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 Thursday, January 23, 2025.
Hannah Cohen – ‘Earthstar’
Earthstar Mountain, the just-announced album by Hannah Cohen, serves as an ode to the Catskills Mountains, which the singer-songwriter and her partner, producer Sam Evian, have called home since 2018. The lead single is a gorgeous ripple of a song, making peace with the fact that we can never truly know someone, even if the love towards them seems to flow endlessly. “For me, ‘Earthstar’ is about the complexity of connection, the risk and vulnerability of love,” Cohen explained. “The song grapples with the idea that ultimately, we will never completely know someone.” Of the video, she added, “Photographer CJ Harvey and I set out to film a love letter to the Catskill Mountains over four seasons. We took our time over a year to capture moving portraits in some of our favorite swimming holes, creeks, waterfalls and fern gullies deep in the Catskill Mountain forests. The entire video for Earthstar was all shot on 16 mm film.”
Viagra Boys – ‘Man Made of Meat’
Swedish post-punk outfit Viagra Boys have announced a not-exactly-self-titled LP (it’s called viagr aboys), sharing the biting, danceable single ‘Man Made of Meat’ along with the news. “I am a man that’s made of meat/ You’re on the internet looking at feet,” the chorus goes. “I hate almost everything that I see/ And I just wanna disappear.”
Tamino and Mitski – ‘Sanctuary’
Tamino has enlisted Mitski for the new song ‘Sanctuary’, which will appear on his upcoming album Every Dawn’s a Mountain. Their voices make for a sublime pairing, and the song itself is gorgeously cinematic. “On this album, ‘Sanctuary’ is the only track fully birthed from this working dynamic.,” Tamino explained. “It’s also the final addition to the record. These things, combined with the fact that the song features a second voice on what is otherwise a very personal record, make the track a bit of an outlier. Still, it feels like an essential track on this album. I won’t analyze it here, but suffice it to say that I can’t imagine this record without it. Apart from that, it’s also a pinch me moment every time I hear Mitski’s voice soaring over ‘Sanctuary’, especially when I think back to my time in Amsterdam where it soared over many days.”
Lily Seabird – ‘Trash Mountain (1pm)’
Like Hannah Cohen’s upcoming album, the latest LP from Burlington-based singer-songwriter Lily Seabird started out as an ode to home, though perhaps of a more unconventional kind: “The house I live at has been referred to as Trash Mountain because it’s on top of an old landfill on the edge of town,” she explained. “It’s also the last place my friend Ryan went before she died, it’s really strange how a lot of our close friends wound up moving in here after she passed, she feels very tied to it spiritually.” The album’s first preview, ‘Trash Mountain (1pm)’, is rootsier than most indie folk you’ll hear these days, but also strikingly evocative.
Clothing – ‘La Muerte en Realidad no Existe (Para mi)’
Clothing, the project of Mexico City’s Santi Ropa, has announced a new album, La Muerte En Realidad No Existe, which is out March 28 features collaborations with Mabe Fratti on cello and backing vocals. The spine-tingling title track is accompanied by a video that introduces the record’s central figure, Jesus De La Cruz Conde. “The character of Jesus de la Cruz Conde a Mexican vampire cowboy is my take on the blood-sucking monster archetype. He is a campy, guilt-ridden figure grappling with deep identity issues,” Ropa explained. “In an age marked by widespread uncertainty and misinformation, his questioning of death itself no longer seems entirely absurd.”
Niis – Low Life
Los Angeles outfit Niis have announced a new album, Niis World, which will drop on March 28 via Get Better Records. It’s led by the chugging, fiery single ‘Low Life’, which also opens the LP.
Peel Dream Magazine – ‘Callers (Demo)’
Peel Dream Magazine have announced have announced a deluxe version of their first album, Modern Meta Physic, which came out all the way back in 2018. It features unreleased B-sides and demos Joseph Stevens recorded at home between 2016-2017, including the just-unveiled ‘Callers (Demo)’, which is eerily resonant.
Nadia Reid – ‘Hold It Up’
Nadia Reid has shared ‘Hold It Up’, a stirring preview of her first album in five years, Enter Now Brightness. “I remember I wrote this in lockdown in our house we’d bought at the end of 2019 in a suburb of Dunedin,” she explained “It was right on the hill, like a treehouse, on a very lovely, lush section… It’s the idea that I can be kind to anyone now, tenderness towards the whole world, of being in love with the world. it’s seeing humans, even people that I think I have nothing in common with, and thinking ‘You are somebody’s precious baby.’”
Knuckle Puck – Nice to Know Ya
Chicago punk outfit Knuckle Puck are back with another rager, ‘Nice to Know Ya’, which follows October’s ‘On All Cylinders’.
Olivia’s World – ‘Sourgum’
Australian band Olivia’s World have announced their debut album, Greedy & gorgeous, which is set to arrive on March 14. They’ve also previewed it with the grungy and riveting ‘Sourgum’, which even has a sax solo. “I hadn’t picked up the guitar in a while, and it was written in the space of 30 minutes,” vocalist Alice Rezende said in a statement. “It was also the first song we wrote under the new Olivia’s World lineup. As we had a new and very powerful drummer, it became a pretty potent live song.”