Atwood Journal is worked up 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’s 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. By 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 Olivia Dean, Ken Yates, Flock of Dimes, Angelsaur, Little Canine Star, and Glom!
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“Good to Every Different”
by Olivia Dean
Tright here’s an ease to Olivia Dean’s “Good to Every Different” that I’ve discovered myself chasing all summer time lengthy. It’s mild and lilting, suave and smoldering – the type of tune that settles into your bones with out asking an excessive amount of from you. Dean’s voice is effortlessly radiant as she sings over pulsing bass and dreamy guitars, capturing the magic of being current with somebody – whether or not it’s a pal, a lover, or somebody someplace in between. Launched because the lead single off her upcoming album The Artwork of Loving (out September 26th by way of Island Information), “Good to Every Different” looks like a heat breeze by way of an open window: A delicate reminder to cease worrying a lot, and simply benefit from the second.
Right here we’re, again once more
Combating what’s in entrance of me
There’s a lot to unpack once more
But when I come to Italy
We might be good to one another
Good to one another
Mistaken for one another
Proper for one another
And rise to one another
Rise to one another
Mm-mm-mm
“‘Good To Every Different’ is a tune in regards to the push and pull of exploring your independence in courting,” Dean explains. “It’s about having fun with somebody within the current and permitting it to be each mild and significant. I believe this tune and video represents a playfulness in me that I’m excited for individuals to see.”
That sense of playful honesty pulses by way of each line of the monitor, particularly in its refrain: “‘Trigger you realize, I’ve accomplished all of the traditional stuff and it by no means works, you realize it. So can we are saying we’ll by no means say the traditional stuff? Simply present it now and comprehend it.” It’s a easy, radical rejection of stress, of expectations, of drained courting scripts – an invite to attempt one thing easier and extra trustworthy as a substitute.
And whereas her lyrics flirt with contradiction (“I’ll most likely crash your silly automobile and make your life a distress”), Dean by no means loses that undercurrent of heat. Even at her most chaotic, she’s not out to harm anybody – she simply desires one thing actual, no matter type that takes. And that’s what makes this tune so particular: It doesn’t demand readability or dedication. It merely asks for kindness, for heat, for presence, and for connection.
For a monitor about not needing the solutions, “Good to Every Different” feels completely profound and fantastically, breathtakingly highly effective. It’s Olivia Dean at her most relaxed, most confident, and most emotionally open – and the proper soundtrack for the sun-soaked summer time.
“Complete Cinema”
by Ken Yates
Tright here’s one thing about Ken Yates’ songwriting that, for me, at all times looks like dwelling. His is the type of music and lyricism that, whereas so wealthy in melody and poetry alike, inevitably breaks down into explorations of life’s uncooked, easy truths – and discovering the sweetness in them. “Complete Cinema,” the title monitor off his newest album, is a type of songs that hits laborious for all its softness: A candy, soul-stirring reflection on love, life, partnership, and perspective that hits particularly deep if, like me, you’ve lately discovered your self reflecting on what it means to dwell with intention – to be current, to be grateful, and to essentially take inventory of the life you’ve constructed.
You stated man it’s been so enjoyable
Altering with somebody
Wake me up in solidarity
I preserve the lights off when inside
To protect the pure mild
It’s the halogen severity
Yates is a grasp of restraint – his lead guitar riff glistens like early morning mild as his voice gently spills into focus, heat and worn and sensible. His lyrics are deceptively easy, however they maintain multitudes: “These little motion pictures in my thoughts / they’re nonetheless enjoying on a regular basis / however you realize all of the darkest corners of myself / and if I’m fortunate once I’m accomplished / I’ll have an viewers of 1.”
These little motion pictures in my thoughts
They’re nonetheless enjoying on a regular basis
However you realize all of the
darkest corners of myself
And if I’m fortunate once I’m accomplished
I’ll have an viewers of 1
That’s what we name whole cinema child
“I believe it was my profession and doing just a little self-assessment, just a little check-in, trying ahead,” Yates explains. “I believe whenever you begin a profession as a songwriter, whenever you’re younger, the one metrics you’ve got for fulfillment are fame and fortune, and people are the targets. So even when they’re unconscious, these are the targets you set out with whenever you begin a profession as a songwriter. And someplace alongside the way in which, I noticed, these really aren’t the targets. The targets have been to write down songs for a dwelling and have significant relationships with individuals and be comfortable, for lack of a greater phrase. I believe typically these grandiose targets get in the way in which of precise happiness and success and really working in your relationships.”
