Atwood Journal is worked up to share our Editor’s Picks column, written and curated by Editor-in-Chief Mitch Mosk. Each week, Mitch will share a group of songs, albums, and artists who’ve caught his ears, eyes, and coronary heart. There may be a lot unbelievable music on the market simply ready to be heard, and all it takes from us is an open thoughts and a willingness to hear. By way of our Editor’s Picks, we hope to shine a lightweight on our personal music discoveries and showcase a various array of recent and up to date releases.
This week’s Editor’s Picks options Soot Sprite, Black Nation, New Street, Spacey Jane, Joan & the Giants, The Ting Tings, and Brandon!
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“All My Pals Are Depressed”
by Soot Sprite
Raw, offended, and loud, Soot Sprite’s first tune of the yr is a cathartic, emotionally charged eruption: A twenty first Century fever dream fueled by angst and unrest. Launched February 25th through Specialist Topic, “All My Pals Are Depressed” channels our particular person hardship, collective trauma, and generational ennui right into a dynamic launch of pressure, turmoil, and soul-shaking indie rock sound. The Exeter trio of Elise Cook dinner (lead vocals/guitar), Sean Mariner (bass/backing vocals), and Sam Cother (drums/backing vocals) hit onerous and leaving a long-lasting mark on the ears and the center whereas refusing to roll over let hardship, uncertainty, and fears for the longer term devour them.
All my pals are depressed
Over labored underneath stress
Simply making an attempt to make it via
the yr with much less and fewer
All my pals are getting sick
Encumbered with politics
One thing in actuality doesn’t fairly click on
Whereas they reckoning with life’s harsh realities within the verses, Soot Sprite use the refrain as each an emotional climax and an olive department – providing advise and help within the chorus, “Change what you’ll be able to, what you management. Let the remaining wash over you, strive to not fold.”
In case your escapism is an indication
That one thing in your stars aren’t fairly in line
Change what you’ll be able to, what you management
Let the remaining wash over you, strive to not fold
For Cook dinner, this tune is private, political, and deeply tied to the present state of the world – each on a macro and micro scale. “[It’s] my commentary of the psychological well being disaster we’re in, how widespread it feels, and the way sociopolitical components are enjoying such an enormous half,” she tells Atwood Journal. “It’s additionally a reminder to myself that I have to cease distracting myself from my points and attempt to change one thing or face issues, or nothing will occur and I’ll by no means shake off the episode.”
“This tune was basically my exasperation in scuffling with my very own psychological well being, and seeing the wrestle throughout me in my pals and my household,” she continues. “It’s really easy to really feel crushed by the load of issues completely exterior of our management; I’ve actually been underneath it. The one approach out of that cycle I’ve discovered is by looking for the modifications I could make. ‘Change what you’ll be able to. what you management’ is a few form of mantra I’ve tried to carry onto.”
All my pals underneath duress
Ready for no matter’s subsequent
What might be taken to chop us off on the knees
All my pals are in a multitude
Scrambling for safety
And I’m not an exception by any stretch
In case your escapism is an indication
That one thing in your stars aren’t fairly in line
Change what you’ll be able to, what you management
Let the remaining wash over you, strive to not fold
Final we linked with Soot Sprite was round their 2021 EP Poltergeists, which I hailed on the time as “an sincere and pressing upheaval of radiant, dreamy indie rock – an immersive soundtrack to (and the results of) intimate reflection and isolation: To moments the place we will’t join outward, so we join inward as a substitute.” The trio have continued to faucet (and hone) the identical pool of ardour and energy that fueled these songs, discovering in “All My Pals Are Depressed” a option to converse not only for themselves, however for his or her complete era.
Because the lead single off their upcoming debut album Wield Your Hope Like a Weapon, “All My Pals Are Depressed” units the tone for Soot Sprite’s new period – a second born from social discord, helplessness, fury and frustration, and a very relentless aching deep down in our bones. The tune refuses to be ignored whereas demanding our undivided consideration, making certain that we come away feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, if not altogether impressed.
Necessity is blind till it turns into aware
We’re all simply rain clouds with a sunny disposition
In case your escapism is an indication
That one thing in your stars aren’t fairly in line
Change what you’ll be able to, what you management
Let the remaining wash over you, strive to not fold
“Besties”
by Black Nation, New Street
I can’t assist however smile from ear to ear each time “Besties” comes on. An intimate embrace of greatest friendship delivered with the would possibly of a sonic sledgehammer, Black Nation, New Street’s first single in three years’ time is earnest, charming, and completely unapologetic in its supply. Launched January 30th through Ninja Tune, the lead single off the English sextet’s forthcoming third studio album heralds an inventive evolution from a band that has without end refused to sit down nonetheless or match neatly into any single field.
