{"id":10646,"date":"2025-03-07T07:39:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T12:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=10646"},"modified":"2025-03-06T19:43:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T00:43:15","slug":"music-update-february-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/07\/music-update-february-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Music update, February 2025."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I always think February is going to be a lighter month for music, but that makes no sense since it will always have four Fridays, same as most months, and it\u2019s not like December when labels do try to avoid releasing new albums. This month was pretty packed, and I\u2019m sure I missed stuff \u2013 I\u2019m behind on some of the full-lengths released in the last four weeks for sure \u2013 but here\u2019s what I\u2019ve got. As always you can <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/playlist\/3A2N2EKRFjWo4gBjKkq7Ms?si=5e6081da599a4c77\">see the playlist here<\/a> if you can\u2019t access the widget below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: February 2025\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/playlist\/3A2N2EKRFjWo4gBjKkq7Ms?si=2d6405599d1f4be4&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Blondshell \u2013 Two Times.<\/strong> I was lighter on Blondshell\u2019s highly acclaimed self-titled debut album when it came out in 2023, but this song, from her upcoming LP <em>If You Asked for a Picture<\/em>, is by far the best thing she\u2019s ever done, with revealing storytelling with off-kilter harmonies over a mesmerizing guitar line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Waxahatchee \u2013 Mud.<\/strong> I actually drove right by the actual town of Waxahachie on my last scouting trip to Texas, while I was listening to this song (and playlist), an extra track from the <em>Tigers Blood<\/em> sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sharon van Etten \u2013 I Can\u2019t Imagine (Why You Feel This Way).<\/strong> I\u2019ve never quite gotten the critical acclaim for van Etten, who often sings like she\u2019s stoned, but she does have a great voice when she lets it rip, and I\u2019ve sense a stylistic shift over her last two or three albums to include more rock and other genres and away from the minimalist arrangements of her earlier work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Heartworms \u2013 Just to Ask a Dance.<\/strong> Heartworms, aka Jojo Orme, released her debut album <em>Glutton for Punishment<\/em> last month to some pretty glowing reviews. It\u2019s a frenetic, energetic mix of gothic new wave, dance, and industrial elements, with plenty of guitars, calling back to the several points of the 1980s (there\u2019s some early NIN in here) while managing to also sound modern and inventive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Matt Berry w\/Eric D. Johnson \u2013 Why on Fire?<\/strong> I didn\u2019t know the British actor Matt Berry, who appeared on <em>The IT Crowd <\/em>and <em>What We Do in the Shadows <\/em>and voiced a character in <em>The Wild Robot<\/em>, was actually a musician first, with his first album coming out in 1995. His newest LP, <em>Heard Noises<\/em>, has gotten a ton of praise, but I actually just like this one song; the rest of it is very nostalgic, almost a throwback to the \u201860s, and not the part I particularly enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sports Team \u2013 Bang Bang Bang. <\/strong>This is the best of the three singles Sports Team have released so far from their upcoming third album, <em>Boys These Days<\/em>, due out May 25<sup>th<\/sup>. I loved this art-rock\/post-punk band\u2019s last record, <em>Gulp!<\/em>, which had great guitar-driven hooks and witty lyrics throughout, but the previous two singles they put out didn\u2019t have the same energy this one does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sam Fender \u2013 Little Bit Closer.<\/strong> I confess I have to listen to Fender\u2019s whole album <em>People Watching<\/em>, but this and the title track are both outstanding roots-rock tracks from a freaking British guy who just turned 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Fontaines D.C. \u2013 It\u2019s Amazing to Be Young.<\/strong> A one-off single from the lads to commemorate one of the members becoming a father for the first time. Between this and \u201cFavourite,\u201d I might almost say they\u2019d gone pop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Murder Capital \u2013 Death of a Giant. <\/strong>This Irish rock band just released their third album, <em>Blindness<\/em>, on February 21<sup>st<\/sup>, featuring this track and \u201cCan\u2019t Pretend to Know.\u201d I wrote in October that they\u2019re somewhere between punk and post-punk, but this song is almost math-rock (I don\u2019t love the term, but it fits), and definitely goes beyond their punk-ish roots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Adwaith \u2013 Gofyn.<\/strong> I\u2019ve included a few more Welsh acts in the last five years because my wife is of Welsh descent, but this band actually popped up on an American-based playlist I follow on Spotify. They sing in Welsh, and use a sort of spare, post-punk style that sounds very DIY. They just released their third album, <em>Solas<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>swim school \u2013 Heaven.<\/strong> I\u2019ve seen this Scottish band described as indie-pop, grunge, and shoegaze, all of which sort of fits. I\u2019m into their sound, whatever it is, and I bet they kick ass live. This track is very shoegazey; it\u2019s their first new music since their \u201cmixtape\u201d <em>Seeing It Now<\/em> came out last April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Preoccupations \u2013 Focus.<\/strong> Preoccupations does one of the best revivals of mid-80s post-punk, right down to the guitar tones, so I\u2019m pretty much going to include any track they release on here \u2026 but come on, that guitar riff at the start is \u201cUncertain Smile,\u201d right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Horrors \u2013 Ariel. <\/strong>The Horrors\u2019 follow-up to their magnum opus, 2017\u2019s <em>V<\/em>, comes out on the 21<sup>st<\/sup>. <em>Night Life<\/em> seems like it\u2019s going to turn hard into the psychedelic and shoegaze parts of their sound, based on the three singles so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Friendship \u2013 Free Association. <\/strong>These guys are from Philly and have put out four albums already, so I\u2019m a little abashed that this is the first song of theirs I\u2019ve ever heard. I love the music, the pulsing percussion lines and the haunting piano and string lines, but I do wish the singer would just \u2026 sing. He\u2019s kind of warble-talking, and it detracts from the song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Tubs \u2013 Chain Reaction.