Atwood Journal is happy to share our Editor’s Picks column, written and curated by Editor-in-Chief Mitch Mosk. Each week, Mitch will share a set of songs, albums, and artists who’ve caught his ears, eyes, and coronary heart. There may be a lot unbelievable music on the market simply ready to be heard, and all it takes from us is an open thoughts and a willingness to hear. By our Editor’s Picks, we hope to shine a light-weight on our personal music discoveries and showcase a various array of recent and up to date releases.
This week’s Editor’s Picks options Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Principle, JayWood, Trip Manor, Mumford & Sons, Dreamer Isioma, and Blind Pilot!
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Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Principle
by Sharon Van Etten
Sharon Van Etten describes Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Principle as “a gathering of the minds and a sonic belief fall.” Talking to a captive viewers this previous Monday evening at Woodstock’s Bearsville Theater, she defined how, for the primary time in her profession, she and her bandmates wrote and recorded every part collectively till they’d a full album’s value of fabric – and the way this collaborative spirit resulted in a artistic freedom she’d by no means felt earlier than.
You may inform when a document is an “artist” album versus a “band” album – and Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Principle is unmistakably a band album via and thru. The mixed abilities of Van Etten, Jorge Balbi (drums, machines), Devra Hoff (bass, vocals), and Teeny Lieberson (synth, piano, guitar, vocals) are on full show from when the spellbinding “Stay Endlessly” takes flight, to the ultimate moments of “I Need You Right here.”
The songs are daring, brash, experimental, and exhilarating – simply Van Etten’s most numerous murals in her 15-plus 12 months profession – and but, there’s a cohesion to the expertise that makes Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Principle as memorable as it’s mesmerizing. Catchy pop-structured songs like “Bother” and “Afterlife” – two of the document’s singles – put Van Etten’s cathartic, contemplative songwriting on full show, whereas tracks like “Indio” (which employed different scales) and “I Can’t Think about (Why You Really feel This Manner)” seize the band’s creative spirit and originality – a aptitude that units them aside, not simply from previous Van Etten works, however from most modern rock artists.
As if the album expertise weren’t sufficient, the band’s stay present is one other beast totally. On stage, the four-piece ship a soul-stirring, shiver-inducing efficiency that defies definition. Bits of indie rock, new wave, math rock, storage, post-punk, psychedelic, and extra shine via the haze as, with Van Etten’s breathtaking vocals on the helm, the group ship a dizzying, dynamic rock present that faucets into the core of human expertise. It’s a rush, a reckoning, and a uncooked reflection of the place we’re at in 2025.
“BIG TINGS”
by JayWood ft. Tune-Yards
A soulful ray of sonic sunshine, “BIG TINGS” is an anthem for all of the dreamers and believers on the market to maintain combating the great combat and gathering that wool. JayWood’s first single of the 12 months sees him collaborating with Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner of art-pop duo Tune-Yards on a tune that blurs (and breaks) musical boundaries, all whereas capturing the magic of hope and the human spirit. “Operating outta steam for a residing, no givin in. Chew again, you may see me like this, or like that.” JayWood sings on the high, his voice calm, head within the recreation as within the background we hear, “Huge tings coming, coming, coming our approach.”
They usually certain are.
Ridin on a dream for a life-style
Deterring my deathstyle
Deterring my deathstyle
You may see me like this? Or like dat
You may see me like this? Or like dat
So whenever you’re feeling excessive
Throw dem palms as much as the sky
I obtained huge tings
coming down the pipe so what
So what. It’s arduous
“I truthfully don’t even know once I turned such an optimistic individual!” JayWood tells Atwood Journal. “More often than not I really feel like I’m moody or miserable, however then I see what I select to write down about, and I suppose that adjustments my view a bit. I feel the tune to me actually is nearly trusting the method and leaning into the unknown trigger you by no means know what you’ll get from that have. I wanna consider that as a lot as life or a state of affairs could be arduous or tasking, it solely signifies that higher issues are to return your approach. So I hope that any listener can take a little bit of hope from the monitor and discover a approach to create their very own reference to optimism and destiny.”
Hope is a tough factor to return by, particularly in a world that appears to have the benefit of beating us again and hitting us once we’re down. JayWood has at all times been a charismatic character – particularly in his artwork – and in “BIG TINGS,” it’s a seductive pressure of hope that shines a light-weight on him and all listeners, illuminating the trail ahead.
It’s an all too good approach to kick off 2025 – beginning the 12 months off by diving headfirst into the long run’s highly effective potential.
“There’s lots occurring on this planet proper now,” Jaywood reflets. “It’s not arduous to see that. I feel individuals attempt to discover an escape from this present actuality inside artwork and connections with different individuals so by placing this monitor out in the beginning of the 12 months I hope to make a bridge inside that have.”
“My hope this 12 months for my music is to create a group and fanbase that cares to dive deeper into the artwork I make in addition to simply taking a little bit of a step again from every part occurring round them and simply having a protected chill house to go for a bit. In hopes to make the realities of life a bit simpler even only for a second – [laughs] – there I am going once more with this random ass optimism.”
