16 Best Songs of the Week: Hatchie, Anna von Hausswolff, Stella Donnelly, Hannah Frances, and More

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16 Best Songs of the Week: Hatchie, Anna von Hausswolff, Stella Donnelly, Hannah Frances, and More

Plus Lande Hekt, Magdalena Bay, Sorry, bar italia, and a Wrap-up of the Last Two Weeks’ Other Notable New Tracks

Oct 17, 2025 By Mark Redfern

Welcome to the 36th Songs of the Week of 2025. We didn’t do a Songs of the Week last week because I was up in Washington, D.C. last Thursday and Friday covering a couple of shows, including Miki Berenyi Trio at Pearl Street Warehouse (read my review here). So this week’s list encompasses the last two weeks’ worth of songs, which was a bit overwhelming to be honest.

This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, and Mark Moody helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 60 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 16.

Of note perhaps: the entire Top 5 are solo artists that are women and mainly from other countries (two from Australia).

We need to close the funding gap for our next issue and are offering 25% off subscriptions, 50% off back issues, and up to 70% off print ads. Find out more here.

Issue 74, The Protest Issue, is out now. It features Kathleen Hannah and Bartees Strange on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.

In recent weeks we posted interviews with Wolf Alice (a digital cover story), Idlewild, Elbow, Baxter Dury (a My Firsts), 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 16 best the last 14 days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.

1. Hatchie: “Only One Laughing”

Hatchie, the shoegaze/dream pop project of Australian musician Harriette Pilbeam, is releasing a new album, Liquorice, on November 7 via Secretly Canadian. Last week she shared its second single, “Only One Laughing.” It’s accompanied by a music video in which Pilbeam works at an amusement park and gloriously sounds like something straight from the early ’90s.

Pilbeam had this to say about the album in a press release: “I wrote ‘Only One Laughing’ to air my frustrations with the state of the world and the position I found myself in at the time (early 2023). I wanted a rollicking song that felt like you were struggling to keep up with me basically ranting about the lack of control I felt over my life.”

Previously Hatchie shared the album’s first single, “Lose It Again,” via a music video. It was one of our Songs of the Week.

Liquorice is Hatchie’s third full-length album and follows Giving the World Away, which was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2022. Melina Duterte (aka Jay Som) helped produce the album.

“This album feels like the culmination of everything I’ve wanted to do with this project since I first started it,” says Pilbeam in a press release. “I focused on the finer details of the trajectory of love found and lost, inspired by my favorite tragic romance films. I’ve never felt more aligned with an album and can’t wait to share the experience with everyone.”

Pilbeam and her longtime bandmate/romantic partner Joe Agius were based in Los Angeles for a time, but decided to stop touring and return to Australia.

“Ultimately, the inspiration for the album came from living a very simple life and having time to reconnect with myself and be alone with my thoughts,” says Pilbeam.

The album was recorded at Duterte’s home studio and features Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint, Courtney Barnett) on drums. Alex Farrar (Wednesday, MJ Lenderman) mixed the album, which was mastered by Greg Obis (Dutch Interior, Slow Pulp, Wishy).

Jeremy McLennan (Orchin) co-wrote “Lose It Again” and Agius directed its video.

“I wanted to see my limitations as strengths that inform my style,” Pilbeam says about embracing her influences on Liquorice.

Read our interview with Hatchie on Giving the World Away here.

Read our rave review of Giving the World Away here.

Giving the World Away is Hatchie’s second full-length album, the follow-up to her acclaimed debut album, Keepsake, which came out in 2019 via Double Double Whammy.

Hatchie was featured on Under the Radar’s 20th anniversary compilation album, Covers of Covers, where she covers HAIM’s “FUBT.”

Read our rave 8.5/10 review of Keepsake here.

Read our 2018 interview with Hatchie on her EP Sugar & Spice.

Read our My Favorite Album interview with Hatchie on Carole King’s Tapestry.

2. Anna von Hausswolff: “Struggle With the Beast”

Swedish musician/composer Anna von Hausswolff is releasing a new album, ICONOCLASTS, on October 31 via YEAR0001. Yesterday she shared another new song from it, “Struggle With the Beast,” which is over eight minutes long. It features Otis Sandsjö on saxophone.

Von Hausswolff had this to say about the single in a press release: “I wrote this song after a close friend experienced a psychosis. There was something unstoppable and completely disconnected about her, as if she were living and reigning in a parallel universe of some kind. She was so far away from the person I knew, as if all of her social barriers had completely dissolved. There was a new, weird brilliance to her way of communicating and being. She had no filters. I’m glad she’s back to normal today, but it made me think of how vulnerable and complex we all are, and that there are layers of unresolved trauma and unspoken truths within everyone.”

Previously von Hausswolff shared two new songs from ICONOCLASTS: “The Whole Woman” (a duet with Iggy Pop) and “Stardust.” “The Whole Woman” was one of our Songs of the Week. The album’s next single, “Facing Atlas,” also landed on Songs of the Week.

