New Music Friday: 9/12/25

Many thanks, as always, to the indispensable Pause & Play for rounding up releases every New Music Friday. Here's the stuff that made a solid first impression this week:

"Waiting for Love," Anna of the North
This song pulls off the neat synth-pop trick of sounding like Trapper Keepers and C90 tapes while also sounding like a gleaming vision of the future. You could say the same thing about any random synthwave song, I guess, but Anna of the North isn't falling back on pure pastiche here; there's something irresistibly vibrant about "Waiting for Love" that I can even forgive the 8-bit robot noises toward the end.

"Segregation Seeds," Tasmin Archer
Remember Tasmin Archer? If not, you can be forgiven; her new record, the marvelously titled A Cauldron of Random Notes, is her first in almost 20 years, and her biggest single, "Sleeping Satellite," came out in 1992. All that time off hasn't dulled Archer's songwriting gifts; based on what I've heard, this is a case of an artist waiting patiently until she has the right material. The infuriatingly timely "Segregation Seeds" is my favorite of the bunch at the moment, but it's close; this is one solid LP.

"Something Like This," Cil
Watch this video with the sound off, and I suppose you might be tempted to lump Cil in with TikTok kids like, I dunno, Addison Rae or something. Once you turn it up, though, the visuals cease to matter; Cil's got a hell of a voice, and "Something Like This" is a surprisingly soulful showcase for it, right down to the skronk-adjacent guitar solo that kicks the door in partway through. Like she says in the song, I've been waiting for something like this.

"The Happy Dictator," Gorillaz featuring Sparks
I've never really cared about Gorillaz, and at this point, I'm frankly baffled that a band resting on a gimmick this annoying still manages to attract serious attention. That being said, they blend well with Sparks here, offsetting the song's (infuriatingly timely) black humor against a bouncy backdrop that supports the detached vocals. [grits teeth] Oh what a happy land we live in.

"These Changes," Warren Haynes featuring Derek Trucks
Warren Haynes is a guy I've respected the hell out of since his days with the Allmans, but I find I can often take his stuff only in fairly limited doses, chiefly because he tends to do things I don't want him to do. With "These Changes," he's doing exactly what I want him to do, which is strip things way the hell back until it's just his guitar and vocal with Derek Trucks accompanying. Relaxed, and soulful as hell.

"Sunbeam Dream," In the Pines
This band describes its sound as "its own sacred geometry of rock," which strikes me as the type of thing an asshole would say, but after listening to this song — the title track from their new album, by the way — I'm inclined to forgive them, at least for a little over three minutes. Given that they're widely described as a psych-rock band, I'm not sure "Sunbeam Dream" is altogether representative of their general deal — either that, or they're surrounded by people who haven't actually listened to their music, or music in general. Either way, this is fun.

"All In," Ruston Kelly
I've pounded the drum for Ruston Kelly more than once in this space, and as long as I have a drum to pound, I will likely continue to do so; he's absolutely one of my favorite artists of the last 5-10 years, and his just-released fourth album, Pale, Through the Window, has not changed that one whit. This is Kelly in full Domestic Bliss Mode, and if you know anything about his story, you know he unlocked that achievement the hard way — which might be part of why these songs sound like a bruised culmination instead of a series of greeting cards. I could have picked any random track from the set, but I chose "All In" because it's the closer. Here's where his road has led him, and if you can't find it in yourself to follow along, then I do not know what to tell you.

"Petals," Mark William Lewis
No longer content to lock down the "generally very good movies made for the world's most irritating film lovers" demographic, A24 is branching out into music, and their first signing is this fellow Mark William Lewis. I'm honestly 50/50 on this song — I had to listen to it more than once before deciding to include it here — but those springy guitars kept pulling me back and eventually won me over. Listen to it now, before it ends up on the soundtrack to a Safdie brothers joint.

"Tied to You," Lori McKenna featuring Medium Build
I've already thrown my hat in the ring for a Domestic Bliss Mode song once this week, so the odds would definitely be against me doing it again; that's a state of being, after all, that is stereotypically anathematic to interesting songwriting. But aha! Here's a new song from Lori McKenna, who writes about ordinary domestic life more poignantly than anyone else I can think of, and goddamn if she hasn't done it again with "Tied to You." Every line of this song gets right to the heart of what it means to throw your lot in with another human being, and to remain wholly committed to that in spite of everything life dares you not to fear, and to do that long enough to be able to occasionally step back and, with a touch of bittersweet wonder, retrace the thousands of steps you've taken together.

I mean, you might think it's corny. I'm just saying is all.

"Wild Ways," Josh Ritter
For the last ten years, I've been waiting for Josh Ritter to give us another album like Sermon on the Rocks, and although I haven't truly had a chance to fully dig in, I think he may have finally done it with his new one. I Believe in You, Honeydew is out today, and I will definitely be spending more time with it. After listening to this gently surging love song/hymn, you may be inclined to follow suit.

"Drag," Youmi Zouma
Here's a song I don't even need to write about, because the band has done it better than I could if I sat here all night. Calling it a cut "from the nonexistent soundtrack of the crossover prequel for RoboCop and The Fifth Element, featuring Silverchair, Shihad, Garbage, Stellar*, Evanescence, and Placebo," they say they "wanted the song to feel like slowly rotating in sludge and then screaming the most anthemic chorus at the top of your lungs."

Mission accomplished: