Atwood Journal is happy to share our Editor’s Picks column, written and curated by Editor-in-Chief Mitch Mosk. Each week, Mitch will share a set of songs, albums, and artists who’ve caught his ears, eyes, and coronary heart. There may be a lot unimaginable music on the market simply ready to be heard, and all it takes from us is an open thoughts and a willingness to pay attention. By our Editor’s Picks, we hope to shine a light-weight on our personal music discoveries and showcase a various array of recent and up to date releases.
This week’s Editor’s Picks options Olivia Dean, Ken Yates, Flock of Dimes, Angelsaur, Little Canine Star, and Glom!
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“Good to Every Different”
by Olivia Dean
Tright here’s an ease to Olivia Dean’s “Good to Every Different” that I’ve discovered myself chasing all summer time lengthy. It’s gentle and lilting, suave and smoldering – the type of track that settles into your bones with out asking an excessive amount of from you. Dean’s voice is effortlessly radiant as she sings over pulsing bass and dreamy guitars, capturing the magic of being current with somebody – whether or not it’s a pal, a lover, or somebody someplace in between. Launched because the lead single off her upcoming album The Artwork of Loving (out September 26th by way of Island Data), “Good to Every Different” seems like a heat breeze by means of an open window: A delicate reminder to cease worrying a lot, and simply benefit from the second.
Right here we’re, again once more
Combating what’s in entrance of me
There’s a lot to unpack once more
But when I come to Italy
We may very well be good to one another
Good to one another
Improper for one another
Proper for one another
And rise to one another
Rise to one another
Mm-mm-mm
“‘Good To Every Different’ is a track in regards to the push and pull of exploring your independence in courting,” Dean explains. “It’s about having fun with somebody within the current and permitting it to be each gentle and significant. I believe this track and video represents a playfulness in me that I’m excited for individuals to see.”
That sense of playful honesty pulses by means of each line of the monitor, particularly in its refrain: “‘Trigger you already know, I’ve accomplished all of the traditional stuff and it by no means works, you already know it. So can we are saying we’ll by no means say the traditional stuff? Simply present it now and realize it.” It’s a easy, radical rejection of strain, of expectations, of drained courting scripts – an invite to strive one thing easier and extra trustworthy as an alternative.
And whereas her lyrics flirt with contradiction (“I’ll most likely crash your silly automobile and make your life a distress”), Dean by no means loses that undercurrent of heat. Even at her most chaotic, she’s not out to harm anybody – she simply needs one thing actual, no matter type that takes. And that’s what makes this track so particular: It doesn’t demand readability or dedication. It merely asks for kindness, for heat, for presence, and for connection.
For a monitor about not needing the solutions, “Good to Every Different” feels completely profound and superbly, breathtakingly highly effective. It’s Olivia Dean at her most relaxed, most confident, and most emotionally open – and the right soundtrack for the sun-soaked summer time.
“Complete Cinema”
by Ken Yates
Tright here’s one thing about Ken Yates’ songwriting that, for me, at all times seems like house. His is the type of music and lyricism that, whereas so wealthy in melody and poetry alike, inevitably breaks down into explorations of life’s uncooked, easy truths – and discovering the wonder in them. “Complete Cinema,” the title monitor off his newest album, is a type of songs that hits onerous for all its softness: A candy, soul-stirring reflection on love, life, partnership, and perspective that hits particularly deep if, like me, you’ve just lately discovered your self reflecting on what it means to reside with intention – to be current, to be grateful, and to actually take inventory of the life you’ve constructed.
You mentioned man it’s been so enjoyable
Altering with somebody
Wake me up in solidarity
I preserve the lights off when inside
To protect the pure gentle
It’s the halogen severity
Yates is a grasp of restraint – his lead guitar riff glistens like early morning gentle as his voice gently spills into focus, heat and worn and clever. His lyrics are deceptively easy, however they maintain multitudes: “These little motion pictures in my thoughts / they’re nonetheless taking part in on a regular basis / however you already know all of the darkest corners of myself / and if I’m fortunate after I’m accomplished / I’ll have an viewers of 1.”
These little motion pictures in my thoughts
They’re nonetheless taking part in on a regular basis
However you already know all of the
darkest corners of myself
And if I’m fortunate after I’m accomplished
I’ll have an viewers of 1
That’s what we name complete cinema child
“I believe it was my profession and doing slightly self-assessment, slightly check-in, trying ahead,” Yates explains. “I believe whenever you begin a profession as a songwriter, whenever you’re younger, the one metrics you could have for achievement are fame and fortune, and people are the targets. So even when they’re unconscious, these are the targets you set out with whenever you begin a profession as a songwriter. And someplace alongside the best way, I noticed, these really aren’t the targets. The targets had been to jot down songs for a dwelling and have significant relationships with individuals and be completely satisfied, for lack of a greater phrase. I believe typically these grandiose targets get in the best way of precise happiness and achievement and really working in your relationships.”
