10 Best Songs of the Week: The WAEVE, Mogwai, Deep Sea Diver, Father John Misty, and More

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10 Best Songs of the Week: The WAEVE, Mogwai, Deep Sea Diver, Father John Misty, and More 

Plus Sunday (1994), Elias Rønnenfelt, W.H. Lung, and a Wrap-up of the Week’s Other Notable New Tracks

Sep 20, 2024 By Mark Redfern

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.

In recent weeks we posted interviews with Nada Surf, Hinds, Oceanator, La Luz, Hamish Hawk, “Weird Al” Yankovic, and more.

In the last week we reviewed some albums.

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. The WAEVE: “Druantia”

The WAEVE—aka Rose Elinor Dougall and Blur guitarist Graham Coxon—released a new album, City Lights, today via Transgressive. Stream it here. This week they shared new live performance videos for two songs from the album, “Moth to the Flame” and “Song For Eliza May,” as part of their City Lights Sessions series.

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.

City Lights is the band’s sophomore album and follows the duo’s self-titled debut album, which came out last year via Transgressive and was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2023.

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.”

The WAEVE were interviewed in Issue 71 of our print magazine (get it here).

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 band’s last album was 2021’s As the Love Continues. Stream the album here and read our review of it here.

Read our interview with Mogwai on Every Country’s Sun.

Read our 2014 interview with Stuart Braithwaite on Mogwai’s Rave Tapes album, as well as our retrospective article on the band’s 2001 album Rock Action.

3. The WAEVE: “Song For Eliza May”

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.”

Deep Sea Diver’s last album was 2020’s Impossible Weight, released via High Beam/ATO. Read our interview with Dobson on that album.

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.

In July Father John Misty announced and released a new best of album, Greatish Hits: I Followed My Dreams and My Dreams Said to Crawl. It included one new song, “I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All,” which is also featured on Mahashmashana, and was one of our Songs of the Week. A press release says that “She Cleans Up” and “Josh Tillman and The Accidental Dose” will also be singles from the album.

Father John Misty’s last studio album was 2022’s Chloë and The Next 20th Century.

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.’”

Read our 2017 cover story interview with Father John Misty.

Read our 2017 cover story bonus Q&A with Father John Misty.