11 Finest Songs of the Week: Pulp, Massive Thief, Cate Le Bon, Nilüfer Yanya, and Extra
Plus Water From Your Eyes, Gwenno, Elbow, Coral Grief, and a Wrap-up of the Week’s Different Notable New Tracks
Jun 06, 2025
Welcome to the nineteenth Songs of the Week of 2025. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Issa Nasatir, Matt the Raven, Scotty Dransfield, and Stephen Humphries helped me determine what ought to make the checklist. We thought of over 30 songs and narrowed it right down to a Prime 11.
Problem 74, The Protest Problem, is out now. It options Kathleen Hannah and Bartees Unusual on the 2 covers and may be purchased from us immediately right here.
In latest weeks we posted interviews with Rubbish (a digital cowl story), Ezra Furman, Florry, Sandhouse, Supergrass (in honor of the thirtieth anniversary of their debut album), Windser, Lael Neale, Samia, Sunflower Bean, and extra.
Within the final week we reviewed some albums.
Beneath the Radar subscriptions are at the moment 50% off, as are again points. Take a look at the sale right here.
That will help you type by way of the multitude of recent songs launched within the final week, we’ve picked the 11 greatest the final seven days needed to supply, adopted by some honorable mentions. Take a look at the total checklist under.
1. Pulp: “Grown Ups”
Britpop legends Pulp launched Extra, their first new album in 24 years, right now by way of Tough Commerce. Now that it’s out you’ll be able to stream the entire thing right here and in addition watch latest BBC TV performances by Pulp right here.
The band solely launched two pre-release singles from the album, so there have been loads of album tracks for us to contemplate for Songs of the Week. Our favourite was “Grown Ups,” during which frontman Jarvis Cocker displays on the perils of growing older and making an attempt to carry onto your youth.
Be looking out for our subsequent print concern later this summer time for our interview with the band on the album (subscribe for 50% off right here).
Cocker had this to say concerning the album’s launch in a press launch: “The day an album is launched to the general public is a really big day. The music modifications from being one thing owned solely by the band to one thing that may be owned by anybody—it might turn into a part of folks’s lives. It’s magic.”
Beforehand Pulp shared Extra’s first single, “Spike Island,” which was #1 on our Songs of the Week checklist. Cocker directed the AI-assisted “Spike Island” video, which makes an attempt to carry photographs from the band’s Completely different Class-era to life, generally to amusing outcomes.
Then they carried out the track on the long-running British chat present The Jonathan Ross Present. Then they introduced some North American tour dates. Its second single, “Obtained to Have Love,” was shared by way of a video additionally directed by Cocker. It was additionally #1 on our Songs of the Week checklist.
Pulp’s final album was the Scott Walker-produced We Love Life, launched in 2001. Since then the band went on hiatus, reissued their previous albums, returned to touring from 2011-2013, put out the unreleased track “After You” in 2013, went again on hiatus, and reunited once more in 2022 for a well-received tour that stretched from 2023 to 2024. The band’s bassist Steve Mackey sadly died in March 2023 at solely 56, so he didn’t participate within the final reunion or the brand new album. Cocker additionally launched a number of solo and collaborative albums, in addition to guesting on numerous tracks by different musicians (together with Air and Sizzling Chip) and collaborating with filmmaker Wes Anderson on songs for a few of his motion pictures. In 2019 Cocker fashioned the brand new band JARV IS… and launched the 2020 album Past the Pale (it was one among our Prime 100 Albums of 2020).
James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Fontaines D.C.) produced Extra, which was recorded at Orbb Studio in East London. Pulp’s foremost lineup is Cocker, Candida Doyle, Nick Banks, and Mark Webber. Pulp fashioned approach again in 1978 when Cocker was solely 15 years previous, however they didn’t hit it massive till the Nineteen Nineties once they turned one of many centerpiece bands of the Britpop motion alongside Blur, Oasis, and Suede and had iconic hit songs akin to “Frequent Individuals,” “Sorted for E’s & Wizz,” “Mis-Shapes,” “Infants,” “Do You Bear in mind the First Time?,” “Disco 2000,” and “This Is Hardcore.” Doyle has been with the band since 1984, Banks since 1986, and Webber since 1995 (earlier than that he was the president of Pulp’s fanclub). The brand new album options numerous different collaborators, as detailed by Cocker under.
Cocker additionally had this to say concerning the new album in a earlier press launch: “That is the primary Pulp album since We Love Life in 2001. Sure: the primary Pulp album for twenty-four years.
