another realm witnessing the peculiarities of humanity,” says Neale in a press release.
“In the course of writing this record there was one song I could never finish. The main line was, ‘I don’t belong here, I am an altogether stranger.’ I meant ‘stranger’ as a noun, not an adjective. Even though I abandoned the song, the lost chorus stuck with me & became the unspoken motif of the record,” says Neale of the album’s title.
Blondshell (aka Sabrina Teitelbaum) has unveiled “Two Times,” a delicate new single that marks a striking departure from her usual sound. The track, accompanied by a lyric video, showcases an intimate arrangement built around acoustic guitar and piano, revealing a more vulnerable side of the acclaimed artist.
This release follows the bold, arena-ready “T&A” from last month, which announced her sophomore album If You Asked For a Picture, scheduled for release on May 2, 2025 via Partisan Records. “T&A” was #1 on our Songs of the Week list. The new album, produced by Yves Rothman, promises to build on the foundation laid by Blondshell’s self-titled 2023 debut, which established her as one of music’s most compelling new voices.
Reflecting on “Two Times,” Blondshell shares: “I feel like I’m always seeing movies and shows where conflict is the only way love is expressed. It’s a lot of stories where someone has to work really hard to get somebody else to love them, and that’s what seems to make the relationship valuable. This song was basically like, what if it’s just solid? What if it’s just good and the relationship’s healthy? Does that mean it is less valuable? I think that’s a painful question because it’s essentially asking how capable you are of being in a decent relationship. But it’s also a love song in that way.”
You can grab our print issue (Issue 71) to read our exclusive interview with Blondshell. Read our review of her last album here. By Andy Von Pip
6. Samia: “Lizard”
7. Snapped Ankles: “Pay the Rent”
8. Wishy: “Fly”
9. Hannah Cohen: “Draggin’”
10. The Horrors: “Ariel”
11. Mamalarky: “#1 Best of All Time”
Honorable Mentions:
These songs almost made the Top 11.
Brian D’Addario: “Till the Morning”
King Hannah: “Leftovers”
James Krivchenia: “Probably Wizards”
The Murder Capital: “A Distant Life”
The Null Club: “Slip Angle” (Feat. Valentine Caulfield)
Oslo Twins: “I Wake Up Slowly”
Porridge Radio: “The Machine Starts to Sing”
Sleigh Bells: “Bunky Pop”
Sunday 1994: “Doomsday”
Triathalon: “RIP”
Here’s a handy Spotify playlist featuring the Top 11 in order, followed by all the honorable mentions:
20 Best Songs of the Week: The WAEVE, Anika, Deep Sea Diver, Destroyer, Andy Bell, Doves, and More
Feb 14, 2025
Welcome to the fourth Songs of the Week of 2025. We didn’t do a Songs of the Week last week, as I was out of town covering MegaCon, a comic-con in Orlando, FL. So this week’s supersized list covers the last two weeks. And what a couple of weeks they were for new tracks!
This week Andy Von Pip, Matt the Raven, and Scotty Dransfield helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 50 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 20.
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 two weeks, we have picked the 20 best the last 14 days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.
1. The WAEVE: “Love Is All Pain”
Earlier today, The WAEVE—aka Rose Elinor Dougall and Blur guitarist Graham Coxon—announced a new EP, Eternal EP, and shared its first single, “Love Is All Pain,” via a music video. Simeon Leeder directed the song’s video, which was shot on black & white Super-8 film in London.
Eternal EP follows City Lights, a new album the band released last year via Transgressive (stream it here). It was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2024. Last month The WAEVE also released City Lights Sessions, a live album recorded live in the studio.
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. When City Lights was released, both “Druantia” and “Song For Eliza May” made our Songs of the Week list, with “Druantia” at #1.
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?’” said Coxon in a press release announcing City Lights.
