13 Best Songs of the Week: Elbow, Doves, Saint Etienne, Squid, and More
Nov 15, 2024
Welcome to the 37th Songs of the Week of 2024. We didn’t do a Songs of the Week last week because we were still reeling from the election results and also artists, labels, and publicists were smart enough not to release too many songs last week. This week’s list thus covers the last two weeks and having said all that, the Top 2 songs were actually released last week (and are both bands from Manchester, England). We’re also partying like it’s 2001, as the Top 3 artists this week were all going strong in the early 2000s.
This week Andy Von Pip, Matt the Raven, Scotty Dransfield, and Stephen Humpries helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 30 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 13.
Issue 73 is out now. It features Maya Hawke and Nilüfer Yanya on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last two weeks, we have picked the 13 best the last 14 days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below. By Mark Redfern
1. Elbow: “Adriana Again”
Elbow released a new album, AUDIO VERTIGO, in March via Polydor/Geffen. Last week they returned with a brand new single, “Adrianna Again,” which is said to be from a yet to be officially announced new EP due out next year. The single is accompanied by a cheeky music video, as it features a completely different band performing the song. The band in question is Novacane, who are a new band also from Manchester.
Last week, Manchester-based trio Doves announced a new album, Constellations For the Lonely, and shared a new song from it, “Renegade,” via a music video. Constellations For the Lonely is due out on February 14, 2025 via EMI North. Hingston Studio directed the “Renegade” video. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork here.
Constellations For the Lonely is the band’s sixth album and follows 2020’s The Universal Want, which was their first album in 11 years after an eight-year hiatus. The band launched writing and recording sessions for the new album as early as 2020.
Doves is Jimi Goodwin (lead vocals, bass) and brothers Andy Williams (drums, vocals) and Jez Williams (guitar, vocals).
The band wrote, recorded, and produced the album in Greater Manchester, North Wales, and Cheshire. Long-term collaborator Dan Austin contributed additional production.
Andy Williams had this to say in a press release: “Looking at everyone’s lives over recent years, and considering the news at the moment, ‘Renegade’ feels a lot more loaded in retrospect. We wanted to go for a dystopian feel, thinking about Manchester itself over the next century or so. A totally imaginary thing… Blade Runner set in our home city.”
Doves have released five albums: 2000’s Lost Souls, 2002’s The Last Broadcast, 2005’s Some Cities, 2009’s Kingdom of Rust, and 2020’s The Universal Want.
We go way back with Doves, they were interviewed about Lost Souls in our very first print issue in 2001 and we have covered every album since.
3. Saint Etienne: “Half Life”
This week, British indie-pop trio Saint Etienne announced a new album, The Night, and shared its lead single, “Half Life.”The Night is due out December 13 via Heavenly. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork here.
The Night is intended to be an immersive album listened to in one sitting. A press release describes the album like so: “The Night delivers an ambient escape from the chaos of daily life, capturing the essence of the after-hours. The album takes listeners through layered tranquility, offering calm to restless minds and a gentle respite from modern life’s relentless pace.”
Saint Etienne produced The Night in collaboration with composer and producer Augustin Bousfield. They recorded it from January to August 2024 in two locations in Saltaire and Hove. The album follows 2021’s I’ve Been Trying to Tell You.
The band’s Pete Wiggs had this to say about the album in a press release: “It was great to all be in the same studio together again up at Gus’s in Bradford, we realized that it had been several years since we’d actually done that, sprawling out on the carpet, mugs of coffee in hand, sheets of lyrics and half ideas for titles lying around us.
“We wanted to continue the mellow and spacey mood of the last album, perhaps even double down on it, but it’s a very different album, not based on samples; songs, moods and spoken pieces drift in and out whilst rain pours down outside. It’s the kind of record I like to listen to in the dark or with my eyes closed.
“‘Half Light’ is about the edge of night, the last rays of the sun flickering through the branches of trees, communing with nature and seeing things that might not be there.”
Saint Etienne’s singer Sarah Cracknell says: “It was so good to be back in the studio together after recording the last album remotely. One of my favorite songs on the record is ‘Preflyte,’ it made me cry when I sang it for the first time.”
The band’s Bob Stanley adds: “We wanted The Night to be a calming album, warm and serene, but at the same time we wanted to create something gorgeous and dense.
“We were trying to find the state that’s between being awake and asleep, that dream space, with half forgotten thoughts drifting in, bits of TV dialogue, place names, streets, or football grounds you’ve never even been to. You feel very receptive to sound and half-covered memories when you’re in that state.
“Rain noise runs right through it. It was designed to gently wash away the stuff in your head that keeps you awake at 2am.
“I think The Night sounds really three-dimensional. A lot of that is down to Gus Bousfield who played the guitars and did a wonderful production job. Recording it in his studio, with so much light and space, has helped to shape it too. The three of us brought in our own songs, but lyrically we were all in tune with each other without having to swap notes first.
“You could think of it as one continuous, single track. It’s definitely a headphone album.”
This week, British experimental post-punk five-piece Squid announced a new album, Cowards, and shared its lead single, album opener “Crispy Skin,” via a music video. They have also announced some tour dates. Cowards is due out February 7, 2025 via Warp. Takashi Ito directed the “Crispy Skin” video. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as the tour dates, here.
Cowards is Squid’s third album and the follow-up to 2023’s O Monolith and 2001’s debut album, Bright Green Field. Squid features Louis Borlase, Ollie Judge, Arthur Leadbetter, Laurie Nankivell, and Anton Pearson.
Cowards was recorded at Church Studios in Crouch End, London with Mercury prize winning producer Marta Salogni and Grace Banks. Longtime collaborator Dan Carey, who recorded the band’s first two albums, provided additional production. John McEntire (of Tortoise) mixed the album and Heba Kadry mastered it.
Judge had this to say about the new single in a press release: “‘Crispy Skin’ was lyrically inspired by a dystopian novel Tender Is The Flesh I read where cannibalism becomes the societal norm and humans are manufactured and sold in supermarkets. I think when most people read books like these they picture themselves as the sort of person that would take the moral high-ground within these narratives. The track was written about how the reality of having a moral-compass in these stories of desperation and horror would be extremely difficult. If I was actually in that world, I probably would be the coward in this instance.”
Takashi Ito, whose video for the song is an adaptation of his award-winning experimental 1995 short film Zone, had this to say about the video: “A film about a man without a face. His arms and legs bound with ropes, still without even a quiver in a white room. This man, enwrapped in wild delusions, is also a reconstruction of myself. A series of unusual scenes in this room that expresses what lies inside me. I tried to create a connection between memories, nightmares and violent images.”
Of the new album, Borlase says: “We were thinking of an album of great songwriting. Simple ideas that resonate in a very different way to O Monolith, which was dense and complex.”
Judge adds: “Touring fed into this record in a way that I didn’t initially realize. Every song has a specific place anchored to it, places that all five of us have visited together, like New York, Tokyo, and Eastern Europe.”
In January, 2024 Squid shared a new song, “Fugue (Bin Song),” which was recorded during the O Monolith sessions.
This week, British shoegazers bdrmm announced a new album, Microtonic, and shared its lead single, “Half Life.”Microtonic is due out February 28, 2025 via Rock Action. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as the band’s upcoming tour dates, here.
Vocalist and guitarist Ryan Smith had this to say about the new single in a press release: “The themes surrounding ‘John on the Ceiling’ are that of confusion and doubt. When something ends and another starts, you lure yourself into a false sense of security that the mistakes made won’t happen again. This happens over and over until you are paralyzed in limbo. Can people ever truly change?”
Microtonic is the Hull-based band’s third album and the follow-up to 2023’s I Don’t Know. The new album features Sydney Minsky Sargeant of Working Men’s Club and Olivesque of Nightbus.
Smith had this to add about the album: “I felt very constrained writing a certain type of music to fit the genre [we were known for] but something lifted and I felt more free to create what I want. And what I seem to be doing at the moment is a lot of electronic music—taking influence from different spans of electronica, from dance music to ambient and more experimental sources.”
Bdrmm is Ryan Smith (guitar, vocals), Jordan Smith (bass, synth and vocals), Conor Murray (drums), and Joe Vickers (guitar).
10 Best Songs of the Week: Ducks Ltd., Haley Heynderickx, Confidence Man, Heartworms, and More
Oct 18, 2024
Welcome to the 34th Songs of the Week of 2024. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Mark Moody, Matt the Raven, and Scotty Dransfield helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 20 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 10.
Issue 73 is out now. It features Maya Hawke and Nilüfer Yanya on the two covers and can be bought from us directly 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. Ducks Ltd.: “Grim Symmetry”
Toronto-based duo Ducks Ltd. released a new album, Harm’s Way, in February via Carpark. This week they shared a new song, “Grim Symmetry,” 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).
“Grim Symmetry” follows “When You’re Outside,” another new song the band shared in May that was also recorded during the Harm’s Way sessions.
Ducks Ltd. is Tom McGreevy and Evan Lewis.
“This is actually one of our older songs,” explains guitarist/vocalist McGreevy in a press release. “We wrote it early on in the Modern Fiction writing process, and the demo was a favorite among the people we shared those with, but we didn’t quite get it right when we tried to record it for that album. We always liked it though, so we kept it around and tried it again when we were tracking Harm’s Way. It didn’t end up quite fitting the vibe of the album, but we did manage to get it to where we wanted it to be, so it’s exciting to finally share it.”
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.”
Portland, Oregon’s Hayley Heynderickx is releasing her sophomore album, Seed of a Seed, on November 1 via Mama Bird. This week she released another single from the album, “Gemini.”
