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 group 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 pay attention. By way of our Editor’s Picks, we hope to shine a lightweight on our personal music discoveries and showcase a various array of recent and up to date releases.
This week’s Editor’s Picks options Bartees Unusual, Willow Avalon, Sly Jr., The 7:45s, The Zew, and Thee Holy Brothers!
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“Sober”
by Bartees Unusual
Heartache and angst reign supreme in Bartees Unusual’s “Sober” as he passionately reckons with a doomed, dying love and its results on his psychological well being. Launched again in October, the dramatic lead single off Unusual’s upcoming third album Horror (out February 14 by way of 4AD) was (and stays) the proper introduction to this newest period of his artistry – an period marked by unflinching honesty and dynamic worldbuilding, uncooked ardour and even rawer feelings. “It’s an actual pandemic love story,” Unusual lately advised me over Zoom. “You actually can’t get out… you’re in an house collectively and also you’re making an attempt to navigate this sense of being caught in one thing you’re making an attempt to get out of, and also you’re then making an attempt to drink by it in a manner… it’s exhausting to be sober, it’s exhausting to only sit with all of that and maintain it. That you must simply have a drink and a cigarette and take a stroll. You’re simply in your individual head on a regular basis.”
The depth and sheer urgency of that ache involves life in Unusual’s beautiful vocal efficiency and his visceral, deeply confessional lyrics: “When a day turns into your complete life, I’m standing right here, in between the strains,” he sings within the tune’s pre-chorus, coronary heart and soul mid-upheaval. “Guess I’ve by no means had a guiding gentle, that’s why it’s exhausting to be sober.”
The tune’s heated breakdown proves an particularly highly effective, poetic second of reality:
I dwell life on two planes, and most days,
they’re each delayed
Lacking all of your telephone calls,
I simply wanna go away
While you’re not close to me,
each tune’s a throwaway
Jogs my memory of my by strains,
some curses simply generate
Our distinction is astounding,
operating out of issues to say
I’m simply tryin’ to indicate love,
fearful of being cliché
Typically I miss the boat,
typically I make errors
Texting that I’m on my manner,
know that you just don’t wanna wait
As intimate as it’s anthemic, “Sober” is a cinematic anthem for the emotionally distressed, capturing all too relatable emotions of angst and dread with unimaginable finesse. It’s Bartees Unusual at his best – and a spotlight of what’s to return with the Valentine’s launch of Horror.
“In a manner I believe I made this document to achieve out to individuals who could really feel afraid of issues of their lives too,” Unusual shares. “For me it’s love, areas, cosmic dangerous luck, or that feeling of doom that I’ve struggled with for so long as I can keep in mind. I believe that it’s simpler to navigate the horrors and strangeness of life when you realise that everybody round you feels the identical. This album is simply me making an attempt to attach. I’m making an attempt to shrink the scale of the world. I’m making an attempt to really feel shut – so I’m much less afraid.”
An formidable effort that sees Unusual at his most intense and his most weak, Horror is concurrently larger-than-life and unapologetically, undeniably human – and for thus many people, the gateway this complete album begins with “Sober,” a tune that’s hauntingly lovely and actual. Further singles like “Too A lot,” “Lie 95,” and the lately launched “Needs Wants” have continued to increase the upcoming document’s breadth and depth, however for me, nothing compares to sheer warmth and heartache of “Sober.”
So when you understand, when you understand it’s proper
When a day turns into your complete life
I’m standing right here, in between the strains
Guess I’ve by no means had a guiding gentle
That’s why it’s exhausting to be sober
“Child Blue”
by Willow Avalon
An Atwood Journal artist-to-watch since 2023, singer/songwriter Willow Avalon has emerged as probably the most thrilling new voices in nation music – a style she grew up on, and a world she has now wholeheartedly embraced over the previous yr, after initially introducing herself in a extra various/indie house. Initially from Georgia and now primarily based in New York, the Atlantic Data-signed artist spent 2024 unleashing a swathe of twangy singles that spotlight her plain skills as a charming singer and vivid storyteller. Songs like “Tequila or Whiskey” and “Homewrecker” haven’t solely amassed tens of millions of streams, but additionally transformed 1000’s of listeners right into a legion of devoted followers within the lead-up to her debut album, Southern Belle Raisin’ Hell (out at this time, January 17th).