“I believe with a music profession, particularly if it takes off, it makes it straightforward to form of ignore your relationships and ignore nurturing them since you don’t should, since you’re on paper ‘profitable’ – and I believe the very best a part of not being ‘profitable,’ for me, is it pressured me to nurture my relationships as a result of the profession facet of it wasn’t going properly. So, what else are you able to do, proper? You must have a look at the remainder of your life and go, ‘Properly, let’s make that half good.’ That’s that tune in a nutshell: I believe I’ve actually nurtured the remainder of my life to the purpose the place I’m actually pleased with it. If that’s all it’s going ahead, then nice. If I died at present, then I’ve achieved rather a lot in not simply my profession, however my entire life. It looks like I actually labored on a whole lot of these issues.”
You stated man it’s been so good
Leaning into archetypes
I’m not lacking out on something
And within the theatre of dwelling
There’s a superficial jail
Of the issues we attempt to not develop into
That is the type of tune that doesn’t want a grand declaration to depart its mark. It’s clear-eyed and deeply felt – a young acknowledgment that success isn’t at all times loud or cinematic. Typically it’s nearly sharing your actual self with somebody who sees you clearly, and staying current within the on a regular basis moments that matter most.
“The trail to get right here didn’t appear like I believed it could,” Yates says of his life and profession. “However I at all times needed to write down songs for a dwelling. I at all times needed to dwell the place I dwell proper now. I’ve an ideal relationship with my spouse, we’re beginning a household – it’s all good.” That readability radiates all through “Complete Cinema,” which doubles as each a love letter to his accomplice and a meditation on the way in which we dramatize our lives. It’s about letting go of the tortured artist delusion, and selecting gratitude over grandeur.
As a songwriter myself – or a minimum of, somebody who thinks about phrases greater than might be wholesome – I’m continuously struck by how a lot coronary heart Ken Yates packs into his music. “Complete Cinema” is a standout not as a result of it tries to be, however as a result of it is aware of precisely what it’s: Grounded, sleek, and brimming with coronary heart.
These little motion pictures in my thoughts
They’re nonetheless enjoying on a regular basis
However you realize all of the darkest corners of myself
And if I’m fortunate once I’m accomplished
I’ll have an viewers of 1
That’s what we name whole cinema child
“Lengthy After Midnight”
by Flock of Dimes
Tright here’s a soul-stirring ache to Flock of Dimes’ “Lengthy After Midnight” that simply doesn’t let go. It lingers – smooth, slow-burning, and filled with feeling – lengthy after the final observe fades. I’ve returned to this tune numerous occasions already, not simply because it’s extremely stunning (although it’s), however as a result of it captures one thing I’ve felt deeply in my bones: The should be sturdy for the individuals you like most – even whenever you’re unsure you may maintain all of it collectively your self.
All the cash I gave to you
I do know I’ll by no means get it again
Don’t be unhappy and don’t be sorry
I don’t care in regards to the cash like that
And once I say I don’t care in regards to the cash
I imply you realize I wouldn’t allow you to starve
You recognize I couldn’t let that occur
Please take the keys to my automobile
Launched July thirtieth by way of Sub Pop Information, “Lengthy After Midnight” is the lead single off Flock of Dimes’ forthcoming third album The Life You Save, out October tenth. Flock of Dimes is the solo undertaking of singer, songwriter, and producer Jenn Wasner, finest often called one-half of beloved indie duo Wye Oak and a frequent collaborator with Bon Iver, Sylvan Esso, and others. Throughout her in depth catalog, Wasner has lengthy been a grasp of introspective songwriting and unorthodox, emotionally immersive sound design – and The Life You Save guarantees to be her most trustworthy, uncovered, and personally revealing report so far.
Wasner’s voice is every part in “Lengthy After Midnight”: Soulful, heat, unflinchingly candid, and impossibly full – filled with compassion, filled with weariness, filled with a determined type of love. Her acoustic guitar is wealthy and resonant, wrapping round every lyric like a blanket. The tune is a delicate act of self-sacrifice and confession; a bittersweet meditation on what it means to present and provides, with out anticipating something again.