While no quote from Heynderickx on “Gemini” was provided, a press release describes the meaning behind the song in greater detail: “‘Gemini’ is about imperfection, letting oneself understand and accept that there is no immutable beginning but one long, winding, journey full of mistakes. More importantly is the revelations that the deepest learning, and potential for growth, comes through the process of failure. Acceptance and growth churn under Heynderickx’s deft fingerpicking, at once melancholic and resolute. ‘Gemini’ is a reminder that every day is a new day, and that new day is ripe with potential.”
Heynderickx’s core band on the album was Daniel Rossi on drums, Denzel Mendoza on trombone, and Matthew Holmes on electric and upright bass. The album also features electric guitarist William Seiji Marsh and Caleigh Drane on cello.
The album is due out digitally on November 1, with a physical release scheduled for December 6. By Mark Redfern
3. Confidence Man: “Sicko”
This week, Confidence Man, the Australian electro-pop mavericks, now based in London, released “Sicko,” the latest single from their third album 3 AM (LA LA LA), which came out today via Casablanca. While known for their high-octane, dance-infused sound, “Sicko” embraces a more subtle ‘90s indie-dance crossover vibe, a little less frenetic than much of the album but still unhinged and unmistakably Confidence Man.
The single arrives alongside a stunning black-and-white video that almost resembles what might happen if you tried to make a musical based on Reservoir Dogs and Trainspotting—stylish, edgy with a gritty film noir sensibility and laced with a dark, twisted sense of humor.
Fronted by Sugar Bones (Aidan Moore) and Janet Planet (Grace Stephenson), and backed by masked musicians Clarence McGuffie (Sam Hales) and Reggie Goodchild (Lewis Stephenson), Confidence Man are set to scale new heights with 3 AM (LA LA LA) as they continue to evolve their sound. Talking about the album, Sugar Bones says, “It’s 3am, it’s never not 3am, and we party all the time.” Janet Planet adds, “It’s hard. It’s fast. It’s basically Muhammad Ali, and your ears are everyone he ever boxed.” By Andy Von Pip
4. Heartworms: “Warplane”
This week, South London artist Heartworms (aka JoJo Orme) announced her debut album Glutton for Punishment, which will be released on February 7, 2025 via Speedy Wunderground. Alongside the album announcement, she shared her new single “Warplane,” accompanied by a video directed by Gilbert Trejo.
“Warplane” showcases Heartworms’ passion for military history, with lyrics that paint a vivid picture of an air battle. She explains, “The opening lyrics set the scene of a dogfight in the air while civilians are witnessing it take shape. My imagination is always out of my control, and my love of Spitfires even more so, so I couldn’t help but make this about a spitfire pilot.”
Heartworms dedicates the song to William Gibson Gordon, a Spitfire pilot who was killed in action at the age of 20, adding, “The song ends how I imagine his falling Spitfire sounds to me, like an angel losing its extraordinary wings.”
Produced by longtime collaborator Dan Carey, Glutton for Punishment broadens Heartworms’ sound, combining post-punk with more melodic, pop-oriented influences. “With my EP, people kind of pigeonholed me into post-punk,” she says. “I was like, ‘Cool, I can do that, but I can also do way more’—I can do post-punk, but I can also be poppy and catchy, and this album represents that. I think people might be surprised when they hear it.”
Discussing the album’s themes, Heartworms reflects: “I’ve been chastised my whole life; made to feel as if I didn’t belong, punished for not fitting into a perfect image of how a growing woman should be. When you’re told something enough times you start to believe it. I often find myself locked into an unhealthy cycle of craving harsh discipline, greedy for the familiarity it brings but terrified of the consequences—better the devil you know. But this album doesn’t just reflect my own experiences; it reflects those of the people in my life and the stories of others that I think need to be heard.”
Read our 2023 Heartworms interview HERE. By Andy Von Pip
5. Father John Misty: “She Cleans Up”
Father John Misty (aka Josh Tillman) is releasing a new album, Mahashmashana, on November 22 worldwide via Sub Pop. This week he shared another new song from it, “She Cleans Up,” and announced some new tour dates. Destroyer will be the support act on the tour. Check out the song and tour dates here.
When the album was announced Father John Misty shared a new song from it, the near-seven-minute long “Screamland,” via a music video. The song featured Alan Sparhawk from Low on guitar and was one of our Songs of the Week.
14 Best Songs of the Week: Ela Minus, Kassie Krut, The Weather Station, Lauren Mayberry, and More
Oct 04, 2024
Welcome to the 32nd Songs of the Week of 2024. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Mark Moody, 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.
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?”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
10 Best Songs of the Week: The WAEVE, Mogwai, Deep Sea Diver, Father John Misty, and More
Sep 20, 2024
Welcome to the 30th Songs of the Week of 2024. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Marina Mallin, Matt the Raven, and Scotty Dransfield helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 30 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 10.
Issue 73 is out now. It features Maya Hawke and Nilüfer Yanya on the two covers and can be bought from us directly 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.
There are two album tracks not previously released as singles that we loved and wanted to include on this week’s Songs of the Week list, with the epic near-eight-minute long song “Druantia” being our favorite. “Song For Eliza May” is also below at #3.
The band shared the album’s title track, “City Lights,” in May. It was one of our Songs of the Week. When the album was announced in June, they shared its second single, “You Saw,” via a music video. It was also one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its third single, “Broken Boys,” along with a live performance video for the song. “Broken Boys” was #1 on our Songs of the Week list.
As with their debut album, James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Florence & The Machine, Foals, HAIM) produced City Lights. As with their last album, the album features Coxon on saxophone, among other instruments.
Coxon and Dougall first met backstage at a charity concert in London in 2020 and soon the idea was hatched for them to collaborate.
“I didn’t know when I was going to work again or try writing again until Rose came out and said, ‘How about we try writing together?’” says Coxon in a press release.
“When I listen to the first album, I can hear me and Graham getting to know each other through making the record,” says Dougall.
They not only hit off musically, but romantically, falling in love and having a baby daughter together, Eliza, who was born in August 2022.
“The band had an identity this time around so we had a little bit more of a framework to know how we might operate,” says Dougall of the differences between recording to the two albums. “But obviously, the circumstances were quite different.”
Dougall was also one of the artists on the cover of our special 20th Anniversary print issue, where you can read an exclusive interview with her.
2. Mogwai: “God Gets You Back”
This week, Scotland’s Mogwai shared a new song, “God Gets You Back,” and announced a 2025 world tour. The single is out now via Temporary Residence Ltd. and Rock Action. Hand Held Cine Club (Justin and James Lockey) directed the video.
John Congleton produced the song. In a press release the band’s Barry Burns says that he felt the song “needed some melody or vocals, but I couldn’t come up with the lyrics so I asked my 7-year-old daughter to make some up, and she did and I sang them.”
Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite had this to say about the tour dates: “We are immensely excited about heading out on our first worldwide tour since the pandemic. We’re going to some brilliant places and can’t wait to perform our new songs.”
The WAEVE’s other album track we loved, “Song For Eliza May,” is an ode to the couple’s daughter.
Dougall says she was initially reluctant to write songs about her daughter. “I was really resistant for a while to even consider referencing it,” she says. “But actually, when I realized that I could use that experience to explore bigger themes—watching what’s happening in the news, all these terrible atrocities and the world falling apart. And in tandem with that, thinking about how life evolves and how my own sense of self has developed. It became a really good vehicle for the songwriting process.”
4. Deep Sea Diver: “Billboard Heart”
Yesterday, Deep Sea Diver (the band led by Jessica Dobson) shared a new song, “Billboard Heart,” via a music video. It’s the band’s first single for Sub Pop, which have just announced that they’ve signed Deep Sea Diver. It is the first taste of a new album, which is due out in early 2025.
Deep Sea Diver is singer and multi-instrumentalist Jessica Dobson, drummer Peter Mansen (also Dobson’s partner), and keyboardist Elliot Jackson. Dobson and Mansen directed the “Billboard Heart” video with cinematographer Tyler Kalberg.
Dobson had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘Billboard Heart’ is a song that felt like a strange transmission, a new emotion, and a spirit-filled dream when it came. It is my nod to the simplicity of my favorite Tom Petty songs and to my love for Wim Wenders’ film Paris, Texas. The feeling of standing in the lonesome desert, embracing every particle of yourself, even the ones that are hard to look at, and fighting for your spirit to move through this world without entanglement. It is about being present and embracing the future while wholeheartedly letting go of any amount of control that I think I have in this life. ‘Billboard Heart’ is both a longing for something that may not exist and a place where I can be free.”
Dobson has previously also performed in The Shins and in Beck’s band.
5. Father John Misty: “Screamland”
This week, Father John Misty (aka Josh Tillman) announced a new album, Mahashmashana, and shared a new song from it, the near-seven-minute long “Screamland,” via a music video. The song features Alan Sparhawk from Low on guitar. Mahashmashana is due out November 22 worldwide via Sub Pop (except for the UK and Europe, where it’s a Bella Union release). Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as Father John Misty’s upcoming tour dates, including some newly announced UK and EU shows, here.
Tillman produced Mahashmashana with Drew Erickson and Jonathan Wilson executive produced the album.
Estefania Kröl directed the “Screamland” video and had this to say about it in the press release: “The video is a visual journey through the depths of ‘Screamland,’ capturing the essence of both the music and the artists. Father John Misty blends seamlessly into the scene, becoming a part of the city, a living echo of ‘Screamland.’”
16 Best Songs of the Week: Michael Kiwanuka, Future Islands, Soccer Mommy, MJ Lenderman, and More
Sep 13, 2024
Welcome to the 29th Songs of the Week of 2024. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Jim Scott, and Scotty Dransfield helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 50 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 16.
