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 unimaginable music on the market simply ready to be heard, and all it takes from us is an open thoughts and a willingness to hear. Via our Editor’s Picks, we hope to shine a light-weight on our personal music discoveries and showcase a various array of latest and up to date releases.
This week’s Editor’s Picks options Chappell Roan, Jo Hill, Pleasure Oladokun, Trousdale, MARIS ft. Caroline Kingsbury, and The Ophelias!
observe EDITOR’S PICKS on Spotify
“The Giver”
by Chappell Roan
“I get the job performed,” Chappell Roan croons – and on her newest single she does precisely that, with a wink, a strut, and a complete lot of sultry, seductive warmth. Lastly launched March 13th after months of anticipation following her SNL efficiency final November, “The Giver” is a boot-stompin’, lip-biting, innuendo-laced romp – a rhinestone-studded embrace of that country-pop music made well-known by titans like Shania Twain and Carrie Underwood, stuffed with winks, swagger, and candy sexual liberation. It’s playful, it’s provocative, it’s camp, and it’s proof that Chappell Roan can personal any style she touches – not by parodying it, however by absolutely embodying it.
Ain’t received antlers on my partitions
However I positive know mating calls
From the stalls within the bars
on a Friday night time
And different boys might have a map
However I can shut my eyes
And have you ever wrapped
round my fingers like that
Pop’s not too long ago anointed Midwest Princess – and 2025’s Grammy Award winner for Finest New Artist – leans right into a rowdy, fiddle-fueled sound that feels completely pure and genuine to her artistry and id, like she’s been sporting cowboy boots all alongside. Together with her signature unapologetic boldness and charismatic aptitude for storytelling, she makes twang really feel timeless and queerness really feel basic, delivering a observe that’s as easy as it’s electrifying.
“I feel I’ve a particular relationship to the place I’m from due to nation music,” Roan, who hails from the small city of Willard, Missouri (inhabitants 6,500), not too long ago advised Apple Music Nation’s Kelleigh Bannen. “And [I] honor that a part of myself by making a rustic music… Sure, I’m homosexual, and sure, I’m extremely pop. Sure, I’m a drag queen who may also carry out a rustic music.’”
“The Giver” is campy, frisky, and enjoyable, opening with a swell of hovering fiddle, crunchy electrical guitar, and driving drums that immediately set the tone.
Roan wastes no time diving into her cheeky, confident world, buying and selling conventional nation imagery for one thing way more thrilling and mischievous. “Ain’t received antlers on my partitions, however I positive know mating calls,” she teases, turning honky-tonk bravado on its head with a smirk and a realizing grin. Her supply is suave and easy, leaning into the music’s flirtatious vitality because the rhythm picks up steam. By the point she hits the pre-chorus – “So, child, whenever you want the job performed, you’ll be able to name me, child” – it’s clear she’s in full command, balancing humor, confidence, and pure, unfiltered want.
The refrain of “The Giver” explodes with unshakable bravado, a foot-stomping, full-throttle declaration of prowess and fervour. Roan belts with fearless willpower, driving the raucous country-pop instrumentation as she flips the script on conventional roles. “So take it like a taker, ‘trigger child, I’m a giver,” she sings, her voice dripping with appeal and innuendo. The pounding drums and electrified strum of the guitars solely amplify the music’s playful tone and fiery angle, every lyric touchdown like a dare. And when she hammers dwelling the hook – “I get the job performed” – it’s much less a promise and extra a assure, cementing “The Giver” as an irresistible, invigorating anthem of company, thrill, and plain attract.
So, child
While you want the job performed
You’ll be able to name me, child
‘Trigger you ain’t received to inform me
It’s simply in my nature
So take it like a taker
‘Trigger, child, I’m a giver
Ain’t no have to hurry
‘Trigger, child, I ship
Ain’t no nation boy quitter
I get the job performed
I get the job performed
The broader world might have been ‘launched’ to Chappell Roan by means of glossy pop masterpieces like “Femininomenon,” “HOT TO GO!” and “Pink Pony Membership” (or my private favourite, “My Kink Is Karma”), however “The Giver” is as true to her roots as any of these songs. Name it ‘nation (Chappell’s Model)’ – this music runs by means of her veins.