A sun-soaked, smile-inducing revelry, “BIG TINGS” is a giant, daring, and exquisite dose of sonic inspiration – and a mainstay of my weight loss plan for months to return.
“January (Over & Over)”
by Trip Manor
Without a doubt, January obtained the quick finish of the ‘month stick.’ It’s chilly, it’s darkish, and it has to observe the “most great time of the 12 months.” There’s no getting back from that – and to that finish, I really feel I’ve discovered a kindred spirit in Trip Manor’s “January (Over & Over).” The emotionally charged lead single off the Virginia duo’s upcoming Again to City EP (out Might 15, 2025 by way of Nettwerk) aches with the desolation, the isolation, and the sheer bleakness of my least favourite month – and it does so with a strikingly seductive different warmth.
January discovered you in your mattress
Wishing you have been some other place as a substitute
After they all made resolutions
It began messing together with your head
Now January’s obtained you standing on the sting
Standing on the sting
Considering you struck out
Wishing you may come down
Just like the lights went out
Again and again, over and over
Time and again
Because the band explains, this tune got here from emotions of top-of-year exhaustion and vacancy. “I keep in mind I undoubtedly felt a way of being overwhelmed, questioning the place some contemporary inspiration was going to return from,” Nathan Towles, who performs in Trip Manor along with Cole Younger, tells Atwood Journal. “I simply wanted to write down a tune about that and get it off of my chest. It offers with emotions of insecurity or comparability when beginning a brand new document.”
Dwelling within the second’s not so unhealthy
However now it’s gone and it was all you had
You slept proper via the Winter
And forgot concerning the Fall
Now residing via the second’s
Obtained you residing on the еdge
You’re residing on the еdge
Considering you struck out
Wishing you may come down
Just like the lights went out
Again and again, over and over
Time and again
A golden-hued pop-rock reverie, “January (Over & Over)” is a bona fide come-up from the comedown: A dreamy, dramatic outpouring of catchy and cathartic sound right here to remind us that we’re not alone in our distress: Everybody hates January. It’s the way it’s at all times been, and it’s the way it will at all times be. Perhaps it has to do with the December’s unfiltered vacation excessive: That dopamine rush that comes with closing out the 12 months with numerous festivities. You rejoice and ring all of it in, solely to seek out you need to do it over again. “January (Over & Over)” is a welcome balm – a heat and wondrous reverie, right here to supply a little bit gentle within the darkness.
There’s nobody standing up in your approach
However it’s really easy in charge
It’s irrespective of of time
And it’s no use ready ’til every part feels proper
Considering you struck out
Wishing you may come down
Just like the lights went out
Again and again, over and over
Again and again, and time and again
Time and again
“Rushmere”
by Mumford & Sons
Britain’s unique “stomp and holler” band is again and sounding higher than ever: With the discharge of “Rushmere” in mid-January, Mumford & Sons not solely delivered their first tune in a 12 months’s time (since Jan. ‘24’s “Good Individuals” with Pharrell), however additionally they introduced their first studio album of the 2020s: RUSHMERE, the long-awaited ‘follow-up’ to 2018’s Delta, will come out on March 28th by way of Glassnote.
Don’t you miss the breathlessness
The wildness within the eye?
Come dwelling late within the morning gentle
Bloodshot goals below streetlight spells
A fact nobody can inform
And I used to be nonetheless a secret to myself
A folk-rock fever dream that feels a contemporary because it does timeless, “Rushmere” is a surprising homage to the band’s roots – each musically and metaphorically. It was round Rushmere Pond, on Wimbledon Frequent in southwest London, that Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwane determined to kind a band.
And what higher approach to honor your origin story, than by returning to the sounds that first impressed you? Informal listeners could be forgiven for mistaking “Rushmere” as some long-lost monitor off Sigh No Extra, the band’s multi-platinum debut. There’s an prompt kinship between the brand new tune and now-‘traditional’ hits like “Little Lion Man,” “The Cave,” and “I Will Wait.” Sixteen years on, the acoustic guitars are nonetheless jangling, the banjos are nonetheless twanging, and Marcus Mumford’s rustic voice nonetheless aches with an undeniably uncooked ardour, angst, and craving.
The band discover each a musical and an emotional launch within the refrain – a dramatic, cathartic climax that’s as nostalgic and wistful as it’s grounded within the second. Mumford & Sons transport as again to the start, reminiscing fondly whereas harnessing that very same power that drove them onward of their earliest days. It’s upbeat, intimate, exhilarating, and superbly human:
Gentle me up, I’m wasted in the dead of night
Rushmere, stressed hearts in the long run
Get my head out of the bottom
Time don’t allow us to down once more
That is people rock at its most interesting; a nod to Mumford & Sons’ previous, embedded with their DNA, that nonetheless feels just like the thrilling begin to a model new chapter – which it most definitely is. All informed, “Rushmere” is the right reintroduction to Mumford & Sons – a reminder of why the world first fell in love with them almost 20 years in the past, and a testomony to their enduring potential to seize our ears and our hearts.