This week’s Songs of the Week covers the last two weeks. We didn’t do a Songs of the Week last week because we were too busy announcing our new print issue.
Issue 73 is out now. It features Maya Hawke and Nilüfer Yanya on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last two weeks, we have picked the 12 best the last 14 days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.
1. Michael Kiwanuka: “Lowdown (part i)” and “Lowdown (part ii)”
Small Changes is Kiwanuka’s fourth album and the long-awaited follow-up to 2019’s Kiwanuka, which won the 2020 Mercury Prize and was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Album.
Danger Mouse and Inflo produced the album, as they did with Kiwanuka’s last two albums.
A press release says “Glimpse” focuses on “a family home burning down and coming to terms with the physical and emotional losses and coming to terms with the erasure of a collective history.”
Read our review of People Who Aren’t There Anymorehere.
Future Islands co-produced People Who Aren’t There Anymore with Steve Wright, who also mixed the album with Chris Coady. Future Islands is Samuel T. Herring (vocals, lyrics), William Cashion (bass, guitars), Gerrit Welmers (keyboards, programming), and Michael Lowry (drums).
People Who Aren’t There Anymore includes three previously shared singles. “Peach” was released in 2021. “King of Sweden” came out in 2022 and the band performed it on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “Deep in the Night” was shared in August via a music video and it was one of our Songs of the Week. When the album was announced they shared another new song from it, “The Tower,” via a music video. “The Tower” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then in November they shared another song from it, “The Fight,” via an animated music video (it was also one of our Songs of the Week). In January they shared the album’s final pre-release single, “Say Goodbye,” via an animated music video. Then they shared a video for “The Thief” and performed “The Tower” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
This week, Soccer Mommy, the indie project of Nashville-based singer/songwriter Sophie Allison, released a new single titled “Driver” from her forthcoming album, Evergreen, set to drop on October 25th via Loma Vista Recordings. “Driver” showcases a rockier side of Soccer Mommy, blending addictive melodies with lyrics that explore Allison’s characteristic introspection and emotional complexity. The song reflects on flaws and the acceptance of them within a relationship, adding a cheeky twist to the theme.
Allison’s new album marks a return to more organic production, highlighting her songwriting talents. Written in the wake of a personal loss, Evergreen features a stripped-back, honest approach, reminiscent of her earlier work. By Andy Von Pip
4. MJ Lenderman: “Wristwatch”
Last week North Carolina singer/songwriter and musician, MJ Lenderman released a new album, Manning Fireworks, via ANTI-. Earlier in that week he shared one final single from the album, “Wristwatch.”
Read our review of Manning Fireworks here. By Mark Redfern
My Method Actor is Yanya’s third album and follows her 2022 album, PAINLESS, and her 2019 debut album, Miss Universe, (both released on ATO).
Yanya worked on the album with her regular creative partner, Wilma Archer, in isolation. “This is the most intense album, in that respect,” Yanya said in a previous press release. “Because it’s only been us two. We didn’t let anyone else into the bubble.”
When writing this album, Yanya was grappling with hitting her late 20s and dealing with the pressures of being an established musician. “For me, writing is definitely problem solving—in the way they say that dreaming is like problem solving,” she said. “You’re like, ‘Oh, that sounds good. That looks good. That makes sense.’ But you don’t really know why. You’re kind of using that part of your creative brain that doesn’t have to make sense.”
12 Best Songs of the Week: Bright Eyes, GIFT, MJ Lenderman, The WAEVE, and More
Jun 28, 2024
Welcome to the 21st Songs of the Week of 2024. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Mark Moody, 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 12.
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.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last week, we have picked the 12 best the last seven days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.
1. Bright Eyes: “Bells and Whistles”
This week, Bright Eyes announced a new album, Five Dice, All Threes, and shared its first single, “Bells and Whistles.” They also announced some tour dates. Five Dice, All Threes features Cat Power and The National’s Matt Berninger and is due out September 20 via Dead Oceans. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as the tour dates, here.
The band self-produced the new album, which was recorded at ARC, in Omaha, Nebraska, the studio run by Mogis and Oberst.
Oberst had this to say about “Bells and Whistles” in a press release: “This is a song about the many little details in life that can seem insignificant or frivolous or temporary at the time but eventually end up forming your destiny. And it’s also kind of a whistle while you work scenario.” By Mark Redfern
2. GIFT: “Later”
Brooklyn-based psych-rock quintet GIFT are releasing a new album, Illuminator, on August 23 via Captured Tracks. This week they shared its third single, “Later,” via a music video.
GIFT features vocalist/guitarist TJ Freda, multi-instrumentalists Jessica Gurewitz and Justin Hrabovsky, drummer Gabe Camarano, and bassist Kallan Campbell.
Gurewitz and Freda co-wrote “Later.” Freda had this to say about it in a press release: “While writing Illuminator I found myself clinging to intense emotions, reluctant to release them. ‘Later’ stands out as one of the darkest songs I’ve made. Making it was cathartic, diving into darker themes. The song explores surrendering to the overwhelming sensation of life slipping away before my eyes.”
Illuminator is the band’s sophomore album and first for Captured Tracks. It follows their 2022 debut, Momentary Presence, released via Dedstrange. The album includes “Wish Me Away,” a new song GIFT shared in April via a music video. “Wish Me Away” was one of our Songs of the Week. When the album was announced they shared its second single, “Going In Circles,” via a music video. It was also one of our Songs of the Week.
Of the new album as a whole, Freda says: “We had a lot more confidence going in. The main goal was to take a big swing, embrace the pop sounds we love and clear the mist and clouds surrounding the last record to make it a lot punchier.” By Mark Redfern
3. MJ Lenderman: “She’s Leaving You”
This week, North Carolina singer/songwriter and musician, MJ Lenderman announced a new album, Manning Fireworks, which is due for release on September 6 via ANTI-. He also released the album’s first single, “She’s Leaving You,” with a video. Find the Whitmer Thomas and Clay Tatum-directed music video below. Find Manning Fireworks’ tracklist and cover art, with MJ Lenderman tour dates, here.
Manning Fireworks follows his 2023 live album, And the Wind (Live and Loose!), 2022’s Boat Songs, 2021’s Ghost of Your Guitar Solo, and 2019’s MJ Lenderman. The album was recorded at Asheville’s Drop of Sun Studios during any offtime Lenderman had from touring (he’s also a member of the band Wednesday). Co-produced with Alex Farrar, the instrumentation is almost entirely performed by Lenderman. The album will be his fourth full-length album, but his studio debut for ANTI-. ByMarina Malin
4. The WAEVE: “You Saw”
This week, The WAEVE—aka Rose Elinor Dougall and Blur guitarist Graham Coxon—announced a new album, City Lights, and shared its second single, “You Saw,” via a music video. City Lights is due out September 20 via Transgressive. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork here.
As with their debut album, James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Florence & The Machine, Foals, HAIM) produced City Lights. As with their last album, the album features Coxon on saxophone, among other instruments.
Coxon and Dougall first met backstage at a charity concert in London in 2020 and soon the idea was hatched for them to collaborate.
“I didn’t know when I was going to work again or try writing again until Rose came out and said, ‘How about we try writing together?’” says Coxon in a press release.
“When I listen to the first album, I can hear me and Graham getting to know each other through making the record,” says Dougall.
They not only hit off musically, but romantically, falling in love and having a baby daughter together, Eliza, who was born in August 2022.
“The band had an identity this time around so we had a little bit more of a framework to know how we might operate,” says Dougall of the differences between recording to the two albums. “But obviously, the circumstances were quite different.”
Dougall says she was initially reluctant to write songs about her daughter. “I was really resistant for a while to even consider referencing it,” she says. “But actually, when I realized that I could use that experience to explore bigger themes—watching what’s happening in the news, all these terrible atrocities and the world falling apart. And in tandem with that, thinking about how life evolves and how my own sense of self has developed. It became a really good vehicle for the songwriting process.”
The album’s “Song For Eliza May” is an ode to their daughter.
“The first record was a way of escaping the constrictions of what was going on in the world,” continues Dougall. “I think this one was a way of railing against the more domestic constraints that we had. That’s partly where some of the urgency of some of the songs come from.”
“This album is definitely more neurotic and more grumpy—and that comes from me!” says Coxon. “I’ve always liked to be pretty straightforward about feelings, whether they’re ugly or beautiful, and I’ve always approached sound in the same way. I don’t always think that sound needs to be comfortable to listen to. That dynamic of putting discomfort next to something that is really lovely is something that I’ve always been interested in.”
Dougall and Coxon collectively had this to say about the new single: “‘You Saw’ is a song about acknowledging how seemingly tiny decisions can have a seismic impact on the course of one’s life, how sometimes it feels like the way things turn out are predestined. It’s about reconciling a past version with the new version of one’s self and being grateful for how things work out. It’s built around a rhythmic string line to reflect the sense of propulsive forward motion.”
Coxon’s last solo album was 2012’s A+E, but he’s kept busy with soundtrack work, including releasing two albums of songs and score from the acclaimed TV show The End of the F***ing World and his 2021 score to the comic book Superstate. His memoir, Verse, Chorus, Monster!, got a U.S. release last year via Faber Books. Blur also released a new album last year, The Ballad of Darren. By Mark Redfern
5. Peel Dream Magazine: “Lie in the Gutter”
This week, Peel Dream Magazine announced their fourth full length album, Rose Main Reading Room. The album is due to be released on September 4 on Topshelf. They also shared the lead single, “Lie in the Gutter.” Find their tour dates and Rose Main Reading Room’s tracklist and cover artwork here.