Launched on January 14th, the spellbinding “Child Blue” provided one final tease forward of the full-length document. A tune of pure heartache that manages to supply an undeniably enjoyable, catchy, and irresistibly singable refrain, the observe finds Avalon choosing at love’s bruises and scars whereas acknowledging her half in a relationship’s demise:
You’re using by the nation
in your child blue bike
Holding your coronary heart ’trigger I broke it final night time
Didn’t imply to deliver you hassle,
didn’t imply to trigger you ache
You simply knew what you wished
and I couldn’t say the identical
Whereas every of the tune’s three verses helps to push the story ahead (and lyrics like ‘I want I wasn’t damaged and I want I wasn’t chilly, I want this coronary heart of mine might deal with your coronary heart of gold’ strike a profound nerve), it’s the tune’s easy, beautiful chorus that’s positive to gentle up the airwaves everywhere in the nation this spring and summer time:
Blue child blue
That’s all I ever appear
To make you child you
However there ain’t a rattling factor
I can do child do
Hate to say but it surely’s the reality
All I ever do
Is make you blue child blue
Blue child blue
It’s light, it’s dreamy, and regardless of all her emotional turmoil, Willow Avalon creates an area full of sunshine and heat.
Such is the case not simply with this one tune, however with the complete Southern Belle Raisin’ Hell – an album that fulfills on all of the promise and potential of Avalon’s earlier singles, providing its listeners a world of seductive and soul-stirring wonders into which they’ll dive headfirst.
Avalon lately summarized her story, and the journey it took her to get to this album, in a publish on social media: “Image this, I got here from a small city in my dwelling state of Georgia,” she writes. “I grew up listening to the very best nation music and all forms of music. My mama is aware of each tune ever made and my granny and papa sing like songbirds. I used to be surrounded by expertise and attraction. I used to be raised by a few of the strongest, sassiest and unimaginable girls you can ever consider. The intro to the document is my granny speaking about how a lot music means to us. I stroll onstage each present to her voice.”
“I left dwelling as an adolescent, I had a string of dangerous years the place I wasn’t positive I used to be going to make it out of my teenagers. I couldn’t see myself getting older, I might by no means image a life outdoors of the darkish life I used to be dwelling. I moved to Los Angeles and located a manner out, I signed my first document deal at 19 after which was shortly dropped after I didn’t match their pop mildew. I ended up self-releasing a GarageBand unmixed, unmastered mp3 to DistroKid. The label got here again after I self-released and advised me they nonetheless owned it, even after they stated they didn’t, and I ended up paying them 3x what they ever paid me to purchase myself out of that deal. Fortunately, I used to be in a position to pay them what they wished since I had simply gotten a giant sync from a television present, so I simply handed them the entire verify though I had lower than $100 to my identify.”
“Thank god I did, as a result of just some months later the web occurred. I woke as much as tens of millions of individuals occupied with what I used to be doing. In me and my artwork and life. That was the beginning of every thing, I signed to Atlantic Data. For as soon as, I wasn’t placing issues on the finish of the grocery checkout. I then made my first EP, Atlantic gave me full inventive energy and so they let me make the songs I had been making an attempt to make for years. The primary tune we ever had go viral was “Gettin’ Wealthy, Goin’ Broke,” then “Tequila or Whiskey,” then “Yodelayheewho,” then “Homewrecker,” and now “Child Blue.” Y’all have been in line with making my desires come true and everybody who has helped make this information desires come true. We had our first large tour this yr the place we realized how exhausting this job is and the way a lot we wished it.”
Willow Avalon’s story is one in all perseverance and dedication within the face of insurmountable odds, and of steadfast perception in oneself and one’s music. It reveals us that zeal, exhausting work, hope, and religion in a single’s artwork can win out, and it’s a reminder to by no means surrender on one’s desires. She herself is an inspiration, and her debut album stands as a testomony to the lengthy, lengthy street she took to finally get to the place she is at this time. All I can say is, go take heed to Southern Belle Raisin’ Hell and get forward of the curve earlier than Willow Avalon turns into a very family identify.
“Fever Dream”
by Sly Jr.
One of my private “Prime Artist Discoveries of 2024,” Landon Jacobs’ Sly Jr. venture has been a constant supply of aching, evocative various music ever since he debuted precisely one yr in the past. The previous twelve months have seen the Sir Sly frontman ship an almost unbroken, steady stream of weak, visceral, and emotionally charged music underneath the intelligent new moniker – a loving nod to his band – whereas sporting his bleeding coronary heart and soul unapologetically one his sleeve. Launched in December, “Fever Dream” isn’t any exception; heavy, overdriven guitars and drums create a palpable weight as Jacobs makes an attempt to appease a stressed thoughts:
you odor chlorine
there’s a hearth within the distance
like tangerine
glowing manner too vibrant to overlook it
I run ‘til my heels are blistered
and my mouth is dry
it’s all okay, it’s all okay
it’s nothing greater than
a fever dream
it’s all okay, it’s all okay
it’s nothing greater than
a fever dream
Sly Jr.’s music is sort of inherently stuffed with angst, but in “Fever Dream,” that angst is accompanied by an try to search out calm and make peace with one’s demons. It’s a young tempest – a tune with simply the correct quantity of warmth to accompany these chilly, wintry months.
