14 Best Songs of the Week: Ela Minus, Kassie Krut, The Weather Station, Lauren Mayberry, and More

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14 Best Songs of the Week: Ela Minus, Kassie Krut, The Weather Station, Lauren Mayberry, and More 

Plus The Smile, Bartees Strange, Waxahatchee, Cheekface, and a Wrap-up of the Week’s Other Notable New Tracks

Oct 04, 2024 By Mark Redfern (with Andy Von Pip)

Welcome to the 32nd Songs of the Week of 2024. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Marina Malin, Matt the Raven, Scotty Dransfield, and Stephen Humphries helped me decide what should make the list. It was a very strong week for new tracks, so we considered over 30 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 14.

Issue 73 is out now. It features Maya Hawke and Nilüfer Yanya on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.

In recent weeks we posted interviews with Nada Surf, Hinds, Oceanator, La Luz, Hamish Hawk, “Weird Al” Yankovic, 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 14 best the last seven days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.

1. Ela Minus: “BROKEN”

This week, Colombian artist Ela Minus officially announced her upcoming album, DIA, set for release on January 17, 2025, via Domino. The announcement came with the launch of her new single and music video, “BROKEN.”

Following her acclaimed 2020 debut, acts of rebellion, DIA represents a significant evolution in Ela’s oeuvre. The album blends innovative production techniques with a more profound sense of self-reflection, moving beyond the intimate energy of her debut to explore broader themes. After spending three years crafting snippets of songs across Colombia, Mexico, and various locations in North America and Europe, Ela recognized the need for greater honesty in her lyrics.

The album’s lead track, “ABRIR MONTE,” introduces DIA with lush tones that evoke the idea of opening new paths. Ela describes the phrase as a common expression in her homeland, symbolizing exploration and growth. The single “BROKEN” follows, featuring vibrant synthesizers and a danceable beat while addressing themes of suffering and resilience. Ela comments, “I started writing this thinking I was perfectly fine and finished writing knowing I was not.” By Andy Von Pip

2. Kassie Krut: “Reckless”

Kassie Krut is a newish band and this week they announced that they have signed to Fire Talk and they also released a new single, “Reckless,” via a music video. The trio features former members of Palm, Mothers, and Body Meat. Guy Kozak directed the “Reckless” video.

Kassie Krut started out as a solo project for former Palm member Kasra Kurt, but grew into a full fledged band also featuring Eve Alpert (also of Palm) and Matt Anderegg (Mothers, Body Meat). Palm was a Philadelphia math-rock band that disbanded in 2023.

Krut had this to say about the single in a press release: “‘Reckless’ is an exercise in restraint. We challenged ourselves to write a song with one bass note, one drum beat and just a couple simple chords. Sometimes we experience self-doubt so it was fun to create a tougher version of ourselves—someone who’s fast and mean—as well as playing with the misconception that Kassie is an individual and not a band. Also our project name is a little strange so we took the opportunity to spell it out for the listener.”

The “Reckless” video was filmed in part at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kozak had this to say about directing the video: “The idea of a museum visit came early on, as did the idea of the name spelled out with hands and signage. I like that the track works as a sort of introduction to the band, and I wanted the video to work in a similar way. I love this song!” By Mark Redfern

3. The Weather Station: “Neon Signs”

This week, The Weather Station (the project of Toronto-based singer/songwriter Tamara Lindeman) announced a new album, Humanhood, and shared its first single, “Neon Signs.” Humanhood is due out January 17, 2025 via Fat Possum. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork and some upcoming UK and EU tour dates here.

Lindeman co-directed the “Neon Signs” video with Jared Raab.

“I wrote ‘Neon Signs’ at a moment of feeling confused, upside down, at that moment when even desire falls away, and dissociation cuts you loose from a story that while wrong, still held things together,” Lindeman says in a press release. “The song came with multiple strands entwined; the way that something that is not true seems to have more energetic intensity than something that is, the confusion of being bombarded with advertising at a moment of climate emergency, the confusion of relationships where coercion is wrapped in the language of love. Ultimately though, isn’t it all the same feeling?”

Humanhood follows 2021’s Ignorance and 2022’s companion album, How Is It That I Should Look At the Stars.

Linderman co-produced Humanhood with Marcus Paquin, recording it in the fall of 2023 at Canterbury Music Company. The main backing band on the album is drummer Kieran Adams, keyboardist Ben Boye, percussionist Philippe Melanson, reed-and-wind specialist Karen Ng, and bassist Ben Whiteley. The album also features Sam Amidon, James Elkington, and Joseph Shabason. Joseph Lorge mixed the album.

Read our 2021 interview with The Weather Station. By Mark Redfern

4. Lauren Mayberry: “Something in the Air”

Earlier this week, Lauren Mayberry, singer with Scottish electro-pop trio CHVRCHES, announced her debut solo album, Vicious Creature, and shared a new song from it, “Something in the Air.” The exact release date for the album has yet to be announced, only that it will be out later this year on Island. The tracklist and cover artwork also have yet to be shared.