Rose Main Reading Room follows their 2022 release of Pad (one of its singles, “Hiding Out,” was chosen for one of our Songs of the Week.
In a press release, Peel Dream Magazine’s Joe Stevens had this to say of the new single and video: “This video is cut from footage we filmed on a few different tours between the fall of 2023 and Spring of 2024, and I love it because it captures the amazing feeling and energy that those trips had. There’s cameos from bands we were touring with like Chastity Belt and Gift, and friends like Simi Sohota from Healing Potpourri. A lot of it was shot in the Pacific Northwest and features some hikes we got to take among the dense green forests up there. I wanted to capture that stuff because this theme of ‘the natural world’ has been jostling around my my brain for awhile and is a big part of the album. The song is meant to be a very simple statement about finding joy and wonder in life despite whatever may be on your mind. The phrase it’s taken from is the trite but sweet Oscar Wilde quote ‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.’” ByMarina Malin
6. Party Dozen: “The Big Man Upstairs”
This week, Sydney-based musical duo Party Dozen, consisting of saxophonist Kirsty Tickle and percussionist Jonathan Boulet, announced their forthcoming album, Crime in Australia. The album, set for release on September 6th via Temporary Residence Ltd., follows their critically acclaimed 2022 album, The Real Work.
The lead single, “The Big Man Upstairs,” diverges from their characteristically frenetic sound, offering a softer, melodic exploration. The accompanying video delves into the tumultuous political landscape of Queensland during the reign of Joh Bjelke-Petersen, highlighting the power of music and activism in the face of corruption.
Party Dozen wrote, recorded, produced, and mixed the album entirely in their Marrickville studio, drawing inspiration from the area’s history as a notorious crime hub. The album is said to be split into two distinct halves, one showcasing a more accessible sound, the other venturing into their signature chaotic experimentation.
Boulet explains: “Marrickville in the 1960s-70s was a notorious crime hot spot. If a car was stolen, or someone was missing, they’d look for them in Marrickville. Since then, the area has been highly gentrified and slowly the once grimy industrial warehouse lined streets are being swapped for monstrous apartment blocks with palm trees.
We began without any theme in mind, just the beginnings of some song ideas. As we were discovering the songs for this album, each song felt more and more at home in an old cop tv series soundtrack. The Crime theme quickly became apparent. The record feels split into two contrasting sides: The first half is ‘order’, being as listenable as Party Dozen has ever been. Each song is law-abiding and dignified in its own place. The second half is ‘disorder,’ becoming more unlawful, unhinged, louder and noisier.” ByAndy Von Pip
7. Pom Pom Squad: “Downhill”
This week, Brooklyn’s post-grunge project Pom Pom Squad shared their new single “Downhill” on City Slang which is their first release since their 2021 album, Death of a Cheerleader.
Frontwoman Mia Berrin had this to say on writing their new single: “In my everyday life, I’m pretty reserved and shy so it’s odd, even to me, that I feel this pull to be on stage—to put my music out and open myself up to everything that comes with that. When I was writing ‘Downhill’ I was thinking a lot about the push-pull between those opposing sides of my personality. Sometimes being ambitious feels like being self-destructive and I wanted to explore the line between the two. Also, it’s been nearly three years since I’ve released anything new so this song feels like my reintroduction to the world. Pom Pom Squad is soooo back, baby!” ByMarina Malin
She also announced some tour dates. Below a Massive Dark Land is due out September 27 via Sub Pop/Memorials of Distinction. Check out the the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as the tour dates, here.
Below a Massive Dark Land is Bock’s second album, the follow-up to 2022’s debut album, Giant Palm. Jack Osborne and Joe Jones produced the album, with additional production and arrangement by Oliver Hamilton and Bock. It was recorded at The Crypt in north London.
Bock had this to say about “Kaley” in a press release: “‘Kaley’ was written whilst staying at a friend’s house in Tucson, or at least it was finished there. It’s about betrayal and the subsequent lack of direction that follows. At the time there was no ‘plan’ or ‘way’ that I had for myself, let alone anyone else.”
Of the other single, she had this to add: “‘Further Away’ was written in Greece whilst trying to learn mini Bouzouki and missing someone.” By Mark Redfern
9. Chinese American Bear: “Heartbreaker”
This week, Seattle-based C-pop duo Chinese American Bear announced a new album, Wah!!!, and shared a new song from it, “Heartbreaker,” via a music video. Wah!!! Is due out October 18 via Moshi Moshi. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork here.
Chinese American Bear are married couple Bryce Barsten and Anne Tong and they sing in both English and Mandarin. While they started the band mainly for fun, the positive reaction to initial singles “Hao Ma” and “Dumpling” led them to be signed to China’s largest indie label, Modern Sky, and also to the British label Moshi Moshi (Girl Ray, Hot Chip, Anna Meredith). This is their first album for Moshi Moshi.
Tong had this to say about “Heartbreaker” in a press release: “We had this loose idea about someone who dreamed of becoming a big music star and then getting their heart broken by it. The verse lyrics are ‘Come and listen. I want to be a big star. Just you wait and see. Shining brightly and happily.’”
Barsten adds: “We’ve always wanted to write a song like ‘Heartbreaker’—this kind of playful, ’60s style, mid tempo heartbreak song. We like the juxtaposition of singing about heartbreak paired with a more playful/upbeat sounding song. Most heartbreak songs are really sad and slow!
“Production-wise, this song was recorded with the cheapest and dingiest sounding instruments we have. Which we love! A semi-broken $100 acoustic guitar tuned to Nashville tuning for that 12-string sound, and an old 1980s Casio CT-310 I got when I was 10 years old. It’s all truly heartbreaking.” By Mark Redfern
Loma consists of Shearwater singer Jonathan Meiburg, alongside Emily Cross (of Cross Record) and Dan Duszynski.
Allison Beondé directed the “Affinity” video and had this to say about it in a press release: “In creating the video for ‘Affinity,’ I wanted to collect quiet moments that explore the experience of inhabiting a body, existing both collectively and simultaneously alone. Capturing people in public spaces embodying their own experience, their own world, while surrounded by others, the song is carried on a rolling rhythm reminiscent of waves—a soft and mysterious ebbing and flowing of time marked by something so elemental to our existence and uniquely capable of eliciting reflection on what it means to be alive.”
How Will I Live Without a Body follows 2020’s Don’t Shy Away. Previously Loma shared the album’s first single, “How It Starts,” via a music video. It was one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its second single, “Pink Sky,” via an animated video. “Pink Sky” was also one of our Songs of the Week.
The pandemic found the band living on different continents, with Duszynski in central Texas, Cross in Dorset, England (she’s a UK citizen), and Meiburg in Germany to research a book. Remote sessions didn’t work and an attempt to reconvene in Texas after the pandemic didn’t garner much fruit when it was cut short due to illness.
“We got lost,” says Meiburg in a press release, “and stayed that way.”
“It’s like a demon enters the room whenever we get together,” laments Cross.
Then, at Cross’ suggestion, they gathered in a tiny stone house in England, a house that used to a coffin-maker’s workshop and where Cross works as an end-of-life doula. They turned it into a makeshift studio, with a vocal booth made from a coffin woven from willow branches.
“There was a sense of, well, this is it,” Meiburg says of the stone house sessions. “And when the ice storm swept in I thought: here we go again, even the elements are against us. But sitting in our heavy coats around a little electric radiator, we realized how much we’d missed each other—and that just being together was precious.”
Legendary artist Laurie Anderson offered Loma an opportunity to work with an AI trained on her full body of work. The AI sent the band two poems in the style of Anderson, in response to a photo Meiburg sent from his book-in-progress about Antarctica. “We used parts of them in a few songs,” he says. “And then Dan noticed that one of its lines, ‘How will I live without a body?’ would be a perfect name for the album, since we nearly lost sight of each other in the recording process.”
Anderson gave her blessing for the band to use the title for their new album. “I think she was tickled that her AI doppelganger is running around naming other people’s records,” says Meiburg.
At the end of the day, the band’s resilience paid off.
“Making this record tested us all,” says Duszynski. “I think that feeling was alchemized through the music.”
“Somehow, out of the chaos, we made something that sounds very relaxed,” Cross says.
“I’ve never run a marathon,” she adds. “But I can imagine it’s kind of what that feels like.”
This week, Boston’s Vundabar released a new single, “I Got Cracked,” which is their debut release on Loma Vista. Accompanied by the new track, Vundabar also announced an upcoming North American tour this fall. Find Vundabar’s tour dates here.
Vundabar consists of Brandon Hagen (guitar, vocals), Drew McDonald (drums), and Zack Abramo (bass). Their new track follows Vundabar’s 2022 Devil for the Fire, released on Gawk, and the resurgence of their 2015 song “Alien Blues” which went viral seven years after its release.
“I Got Cracked” is a sonic surrender to grief and dark nights of the soul. Frontman Hagen had this to say on the new track in a press release: “In a six week window that I could only describe as a careening crash landing, a long term relationship of mine imploded, my dad died, and I broke my arm in a hotel while on tour in Europe. One week after that I was at his funeral and the one after that I was recording this song in Los Angeles. I reeled at the connectedness of it all; so much of these intangible fractures now grounded in the very physical break within my body, this physical break then dictating the floatier bits as I made music determined by the limitations of that injury.” ByMarina Malin
12. Bloc Party: “Flirting Again”
This week, Bloc Party shared a new single, “Flirting Again,” before headlining their biggest show to date, sold-out at London’s Crystal Palace Park on July 7. They are also playing Glastonbury this weekend. Find their live dates here.