“I’ve such a particular place in my coronary heart for nation music. I grew up listening to it each morning and afternoon on my faculty bus and had it swirling round me at bon fires, grocery shops, and karaoke bars,” she tells Atwood Journal. “Many individuals have requested if this implies I’m making a rustic album? My reply is.., Proper now, I’m simply making songs that make me really feel blissful and enjoyable, and ‘The Giver’ is my tackle cuntry xoxo – might the basic nation divas lead their style, I’m simply right here to twirl and do some homosexual yodel for y’all.”
Lady, I don’t want no lifted truck
Revvin’ loud to select you up
‘Trigger how I look is how I contact
And on this strip-mall city of goals
Good luck discovering a person who has the means
To rhinestone cowgirl all night time lengthy
Solely Chappell Roan might make country-pop sound this attractive, this subversive, and this a lot enjoyable. With “The Giver,” she proves as soon as and for all that when put to the duty, she will get the job performed.
What does this imply for all us? It’s going to be one more Chappell Roan summer season – this time, with a swanky, scorching nation flare.
So, child
Should you by no means had one
Name me, child, yeah
‘Trigger you ain’t gotta inform me
It’s simply in my nature
So take it like a taker
‘Trigger, child, I’m a giver
Ain’t no have to hurry
‘Trigger, child, I ship
Ain’t no nation boy quitter
I get the job performed
I get the job performed
“You received this, babe.” Together with her newest single, British singer/songwriter Jo Hill shouts from the mountaintops, delivering a spirited message of affection, reassurance, and unwavering belief. Launched March 7th, “ZOOM OUT” is a triumphant, charismatic, comforting, and deeply affirming anthem of self-empowerment and perspective. Written throughout a interval of private hardship – together with heartbreak and the fallout of being dropped by a label – the music is Hill’s love letter to herself “and each different dangerous bitch out there that doesn’t know their potential and lets the smaller annoyances of life get in the way in which of the larger image.” Via a dynamic rollercoaster of speed-ups and slow-downs, uncooked reflections and accentuated gang choruses that turn into immediately irresistible singalongs, Hill reminds herself and anybody listening to “communicate to your self such as you would communicate to your finest pal.” Infused with hometown recollections and a shifting vitality that mirrors life’s highs and lows, “ZOOM OUT” encourages all of us to interrupt free from self-doubt, embrace optimism, and – above all – “zoom the f* out” when life feels overwhelming.
While you’re face down
nonetheless feeling sorry
with my hand wrapped ‘spherical
an empty bacardi
screaming what now?
however I’m what I’m
however i don’t wanna be this fashion
Be this fashion
And whenever you’re strung out
ugly crying over
hella dumb fool guys
Child zoom out,
it’s against the law to be crying
over factor that you just
simply can’t change.
You bought this babe.
Sonically, the observe blends playful, tempo-shifting momentum with a country-inspired aptitude that Hill attributes to a current journey to Nashville. “My inside pow lady was in a position to come out on this music,” she smiles, emphasizing the natural, free-spirited nature of the recording course of. The observe’s heartbeat lies in its chorus: “You bought this, babe,” a phrase that encapsulates the theme of resilience and camaraderie central to Hill’s not too long ago launched debut album, girlhood. As Hill places it, “I hope listeners really feel empowered and like something is feasible. I hope it flips folks’s views after they’re feeling low, makes them need to exit and have a pint with their buddies.”
“Typically it’s about zooming out, wanting on the larger image, taking a deep breath and shouting, ‘U GOT THIS BABE.’”
Candid, uncompromising, and emotionally charged, “ZOOM OUT” is rooted in Hill’s upbringing and the tough-love knowledge handed down from her mom. “Rising up, no matter occurred – if a boy cheated on me and even older, after I’ve confronted tough intervals like getting Lyme illness – she’s like, zoom out, get up, larger image,” Hill remembers. This philosophy turned the spine of the observe, a vibrant name to shift perspective and discover pleasure even in tough moments. With lyrics that traverse each childhood struggles and grownup anxieties, “ZOOM OUT” serves as a mirror to Hill’s previous and current selves, providing a common reminder to let go of the little issues and embrace life’s larger image.
