12 Best Songs of the Week: Miki Berenyi Trio, Samia, Preoccupations, Cut Copy, and More

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12 Best Songs of the Week: Miki Berenyi Trio, Samia, Preoccupations, Cut Copy, and More

Plus Say Sue Me, Fine, Sunflower Bean, and a Wrap-up of the Week’s Other Notable New Tracks

Apr 25, 2025 By Mark Redfern (with Andy Von Pip)

Welcome to the 13th Songs of the Week of 2025. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, 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 12.  

Recently we announced Issue 74, The Protest Issue. It features Kathleen Hannah and Bartees Strange on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.

In recent weeks we posted interviews with Sunflower Bean; Beirut (a digital cover story); Miki Berenyi Trio; Florist; SPELLLING; Craig Finn; Djo (a digital cover story); Black Country, New Road (a digital cover story); Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers; girlpuppy; Lonnie Holley; Japanese Breakfast (a digital cover story); and more.

In the last week we reviewed some albums.

We’re also hoping to get 600 new (or renewed) subscribers on board in the next three months and so we’re offering 30% off subscriptions right now.

To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last 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. Miki Berenyi Trio x Lol Tolhurst x Gray: “Stranger”

Miki Berenyi Trio—led by the former singer/guitarist with 1990s shoegaze, dream pop, and Britpop band Lush—recently released their debut album, Tripla, via Bella Union. This week they teamed up with Lol Tolhurst (formerly of The Cure) and his son Gray Tolhurst for the new song “Stranger.”

Read our new interview with Miki Berenyi Trio on Tripla.

Read our review of Tripla.

The collaboration came about when Lol Tolhurst opened for Miki Berenyi Trio with his Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee project on Berenyi’s 2024 U.S. tour. “Stranger” was recorded in Los Angeles, London, and St Leonards. Miki Berenyi Trio’s Oliver Cherer produced the song.

Cherer had this to say in a press release: “Stranger arrived as a demo from Lol/Gray, with guitar, synth and drums, with loads of room to develop riffs, hooks and melodies. I liked the insistent repetition of the long outro and was instantly minded to explore a Talk Talk approach, which is where the piano line with the Ashes to Ashes flanger wobble came from. The outro was extended to make a virtue of the repeated progression and the strings synths were added to help swell that into a wall of crescendo. Miki then took over adding lyrics and the gorgeous vocal melodies. Moose added layers of shimmering guitars and a rough mix was sent to Lol who added drum parts, recorded by Martin Fleischmann in Los Angeles, before it all came back to St Leonards for a mix where I also sneaked in a nice fat, squelchy Moog part. It developed quite naturally and easily, with each person’s contribution making the song bigger and more beautiful at every turn.”

Miki Berenyi says: “The lyrics are about being a friend to a long-term couple splitting. The tragedy at the centre is the people actually breaking up, but the repercussions ripple outward.”

Lol adds: “Sadly, Budgie couldn’t make this tour, but my son Gray is taking time out of his band Topographies to perform my set with me. ‘Stranger’ will feature all five of the touring party playing live together, and we’re excited to have a unique song for the shows.”

Tripla includes the band’s debut single, “Vertigo,” which was released in May 2024 and was #1 on our Songs of the Week list that week. When the album was announced, they shared another new song from it, “8th Deadly Sin,” via a music video. “8th Deadly Sin” was also one of our Songs of the Week. The album’s third single, “Big I Am,” also landed on Songs of the Week. Then they shared its fourth single, “Kinch,” also one of our Songs of the Week.

After Lush, Berenyi was also in the band Piroshka and for the trio she is backed by two members of that band—Berenyi’s life partner KJ “Moose” McKillop (of ’90s shoegazers Moose) and guitarist Oliver Cherer. Miki Berenyi Trio (or MB3 for short) is a full on collaboration between the three members and not just a Berenyi solo project. Tripla is the Hungarian word for “triple,” named in a nod to Berenyi’s Hungarian father.

Bella Union is the label founded by Simon Raymonde, formerly of Cocteau Twins, a band previously associated with Lush. Bella Union also released the two Piroshka albums.

Paul Gregory (of Bella Union labelmates Lanterns on the Lake) mixed the album. The album was recorded at home and the trio have also taken a DIY approach to touring. “There is something very ‘grass roots’ about what we’re doing,” says Berenyi. “There’s no point following the ‘announce the album, then tour, then record the next album’ route—we just want to wring as much enjoyment out of this as we can, and hope that it resonates somewhere!”

In 2022, Berenyi released her acclaimed memoir, Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success, and the trio was partially born out of the need to perform at book events.

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

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

Read our 2015 interview with Lush on Split.

Read our 2016 interview with Lush on their reunion.

Read our 2024 interview with Berenyi on her memoir. By Mark Redfern

2. Samia: “Carousel”

Earlier this week, Minneapolis-based singer and songwriter Samia unveiled “Carousel,” the final pre-release single from her new album Bloodless, which arrived today. Following a string of standout tracks—“Bovine Excision,” “Lizard,” “Hole in a Frame,” and “Pants”—“Carousel” offers one last glimpse into what promises to be her most ambitious record yet.

What begins as a fragile, acoustic-led piece with shimmering synths gradually expands into a sweeping, euphoric crescendo. Speaking about the song, Samia describes it as “a shadow of a long song,” adding, “it’s about spinning your wheels, and being afraid to make someone’s life less beautiful if you’re in it.”

