11 Best Songs of the Week: Ratboys, Floating Points, Flea, Melody’s Echo Chamber, and More
Dec 05, 2025
Welcome to the 42nd Songs of the Week of 2025. We didn’t do a Songs of the Week last week because of the Thanksgiving holiday, so this week’s list includes songs from the last two weeks.
I find it confounding that many websites post their Songs of the Year lists at the start of December, when there is another month of the year to go. One site’s #1 song of 2025 actually came out in December 2024 but because they were premature on their 2024 list they had to include it on this year’s. I can understand posting an Albums of the Year list in early December—not too many albums of note come out this month and music journalists are often sent new albums several months in advance—but who knows for sure which new songs will arrive. Case in point this week’s collection presented below.
This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Matt the Raven, Scotty Dransfield, and Stephen Humphries helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 30 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 11.
We need to close the funding gap for our next issue and are offering 50% off subscriptions, 50% off back issues, and up to 70% off print ads. We need to raise $7,000. Find out more here.
Issue 74, The Protest Issue, is out now. It features Kathleen Hannah and Bartees Strange on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
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.
1. Ratboys: “What’s Right”
Chicago indie rockers Ratboys are releasing a new album, Singin’ to an Empty Chair, on February 6, 2026 via New West, their first for the label. This week they shared its third single, “What’s Right,” via a lyric video.
The band features vocalist/guitarist Julia Steiner, guitarist Dave Sagan, drummer Marcus Nuccio, and bassist Sean Neumann.
“We approached this song like an experiment in the studio, stitching together three different drum performances, in three different-sounding environments, to guide us through some dramatic scene changes within the song,” says Steiner in a press release. “We referenced the tight, yet expansive sonics of The War On Drugs and the desert landscapes of Thelma and Louise. The back half of the song came to me in a dream and remains one of the few times that I’ve had the presence of mind to record an idea immediately upon waking. Most of the lyrics and melody came out in that moment, and for that I’m still mystified and extremely grateful.”
The band wrote and demoed new songs at a cabin on a 75-acre plot of land in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area. Then several months later they returned there to work for one week with co-producer Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie, Tegan and Sara). Then with Walla they moved to Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio studio in Chicago and finally to Rosebud Studio in Evanston, Illinois.
“We wanted to approach this record like it was a quilt,” Neumann says in a press release. “We recorded the songs in all these different places, so we approached it in a way where different songs had different scenes. Certain parts of songs were recorded in different spaces, and we switch back and forth between them throughout the record to help tell the story of each song.”
Steiner began therapy for the first time before they started work on Singin’ to an Empty Chair, which impacted the lyrics on the album, its title referencing “The Empty Chair” technique, a therapy exercise in which someone practices having a difficult conversation with someone who’s not there, speaking to an empty chair.
“A big, overarching theme of this record is my attempt to document my experience being estranged from a close loved one,” she says. “The goal is to update this person on what’s been going on in my life and to try to bridge that impasse and reach out a hand into the void.”
Summing up the making of Singin’ to an Empty Chair, Steiner says: “The experience of making this record definitely gives me hope for whatever happens next. There are plenty of good days, days filled with friendship and love, and then there are days when I dwell on things and desperately want to bridge the gap. It’s my whole life, you know? So, for me, this record is a document of all of those days stitched together, like a quilt in a time capsule, just waiting to get dug up when the time is right.”
Read our interview with Ratboys on The Windowhere and read our rave review of the album here.
10 Best Songs of the Week: Ladytron, Man/Woman/Chainsaw, David Byrne, plantoid, and More
Nov 21, 2025
Welcome to the 41st Songs of the Week of 2025. This week Andy Von Pip, 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.
We need to close the funding gap for our next issue and are offering 25% off subscriptions, 50% off back issues, and up to 70% off print ads. We need to raise $7,000. Find out more here.
Issue 74, The Protest Issue, is out now. It features Kathleen Hannah and Bartees Strange on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
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. Ladytron: “Kingdom Undersea”
Earlier today, Liverpool-formed electro-pop band Ladytron announced a new album, Paradises, and shared a new song from it, “Kingdom Undersea,” via a music video. Paradises is due out March 20, 2026 on Nettwerk.
Ladytron is Helen Marnie, Daniel Hunt, and Mira Aroyo. Fellow founding member Reuben Wu left the band in 2023. Ladyton’s last studio album, Time’s Arrow, came out in 2023 via Cooking Vinyl.
Hunt produced Paradises, which was mixed by long-time collaborator Jim Abbiss.
“When I heard the demos for Paradises, I was truly blown away,” says Abbiss in a press release. “The variety in songwriting and arrangements reminded me of Witching Hour, but with its own unique atmosphere, sonics, and attitude.”
Marnie adds: “It was like a homecoming. We just fit. His enthusiasm is contagious, and having that in the room really creates a kind of magic.”
Paradises was written and recorded over five months starting in late 2023, with it finished in early 2025. They worked on it in Liverpool, São Paulo, Montrose, Dalston, and at Dean Street Studios in Soho, London.
Aroyo says: “I wanted to write from that perspective and channel that fun feeling of first working together back in the late ’90s when we had nothing to lose.”
Marnie adds: “Feeling at ease brings the best out of us, and there was a buzz in the studio about the material that felt new.”
Says Hunt: “Every time I went into the studio, I’d come out after an hour with a new track. The key motivation was fun. Everything became fun again…. There’s an itch we never scratched, which is that despite our origins in the DJ world, we never actually made a ‘disco’ record. Albeit, ‘disco’ in our context has a somewhat different meaning.”
For Record Store Day Black Friday (on November 28) Ladytron are also putting out Nightlife, a remix collection on 2LP milky clear vinyl. It features “classic remixes from Ladytron’s early career, and rare or unreleased mixes of some of their most loved tracks.” Some of the remixers include Tiësto, Soulwax, Sasha, Josh Wink, Erol Alkan, Zombie Nation, Underworld’s Darren Emerson, Playgroup, Simian Mobile Disco, and others.
