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Jan 10, 2025 By Mark Redfern (with Andy Von Pip)

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.

In recent weeks we posted interviews with Sparks, English Teacher, Hinds, Nada Surf, Stereo MC’s, Semisonic, 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 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.

Read our My Favorite Album interview with SPELLLING.

Listen to our 2021 podcast interview with SPELLLING. By Mark Redfern

3. Japanese Breakfast: “Orlando in Love”

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).”

Also read our 2017 interview with Japanese Breakfast on Soft Sounds From Another Planet. By Mark Redfern

4. Deep Sea Diver: “Shovel”

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.

The album’s title track, “Billboard Heart,” was shared in September via a music video. It was one of our 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.

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. 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.

Read our interview with Doves on 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 Island is 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.

Leithauser’s last album was 2020’s The Loves of Your Life. In 2022 The Walkmen announced they were reuniting for some 2023 shows. By Mark Redfern

7. Heartworms: “Extraordinary Wings”

8. C Duncan: “Think About It”

9. Divorce: “Pill”

10. girlpuppy: “Windows”

11. Destroyer: “Bologna” (Feat. Fiver)

12. Darkside: “S.N.C”

13. Youth Lagoon: “Speed Freak”

Honorable Mentions:

These songs almost made the Top 13.

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.

Horsegirl: “Julie”

The Weather Station: “Body Moves”

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