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May 10, 2024 By Mark Redfern

Welcome to the 16th Songs of the Week of 2024. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Matt the Raven, and Scott Dransfield helped me decide what should make the list. We seriously considered over 25 songs this week and narrowed it down to a Top 10.

Recently we announced our new print issue, The ’90s Issue, featuring The Cardigans and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth on the covers. Buy it from us directly here.

In the past few weeks we posted interviews with Arab Strap, Sarah McLachlan, John Carpenter, Sunday (1994), Sam Evian, and others.

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 10 best the last seven days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.

1. Miki Berenyi Trio: “Vertigo”

This week, Miki Berenyi Trio—led by the former singer/guitarist with1990s shoegaze, dream pop, and Britpop sensations Lush—shared their debut single, “Vertigo,” via a music video. It comes ahead of the group’s previously announced U.S. tour dates.

After Lush, Berenyi was also in the band Piroshka and for the trio she is backed by two members of that band—Berenyi’s life partner KJ “Moose” McKillop (of ’90s shoegazers Moose) and guitarist Oliver Cherer. McKillop is sitting out the U.S. tour because he doesn’t like to fly due to both environmental concerns and a fear of flying, so bassist Mick Conroy (Modern English and formerly of Piroshka) is standing in.

“‘Vertigo’ is about anxiety and the efforts to talk myself down from the precipice—the usual cheerful stuff,” says Berenyi of the new single in a press release.

Of the recording the song, she adds: “It’s a challenge to not have a drummer, and to use more programming, but the essence of the music is still guitars and melody—as it always has been, particularly in mine and Moose’s bands.”

French director Sébastien Faits-Divers made the “Vertigo” video, filming it in the Consortium Museum (Contemporary Art Center) in Dijon, in one of the Isabella Ducrot exhibition rooms.

On their tour, Miki Berenyi Trio will be performing both Lush and Piroshka songs, as well as some new Miki Berenyi Trio originals, including “Verigo.”

In 2022, Berenyi released her acclaimed memoir, Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success, and the trio was partially born out of the need to perform at book events. Fingers Crossed is now finally available in America via Mango Publishing.

Berenyi does a joint interview with Australian dream pop artist Hatchie in the current issue of our print magazine, The ’90s Issue, where she discusses her memoir and Lush. Buy a copy directly from us here.

Pirohska, which also features former Elastica drummer Justin Welch, released their second studio album, Love Drips and Gathers, in 2021 via Bella Union. Read our interview with them about it here.

Pirsoshka also contributed to our Covers of Covers album in honor our 20th Anniversary, where they covered Grandaddy’s “The Crystal Lake.”

Last year, 4AD reissued Lush’s three full-length studio albums—Spooky (1992), Split (1994), and Lovelife (1996)—on vinyl.

In April, Lush and 4AD also teamed up with The Criterion Channel to release A Far From Home Movie, a new short documentary film on the band based on Super-8 footage filmed by bassist Philip King during their tours from 1992 to 1996.

Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee—which is Lol Tolhurst (formerly of The Cure), Budgie (formerly of Siouxsie and the Banshees), and producer/musician Jacknife Lee—will support most dates. Their debut album together, Los Angeles, came out last November via Play It Again Sam. Read our review of the album.

Berenyi was one of the artists on the cover of our 20th Anniversary Issue.

Read our 2015 interview with Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson of Lush on Lovelife and the final days of the band.

Read our 2015 interview with Lush on Split.

Read our 2016 interview with Lush on their reunion.

2. Good Looks: “Can You See Me Tonight?”

Austin, Texas four-piece Good Looks are releasing a new album, Lived Here For a While, on June 7 via Keeled Scales. This week they shared its third single, “Can You See Me Tonight?,” via a music video.

In a press release frontman Tyler Jordan says the song is about his relationship with his mom and “the connection to why I write songs and perform them, and how it affects my other relationships, turning darkness to light in the process.”

