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, October 7, 2025.
The Mountain Goats – ‘Cold at Night’ and ‘Rocks in My Pockets’
The Mountain Goats have shared two tracks from their “full-on musical” album Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan. ‘Cold at Night’ and ‘Rocks in My Pockets’ revolve around a shipwreck, as John Darnielle explains:
A GREAT GOOD DAY TO ALL WHO SAIL THE TREACHEROUS WATERS OF OUR BROKEN WORLD. WE, THE MOUNTAIN GOATS, COME BEARING NEW SONGS, NOT JUST ONE AS IN FORMER DAYS BUT TWO, AS THERE IS A NEED FOR MORE SONGS. “COLD AT NIGHT” IS ABOUT A SHIPWRECK AND ITS IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH. BASS ON “COLD” IS BY TOMMY STINSON WHO YOU KNOW FROM THE REPLACEMENTS AND GUNS ‘N’ ROSES. GUITARS ON “COLD” ARE BY JOSH KAUFMAN, WHO YOU KNOW FROM BONNY LIGHT HORSEMAN, THE NATIONAL, BOB WEIR, AND A PROMISING YOUNG ARTIST NAMED TAYLOR SWIFT, AND BY MATT DOUGLAS, WHO PRODUCED THESE TRACKS AND WROTE THE STRING ARRANGEMENTS.
“ROCKS IN MY POCKETS” IS A SOLILOQUY FROM ADAM, ONE OF THREE SURVIVORS FROM THE WRECK. IT IS THE LAST WE HEAR FROM HIM. HARP BY THE GREAT MIKAELA DAVIS. ALL THREE MEMBERS OF THE MOUNTAIN GOATS — JON, JOHN, AND MATT — PLAY GUITARS ON “ROCKS,” AND THE TRACK IS LIVE EXCEPT FOR THE PERCUSSION AND HARP OVERDUBS. HARMONY & RESPONSE VOCALS ON “COLD AT NIGHT” ARE BY LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA, WHO SANG AS CHARLEY IN THE 2012 “MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG” CONCERT. I WILL NEVER GET OVER HAVING A GUY WHO HAS SUNG SONDHEIM ONSTAGE ON MY ALBUM: THANKS, BUD. THE REST OF YOU: ENJOY!
Joyce Manor – ‘Well, Whatever It Was’
“‘Well, Whatever It Was’ has got to be one of the most Southern California sounding songs ever recorded,” Barry Johnson said about the lead single of Joyce Manor’s just-announced album I Used To Go To This Bar. “I hear Jane’s Addiction in the verses, Beach Boys / Weezer in the chorus, and RHCP in the outro. It was LITERALLY produced by the guy from Bad Religion FFS. Everyone was just firing on all cylinders for this one. Joey Warnoker’s drumming, TLA’s mix, and Lenny Castro’s percussion all just sent it to the end-zone. This song would go insanely hard in a Shrek film.” It’s as fun as it sounds, especially when paired with the Lance Bangs-directed video parodying The Great British Bake Off.
Austra – ‘Siren Song’
Austra, the project of Canadian vocalist and composer Katie Stelmanis, has shared a stirring, kinetic new single, ‘Siren Song’, from the forthcoming album Chin Up Buttercup. “‘Siren Song’ exists somewhere at the intersection of ABBA, Ray of Light, The X-Files and Greek mythology,” Stelmanis said of the track, which was co-written with Montreal songwriter, musician and DJ Patrick Holland. “ABBA inspired the early songwriting with Patrick. The Siren introduced herself to me while I was improvising the demo recordings and I quickly realized that Orpheus would be our common nemesis. Following a recent X-Files binge, I was heavily inspired by Mulder’s desperate search for his sister. Ray of Light came in at the end as my co-producer Kieran Adams and I were establishing the sonic realm which would become the backdrop for our Siren to lament the loss of her lover to Orpheus and his pesky Lyre.”