“I believe with a music profession, particularly if it takes off, it makes it straightforward to form of ignore your relationships and ignore nurturing them since you don’t should, since you’re on paper ‘profitable’ – and I believe the perfect a part of not being ‘profitable,’ for me, is it compelled me to nurture my relationships as a result of the profession facet of it wasn’t going effectively. So, what else are you able to do, proper? You must take a look at the remainder of your life and go, ‘Properly, let’s make that half good.’ That’s that track in a nutshell: I believe I’ve actually nurtured the remainder of my life to the purpose the place I’m actually proud of it. If that’s all it’s going ahead, then nice. If I died at the moment, then I’ve achieved so much in not simply my profession, however my entire life. It seems like I actually labored on plenty of these issues.”
You mentioned man it’s been so good
Leaning into archetypes
I’m not lacking out on something
And within the theatre of dwelling
There’s a superficial jail
Of the issues we strive to not develop into
That is the type of track that doesn’t want a grand declaration to go away its mark. It’s clear-eyed and deeply felt – a young acknowledgment that achievement isn’t at all times loud or cinematic. Typically it’s nearly sharing your actual self with somebody who sees you clearly, and staying current within the on a regular basis moments that matter most.
“The trail to get right here didn’t appear to be I believed it might,” Yates says of his life and profession. “However I at all times needed to jot down songs for a dwelling. I at all times needed to reside the place I reside proper now. I’ve a fantastic relationship with my spouse, we’re beginning a household – it’s all good.” That readability radiates all through “Complete Cinema,” which doubles as each a love letter to his associate and a meditation on the best way we dramatize our lives. It’s about letting go of the tortured artist fantasy, and selecting gratitude over grandeur.
As a songwriter myself – or no less than, somebody who thinks about phrases greater than might be wholesome – I’m continuously struck by how a lot coronary heart Ken Yates packs into his music. “Complete Cinema” is a standout not as a result of it tries to be, however as a result of it is aware of precisely what it’s: Grounded, swish, and brimming with coronary heart.
These little motion pictures in my thoughts
They’re nonetheless taking part in on a regular basis
However you already know all of the darkest corners of myself
And if I’m fortunate after I’m accomplished
I’ll have an viewers of 1
That’s what we name complete cinema child
“Lengthy After Midnight”
by Flock of Dimes
Tright here’s a soul-stirring ache to Flock of Dimes’ “Lengthy After Midnight” that simply doesn’t let go. It lingers – gentle, slow-burning, and stuffed with feeling – lengthy after the final notice fades. I’ve returned to this track numerous instances already, not simply because it’s extremely stunning (although it’s), however as a result of it captures one thing I’ve felt deeply in my bones: The should be robust for the individuals you like most – even whenever you’re unsure you possibly can maintain all of it collectively your self.
All the cash I gave to you
I do know I’ll by no means get it again
Don’t be unhappy and don’t be sorry
I don’t care in regards to the cash like that
And after I say I don’t care in regards to the cash
I imply you already know I wouldn’t allow you to starve
You realize I couldn’t let that occur
Please take the keys to my automobile
Launched July thirtieth by way of Sub Pop Data, “Lengthy After Midnight” is the lead single off Flock of Dimes’ forthcoming third album The Life You Save, out October tenth. Flock of Dimes is the solo mission of singer, songwriter, and producer Jenn Wasner, finest generally known as one-half of beloved indie duo Wye Oak and a frequent collaborator with Bon Iver, Sylvan Esso, and others. Throughout her intensive catalog, Wasner has lengthy been a grasp of introspective songwriting and unorthodox, emotionally immersive sound design – and The Life You Save guarantees to be her most trustworthy, uncovered, and personally revealing document thus far.
Wasner’s voice is every thing in “Lengthy After Midnight”: Soulful, heat, unflinchingly candid, and impossibly full – stuffed with compassion, stuffed with weariness, stuffed with a determined type of love. Her acoustic guitar is wealthy and resonant, wrapping round every lyric like a blanket. The track is a delicate act of self-sacrifice and confession; a bittersweet meditation on what it means to offer and provides, with out anticipating something again.