“How did that occur?
“Nicely: once we began touring once more in 2023, we practiced a brand new track known as ‘Hymn of the North’ throughout soundchecks and finally performed it on the finish of our second evening at Sheffield Area. This appeared to open the floodgates: we got here up with the remainder of the songs on this album throughout the first half of 2024. A pair are revivals of concepts from final century. The music for one track was written by Richard Hawley. The music for one more was written by Jason Buckle. The Eno household sing backing vocals on a track. There are string preparations written by Richard Jones and performed by the Elysian Collective.
“The album was recorded over three weeks by James Ford in Walthamstow, London, beginning on November 18th, 2024. That is the shortest period of time a Pulp album has ever taken to file. It was clearly able to occur.
“These are the info.
“We hope you benefit from the music. It was written and carried out by 4 human beings from the North of England, aided & abetted by 5 different human beings from numerous places within the British Isles. No A.I. was concerned throughout the course of.
“This album is devoted to Steve Mackey.
“That is the perfect that we will do.
“Thanks for listening.”
Learn our tribute to Steve Mackey.
Learn our interview with Cocker on JARV IS… and Past the Pale. By Mark Redfern
2. Massive Thief: “Incomprehensible”
This week, Massive Thief introduced a brand new album, Double Infinity, and shared its first single, “Incomprehensible.” Double Infinity is due out September 5 by way of 4AD.
Double Infinity is the band’s sixth album and the primary because the departure of unique bassist Max Oleartchik. Massive Thief now options Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, and James Krivchenia. The album was recorded over the course of three weeks at New York Metropolis’s The Energy Station final winter. Longtime collaborator Dom Monks produced, engineered, and blended the album. A slew of different musicians additionally contributed to the recording of the album, together with Alena Spanger, Caleb Michel, Hannah Cohen, Jon Nellen, Joshua Crumbly, June McDoom, Laraaji, Mikel Patrick Avery, and Mikey Buishas.
Massive Thief’s final album, Dragon New Heat Mountain I Imagine in You, was one among our Prime 100 Albums of 2022. Lenker launched a brand new solo album, Vivid Future, in 2024. By Mark Redfern
3. Cate Le Bon: “Heaven Is No Feeling”
This week, Cate Le Bon introduced her new album, Michelangelo Dying, and shared its lead single “Heaven Is No Feeling.” The album is about to be launched September 26 by way of Mexican Summer time.
The accompanying video for “Heaven Is No Feeling” was directed by H. Hawkline who feedback: “There are moments in life you’ll be able to’t make up, that appear unfathomable, then they occur. Life calls you on a banana telephone and tells you her oldest joke, all people crowds round and also you attempt to keep in mind the phrases to your favorite track. In case you have been to ask me how we made this video, I couldn’t let you know. Cate watching her, watching her watching Cate. I’ll at all times really feel honoured to work with Cate in no matter form or type, it’s straightforward to neglect how exceptional somebody is if you’ve identified them endlessly. ‘I need you to make me a brand new video.’ ‘Have you ever watched the previous one but?’ ‘No’ …Bravo!’”
This will likely be Cate Le Bon’s seventh full-length. Her final launch, 2022’s Pompeii, landed on our Prime 100 Albums of 2022 checklist.
The manufacturing of Michelangelo Dying was shared with collaborator Samur Khouja. Le Bon explains: “There’s this concept that you possibly can do all the pieces your self, however the worth of getting somebody you fully belief, as I do Samur, be your co-pilot lets you get fully misplaced realizing you’ll get pulled again in on the proper second. We now have come to quietly transfer as one within the studio.”
She shares the same bond with saxophonist Euan Hinshelwood. “Over time of working collectively Euan has uncoupled his taking part in from the normal to accommodate the emotional frequency I’ve requested of him,” Le Bon says. “On this file particularly, it’s the voice that takes over when phrases are too concrete for the sensation.”
As for the album itself, Le Bon had this to say: “No revelations. No conclusions. There is no such thing as a motive. There’s repetition and chaos.”
Le Bon embarks on a tour all through North America, the UK, and the EU starting in October and increasing into subsequent 12 months.
Learn our interview along with her about her 2022 album Pompeii right here. By Issa Nasatir
4. Nilüfer Yanya: “The place to Look”
This week, Nilüfer Yanya introduced a brand new EP, Dancing Footwear, and shared a brand new track from it, “The place to Look.” Dancing Footwear is due out July 2 by way of Ninja Tune.
