Gold Soundz: February 7, 2025

This week's suggested new music, curated by omg!nyc

February has arrived and is wasting no time getting down to business. Leading the charge this week is UK post-punk group Squid who are back with their third album of angular guitar music that features complex rhythm structures and a sing/speak vocal display that permanently perplexes while adding more dexterity to these already captivating and entrancing tunes.

On her first album credited to her full band, Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory are ready to bring more of their full-blown electronic indebted rock numbers to new heights. While the style is the same as any of her solo records, this one has the added touches of new songwriters entering the mix while still keeping the sonic framework of past releases intact.

Despite popular opinion, guitar driven rock music still has a pulse and people like Bartees Strange are a guiding force in the scene. This week he drops his new record that shreds like the best of them and gives us more evidence that the genre is still kicking and delivering music that’s well worth your time and investments.

Hot off last year’s excellent collaboration with The Messthetics, James Brandon Lewis strikes again with a new album billed to his core trio and it’s full of wonderful jazz moments which he so excellently leads with melodic and lyrical strides. The urgency might not be as intense as when he’s playing with the former rhythm section from Fugazi, but the results here are no less impressive.

In 2023, Drop Nineteens released their first new record in thirty years and today they’re finally sharing 1991, a collection of the band’s first two demo tapes that were recorded and distributed to record labels, but ultimately scrapped for new material and never shared with the world until today.

A Ghost is Born was a rather divisive record upon release as it followed the instant classic Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but time has been kind to this one and twenty years later it feels just as important in Wilco’s discography as their magnum opus. This expansive box set may be for the diehard fans, but it’s also a great excuse to revisit an album that is probably better than you remember.

We recently got the name of Lady Gaga’s much anticipated new record and during last weekend’s Grammy Awards, she dropped the new single during a commercial for MasterCard (weird). “Abracadabra” is vintage Gaga and brings forth a swarm of memories from her past marvels. This might not be anything new for the pop icon, but it’s a great reminder that when she gives us the hits, there’s nothing quite like it.

Another big moment from last weekend was Doechii (decked out in Thom Browne) taking home the award for best Rap album. Right after the ceremony she dropped the fiery new single “Nosebleeds” that celebrated the win she new she absolutely deserved. She is, indeed, the moment!

Last year, I named Waxahatchee’s Tigers Blood my second favorite record of the year. This week Katie Crutchfield followed-up with another new single (it’ll be releases as a 7” along with last year’s one-off “Much Ado About Nothing” for Record Store Day) and at just over two minutes in run time, she wastes no time in giving us a rocking country tune that features backing vocals and additional guitar work from MJ Lenderman.

DARKSIDE’s first official album as a trio is coming soon and this week they gave us the record’s third single, “Are You Tired? (Keep on Singing).” This number continues their psyched-out electronics before flipping on a dime to a paisley ‘60s-inspired pop tune with warped vocals before returning to its plodding pace. It’s another excellent taste from what could be one of the year’s best albums.

At the end of the month, Noah Lennox, aka Panda Bear, will release his new solo album and the final single continues to build the hype around this shimmering psych-pop splendor and only adds to the excitement. This one features vocals from his Animal Collective bandmates Geologist and Avey Tare as well as Spirit of the Beehive’s Rivka Ravede.

If heady, ‘70s jazz-rock fusion full of dazzling electric keys and frenetic krautrock rhythms are your thing, you’re in for a treat. The new record from Unknown Mortal Orchestra is a sequel to their 2018 instrumental album IC-Hanoi and the lead single “Earth 1” is a sprawling, ten-minute epic that brings those elements into a dazzling, sharpened vision.

Finally, today is Bandcamp Friday and this week 100% of Bandcamp’s proceeds (anything purchased from midnight to midnight PST) will be donated to MusiCares, an organization providing emergency financial aid, mental health support, and essential health services to artists in need. Every week, I link to Bandcamp pages, when possible, to help promote album sales so ,if you can, it’s a great opportunity to comb through past newsletters and buy music to support those who have been devastated by the wildfires in California.

Albums:

SQUID | Cowards
SHARON VAN ETTEN | Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory
BARTEES STRANGE | Horror
CAROLINE ROSE | Year Of The Slug
LARRY JUNE / 2 CHAINZ / THE ALCHEMIST | Life Is Beautiful
JAMES BRANDON LEWIS | Apple Cores
CHELSEA BRIDGE / PAN-AMERICAN | Tender Things EP
BIG THIEF | Passional Relations EP
LOGAN KANE | I’m Stuck on an Island EP
DROP NINETEENS | 1991
WILCO | A Ghost Is Born [20th Anniversary Box Set]
THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART | Perfect Right Now: A Slumberland Collection 2008 – 2010

Songs:

LADY GAGA | “Abracadabra”
DOECHII | “Nosebleeds”
WAXAHATCHEE | “Mud”
DARKSIDE | “Are You Tired? (Keep on Singing)”
PANDA BEAR | “Ends Meet”
LUCIUS | “Gold Rush”
UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA | “Earth 1”
L’IMPERATRICE | “ENTROPIA”
CLOAKROOM | “The Story of the Egg”
HAMILTON LEITHAUSER | “Burn the Boats”
PAN-AMERICAN / MICHAEL GRIGONI | “New World, Lonely Ride”
SERPENTWITHFEET | “WANDERER”

If you’re a Spotify user, you can listen to these songs (and more from 2025) here!