This week,Man/Woman/Chainsaw unveiled their new single “Only Girl,” their first release for Fiction Records and a standout of their recent live sets. Recorded at RAK Studios with producers Seth Evans and Margo Broom, the track marks one of the band’s most immediate and joyfully unrestrained releases to date.
Man/Woman/Chainsaw are: Billy Ward (vocals, guitars), Emmie-Mae Avery (vocals, keys/synths), Vera Leppänen (vocals, bass), Clio Harwood (violin), Lola Cherry (drums), Billy Doyle (guitars).
Leppänen, who takes lead vocals on the single, says: “‘Only Girl’ is our playful love song. Built around a ripping violin top-line and birthed from a grungy guitar jam, it gradually became something more boisterous and altogether more joyful—a total declaration of love. We had a lot of fun making it.”
The single arrives off the back of a sold-out Scala and UK tour, two sold-out runs this year alone, plus live sessions for KEXP and Steve Lamacq at BBC 6 Music. The band also made a triumphant first appearance at SXSW in the spring.
Alongside this week’s release, the group confirmed a free-entry London show at Omeara this December, with further headline dates set for February. Their debut album is slated for 2026.
Read our review of their debut EP here. By Andy Von Pip
3. David Byrne: “T-Shirt”
David Byrne released a new album, Who Is the Sky?, in September via Matador. This week, the former Talking Heads frontman has shared a new song, “T-Shirt,” which he co-wrote with regular collaborator Brian Eno.
Who Is the Sky? also features St. Vincent and The Smile’s Tom Skinner. It was one of our Best Albums of September 2025.
Kid Harpoon (Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus) produced the album and members of New York-based chamber ensemble Ghost Train Orchestra arranged the songs. Byrne’s last album was 2018’s American Utopia, which became a Broadway show and a performance film directed by Spike Lee.
Summing up Who Is the Sky?, Byrne says: “At my age, at least for me, there’s a ‘don’t give a shit about what people think’ attitude that kicks in. I can step outside my comfort zone with the knowledge that I kind of know who I am by now and sort of know what I’m doing. That said, every new set of songs, every song even, is a new adventure. There’s always a bit of, ‘how do I work this?’ I’ve found that not every collaboration works, but often when they do, it’s because I’m able to clearly impart what it is I’m trying to do. They hopefully get that, and as a result, we’re now joined together heading to the same unknown place.”
10 Best Songs of the Week: Charli XCX and John Cale, Dry Cleaning, Magdalena Bay, and More
Nov 14, 2025
Welcome to the 40th 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 10.
We need to close the funding gap for our next issue and are offering 25% off subscriptions, 50% off back issues, and up to 70% off print ads. We need to raise $7,000. Find out more here.
Issue 74, The Protest Issue, is out now. It features Kathleen Hannah and Bartees Strange on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
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. Charli XCX: “House” (Feat. John Cale)
It was previously announced that Charli XCX will be releasing a new album, Wuthering Heights, the soundtrack to Emerald Fennell’s new movie adaptation. On Monday she shared “House,” which features legendary Welsh avant garde musician (and former Velvet Underground member) John Cale.
Then on Thursday Charli shared another song from it, “Chains of Love,” and confirmed the album’s release date. Wuthering Heights will be out February 13, 2026 via Atlantic. “Chains of Love” is an honorable mention below.
Wuthering Heights is the latest adaptation of Emily Brontë’s novel, directed by Emerald Fennell (Saltburn, Promising Young Woman) and starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. The film is also due out February 13, 2026.
Charli XCX had this to say about “House” and Wuthering Heights in a previous press release: “I got a call from Emerald Fennell last Christmas asking whether I would consider working on a song for her adaptation of Wuthering Heights. I read the script and immediately felt inspired so Finn Keane and I began working on not just one but many songs that we felt connected to the world she was creating. After being so in the depths of my previous album I was excited to escape into something entirely new, entirely opposite. When I think of Wuthering Heights I think of many things. I think of passion and pain. I think of England. I think of the Moors, I think of the mud and the cold. I think of determination and grit.
“A few years ago I watched Todd Haynes’ documentary about The Velvet Underground. As many of you know I’m a huge fan of the band and was really taken by the documentary. One thing that stuck with me was how John Cale described a key sonic requirement of The Velvet Underground. That any song had to be both ‘elegant and brutal.’ I got really stuck on that phrase. I write it down on my notes app and would pull it up from time to time and think about what he meant.
“When working on music for this film, ‘elegant and brutal’ was a phrase I kept coming back to. One day whilst on tour in Austin, Finn and I went to the studio and wrote the bones for a song that would eventually become House. When the summer ended I was still ruminating on John’s words. So I decided to reach out to him to get his opinion on the songs that his phrase had so deeply inspired, but also to see whether he might want to collaborate on any.
“We got connected, we spoke on the phone and wow… that voice, so elegant, so brutal. I sent him some songs and we started talking specifically about House. We spoke about the idea of a poem. He recorded something and sent it to me. Something that only John could do. And it was… well, it made my cry.
“I feel so lucky to have been able to work with John on this song. I’ve been so excited to share it with you all, sitting quietly in anticipation.
“Love you all, let’s fall in love again and again <3”
Charli also has a lot of upcoming film roles in 2026. She’s starring in A24’s The Moment, from an original idea by her. A press release also lays out her other upcoming acting gigs: “Charli will star in Daniel Goldhaber’s remake of 1978 cult horror Faces of Death, Greg Araki’s erotic thriller I Want Your Sex, Cathy Yan’s upcoming independent film The Gallerist, Julia Jackman’s period fantasy 100 Nights of Hero, Romain Gavras’ satirical action Sacrifice, and Pete Ohs’ intimate drama Erupcja.”