“‘Something in the Air’ is a song that really came out of nowhere,” explains Mayberry in a press release. “I was in London finishing another song with my friend, co-writer and producer Dan McDougall. We were taking a break in the shared kitchen in the studio complex when a pretty iconic British musician, who I won’t throw under the bus here, came in and started making conversation about electricity, 5G and how it’s making us all sick. Dan and I went for a walk around the block before going back to the studio and were unpacking those theories, and why people want to believe them—and the chorus lyric just appeared.”

A press release describes the album in greater detail: “Vicious Creature is both a startling new era in Lauren Mayberry’s artistry, and the culmination of two decades of the band life that came before. Across its songs she writes about sexuality and empowerment from a profoundly personal perspective for the very first time, reconnecting with the icons of her youth in Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, PJ Harvey, and Kathleen Hanna, and with the influence of ’90s British girl groups like All Saints and Sugababes.”

Mayberry’s debut solo single, “Are You Awake?,” was released in September 2024 and was one of our Songs of the Week. Then in October 2024 she shared her second solo single, “Shame,” which also made an appearance on our Songs of the Week list. In March she released her third solo single, “Change Shapes.” There’s no word yet if these songs are included on Vicious Creature.

CHVRCHES are signed to Island in America and EMI in England. The band’s last album was 2021’s Screen Violence, which came out via Glassnote.

Mayberry was one of the artists on the cover of our 20th Anniversary Issue in which she was interviewed about Screen Violence. Buy the issue from us directly here.

CHVRCHES were on the cover of one of our print issues in 2015 and you can read the in-depth 8-page 5,600-word cover story feature on the band here. You can also read our bonus digital magazine Q&A with them here. By Mark Redfern

5. The Smile: “Bodies Laughing”

The Smile (Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, and Sons of Kemet’s Tom Skinner) released a new album, Cutouts, today via XL Recordings. Earlier this week they shared another new song from it, “Bodies Laughing,” via a visualiser video that looks like an 8-bit zombie video game.

Cutouts is the band’s third album and the quick follow-up to Walls of Eyes, which came out in January. In fact, Cutouts was recorded during the same period as Wall of Eyes. It was recorded in Oxford and at Abbey Road Studios in London. The album features string arrangements by the London Contemporary Orchestra. Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke painted the album’s cover artwork while making the album.

The album includes “Don’t Get Me Started,” a new song the band shared earlier this month that was one of our Songs of the Week. When the album was announced the band released two new singles from it, “Zero Sum” and “Foreign Spies,” via music videos. Both tracks made our Songs of the Week list.

Read our rave review of Walls of Eyes. By Mark Redfern

6. Bartees Strange: “Sober”

Bartees Strange has announced a new album, Horror, and shared a new song from it, “Sober,” via a music video. Horror is due out February 14 via 4AD. Below check out “Sober,” followed by the album’s tracklist and cover artwork.

Strange produced “Sober” with Jack Antonoff, Yves Rothman, and Lawrence Rothman. He had this to say about it in a press release: “This song is about falling short in a relationship, over and over and drinking because of it. I think this is something a lot of people can probably relate to. Being in love, but not being the best at showing it or feeling successful within it. And being afraid that this is something you’ll always deal with because you never really saw a better example of how love works.”

Strange first worked on the album with Yves and Lawrence Rothman, before finishing it with Antonoff after he worked with Antonoff’s band Bleachers.

A press release says the album is about “facing your fears and becoming feared.”

The press release adds: “Strange was raised on fear. His family told scary stories to teach life lessons, and at an early age, he started watching scary movies to practice being strong. The world can be a terrifying place, and for a young, queer, Black person in rural America, that terror can be visceral. Horror is an album about facing those fears and growing to become someone to be feared.”

Strange further elaborates: “In a way I think I made this record to reach out to people who may feel afraid of things in their lives too. For me it’s love, locations, cosmic bad luck, or that feeling of doom that I’ve struggled with for as long as I can remember. I think that it’s easier to navigate the horrors and strangeness of life once you realize that everyone around you feels the same. This album is just me trying to connect. I’m trying to shrink the size of the world. I’m trying to feel close—so I’m less afraid.”

Horror includes “Lie 95,” a new song that Strange released in July.

Horror is Strange’s third album and the follow-up to 2022’s Farm to Table and 2020’s Live Forever.

Strange first garnered attention for covering a string of The National tracks, including on Say Goodbye to Pretty Boy, his EP of National covers released in 2020 on Brassland, a label run by members of the band. He was born in Ipswich, England, but grew up in Mustang, a largely the white and conservative rural town outside Oklahoma City, before launching his music career in Washington, D.C. In between he also worked in the Obama administration.

Read our interview with Strange on Live Forever. By Mark Redfern