“‘Flirting Again’ is about being thrust back into the scene and trying to remember how it all works,” says frontman Kele Okereke in a press release. “It’s about trying to appear desirable, whilst at the same time hiding the hurt that defines you. We are all carrying around the various scars that we have accumulated over the years, the heartbreaks that have come to shape how we give love and receive love. This song is about picking yourself up and carrying on.”
The band (Kele Okereke, Louise Bartle, Russell Lissack, and Justin Harris) has stayed busy since their most recent album release, 2022’sAlpha Games. Bloc Party have wrapped up co-headline tour with interpol in Australia and supported Paramore. Earlier this year, they made 2005 single “Two More Years” and Little Thoughts EP available to stream for the first time. These were the initial steps to ensure their entire discography is available to fans.
You can listen to our 2022 podcast interview with Bloc Party’s Kele Okerekehere. ByMarina Malin
Honorable Mentions:
These songs almost made the Top 12.
Bad Moves: “Hallelujah”
Being Dead: “Firefighters”
Bizhiki: “Unbound”
Kim Gordon: “ECRP”
Alex Izenberg: “The Wraith Behind Our Eyes”
Allegra Krieger: “Never Arriving”
Longplayer: “My Dreams of You”
X: “Big Black X”
Xiu Xiu: “Common Loon”
Here’s a handy Spotify playlist featuring the Top 12 in order, followed by all the honorable mentions:
12 Best Songs of the Week: Fontaines D.C., Suki Waterhouse, Dutch Interior, Why Bonnie, and More
Jun 21, 2024
Welcome to the 20th Songs of the Week of 2024. This week Andy Von Pip, Mark Moody, Matt the Raven, and Scott Dransfield helped me decide what should make the list. We seriously considered over 20 songs this week and narrowed it down to a Top 12.
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.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last week, we have picked the 12 best the last seven days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.
1. Fontaines D.C.: “Favourite”
Irish five-piece Fontaines D.C. are releasing a new album, Romance, on August 23 via XL. This week they shared its second single, “Favourite,” via a self-directed video.
In a press release, the band’s Grian Chatten describes “Favourite” as having “this never-ending sound to it, a continuous cycle from euphoria to sadness, two worlds spinning forever.”
The video was filmed by the band in Madrid, the city where guitarist Carlos O’Connell was born and grew up in. The video also features childhood footage of each band member.
Previously the band shared the album’s first single, “Starburster,” via a music video. “Starburster” was #1 on our Songs of the Week list.
Romance is the band’s fourth album, the follow-up to 2022’s acclaimed Skinty Fia (which was #1 on both the UK and Irish album charts), 2020’s Grammy-nominated A Hero’s Death, and 2019’s Mercury Prize-nominated Dogrel. It finds them working with producer James Ford for the first time.
The band was formed in Dublin but is now based in London and features Grian Chatten (vocals), Carlos O’Connell (guitar), Conor Curley (guitar), Conor Deegan (bass), and Tom Coll (drums). Ideas for the new album started to form while they were touring the U.S. and Mexico with Arctic Monkeys. Then the band members went their separate ways for a while, before reconvening for a three weeks of pre-production in a North London studio and one month of recording in a chateau near Paris.
In a previous press release, Deegan said of the album title: “We’ve always had this sense of idealism and romance. Each album gets further away from observing that through the lens of Ireland, as directly as Dogrel. The second album is about that detachment, and the third is about Irishness dislocated in the diaspora. Now we look to where and what else there is to be romantic about.”
Chatten relates the theme of the album to Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s 1988 anime movie classic Akira, where, as the press release put it, “the embers of love develop despite a maelstrom of technological degradation and political corruption around its characters.”
“I’m fascinated by that—falling in love at the end of the world,” he said. “The album is about protecting that tiny flame. The bigger Armageddon looms, the more precious it becomes.”
O’Connell added: “This record is about deciding what’s fantasy—the tangible world, or where you go in your mind. What represents reality more? That feels almost spiritual for us.”
In 2023 Chatten released his debut solo album, Chaos For the Fly. Read our interview with him about it here.
2. Suki Waterhouse: “Supersad”
Musician/actress Suki Waterhouse is set to release her new 18-track double album, Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, on September 13 via Sub Pop. Waterhouse announced it this week and also unveiled the album’s lead single, “Supersad,” a track characterized by its fast-paced drum fills and garage-inspired guitars.
“I tried to write a ‘90s song you could hear playing at the mall in Clueless or as an opening track for Legally Blonde,” she explained. The single was produced by Brad Cook, with executive producer Eli Hirsch, and written by Waterhouse in collaboration with Chelsea Balan, John Mark Nelson, and Lilian Caputo.
Accompanying the single’s release is the official music video for “Supersad,” featuring Waterhouse as a bed-ridden protagonist and her whimsical game show fairy godmother. The video, filled with sparkling visuals, was directed by filmmaker and longtime collaborator Émilie Richard-Froozan.
“The Sparklemuffin Tour,” her previously announced 25-city North American headlining tour in support of her new album, will now kick off at Salt Lake City’s Love Letters Festival on Friday, September 27. The tour will include stops in major cities such as Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Boston, Toronto, and Montreal. Before the tour begins, Waterhouse will also perform at London’s All Points East on August 18.
Check out the tour dates, as well as the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, here. By Andy Von Pip
3. Dutch Interior: “Ecig”
The project of lifelong friends, this week Dutch Interior released “Ecig,” which happens to be their debut single for Fat Possum. Find both the music video and a live performance video for “Ecig” below.
Jack Nugent, Conner Reeves, Davis Stewart, Noah Kurtz, and brothers Shane Barton and Hayden Barton make up Dutch Interior. Most of the group have known one another for their entire lives, residing in LA.
The band had this to say on their new single: “‘Ecig’ was once a quiet, pensive song, before practicing it and failing to stick to an initial recording of the song. At rehearsal one day, Connor began strumming the fuzzy drone that would become the main rhythm guitar part, and in just a single play through, the entire band figured out their parts and all of them stuck. The song’s lyrical content tries to understand the feelings left over from betrayal through images that are dead but linger in a physical form that is difficult or impossible to dispose of: a rusted swing set, dried blood, circling buzzards, or a disposable vape. ‘Ecig’ is an early song of ours that evolved through many phases as we played it live. Being the first synthesis of the noisier aspects of our live set into a studio recording, it is a perfect bridge from our last record into what is coming next.” ByMarina Malin
4. Why Bonnie: “Fake Out”
This week, Why Bonnie (the project of Blair Howerton) announced a new album, Wish on the Bone, and shared a new song from it, “Fake Out.”Wish on the Bone is due out August 30 via Fire Talk. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork here.
Wish on the Bone includes “Dotted Line,” a new song Why Bonnie shared in May via a music video. It was one of our Songs of the Week.
Why Bonnie released her debut album, 90 in November, in 2022 via Keeled Scales. In 2023 she shared a brand new single, “Apple Tree,” which isn’t featured on the new album. Previously the project was presented more as a band, but now it seems to be more of a solo enterprise.
“I’ve changed since that album, and I trust that I’ll probably continue to change,” Howerton says of the years since her debut. “Maybe I won’t be the same person entirely two years from now.”
The new album also features Howerton’s regular bandmates Chance Williams, and Josh Malett. She co-produced the album with Jonathan Schenke. “We were trying on musical hats,” says Howerton. “There’s still some country on this record, but I wasn’t thinking about sticking to one thing. Personal experience of learning to be bolder and more assertive and trusting myself has carried over into my music.”
She adds: “These songs were written out of hope for a better future. I’m not naïve, the world is fucked up, but I think you can radically accept that while still believing it’s possible to change things.”
Canadian art punks Crack Cloud are releasing a new album, Red Mile, on July 26 via Jagjaguwar. This week they shared its second single, “The Medium,” via a music video.
Red Mile follows 2022’s Tough Baby.The band features Zach Choy, Aleem Khan, Bryce Cloghesy, Will Choy, Emma Acs, Eve Adams, and Nathaniel Philips, along with creative director Aidan Pontarini. Crack Cloud recorded the album at the outskirts of Joshua Tree, California and in Calgary, Alberta.
Choy had this to say about the album and its first single in a previous press release statement: “When we were recording the album Red Mile in the Mojave Desert, I spent nights reading about 20th century China. My grandparents migrated to Canada during Mao’s Great Leap Forward, and besides the photo albums and childhood memories, I have little basis for understanding their experience.
Beginning in the late ’80s there came to be a generation of Chinese filmmakers whose main subject was the depiction of life during the Cultural Revolution. The films from this time examine the growing pains of national identity, without the glorification that defined National cinema up until then.
“As the viewer with a degree of generational and cultural separation, I found an unusual sense of reprieve in the nuance of it all. And as our time drifted by in the desert, I continued to look inward.
“The music of Red Mile came naturally, and of its own volition. The Mojave had an elemental effect. The seemingly never-ending labyrinth of touring into exhaustion that characterized preceding years. And the externalization of Crack Cloud’s mythology, displaced and dismantled as we’ve grown out of ourselves, constantly, creatively reborn, by virtue and design. This is how I would describe Red Mile, and more generally, the group’s freefall, nearly a decade in the making.
“So when close friend and collaborator Aidan Pontarini pitched the skydiving punk concept for the album cover, it resonated deeply.
“‘Blue Kite’ was written with a cultural intersection in mind. In Canada in the early ’00s we grew up to Sum 41. Late night YTV. And the spectre of Woodstock 99. From the outside looking in: being in a punk band meant that you could be a jackass. Pick your nose on stage; play the drum like Energizer Bunny. My relationship to punk music as a teenager hinged on self-deprecation; an easy, destructive mode of confronting what I didn’t like about myself. And what I didn’t understand about the world around me.