The album also features Ethel Cain, Abul Mogard, and Maria von Hausswolff. Von Hausswolff produced the album with longtime collaborator Filip Leyman. Her last studio album, All Thoughts Fly, came out last in 2020 via Southern Lord. In 2022 she released the live album, Live at Montreux Jazz Festival.

3. Stella Donnelly: “Year of Trouble”

Australian singer/songwriter Stella Donnelly is releasing a new album, Love and Fortune, on November 7 via Dot Dash Recordings / Remote Control. Last week she shared its latest single, the honest ballad “Year of Trouble.”

Donnelly had this to say about the song in a press release: “This one is all heart no ego, all pain no gain. I originally tried to make this a dance-floor heartbreak but I was being too ambitious and overthinking it. Julia [Wallace] helped me figure out that I just needed to play it by myself.”

Love and Fortune includes “Standing Ovation” and “Baths,” two songs Donnelly shared in August. “Standing Ovation” was one of our Songs of the Week. When the album was announced she shared “Feel It Change,” also one of our Songs of the Week.

Love and Fortune is Donnelly’s third album and follows 2022’s Flood and 2019’s Beware of the Dogs (both released by Secretly Canadian). It was recorded in Naarm and Melbourne with collaborators both longtime (Marcel Tussie, Jack Gaby, and Julia Wallace) and new (Sophie Ozard, Timothy Harvey, and Ellie Mason). A press release says Love and Fortune features breakup songs.

“These songs wouldn’t leave me alone,” Donnelly says in the press release. “Like seagulls, they screamed at me when I rode to work, they pecked at me while I wrote essays, and they stole my chips the second I thought I was happier without music.”

Read our interview with Stella Donnelly on Beware of the Dogs.

Also read our rave 8.5/10 review of Beware of the Dogs.

4. Hannah Frances: “The Space Between” (Feat. Daniel Rossen)

Hannah Frances released a new album, Nested in Tangles, last week via Fire Talk. Last week she also shared one last pre-release single from the album, “The Space Between,” which features Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear.

Frances had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘The Space Between’ is the culmination point of the album. It is an exploration of surrender without resolve or forgiveness, of living in the spaces left.”

“The Space Between” was accompanied by a music video made by Frances and Vanessa Castro.

Castro had this to say about the video: “In ‘The Space Between’ Hannah Frances performs a modern ballet duet with an avant-garde twist choreographed by New York City Ballet’s Emma Engel. Inspired by Marcel Dzama’s plays and the surrealist imagination of Leonora Carrington, the piece follows Hannah’s younger self, also played by Engel, who guides her through a dialogue with her many parts. These selves are embodied by a cast in animal masks, moving through a dreamlike world that blurs childhood imagination play with the discipline of growing up as a performer.”

Engel adds: “The choreography is dreamlike, built on playful shapes and gestures that return throughout the video. At first the movement is light and silly, but as the two characters grow closer, it transforms into something more powerful and heartfelt. Blending hints of ballet with free and abstract movement. The dance reflects connection, love and the joy of moving in sync with someone else and ultimately yourself.”

Previously Nested in Tangles single “Surviving You” made our Songs of the Week list.

5. Lande Hekt: “Favourite Pair of Shoes”

Last week British indie-pop singer/songwriter Lande Hekt (formerly of Muncie Girls) announced a new album, Lucky Now, due out January 30, 2026 via Tapete. She also shared its lead single, “Favourite Pair of Shoes,” via a music video.

Hekt had this to say about the song in a press release: “I wrote this song when I was listening to a lot of The Bats and The Chills, it probably sounds nothing like any of that Flying Nun stuff but that was what was inspiring me at the time. Despite the lines that lean towards despair, I think this is quite a hopeful song. It’s about rising out of a pit of hopelessness and doing something really positive. The song features my old friend and longtime collaborator Samuel Bedford. We first sang together when we were 16, we recorded a song together for his folk solo project, then we were in an indie rock band together when we were 21 called Selfish Son. Sam sang on my song ‘Kitchen’ in 2020 and now he sings on this song and ‘Coming Home.’ Each of these collaborations are 5 years apart which is tidy.”

Hekt wrote and recorded Lucky Now with producer Matthew Simms (Wire, It Hugs Back).

6. Magdalena Bay: “Human Happens”

This morning, Los Angeles-based electro-pop duo Magdalena Bay released two new songs, “Human Happens” and “Paint Me a Picture.” We were split on which song we liked best, with them both getting a new equal number of votes, so they both make this list. “Human Happens” had the slight edge, with three more points in the vote.

The songs follow two other new songs the band shared in September, “Second Sleep” and “Star Eyes.” Both made our Songs of the Week list.

Magdalena Bay are Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin.

“Here’s another pair of songs that complement each other,” the band collectively say in a press release. “Different than the last, different than the next.”

The recent four songs follow Imaginal Disk, their acclaimed sophomore full-length album released last year on Mom + Pop. It was #1 on our Top 100 Albums of 2024 list. The band recently announced that a movie connected to the album will be released soon. Amanda Kramer directed it and Tenenbaum and Lewin wrote and edited it. The exact release date is TBA.

Stream Imaginal Disk here.

Read our rave 9/10 review of it here.

Read our review of Magdalena Bay’s September 2024 concert at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. here.