You say you possibly can’t afford your treatment
Too many hoops they’re gonna put you thru
You possibly can’t waste one other second
Not for the lifetime of you
I do know the foundations, however I ignore them
I believe I’m adequate to drag this off
You be hell and I’ll be hеaven
I’ll be your shot in the dead of night
“That is the story of the helper, the fixer, the hero who’s at all times there and by no means lets on how a lot they’re hurting,” Wasner tells Atwood Journal. “It’s for anybody who’s inherited the false perception that, with a purpose to be loveable, they should sacrifice their very own peace in service of others. It’d sound vivid and cheery, however beneath the floor there’s something darker: the desperation of understanding you don’t have the solutions, the loneliness of understanding you’ve bought to attempt to preserve all of it collectively anyway.”
That darkness glows all through “Lengthy After Midnight,” tucked inside her sweetly lilting verses about cash, treatment, silence, and survival. “You say you possibly can’t afford your treatment / too many hoops they’re gonna put you thru… I do know the foundations, however I ignore them / I believe I’m adequate to drag this off.” Wasner’s lyrics are tender and devastating, and so they solely land tougher when paired with the heat of her supply. It’s that duality that provides this track its energy: A deep disappointment wrapped in empathy, care, and an abiding sense of affection.
“I’ll be your shot in the dead of night,” she sings – and I imagine her. I really feel it.
Together with her new album The Life You Save out this October, Flock of Dimes is getting into her most susceptible, revelatory, and emotionally uncooked period but. If this track is any indication, we’re in for a soul-stirring reckoning – one which honors ache with out glorifying it, and leaves room for therapeutic on the opposite facet.
I livе my life among the many fortunate ones
When issues are unhealthy I by no means allow them to know
While you come from the place I come from
There’s solely to date you possibly can go
And once we’re sitting trapped in silence
And I can inform I’m not who you need me to be
To be trustworthy it might break you
Solely to lie would break me
Folks say it’s not my drawback
They are saying that actions have a consequence
When you name me I’d reply
I’m the final line of protection
“Round You”
by Angelsaur
Tright here’s a uncooked, unfiltered vitality coursing by means of Angelsaur’s “Round You” that I simply can’t get sufficient of. Form of ragged, but undeniably polished on the similar time, this track feels alive – pulsing with jangly guitars, candid lyrics, and vocals that ache with internal churn. There’s allure in its chaos, coronary heart in its mess, and a superbly human sense of unraveling at its core. From the wiry, Beatles-esque guitar soloing to the breathless refrain cries of “I’ve been digging each night time,” Angelsaur’s newest providing radiates uncontainable feeling and urgency – and someway, in its turbulence, finds a middle of gravity in longing, devotion, and need.
I hope I would discover
Myself in you
I’m selecting at your bones
With all of my instruments
The reality is a
Thought that hurts
I’m out of my thoughts
However I’m dwelling in yours
I’m looking your eyes
Proper again at you
I’ve been digging
Each night time
Launched because the fourth single off Angelsaur’s sophomore album The Women Are Burdened (out August 13th), “Round You” is the cathartic album nearer – and maybe its most emotionally naked providing. The Los Angeles–based mostly duo of singer/bassist Logan McQuade and guitarist Jonah Feingold aren’t any strangers to the stage: McQuade at present performs bass for King Princess (he co-wrote two songs on her upcoming album Lady Violence), and has toured as a reside member with Del Water Hole, Omar Apollo, and Fiji Blue. Feingold has performed guitar on data by Del Water Hole and Mark Ronson, and carried out with Omar Apollo throughout his NPR Tiny Desk Live performance. Angelsaur’s music blends glam, grit, and grunge right into a daring and brutally trustworthy soundscape. Their second LP, co-produced and combined by Andy Baldwin (Björk), leans into themes of heartbreak, ageing, and self-worth – a coming-of-age document for the 30s, constructed to really feel like a reside present and made with heart-on-sleeve depth.
“I sat down and wrote the principle guitar line and the lyrics for ‘Round You’ in a single sitting,” McQuade tells Atwood Journal. “We knew fairly rapidly that this might be the album nearer… I believe it’s my favourite track I’ve ever written.”
You’re the one factor
I can’t ever unfastened
I’m a troublesome man
And also you’re my tattoos
Time spilling out my purse
I spend it on you
‘Trigger you give me price
I’m pulling out my coronary heart
So that you can use
I’ve been
Digging
Each night time
Directly tender and intense, “Round You” was born out of stillness – after years on the highway, McQuade discovered himself all of a sudden grounded in 2024, navigating an extended touring break and the unraveling of a seven-year relationship.