Actually an “if you understand, you understand” sort of artist, Sly Jr. has proved a useful inventive (and cathartic) vessel for Landon Jacobs to unpack his life’s present chapter. He’s explored themes like marriage, fatherhood, sobriety, and religion with a fine-toothed lyrical comb and soul-stirring, emotionally charged melodies, and he’s losing no time in getting his songs on the market. After releasing the ten-track debut album procreation this July, he put out the one “Bloodletter” in October, adopted by “Fever Dream” in December and “Brilliant Crimson” on January 3rd. If historical past tells us something, it’s that 2025 is certain to offer us many extra Sly Jr. songs – and I, for one, am right here for all of the songs and the uncooked feelings they’ll deliver with them.
“The Method That I Love You”
by The 7:45s ft. Martin Connor
I rekindled a decades-long love affair with basic soul music this December, connecting with previous favorites like Gladys Knight and Sam Cooke whereas attending to know some newer names on a deeper degree as effectively. I’m no stranger to phrases like “they don’t make it like this anymore,” and but they do – and Manchester’s The 7:45s, who’re as “new” as new can get, are the prime instance of this reality. The identify ‘The 7:45s’ is itself an homage to 7-inch 45-rpm vinyl – or singles information; 7-inch 45s have been the first format for releasing hit singles throughout soul’s golden period, as they have been cheaper to supply, usually had a greater sound high quality than album-length 33-inch information, and so they might slot in a jukebox.
Songwriter and bassist Sam Flynn fashioned his group with the home bands of soul labels like Motown and Huge Crown in thoughts, and he’s pulled collectively a few of his metropolis’s greatest and brightest musicians to offer that basic, classic soul sound a contemporary ‘revival’ – making “brief and snappy soul singles” that stir the ears and the guts.
Launched January 10th by way of LRK Data, The 7:45s’ debut single feels prefer it might have come straight out of the Sixties: That includes Manchester vocalist Martin Connor, “The Method That I Love You” is a daring, superbly bittersweet lament over unrequited love.
You by no means kiss me anymore,
However I nonetheless dream of what we had earlier than,
I fell like a sycamore for you,
What else might I do?
Although I might by no means be the one,
You’re the individual I rely on,
You have been a buddy and now you’re gone,
After which I see…
“You don’t love me (the way in which that I like you),” Connor sings in a call-and-response with feminine vocalists (their strains in parenthesis). “Oh no you’ll by no means love me (the way in which that I like you), why received’t you like me (the way in which that I like you), oh no you don’t love me.” His voice aches as he channels the burden of those uncooked feelings – and that all-too painful, merciless realization – into a very beautiful musical second,replete with slick guitars, heat pianos, and smoldering, seductive horns.
You don’t love me
(the way in which that I like you),
Oh no you’ll by no means love me
(the way in which that I like you),
Why received’t you like me
(the way in which that I like you),
Oh no you don’t love me.
“Musically, ‘The Method That I Love You’ is impressed by the hip-hop grooves, impassioned vocals, and horn instrumentals of Charles Bradley and Menahan Road Band,” The 7:45s’ Sam Flynn tells Atwood Journal. “It’s a tune of contrasts. Within the intro, the piano chimes and horns reply. Within the refrain, a person calls and a lady solutions. The verses are laidback and crooning then the refrain is intense, at a fever-pitch. I wrote it a couple of months after being dumped, once I was nonetheless in love with my ex. So it additionally has that ‘pleased music however unhappy lyrics’ melancholy feeling to it. That’s why the lyrics flit between nostalgic and heartbroken.”
“I’m a perfectionist about preparations. So I attempted to make the third refrain – when the band performs ‘stops’ – as climactic as doable. After we performed it dwell, Martin began including vocal advert libs right here, which took it to a different degree. We recorded the rhythm part and the lead vocal dwell on the identical time at classic studio EVE in Stockport. Earlier than we did a take, I jokingly requested Martin to offer us some ‘down on my knees, beggin’ you please’ stuff within the advert lbs – a line from Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Cecilia’, which my dad at all times sings as a result of Cecilia was his mum’s identify. When it acquired the stops, I heard Martin truly singing that line on the high of his voice as this superb advert lib. It nonetheless makes my backbone tingle each time I hear it. The truth that Martin can take a lyrical cliché and switch it into essentially the most transferring a part of the recording reveals you the way his vocal efficiency makes the observe.”