“There’s a film that came out of China in 1993 and was subsequently banned therein, called The Blue Kite. It’s told from the perspective of a boy growing up in 1950’s Beijing. His environment is one of social conformity and political correctness, and he relishes in escapism when flying his kite. Eventually the boy succumbs to the social climate, and the kite itself is swept away into the branches of a tree. I thought the imagery was striking and wanted to incorporate it into a video with Aidan’s skydiving punk, in a hypnagogic way.
“We filmed the video in and around the Desert where the album was recorded, and the skydiving took place.”
6. Oceanator: “Be Here”
Oceanator, aka Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter/guitarist Elise Okusami, is releasing a new album, Everything is Love and Death, on August 30 via Polyvinyl. This week she shared two new songs from it, album opener “First Time” and “Be Here.” We preferred the latter,
Okusami had this to say about the new songs in a press release: “‘First Time’ and ‘Be Here’ very much live in the same world for me. They’re describing the same day—one kind of in the afternoon, and one overnight. ‘First Time’ is what I’ve been calling my Thin Lizzy song, with the harmonizing guitar riff. And ‘Be Here’ is a little more floaty, synth-y, less in your face-y. Will Yip played drums and my brother Michael played bass on ‘First Time,’ but ‘Be Here’ is all me on everything! It was super fun to record all those parts and have the song come together. Even though they sound different I really wanted them to live together, and I’m stoked to be releasing them as a double single.”
Previously Oceanator shared the album’s first single, “Get Out,” via a music video.
Everything is Love and Death is Oceanator’s third album and the follow up to Nothing’s Ever Fine, which was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2022, and Things I Never Said, which initially came out in August 2020 via her own Plastic Miracles label and then was reissued physically in February 2021 by Polyvinyl. It was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2020.
“I feel like these songs are honing in on and parsing the same themes as previous records, more settled and clearer.” Okusami says of the new album and how it finishes what she started with the first two. “I’ve gotten better at listening to the rational part of my brain, the understanding that things aren’t going to work. I know better but I’m gonna do it anyway, because everything is love and death.”
In 2023 Oceanator shared a new song, “Part Time,” which was co-written with Cheekface’s Greg Katz. It is not featured on the new album, but was one of our Songs of the Week.
Oceanator is one of the artists on our Covers of Covers album, which came out in March 2022 via American Laundromat. She covered Elliott Smith’s “The Biggest Lie.” Check the cover out here.
This week, hotly-tipped duo deary released their first brand new material since last year’s eponymously titled EP in the shape of a new single entitled “The Moth,” the first taste from a new EP which follows later this year. The new song is out now via Sonic Cathedral.
Produced by the band with Iggy B (Spiritualized), “The Moth” is dark and direct with howling guitars atop a strident breakbeat—more Curve than Cocteau Twins.
“We focused a lot on the rhythm and syncopation,” says the band’s Ben Easton. “Counter melodies and off beat percussion, etc. It’s very dense and immediate, with little room to breathe which adds to the claustrophobia in the subject matter.”
“I wanted to write about being drawn to things which are not good for us,” clarifies singer Rebecca “Dottie” Cockram about the song’s lyrics. “However, that fleeting feeling of immortality is too tempting to fly away from.”
Watch the video—directed by Liam Beazley aka Limb—below.
“We decided to create a short film about someone breaking free from a mystical woodland cult,” say the band of the slightly creepy clip. “The result is incredible thanks to Liam and some friends and family who didn’t mind sacrificing their Sunday cavorting in the woods.” By Dom Gourlay
Moore had this to say about the new song in a press release: “‘Sans Limites’ begins with a cyclic guitar & piano figure which expands further and further with each revolution before settling into a two-chord measure introducing lyrics intoning not only about eradicating any limitations towards enlightenment, but going beyond limitations. The idea that a soldier can fight the good fight. A warrior against war.”
Flow Critical Lucidity includes “Rewilding,” a new song Moore shared in April with its release timed to Earth Day. “Rewilding” was one of our Songs of the Week.
The album features Deb Googe of My Bloody Valentine on bass, alongside James Sedwards (guitar), Jem Doulton (drums), and Jon Leidecker (electronics).
Moore is on one of the two covers of our just announced ’90s Issue, where he discusses Sonic Youth’s albums from that decade. Find out more about the issue here and buy a copy directly from us here.
Last year Moore released his memoir, Sonic Life. Read our interview about that here.
In 2021 he released an instrumental album, Screen Time, and in 2020 he released the solo album, By the Fire.
9. Horse Jumper of Love: “Snow Angel” (Feat. MJ Lenderman and Squirrel Flower)
Lead vocalist and guitarist Dimitri Giannopolous had this to say on new track in a press release: “A lot of my songs start with an image and then stream of consciousness takes over from there. I had this idea of a snow angel melting in the sun. It stemmed from the first poem in Actual Air called ‘Snow.’ Through this piece, David Berman explores the idea of snow metaphorically and abstractly. He relates the outdoors sounding like a room when it’s snowing and snow angels being shot by a farmer, vulnerable and isolated… I wanted to tap into a feeling of being outside in the cold and wanting something.”
Iconic video director Lance Bangs had this to say of directing the track’s video: “‘Snow Angel’ felt like it wanted to be expressed visually as a kinetic, enveloping barrage of vision-confusion. We built contraptions, invented new techniques, prepared loud versions of the song at various speeds. After one particular take we realized we had conjured something in a continuous shot that didn’t look like things we had seen before, and that we didn’t want to look away or cut away to anything else.”
Previously the band shared the album’s first single, “Wink.” ByMarina Malin
10. Thee Sacred Souls: “Lucid Girl”
This week Thee Sacred Souls announced their sophomore album, Got a Story to Tell,which will be released on October 4 via Daptone. The trio also shared a taste of their timeless soul sound with the album’s lead single and opening track “Lucid Girl.” Watch the CAKE-directed music video below. Find the band’s tour dates, as well as the album’s tracklist and cover art, here.
Following their 2022-released self-titled debut, Got a Story to Tell was written and recorded by founding members Alejandro Garcia (drums, guitar), Salvador Samano (bass, drums), and Josh Lane (vocals). Their live band features Riley Dunn (keys), Shay Stulz (guitar), Astyn Turrentine (background vocals), and Viane Escobar (background vocals). ByMarina Malin
The band is led by Jonah Falco and Mike Haliechik (Fucked Up) and Falco directed the new video.
On “Drifting Superstition,” Falco had this to say in a press release: “The song is about the double dead end of not trusting yourself enough to make good decisions, musically wrapped in a Mondays-meets-Bolan, funky filo pastry. With the video I am trying to bring together a simplified and lighthearted sense of the deeper contradictions and folkloric fantasies taken from the lyrics into something in the visual world of Pet Shop Boys’ ‘It Couldn’t Happen Here’ and Lina Wertmüller.”
Get Me the Good Stuff wrestles with anxiety and self-doubt. When performing new material live, Falco experienced the audience attempting to make sense of his unfinished lyrics which surfaced further anxiety of being worthy of spotlight attention. Falco elaborates: “Music can feel like such aberrant behavior. Humans like to make noise for each other, but it’s not like our factory settings are to hold a guitar, or that we enjoy every song we listen to. When you form a band and commit to touring and recording, there’s an expectation that what you’re making is something that someone needs to hear, and there’s a lot of pressure in meeting that expectation.”
Before the September release of Get Me the Good Stuff, Jade Hairpins will be on a short tour of the UK and Europe, with more dates to be announced. ByMarina Malin
12. Tindersticks: “Nancy”
Tindersticks are releasing a new album, Soft Tissue, on September 13 via City Slang. This week they shared its third single, “Nancy.”
Tindersticks’ frontman Stuart Staples had this to say about the song in a press release: “Some say that there are only a few different types of songs. Nancy definitely falls in to the classic ’guy fucks up / begs for forgiveness’ bracket—but hopefully with a few surprises along the way. Like much of Soft Tissue, the musical spark of excitement came from the creation of the rhythm track—Earl Harvin gated, echoed and fused with a CR78. Dan McKinna’s bass and David Boulter’s organ arpeggios combining into a heavy sauce. Nice brass too.”
When the album was announced Tindersticks shared Soft Tissue’s second single, “New World,” via a music video. “New World” was one of our Songs of the Week. The band also announced some EU and UK tour dates. Soft Tissue also includes “Falling, the Light,” a new song from the album the band shared on Valentine’s Day.
Soft Tissue is the band’s 14th studio album, not including their soundtrack work, and is the follow-up to 2021’s Distractions and 2016’s The Waiting Room. In 2020, they also shared an EP entitled See My Girls and 2022 they scored Claire Denis’ film The Stars At Noon.
Staples released a solo album, Arrhythmia, in 2018 via City Slang. In 2019 he scored the Claire Denis film High Life, which starred Robert Pattinson. Tindersticks contributed the new song “Willow” to the soundtrack and it featured the vocals of Pattinson.
Staples had this to say about Soft Tissue: “‘Baby I was falling, but the shit that I was falling through. Thought it was just the world rising.’ These are the opening lines of the album, it seems all the songs on Soft Tissue inhabit this confusion somehow—despairing at the destruction, suspecting you are responsible.
“Musically, it seemed that since 2016’s The Waiting Room, the band’s output had been reactionary. The last two tindersticks have been so opposed to each other—2019’s No Treasure But Hope was an extremely naturalistic recording process—due in part as a reaction to the previous few years of experimental projects (High Life, Minute Bodies) and in turn as a reaction to this purity 2021’s Distractions became one of the bands most dense, experimental albums.
“It felt like time to stop lurching to these extremes and to find a way to marry the rigor of the songwriting and the joy of the band playing together with a more hard-nosed experimental approach.”