The release is accompanied by another cinematic music video, once again directed by longtime collaborator Sarah Ritter. Each video from Bloodless has explored the theme of fearing oneself, with Samia often playing both protagonist and antagonist. For “Carousel,” the setting is an eerie indoor pool—an homage to childhood nightmares inspired by Are You Afraid of the Dark?‘s “Dead Man’s Float” and The Twilight Zone‘s “Mirror Image.”

Bloodless follows Samia’s critically acclaimed 2023 album Honey, which marked a breakout year for the artist. The new record was recorded in both North Carolina and her adopted hometown of Minneapolis. Co-produced with trusted collaborators Caleb Wright and Jake Luppen, and featuring contributions from Christian Lee Hutson and Raffaella, Bloodless sees Samia in poetic myth making mode once more. By Andy Von Pip

3. Preoccupations: “Ill at Ease”

Canadian post-punks Preoccupations are releasing a new album, Ill at Ease, on May 9 via Born Loser. This week they shared its third single, title track “Ill at Ease,” via a music video.

Frontman Matt Flegel had this to say about the song in a press release: “I was trying to convey the feeling of waking up, but not being able to shake the uncomfortable suspicion that you might still be dreaming. It’s also about making amends with the fact that you might never feel comfortable in your own skin, and finding solace in the fact that some things can’t be changed.”

Previously Preoccupations shared the album’s first single, “Focus,” which was one of our Songs of the Week. They also announced some tour dates. “Bastards” was the album’s second single and it was also one of our Songs of the Week.

Ill at Ease is the band’s fifth album and the follow-up to 2022’s Arrangements and 2018’s amusingly titled New Material.

Preoccupations is Matt Flegel (vocals, bass), Scott Munro (guitar, synth), Daniel Christiansen (guitar), and Mike Wallace (drums).

Flegel had this to say about the new album in a previous press release: “The well of dark things to write about seemingly has not dried up, and lyrically, it’s where I still tend to draw from. Draining all my anxieties into a song is often the only way I can get through a day. Some songs exist in a world with barren plains of burnt earth, covered in a dust of shame, dread, death, where all the things I love are things that kill me. Some come from the perspective of another distant world, looking skyward into a science fiction ocean of space, solitude, slight hope. Sometimes I’m looking around at the world that we live in now with incredulity, hilariously dissatisfied with how it’s all turned out, and assuming that it can’t be long before it’s all over. Some songs are just a reflection of me looking down at my feet while I trudge along wondering what I’m doing with myself, and if the ground is going to fall out from underneath me at any given moment.”

Read our 2016 interview with Preoccupations.

Read our 2018 interview with Preoccupations on New Material.

4. Cut Copy: “A Decade Long Sunset”

This week, Cut Copy released a new single, “Solid,” as well as the B-side “A Decade Long Sunset.” The two tracks will be released on a limited edition 12-inch single, shipping in late June. “Solid” was, well, a solid track, but the expansive seven-and-a-half-minute long “A Decade Long Sunset” was the one that truly impressed us.

The last album by the Australian electronic band was 2020’s Freeze, Melt.

Frontman Dan Whitford had this to say about the new songs in a statement: “We’re excited to finally share ‘Solid,’ our first new single in five years. It’s a song that came out of a pretty chaotic time, both personally and globally, and in some ways it became a kind of mantra for me. I started it as an instrumental years ago, then had a dream about it and felt pulled back in. It all came together quickly after that, like it had been waiting for the right moment to find its voice. ‘Solid’ is about resilience, about holding on to your vision even when everything feels upside down. I hope it gives you the same sense of forward motion it gave me.

“On the B-side is ‘A Decade Long Sunset,’ a track that is less of a traditional song structure and more of a slowly evolving soundtrack through dawn landscapes, neon-lit streets, busy highways, and festival crowds. To help paint this cinematic journey, we enlisted the amazing talents of KLF collaborator and member of legendary Australian band The Triffids, Graham Lee on pedal steel guitar. I love the evolution of different sounds and instruments through the course of the song. It’s probably one of the most psychedelic and evocative tracks we’ve recorded.”

The 12-inch will be a “limited-edition transparent coke bottle clear, yellow, blue, and green splatter vinyl. Limited to 500 copies only.” Pre-order it here.

Read our 2013 interview with Cut Copy on Free Your Mind. By Mark Redfern

5. Say Sue Me: “In This Mess”

South Korean indie band Say Sue Me are releasing a new EP, Time is Not Yours, on April 30 via Damnably / Beach Town Music. This week they shared another single from it, “In This Mess.”

Previously they shared the EP’s “Vacation,” which features Silica Gel’s Kim Hanjoo and was one of our Songs of the Week.

In 2023 we posted about the Say Sue Me song “4am,” which was one of our Songs of the Week. Earlier in 2023 the band shared another new song “Mind is Light,” via a music video. It was also one of our Songs of the Week.

In 2022, in honor of the band’s 10th anniversary, Say Sue Me shared the 10 covers EP, featuring songs from Yo La Tengo, Pavement, Daniel Johnston, Silver Jews, Grandaddy, and Guided By Voices, along with two re-recorded versions of their own songs.