The way in which the sunshine catches your eye,
It hurts to image you with different guys,
You opened my eyes and made me blind,
However now I see
You don’t love me
(the way in which that I like you),
Oh no you’ll by no means love me
(the way in which that I like you),
Why received’t you like me
(the way in which that I like you),
Oh no you don’t love me.
The sort of tune that lights a hearth deep down inside, “The Method That I Love You” is a transferring and masterful introduction. The 7:45s are doing soul proper, and I can’t wait to listen to what they dish up subsequent – and there’s much more to return, with their debut album set to drop this summer time!
“Black Feather”
by The Zew
I’ve seen Austria’s The Zew described as “cyborg folks,” as “celestial various,” and at the same time as grunge; apt as they might be (grunge apart), what makes this Viennese band so particular isn’t a lot how they sound, as it’s how they make us really feel inside. And for me, that may be summed up in a single phrase: Free.
Launched late final yr because the lead single off their December EP, Zazel Needs to Fly, “Black Feather” is an imposing, inspirational tune of self-discovering and interior power; of confidence, belief, and religion in oneself; and of discovering – and harnessing – that gentle that lies inside us all. The trio – comprised of Leonie Schlager, Daniela Czurda, and Matthias Frey – name it “a tune about discovering resilience in firm” and “taking a leap,” and it’s finally these themes that shine brightest by their heat melodies and plush, harmony-rich association.
daring as at all times
your black feather
wing it on a regular basis
taking all of it because it comes
blind on the parade
climbing the highest to see
we’ll be making an attempt then
bringing it dwelling yet one more time
Z: climbing excessive up on a tree
Choir: is that so?
Z: nonetheless I’m unable to see
Choir: so then go!
Z: off to the sting of the ocean
Choir: up and at’em
Z: so shut we’re coming undone
“The Holy in Every little thing”
by Thee Holy Brothers
I don’t contemplate myself to be very spiritual, however I really feel the non secular launch of this tune on a deep, visceral degree. Launched late final yr in time for the vacations, “The Holy in Every little thing (Holy Day Combine)” is replete with sleigh bells and marching drums (that’s what makes it Christmassy, after all) – but it surely’s finally Thee Holy Brothers’ beautiful, wealthy harmonies that make this tune an instantaneous hit in my ebook. Stacked vocals (a la The Seashore Boys) add dramatic depth, texture, and shade to a observe about feeling dejected and disconnected from the world on some days, whereas feeling profoundly impressed by it on others.
Some days I get up
And I don’t need to hear the bluebird sing
Some days I get up
And I don’t need to know
what the day will deliver
Some days I get up
And I don’t see the nice in something
Some days I get up
And I see the holy in every thing
“‘The Holy In Every little thing’ was impressed by a dialog I had with multi- instrumentalist John Kruth whereas recording within the studio,’ Thee Holy Brothers’ Marvin Etzioni (who leads the band, along with Willie Aron) tells Atwood Journal. “We began speaking about poet Alan Ginsberg writing ‘Every little thing Is Holy.’ After I acquired dwelling, I used to be buzzing with inspiration, and wrote the tune ‘The Holy In Every little thing.’ The next day, I recorded a stripped-down model with a single voice and guitar. Willie organized and carried out the concord vocals (Brian Wilson’s ‘Til I Die’ involves thoughts.)”
“It was Jonathan Lea’s thought so as to add sleigh bells and launch the tune for the vacations. I then added drums to elevate the refrain sections with Hal Blaine’s iconic ‘Be My Child’ drum sample. Between the addition of the sleigh bells and drums, the Holy Day Mixture of ‘The Holy In Every little thing’ nods to Phil Spector’s Christmas album and John and Yoko’s ‘Completely happy Xmas (Struggle is Over)’ single. We didn’t plan it that manner, it’s simply what occurred. Completely happy Holy Days to every one!”
Some days I get up
And I watch the struggle on TV
Some days I get up
And I simply need to return to sleep
Some days I get up
And I don’t consider in you and me
Some days I get up
And I see the holy in every thing
My interior ‘60s little one naturally comes out when listening to this tune, thanks largely to these breathtakingly lovely harmonies and the glistening guitar chords and arpeggios that encompass them. “The Holy in Every little thing” is a candy and tender tune that embraces the total spectrum of feeling, finally touchdown in an emotional, non secular, and musical excessive. It’s a three-minute celebration – and whereas the ‘holy day combine’ is out now, the ‘authentic’ model will function on Thee Holy Brothers’ upcoming sophomore album Excessive in My Balloon, set to launch March 21st.
Some days I get up
And I need to run far-off
Some days I get up
And I want you’d discover somebody
To take my place
Some days I get up
And I simply need to erase my face
Some days I get up
And I see the holy in every thing
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