Honorable Mentions:
These songs almost made the Top 12.
Ed Schrader’s Music Beat: “Daylight Commander”
Ezra Collective: “God Gave Me Feet For Dancing”
Rui Gabriel: “Change Your Mind”
Ginger Root: “Better Than Monday”
Jamie xx: “Life” (Feat. Robyn)
Lunar Vacation: “Set the Stage”
Liela Moss: “Conditional Love”
TORRES and Fruit Bats: “Married for Love”
total tommy: “ADELINE”
Wand: “JJ”
Here’s a handy Spotify playlist featuring the Top 12 in order, followed by all the honorable mentions:
14 Best Songs of the Week: Nilüfer Yanya, Moses Sumney, Cassandra Jenkins, and More
Jun 14, 2024
Welcome to the 19th Songs of the Week of 2024. We didn’t do a Songs of the Week last week for various reasons, so this list covers the best songs released in the last two weeks. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Scott Dransfield, and Stephen Humphries helped me decide what should make the list. We seriously considered over 40 songs this week and narrowed it down to a Top 14.
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.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last two weeks, we have picked the 11 best the last 14 days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below. By Mark Redfern (with Andy Von Pip and Marina Malin)
1. Nilüfer Yanya: “Method Actor”
This week, Nilüfer Yanya announced a new album, My Method Actor, and shared a new song from it, almost title track “Method Actor.”My Method Actor is due out September 13 via Ninja Tune. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as her upcoming tour dates, here.
My Method Actor is Yanya’s third album and follows her 2022 album, PAINLESS, and her 2019 debut album, Miss Universe, (both released on ATO).
Yanya worked on the album with her regular creative partner, Wilma Archer, in isolation. “This is the most intense album, in that respect,” Yanya says in a press release. “Because it’s only been us two. We didn’t let anyone else into the bubble.”
When writing this album, Yanya was grabbling with hitting her late 20s and dealing with the pressures of being an established musician. “For me, writing is definitely problem solving—in the way they say that dreaming is like problem solving,” she says. “You’re like, ‘Oh, that sounds good. That looks good. That makes sense.’ But you don’t really know why. You’re kind of using that part of your creative brain that doesn’t have to make sense.”
Yanya had this to say about the new single “Method Actor” in a press release: “I was researching method acting—and from what I read, it’s based on finding this one memory in your life, a life-altering, life-changing memory. The reason why some people find method acting traumatic and maybe not safe mentally, is because you’re always going back to that moment. It can be good or bad but you’re always feeding off the energy, something that’s defined you—and that’s what helps you become the character. It’s a bit like being a musician. When you’re performing, you’re still trying to invoke the energy and emotion of when you first wrote it, in that moment. It definitely feels like you’re having to recreate or step into that headspace.”
The album features “Like I Say (I runaway),” a new song Yanya shared in April via a music video in which she is a runaway bride. Yanya’s sister, Molly Daniel, directed the video. “Like I Say (I runaway)” was #1 on our Songs of the Week list.
Last week, Moses Sumney shared a new song, “Vintage,” via a self-directed music video. It’s the first taste of an upcoming new EP (its title and other details are still forthcoming).
Sumney had this to say in a press release: “‘Vintage’ is me sliding into the music I probably listen to most these days—progressive R&B. I crafted the video as a callback to the ’90s/2000s clips of my childhood, when men weren’t afraid to beg and plead. I am once again begging to join the pantheon of great yearners: K-Ci & Jojo, Omarion, Ray J, Jodeci, Jagged Edge. Desire has always been at the core of my work; now the desire has a little shimmering shimmy to it.”
On the video, Sumney worked with cinematographer Marcell Rév (Euphoria, Malcolm & Marie, Miley Cyrus’s “Flowers”) and Kodak, who provided them a “yet-to-be-released and never-before-used motion picture stock, which is similar to a beloved professional still photography film.”
In 2022, Sumney put out a live concert film, A Performance in V Acts. In 2021, Sumney released the live album, Blackalachia, via his own label, TUNTUM, as well as an accompanying film. His most recent studio album, græ, came out in 2020 via Jagjaguwar, and earned him a spot on the cover of one of our print issues.
Sumney has also been acting lately, and later this summer he’ll be in A24’s Ti West-directed MaXXXine, alongside Mia Goth, Halsey, Kevin Bacon, and others.
Jenkins had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘Petco’ is about looking for connection and coming up a little short. Writing from a pointedly angsty and existential place allowed me to be more playful with songwriting. I needed a space to explore the lizard brain, and deep down the song stems from the sincere belief that we are wired, on the most basic instinctual level, to love and to be loved.
“I wanted to capture the sense of uncanny malaise inherent to a place that puts a price tag on nature—simultaneously granting us access to the natural world while distancing us from it, all with the promise of companionship.
“I come back to the same ideas again and again in my songs, and Petco throws a new lens on a familiar thought: the further we distance ourselves from the natural world, the harder it is to find our way back. It’s easy to wonder if we’ve gone too far, and despite my anxieties, I can’t help but see the humanity in all of it.”
She had this to add about video: “The video is staged in three distinct locations: an NYC apartment with a window to the outside world, a pet store, and lastly, the dance floor—where the video provides a sense of closure that the song never gives us.”
In a press release announcing the new album, Jenkins says that An Overview on Phenomenal Nature was her “intended swan song,” that she was going to give up touring and releasing new music, but then was taken aback by the positive reception to that album and the attention it garnered her.
“I was channeling what I knew in that moment—feeling lost,” Jenkins says. “When that record came out, and people started to respond to what I had written, my plans to quit were foiled in the most unexpected, heartening, and generous way. Ready or not, it reinvigorated me.”
But when it came time to record a follow-up album, Jenkins initially had difficulty recreating the magic in the studio, saying that after two years of touring she was “running on fumes.”
“I was coming from a place of burn out and depletion, and in the months following the session, I struggled to accept that I didn’t like the record I had just made. It felt uninspired,” she explains, “so I started over.”
She abandoned the original sessions for the new album and with the help of producer, engineer, and mixer Andrew Lappin (L’Rain, Slauson Malone 1), Jenkins began My Light, My Destroyer anew.
“When we listened back in the control room that first day, I could see a space on my record shelf start to open up, because the songs were finding their home in real time,” she says on the second attempt to record the album. “That spark informed the blueprint for the rest of the album, and its completion was propelled by a newfound momentum.”
The press release mentions Tom Petty, Annie Lennox, Neil Young, David Bowie’s final album Blackstar, David Berman, and albums in her “high school CD wallet” (Radiohead’s The Bends, The Breeders, PJ Harvey, and Pavement) as influences on My Light, My Destroyer. And the album also features a large number of collaborators, including: Palehound’s El Kempner, Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy, Isaac Eiger (formerly of Strange Ranger), Katie Von Schleicher, Zoë Brecher (Hushpuppy), Daniel McDowell (Amen Dunes), producer and instrumentalist Josh Kaufman (of Jenkins’ An Overview), producer Stephanie Marziano (Hayley Williams, Bartees Strange), and director/actor/journalist Hailey Benton Gates.
Returning home to New York City after being on the road for so long also inspired the album.
“I feel most energized when I’m out in the world, in the mix of things,” Jenkins says. “Coming back home to New York, being with my close friends and community, riding the subway, and going to live shows made me want to channel the palpable feeling of the electricity in a room full of people—I need to be fully immersed in my environment. New York City is endlessly stimulating, and I’m very impressionable.”
Of My Light, My Destroyer’s album title, Jenkins explains: “Awe is a function of nature that keeps us from losing connection. Staying in touch with awe, that light, is the best antidote to fear, and the powers that try to control us with fear. So in that sense, staying in touch with awe is to keep my light intact, and that is my greatest tool for destroying and dismantling the parts of myself and the world around me that have the potential to cause harm. Frankly, this is what keeps me from quitting—it serves as a reminder to pause and appreciate my time on earth, for all its chaos and its beauty.”
Read our 2021 interview with Jenkins, where she discusses An Overview on Phenomenal Nature. By Mark Redfern
4. IAN SWEET and Porridge Radio: “Everyone’s a Superstar”
Last week, IAN SWEET (the project of Jilian Medford) and England’s Porridge Radio (the band led by Dana Margolin) collaborated on new track, “Everyone’s a Superstar.” The song was recorded at London’s iconic Abbey Road Studios as part of their annual Amplify x Pitchfork London series.
The series takes artists playing at the Pitchfork London music festival to Abbey Road to write and record a song with their engineers in a day’s time. Interviews on the process are conducted alongside film documentation that can be found below as well.
Medford had this to say in a press release: “We all went into this day with no expectations but also wide eyes and a lot of excitement! To be at Abbey Road was a dream, and to be reunited with Porridge Radio was also a dream, so it was so fun to see our old friends again in a totally new context and to make something special together. We all clicked in a really magical way right off the bat. Everyone sort of took their places and fit in where they had to. We came out of it with something I feel so proud of, and something I never knew would exist. Writing with Dana and seeing her process as a lyricist was really enlightening as well. It had been a long time since I’d written lyrics with someone else…I was excited to see where her mind went and how our two styles found one unique voice together.”
Porridge Radio collectively had this to add: “It was amazing to come into a room of seven musicians with absolutely no idea what was going to happen and lock-in together to write and record a song that we actually all love in one day. Creatively it was so exciting and such a fun process and we’re so proud of what we made.” By Marina Malin
5. Soccer Mommy: “Lost”
Last week, Soccer Mommy (aka Sophie Allison) shared a new song, “Lost,” via a lyric video. She is currently on the sold-out “The Lost Shows” tour, where Allison performs stripped-back and solo. She also has some UK and EU shows this summer. Check out her upcoming tour dates here.
“‘Lost’ feels like something new and something old at the same time,” Allison says of the song in a press release. “It’s a song that’s full of reflection and I wanted its production to really capture that feeling. I’m happy to have a chance to play it at these more intimate solo shows, because I think it really shines in that setting.”
Soccer Mommy’s most recent album, Sometimes, Forever, came out in 2022 via Loma Vista. Last year she teamed up with Bully (aka Alicia Bognanno) for the new song, “Lose You,” which was one of our Songs of the Week. By Mark Redfern
6. Confidence Man: “I CAN’T LOSE YOU”
Last week, London-based Australian electro-pop band Confidence Man announced their new album, 3 AM (LA LA LA), and shared its first single, “I CAN’T LOSE YOU,” via a music video. 3 AM (LA LA LA) is due out October 18 via Casablanca. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork here.
3 AM (LA LA LA) is the band’s third album, the follow-up to 2022’s Tilt. Since 2023, Confidence Man have released “On & On (Again),” co-produced with Daniel Avery, “Now U Do” with DJ Seinfeld, “Forever 2 (Crush Mix),” and the remix album Confidence Man Club Classics Vol. 1.
The band is fronted by Sugar Bones (aka Aidan Moore) and Janet Planet (aka Grace Stephenson). They are backed by masked producers Clarence McGuffie (aka Sam Hales) and Reggie Goodchild (aka Lewis Stephenson). The crazy video for “I CAN’T LOSE YOU” features Sugar Bones and Janet Planet singing the song nude (with the inappropriate bits pixelated out) in a helicopter above London.
In a press release, Sugar Bones says of the album’s title: “It’s 3am, it’s never not 3am, and we party all the time.”
Janet Planet adds: “We pretty much wrote every single song when we were wrecked. We’d get blasted and stay up till 9am coming up with music, but we noticed that 3am was the hottest time for when we were on it and the best ideas were coming out.” By Marina Malin
7. Cola: “Pulling Quotes”
Cola released their sophomore album, The Gloss, today via Fire Talk. Last week they shared another new song from it, “Pulling Quotes,” via a music video.
Cola consists of ex-Ought members Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy and Evan Cartwright (drummer with U.S. Girls and The Weather Station). Their debut album, Deep In View, was released in 2022.
Darcy had this to say about “Pulling Quotes” in a press release: “Ben sent us this demo with music based on the melodic limitations of the Uilleann pipes, which he is learning to play (the bassline is mimicking the drone of the pipes). He and Evan then recorded a demo together that they were really happy with. I’ll admit I wasn’t drawn to it initially but they kept reiterating their enthusiasm for it. I finally sat down and wrote the whole vocal in one afternoon, pretty nearly in final form which rarely happens.
“Lyrically, it’s a song about a relationship where two people are approaching each other like journalists, or perhaps even are journalists. The music is so bright and open I felt the lyrics needed to be a bit cheeky to match the tone. There is definitely some pathos, though, in the darkness of the bridge.”
Stidworthy had this to say about the song’s video: “For me, the video could be seen as a reflection on the cycles of desire and deception in our relationships, and the interference running through that arc - the endless doom scrolling and stalking and assumptions and projections and repeating all these roles we think we should be playing that we’ve seen on TV. It’s about navigating through all this mediation, and trying to make sense of what’s real in the density and mess of it all.”
The Gloss includes “Bitter Melon,” a new song Cola shared in March via a lyric video. The single was also available as a flexi disc (accompanied by a zine) and was one of our Songs of the Week. The album also features the band’s 2023 single “Keys Down If You Stay.” When The Gloss was announced Cola shared another new song from it, “Pallor Tricks,” via a music video. Then they shared another new song from it, “Albatross,” via a music video. By Mark Redfern
8. illuminati hotties: “Didn’t” (Feat. Cavetown)
The project of producer and engineer Sarah Tudzin, illuminati hotties announced a new album, POWER, last week and shared a new song from it, “Didn’t.” The song features Cavetown and is accompanied by a video. POWER is due out August 23 via Hopeless. Check out the album’s tracklist and album art, as well as some upcoming tour dates, here.
“Perfect Hand” follows the release of “I’m All Fucked Up,” “Dancing in the Club,” and “Where’s Your Love Now” from Box for Buddy, Box for Star.
Amos has this to say about the single in a press release: “‘Perfect Hand’ is about clarity in the muck—you’ve been headed in a direction so long you don’t know why anymore, and suddenly there’s a moment when you remember and it brings you peace of some kind, like waking up in a good way.” By Marina Malin
10. Fat Dog: “I am the King”
South London five-piece Fat Dog are releasing their debut album, WOOF., on September 6 via Domino. Last week shared its latest single, “I am the King,” via a music video.
Joe Love fronts Fat Dog and the band also features Chris Hughes (keyboards/synths), Ben Harris (bass), Johnny Hutchinson (drums) and Morgan Wallace (keyboards/saxophone).
“It was written in the toilets of the Wetherspoons pub in Forest Hill,” says Love about the song in a press release.
When the album was announced, the band shared its lead single “Running,” via a music video. “Running” was one of our Songs of the Week.
Love produced the album with James Ford and Jimmy Robertson. Influences mentioned in the press release include: Bicep, I.R.O.K, Kamasi Washington, and the Russian experimental EDM group Little Big. WOOF. includes the band’s previously released first two singles, “King of the Slugs” and “All the Same.”
“A lot of music at the moment is very cerebral and people won’t dance to it,” says Hughes. “Our music is the polar opposite of thinking music.” By Mark Redfern
11. Cults: “Left My Keys”
Last week, Cults (the duo of Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion) announced a new album, To the Ghosts, and shared a new song from it, “Left My Keys.”To the Ghosts is due out July 26 via Imperial. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as the band’s upcoming tour dates, here.
To the Ghosts is Cults’ fifth full-length album and followsHost, which came out in 2020. The new album includes “Crybaby,” a new song the band shared in April that was one of our Songs of the Week.
Cults started work on the album during the pandemic, which was written and recorded in Oblivion’s apartment, before the band worked with Shane Stoneback, who co-produced the album with Cults. John Congleton mixed To the Ghosts.
Follin had this to say about “Left My Keys” in a press release: “It’s about growing up and feeling like you’re being left behind. You think you’re missing out on things and not accomplishing enough. You get a little bit older and realize you don’t care anymore. All those things you were worried about don’t matter. You become comfortable where you are. It’s freeing to let go of the feeling that you need to be a part of something.”
Oblivion adds: “It’s a bright spot. With this being To the Ghosts, ‘Left My Keys’ is dedicated to the ghost of your high school memories with an element of fondness.”
Cults were featured on our Covers of Coversalbum, which was released for our 20th anniversary and is out now via American Laundromat. By Mark Redfern
12. Heartworms: “Jacked”
UK musician Jojo Orme, under the moniker Heartworms, returned this week with a blistering new single, “Jacked.” Her first release since last year’s “May I Comply,” this track delves into a haunting darkness, described by Orme as “an entity you’re running from, yet it’s you who holds it.” Produced by Dan Carey, “Jacked” melds propulsive gothic rhythms with sharp, intense lyrics.
The accompanying music video, directed by Gilbert Trejo, further amplifies the song’s unsettling energy through a visually arresting and surreal aesthetic. Trejo explains, “‘Jacked’ is the soundtrack to a paranoid fever dream. The song’s relentless movement and energy demanded a visual translation. We wanted to portray Heartworms in flight, yet utterly isolated, so I scratched out everyone else’s faces from the film emulsion with a safety pin. It evokes a feeling of loneliness and the unknown—frightening, yet darkly humorous.” By Andy Von Pip
Zach Schawrtz of SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE had this to say about the single’s theme: “It’s about unrequited love and making up a situation or whole life in your head. The other person finally ‘sees you’ and your ‘problems are solved,’ but they aren’t, really.”
Brennan had this to say about the video: “A video about trying to cure your loneliness through material means, courage, impulsivity, and chopping your finger off after cutting an avocado.”
Available exclusively from Saddle Creek, 500 copies of four vinyl variants will be available on the street date. By Marina Malin
14. Hamish Hawk: “Nancy Dearest”
Scottish musician Hamish Hawk is releasing a new album, A Firmer Hand, on August 16 via Fierce Panda. This week he shared its second single, “Nancy Dearest,” via a music video.
Hawk had this to say about the song in a press release: “Many of the songs on A Firmer Hand are marked by the presence of another: a lover, an authority figure, an enemy, or a confidante. ‘Nancy Dearest’ is defined instead by an absence. On the one hand, it’s a bitterly defiant song, an ego trip, a narcissistic flight of fancy. On the other, it’s a song about sheer loneliness, isolation, and ultimate loss. Either way, it’s a cry for help.
“We all tell ourselves stories about who we are and who we are not. On occasion something will cause our visions of ourselves to short-circuit. In ‘Nancy Dearest,’ our hero is spiralling. ‘I’ve seen the well of emptiness and I have had my fill’... Tell me about it, stud.”
A Firmer Hand is the follow-up to 2023’s Angel Numbers.
Hawk had this to say about the album: “Writing this album, I opened up my closet, and a skeleton came out. The thing that links all of the songs is a sense of the unsaid, whether out of guilt, shame, repression, embarrassment, coyness, whatever it might have been. I realized: I am going to say these things, and not all of them are going to make me look good. The album made so many demands, and I just gave myself over to it.
“Once I’d given myself over to the idea, I thought, I have to stick to this. I can’t hide anything from it. I can’t clean it all up for consumption. It felt uncomfortable for me – and that’s exactly how it should feel. That’s a really strong position.”