“When I listen to the first album, I can hear me and Graham getting to know each other through making the record,” said 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 WAEVE were interviewed in Issue 71 of our print magazine (get it here). By Mark Redfern
2. Anika: “Hearsay”
Last week, British-born, Berlin-based musician Annika Henderson, better known as Anika, announced her new album Abyss, out April 4th on Sacred Bones, and shared its lead single and video, “Hearsay.”
Born out of frustration, anger, and confusion with the modern world, the 10-track album promises to be raw, urgent, and emotionally charged. “Hearsay” hones in on the extreme divisions between the left and right in contemporary society. Anika explains, “This song is about media moguls—about the power of the media, whether social, TV or beyond—we are as much under its spell as we ever were and some nasties are exploiting it for their own gains. Parasites feeding off the blood of the public—PJ Harvey inspired for sure.”
The track arrives alongside a video directed by Laura Martinova, who says, “The ‘Hearsay’ music video is inspired by vampire aesthetics and seeks to connect with the grungy essence of Anika’s new album. We aimed to create a dark yet dynamic and surprising video. My collaboration with contemporary dancers and the use of raw camera movement transcends this imagery, while Zeynep Schilling’s creative direction elevates the video to another level—somewhere between evil and heaven. We worked with stylist Danny Muster and emerging designers to craft a timeless aesthetic.” By Andy Von Pip
3. Deep Sea Diver: “Let Me Go” (Feat. Madison Cunningham)
The album’s title track, “Billboard Heart,” was shared in September via a music video. It was one of our Songs of the Week. When the album was announced, its second single, “Shovel,” was released via a music video. “Shovel” again landed on Songs of the Week.
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 and Mansen directed the “Let Me Go” video with Tyler Kalberg. The video was filmed in Los Angeles on January 5, 2025 and also features Cunningham. It was inspired by French New Wave films.
Dobson had this to say about the song and its video in a press release: “I’ve been wanting to collaborate with Madison for a long time, and I was over the moon when this song came in such an unexpected moment. We were just jamming in the studio and I started playing a guitar riff that I’ve had kicking around since high school that Madison started immediately winding around on her guitar. We looped a drum machine that my co-producer Andy Park started playing and a few hours later most of the song was finished. This song felt effortlessly cool from the start; It reminds me of some of my favorite PJ Harvey songs, full of grit & power. We shot the music video with the same spirit, and as two LA natives who both love the city—we wanted to explore our hometown. Not knowing that it was two days before the LA fires, it has subsequently taken on a new meaning as a love letter to the city we both adore.”
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. By Mark Redfern
4. Destroyer: “Hydroplaning Off the Edge of the World”
Bejar had this to say in a press release: “Me and Sydney started this off as a ‘Hydroplaning’ visualizer, dusting off her 24-year-old Canon GL2 after many dormant years. I love the grain of the picture. Then things ballooned into a full-on video. I walk around in it, trying to look Parisian, talking to the crows. Basically a day in the life of…. I shot the nighttime stuff and it is my finest hour. Sydney did the rest.”
Hermant adds: “The video is a nesting doll of visualizers that are relaxing until they are not: Enter Dan’s night footage. Dan was trying to capture the wind. He did, but not in the way he thought he did.”
Previously Destroyer shared Dan’s Boogie’s first single “Bologna,” via a music video. The song features Fiver’s Simone Schmidt and was one of our Songs of the Week.
Destroyer’s last album, LABYRINTHITIS, came out in March 2022 via Merge. It was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2022. Read our interview with Destroyer on the album here. By Mark Redfern
5. Andy Bell: “apple green ufo”
Andy Bell of British shoegazers Ride is releasing a new solo album, pinball wanderer, on February 28 via Sonic Cathedral. This week he shared another song from it, the eight-minute long “apple green ufo.” It’s got a Stone Roses gone Afrobeat vibe.
“I had this riff on an acoustic and it was kind of like one of those Led Zeppelin folk bangers, but I brought it into the Serge Gainsbourg world and gave it a glass of absinthe,” says Bell in a press release, referencing Dougie Wright’s bass and Dave Richmond’s drumming on Gainsbourg’s classic “Histoire de Melody Nelson” as an influence on “apple green ufo.”