Riley Engemoen directed the song’s video and had this to say in a press release: “My friend Liz and I met Dan & Doris at the Broken Spoke and have since been creating a documentary on them called Forcefield of Love. Dr. Dan is known as ‘Austin’s coolest marriage and family therapist.’ Him and Doris are enamored with one another, always color-coordinated in a honeymoon state. They spend most evenings dancing through Austin’s honky tonks and jazz clubs—blissfully and unabashedly forming a quantum energy field of Love—hypnotizing all of those in their orbit.”

Previously the band shared its first single, “If It’s Gone,” which was one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its second single, “Self-destructor,” via a music video. It was also one of our Songs of the Week.

Lived Here For a While is the band’s second album and the follow-up to 2022’s Bummer Year.

The album was influenced by an accident lead guitarist Jake Ames had just after the band’s hometown record release show for Bummer Year, when he was hit by a car outside the venue and ended up in the hospital with a fractured skull and tailbone, along with short-term memory issues.

“We were in the hospital with him every day,” says frontman Tyler Jordan in a press release. “It wasn’t clear how bad it was gonna be for Jake. We had no idea how this traumatic brain injury would affect him until the swelling went down. We even wondered if we’d ever play music together again.”

Luckily Ames made a full recovery and joined by drummer Phil Dunne and bassist Robert Cherry, they set out to record Lived Here For a While at Texas’ Dandy Sounds with producer/engineer Dan Duszynski (of Loma and Cross Record). Harrison Anderson has since joined the band as their new bassist.

3. Dehd: “Dog Days”

Chicago trio Dehd released a new album, Poetry, today via Fat Possum. Earlier this week they shared its fourth single, “Dog Days,” via a one-take video.

The band’s Jason Balla had this to say about the song in a press release: “This song is a celebration for the messiness of life and the search for companionship. It’s about opening your heart and letting it be pummeled. It’s taking risks, receiving rejection, dealing out disappointment. It’s about being brave and sometimes making bad decisions. It seems like everyone I know is out here grasping at love and often, fucking it up, breaking hearts and having ours broken along the way. It’s just the rules of the game and I wanted to make an anthem for people on the same rollercoaster, just trying their best, losing fast and loving hard.”

Previously the band shared the album’s first single, “Mood Ring,” via a music video. It was one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its second single, “Light On.” The album’s third single was “Alien.”

Poetry is the follow-up to 2022’s Blue Skies (also on Fat Possum) and 2020’s Flower of Devotion (which was released by Fire Talk).

Dehd is Emily Kempf, Jason Balla, and Eric McGrady. After they finished touring Blue Skies, the band embarked on some writing sessions in remote locations. “Eating, sleeping, breathing, living—our only purpose was to write,” says Kempf in a press release.

Ziyad Asrar of Whitney co-produced the album alongside Balla, recording at Palisade Studios in Chicago. Charles Bukowski’s poem “The Laughing Heart” inspired the album.

Read our interview with Dehd on Flower of Devotion.

4. Sour Widows: “Staring Into Heaven/Shining”

Bay Area trio Sour Widows are releasing their debut album, Revival of a Friend, on June 28 via Exploding In Sound. This week they shared its latest single, the over eight-minute long “Staring Into Heaven/Shining,” via a music video. It’s the album’s closing track.

The band’s Susanna Thomson had this to say about the song in a press release: “After my mom passed in late June of 2021, I went on a trip in August of that year in an attempt to put physical distance between myself and the pain of what I had just experienced. I was searching for relief wherever I thought I could find it; ultimately, that trip taught me that grief cannot be outrun. ‘Staring Into Heaven/Shining’ is a confessional song, written at a time when I was desperate to gain control over my life through ideas I had about grieving the ‘right’ way. As I tried and failed to reconcile feelings of regret and unanswerable questions, it became clearer to me that all I can do is choose to simply observe the experience of grief. The lyrics are searching, but come to their natural end in a place without resolution; it wasn’t until after finishing the song that I realized there can be hope in accepting that there are things we cannot know about death.”