We name them “indie rock,” however the reality is a lot extra thrilling than that – as exemplified on this breathtakingly daring return to the highlight, replete with a surprising harpsichord efficiency, achingly expressive saxophone blasts, and Georgia Ellery’s emotionally-charged vocal supply (marking the primary time she’s taken lead on a BCNR tune).
I wanna be wherever apart from this
I wanna see my greatest pal waving at me
I wanna be residing with you
Seeing it via
Do you wanna play?
Ceaselessly how lengthy can I play?
A tune l made, yeah, it’s a tune
I’m gonna learn one thing that’s good
However I’ll hearken to you
I’m not asking a lot
Simply sufficient, fill my cup
Get me up
You make me chortle, babe
I’ve learn numerous critiques of “Besties” looking for to seize each the distinctive sonics of the tune, in addition to its heartfelt substance – each of that are price elevating and celebrating. One author dubbed it “post-punk jazz at its most interesting,” whereas one other affectionately known as it a “Beatlesque baroque pop quantity.” These descriptions go far to assist fill within the many colours of Black Nation, New Street’s courageous new world (and it’s true, The Beatles’ oeuvre did affect on this music), however finally what shines brights on “Besties” is the sentiment itself. Tender melodies help a message of timeless friendship – a bond that may (and can) climate all storms.
The band hit their excessive in a refrain full of affection, punchy instrumental hits, and spirited drum fills:
Yeah, I do know what’s anticipated of me
Besties, evening and day
Bear in mind after I stated
he shouldn’t deal with you that approach,
and are you certain?
I do know I need one thing extra
Out April 4th, Black Nation, New Street’s third album Ceaselessly Howlong sees the band’s three feminine members (Tyler Hyde, Georgia Ellery, and Could Kershaw) taking the reins on each songwriting and vocal duties.
“It created an actual via line for the album, having three ladies singing,” says Ellery. “It’s positively very totally different to Ants From Up There, due to the feminine perspective – and the music we’ve made additionally enhances that.”
Arriving at a time that feels all too bleak, darkish, and tough to navigate, “Besties” serves to remind us of the individuals who matter most in our lives – and the way our time and vitality is much better spent on them. Full with a music video (courtesy of award-winning director Rianne White) that accentuates this very level, “Besties” will without end be a form of gentle within the darkness – a musical beacon right here to enthrall, encourage, and illuminate the trail ahead.
And what about you?
In reality, don’t reply that
Wouldn’t need it another approach
‘Trigger this feels
Bestiе woman
Take it again now
What you’re feeling is the outlet in your lifе
And he or she’s most likely proper
She’s most likely proper, proper, proper…
(Simply sufficient) I challenge
(Fill my cup) I get moist
(Get me up) I get dry
(You make me chortle, babe)
You make me cry, babe
Yeah, I got here out and the place have been you?
I feel you see proper via me
Bestie, on my thoughts
Simply lean into it
I’m a strolling TikTok pattern
However the color runs out in the long run
“All of the Noise”
by Spacey Jane
We’ve all received undesirable chaos and trauma in our lives – baggage we’re holding onto, regardless of understanding we’d be a lot better off with out it. “It’s all simply f**ing noise,” Spacey Jane sing of their first tune of the yr.
Rattling proper about that.
The sonically charged cathartic exhale 2025 so desperately wants, “All of the Noise” is a savage and searing indie rock reckoning with the previous. The lead single off Spacey Jane’s forthcoming third album If That Makes Sense (out Could 9th through Harmony Data) finds the Australian four-piece in a state of friction and fervor – getting a large weight off their chests the best way they know greatest.
Get me a lady from the center of nowhere
I’ll present you who made me
And present me a person you could’t management
And I’ll get you their child
Like ah
Nicely it’s all simply f*in noise
Ah properly it’s all simply
“‘All the Noise’ was largely written in a lodge room in Sydney having landed in Australia for the first time in 6 months,” Spacey Jane’s frontman Caleb Harper tells Atwood Journal.
“I suppose there was one thing about being down underneath once more that made my model of the story of the start of my life really feel so vivid. It’s offended, however not at somebody, and it’s unhappy as a result of I can’t fairly unravel what or who made me. It could be my favorite riff of Ashton’s and the tightest Peppa and Kieran have ever locked. It’s gonna be so enjoyable stay and we’re past excited to be sharing our first new music in over a yr!”
