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Jun 20, 2025 By Mark Redfern (with Issa Nasatir)

Welcome to the 21st Songs of the Week of 2025. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Issa Nasatir, Scotty Dransfield, and Wendy Redfern helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 40 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 10.

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 Garbage (a digital cover story), Ezra Furman, Florry, Lael Neale, and more.

In the last week we reviewed some albums.

Under the Radar subscriptions are currently 50% off, as are back issues. Check out the sale here.

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. CMAT: “The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station”

This week, Irish artist CMAT shared “The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station,” the third single ahead of her upcoming album EURO-COUNTRY. The album is due out August 29 via AWAL.

“The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station” follows “Running/Planning” and the viral song “Take a Sexy Picture of Me.” Her last full-length was 2023’s Crazymad, For Me.

CMAT spoke on the new song in a press release: “The whole point of the song is actually my annoyance and intolerance and hatred of other people serves absolutely no purpose in my life and is a really bad instinct that I have. So it’s actually a love song for Jamie Oliver, if you think about it. It’s me being like ‘don’t be a bitch and stop judging people for annoyances’”

CMAT also spoke on the making of EURO-COUNTRY: “EURO-COUNTRY is, I think, the best thing I have ever made. I felt halfway through recording it was the most important record I’ve made for myself… mainly because it was making me go crazy. I’m always going to make the work I want to make, because there is a little gremlin in my head that tells me if it’s shit. More than success, there’s a bigger gremlin that wants me to make music that’s really good. She’s brutal and has ruined my life at times, but she is the keeper of my life and she’s always right.”

CMAT is in the midst of a EU/UK and North American tour and is slated to play Glastonbury next week. The tour also includes a slew of shows in record stores across the UK and Dublin.

By Issa Nasatir

2. Nourished By Time: “9 2 5”

This week, Nourished By Time (aka Marcus Brown) shared a new single, “9 2 5,” ahead of his new album, The Passionate Ones, due out August 22 via XL.

The Passionate Ones will be the Baltimore native’s sophomore album, following their acclaimed debut Erotic Probiotic 2 in 2023. Nourished By Time also most recently released the EP Catching Chickens last year.

“9 2 5” captures the life of a young artist thrown against the ropes, attempting to balance artistry and a 9-5 work life without losing hold of their dream within Nourished By Time’s signature nostalgic RnB instrumentals.

Nourished By Time will embark on a 38-date North American and EU/UK tour following the release of The Passionate Ones, beginning with a homecoming show in early September and coming to a close in Ireland at the end of November.

By Issa Nasatir

3. Goon: “Begin Here”

Los Angeles-based four-piece Goon are releasing a new album, Dream 3, on July 11 on Born Loser. This week they shared its third single, “Begin Here,” via a music video.

The band’s Kenny Becker had this to say about the song in a press release: “I had this reversed guitar progression kicking around for a little while, and I showed a demo version to Tamara (bass, vocals) on tour sometime in 2023. She insisted on putting it on the next record. Lyrically, it became a meditation on heartbreak. Feeling like some kind of maimed and dying animal in the middle of a canyon, or something. Tamara was really there for me during that heartbreak so it felt right to mention her in the song.”

Previously the band shared its lead single, “Closer to,” which was one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its second single, “Patsy’s Twin,” via a music video. It was also one of our Songs of the Week.

As its title suggests, Dream 3 is the band’s third album. Goon began as a solo project for singer and multi-instrumentalist Kenny Becker but has since grown to feature Andy Polito on drums, Dillon Peralta on guitar, and Tamara Simons on bass.

The album was born of heartbreak. “I began this record so excited,” says Becker in a press release. “The songwriting was less scripted, letting me loosen up the reins a little and follow whatever idea seemed most interesting. It started off as a really joyful recording process. Then came the most devastating time of my life.”

Album opener “Begin Here” features the lyric “Let me cry to Tamara,” in reference to the band’s bassist. “The song started as a little reversed guitar progression that I had kicking around for a while,” explains Becker. “I showed it to our bass player, Tamara, who had a strong reaction to it and insisted we flesh it out. When I sing, ‘Let me cry to Tamara’ at the end, that’s because it’s what I was doing all the time we were recording it. To me, that song has this sunny, upbeat melody, but it’s coming from a place of total despair. I like that tension.”

By Mark Redfern

4. The Mary Onettes: “Eyes Open” (Feat. Maja Milner)

This week, Sweden’s The Mary Onettes shared two new songs, “Hurricane Heart” and “Eyes Open” (which features Maja Milner of Makthaverskan). The double single is out now on Welfare Sounds. “Eyes Open” was our favorite of the two and makes the main list, with “Hurricane Heart” an honorable mention.

The Mary Onettes are brothers Philip Ekström (vocals, guitar) and Henrik Ekström (bass), alongside Petter Agurén (guitar) and Simon Fransson (drums).

This is the Swedish group’s first release since a string of singles—“Easy Hands,” “Forever Before Love,” “Future Grief,” and “What I Feel In Some Places”—released in 2023. The band made their debut with a self-titled project in 2007 and have since then gone on to release two more full-length projects and the 2014 EP Portico: (which is sometimes described as a full-length album), after which the band has remained relatively quiet since. However, the group promised in a press release that more music is on its way this year.

