10 Greatest Songs of the Week: Sorry, David Byrne, Neko Case, disgrace, and Extra
Plus Ronboy Feat. Matt Berninger, Hannah France, King Hannah, and a Wrap-up of the Week’s Different Notable New Tracks
Aug 15, 2025
Welcome to the twenty eighth Songs of the Week of 2025. This week Andy Von Pip and others helped me resolve what ought to make the record. We thought of over 40 songs and narrowed it all the way down to a Prime 10.
Difficulty 74, The Protest Difficulty, is out now. It options Kathleen Hannah and Bartees Unusual on the 2 covers and will be purchased from us straight right here.
In latest weeks we posted interviews with Mocky and Feist, Open Mike Eagle, Gwenno (a My Firsts), Frankie Cosmos (a My Firsts), and extra.
Within the final week we reviewed some albums.
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That will help you type by the multitude of recent songs launched within the final week, we now have picked the ten greatest the final seven days needed to supply, adopted by some honorable mentions. Try the complete record beneath.
1. Sorry: “Echoes”
This week London band Sorry introduced a brand new album, COSPLAY, and shared a brand new music from it, “Echoes,” through a music video. Additionally they introduced some North American tour dates. COSPLAY is due out November 7 through Domino.
Sorry are Asha Lorenz, Louis O’Bryen, Lincoln Barrett, Campbell Baum, and Marco Pini. COSPLAY follows 2022’s Wherever However Right here and their debut album, 925, which made it to #35 on our Prime 100 Albums of 2020 record.
COSPLAY contains two latest singles: “Jetplane” (which got here out in April and was considered one of our Songs of the Week) and “Waxwing” (which got here out in June and was additionally on our Songs of the Week record).
A press launch describes the album like so: “COSPLAY meticulously erases and redraws the parameters that Sorry have set all through their profession. It’s a world the place anybody will be anybody, previous or current, actual or imaginary, lifeless or alive; it’s the album that frees Sorry from their shackles.”
Learn our interview with theSorry on 925.
2. David Byrne: “The Avant Garde”
David Byrne is releasing a brand new album, Who Is the Sky?, September 5 through Matador. This week the previous Speaking Heads frontman shared its third single, “The Avant Garde.”
Byrne had this to say concerning the music in a press launch: “Some folks will hear this and say, ‘David is asking bullshit on his associates’ however it’s extra nuanced than that. Anybody who is aware of me is aware of that I’m going to loads of exhibits that is perhaps categorized as avant-garde or experimental. Edgy and untraditional work is vastly inspiring to me, because it usually adjustments the way in which I feel and influences what I do (with out me merely appropriating the concepts, I hope). That stated, attempting one thing unproven and radically new is dangerous. Generally, as with something dangerous, it doesn’t fairly hit the bullseye. There’s no assure that it’ll obtain what it goals to do, however when it does, the emotional and mental rewards are price it. That’s the danger one takes whereas making one thing new and unconventional. So sure, there are occasions when it doesn’t imply shit, however usually there are occasions when one thing wholly authentic comes into being and it’s all price it. I really like that the Ghost Prepare of us and Child Harpoon took what may have been a reasonably standard music I’d written (musically at the very least), and steered it into one thing that to me appears like Led Zeppelin meets Soiled Projectors.”
Beforehand Byrne shared its first single, “All people Laughs,” through a music video. It was considered one of our Songs of the Week. Then he shared its second single, “She Explains Issues to Me,” which additionally landed on Songs of the Week.
Who Is the Sky? options St. Vincent, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, and The Smile’s Tom Skinner.
Child Harpoon (Harry Types, Miley Cyrus) produced the album and members of New York-based chamber ensemble Ghost Prepare Orchestra organized the songs. Byrne’s final album was 2018’s American Utopia, which grew to become a Broadway present and a efficiency movie directed by Spike Lee.
Byrne noticed Ghost Prepare Orchestra reside and was impressed to get them concerned within the album. Ghost Prepare Orchestra chief Brian Carpenter says: “David despatched me some demos and requested us to place collectively some orchestral concepts. Curtis Hasselbring and I shortly wrote a pair tough draft preparations of his songs for Ghost Prepare, together with ‘My Residence Is My Good friend,’ which was the primary music we rehearsed at our tiny rehearsal area in Chinatown. To listen to him singing with us for the primary time on that music was simply unimaginable.”
Byrne then met Child Harpoon (aka Tom Hull) at a celebration when launched by a mutual pal. “Generally issues do occur at events,” says Byrne. “I knew this might all get difficult and I additionally needed to make certain the recordings sounded nearly as good as attainable. An out of doors set of ears will be tremendous useful. A number of artists I knew had labored with Child Harpoon, and I believed these information sounded actually good.”