Did you need half of me would which have been higher
Would you’ve got far more sleep in colder climate
And despite the fact that I can’t see why you couldn’t depart it
I don’t know in a different way so I’m certain to repeat it
That is the best way that you simply gave to me
A getaway automotive with keys in it down the road
And a bucket of nothing a lure for my ft
A promise that I’d damage
all people that I ever meet
Like ah
Nicely it’s all simply f*in noise
Ah properly it’s all simply
A favourite of those pages for a number of years now (in addition to considered one of our 2023 artists to observe), Spacey Jane have the uncanny means of bringing candy rays of sunshine into the darkest corners of the room. Even right here – on a tune full of pressure and internal turmoil – the band succeeds at instilling a way of hope right into a hopeless state, refusing to be damaged by experiences exterior of their management.
Set to reach three years after their critically acclaimed sophomore album Right here Comes Everyone (which Atwood particularly praised for its expressions of “reckoning and resilience,”) If That Makes Sense guarantees to ship moments of each catchy allure and cathartic churn as Spacey Jane proceed to unravel themselves on file.
Did you need half of me would which have been higher
Would you’ve got far more sleep in colder climate
And despite the fact that I can’t see why you couldn’t depart it
I don’t know in a different way so I’m certain to repeat it
“This album isn’t making an attempt to be something particularly,” the band lately acknowledged. “Generally it’s certain of itself and different instances it whispers uncertainty. It looks like a contradiction of forgiveness and anger, love and breakdown and that’s what I used to be making an attempt to reconcile within the title. It’s onerous to present it a theme apart from an awesome sense of confusion and a lower than profitable try to tie up emotional unfastened ends. We went to the U.S., we put our religion in new collaborators and completed making a self-funded file and not using a label house for it. We stepped off the cliff on a regular basis and liked it, and we now have by no means been happier with our work than we are actually.”
“All That Noise” is an thrilling, exhilarating first take a look at 2025-era Spacey Jane, a band dedicated to bringing their easiest – and their genuine selves – to each second of their songs, even when it hurts.
I’m not feeling straight anymore
Years of f*ups rolling in and knocking at my door
I can’t take the blame anymore
Sure it’s all my fault and I’ve years of conserving rating
I discovered the boy from the center of nowhere
Confirmed him what they made me
And he opened his mouth for an opportunity to inform me
Jesus killed my child
And that was the best way that they gave to me
A getaway automotive with its brakes minimize down the road
And a head filled with nothing a dream with out sleep
A promise that I’d damage all people that I ever meet
“Nonetheless Respiration”
by Joan & the Giants
We by no means know the way sturdy we’re, till we’re confronted with a problem and are available out the opposite facet – nonetheless alive, nonetheless respiratory. Atwood artist-to-watch Joan & the Giants have stepped into 2025 acknowledging that timeless reality with a deep, dramatic exhale of resilience, acceptance, and launch. As cathartic and breathtaking as it’s achingly emotional, “Nonetheless Respiration” is a testomony to the enduring sting of loss and the vivid depth of our personal internal energy. It’s a spirited rallying cry for damaged hearts and brooding souls – an anthem that aches in and out, reckoning with what it means to like, let go, and transfer on.
Waging struggle
Upon your shore
Getting pulled out with the tide
Combating for
Who we have been earlier than
Misplaced behind your traces
However some issues are greatest saved prior to now
And I do know we weren’t constructed to final
Broke this house
Bought nowhere to go
I can’t cease the bleeding
However I’m nonetheless respiratory
I’m nonetheless respiratory
“‘Nonetheless Respiration’ took place so organically in a jam room setting between the 4 of us,” Joan & The Giants’ frontwoman Grace Newton-Wordsworth tells Atwood Journal. “Liam began enjoying the delayed opening bass chords, and the tune got here so naturally it felt prefer it was already written and simply handed to us in a form of divine, working along with your instinct and feeling the movement kind approach. I feel the strongest songs we’ve written have come about like this, the place all of the components and lyrics are simply organically there, and also you don’t should overthink or come again to it a thousand instances.”
“Relating to the lyrics. this tune was written by Aaron Birch and myself, actually within the midst of an absolute storm and the internal chaos of a post-nine yr breakup. After Aaron and I selected to half methods romantically, we actually tried our hardest to maintain the band going collectively for over a yr afterwards, and it really simply grew to become so deeply painful (virtually Fleetwood Mac type) for the 2 of us, to the purpose the place the healthiest resolution was to half methods totally.”
“The lyrics actually discuss an internal struggle, making an attempt to battle for the folks you as soon as have been however understanding you need to let all of it go – ‘However some issues are greatest saved prior to now, and I do know we weren’t constructed to final.’”