Johnny’s received a automotive
he’s an actual boy racer
hurrying to 3rd base
and also you’re saying you’re nice about it
however you lied about it
Strolling ‘spherical faculty
together with your status,
he’s received his fingers
on one other lady’s waist,
you’re crying about it
losing your time about it
You’re by no means gonna want no man
and nobody’s gonna maintain you’re hand
‘Trigger honey you’re an actual dangerous bitch
and you bought larger plans
You gotta give all of it you bought
however by no means give it an excessive amount of thought
‘Trigger rattling you’re in an actual deep ditch
however I’m gonna pull you out
The manufacturing, just like the music’s message, is refreshingly unfiltered and uncooked. Recorded within the second with collaborators Martin and Havelock, the observe was constructed on a basis of enjoyable and spontaneity. “All of the vocals on this are from one vocal take – we had been simply having a lot enjoyable on the day we simply put it in, no drums or something, simply over a guitar,” Hill explains. That easy vitality interprets into an electrifying listening expertise, the place the music’s shifting tempos and genre-blending parts create an intoxicating sense of motion.
“I’d all the time wished to jot down a music that slows down and quickens,” Hill says. “I feel I used to be simply Lime biking and singing into my cellphone on a journey dwelling, received the melody and simply wished to make a music that was going to be actually enjoyable to play reside – and turns out, the easiest way of doing that’s altering tempo!”
While you’re face down
nonetheless feeling sorry
with my hand wrapped ‘spherical
an empty Bacardi
screaming what now
however I’m what I’m
however I don’t wanna be this fashion
Be this fashion
And whenever you’re strung out
closely crying over
hella dumb fool guys
Child zoom out,
it’s against the law to be crying
over issues that
you simply can’t change.
You bought this babe.
“ZOOM OUT” arrives alongside information of a particular version of Hill’s critically acclaimed debut album, which Atwood Journal beforehand hailed as “a seductive, spirited indie pop file of uncooked ardour, inside magnificence, and human connection [that] concurrently aches and evokes, capturing Jo Hill’s coming-of-age by means of a set of daring, stunning melodies and unapologetically sincere, witty, and heat lyrics.” Fittingly titled girlhood. (u received this babe), the brand new file options eight further tracks that hold with the theme, whereas highlighting Hill’s extra playful aspect.
To that finish, her newest single is an ideal reintroduction – a energetic and frisky, but poignant all the identical, “ZOOM OUT” is a reminder to loosen our grip on life, soak within the current, and always remember to benefit from the trip. In reality, Jo Hill has crafted extra than simply an infectious, genre-blurring anthem, however a rallying cry for resilience, self-compassion, and discovering pleasure within the chaos. It’s a music that captures the emotional whiplash of life, mixing nostalgia with ahead movement, battle with celebration.
Hill’s signature mixture of uncooked honesty and playful defiance makes “ZOOM OUT” really feel like a dialog with an in depth pal – one who reminds you to take a breath, shift your perspective, and keep in mind that you’ve received this. In a world that always feels overwhelming, Hill’s message is evident: Life isn’t meant to be spent sweating the small stuff, so zoom out and benefit from the trip.
“All My Time”
by Pleasure Oladokun
My first main job within the music trade was in content material safety and anti-piracy, the place my division head constantly reminded us that essentially the most beneficial useful resource on the planet wasn’t cash, however time. Our time is proscribed; we solely get 24 hours in a day, and whereas he was primarily centered on funneling listeners towards income streams, his phrases turned a mantra and a information for a way I reside my life at this time.
Listening to Pleasure Oladokun’s newest single, I get the sense that she shares my values on this area: Our time is so beneficial, and so restricted, that we should cherish it and spend it as properly as attainable – prioritizing our family members over trivia, and ensuring we’re the place we need to be, as usually as we will be there – each bodily and emotionally. Launched March tenth, “All My Time” is an element love letter, half confession, and half level-setting: A heat, easy-flowing declaration from the deepest depths of Oladokun’s coronary heart and soul.
Each hour of the day
I ponder what you’re doing thus far
Even after we’re miles away
my watch is ready to wherever you might be
Oh my thoughts’s all the time on you
You’ll be able to have all my time too
“Being on tour for the previous few years has taught me loads about time zones,” the Nashville-based singer/songwriter shares. “I’m consistently calculating what number of hours I’m away from the folks I like. I wrote ‘All My Time’ throughout some downtime at a competition in Mexico whereas checking to see the place I used to be and who I might name. All of it was recorded within the again lounge of the bus the place I’m at the moment racing throughout America so I can get again to the place I name dwelling.”