Take me again to empty lawns
And nowhere elsе to go
You say, “Come get misplaced in a fairground crowd”
Wherе nobody is aware of your identify
There’s solely sincere errors
There’s no worth to a wasted hour
Effectively, gentle me up, I’m wasted in the dead of night
Rushmere, stressed hearts in the long run
And get my head out of the bottom
Time don’t allow us to down once more
“Did You Ever Care”
by Dreamer Isioma
It’s the sheer warmth of “Did You Ever Care” that hits first: Dreamer Isioma’s first tune of the 12 months, launched January 31st in tandem with the explosive upheaval “Useless Finish,” is sizzling, heavy, uncooked, and raging: A smoldering seduction that aches inside and outside. The primary take a look at Isioma’s new album StarX Lover (pronounced ‘star-crossed lover,’ out this Spring) finds the singer/songwriter embracing a more durable edge, mixing different and rock components into their genre-fluid music for a brand new sound they affectionately name “Afropop rock.”
She has the kind of appears to be like that kill
The kind of appears to be like that
begin a battle for generations
I’ve been ready patiently
For the kiss of demise
I’m such a wreck
Please take my breath away
I simply need you subsequent to me
I simply wanna f* then fall asleep
I simply wanna f* then fall asleep
with you in my arms, oh honey
The result’s nothing in need of breathtaking, as “Did You Ever Care” welcomes listeners into its daring, lush, and cinematic soundscape. All-consuming synths soar, guitars glisten, and drums pulse a sweaty beat – and on the middle of all of it lies a human reckoning with a deeply acquainted, haunting ache. Dreamer Isioma’s vocal efficiency is as sonically intense as it’s emotionally charged as they channel their unrequited love into this sonic fever dream, evoking the eagerness, the starvation, and the unrelenting angst they really feel inside.
I’m not your sort and I
What are you into
After I’m excessive on a regular basis
And I don’t know what’s actual life is
My psychiatric care is go nowhere
so that they received’t stare at me
I want you have been subsequent to me
I simply wanna f* then fall asleep
I simply wanna f* then fall asleep
with you in my arms oh honey
As unapologetic as it’s unfiltered, “Did You Ever Care” captures a damaged coronary heart and soul’s reeling. It’s the product of emotional churn, which makes it an all-too good accompaniment to February 2025’s blues. Because the world burns and we really feel helpless to cease it, we deserve music that matches the second – and Dreamer Isioma has delivered in spades.
Begin a combat begin a riot I don’t care
I’m past numb past egocentric
I’m self-aware
F* it
Did you ever care about me
As a result of I like you
Did you ever care about me
As a result of I like you
Did you ever care about me
As a result of I like you
In The Shadow of the Holy Mountain
by Blind Pilot
Hear me out: We Are the Tide stays my all-time favourite, however Within the Shadow of the Holy Mountain is, for sure, dwelling to a few of their finest music – and simply essentially the most cohesive, cathartic, and well-rounded document of Blind Pilot’s 18-year profession.
The indie people band’s fourth studio album, launched final 12 months (and featured on Atwood Journal‘s “Finest Albums of 2024” characteristic), was made with a collaborative spirit in thoughts, and finds the Oregon group dwelling within the depths of human connection, empathy, ancestry, and understanding, whereas embracing the wealthy harmonies and heat acoustic devices which have lengthy been their trademark.
All that it bleeds, all that it takes
Counting off what number of years,
what number of days
Faces of sunshine wait so that you can see
You’re not alone. You’re simply lonely
From the candy revelry of album opener “Jacaranda” and the radiant ardour of immigrant anthem “Courageous” – a fascinating tune breaking down borders and constructs of ‘dwelling’ – to the dreamy heat of “Don’t You Know,” the attraction and churn of “Only a Chicken,” the highly effective perspective shift (being alone vs. lonely) of “Faces of Gentle,” and the tender, visceral craving and catharsis of album nearer “Consider Me,” Blind Pilot imbue their newest album with each a musical and a non secular gentle.
That gentle shined particularly vivid this previous Saturday, because the band returned to Woodstock after taking part in a stripped-down set there simply 13 months in the past – proper earlier than they recorded the album in Josh Kaufman’s studio. Whereas they introduced a plethora of songs from all 4 albums to life onstage, it was the cuts from their newest effort that hit hardest and resonated the deepest. Within the Shadow of the Holy Mountain actually is Blind Pilot’s most lovely, colourful, cathartic, and compelling album thus far – and I simply hope extra individuals get to listen to, and really feel, this document’s golden-hued musical magic. “Faces of Gentle” and “Fortunate” are private favorites, however in all sincerity, begin on the high with “Jacaranda” and let the entire thing wash over you.
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