16 Best Songs of the Week: Wet Leg; Destroyer; Emma-Jean Thackray; Black Country, New Road; and More

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16 Best Songs of the Week: Wet Leg; Destroyer; Emma-Jean Thackray; Black Country, New Road; and More

Plus Cass McCombs, Momma, St. Vincent, and a Wrap-up of the Last Two Weeks’ Other Notable New Tracks

Apr 04, 2025 By Mark Redfern

Welcome to the 10th Songs of the Week of 2025. This week’s list covers the last two weeks, as I was out of town last Friday. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Matt the Raven, Scotty Dransfield, and Stephen Humphries helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 50 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 16, since it covers two weeks.

Recently 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.

In recent weeks we posted interviews with Black Country, New Road (a digital cover story); Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers; girlpuppy; Lonnie Holley; Japanese Breakfast (a digital cover story); The Horrors; Pictoria Vark; and more.

In the last week we reviewed some albums.

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 two weeks, we have picked the 16 best the last seven days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.

1. Wet Leg: “catch these fists”

Earlier this week, Wet Leg announced their much anticipated sophomore album, moisturizer, and shared its first single, “catch these fists,” via a self-directed music video. Moisturizer is due out July 11 via Domino.

On Wednesday the band performed “catch these fists” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Moisturizer is the follow-up to 2022’s self-titled debut album, which was the #1 album on our Top 100 Albums of 2022 list and netted the band three Grammys. Wet Leg landed at #1 on the official UK album chart and in America also made it to #14 on the Billboard 200 album chart (and at #4 on the Billboard Album Sales Chart). Wet Leg also debuted at #1 on the Australian album chart. The album was nominated for the Mercury Prize. The band’s debut single, “Chaise Longue,” was #1 on our Top 130 Songs of 2021 list and was a viral hit.

Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers lead Wet Leg and they are backed by Ellis Durand (bass), Henry Holmes (drums), and Joshua Mobaraki (guitar, synth). The band from Isle of Wight, England once again worked with producer Dan Carey and this time all five members have writing credits on the LP. Wet Leg decided to build off the strength of their live shows with moisturizer. “We were just kind of having fun and exploring,” says Chambers in a press release. Teasdale adds: “We focussed on: Is this going to be fun to play live? It was very natural that we would write the second record together.”

A big influence on the album’s lyrics was Teasdale falling in love in 2021, which led to her writing a number of love songs. “I thought I was straight all of my life until I met my current partner—these love songs are about them,” Teasdale explains. “I just found it so much more interesting and empowering to be writing love songs where I’m not lusting over a man—it feels a little bit different.”

Read our 2021 interview with Wet Leg on “Chaise Longue.”

Read our 2022 interview with Wet Leg on their album here.

Read our rave review of Wet Leg here.

2. Destroyer: “Dan’s Boogie”

Destroyer (the project of Dan Bejar) released a new album, Dan’s Boogie, last week via Merge. When the album was released he shared the album’s title track, “Dan’s Boogie,” via a music video.

Colette Arrand directed the “Dan’s Boogie” video and had this to say about it in a press release: “I love headshots—they say a lot about the people who own them and almost nothing about their subjects. If you spend time in flea markets or convention centers or sandwich shops, you’re bound to see a headshot or two. I kept seeing one—Dan Bejar’s—often in places it shouldn’t have been. That probably says more about me than it does Dan.”

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. Then he shared its second single, “Hydroplaning Off the Edge of the World,” via a music video. It was also one of our Songs of the Week. Its third single, the eight-minute long “Cataract Time,” also landed on 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.

3. Emma-Jean Thackray: “Maybe Nowhere”

Emma-Jean Thackray is releasing a new album, Weirdo, on April 25 via Brownswood Recordings in conjunction with Parlophone and East West Records. Last week, she shared its latest single, “Maybe Nowhere,” via a music video.

Thackray had this to say about the song in a press release: “After losing my partner I didn’t want to be here anymore, but hiding these feelings and thinking you’re a burden is what makes them even more dangerous. You need a place to explore these feelings and for me that’s music—my safe space. This song is a diary of when those feelings for me were at their worst, and the cavernous ending is wondering what it sounds like to die. Making this song, this album, is why it’s a wondering and not a reality; it saved my life.”

4. Black Country, New Road: “For the Cold Country”

England’s Black Country, New Road released a new album, Forever Howlong, today via Ninja Tune. Last week they released its third single, “For the Cold Country.”

Read our rave review of Forever Howlong.

Read our new digital cover story interview with the band.

The band previously released the album’s first single, “Besties,” which was one of our Songs of the Week. Then they released its second single, “Happy Birthday,” via a stop-motion animated video. It was also one of our Songs of the Week.

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).

Ellery wrote “Besties,” whereas Hyde wrote “Happy Birthday.” “For the Cold Country” is the first single from the album to feature May Kershaw on lead vocals.

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” was 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.

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.

5. Cass McCombs: “Priestess”

Last week, singer/songwriter Cass McCombs shared a new song, “Priestess,” and also performed it during his Tiny Desk Concert for NPR Music. He also performed “County Line,” “Robin Egg Blue,” and “Opium Flower.” “Priestess” is out now via Domino.

In his Tiny Desk Concert McCombs was joined by Brian Betancourt (bass), Frank LoCrasto (keyboards), and Austin Vaughn (drums). McCombs recorded the song in Northern California, working with Jason Quever (Papercuts) and Chris Cohen.

McCombs’ last album was 2022’s Heartmind, released by ANTI-.

Read our 2016 interview with Cass McCombs.

6. Momma: “Rodeo”

Brooklyn-based band Momma released a new album, Welcome to My Blue Sky, today via Polyvinyl/Lucky Number. Earlier this week they shared the album’s fourth single, “Rodeo,” via a music video. Richard Phillip Smith directed the video.

Momma is Etta Friedman (songwriter/vocalist/guitarist), Allegra Weingarten (songwriter/vocalist/guitarist), Aron Kobayashi Ritch (producer/bassist), and Preston Fulks (drummer).

Friedman and Weingarten collectively had this to say about “Rodeo” in a press release: “This song is written from the perspective of two people we kind of left behind, romantically. It’s our attempt at honoring their stories by tapping into the feeling of being replaced by someone else. We made the video with Richard Smith, who had the idea to put us on an ice rink and have someone skating around us, with a bull chasing her. It’s supposed to replicate the idea of being in the center of the ring of a rodeo, and feeling like someone is doing laps around you and you just can’t keep up.”

Welcome to My Blue Sky includes “Ohio All the Time,” a new song the band shared in October that was one of our Songs of the Week. When the album was announced the band released its next single, “I Want You (Fever),” which was #1 on our Songs of the Week. Then they shared the album’s third single, “Bottle Blonde,” via a music video self-directed by the band. “Bottle Blonde” was again one of our Songs of the Week.

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.

Read our review of Household Name.

7. St. Vincent: “DOA”

Last week, St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) shared a new song, “DOA.” It is featured in the new A24 film Death of a Unicorn, which hit theaters last Friday.

Death of a Unicorn stars Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Will Poulter, Téa Leoni, and Richard E. Grant. It was written and directed by Alex Scharfman.

St. Vincent released a new album, All Born Screaming, last year via Virgin Music Group. It was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2024. All Born Screaming followed 2021’s Daddy’s Home and MASSEDUCTION (which made it to #3 on our Top 100 Albums of 2017 list).