You say you may’t afford your treatment
Too many hoops they’re gonna put you thru
You possibly can’t waste one other second
Not for the lifetime of you
I do know the foundations, however I ignore them
I believe I’m adequate to drag this off
You be hell and I’ll be hеaven
I’ll be your shot at the hours of darkness
“That is the story of the helper, the fixer, the hero who’s at all times there and by no means lets on how a lot they’re hurting,” Wasner tells Atwood Journal. “It’s for anybody who’s inherited the false perception that, with a purpose to be loveable, they should sacrifice their very own peace in service of others. It would sound shiny and cheery, however beneath the floor there’s something darker: the desperation of realizing you don’t have the solutions, the loneliness of realizing you’ve received to attempt to preserve all of it collectively anyway.”
That darkness glows all through “Lengthy After Midnight,” tucked inside her sweetly lilting verses about cash, treatment, silence, and survival. “You say you may’t afford your treatment / too many hoops they’re gonna put you thru… I do know the foundations, however I ignore them / I believe I’m adequate to drag this off.” Wasner’s lyrics are tender and devastating, they usually solely land tougher when paired with the heat of her supply. It’s that duality that provides this tune its energy: A deep unhappiness wrapped in empathy, care, and an abiding sense of affection.
“I’ll be your shot at the hours of darkness,” she sings – and I imagine her. I really feel it.
Together with her new album The Life You Save out this October, Flock of Dimes is getting into her most susceptible, revelatory, and emotionally uncooked period but. If this tune is any indication, we’re in for a soul-stirring reckoning – one which honors ache with out glorifying it, and leaves room for therapeutic on the opposite facet.
I livе my life among the many fortunate ones
When issues are dangerous I by no means allow them to know
If you come from the place I come from
There’s solely thus far you may go
And after we’re sitting trapped in silence
And I can inform I’m not who you need me to be
To be trustworthy it could break you
Solely to lie would break me
Individuals say it’s not my drawback
They are saying that actions have a consequence
In case you name me I might reply
I’m the final line of protection
“Round You”
by Angelsaur
Tright here’s a uncooked, unfiltered vitality coursing by way of Angelsaur’s “Round You” that I simply can’t get sufficient of. Form of ragged, but undeniably polished on the identical time, this tune feels alive – pulsing with jangly guitars, candid lyrics, and vocals that ache with inside churn. There’s allure in its chaos, coronary heart in its mess, and a fantastically human sense of unraveling at its core. From the wiry, Beatles-esque guitar soloing to the breathless refrain cries of “I’ve been digging each night time,” Angelsaur’s newest providing radiates uncontainable feeling and urgency – and in some way, in its turbulence, finds a middle of gravity in longing, devotion, and want.
I hope I’d discover
Myself in you
I’m choosing at your bones
With all of my instruments
The reality is a
Thought that hurts
I’m out of my thoughts
However I’m dwelling in yours
I’m searching your eyes
Proper again at you
I’ve been digging
Each night time
Launched because the fourth single off Angelsaur’s sophomore album The Women Are Confused (out August 13th), “Round You” is the cathartic album nearer – and maybe its most emotionally naked providing. The Los Angeles–based mostly duo of singer/bassist Logan McQuade and guitarist Jonah Feingold aren’t any strangers to the stage: McQuade presently performs bass for King Princess (he co-wrote two songs on her upcoming album Woman Violence), and has toured as a dwell member with Del Water Hole, Omar Apollo, and Fiji Blue. Feingold has performed guitar on data by Del Water Hole and Mark Ronson, and carried out with Omar Apollo throughout his NPR Tiny Desk Live performance. Angelsaur’s music blends glam, grit, and grunge right into a daring and brutally trustworthy soundscape. Their second LP, co-produced and combined by Andy Baldwin (Björk), leans into themes of heartbreak, growing old, and self-worth – a coming-of-age report for the 30s, constructed to really feel like a dwell present and made with heart-on-sleeve depth.
“I sat down and wrote the primary guitar line and the lyrics for ‘Round You’ in a single sitting,” McQuade tells Atwood Journal. “We knew fairly rapidly that this is able to be the album nearer… I believe it’s my favourite tune I’ve ever written.”
You’re the one factor
I can’t ever free
I’m a tricky man
And also you’re my tattoos
Time spilling out my purse
I spend it on you
‘Trigger you give me price
I’m pulling out my coronary heart
So that you can use
I’ve been
Digging
Each night time
Directly tender and intense, “Round You” was born out of stillness – after years on the street, McQuade discovered himself immediately grounded in 2024, navigating a protracted touring break and the unraveling of a seven-year relationship.