<\/strong> Probably my least favorite single of the three released so far from this offshoot of the defunct band Joanna Gruesome. Their jangle-pop sound is right up my alley, although the earlier two singles had better hooks. They released their second album, <em>Cotton Crown<\/em>, today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tropical Fuck Storm \u2013 Goon Show.<\/strong> I suppose with a name like that, you kind of have to not give a fuck about anything, right? This song is weird and witty and at some points barely seems like a song. \u201cIt\u2019s raining cats and dogma\u201d is a great line, though. They\u2019re promising a new album but have offered no details, so this is just a one-off single from the Melbourne supergroup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Brooke Combe \u2013 Butterfly.<\/strong> Combe\u2019s full-length debut, <em>Dancing at the Edge of the World<\/em>, came out on January 31<sup>st<\/sup>, featuring this smooth \u201870s-infused R&amp;B\/pop number along with the superb \u201cThis Town.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Self Esteem \u2013 Focus is Power.<\/strong> I hadn\u2019t heard of Self Esteem, the <em>nom<\/em> <em>de chanson<\/em> of Rebecca Taylor, who was half of Slow Club, before this song, but it seems like the kind of pop banger that could easily take off with its gospel-backed chorus and its trite, vague lyrics about self-worth and being powerful. I still like the melody, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Little Simz feat. Obongjayar &amp; Moonchild Sanelly \u2013 Flood. <\/strong>Simbi\u2019s back, with her next album <em>Lotus<\/em> coming out on May 9<sup>th<\/sup>. That\u2019ll be her first full-length since 2022\u2019s <em>No Thank You<\/em>, although she\u2019s put out music in the interim via EPs and mixtapes. This track features more of her frequent collaborator Obongjayar (\u201cPoint and Kill\u201d) than it does of Simz herself, which might be a negative if it weren\u2019t for the tremendous beat behind all of their vocals. How is she only 31? I feel like she\u2019s been recording for fifteen years now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>WOOZE \u2013 4 Lovely Children.<\/strong> WOOZE\u2019s self-titled debut album came seven years after their first release, and it hits the mark \u2013 the songs are ridiculous, bouncy, snarky, and just all-around fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bartees Strange \u2013 17.<\/strong> Strange just dropped his third album, <em>Horror<\/em>, and based on the four songs I\u2019ve heard so far he\u2019s expanding his sonic palate substantially, although I also understand the criticism of Jack Antonoff\u2019s production style, which tends to mute Strange\u2019s guitar work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Anxious \u2013 Never Said. <\/strong>I don\u2019t think these guys are an emo band, but that\u2019s how I see them labeled in the music press; they\u2019re somewhere between hard rock and hardcore, and even with some screamed vocals it\u2019s pretty damn good. Their second album, <em>Bambi<\/em>, came out on February 21<sup>st<\/sup>, and it\u2019s in my queue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Doves \u2013 A Drop in the Ocean.<\/strong> I didn\u2019t love the new album, <em>Constellations for the Lonely<\/em>, anywhere near as much as I\u2019d hoped after hearing the killer first single \u201cRenegade.\u201d It\u2019s just uneven, in both songwriting and production, and the third single \u201cSaint Teresa\u201d was just a mess. Singer Jimi Goodwin doesn\u2019t always sound fully invested in the songs, which is disappointing as his voice is my favorite of the various band members\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Momma \u2013 Bottle Blonde. <\/strong>This is more like it after their last single was heavily derivative of Veruca Salt\u2019s \u201cSeether,\u201d more in that lo-fi indie-pop vein that characterized their best track to date, \u201cSpeeding 72.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Andy Bell \u2013 apple green ufo.<\/strong> That\u2019s the Andy Bell of Ride, not the one of Erasure; Bell just released a solo album <em>Pinball Wanderer<\/em> that is a spaced-out psychedelic trip, nothing like his music with Ride or Hurricane #1 or Oasis, and even includes a mellow cover of \u201cI\u2019m in Love with a German Film Star.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Verbian \u2013 Fruta ca\u00edda do mar.<\/strong> I get emails from a lot of music publicists, too many to even open most of them \u2013 it\u2019s not like this is my job \u2013 but something got me to open this one, and even though it\u2019s not the sort of experimental metal that email led me to expect, it is novel, with the percussion especially standing out here for the way it gives the song different textures throughout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mekons \u2013 War Economy.<\/strong> I didn\u2019t realize the Mekons were still going, but they\u2019ve been quite prolific, at least up until the pandemic, after which they didn\u2019t put out any new music for five years, until last month\u2019s <em>Horror<\/em>. I also don\u2019t know their music very well, or even their history, given how often I confuse them with the Melvins, two bands with nothing at all in common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Raven \u2013 Can\u2019t Take Away the Fire. <\/strong>I can\u2019t believe these guys are still going; Raven started in 1974, became one of the leaders of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, never breaking through commercially beyond that core audience, and they\u2019ve never had more than a brief hiatus in their fifty years. More notable is that the band still has its two original members, the Gallagher brothers \u2013 no, not them \u2013 with John Gallagher still handling vocals and hitting the high notes at age 66.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I always think February is going to be a lighter month for music, but that makes no sense since it will always have four Fridays, same as most months, and it\u2019s not like December when labels do try to avoid releasing new albums. This month was pretty packed, and I\u2019m sure I missed stuff \u2013 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1433,359,167,852],"class_list":["post-10646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2025-in-music","tag-alternative","tag-indie","tag-music","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10647,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10646\/revisions\/10647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}