Oladokun’s phrases add a hanging layer of intimacy to “All My Time” – a music that isn’t nearly love, however about presence, longing, and the deep-rooted want to remain related regardless of life’s inevitable distances. Her mild, flowing melody mirrors the music’s sentiment, wrapping listeners in a heat that feels each nostalgic and pressing: A reminder that point is fleeting, and the folks we maintain closest are price each second we may give them.
In a world that consistently calls for our consideration, “All My Time” seems like an antidote to distraction – an invite to be intentional with the hours we’ve got. Whether or not it’s a fleeting cellphone name, a stolen second of stillness, or a journey dwelling, Oladokun reminds us that love isn’t nearly phrases or gestures; it’s about displaying up, time and again, in no matter manner we will. As a result of on the finish of the day, time could also be our most precious useful resource, however how we select to spend it’s what actually defines us.
“Rising Pains”
by Trousdale
Trousdale kicked off 2025 on an particularly energetic word this January, returning to the ‘highlight’ simply six months after their debut album’s deluxe launch with the primary tease of their sophomore album. Candy, sassy, charming, and churning, “Rising Pains” radiates that very same warmth and sun-soaked ardour we first fell in love with 5 years in the past. The Los Angeles-based trio of Quinn D’Andrea, Georgia Greene, and Lauren Jones deliver love and light-weight to every little thing they contact, and the lead single (and title observe) off their subsequent file isn’t any exception – radiating with an infectious ardour underscored by large, daring melodies and lyricism that’s directly empowering and sincere.
I really feel it in my knees
Catching as much as me every morning
I’m pleased with how far I’ve come
However there’s an extended, lengthy solution to go
So, I run the additional mile
And I do it with a smile, no drawback
I could not win the race, however
Regular and sluggish
“This music was about what we really feel on daily basis on this band, what we’re going by means of as a band,” Georgia Greene explains. “That is our shared expertise, being exhausted however discovering magnificence collectively.”
That duality – of ardour and exhaustion, of chasing goals whereas grappling with their weight – is what makes “Rising Pains” such a relatable and memorable anthem. The band captures the strain between ambition and burnout, balancing the fun of artistic achievement with the cruel realities of an trade that calls for fixed output and reinvention.
“The concept for this music took place fairly naturally by discussing one in every of our favourite topics: How exhausted we’re,” bandmate Lauren Jones provides. “It truly is so disorienting at occasions to have a profession that’s your ardour, but in addition your work. Your boundaries are consistently being pushed and pulled, and also you’re all the time prepared to put-in the additional time since you care a lot. Over time, this will actually begin to seem like burn out in case you’re not cautious. ‘Rising Pains’ is about dwelling the dream whereas acknowledging that the dream will be fairly exhausting generally.”
But, by means of all of it, Trousdale proceed to seek out pleasure within the journey. “Rising Pains” isn’t nearly battle – it’s about perseverance, camaraderie, and the love that retains them shifting ahead. With its anthemic vitality and heartfelt honesty, the music units the tone for what guarantees to be a deeply private and electrifying new chapter for the band. Troudale’s sophomore album Rising Pains is out April 11 through Unbiased Co.
“Give Me a Signal”
by MARIS (ft. Caroline Kingsbury)
“I’m not simply one of many ladies,” MARIS admits at first of her beautiful new single. “Can’t you see I’m interested by your lips?” There’s a rigidity that sits on the coronary heart of “Give Me a Signal” – a nervous, fluttering vitality that pulses beneath MARIS’ shimmering melodies and Caroline Kingsbury’s hovering vocals. It’s a music steeped in longing, worry, and the unstated weight of queer want – one which many listeners will discover painfully acquainted. And but, for all its aching uncertainty, “Give Me a Signal” is as a lot an anthem as it’s a confession: A cathartic, synth-drenched burst of hope wrapped in irresistible indie pop euphoria.
“Rising up and beginning to have romantic emotions in Missoula, Montana meant a number of issues,” MARIS tells Atwood Journal. “One in all them being, a slight nervousness round by accident making the primary transfer on a woman who is probably not into me, not to mention queer! As a result of not solely does that rejection sting – the potential social ridicule of being homosexual and making a straight lady really feel gross is terrifying.”