South London band Dry Cleaning are releasing a new album, Secret Love, on January 9, 2026 via 4AD. This week they shared its second single, “Cruise Ship Designer,” via a music video starring the band’s Lewis Maynard.
Vocalist and lyricist Florence Shaw had this to say about the song in a press release: “The song is about a cruise ship and hotel designer who’s skilled and paid well, but who doesn’t believe his role has real worth. He tries to enjoy it, and invests himself in meeting the challenges of the job.”
The band features singer Florence Shaw, guitarist Tom Dowse, drummer Nick Buxton, and bassist Lewis Maynard.
Dry Cleaning worked on Secret Love at various studios, including Jeff Tweedy’s The Loft in Chicago, with Gilla Band’s Alan Duggan and Daniel Fox at Sonic Studios in Dublin, and finally with Cate Le Bon at Black Box in the Loire Valley in France.
“Being in a room with them and hearing that vitality and life force that exists between them all, it’s such a unique expression,” Le Bon says in a press release.
Dry Cleaning began with the two EPs Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks and Sweet Princess EP in 2019. These were followed by their debut LP New Long Leg in 2021 and most recent LP Stumpworkin 2022. In 2023 they released the SwampyEP.
Stream Stumpwork here and read our rave review of the album here. Stumpwork also landed on our Top 100 Albums of 2022 list.
3. Magdalena Bay: “This Is the World (I Made It For You)”
Today, Los Angeles-based electro-pop duo Magdalena Bay announced Nice Day: A Collection of Singles, a 7-inch box set that collects their recent standalone singles. They also shared two more new songs from it, “This Is The World (I Made It For You)” and “Nice Day.”Nice Day: A Collection of Singles will be released on April 17, 2026. Pre-order it here. Each single will also be available as a separate 7-inch. “This Is The World (I Made It For You)” makes the main list, with “Nice Day” an honorable mention below.
Magdalena Bay are Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin.
The band collectively had this to say about the two new songs: “This is the final pair (we made it for you). Thank you for listening to these songs, it’s been a nice day to tangle with you.”
The recent eight songs follow Imaginal Disk, their acclaimed sophomore full-length album released last year on Mom + Pop. It was #1 on our Top 100 Albums of 2024 list. The band recently announced that a movie connected to the album will be released soon. Amanda Kramer directed it and Tenenbaum and Lewin wrote and edited it. The exact release date is TBA.
10 Best Songs of the Week: Sorry, Stella Donnelly, Death Valley Girls, Hatchie, and More
Nov 07, 2025
Welcome to the 39th 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 10.
We need to close the funding gap for our next issue and are offering 25% off subscriptions, 50% off back issues, and up to 70% off print ads. We need to raise $7,000. Find out more here.
Issue 74, The Protest Issue, is out now. It features Kathleen Hannah and Bartees Strange on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last week, we have picked the 13 best the last seven days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.
In his review, Von Pip writes: “The band transform fleeting observations into music that is unnerving, witty, acerbic, and occasionally disarmingly tender. The record plays like a series of snapshots: a late-night conversation, a jolt of adrenaline, a private joke half overheard.”
Sorry are Asha Lorenz, Louis O’Bryen, Lincoln Barrett, Campbell Baum, and Marco Pini. COSPLAY follows 2022’s Anywhere But Here and their debut album, 925, which made it to #35 on our Top 100 Albums of 2020 list.
A press release describes the album like so: “COSPLAY meticulously erases and redraws the parameters that Sorry have set throughout their career. It is a world where anyone can be anyone, past or present, real or imaginary, dead or alive; it is the album that frees Sorry from their shackles.”
Australian singer/songwriter Stella Donnelly released a new album, Love and Fortune, on today via Dot Dash Recordings / Remote Control. Even though most of its singles made it on our Songs of the Week lists we also really liked album closer, “Laying Low.”
Love and Fortune is Donnelly’s third album and follows 2022’s Flood and 2019’s Beware of the Dogs (both released by Secretly Canadian). It was recorded in Naarm and Melbourne with collaborators both longtime (Marcel Tussie, Jack Gaby, and Julia Wallace) and new (Sophie Ozard, Timothy Harvey, and Ellie Mason). A press release says Love and Fortune features breakup songs.
“These songs wouldn’t leave me alone,” Donnelly says in the press release. “Like seagulls, they screamed at me when I rode to work, they pecked at me while I wrote essays, and they stole my chips the second I thought I was happier without music.”
‘Tis the season and so earlier this week Death Valley Girls released “Season of Dreaming,” a new Christmas song (it’s got sleigh bells and everything) It is the first single from Slow Xmas 5, the annual compilation of alternative Christmas music. It’s due out December 1 via Bone Sound Inc Worldwide and for the first time this year it’s on vinyl.
Slow Xmas 5 also features Meridian Brothers, Shannon Lay, Zach Cooper of King Garbage, Eric Slick of Dr. Dog, and Dave Hartley of The War on Drugs and Nightlands). Ben Hosley produces and curates the compilation each year.
“Being asked to write songs is our favorite, and this project was especially exciting,” says Bonnie Bloomgarden of Death Valley Girls in a press release. “December has such an extremely potent, crisp, and delicious energy, getting to analyze and focus on it to write a spell, to harness that energy, is so special and lucky
4. Hatchie: “Sage”
Hatchie, the shoegaze/dream pop project of Australian musician Harriette Pilbeam, released a new album, Liquorice, today via Secretly Canadian. Today she also shared a video for its latest single, “Sage.”
Pilbeam had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘Sage’ is one of my favourite songs off the album. I tried to capture the desperation felt when something you think might be love is slipping through your hands. I wanted the lyrics to feel a little crazed so this one is more fiction than fact…”
Yesterday we posted our review of Liquorice, read it here.
“This album feels like the culmination of everything I’ve wanted to do with this project since I first started it,” says Pilbeam in a press release. “I focused on the finer details of the trajectory of love found and lost, inspired by my favorite tragic romance films. I’ve never felt more aligned with an album and can’t wait to share the experience with everyone.”