“The lyrics imagine if I met an alien and had to show them around Earth, what would I want to show them?” Bell continues. “It also references The Simpsons’ Mr Burns (‘I bring you love’) and ET (‘If you’re lonely, phone home’).
“I would like to highlight the ‘ring modulated’ fuzz guitar solo, which I couldn’t have made without an effect pedal called Randy’s Revenge’ by Fairfield Circuitry—my favorite company. This is not an ad!”
Constellations For the Lonely was due out today, but its release has been pushed back two weeks due to manufacturing delays.
Doves is Jimi Goodwin (lead vocals, bass) and brothers Andy Williams (drums, vocals) and Jez Williams (guitar, vocals).
“Saint Teresa” was inspired by a late night internet search by Goodwin, as a press release explains: “The 16th Century Spanish nun and reformer caught the band’s imagination after discovering that her burial, pre-canonisation, was interrupted. Following two, initial exhumations, numerous body parts were removed and taken to locations in Rome, Paris, Lisbon and elsewhere.”
The song had a protracted writing and recording period. Goodwin says: “By keeping it to one side, we were able to reappraise it and make it better. Andy and Jez helped out with it and it’s great that it’s found a home. My Catholicism went out of the window years ago, but I love the iconography associated with the church. They put on a really good show. I identify with it all from my childhood. The story of Saint Teresa is fascinating.”
Jez Williams adds: “Sometimes songs can be like a Rubik’s Cube. You play with it but have to go back to it after a time and, only then, do you really know what to do with it. ‘Saint Teresa’ was still knocking on the door when we came to record the album, so we took it into sessions with Dan [Austin—co-producer], replacing some of it, changing a few of the lyrics and it turned out great.”
Previously Doves shared the album’s first single, “Renegade,” via a music video. “Renegade” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its second single, “Cold Dreaming,” via a music video. “Cold Dreaming” also landed on 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.
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
7. Bartees Strange: “17”
Bartees Strange released a new album, Horror, today via 4AD. Earlier this week he released its fifth single, album closer “Backseat Banton,” and performed that song on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, debuting it on the show. While we certainly liked “Backseat Banton,” there was an album track we liked even better, “17,” which surprisingly wasn’t released as a single from the album. As its title suggests, in the song Strange tackles his teenage years.
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 previous press release said the album is about “facing your fears and becoming feared.”
The press release added: “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 elaborated: “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.”
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.
“‘Mega Circuit’ was one of the first songs I wrote, intent on making a creepier, more guitar driven record,” Zauner explains in a press release. “The song is sort of an examination of contemporary masculinity, and explores a conflicted desire to embrace a generation that in the absence of positive role models has found refuge in violence and bigotry. We had the legendary Jim Keltner—who’s played on everything from ‘These Days,’ to ‘Here You Come Again’ to ‘Dream Weaver’—come in and play the fiercest shuffle you’ve ever heard.”
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. One song on the album features legendary actor/musician Jeff Bridges.
This week, UK’s dream-pop duo Wings of Desire (aka James Taylor and Chloe Little) shared a new single, “A Few More Years.” It’s due to be released as a white label 7-inch single with a remix by Ghost Culture on the B-side.
Taylor had this to say about the single in a press release: “‘A Few More Years’ is a sober reflection on the heady days of youth. As we live through a world in flux let’s hark back to a time before algorithms and the financialization of social life. Windows down, Benson & Hedges lit. Watching the sun come up with dread as others march to their daily commute. A note on a past period of personal crisis, and a message to my younger self. Hold on for a few more years as things do get better with time. Everything looks beautiful from here.”