That worry lingers into maturity, shaping the emotional core of “Give Me a Signal”: “Now, as an grownup, I discover myself terrified to make the primary transfer, subconsciously begging my crushes to make the primary transfer – so I can know if it’s secure for me to specific my very own attraction. ‘Give Me a Signal’ is that plea for my crush to point out me they need me, so I can present them how badly I would like them. Is it Girlie Pops… or is it extra?”
That plea echoes all through the observe, carried by MARIS’ emotive vocal efficiency and Kingsbury’s powerhouse supply. “I noticed the icon that’s MARIS on Instagram and was blown away by her expertise,” Kingsbury remembers. “We arrange a writing session and actually from the second I walked within the door I felt her pleasure and spirit… We’re ‘80s rock vocals mamas. I’ve by no means felt so seen by one other artist! Our collaboration on ‘Give Me a Signal’ was only a matter of time… and the primary of many.”
What makes “Give Me a Signal” so compelling isn’t simply its lyrical vulnerability, however the way in which its sound mirrors the emotional push and pull of queer longing. The observe is coated in shiny, cinematic manufacturing, mixing glistening synths with uncooked, impassioned vocals that crackle with each anticipation and hesitation. MARIS and Kingsbury don’t simply sing about wanting an indication – they make you’re feeling that want in each breathless beat and hovering refrain.
For all its heartache, “Give Me a Signal” doesn’t wallow. As an alternative, it dances on the sting of chance, leaving house for connection, braveness, and possibly even love. It’s a music for anybody who’s ever hesitated earlier than sending a textual content, stolen glances throughout a crowded room, or waited only a second too lengthy earlier than leaning in. And at its core, it’s a reminder that, generally, the signal we’re ready for is already there – we simply need to belief ourselves sufficient to see it.
“Cumulonimbus”
by The Ophelias
The Ophelias’ “Cumulonimbus” seems like a music pulled straight from the deepest hours of the night time – when the world is asleep, the streets are empty, and your ideas echo louder than they need to. There’s a cost within the air, an eerie loneliness that adheres to each word, as if the music itself is a streetlamp flickering above an empty highway. The lead single off the band’s forthcoming album Spring Grove – notably the primary album Julien Baker has produced for an additional artist – “Cumulonimbus” is heavy with self-reflection, reminiscence, longing, and the ghosts of what’s been left behind.
Vocalist/guitarist Spencer Peppet wrote the music throughout multi-hour nighttime walks by means of her Ohio neighborhood on the top of 2020’s isolation. “Nobody was out, particularly not late at night time,” she remembers. “On these walks, I’d take heed to my designated stroll playlist (which nonetheless rips – Sluggish Pulp, HAIM, Yves Tumor, The Books, Blood Orange) and crisscross down the middle of the highway. That playlist nonetheless brings again the sense reminiscence.”
Not like I might have advised the long run
but it surely is smart
You say that within the years to come back
you want me all the very best
And I don’t doubt it for a second
that you recognize it’s merciless
You might be already prematurely gray
so you’ll be able to select the foundations
This intimate solitude seeps into the observe’s core, wrapping listeners in an electrically charged haze of reverb and melancholia. The refrain is cinematic in its storytelling – the recollections you locked into the trunk of the automotive are going to begin to bang on the again window, cursing at nothing – a visceral picture of nostalgia turned stressed, haunting the current with the burden of the previous.
I do know that you’re gonna miss me
greater than you say you
Will, the recollections you locked
into the trunk of the automotive are going to
Begin to bang on the again window,
cursing at nothing
Smashing the taillights and waving
hi there, saying “You higher pull over”
Produced with a fragile but expansive contact, “Cumulonimbus” is the type of music that lingers lengthy after it ends. It’s a spectral presence, whispering down empty streets, weaving between flickering neon, urgent in opposition to glass. The Ophelias have crafted a nocturnal anthem for the lonely and the misplaced – those that discover themselves awake after they shouldn’t be, chasing one thing they will’t fairly identify.
And within the glow of Spring Grove’s impending launch, “Cumulonimbus” stands as its first beacon, illuminating the highway forward with quiet, mesmerizing depth.
Not like I’m blissful,
being caught in right here
My palpitations final so lengthy
that I can overhear
The following selections being made
with out me within the room
This stuff are predetermined
and I’m doomed
I do know that you’re gonna miss me
greater than you say you
Will, the issues that
I didn’t say are all the time going to
Grasp above you
like a cumulonimbus
I’m in your heels,
I’m operating prefer it’s nothing
— — — —
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