There’s so much music coming out all the time that it’s hard to keep track. On those days when the influx of new tracks is particularly overwhelming, we sift through the noise to bring you a curated list of the most interesting new releases (the best of which will be added to our Best New Songs playlist). Below, check out our track roundup for Tuesday, February 18, 2025.
Samia – ‘Lizard’
‘Bovine Excision’, the first single from Samia’s upcoming album Bloodless, made our list of the best songs of January 2025. The musician has now shared its second preview, ‘Lizard’, which captures the experience of dissociating from your body at a beautiful party. “It’s painful to stay present, to exist as a real, flesh-and-blood person at a party, after existing comfortably as a myth or a memory,” Samia explained. “And it was even more painful to try not to ruin a party I’d already ruined.”
Patterson Hood feat. Waxahatchee, ‘The Forks of Cypress’
According to Drive-By Truckers co-leader Patterson Hood, “The Forks of Cypress a real place, a few miles just north of my hometown of Florence, Alabama.” It lends its name to his gorgeously ethereal new duet with Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield, set to appear on his upcoming LP Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams. Hood continued: “A former plantation house, once owned by a cousin of Andrew Jackson, it was struck by a ‘lightning cluster’ in 1966 — when I was two — and exploded into flames, burning to the ground in under five minutes. All that was left were these huge columns, in a rectangle on top of the hill overlooking the meadow. It was right by a very creepy rickety one-lane bridge that the locals called Ghost Bridge. I drove past this (and crossed the scary bridge) every week of my childhood on my way to my Great Uncle’s house (where I spent every weekend). Later, as a teenager, kids would drive dates out to Ghost Bridge and tell ghost stories and make out. The bridge was torn down about a decade ago.”
“I wrote the song as pure fiction, inspired by those great story songs that Bobbie Gentry did, ‘Ode to Billie Joe,’ etc., where she implies a story without really telling it,” he added. “In my head, I heard Katie Crutchfield singing it with me and was blessed that she was willing to do so. She’s one of my very favorite artists and such a lovely person.”
“The song was fleshed out wonderfully by Phil and Brad Cook (who played keyboards, dobro and bass on it), Dan Hunt on drums, and then Kevin Morby put the cherry on top with a stunning lead part.”
Youth Lagoon – ‘Gumshoe (Dracula From Arkansas)’
Youth Lagoon‘s new LP, Rarely Do I Dream on Friday, arrives on Friday. The shimmering and propulsive ‘Gumshoe (Dracula From Arkansas)’ is its latest preview, following previous cuts ‘Speed Freak’, ‘Football’, ‘Lucy Takes a Picture’, and ‘My Beautiful Girl’. “Someone said my music makes them feel like they died in the forest, and I’ve honestly never heard a better compliment,” Trevor Powers said in a statement. “I don’t think I have a song that’s more suited for that description than ‘Gumshoe’. I usually write out of pure love, delirium, or just to get the devil off my back, and this one checks all three boxes… it may be the closest I’ve come so far to finding real freedom in music.”
Avalon Emerson – ‘Don’t Be Seen With Me’
DJ and producer Avalon Emerson has signed to Dead Oceans, announcing the new project Perpetual Emotion Machine with a buoyant rendition of Oppenheimer Analysis’ cult classic ‘Don’t Be Seen With Me’. “These songs were created for my DJ sets,” Emerson remarked. “Whether they’re entirely original, edits to recontextualize old favorites, instrumental, or feature me singing, they are all part of my perpetual emotion machine. And the machine steams on.”
Hannah Cohen – ‘Draggin”
Hannah Cohen has previewed her forthcoming album Earthstar Mountain, with a new track, ‘Draggin”, a pleasant tune about how maddening familiar love can be. “There is a universal truth: Water is wet, the sun rises in the east and your family will drive you to your brink,” Cohen remarked in a press release.
Lonnie Holley – ‘That’s Not Art, That’s Not Music’
Lonnie Holley has shared another deeply stirring track, ‘That’s Not Art, That’s Not Music’, from his upcoming record Tonky. This one’s about “Holley’s early experiences in the art world and larger institutions’ apprehension in accepting Black self-taught art as fine art,” according to a press release. Over horns, flute, and marimba, Holley sings, “Gathering our arts/ Gathering our music/ Incorporating it into song/ Us being rejected/ They were saying, ‘That’s not good enough’/ Not good enough/That’s not art/ That’s not music.”
Anxious – ‘Never Said’
Anxious have served up another cathartic track from their new album Bambi ahead of its arrival this Friday. “In our music subculture, there often seems to be this dynamic where people stay close to others regardless of the fact of whether they really like them or not,” Grady Allen explained in a statement. “You hear subtle whispers and rumors about what people really think of you, but those feelings are never expressed to you directly. It’s an exhausting social dynamic and one that I am desperate to let go of. ‘Never Said’‘s lyrics focus on that idea. The song came about super weirdly and indirectly. I went over to Dante’s [Melucci, guitarist/co-vocalist] house last winter and we just started shooting this riff back and forth. We started Frankenstein-ing new parts onto it over several months and eventually it just sort of fell into what it was. It was a cool process — we rarely write that way. It was fun to just sort of keep throwing things together and see what happened.”
Melvins 1983 – ‘Victory of the Pyramids’
Melvins 1983 – the incarnation of the Buzz Osborne-fronted band that features original Melvins drummer Mike Dillard – have shared a 10-minute epic called ‘Victory of the Pyramids’. It’s taken from the 34-minute LP Thunderball – out April 18 – which Osbourne described as “the third Melvins 1983 record we’ve made together, and I wanted it to be bombastic. I think we achieved that. I also wanted to do something with electronic artists Void Manes and Ni Maîtres for a long time. Both of them are exceptional talents. Their out-of-the-box use of electronics pushed Thunderball beyond my expectations.”
Andy Bell – ‘Don’t Cha Know’
Erasure frontman Andy Bell has announced a new solo album, Ten Crowns, which is set for release on May 2. “I mean, I’ve got everything I could possibly wish for, you know, I really have, but that’s not to say I’m always fulfilled,” Bell said in a press release. “This album’s about picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, embracing life – and about taking that feeling on even when you’re fighting demons in the world, like homophobia, and fighting demons in yourself. It’s about being celebratory and uplifting.” New single ‘Don’t Cha Know’ sounds like it, too.