By Issa Nasatir

5. Just Mustard: “POLLYANNA”

This week, Ireland’s Just Mustard shared a video for their new single “POLLYANNA,” which is out now via Partisan. The band also announced a few additions to their tour dates.

Just Mustard most recently released their 2022 album Heart Under, their second full-length following their debut Wednesday.

Just Mustard is Katie Ball, David Noonan, Mete Kalyon, Rob Clarke, and Shane Maguire.

Ball, who directed the video for “POLLYANNA,” spoke on its process in a press release: “We shot the video using different CCTV and VHS cameras around our hometown Dundalk trying to have as much fun as possible, the kind of fun that makes you feel sick almost instantly, which suits the themes of the song.”

Just Mustard will finish out some festival dates before playing a small show at National Sawdust in New York to kick off a few dates in Germany, France, and the UK.

By Issa Nasatir

6. Baxter Dury: “Return of the Sharp Heads”

British musician Baxter Dury is releasing a new album, Allbarone, on September 12 via Heavenly. This week he shared its second single, “Return of the Sharp Heads.”

Dury had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘Sharp Heads’ is an abstract subconscious rant, criticizing anyone that is from Shoreditch or thereabouts, as I talk from my ivory tower in west London. In that process emerges my own character. It doesn’t always make sense but it makes sense to me.”

Previously Dury shared the album’s first single, title track “Allbarone,” via a music video shot in Venice, Italy. It was one of our Songs of the Week.

Paul Epworth (Adele, Florence + The Machine) produced Allbarone, which was recorded at his Church Studios in London. It follows Dury’s 2023 album, I Thought I Was Better Than You, as well as 2020’s The Night Chancers and 2017’s Prince of Tears.

Read our 2017 interview with Baxter Dury.

By Mark Redfern

7. Guerilla Toss: “Red Flag to Angry Bull” (Feat. Stephen Malkmus)

This week, Guerilla Toss announced a new album, You’re Weird Now, and also shared its lead single “Red Flag to Angry Bull” via Sub Pop. You’re Weird Now is due out September 12 via Sub Pop.

This will be the band’s fifth full-length, following Famously Alive in 2022. You’re Weird Now is produced by Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus and was recorded in Vermont at The Barn, the studio belonging to Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio who also appears on the album. Both Malkmus and Anastasio appear on “Red Flag to Angry Bull,” with Malkmus contributing vocals and Anastasio a guitar solo.

Guerilla Toss have also announced a North American tour to support You’re Weird Now, beginning the day of the album’s release and running through October.

By Issa Nasatir

8. Wednesday: “Wound Up Here (By Holdin On)”

This week Wednesday announced their new album, Bleeds, and shared a video for its second single, “Wound Up Here (By Holdin On).” Bleeds is due out September 19th via Dead Oceans.

“Wound Up Here (By Holdin On)” follows the album’s first single, “Elderberry Wine,” which they performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, making their TV debut. “Elderberry Wine” was also one of our Songs of the Week. Bleeds follows the band’s critically acclaimed Rat Saw God in 2023.

The North Carolina-based band features Xandy Chelmis (lap steel, pedal steel), Alan Miller (drums), Ethan Baechtold (bass, piano), Jake “MJ” Lenderman (guitar), and frontwoman Karly Hartzman.

“This song is inspired by a story my friend told me, from when he had to pull a body out of a creek in West Virginia,” says Hartzman about the new song in a press release. “Someone had drowned but they took a few days to resurface because of the current. ‘I wound up here by holdin on’ is a line from my friend Evan Gray’s poetry book: Thickets Swamped in a Fence-Coated Briars. He gave me and Jake a copy of it to read on tour once and that line stuck out to me as pure genius so I stole it and wrote the rest of the song in my own words around it.”

Hartzman also spoke on the new album. “Bleeds is the spiritual successor to Rat Saw God, and I think the quintessential ‘Wednesday Creek Rock’ album. This is what Wednesday songs are supposed to sound like. We’ve devoted a lot of our lives to figuring this out—and I feel like we did.”

Wednesday will be on tour in support of Bleeds this fall, beginning in late September. The tour is split between a west coast leg aided by Friendship and an east coast run with support from Daffo.

Read our 2022 interview with Wednesday.

Read our review of Rat Saw God.

By Issa Nasatir

9. HAIM: “All over me”

10. Nation of Language: “I’m Not Ready For the Change”

Honorable Mentions:

These songs almost made the Top 10.

Acopia: “Falter”

bar italia: “Cowbella”

Boo Boos: “That’s Not a Thing”

The Dears: “Babe, We’ll Find a Way”

Forth Wanderers: “Bluff”

Steve Gunn: “Slow Singers On The Hill”

Cory Hanson: “Lou Reed”

Mark William Lewis: “Still Above”

The Mary Onettes: “Hurricane Heart”

Cass McCombs: “Peace”

Carson McHone: “Winter Breaking”

Eliza McLamb: “Quitting”

Sydney Minsky: “I Don’t Wanna”

múm: “Mild At Heart”

pôt-pot: “WRSW”

Tom Smith: “Lights of New York City”

Sorry: “JIVE”

Upchuck: “Plastic”

U.S. Girls: “No Fruit”

Vines: “I’ll be here”

Whitelands: “Heat of The Summer”

Winter: “Misery” (Feat. Horse Jumper of Love)

Here’s a handy Spotify playlist featuring the Top 10 in order, followed by all the honorable mentions:

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