Gold Soundz: January 31, 2025

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

Jan 31, 2025

The year of January has finally reached its end and with it comes the first major release of 2025. After pushing it back a few weeks due to the catastrophic fires that have rampaged the Los Angeles area, The Weeknd has delivered his latest record and the last of his latest trilogy. Based on his track record, some of the songs on this album are sure to become radio staples that will soon be unavoidable and if the most dominant artist of the streaming era continues to put the squeeze on his current chokehold around the greater pop culture zeitgeist, it’s only a matter of time before these tracks rank up a billion plays on Spotify and Apple Music.

A burgeoning face of New York’s underground hip hop scene, MIKE has been slowly making a name for himself over the past several years and this week he strikes with a new solo album that will hopefully be the push to the mainstream that he so rightfully deserves. Dusty jazz grooves that highlight the chaos of the genre prove to be the perfect backdrop for him to unfurl his raps and he does so with piercing conviction.

If you’ve never heard the ‘90s smooth R&B classic “Would I to You?” by Charles & Eddie, I suggest you fix that immediately. While that duo may have been an one almost hit wonder, Eddie Chacon has kept his musical career alive (Eddie sadly passed away from cancer in 2001) with constant, solid releases over the years and this week he’s back with his latest record, Lay Low.

Cosmic-Astral is a reimagined take by Toronto artist Moshe Fisher-Rozenberg (aka Memory Pearl) on a 1970s “music program” that was designed by psychotherapists to be used in combination with the psychedelic drug LSD, but ultimately discontinued for being too confrontational. Fisher-Rozenberg wanted to make a new version that was nurturing and “more delicate and tender” than the original.

Last year, the DJ wonder Jamie xx finally delivered his sophomore solo album In Waves. I thought it was good, not great, but Jamie is already back with the deluxe edition of the album that includes some of the one-off singles he dropped between In Colour and In Waves, but it also includes some new tracks, including one built around an Erykah Badu sample that Jamie recorded on his phone during a live set after Primavera Sound.

The last time we heard from Deafheaven was in 2021 when they released their dreamy, ambient-focused album Infinite Granite. For many, it was a polarizing album that found the band breaking away from their signature sound and exploring new, non-metal territory. Well, the riffs and blast beats are back in full force on the band’s new single, “Magnolia,” their heaviest track in about a decade and it sets forth stellar expectations for their new album arriving in March.

After teasing a collaboration for what feels like years at this point, Julien Baker and Torres have finally announced a joint album and shared their second single as a duo. “Sylvia” follows their promised country vibes and while it’s a bit more subtle than their last track, it’s still a delightful offering from country musics next great duo.

The days leading up to the release of Black Country, New Road’s last studio album, 2022’s Ants from Up Here, were slightly marred when lead singer Isaac Wood abruptly quit the band. Still, they persisted on and I named the record one of my favorites of the year. Now the band has announced its first studio release since his departure and the lead single proves the band still has their footing for intriguing art-rock that blends twee melodies with inventive hooks.

One of my favorite albums of 2024 belonged to Niger’s Mdou Moctar. Funeral for Justice is a swirling psych-rock record full of explosive guitar solos and electrifying grooves. Next month, they’ll release an acoustic version of the album and this week they shared the Injustice version of the title-track “Funeral for Justice.”

Albums:

Songs:

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

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