“I used to be at a reasonably unusual place in my life,” he explains. “I had been constantly touring since I received out of school, however for causes out of my management, I used to be dwelling for many of 2024. It gave us time to make this report, but it surely additionally made me rethink a whole lot of issues about my profession and I misplaced some confidence and missed a whole lot of the validation of enjoying exhibits and touring off of music. I actually turned to my relationship for happiness, and this tune explores the repercussions related to that.”
The result’s a dramatic, dynamic love tune steeped in each magnificence and desperation – one which seeks stability in an individual when every part else feels unsure. “I’m searching your eyes / proper again at you,” he sings, clinging to connection. “I’m pulling out my coronary heart / so that you can use.”
“After I wrote that tune within the ending months of my relationship, I wrote it as a declaration of affection,” McQuade shares. “Expressing the hope of discovering your self by way of one other’s love and a spotlight appeared, on the time, to be an correct depiction of how necessary she is to me… Now on the opposite facet of the breakup, I notice that it’s nearly a declaration of dependence. I nonetheless love her, however I notice the detriment in counting on somebody for the totality of your happiness and id.”
That advanced emotional evolution is embedded within the music itself, which builds from quiet intimacy right into a hovering wall of sound. The ultimate part of “Round You” is awash with layered harmonies, strings, and interwoven guitar textures – a sweeping crescendo of feeling that hits like catharsis. “Plant just a little backyard round you, let myself get tangled within the roots,” McQuade sings on repeat, letting go with out ever totally releasing.
Plant just a little backyard round you
Let myself get tangled within the roots
Plant just a little backyard round you
Let myself get tangled within the roots
Plant just a little backyard round you
(I’ve been digging, I’ve been digging)
Let myself get tangled within the roots
(I’ve been digging)
Plant just a little backyard round you
Digging digging
Let myself get tangled within the roots
I’ve been digging
“We felt like ending on the concept that love is on the core of our id was the proper option to shut the story of the album,” the band clarify. “The monitor teeters between pleasure and despair and wrestles with the necessity for validation – an emotional thread that runs all through all the report.”
“Round You” could also be a tune about shedding your self in another person, but it surely’s additionally about popping out the opposite facet with a clearer view of who you’re. It’s messy, magnetic, filled with contradictions – and that’s precisely what makes it so particular.
I’ve been digging
Each night time
I’ve been digging
Each night time
“It is you”
by Little Canine Star
Manchester-born, London-based indie artist Little Canine Star has made a blinding entrance together with her debut single “It’s you,” a dreamy, glistening indie pop reverie wearing various garb. Her voice is radiant, the guitars shimmer like metropolis lights after rain, and the emotion – uncooked and unfiltered – pulses by way of each beat. It’s the type of debut that stops you in your tracks, aches just a bit, and nonetheless leaves you smiling by the ultimate refrain. Equal components charming and charged, “It’s you” is a love tune, a homesick tune, and a coming-of-age anthem wrapped into one.
Impressed by a second of reflection and emotional recalibration, Little Canine Star (aka Isobel Steele) traces the challenges of beginning over in a brand new metropolis and the grounding energy of affection. “I first went into the studio with Manta Tatton and Jamie Stewart again in February,” she tells Atwood Journal. “On the time I’d been listening to a whole lot of MOIO, Beabadoobee and The Japanese Home and considering rather a lot about my expertise shifting to London from Manchester and the way laborious it was at occasions. I usually questioned the way it was ever going to really feel the way in which I needed it to. In the end, the explanation I pushed by way of that point, and remembered what I used to be right here to do, was my girlfriend. Having one thing secure when every part else felt ever-changing was so vital.”
“Within the studio, the tune got here collectively in a number of hours, and we had it mainly completed by the top of the night time. I needed the place I’m from to shine by way of the music. It’s necessary to lean into what units you aside quite than making an attempt to mix in, sonically and lyrically. I keep in mind enjoying it on loop for days after so when it got here to ending the tune I attempted to maintain it as near the unique demo as potential, it had an vitality that I didn’t wish to lose.”
That vitality lives in each second – from the smooth swirl of the opening traces to the gut-punch chorus “Wait! wait! wait! wait! / Don’t depart me / Say you like me / ‘Trigger I can’t be one thing with out you.” It’s a tune about holding on – to like, to function, to the explanations we keep when every part in us desires to run. You possibly can hear the static of a telephone name from a prepare platform, the stress of being torn between leaving and longing: “I known as my mum / From a southeast station / Say I wanna be there / Informed me take your time, pricey.”