Leithauser had this to say about the song in a press release: “I finished this song in the spring of 2024, and then in the summer my friend sent me a link to a Joe Rogan event called ‘Burn the Boats.’ At first I thought, ‘Oh fuck. Aw shit. Oh fuck this shit!!!,’ but then I listened to Joe Rogan’s podcast for the first time, and I learned that he has absolutely no idea what he is talking about and I don’t care about his nonsense. My song is about being at a party, falling in love with someone, and deciding you want nothing more than to go home with them. At the same time, the party’s now kinda boring, and you’d really like to speed up the process. ‘I wanna go home!’ Who can’t relate to that? I wrote a backup line for my friend Lachrisha, which was definitely inspired by Funkadelic, and the guitar playing was definitely inspired by David Bowie’s Low.”
Leithauser shared the album’s title track in December. When the album was announced in January, he released a new single from it, “Knockin’ Heart,” via a music video. “Knockin’ Heart” was one of our Songs of the Week.
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.
15 Best Songs of the Week: Momma; Black Country, New Road; SASAMI; Tunde Adebimpe; and More
Jan 31, 2025
Welcome to the third Songs of the Week of 2025. We didn’t do a Songs of the Week last week, with Martin Luther King Day plus Trump’s second inauguration equalling less songs released last week and leaving us uninspired to do a list. So this week’s supersized list covers the last two weeks. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Mark Moody, Scotty Dransfield, and Stephen Humphries helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 40 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 15.
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.
We are also having a 30% subscriptions sale right now, as our new issue will be shipping out soon.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last two weeks, we have picked the 15 best the last 14 days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.
1. Momma: “I Want You (Fever)”
This week, Brooklyn-based band Momma announced a new album, Welcome to My Blue Sky, and released a new single from it, “I Want You (Fever),” via a music video. They also announced some tour dates. Welcome to My Blue Sky is due out April 4 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). Ritch produced the album, which was recorded live with the full band at Studio G in Brooklyn.
“With this album we were less concerned with sounding cool and heavy and rock & roll and much more focused on good, clean songwriting that hopefully inspires people to sing along and mean every word,” says Weingarten in a press release.
The band collectively had this to say about the new single: “‘I Want You (Fever)’ is a song we wrote about wanting to be with someone who has a girlfriend, or someone who isn’t over their ex. It’s pining after someone, but there’s also some confidence knowing that that person wants to be with you. The second we wrote that song we felt like we were entering a new era—we scrapped everything we had written for the album up to that point because it felt so fresh and so exciting.”
The band’s lineup is Georgia Ellery (acoustic guitar, mandolin, tenor recorder, violin, vocals), Lewis Evans (alto saxophone, bass clarinet, clarinet, flutes, tenor recorder), Tyler Hyde (acoustic guitar, bass guitar, clarinet, harmonium, piano, tenor recorder, vocals), May Kershaw (accordion, harpsichord, piano, vocals), Luke Mark (acoustic guitar, baritone guitar, electric guitar, lap steel, tenor recorder), and Charlie Wayne (banjo, drums, percussion, tenor recorder, tuned percussion).
When Black Country, New Road’s former frontman, Isaac Wood, announced that he was leaving the band in 2022 only days before the release of their sophomore album, Ants From Up There (also on Ninja Tune), the band vowed to continue on and to not perform any of the material from Ants From Up There without Wood and so they wrote all new songs to perform live. That resulted in the 2023 live album, Live at Bush Hall, and concert film of the same name.
Forever Howlong is thus the band’s first studio album recorded without Wood. Vocal duties, as well as the bulk of the songwriting, is now split between Tyler Hyde, Georgia Ellery, and May Kershaw. “It created a real through line for the album, having three girls singing,” says Ellery in a press release. “It’s definitely very different to Ants From Up There, because of the female perspective—and the music we’ve made also complements that.”
“Besties” is the band’s first studio single to feature lead vocals from Ellery. James Ford (Fontaines D.C., Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, Blur) produced Forever Howlong.
Rianne White directed the “Besties” video and had this to say about it: “‘Besties’ came into my world with a dance of feelings, with such an understood concept of exploring the core emotion of taking on the world, and its obstacles to be with her, the bestie, again.