Previously the band shared the album’s first single, “Cherish.”

5. Jay Som: “If I Could”

The new A24 film, I Saw the TV Glow, was released to select theaters last week and today the soundtrack was released. It features new songs by Bartees Strange, Jay Som, The Weather Station, Proper., Sloppy Jane featuring Phoebe Bridgers, Florist, Caroline Polachek, and more. Stream the whole thing here.

Jay Som’s “If I Could” was one of our favorites of the tracks not yet released as a single.

Previously we posted Polachek’s contribution to the soundtrack, “Starburned and Unkissed.” Alex G’s original score for the film is coming out on May 16.

Jane Schoenbrun directs I Saw the TV Glow, which is the follow-up to their acclaimed 2021 film, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. The horror film stars Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine, with Ian Foreman, Helena Howard, Fred Durst, Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan, and Danielle Deadwyler in supporting roles. Bridgers and Sloppy Jane also appear in the film as themselves.

6. Ducks Ltd.: “When You’re Outside”

Toronto-based duo Ducks Ltd. released a new album, Harm’s Way, in February via Carpark. This week they shared a new song, “When You’re Outside,” that was recorded during the Harm’s Way sessions but didn’t end up on the album. It features backing harmonies from Julia Steiner (of Ratboys) and Margaret McCarthy (of Moontype).

Ducks Ltd. is Tom McGreevy and Evan Lewis.

McGreevy had this to say about the single in a press release: “This was one we wrote pretty early in the process for Harm’s Way, which was a period when a lot of country-leaning ideas were working their way into our arrangements. I’d demoed the harmonies in the chorus (badly), and when we were working on backing vocals with Julia and Margaret they immediately understood what we were trying to do and really elevated it. The song didn’t end up quite fitting in the sequence for the album, but it does a couple things we’ve never done before in a Ducks song so I’m glad we’re finding a way to put it out. It’s about trying to support someone who is making that difficult to do. Unconditional love in a sense. Or at least love with limited conditions.”

Harm’s Way is the follow-up to Modern Fiction, which came out in 2021 via Carpark and was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2021.

McGreevy had this to say about the rest of the tracks on the album in a previous press release: “They’re songs about struggling. About watching people I care for suffer, and trying to figure out how to be there for them. And about the strain of living in the world when it feels like it’s ready to collapse.”

Ducks Ltd. previously shared the album’s first single “The Main Thing,” via a music video. “The Main Thing” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its second single, “Hollowed Out,” via a music video (it was also one of our Songs of the Week). The album’s third single, “Train Full of Gasoline,” was also one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared the album’s fourth single, “Heavy Bag,” via a lyric video. It was also one of our Songs of the Week.

Dave Vettraino (Deeper, Lala Lala, Dehd) produced the album, which was recorded in Chicago.

Read our The End interview with Tom McGreevy.

7. Hinds: “Boom Boom Back” (Feat. Beck)

This week, Madrid-based band Hinds announced a new album, VIVA HINDS, and shared a new song from it, “Boom Boom Back,” which features Beck. They also announced some North American tour dates. VIVA HINDS also features Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten and is due out September 6 via Lucky Number. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as the tour dates, here.

VIVA HINDS features “Coffee,” a new song the band shared in February. VIVA HINDS is the band’s first album since becoming a duo again. Hinds was founded by co-vocalists and co-guitarists Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote in 2011, but for most of their career they’ve been a four-piece. Ade Martin and Amber Grimbergen left the band in 2022, returning them to a duo.

Pete Robertson (The Vaccines, beabadoobee) produced the album, which was mixed by Caesar Edmunds (The Killers, Wet Leg) and engineered by Tom Roach. It was recorded in rural France.