For anybody who’s left dwelling, fallen laborious, or just wanted one thing – or somebody – to carry onto, “It’s you” hits the place it hurts, then helps you thru it. It’s the sound of a younger artist discovering her voice and letting it ring out, shiny and daring and fantastically unafraid. Little Canine Star could also be simply starting, however she’s already shining.
Glom’s “Glass” is as immediately addictive as it’s unapologetically various. The melody is magnetic, the guitars are woozy and warped in all the correct methods, and the lyrics hit like a punch to the intestine. I’ve been singing alongside to this monitor all summer time lengthy – particularly that cathartic climax: “Oh I noticed it each time, I wish to really feel alive. I can’t do it anymore, I wish to dwell my life. Part of me desires to be the one to let you know every part isn’t okay…” It’s catchy, sure, but it surely’s additionally deeply emotional – dreamy and aching, pulsing and glossy, with disarming chord decisions that make you lean in. Glom are masters of balancing brightness with burnout, of marrying pleasure with nervousness, and nowhere is that extra obvious than on this tune.
Ranney’s received a chunk of glass
Discovered it on the seaside
She was digging within the sand
Proper in entrance of me
Ranney’s received it in a stack
Proper inside her attain
In a while tonight I’m wishing
I’d be nonetheless at peace
Launched as the newest single off their upcoming album Under (out in January 2026), “Glass” captures the core of Glom’s ethos: Uncooked, relatable, and profoundly human indie rock. The undertaking of Brooklyn-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sean Dunnevant, Glom has developed from a collaborative band right into a solo endeavor and now into its most totally realized type but – a “extremely potent combination of indelible, infectious melodic rock and lyrical introspection,” as their bio places it. Under is Glom’s third album, following 2020’s Benefit and 2019’s Bond, and it marks a brand new period of unfiltered songwriting from Dunnevant, who stopped hiding behind metaphor in favor of emotional transparency.
Oh I noticed it each time
I wish to really feel alive
I can’t do it anymore
I wish to dwell my life
(Part of me) Desires to be the one to let you know
Every part isn’t okay
Actually for me I’m nearly sure
Everybody’s afraid
“‘Glass’ is a tune about momentary bliss being overshadowed by debilitating nervousness,” Dunnevant tells Atwood Journal. “I spent a whole lot of time with my girlfriend on the seaside in 2020 and 2021. On one in all these seaside journeys, she spent the entire time rummaging by way of the sand seeking sea glass. The sight of watching her methodically procure and stack these stunning items of time-worn relics was marred by calls and textual content messages flooding my telephone informing me that one thing was going flawed on the retailer the place I work. I used to be taken out of the second regardless of my makes an attempt to withstand.”
That pressure – between stillness and stress, presence and panic – pulses by way of the monitor like an undercurrent, refined however inescapable. “Glass” is a tune about making an attempt to be okay whenever you’re not, about holding on to magnificence whilst your thoughts betrays you. “The seaside day was excellent – climate, we had the correct snacks and drinks, the water was heat – but I couldn’t not be concerned,” Dunnevant remembers. “I wasn’t even anxious about something essentially. It’s simply an overarching drawback I’ve handled my entire life. ‘Glass’ is about making an attempt to deal with it.”
Lastly took the journey out west
Really not but
I attempted laborious to make ends meet
It’s tougher than it appears
Communicate with all my associates
See them on the airplane
Having deja vu once more
Migraine’s setting in
There’s a bittersweetness to the entire thing – nostalgic and unhappy, however not hopeless. It’s about feeling the load of every part and nonetheless selecting to maintain going. “I hope that ‘Glass’ brings listeners the correct quantity of pleasure and the correct quantity of nostalgia,” Dunnevant displays. “And I additionally hope that the tune helps listeners notice it’s okay to really feel anxious! It’s part of life! Some individuals have greater than others, and that’s okay too.”
In a world that strikes too quick and expects an excessive amount of, “Glass” looks like a permission slip to pause, to really feel, and to disintegrate just a bit. It’s an anthem for the overthinkers, the worriers, and the people who find themselves simply making an attempt to carry it collectively – and it’s additionally a rattling good time.
Oh the engine’s setting hearth
My arms are feeling weak
Shopping for issues received’t disguise you from
The emotions you may’t communicate
(Part of me) Desires to be the one to let you know
Every part isn’t okay
Actually for me I’m nearly sure
Everybody’s afraid
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