“Building this with the band took me to so many memories, informed by a collective of experiences from my childhood writing letters and maps to my bestie, into formulating our own map and sliding-doors effect narrative—charged with the instinctual punch and intuition of—I need to be with my bestie now. Working with Georgia, May, and Tyler was a real treat across their performances especially, and quite literally, running from the more conventional lip-sync world, and injecting cameo moments with Charlie, Lewis, and Luke. Knee-high in January’s jacket of mud, darkness, fields, street corners, and a pack of hounds we found the beating heart of a world made better by chasing love and connection. Shooting in these conditions, and having fun is a real testament to a fantastic team and collective of people! It’s been such a pleasure, this song was love at first harpsichord!”
Read our interview with Black Country, New Road on Ants From Up There and Wood’s departure here.
Read our interview with them on Live at Bush Hall here.
3. SASAMI: “In Love With a Memory” (Feat. Clairo)
SASAMI (aka Los Angeles-based musician Sasami Ashworth) is releasing a new album, Blood on the Silver Screen, on March 7 via Domino. This week she released another new single from it, “In Love With a Memory,” which features Clairo and is accompanied by a music video. She also announced some new tour dates.
“‘In Love With a Memory’ was actually the first song I wrote that ended up on Blood on the Silver Screen,” SASAMI says in a press release. “I grew up going to Japanese or Korean ‘noraebang’ private karaoke rooms with my mom, who was secretly the most incredible singer. Most of her go-to numbers were oooold Japanese and Korean folk songs that low key kind of made me feel like I was in a horror film or David Lynch movie. I can picture my mom in a Julee Cruise-type setting—single, jazz lounge spotlight and cigarette smoke hanging stalely in the air—singing one of those old songs with the most gorgeously haunting vibrato and breathtaking vocal control. That’s the feeling I was tapping into when I started writing ‘In Love With a Memory,’ and there is a very timeless but relevant crooning feeling imbued in the song that I think was perfectly reflected by the production that Rostam and I orchestrated together. Claire has been a longtime, long distance friend and dream collaborator for me, so it was such a magnificent gift for her to lend her voice to the narrative. I really imagine this track as a cinematic duet with a ghost.”
Blood on the Silver Screen includes “Honeycrash,” a new song SASAMI shared in May via a music video. When the album was announced, she released another new song from it, “Slugger,” via a baseball-themed music video. “Slugger” was one of our Songs of the Week. “Just Be Friends” was the next single and also one of our Songs of the Week.
Blood on the Silver Screen is described as an all-out pop record. “This album is all about learning and respecting the craft of pop songwriting, about relenting to illogical passion, obsession, and guiltless pleasure,” Ashworth says in a press release. “It’s about leaning into the chaos of romance and sweeping devotion—romanticism to the point of self-destruction.”
Ashworth adds: “I wanted to be more playful and communicate more with pop culture. When I listen to music, I think about how I feel, how I want to feel, how I want to move to it. And that’s what’s special about music—how it connects to culture, how it connects to different styles of music, how it connects to the timbre of the voice of the person singing it.”
Jenn Decilveo and Rostam co-produced the album with Ashworth and she is the sole writer of the songs. Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, Sia, Prince, Japanese city pop, and Bruce Springsteen are all listed as influences on Blood on the Silver Screen.
“I wanted to go all out with this album,”Ashworth says. “I wanted to, in my tenderness and emotionality, have the bravery to undertake something as epic as making a pop record about love. I hope it makes people feel empowered and embodied, too. It’s important to not box yourself in.”
SASAMI’s last album was 2022’s Squeeze, released by Domino. Ashworth’s self-titled debut album, SASAMI, came out in 2019, also via Domino. Read our interview with her on the album.
4. Tunde Adebimpe: “Drop”
This week, Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio officially announced his debut solo album, Three Black Boltz, after teasing it last year, and shared a new song from it, “Drop,” via a music video. Three Black Boltz is due out April 18 via Sub Pop.
Three Black Boltz includes “Magnetic,” a new song Adebimpe shared in October via a self-directed music video. It was one of our Songs of the Week.