“This isn’t a rational album, this is made with emotions, in no specific order,” Cosials says in a press release. “We never sat down to think what we should write about, we sat down to write about what we were going through. We didn’t choose a ‘new look,’ we didn’t wanna pretend to be mature, or appear as a more sophisticated band. To me it is cohesive, but it’s not a fairy tale or a brainy narrative. It’s heart-driven.”

Of keeping the band going despite the line-up change and other challenges (the pandemic, no label), Cosials says: “We started the band because we are so safe and comfortable with each other. Our relationship is unbreakable. This connection between us hasn’t changed since the very beginning. We still finish each other’s ideas, laugh at each other’s jokes and rhyme each other’s lines. Maintaining that enthusiasm for music and for Hinds through the years may seem extremely difficult to find, but it’s something that only can happen with your very best friend.”

Hinds’ last album, The Prettiest Curse, came out in 2020. Read our interview with the band about it.

8. Bartees Strange: “Big Glow”

Another previously unreleased song from the I Saw the TV Glow soundtrack we liked was “Big Glow” by Bartees Strange.

Bartees Strange released a new album, Farm to Table, in 2022 via 4AD. It was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2022. Stream it here and read our review of it here.

Read our interview with Strange on Live Forever.

9. Bonny Light Horseman: “Old Dutch”

Bonny Light Horseman are releasing a new double album, Keep Me on Your Mind/See You Free, on June 7 via Jagjaguwar. This week they shared its third single, “Old Dutch,” via a lyric video.

Bonny Light Horseman is Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson, and Josh Kaufman. Kaufman produced the album, which was partially recorded at Levis (pronounced: “leh-viss”) Corner House, which is a century-old pub in Ballydehob, County Cork in Ireland. JT Bates (drums), Cameron Ralston (bass), and recording engineer Bella Blasko joined them in those sessions. The album was finished Dreamland Recording Studios in Upstate New York, which is where they completed their first two albums. Those sessions included Mike Lewis on bass and tenor saxophone and Annie Nero on upright bass and harmonies.

The band collectively had this to say about “Old Dutch” in a press release: “This song began as a backstage voice memo when we were performing at the Old Dutch Church in Kingston, NY, so iPhone named it for us. It came together fast with the three of us just finger-painting until there it was. It took a few fits and starts before we realized that it should be a duet and–importantly–a conversation. We recorded it live at Levis’ and when the whole crowd started singing ‘yeah I got a feelin,’ we all experienced a moment of collective lift-off. Josh looked over at Joe’s [bar owner] partner Caroline behind the bar, eyes wide open, arms outstretched, singing along and deeply feeling it. We’d never had that kind of moment tracking a song for a record before, seeing and feeling the connection (beyond the musicians in the room) in real-time as it’s all going to tape. It feels like this recording has some of that ‘real-life’ energy to it.”

The album includes “When I Was Younger,” a new song the band shared in February that was one of our Songs of the Week. When the album was announced they shared its second single, “I Know You Know,” via their first ever music video.

Bonny Light Horseman’s last album, Rolling Golden Holy, came out in 2022 via 37d03d.

Kaufman is also a member of Muzz (read our interview with them).

10. Wand: “Smile”

This week, psych-rockers Wand announced a new album, Vertigo, and shared its first single, “Smile,” via a music video. Vertigo is due out July 26 via Drag City.

Cory Hanson leads the band, which also features Evan Backer, Evan Burrows, and Robbie Cody. The album was formed from 50 hours of live improvisations. Vertigo follows 2019’s Laughing Matter.

Honorable Mentions:

These songs almost made the Top 10.

Amen Dunes: “Rugby Child”

beabadoobee: “Take a Bite”

The Bug Club: “Quality Pints”

John Cale: “Shark-Shark”

Cola: “Albatross”

Efterklang: “Plant”

fantasy of a broken heart: “Ur Heart Stops”

Kaeto: “HERO”

Martha Skye Murphy: “Pick Yourself Up”

Proper.: “The 90s”

Quivers: “Apparition”

The Weather Station: “Moonlight”

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

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