Pilbeam and her longtime bandmate/romantic partner Joe Agius were based in Los Angeles for a time, but decided to stop touring and return to Australia.
“Ultimately, the inspiration for the album came from living a very simple life and having time to reconnect with myself and be alone with my thoughts,” says Pilbeam.
The album was recorded at Duterte’s home studio and features Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint, Courtney Barnett) on drums. Alex Farrar (Wednesday, MJ Lenderman) mixed the album, which was mastered by Greg Obis (Dutch Interior, Slow Pulp, Wishy).
Jeremy McLennan (Orchin) co-wrote “Lose It Again” and Agius directed its video.
“I wanted to see my limitations as strengths that inform my style,” Pilbeam says about embracing her influences on Liquorice.
Read our interview with Hatchie on Giving the World Awayhere.
Read our rave review of Giving the World Awayhere.
Giving the World Away is Hatchie’s second full-length album, the follow-up to her acclaimed debut album, Keepsake,which came out in 2019 via Double Double Whammy.
Hatchie was featured on Under the Radar’s 20th anniversary compilation album, Covers of Covers, where she covers HAIM’s “FUBT.”
10. Whitney: “Evangeline” (Feat. Madison Cunningham)
Honorable Mentions:
These songs almost made the Top 10. There are even more songs on the Spotify playlist, including songs by José González, Silversun Pickups, Shudder to Think, and others.
De La Soul: “The Package”
Kiwi Jr.: “Hard Drive, Ontario”
Elanor Moss: “Again, My Love”
The Mountain Goats: “Peru”
Oneohtrix Point Never: “Cherry Blue”
Remember Sports: “Bug”
Witch Post: “Twin Fawn”
Here’s a handy Spotify playlist featuring the Top 10 in order, followed by all the honorable mentions and some additional songs:
12 Best Songs of the Week: Miss Grit, Home Counties, Tycho and Paul Banks, Westerman, and More
Oct 24, 2025
Welcome to the 37th Songs of the Week of 2025. This week Andy Von Pip, Matt the Raven, Scott Dransfield, and Stephen Humphries helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 40 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 12.
It was a bit of a split vote this week, lacking in obvious favorites.
We need to close the funding gap for our next issue and are offering 25% off subscriptions, 50% off back issues, and up to 70% off print ads. Find out more here.
Issue 74, The Protest Issue, is out now. It features Kathleen Hannah and Bartees Strange on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
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.
Miss Grit is the project of Korean-American musician Margaret Sohn, who uses they/she pronouns.
Sohn had this to say about the song in a press release: “It’s about how curiosity for other people’s thoughts can slowly disorient you and make it harder to return to yourself.”
“Tourist Mind” follows Miss Grit’s debut album, Follow the Cyborg, released in 2023 via Mute. It was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2023. Follow the Cyborg was self-produced and featured musical contributions from Stella Mozgawa of Warpaint, Aron Kobayashi Ritch of Momma, and Pearla. In 2021, Miss Grit released the EP Imposter.
2. Home Counties: “Roundabout”
British six-piece Home Counties released their second album, Humdrum, today via Submarine Cat Records. Earlier this week they shared one last pre-release single from the album, “Roundabout.”
Singer Will Harrison had this to say about the single in a press release: “This song is about desperately trying to escape a conversation with someone at a party who won’t stop talking about themselves. ‘Roundabout’ is definitely one of the most light-hearted moments of the new album. To capture the atmosphere of the subject matter, we ended up recording our friends talking shit in the pub garden of our local in Homerton, which you can hear during the bridge. I think you can hear Bill talking about HS2 at one point. It might not be the deepest moment of the album, but it might be the most fun!”
Al Doyle of Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem produced Humdrum. “We recorded Humdrum over two weeks in Al’s studio just off Brick Lane, and it was a blast,” says Harrison. “Al is a hero of ours, with LCD and Hot Chip being two of our biggest influences, so it meant a lot that he wanted to work with us. A lot of the songs came into the studio nearly fully formed, in classic Home Counties maximalist style. Al was great at making us pull things back to serve the song and enforce the groove, as well as helping us shape arrangements more dynamically over the longer dancier cuts (e.g. ‘When In Rome’ and ‘Meet Me In The Flat Roof’). We were also able to use Al’s extensive collection of synths and drum machines, expanding the electronic palette to create some of the wackiest and lushest sounds we’ve ever used. Now just comes the challenge of trying to recreate one-hundred-thousand pound tones on our beat up MS-20s…”
3. Tycho and Paul Banks: “Boundary Rider”
This week Paul Banks of Interpol teamed up with San Francisco producer Tycho (aka Scott Hansen) for the new song “Boundary Rider.”
“Interpol has long been one of my biggest influences so I jumped at the opportunity to collaborate with Paul on a song,” explains Hansen in a press release. “‘Boundary Rider’ started life as an atmospheric instrumental song titled ‘Forge’ that I had been working on here and there for a couple of years. When I met Paul and started thinking about what songs might connect with his voice, Forge immediately came to mind.
“I sent him a demo along with the prompt ‘Boundary Rider.’ I had been reading about the lives of Boundary Riders during the 1930s, people who patrolled and maintained fences in the vast expanse of the Western Australian outback. There was something about this solitary existence that I felt resonated with the song and the deep sense of isolation in Paul’s lyrics brought this into focus.”
Westerman had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘Nevermind’ is a smirking, bitter little song ruminating on the denigration of meaning by bad agents.”
Westerman wrote the album in Athens and then collaborated with producer Marta Salogni (Björk, The xx, Sampha), recording A Jackal’s Wedding over the course of five weeks on the Greek island of Hydra at the Old Carpet Factory, which is described in a press release as “a ramshackle, yet beautiful 17th century mansion converted into an arts space and studio.” It was incredibly hot and the only instrument they brought with them was a drum machine, although the studio had its own instruments.