Child Harpoon provides: “It took me a second to comprehend, oh yeah, these songs are private, however with David’s distinctive perspective on life typically. Strolling round New York listening to the demo of ‘All people Laughs’ was so joyous, as a result of it made me really feel like we’re all the identical—all of us snigger, cry and sing. The factor about David that resonates with lots of people is that he’s in on the joke. He will get the absurdity of all of it, and all of those private observations are his perspective on it.”
Summing up Who Is the Sky?, Byrne says: “At my age, at the very least for me, there’s a ‘don’t give a shit about what folks assume’ angle that kicks in. I can step outdoors my consolation zone with the data that I sort of know who I’m by now and form of know what I’m doing. That stated, each new set of songs, each music even, is a brand new journey. There’s at all times a little bit of, ‘how do I work this?’ I’ve discovered that not each collaboration works, however usually once they do, it’s as a result of I’m in a position to clearly impart what it’s I’m attempting to do. They hopefully get that, and consequently, we’re now joined collectively heading to the identical unknown place.”
Speaking Heads not too long ago launched the primary ever music video for his or her 1977 hit “Psycho Killer,” starring actress Saoirse Ronan (Little Girls, Woman Chicken, Brooklyn).
Byrne additionally not too long ago joined Olivia Rodrigo throughout her set at New York’s Governors Ball pageant the place they did a spited and playful cowl of Speaking Heads’ traditional “Burning Down the Home.”
Learn our 2020 interview with David Byrne.
3. Neko Case: “Winchester Mansion of Sound”
Neko Case is releasing a brand new album, Neon Gray Midnight Inexperienced, on September 26 through ANTI-. This week she shared one other music from it, “Winchester Mansion of Sound,” and introduced some new tour dates.
The music is impressed by Case’s late pal and collaborator Dexter Romweber, of the band Flat Duo Jets. She additionally took inspiration from what Case calls “the saddest music ever,” Robbie Basho’s “Orphan’s Lament.”
Neon Gray Midnight Inexperienced is Case’s first album in seven years, since 2018’s Hell-On.
Case, who’s gender fluid however makes use of she/her pronouns, produced the album, recording it reside within the studio with a full band.
“There are so few producers who’re ladies, nonbinary, or trans,” she says in a press launch. “Folks don’t consider us as an possibility. I’m proud to say I produced this document. It’s my imaginative and prescient. It’s my veto energy. It’s my style.”
4. disgrace: “Spartak”
British post-punk band disgrace are releasing a brand new album, Cutthroat, on September 5 through Lifeless Oceans. This week they shared its third single, “Spartak,” through a music video.
Disgrace is Charlie Steen, guitarists Sean Coyle-Smith and Eddie Inexperienced, bassist Josh Finerty, and drummer Charlie Forbes.
“I used to be mainly attempting to put in writing a Wilco music,” Coyle-Smith says of “Spartak” in a press launch.
A press launch says the music “criticizes cliques and group-mentality, setting its crosshairs on the social climbers; the folks on the social gathering at all times trying over your shoulder looking for somebody extra necessary.”
Steen additional explains: “I assume this disdain in direction of cliques comes from how shit I used to be made to really feel by the cool youngsters rising up. I used to be a chubby teenager who favored the mistaken sort of music and wore the mistaken sort of garments. It’s simply one other time I’d prefer to say fuck you to these folks, and to anybody who makes somebody really feel shitty for not becoming in.”
Beforehand they shared its title monitor accompanied by a video. “Cutthroat” was considered one of our Songs of the Week. Its second single, “Quiet Life,” was additionally considered one of our Songs of the Week.
Steen beforehand summed up Cutthroat like so: “It’s concerning the cowards, the cunts, the hypocrites. Let’s face it, there’s lots of them round proper now.”
Cutthroat follows 2023’s Meals For Worms. Learn our interview with disgrace on Meals For Worms right here.
5. Ronboy: “Catastrophe” (Feat. Matt Berninger)
6. Hannah Frances: “Surviving You”
7. King Hannah: “Out of the blue, Your Hand”
8. Jay Som: “Playing cards on the Desk”
9. Skullcrusher: “March”
10. Simply Mustard: “WE WERE JUST HERE”
Honorable Mentions:
These songs nearly made the Prime 10.
The Belair Lip Bombs: “Hey You”
Coach Occasion: “Do It For Love”
Daffo: “Dagger Music”
Every thing Is Recorded: “Put on and Tear” (Feat. Sampha, Florence + The Machine, Danielle Ponder, and Jah Wobble)
Lemondaze: “o(sort)”
Bret McKenzie: “Shouldna Come Right here Tonight”
POLIÇA: “She Is aware of Me”
Tom Smith: “Life Is For Dwelling”
Twen: “Godlike”
Winter: “Conceal-A-Lullaby” (Feat. Tanukichan)
Right here’s a helpful Spotify playlist that includes the Prime 10 so as, adopted by all of the honorable mentions:
