Welcome to our weekly music post, where we spotlight our favorite new songs and albums. Hop in the comments and tell us: What new music are you listening to?
The Swell Season had a brief but impactful moment in the spotlight in the mid-2000s before the sudden fame and pressure that comes with winning an Academy Award (for Best Original Song from the film Once) drove the band’s two members, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, to concentrate on their solo careers instead. But after reuniting for a series of concerts in 2022 and 2023, it was clear that Hansard and Irglová hadn’t lost their collaborative spark. Now, they’re back with a new single, “Stuck In Reverse.” The Swell Season also announced that their third album, Forward, will drop on June 13. In a press release, Hansard said of the new song, “In any situation of letting go, moving on is clearly the right and natural thing to do. This song speaks to that part of us that can’t quite get there. The moment just before complete acceptance.”
Australian punk rockers Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers are just about to open for Pearl Jam on a run of arena dates in the U.S., so the timing is perfect for a new single. “BALCONY” is pure raucous fun; as the band explains in a press release, “BALCONY IS FOR WHEN YOU’RE FEELING CHEEKY AND WANT TO KISS SOMEONE ON THE FACE AND GET KICKED OUT OF A BAR!!! CHAOS!!!!!” No word yet on a follow-up to I Love You, their 2023 debut full-length album, but something tells us it’s probably not far off.
Foxwarren, “Yvonne”
As a solo artist, Andy Shauf is known for his storytelling abilities, and it’s a skill he brings to his work with the band Foxwarren, too. Following their debut album in 2018, the band planned to release a follow-up relatively quickly, but they eventually scrapped that idea and took a slower, more collaborative approach to songwriting instead. That means their upcoming sophomore album, 2, has been seven years in the making, but if their new single is any indication, it was time well spent. “Yvonne” is an understated kind of gorgeous, a tarnished piece of jewelry glinting in the sun. “Yvonne, the woman scanning the beach each morning for buried treasure, deserves a love song too,” the band says in a press release.
Deerhoof, Noble And Godlike In Ruin
New music from Deerhoof is always a good thing, but it’s especially welcome in a time of massive political upheaval and uncertainty. If any band can guide us through this madness, it’s Deerhoof, with their noise-pop operas and uncompromising politics (they premiered “Immigrant Songs” on Craigslist to “spotlight a tech platform that isn’t blatantly supporting fascism”). Noble And Godlike In Ruin meets the wild, dangerous air of the current moment with a ferocious response, capturing what it feels like to be alive right now better than any other album so far this year.
Beach Bunny, Tunnel Vision
“I don’t trust my own opinions / And my intuition’s terrible at telling left from right / I never see the signs,” Lili Trifilio sings on the title track of Beach Bunny’s third album, Tunnel Vision. Despite the self-doubt and anxiety she sings about at various points on Tunnel Vision, Trifilio is remarkably skilled at putting together anthemic pop-rock tracks with massive, hooky choruses. Case in point: “Big Pink Bubble” might be one of the band’s catchiest tunes to date, and the whole album is a joy to listen to.
Sunflower Bean, Mortal Primetime
Mortal Primetime is Sunflower Bean’s first entirely self-produced album, and it distills their sometimes detrimentally competitive psychedelic and heavy metal influences into something more cohesive than we’ve ever heard from them. Mortal Primetime favors the band’s heavier tendencies more than their past two albums, but there are still moments of reprieve, like on the comparatively gentle “There’s A Part I Can’t Get Back.” After a few albums of experimenting with new musical styles, Mortal Primetime feels like Sunflower Bean honing in on their core sound and coming close to perfecting it.