Jay Som – Past Lives [feat. Hayley Williams]
Ahead of the release of her new album Belong on Friday, Jay Som has shared its most high-profile collab, ‘Past Lives’ featuring Paramore’s Hayley Williams. “It’s a dream come true to have Hayley sing on my first feature on an album before the recording of ‘Float’, I still can’t believe it happened,” Melina Duterte commented. “She’s one of the kindest artists out there, and she graciously accepts and uplifts the people around her. We’re all so lucky to witness her talent and live on the same timeline as her.”
Stella Donnelly – ‘Year of Trouble’
‘Feel It Change’, the last single of from Stella Donnelly’s forthcoming album Love and Fortune, was one of the best songs of September. Today the Australian singer-songwriter has followed it up with a bracingly intimate piano ballad, ‘Year of Trouble’. “This one is all heart no ego, all pain no gain,” Donnelly said. “I originally tried to make this a dance-floor heartbreak but I was being too ambitious and overthinking it. Julia [Wallace] helped me figure out that I just needed to play it by myself.”
h. pruz – ‘Krista’
h. pruz has unveiled ‘Krista’, a driving, ghostly single from their upcoming LP Red sky at morning. “I orient the arc of this album as a long journey for a wandering lost traveler, encountering both inner and external turmoil along the way,” Hannah Pruzinsky explained. “When I approached my friend Jono to work on a cover design for this collection of music, we unpacked layers of lore, a world of systems that both the narrator in the songs and the listener is interacting amongst.”
Beverly Glenn-Copeland – ‘Children’s Anthem’ and ‘Let Us Dance (Movement One)’
Beverly Glenn-Copeland has announced a new album, Laughter in Summer, a collaborative LP born from the love story between himself and eco-poet, theatre actor, and producer Elizabeth Copeland. It’s out February 6, and two songs from it, ‘Children’s Anthem’ and ‘Let Us Dance (Movement One)’. “‘Let Us Dance’ holds deep personal meaning for us as a couple, and it’s one of our most favorite songs to perform together,” the pair said in a statement. “It’s a gentle reminder that life invites us to embody joy through movement, no matter the circumstances, no matter how difficult the path. Originally published on Keyboard Fantasies, this choral rework features a newly minted Montreal choir that we met mere moments before recording Movement One. It’s raw and honest–much the way we live our lives now.”
“‘Children’s Anthem’ was one of our very first creative collaborations as a couple, originally written in 2007 for an anti-bullying conference,” they added. “We’re bringing it back on this new album with a fresh arrangement dedicated to our precious granddaughter Freya. We hope it will serve as a rally cry to support and protect all the children of the world. At a time when violence has become endemic, this song and its message is more critical than ever.”
Preoccupations – ‘MUR’ and ‘PONR’
Preoccupations have dropped two outtakes from their latest album, Ill At Ease. ‘MUR’ is mangled and fiery, while ‘PONR’ is haunting and dystopian. “With ‘MUR’, I was trying to translate the feeling of overwhelming, aggressive, helplessness and unwillingness to talk about things that scare you, into the form of sound,” bandleader Matt Flegel shared. “It builds up and hits the point of almost rapture, and then explodes into a rant and rage, and unburdening of all the things you were exasperated about.” ‘PONR’, Flegel added, is “set in a far future, where the feeling of nostalgia died a long time ago. It’s about finding a trove of relics that you think of as new and incredible, but they’ve existed in far superior forms in the past. You don’t know any better, but it makes you feel good, so you don’t question it. Time moves on a you eventually grow tired of it all and burn it, and try to find or create better versions of the things. It’s basically about the inevitability of disappointment, and the inherent human need to tear things down, make a blank slate, and create something new.”
Hilary Woods – ‘Taper’
Hilary Woods’ new single ‘Taper’, which lifted from the Irish musician’s upcoming album Night CRIÚ, is chilly and hypnagogic, the perfect song to wrap up your day. “‘Taper’ is a song that honours a presence to one that is absent,” Woods shared. “A love song that only a children’s choir could express fully, it was a real joy to work with the Hangleton Brass Band on this one.””