“I used to be at a fairly unusual place in my life,” he explains. “I had been constantly touring since I bought out of school, however for causes out of my management, I used to be house for many of 2024. It gave us time to make this document, however it additionally made me rethink plenty of issues about my profession and I misplaced some confidence and missed plenty of the validation of taking part in reveals and touring off of music. I actually turned to my relationship for happiness, and this track explores the repercussions related to that.”
The result’s a dramatic, dynamic love track steeped in each magnificence and desperation – one which seeks stability in an individual when every thing else feels unsure. “I’m looking your eyes / proper again at you,” he sings, clinging to connection. “I’m pulling out my coronary heart / so that you can use.”
“Once I wrote that track within the ending months of my relationship, I wrote it as a declaration of affection,” McQuade shares. “Expressing the hope of discovering your self by means of one other’s love and a focus appeared, on the time, to be an correct depiction of how vital she is to me… Now on the opposite facet of the breakup, I understand that it’s virtually a declaration of dependence. I nonetheless love her, however I understand the detriment in counting on somebody for the totality of your happiness and identification.”
That complicated emotional evolution is embedded within the music itself, which builds from quiet intimacy right into a hovering wall of sound. The ultimate part of “Round You” is awash with layered harmonies, strings, and interwoven guitar textures – a sweeping crescendo of feeling that hits like catharsis. “Plant slightly backyard round you, let myself get tangled within the roots,” McQuade sings on repeat, letting go with out ever absolutely releasing.
Plant slightly backyard round you
Let myself get tangled within the roots
Plant slightly backyard round you
Let myself get tangled within the roots
Plant slightly backyard round you
(I’ve been digging, I’ve been digging)
Let myself get tangled within the roots
(I’ve been digging)
Plant slightly backyard round you
Digging digging
Let myself get tangled within the roots
I’ve been digging
“We felt like ending on the concept love is on the core of our identification was the right method to shut the story of the album,” the band clarify. “The monitor teeters between pleasure and despair and wrestles with the necessity for validation – an emotional thread that runs all through the whole document.”
“Round You” could also be a track about shedding your self in another person, however it’s additionally about popping out the opposite facet with a clearer view of who you’re. It’s messy, magnetic, stuffed with contradictions – and that’s precisely what makes it so particular.
I’ve been digging
Each night time
I’ve been digging
Each night time
“It is you”
by Little Canine Star
Manchester-born, London-based indie artist Little Canine Star has made a stunning entrance together with her debut single “It’s you,” a dreamy, glistening indie pop reverie wearing different garb. Her voice is radiant, the guitars shimmer like metropolis lights after rain, and the emotion – uncooked and unfiltered – pulses by means of each beat. It’s the type of debut that stops you in your tracks, aches just a bit, and nonetheless leaves you smiling by the ultimate refrain. Equal elements charming and charged, “It’s you” is a love track, a homesick track, and a coming-of-age anthem wrapped into one.
Impressed by a second of reflection and emotional recalibration, Little Canine Star (aka Isobel Steele) traces the challenges of beginning over in a brand new metropolis and the grounding energy of affection. “I first went into the studio with Manta Tatton and Jamie Stewart again in February,” she tells Atwood Journal. “On the time I’d been listening to plenty of MOIO, Beabadoobee and The Japanese Home and pondering so much about my expertise shifting to London from Manchester and the way onerous it was at instances. I typically questioned the way it was ever going to really feel the best way I needed it to. In the end, the rationale I pushed by means of that point, and remembered what I used to be right here to do, was my girlfriend. Having one thing steady when every thing else felt ever-changing was so essential.”
“Within the studio, the track got here collectively in a number of hours, and we had it principally completed by the tip of the night time. I needed the place I’m from to shine by means of the music. It’s vital to lean into what units you aside moderately than attempting to mix in, sonically and lyrically. I keep in mind taking part in it on loop for days after so when it got here to ending the track I attempted to maintain it as near the unique demo as doable, it had an vitality that I didn’t wish to lose.”
That vitality lives in each second – from the gentle swirl of the opening traces to the gut-punch chorus “Wait! wait! wait! wait! / Don’t go away me / Say you like me / ‘Trigger I can’t be one thing with out you.” It’s a track about holding on – to like, to goal, to the explanations we keep when every thing in us needs to run. You possibly can hear the static of a telephone name from a prepare platform, the stress of being torn between leaving and longing: “I known as my mum / From a southeast station / Say I wanna be there / Advised me take your time, pricey.”
