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Jan 31, 2025 By Mark Redfern

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.

In recent weeks we posted interviews with Lilly Hiatt, Tank and the Bangas, HotWax, DITZ, Saint Etienne, Sparks, and more. We also posted our print article on Twin Peaks, featuring interviews with many of the cast members.

In the last week we reviewed some albums.

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 album includes “Ohio All the Time,” a new song the band shared in October that was one of our Songs of the Week.

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.

Read our review of Household Name.

2. Black Country, New Road: “Besties”

This week, England’s Black Country, New Road announced a new album, Forever Howlong, and released its first single, “Besties.” They also announced some tour dates. Forever Howlong is due out April 4 via Ninja Tune.

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!”

Ants From Up There made it on our Top 100 Albums of 2022 list. Read our rave review of the album here.

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.

Read our 2020 interview with TORRES on Silver Tongue.

Read our 2017 interview with TORRES on Three Futures.

Read our 2015 interview with TORRES on Sprinter.

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 podcast interview with Baker here.

In 2023, boygenius—Baker’s supergroup with Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers—released their debut full-length album, the record, on Interscope. It was followed by the EP, The Rest.

Read our 2019 cover story interview with boygenius.

Read our 2017 cover story interview with Julien Baker.

Also read our 2017 cover story bonus Q&A with Baker.

Read our 2016 interview with Baker and our 2015 Artist Survey interview with her.

6. Courting: “After You”

7. Snapped Ankles: “Raoul”

8. Sparks: “Do Things My Own Way”

9. Viagra Boys: “Man Made of Meat”

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):

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