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, March 18, 2025.
Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles – ‘Stranger’
Low’s Alan Sparhawk has announced a new album he recorded with fellow Duluth musicians Trampled by Turtles at the end of 2023 at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls. Lead single ‘Stranger’ marks it as a folkier turn following the electronic experimentation and rigidity of 2024’s White Roses, My God, and it features some stunning vocal work.
caroline – ‘Total euphoria’
There’s too much happening on the new caroline single to dustill in a single sentence, but it’s as relentlessly off-kilter as you’d expect from the London-based eight-piece – while also being as ecstatic as the title suggests. “Eventually it became one of many things that we’ve happened upon that felt good to play for 20 mins straight,” the band reflected. “This one felt especially good as it was very consistently ‘loud’ and full on which was maybe a bit unusual for us at the time, and also everyone was playing these three different rhythms simultaneously which made it feel endlessly cyclical. Jasper then took the main chords and wrote a load of really nice top line stuff for singing, then we put together all the other parts with the rest of the band and finalised a structure. We realised the golden potential of how good it sounded with Jasper and Magda singing in unison also as a style, and they wrote some extra vocals and harmonies together.”
Patrick Wolf – ‘Limbo’ [feat. Zola Jesus]
Zola Jesus joins Patrick Wolf on ‘Limbo’, the gothic, countrified second single from Wolf’s upcoming LP Crying the Neck – out June 13. “I first started imagining a limbo – or purgatory – to set a song in after seeing a painting ‘The Scapegoat’ by William Holman Hunt in the Manchester art gallery,” the singer-songwriter expounded. “Years later on bleak lockdown weekly food drives to Bromley and the arguments and tensions in a relationship that brewed in the claustrophobia of the car made me want to begin writing a duet about the realism of a couple cutting off each other’s sentences and debating whether to persist with or escape each other. I reset the song to a strip of road in Thanet where I live with the couple now fugitive from the shadow of a country on the brink of war and with the painting from the Manchester gallery in my head, the land unfurled to the purgatory of the scapegoat and the rainbow, which I have our couple pulling up to as a roadside inn for the night in the song. So much of Crying The Neck is a series of responses to decay, death or loss, this song is the lovers’ response to a relationship in limbo and the only song on the album about a romantic relationship. I have adored Zola’s work since her first ‘Stridulum’ album and we have been pen friends since 2011. As I finished writing the song here by the quiet of the sea and seeing pictures of her own wilderness of woodland where she lives now in Wisconsin, I felt we were aligned somewhat in spirit at this point of our work. It was only her voice I imagined to duet with me and now I can’t imagine anyone else riding shotgun beside me on this our summer gothic road trip of a song.”
Wishy – ‘Over and Over’
Wishy, who are going on tour with Momma in May, are back with another sunny, infectious tune; and the catchiness of ‘Over and Over’ feels particularly aligned with Momma’s recent output. “The major themes of this song revolve around desire, ambition, disappointment, acceptance, playing the cards you’re dealt, etc.,” Kevin Krauter said of the track. “I wrote this song in 2020 before the band existed, and since then had no plans to properly record and release it. I knew Ben would crush it on the mix and production, however, and Nina’s voice would send it over the edge. It simply had to be a Wishy song.”
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – ‘Glib Tongued’ [feat. El-P]
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs’ latest offering from the upcoming Death Hilarious, the absolutely filthy ‘Glub Tongued’, is an unlikely collaboration with El-P. “‘Glib Tongued’ was an idea I’d been sitting on for a few years,” bassist John-Michael Hedley explained. “It felt like the right time to inject it into Death Hilarious. Though after bringing it to the table it morphed into something bigger and better than I could have ever imagined. Securing El-P’s services for a verse blew my mind and I feel immensely proud that an idea I’d worked on during an extremely dark time in my life, has flourished into a powerful force for good. I hope.”
Friendship – ‘All Over the World’
Philly band Friendship have dropped a new song, ‘All Over the World’, which is as brooding as it is pensive. It’s taken from their forthcoming album Caveman Wakes Up, due May 16 through Merge Records. “It’s about a guy in his 30s who works too many hours for a landscaping company, gets home every day, and all he can do is drink beer and watch TV and play video games, and he sees his life wasting away and feels bitter about it,” Dan Wriggins explained. “But the song dwells on a brief moment of ecstasy, in which he feels life, connects to the world and forgets the world. Any resemblance to the past ten years of my life is purely coincidental!”
Beirut – ‘Tuanaki Atoll’
Beirut have unveiled a new track, the tenderly stirring ‘Tuanaki Atoll’, which is lifted from their upcoming album A Study of Losses. “The Tuanaki Atoll is said to have been an Eden-like island somewhere in the South Pacific that mysteriously disappeared under the sea during an earthquake in the 1840s,” Zach Condon shared. “Its inhabitants were described as a people so peaceful and generous that they had no word in their language for such things as war or murder. It might be almost too obvious of a choice but nothing could fit the island vibes better than a sweet and breezy ukulele, which became the foundation that I built this song around. Contrastingly yet somewhat fittingly, the lyrics took on a darker edge and ended up reflecting that side of the story. Maybe because personally I doubt that such an Eden-like place could ever exist on Earth.”
My Morning Jacket – ‘Half a Lifetime’
‘Half a Lifetime’, the latest single from My Morning Jacket’s forthcoming record is, reimagines a demo unearthed from sessions for the band’s landmark 2005 album, Z. What originated as a stripped-back slow-burner ends up sounding pretty frenetic. “It’s about doing whatever it takes to get where you need to go, instead of bailing when things get hard,” Jim James stated, “which is funny considering that it literally took a half a lifetime to finish.”
Mamalarky – ‘Anhedonia’
Mamalarky have shared a new Hex Key single, which sounds quite peppy despite being called ‘Anhedonia’ and, in Livvy Bennet’s words, “about feeling god awful.” The singer elaborated, “I was going through a really deep depression and not knowing what to do other than isolate myself from everyone. I didn’t want to put this song out because of how much I associate it with pain and getting completely stuck in it. I’m glad it’s on the record now, though. The most defining times come after being at the bottom of the pit, every day passing the same. At some point you look up and anhedonia has gone and you’re more hopeful than before.”
Faun Fables – ‘Ember Bell’
Faun Fables, the long-running art-folk duo of Dawn McCarthy and Nils Frykdahl, have announced a new LP, Counterclockwise – out May 30 via Drag City – with the mesmerizing ‘Ember Bell’. According to a press release, the track is “a meditation on the organic complexities of motherhood and pregnancy where Dawn sings of ‘the dark tinderbox inside of me.'”
Deradoorian – ‘Any Other World’
‘Any Other World’ is the latest preview of Deradoorian’s upcoming LP Ready for Heaven, following ‘Digital Gravestone’ and ‘Set Me Free’. It’s an eccentrically groovy song that intrigues you with each bit of percussion and tumble of words it spins into a refrain.
Yukimi – ‘Peace Reign’
Of all the songs Yukimi has so far released from her debut album For You, ‘Peace Reign’ is definitely the most optimistic, making belief in a more peaceful world sound like a breeze. According to the vocalist and Little Dragon co-founder, “’Peace Reign’ is about not giving up on the dream that this world can be a peaceful place. Believing in hope and a brighter future for the generations to come.”
Club Night – ‘Judah’
Bay Area outfit Club Night have delivered a ferocious new song, ‘Judah’. It’s lifted from their first album in six years, Joy Coming Down, arriving May 2 on Tiny Engines.
spill tab – ‘Assis’
Sung in both English and French, ‘Assis’ is both funky and frantic, a fascinating taste of spill tab’s debut album Angie. “The production for Assis feels like the stitching between a 50’s Italian film soundtrack and psychedelic rock,” Claire Chicha commented. “The song is about watching someone you love pull away from you in slow motion. You try to reconcile the beautiful, tender moments with the bitter ones, because ultimately you want no one else.”
Ezra Furman – ‘Jump Out’
Ezra Furman’s tenth studio album Goodbye Small Head is being previewed today with a frenzied anthem called ‘Jump Out’. In a statement, Furman described it as “a panicked rocker for that moment when you realize you are going to have to leap from a moving vehicle because the driver has no intention of letting you out.”
Snapped Ankles – ‘Smart World’
Snapped Ankles’ latest single, ‘Smart World’, imagines a conversation between Brian Eno and the late Conny Plank as a means of exploring the rise of AI in music. “I figured Conny’s the one who’ll break first, and go ‘No, you’ve got to go the hard way around’,” the band’s Austin explained. “Eno will be more like, ‘Fuck yeah, let’s go! Let’s put our brains in a tub & post it to Mars!’” It’s accompanied by what a press release describes as “a wholly unauthorised performance video featuring Plank and Eno, which raises more ethical questions than it answers. There’s also an illicit cameo by the late music journalist and cultural commentator Mark Fisher, who originated the term Hauntology, referenced in the song’s chorus. It’s probably best to watch it now, because it may not be online forever.”
Moon Mullins – ‘Lobby Music’
Brooklyn-based composer Moon Mullins has announced a new album, Hotel Paradiso, where he’s joined by musicians including whistler Molly Lewis, guitarist Sam Owens (Sam Evian), and strings player Oliver Hill. It comes out May 2 via Ruination, and previewing the LP today is ‘Lobby Music’, which sets the stage in blissfully dreamy fashion.
Matt Maltese – ‘Pined for You My Whole Life’
‘Pined for You My Whole Life’ is, according to Matt Maltese, “potentially the most amount of yearning” the singer-songwriter has done in a song. “Which is saying something. Musically the song was a true joy to make, and is heavily inspired by all the Motown and soul I was grown up with. I’m not ashamed to say I get a lot of joy out of writing boldly pathetic declarations of love through the veil of American-leaning soul music.” It’s set to appear on Maltese’s upcoming record Hers, which is out May 16.