For anybody who’s left house, fallen onerous, or just wanted one thing – or somebody – to carry onto, “It’s you” hits the place it hurts, then helps you thru it. It’s the sound of a younger artist discovering her voice and letting it ring out, vivid and daring and superbly unafraid. Little Canine Star could also be simply starting, however she’s already shining.
Glom’s “Glass” is as immediately addictive as it’s unapologetically different. The melody is magnetic, the guitars are woozy and warped in all the fitting methods, and the lyrics hit like a punch to the intestine. I’ve been singing alongside to this monitor all summer time lengthy – particularly that cathartic climax: “Oh I noticed it each time, I wish to really feel alive. I can’t do it anymore, I wish to reside my life. Part of me needs to be the one to let you know every thing shouldn’t be okay…” It’s catchy, sure, however it’s additionally deeply emotional – dreamy and aching, pulsing and smooth, with disarming chord decisions that make you lean in. Glom are masters of balancing brightness with burnout, of marrying pleasure with anxiousness, and nowhere is that extra obvious than on this track.
Ranney’s bought a bit of glass
Discovered it on the seaside
She was digging within the sand
Proper in entrance of me
Ranney’s bought it in a stack
Proper inside her attain
In a while tonight I’m wishing
I’d be nonetheless at peace
Launched as the newest single off their upcoming album Beneath (out in January 2026), “Glass” captures the core of Glom’s ethos: Uncooked, relatable, and profoundly human indie rock. The mission of Brooklyn-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sean Dunnevant, Glom has advanced from a collaborative band right into a solo endeavor and now into its most absolutely realized type but – a “extremely potent combination of indelible, infectious melodic rock and lyrical introspection,” as their bio places it. Beneath is Glom’s third album, following 2020’s Benefit and 2019’s Bond, and it marks a brand new period of unfiltered songwriting from Dunnevant, who stopped hiding behind metaphor in favor of emotional transparency.
Oh I noticed it each time
I wish to really feel alive
I can’t do it anymore
I wish to reside my life
(Part of me) Needs to be the one to let you know
All the things shouldn’t be okay
Truthfully for me I’m virtually sure
Everybody’s afraid
“‘Glass’ is a track about momentary bliss being overshadowed by debilitating anxiousness,” Dunnevant tells Atwood Journal. “I spent plenty of time with my girlfriend on the seaside in 2020 and 2021. On certainly one of these seaside journeys, she spent the entire time rummaging by means of the sand looking for sea glass. The sight of watching her methodically procure and stack these stunning items of time-worn relics was marred by calls and textual content messages flooding my telephone informing me that one thing was going fallacious on the retailer the place I work. I used to be taken out of the second regardless of my makes an attempt to withstand.”
That rigidity – between stillness and stress, presence and panic – pulses by means of the monitor like an undercurrent, delicate however inescapable. “Glass” is a track about attempting to be okay whenever you’re not, about holding on to magnificence whilst your thoughts betrays you. “The seaside day was excellent – climate, we had the fitting snacks and drinks, the water was heat – but I couldn’t not be concerned,” Dunnevant recollects. “I wasn’t even anxious about something essentially. It’s simply an overarching drawback I’ve handled my entire life. ‘Glass’ is about attempting to deal with it.”
Lastly took the journey out west
Truly not but
I attempted onerous to make ends meet
It’s tougher than it appears
Be in contact with all my associates
See them on the airplane
Having deja vu once more
Migraine’s setting in
There’s a bittersweetness to the entire thing – nostalgic and unhappy, however not hopeless. It’s about feeling the burden of every thing and nonetheless selecting to maintain going. “I hope that ‘Glass’ brings listeners the correct amount of pleasure and the correct amount of nostalgia,” Dunnevant displays. “And I additionally hope that the track helps listeners understand it’s okay to really feel anxious! It’s part of life! Some individuals have greater than others, and that’s okay too.”
In a world that strikes too quick and expects an excessive amount of, “Glass” seems like a permission slip to pause, to really feel, and to crumble just a bit. It’s an anthem for the overthinkers, the worriers, and the people who find themselves simply attempting to carry it collectively – and it’s additionally a rattling good time.
Oh the engine’s setting fireplace
My arms are feeling weak
Shopping for issues received’t disguise you from
The emotions you possibly can’t converse
(Part of me) Needs to be the one to let you know
All the things shouldn’t be okay
Truthfully for me I’m virtually sure
Everybody’s afraid
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