“Allowing the restrictions of the place, it becomes an elemental part of what you’re doing,” Westerman says in the press release. “The record is authentic by necessity.”
Check out our interview with Westerman, which originally appeared in Issue 67 of our print issue.
5. U.S. Girls: “Running Errands (Yesterday)”
This week,U.S. Girls (aka Meghan Remy) shared a new song, “Running Errands,” in two unique versions, “Yesterday” and “Today” versions. The “Yesterday” version celebrates the 10th anniversary of her album Half Free. The “Today” version was recorded with the same band she worked with on her latest album, Scratch It, released in June via 4AD. Our writers preferred the “Yesterday” version so that officially makes the list, but both versions are included.
Remy says “Running Errands” is “a song that consumes its own tail, never wholly free (Half Free, you could say…), never wholly bound, forever changing as it repeats.”
Annette Snell’s “Footprints on My Mind,” a Nashville-recorded soul track, inspired both versions of the song.
2015’s Half Free was the fifth U.S. Girls album, but the first for 4AD.
Scratch It came together when the Toronto-based Remy put together a new band for a one-off performance at a festival in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Aided by her friend, guitarist Dillon Watson (D. Watusi, Savoy Motel, Jack Name), Remy assembled a band of Nashville-based musicians. She then decided to travel to Nashville to record a new album with this new band, which features Watson on guitar alongside Jack Lawrence (The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs, Loretta Lynn) on bass, Domo Donoho on drums, both Jo Schornikow and Tina Norwood on keys, and harmonica legend Charlie McCoy (Elvis, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison). They recorded Scratch It in only 10 days.
12 Best Songs of the Week: The Beths, Geese, Spoon, fanclubwallet, and More
Aug 29, 2025
Welcome to the 30th Songs of the Week of 2025. This week Andy Von Pip, Mark Moody, Matthew Berlyant, and Scotty Dransfield helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 40 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 12.
Issue 74, The Protest Issue, is out now. It features Kathleen Hannah and Bartees Strange on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
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. The Beths: “Straight Line Was a Lie”
The Beths released a new album, Straight Line Was a Lie, today via ANTI- (stream it here). Earlier this week the band released the album’s title track, which tops this list.
Also read our review of the album, which we posted yesterday, here.
“Listeners know what they’re getting with a new album from The Beths: punchy guitars, stacked vocal harmonies, razor-sharp hooks, and Elizabeth Stokes’ deeply playful, vulnerable, and self-deprecating lyrical voice. The band has it down to a science,” says Caleb Campbell in his review of Straight Line Was a Lie.
The Beths are the New Zealand-based quartet of vocalist Elizabeth Stokes, guitarist Jonathan Pearce, bassist Benjamin Sinclair, and drummer Tristan Deck.
They released their last full-length Expert in a Dying Fieldin 2022. Straight Line Was a Lie will also be their first release since signing to their new label ANTI-.
Geese are releasing a new album, Getting Killed, on September 26 via Partisan. This week they shared its latest single, “100 Horses.”
Geese previously shared its lead single “Taxes,” which was one of our Songs of the Week. Then the band leaked another song, “Trinidad,” at the Newport Folk Festival.
Geese recorded Getting Killed with Kenneth Blume in his LA studio. A press release describes the album like so: “Getting Killed balances a disarming new tenderness with an intensified anger, with each member of the band wielding an earned, unshakeable confidence and a hearty disdain of conventional music structures.”
Getting Killed is the band’s third full-length, following their debut LP, Projector, in 2021 and their breakout follow up, 3D Country, in 2023. Frontman Cameron Winter also released his acclaimed solo debut, Heavy Metal,last year.
This week, Spoon shared two new songs, “Chateau Blues” and “Guess I’m Fallin In Love.” They come ahead of their upcoming tour opening for Pixies (check out the dates here). The consensus was that “Guess I’m Fallin In Love” was the better of the two songs, but “Chateau Blues” makes our honorable mentions list.
Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Beck, Nine Inch Nails, St. Vincent) and Spoon produced the songs.
Frontman Britt Daniel had this to say in a press release: “We started work on an album this year and the way that normally goes, we write, we rehearse, we record, we mix, we get it all wrapped up tightly and then start putting songs out into the world. But as we finished up the first two songs for the LP, it crossed somebody’s mind and eventually all of ours that these two really should come out now. Let’s get them out there. And so here they are today, ‘Chateau Blues’ and ‘Guess I’m Fallin In Love.’ Two new tunes with distinct personalities that were summoned into the world the past few months in Austin TX and Providence RI. It’s a big day all around: tonight we kick off our first tour in a while in Santa Ana, and tomorrow we start up our run with the Pixies—let’s face it, one of theee great bands of all TIMES. A band that some may know has long been near and dear to me. It’s a real pleasure and we’re real happy to be getting back into gig world for a sec. See you down front.”
This week, fanclubwallet (aka Hannah Judge) announced a new album, Living While Dying, and shared its lead single, “New Distraction.” Living While Dying is due out October 24 via Lauren Records.
“‘Cmon, I’m waiting, for some kind of new distraction’ was a mantra circling my brain these last couple years,” says Judge in a press release. “This song came out of nowhere for me, though. I was too anxious to write a solo guitar lick for this but the band encouraged me, and it became one of my favourite parts. It reminds me of a Coldplay B-Side.”
Judge wrote the album while dealing Crohn’s disease. “I was thinking about dying a lot,” she says. “It felt like I was stuck. Alive, but in freefall.”
12 Best Songs of the Week: Wolf Alice, Nation of Language, Coach Party, King Gizzard, and More
May 16, 2025
Welcome to the 16th Songs of the Week of 2025. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Matt the Raven, Scotty Dransfield, and Stephen Humphries helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 25 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 12.
Issue 74, The Protest Issue, is out now. It features Kathleen Hannah and Bartees Strange on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
Under the Radar subscriptions are currently 50% off, as are back issues. Check out the sale here.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last week, we have picked the 12 best the last seven days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.
1. Wolf Alice: “Bloom Baby Bloom”
Yesterday, British four-piece Wolf Alice announced a new album, The Clearing, and shared its first single, “Bloom Baby Bloom,” via a music video. The Clearing is due out August 29 via RCA.
The Clearing is the band’s fourth album and follows Blue Weekend, which was #2 on our Top 100 Albums of 2021 list. The band wrote the album in Seven Sisters, North London, England and recorded it last year in Los Angeles with Grammy winning producer Greg Kurstin.
Wolf Alice’s singer Ellie Rowsell had this to say about “Bloom Baby Bloom” in a press release: “I wanted a rock song, to focus on the performance element of a rock song and sing like Axl Rose, but to be singing a song about being a woman. I’ve used the guitar as a shield in the past, playing it has perhaps been some way to reject the ‘girl singer in band’ trope, but I wanted to focus on my voice as a rock instrument so it’s been freeing to put the guitar down and reach a point where I don’t feel like I need to prove that I’m a musician.”
Colin Solal Cardo (Charli XCX, Robyn, Christine & The Queens, Phoenix) directed the song’s video, which a press release says “deconstructs a classic rock performance by drawing on Bob Fosse and All That Jazz.” Emmy Award-winning choreographer Ryan Heffington (Euphoria, Sia, Kenzo + Margaret Qualley) choreographed the video.
The press release says The Clearing was influenced by ’70s classic rock and is akin to Fleetwood Mac making an album in North London in 2025.
Synth-pop trio Nation of Language have signed to Sub Pop and in honor of this exciting news this week they released a new single, “Inept Apollo,” and announced some tour dates in North America, the EU, and the UK.
The Brooklyn-based band features Ian Richard Devaney (lead vocals, guitar), Aidan Noell (synthesizer), and Alex MacKay (bass guitar).
“Work is a respite from pain. Whether it’s a paying job or just the thing you pour yourself into, having a direction to move in, finding a flow state, it can move focus away from the heaviness of the heart. So after life’s losses, in moments of despair, we resolve time and time again to dive headfirst into the work as best we can. But the artistic process also tends to be when imposter syndrome rears its ugly head—when I find my inner monologue spiraling: ‘this is the best coping mechanism I have at my disposal and I’m not even qualified to be doing it.’
“Accompanying the song is a killer music video by our friend and brother John MacKay: it is an homage to creative pursuits, and in some ways came to represent the feeling of living in a city as an artist. The video feels like walking through an old warehouse in Brooklyn, full of practice spaces and studios, each room occupied by artists striving to express and understand themselves and their place in the world. No matter how bizarre the act may seem or how much self-doubt or pain runs through the mind of the creator, the beautiful thing is the striving and continuing on, rather than the final product or any notion of ‘success.’ The power of creation belongs to all of us; requires the approval of none.”
Coach Party are back. This week the Isle of Wight four-piece announced details of their second album Caramel, set for release on September 26 via Chess Club Records. The new LP follows their acclaimed 2023 debut KILLJOY and sees the band take the reins on production for a raw, high-voltage snapshot of modern emotional life.
Across its 10 tracks, Caramel tackles the loneliness, rage and catharsis of existing in a hyper-online, burnout-heavy world, while celebrating the people who pull us back from the brink. The band describe it as a record rooted in real connection, honest, frustrated, but ultimately life-affirming.
To mark the album announcement, Coach Party released new single “Girls!,” a fiery call-to-arms with frontwoman Jess Eastwood rallying listeners with the line “where the fuck are my girls?,” the track leans into community and collective release, built around a call-and-response chorus designed to shake the room.
“It’s a mosh-inciting, live hype song,” Eastwood says. “Along the lines of: for the next three minutes, whoever you are, you’re all my girls and you’re all gonna fucking mosh. When it’s over, you can go back to being whoever you usually are, but for right now, let loose and have fun.”
Caramel marks a step forward for the band, Jess Eastwood (vocals, bass), Steph Norris (guitar), Joe Perry (guitar), and Guy Page (drums), who all grew up in the Isle of Wight’s tight-knit music scene. Since the release of KILLJOY, they’ve toured with Queens of the Stone Age and Wet Leg, stormed Glastonbury and SXSW, and played packed headline shows across the UK, US and Europe. By Andy Von Pip
4. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: “Grow Wings and Fly”
Melbourne-based psych-rock group King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are releasing a new album, Phantom Island, on June 13 on the band’s own p(doom) label. This week the band released its third single, “Grow Wings and Fly,” via a music video. Hayden Somerville directed the video.
In a press release, Somerville had this to say about directing the video: “There are so many strange and beautiful ways to grow wings and fly. We had a very special time down the coast with the band and our crew, releasing our sea creature—who somehow makes me feel a little ill and completely full of joy at the same time.”
Phantom Island follows Flight b741, a new album King Gizzard released in 2024. The initial tracks for the new album were recorded at the same time as the sessions for Flight b741, but still needed more work. In a press release, the band’s Stu Mackenzie says they “were harder to finish. Musically, they needed a little more time and space and thought.”
“The songs felt like they needed this other energy and color, that we needed to splash some different paint on the canvas,” Mackenzie adds.
And so they enlisted their friend Chad Kelly, who is a British historical keyboardist, conductor and arranger. “He brings this wealth of musical awareness to his chameleon-like arrangements,” Mackenzie says. “We come from such different worlds—he plays Mozart and Bach and uses the same harpsichords they did, and tunes them the exact same way. But he’s obsessed with microtonal music, too, and all this nerdy stuff like me.”
Summing up his change of approach to music these days, Mackenzie says: “When I was younger, I was just interested in freaking people out, but as I get older, I’m much more interested in connecting with people.”
10 Best Songs of the Week: U.S. Girls, Fiona Apple, Elbow, Moses Sumney & Hayley Williams, and More
May 09, 2025
Welcome to the 15th Songs of the Week of 2025. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Matt the Raven, Scotty Dransfield, and Stephen Humphries helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 25 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 10.
Issue 74, The Protest Issue, is out now. It features Kathleen Hannah and Bartees Strange on the two covers and can be bought from us directly here.
Under the Radar subscriptions are currently 50% off, as are back issues. Check out the sale here.
To help you sort through the multitude of fresh songs released in the last week, we have picked the 10 best the last seven days had to offer, followed by some honorable mentions. Check out the full list below.
1. U.S. Girls: “Bookends”
This week, U.S. Girls (aka Meghan Remy) announced a new album, Scratch It, and shared its first single, the 12-minute long “Bookends,” via a music video. Scratch It is due out June 30 via 4AD.
The album came together when the Toronto-based Remy put together a new band for a one-off performance at a festival in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Aided by her friend, guitarist Dillon Watson (D. Watusi, Savoy Motel, Jack Name), Remy assembled a band of Nashville-based musicians. She then decided to travel to Nashville to record a new album with this new band, which features Watson on guitar alongside Jack Lawrence (The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs, Loretta Lynn) on bass, Domo Donoho on drums, both Jo Schornikow and Tina Norwood on keys, and harmonica legend Charlie McCoy (Elvis, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison). They recorded Scratch It in only 10 days. On May 14 Remy will be reassembling the band to perform the album live for the first time at Soft Junk in Nashville.
“Bookends” is described in a press release as a tribute to Remy’s late friend and former Power Trip frontman Riley Gale, but done so “through the lens of Remy’s reading of John Carey’s Eyewitness to History, a historical collection of 300+ eyewitness accounts of great world events spanning twenty-four centuries. In consuming these first-hand accounts of human history, she began to ponder the thought, ‘there is not a hierarchy to suffering, and death is the great equalizer.’”
Caity Arthur directed the “Bookends” video and had this to say about it in a press release: “The video is ultimately about death and absolution—how death is one of the only certain things in life; the ‘great equalizer,’ nolens volens. However, it also subverts the traditional narrative of death as a despairing void, rather, portraying it as a euphoric transitory experience or new beginning through a hallucinatory ensemble cast, a 1960s pop-star performance, and sleight of hand magic. As the video progresses, the TV channels alternate through these scenes as Meg’s lyrics evoke death in its various forms.”
U.S. Girls’ last album was 2023’s Bless This Mess, which was inspired by Remy’s pregnancy and the birth of her twin boys.
Remy’s album before that, Heavy Light, came out in 2020. Read our interview with Remy on that album here.
2. Fiona Apple: “Pretrial (Let Her Go Home)”
This week, Fiona Apple shared a brand new song, “Pretrial (Let Her Go Home),” about how the cash-bail system negatively affects women and girls, especially Black women.
Apple had this to say about the song in a press release: “I was a court watcher for over two years. In that time, I took notes on thousands of bond hearings. Time and time again, I listened as people were taken away and put in jail, for no other reason than that they couldn’t afford to buy their way free. It was particularly hard to hear mothers and caretakers get taken away from the people who depend on them. For the past five years, I have been volunteering with the Free Black Mamas DMV bailout, and I have been lucky to be able to witness the stories of women who fought for and won their freedom with the tireless and loving support of the leadership. I hope that this song, and the images shared with me, can help to show what is at stake when someone is kept in pretrial detention. I give this song in friendship and respect to all who have experienced the pain of pretrial detention and to the women of the group’s leadership who have taught me so much and whom I truly love.”
Frontman Guy Garvey had this to say about the EP in a press release: “Finishing something for the band in lots of ways. We are having more fun in the studio than ever before. Craig’s on fire as a producer, Pete and Alex are the coolest rhythm section working and Pot’s unpredictable rhythm guitar has started working its way into such a soulful and accomplished place. The words are all stories from my past, sometimes joyful, often dark, but all of it exciting and mostly true. It feels like we’re having another go on the Waltzers after hours.”
In November Elbow returned with a brand new single, “Adrianna Again,” which is featured on the EP. The single was accompanied by a cheeky music video, as it featured a completely different band performing the song. The band in question was Novacane, who are a new band also from Manchester. “Adrianna Again” was one of our Songs of the Week.
Many of the songs on AUDIO VERTIGO were born of Elbow’s members working in smaller groups, before the whole band finished the songs.
AUDIO VERTIGO was the follow-up to 2021’s Flying Dream 1 and in contrast to that more intimate sounding album, the new record embraced a more varied and rhythmically diverse musical landscape, or as Garvey puts it, “gnarly, seedy grooves created by us playing together in garagey rooms.”
4. Moses Sumney and Hayley Williams: “I Like It, I Like It”
This week, Moses Sumney and Hayley Williams of Paramore teamed up for the new single, “I Like It, I Like It.” The duo has been teasing the track on social media since last week. There’s no official word if it’s a preview of a new collaborative album or EP or is just a one-off standalone single. It sounds a lot more like Sumney’s previous work than Williams’ and is out now on Sumney’s own label, Tuntum. The song was shared via a lyric video directed by Sumney.
Sumney co-wrote the song with quickly, quickly (aka Portland-based artist Graham Jonson). Sumney co-produced “I Like It, I Like It” with quickly, quickly and Rob Bisel.
Paramore released a new album, This Is Why, in 2023 via Atlantic. In 2024 they covered Talking Heads’ classic “Burning Down the House.”
5. Matt Berninger: “Inland Ocean”
Matt Berninger of The National is releasing a new solo album, Get Sunk, on May 30 via Book, Berninger’s imprint with Concord. This week he shared its third single, album opener “Inland Ocean.” The song features backing vocals from Ronboy (Julia Laws) and was co-written with The Walkmen’s Walter Martin.
Get Sunk is Berninger’s second solo album and follows 2020’s Serpentine Prison. For the new album, Berninger partnered with Grammy Award-winning producer and engineer Sean O’Brien, who co-wrote many of the album’s songs. Get Sunk was recorded in a basement studio in Silverlake, CA. The album features a slew of special guests, including Meg Duffy (Hand Habits), Julia Laws (Ronboy), Kyle Resnick (The National, Beirut), Garret Lang, Sterling Laws, Booker T Jones, Harrison Whitford, Mike Brewer, and The Walkmen’s Walter Martin and Paul Maroon.
A press release says Get Sunk is “not necessarily an autobiographical album, the narrator is processing how he became himself. Berninger is an expert in what it feels like to lose all bravery, and Get Sunk points to an undulating reflection in the water. It’s about realizing that you are not yourself without a thousand others: parents, friends, siblings, spouses and exes, college roommates, childhood best friends, cousins, kids, and even strangers.”
The album was partially inspired by the singer/songwriter’s move to Connecticut after years living in Los Angeles. Once there he enjoyed the flora and fauna of the state and “rearranged dust-covered items in his barn into strange and surreal works of art. It felt good to be creating and to understand why he loves what he does,” as the press release points out.
Berninger adds: “I was able to get the blurry picture as close to just right for me.”
British musician Baxter Dury announced a new album, Allbarone, this week and shared its first single, title track “Allbarone,” via a music video shot in Venice, Italy. Allbarone is due out September 12 via Heavenly. Tom Beard directed the video for “Allbarone.”
Dury had this to say about “Allbarone” in a press release: “This is the first track that Paul Epworth and I made and it quickly established why it was a good idea that we were working together. It’s a song about sitting in the rain outside an All Bar One contemplating why what just happened, happened in the way it did.
“It’s kind of a character arc that goes through the whole thing, two personalities. It’s very critical of people, this album, whoever they are, maybe some bloke with a moustache and sockless loafers in Shoreditch or a fat old Chiswick gangster lording it up in a really comfortable middle class part of London.”
Of the song’s sound, Dury adds: “I don’t want to say it’s contemporary. Because I sound like a cunt using that word. But it does sound really contemporary. It doesn’t sound like a Harrods hamper band made it. It doesn’t sound like a band made it all. Which is what I wanted most of all. It’s just something that’s brand new for me. It’s quite exciting, really.”
Welsh musician Gwenno (full name Gwenno Saunders) is releasing a new album, Utopia, on July 11 via Heavenly. This week she shared its second single, “War,” via a music video. The song is inspired by a World War II-era poem by Welsh artist and poet Edrica Huws entitled “Vingt-Et-Un.”
Saunders had this to say about the song in a press release: “I’ve loved this Edrica Huws poem for a really long time. She was an artist and poet, and she wrote this at the start of the Second World War. It kept resonating with me over this period where we’ve really normalized the idea of war, and actually at times have perhaps been quite enthusiastic from our sofas. I think her poem is really worth something in an age where we’re obviously tumbling towards something catastrophic. Those words have really reminded me of that very small window you have before it happens—the chance to be considerate, and more vigilant, and aware. It’s the elegance of her writing, the calmness of her writing, the wisdom.”
Utopia is her first solo LP sung mainly in the English language. Previously Gwenno shared the album’s first single, “Dancing On Volcanoes,” via a music video. It was one of our Songs of the Week.
The video for “Dancing On Volcanoes” was filmed in Las Vegas, where Saunders spent two years as a teenager in the lead role in Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance. She lived in an apartment complex with 40 fellow teenage performers, where there was a pool and a gym, but little else to do beyond “drink, drugs, eating disorders,” a press release explains.
“Then every Saturday we’d go to this techno club called Utopia and just get completely spangled until Monday, when we had to go back to work,” Saunders remembers, pointing out that the club inspired the new album’s title.
“In the original Greek, ‘utopia’ doesn’t mean the ideal place, it means ‘non-place,’” Saunders explains. “And that’s the point of the record as well.”
After her stint in Vegas, Saunders moved back to the UK, but not to Wales, instead settling in London. “I didn’t know anyone or anything, I would just hassle people and answer adverts in The Stage magazine, and go to really silly auditions,” she says. “I was looking for people to hang out with and make tunes.”
Eventually she ended up in the Brighton-based girl-group The Pipettes, alongside Rose Elinor Dougall, releasing two albums with them. Post-Pipettes, Saunders has released three acclaimed solo albums—2014’s Y Dydd Olaf, 2018’s Le Kov, and 2022’s Mercury Prize-nominated Tresor—all sung mainly in either Welsh or Cornish (an almost lost language that’s had a bit of a revival in recent years). Saunders felt like her previous albums dealt more with her childhood, whereas Utopia tackles a period of her life where she spoke mainly English and so she felt more natural singing in that language this time around.
“I feel as if I’ve written a debut record, because it’s a different language and it’s a different part of my life,” she says. “It’s about that point where I go out into the world on my own, which people generally write about first, and then get on with their lives. But it’s taken me so long to digest it—I needed 20 years just to make sense of things, and I realized the starting point of my creative life isn’t Wales, it’s actually North America.”
Saunders adds: “I think the way I’ve managed to write in English is by acknowledging that I can’t translate a lot of memories. I’ve found that idea really important to explore. I think if I’d just stayed in Wales, and I hadn’t lived anywhere else or experienced any other culture then it would be really different. I would’ve made records in Welsh, but I left home at 16.”
Saunders’ long term collaborator Rhys Edwards once again produced the album, which was recorded live with her band in her living room. The album also features fellow Welsh musicians Cate Le Bon and H. Hawkline.
Summing up the experience of writing and recording the album and revisiting her past with it, Saunders says: “I feel compelled as a songwriter to keep digging it all up. Everything’s a diary entry for me. And in writing about all of this I’ve remembered the chaos of myself.”