Adebimpe produced the album with Wilder Zoby, and Zoby executive produced it. There was additional production and contributions from TV on the Radio members Jaleel Bunton and Jahphet Landis. Landis produced “Drop,” for example.
TV on the Radio also features David Sitek and Kyp Malone. In a press release Adebimpe says that when writing and recording music with the band he can rely on the other members to help finish his initial ideas, but with his solo album he was out on his own limb.
“I’ve been doing this thing with this group of people for so long, that I can just have a vague sketch of a concept and I know Jaleel or Kyp will have five brilliant ideas on where it can go,” he says. “But for Thee Black Boltz, I didn’t have that scaffolding to hang on. That was both terrifying and exhilarating.”
Adebimpe is also an actor, having appeared in last year’s blockbuster Twisters, as well as in Rachel Getting Married and the recent Disney+ show Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.As a solo musician he’s also collaborated with Massive Attack, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Run the Jewels.
After several years of inactivity, last September TV on the Radio resurfaced with plans to put out a 20th anniversary reissue of their debut album, Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes, as well as the announcement of their first shows in five years. The reissue includes five bonus tracks and in September they shared one of them, “Final Fantasy.”Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes (20th Anniversary Edition) came out in November via Touch & Go. The band’s last album, Seeds, came out a decade ago in 2014.
We first interviewed TV on the Radio in Issue 5 of Under the Radar in 2003, in honor of their debut EP, Young Liars. That article isn’t online, but you can revisit our 2008 interview with the band.
5. Julien Baker & TORRES: “Sylvia”
And yet another album announcement makes this week’s list. This week, Julien Baker and TORRES (aka MacKenzie Scott) announced their debut album together, Send a Prayer My Way, and shared a new single from it, “Sylvia.”Send a Prayer My Way is considered a country album and is due out April 14 via Matador.
The duo released their debut single together, “Sugar in the Tank,” in December only days after the two beloved queer indie rock singer/songwriters performed the country song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
The album has been in the works since the two first performed together in 2016 and one of them suggested that they one day make a country album.
TORRES had this to say about “Sylvia” in a press release: “The morning I went to pick up my dog Sylvia from an upstate shelter, I was at home making my coffee and I turned on WFMU and Dolly Parton’s ‘Cracker Jack’ was on. I burst into tears—it felt like the universe was telling me she was going to be mine (Sylvia was only meant to be a foster). I remember thinking that I’d love to write a song like that, a song that people could feel in their chest within five seconds of turning on the radio, because anyone who has ever had the honor of sharing a home with a beloved pet knows that a pet is family—they’re the best friends you could ever have.”
TORRES released a new album, What an enormous room, in January 2024 via Merge. In August 2024 she teamed up with Fruit Bats for the collaborative EP, A Decoration, also on Merge.
Baker’s last solo album was 2021’s Little Oblivions, which was followed by the accompanying B-Sides EP, both released via Matador. Little Oblivions was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2021. Read our Protest Issue interview with Baker, where she discusses the album, here. Also listen to our Under the Radar podcastinterview with Baker here.
10. Caroline Rose: “conversation with shiv (liquid k song)”
11. Lord Huron: “Who Laughs Last” (Feat. Kristen Stewart)
12. Djo: “Basic Being Basic”
13. Sunflower Bean: “Champagne Taste”
14. Cheekface: “Growth Sux”
15. Das Koolies: “Som Bom Magnífico”
Honorable Mentions:
These songs almost made the Top 15.
Hannah Cohen: “Earthstar”
Cross Record: “Charred Grass”
Dutch Interior: “Fourth Street”
Bryan Ferry and Amelia Barratt: “Orchestra”
Craig Finn: “People of Substance”
Lonnie Holley: “Protest With Love”
Meat Wave: “Dehydrated”
Pictoria Vark: “San Diego”
Sandhouse: “Circus”
Here’s a handy Spotify playlist featuring the Top 15 in order, followed by all the honorable mentions (note that the Caroline Rose song is not on Spotify so it’s not on the playlist):
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).
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.’”