“Nonetheless Respiration” is private each to Grace Newton-Wordsworth (and former bandmate Aaron Birch), as it’s central to Joan & the Giants’ personal story; the band continues to soldier on, regardless of the lack of a member, having weathered a rift that actually threatened to sink the ship.
You withdrew
Took all of it with you
Left me within the battle
However I run again to you
Like I all the time do
Each lonely evening
“All the ache sits throughout the verses and pre refrain, and at last there’s simply an enormous launch within the refrain of ‘I’m Nonetheless Respiration,’” she continues. “This line to me is so highly effective and correct to what we have been going via, full inside suffocation and drowning, however nonetheless being able to battle and know we’re alive, we’re nonetheless respiratory and it’s okay to let go of the previous and transfer on. I really like the ending of this tune, and the large crowd singalong of the ‘woah oh oh ohs’! It’s actually shifting once we play this one stay, as I feel each particular person goes via deep heartbreak and ache on this life, and the reality is we’re all Nonetheless Respiration and we’re all on this collectively.”
“As a few of you might have seen, Aaron has stepped away from Joan & The Giants in an announcement made in January this yr, and this tune kind of looks like an ideal farewell and parting of how. I’m actually pleased with the music we’ve made collectively, and the way far we’ve come as folks, and I really like that we’ve put all of it into our songs, and may let go of all this ache now and breathe.”
“Nonetheless Respiration” is a wonderful balm – each a reckoning with the previous, and a map for the longer term. It’s a welcome return from considered one of our favourite indie pop bands, and a present of power alongside the reassurance that, come hell or excessive water, they’re not going wherever.
However some issues are greatest saved prior to now
And I do know we weren’t constructed to final
Broke this house
Bought nowhere to go
I can’t cease the bleeding
However I’m nonetheless respiratory
I’m nonetheless respiratory
“Danced on the Wire”
by The Ting Tings
It’s the heat of “Danced on the Wire” that hits you first: A sonic warmth that wraps across the ears and coronary heart, immersive and intense, like a weighted blanket for the soul. Launched in November as a double-single along with the monitor “Down,” The Ting Tings’ first launch in five-plus years is a smoldering, seductive, and stirring folk-soaked fever dream. Achingly uncooked and superbly susceptible, with wealthy vocal harmonies and mild acoustic guitar traces reverberating all through, “Danced on the Wire” is a wide ranging return for the English duo of Katie White and Jules De Martino.
I can’t clarify the sensation, however you recognize it
Why we wait so a few years to really feel the identical
If I used to be smart, then I’d attempt to ignore it
I’d keep right here, it’s acquainted and it’s secure
Shake the tree and watch the apples rolling
I attempted my hardest to catch them in my shirt
We’ll by no means cease the following new ones from rising
Subsequent spring, we’ll decide up all those we damage
I simply can’t wait anymore
I simply can’t wait anymore
“‘Danced on the Wire’ is a narrative in regards to the second in life that you simply go forwards with the necessity to finish one thing… and the grief that’s triggered for each side,” the pair, who relocated from London to Ibiza in 2020 with their new child little one, inform Atwood Journal. “We actually centered on good old style songwriting and storytelling.”
Those that keep in mind The Ting Tings for his or her 2008 album We Began Nothing – house to their breakout single, “That’s Not My Title” – needs to be able to toss out that reminiscence and begin utterly recent. The 2025 model of the band is extra according to the sounds and songwriting kinds of Seventies Fleetwood Mac – or the newer, made-for-television model, Daisy Jones and the Six. “Danced on the Wire,” “Down,” and the lately launched “Good Folks Do Unhealthy Issues” signify the primary few seems into The Ting Tings’ forthcoming sixth studio album, HOME (out June 6th, 2025 through their very own label, Fantastic Data).
“This album has taken us 4 years to write down and file,” White and De Martino clarify. “It’s a love letter to every thing we now have come to like as songwriters. It has a late ‘70s comfortable rock, yacht rock inspiration. And in all honesty, we simply made music we needed to listen to. All these nice previous data make us really feel heat and nostalgic, they modify the temper within the room or automotive and with the songs on this album we chased that feeling. We stay on the island of Ibiza with our daughter and sluggish residing and creativity, consideration to element and actually studying our craft has been our focus for the previous few years. If folks get that heat feeling from this file then we will probably be over the moon.”
I’m sorry if I broke to you my promise
And I’m sorry if I went again on my phrases
Now you’re trying over at me
in essentially the most peculiar approach
I might inform you my complete story,
I simply don’t know what to say
However I simply can’t wait anymore (you recognize that I)
I simply can’t wait anymore
I simply can’t wait anymore
As a self-described ‘scholar’ of basic rock, this new period of The Ting Tings looks like a present come true. For all those that say they don’t make ‘em like Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, or Steely Dan anymore, right here comes a gaggle to problem the notion that music’s best eras are behind us; that ‘basic’ sounds can solely exist prior to now.
“Danced on the Wire” is very intimate, significant, and shifting, because it reveals the achingly human depths of the duo’s artistry. “It means the years spent making an attempt to compromise, stability, and carry out to maintain a relationship working,” they are saying of the phrase itself. Tender and heartfelt, pressing and aching, their instrumental and vocal work intensify these uncooked feelings – and the lived experiences of two devoted, working artists. This tune expresses actual ache; actual frustration; actual pressure and turbulence. It’s lovely in its honesty, and for that – along with the sheer warmth of the manufacturing – I’ll without end cherish it.
In the course of the evening,
the locations we’ll say we’ll be
Watched all people depart,
we held on desperately
Oh, what a day, oh,
what a day to go away
Danced on the wire,
waited patiently
Danced on the wire
I danced on the wire
“Proper Again”
by Brandon
Who knew a sonic diary might really feel so… enveloping? Brandon’s newest single is a candid, cathartic, and completely charming dialog between artist and viewers. The LA-based artist (née Brandon Joseph) spills his aching coronary heart and weary soul in dramatic style, holding nothing again as he sings his love for the one who received away. Launched February 20th, “Proper Again” is brutally brooding and exquisite: A dreamy, genreless, all-consuming enchanting.
I get misplaced in your fairly gaze
I simply want that you simply’d really feel the identical nonetheless
My previous thoughts ain’t a stunning place
Strive, I’ll strive, however I can’t erase all
The ache I confronted once you ran away
wasn’t a easy place
We’re onto various things now,
however I nonetheless need you dangerous, I do
You’re like cyanide
however child, I nonetheless need you
Oh, I can’t lie
Yeah, you damage like hell too
Oh, why, oh, why
do I come proper again to you?
You’re the drug I like
You bought me working proper again to you
“‘Proper Again’ is considered one of my favorites from the album,” Brandon says. “It packs every thing. The lyrics, the vitality, the emotion, and the story. It’s a particular one to me. Each time it comes on it, makes me wish to dance.”
Lyrically susceptible and sonically smoldering, “Proper Again” hits with the heat and weight of the artist’s innermost confessions. He sings into existence all these ideas and emotions we historically preserve to ourselves, saying aloud what so many people could be too afraid to precise.
I don’t thoughts ready all my life for you
I don’t wanna carry on combating and rioting
I nonetheless received a variety of issues on my thoughts
however to you it’s all a waste of time
I don’t imply to hassle,
nevertheless it’s messing with me
Simply give me another likelihood,
now you over with me
Simply inform me why this breakup
is more durable than it’s purported to be?
Stated, “I really like you,”
why you gotta be so chilly to me?
Hear
Hey lil’ mama!
Let’s minimize the drama!
Spin that ‘Silkk da Shocka’
Double-entendre
I simply need your love-ah
Hearken to this tune!
Hear my coronary heart beating like a drummer!
Enjoying my guitar-ah
I want it was the summer season!
I simply need without end, me and also you
Yeah, I performed too many video games
Now you inform me that it’s via
I really feel the ache,
man, I can’t even transfer, yeah
Get me in tune, child
A panoramic tune in its personal proper, “Proper Again” can be the lead single off Brandon’s forthcoming debut album Earlier than You Go (out Could ninth through Secretly Canadian), which he describes as not only a doc of heartbreak however an embrace of affection’s complexities: “The great thing about uncertainty and the inevitability of change.” It’s an unapologetically, uncompromisingly human file, and one which brings us nose to nose with Brandon’s thoughts, his coronary heart, and his soul.
And it’s true that there’s one thing healthful and altogether fantastic about an artist manifesting their innermost self in tune; discovering the correct mixture of phrases and sounds to precise every thing they should share in a given second. “Proper Again” hits house – and feels good – as a result of it’s genuine to the place Brandon was when he wrote it. Stuffed with nostalgia, love, and longing, the tune is a deep groove, and one which guarantees to sit down with listeners lengthy after the music fades.
You’re like cyanide,
however child, I nonetheless need you
Lady, I can’t lie
Yeah, you damage like hell too
Oh, why, oh, why
do I come proper again to you?
You’re the drug I like
You bought me working proper again to you
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