Dancing Footwear contains “Chilly Coronary heart,” a brand new track Yanya launched in April.
Yanya’s newest album, My Technique Actor, was #2 on our Prime 100 Albums of 2024 checklist and landed Yanya on the quilt of Problem 73 (purchase the difficulty immediately from us right here). Dancing Footwear as soon as once more finds Yanya working along with her common collaborator Wilma Archer on songs that didn’t fairly work on My Technique Actor.
“We began penning this track for the album, but it surely was difficult to get it off the bottom at the moment,” Yanya says in a press launch. “Then once we got here again from tour, it out of the blue clicked. Melodically it’s one among my favorite issues ever. Very glad I used to be capable of give it the time and respiratory house that it wanted.”
My Technique Actor was Yanya’s third album and adopted her 2022 album, PAINLESS, and her 2019 debut album, Miss Universe, (each launched on ATO).
Learn our in-depth interview with Yanya about PAINLESS right here.
Learn our rave overview of the album right here.
Yanya was additionally one of many artists on the quilt of our twentieth Anniversary print concern. By Mark Redfern
5. Water From Your Eyes: “Life Indicators”
This week, Water From Your Eyes introduced their new album It’s a Stunning Place with the discharge of a video for its first single “Life Indicators.” The album is due out August 22 by way of Matador.
Water From Your Eyes is Nate Amos (That is Lorelei) and Rachel Brown (thanks for coming). This will likely be their first full-length because the acclaimed Everybody’s Crushed in 2023.
“Life Indicators” comes with a video directed by Brown. “Tv has at all times been my largest ardour,” she says in a press launch, “and this video was principally conceived from my want to experiment with the tropes of style. However I additionally assume the medium lends itself to the thought of becoming an infinite quantity of universes into just a little field you’ll be able to maintain in your lounge. I needed the video to encapsulate as many worlds because the track does and to specific a whole lifetime inside a brief jiffy.”
On her inspiration for the album, Brown says: “I’ve been carrying round The Dispossessed (a 1974 anarchist utopian novel by Ursula Okay. Le Guin) and There Is No Sad Revolution (a 2017 non-fiction by Marcello Tarì) in my backpack for nicely over a 12 months now. They’ve been to 4 totally different continents and throughout virtually each state line. Whereas writing lyrics for the album, I skimmed each books fairly totally.”
Amos additionally spoke on the album in a press launch: “Once you’re taking part in with a band you have a tendency to put in writing with one in thoughts—this was the primary time I wrote something for WFYE imagining us taking part in wherever greater than a basement.”
He continues: “A track can really feel like all the pieces, speaking huge emotional landscapes, however your favourite album is much less essential than any individual. That individual is much less attention-grabbing than any dinosaur. That dinosaur is much less essential than any mountain. That mountain is boring in comparison with any planet. That planet is barely part of a photo voltaic system. That photo voltaic system is microscopic subsequent to any galaxy. If music and all different human practices are meaningless on a cosmic scale why does it nonetheless really feel so essential?”
The group will embark on headlining North American and UK/EU excursions with Her New Knife, Winter, and Dutch Inside as openers within the U.S. and Canada starting in September.
Learn our 2021 interview with Water From Your Eyes on Construction. By Issa Nasatir
6. Pulp: “Tina”
“Tina” was our second favourite of the Pulp album tracks that weren’t already put out as a pre-release single. In it Cocker sings about an unrequited love of kinds.
7. Gwenno: “Y Gath” (Feat. Cate Le Bon and H Hawkline)
8. Elbow: “Timber”
9. Coral Grief: “Latitude”
10. Indigo De Souza: “Crying Over Nothing”
11. disgrace: “Cutthroat”
Honorable Mentions:
These songs virtually made the Prime 11.
Gina Birch: “Doom Monger”
El Michels Affair and Clairo: “Anticipate”
Frankie Cosmos: “Pressed Flower”
Hand Habits: “Wheel of Change”
Georgia Harmer: “Eye of the Storm”
Heavenly: “Portland City”
Marissa Nadler: “New Radiations”
Pulp: “The Hymn of the North”
Purity Ring: “many lives” and “half ii”
Superchunk: “Is It Making You Really feel One thing”
Teethe: “Holy Water”
Right here’s a helpful Spotify playlist that includes the Prime 11 so as, adopted by all of the honorable mentions:
