Gold Soundz: May 16, 2025

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

Well, we can’t expect to have major releases every week. The best music of the year has to take breaks like the rest of us. Still, while there might not be something big or notable this week, there are still some things worth checking out.

Heavy hitters Pelican are back this week with another album of colossal metal that surges with unabashed triumph, a punishing yet moving set of songs from these veterans is always welcome. While metal may be at the heart of what they do, there are the usual notes of post-rock and spacier anthems as well that diversify their band’s sonic landscape towards something more encompassing while still dishing out the extremes.

For a reason unbeknownst to me, Tune-Yards don’t get the same media attention as they did in their hey-day when blog-rock and psych-pop were dominating the headlines, but the Merrill Garbus-led outfit still delivers on their quirky and fulfilling style of unconventional pop gems.

On his first solo album since getting sober in 2019, the Libertines singer and guitarist Pete Doherty has said that these tracks didn’t make the cut for his band’s most recent records and now we’re given them in solo format, but any long-time fans of the band should still hear a bit of the garage-rock revivalists swagger and affection in these tunes.

When Rihanna revealed her new pregnancy at this year’s Met Gala, the world let out an audible sigh at the thought of another sign that we probably aren’t ever gonna get that new album. Today though, Riri drops a new single from the latest Smurfs movie and it’s more of a clubby dance track than a pop single and feels like yet another swerve on the road to the follow-up to Anti.

While they’ve been playing a decent amount of shows as of late, it’s been a bit since we last heard studio material from Arca. This week that changed when the producer, best known for creating OG beats for FKA twigs and Björk, shared two new songs that have been prominent in their live sets. These are two more dense tracks of hard, heavy dance music, but ones that will still get you grooving.

Boston’s Pile have evaded genres for their entire existence. Sometimes they go the post-hardcore route, other times just punk, and even just straight-up indie makes its way into their sound, but no matter what, they’re always rocking and their new single “Born at Night” is another great example of how they fold it all into something familiar yet uniquely their own.

While on tour together, Joseph Shabason would often tune and warm-up by playing his solo track “Broken Hearted Kota” and Dawn Richard would chime in by reciting Sade lyrics over the track’s meditative groove. After the tour concluded, they knew this needed to become something more and Richard laid down proper vocals from the songs "No Ordinary Love," "Cherish the Day," and "Is It a Crime" to create this fitting and wondrous tribute to the R&B icon.

Last year, The Cure released their fantastic, instant-classic album Songs of a Lost World. It was their first in sixteen years and while they’re not releasing a follow-up quite yet, they are readying a new remixed version of the record. This week they shared the legendary electronic act Orbital’s take on “Endsong.”

Albums:

PELICAN | Flickering Resonance
TUNE-YARDS | Better Dreaming
EZRA FURMAN | Goodbye Small Head
RICO NASTY | LETHAL
PETE DOHERTY | Felt Better Alive
BAAN | neumann
FULL OF HELL | Broken Sword, Rotten Shield EP
PEARL JAM | The Last of Us EP

Songs:

RIHANNA | “Friend of Mine”
ARCA | “Puta” / “Sola”
PILE | “Born at Night”
LOLA YOUNG | “One Thing”
NATION OF LANGUAGE | “Inept Apollo”
NICK LÉON | “Ghost Orchid” (ft Ela Minus)
NO JOY | “Bugland”
ALAN SPARHAWK | “Not Broken”
JOSEPH SHABASON / DAWN RICHARD | “Broken Hearted Sade”
YEULE | “Dudu”
JEHNNY BETH | “Broken Rib”
R. MISSING | “Cloud Without Tear”
ELIAS RØNNENFELT | “Carry-On Bag”
THE CURE | “Endsong” [Orbital remix]

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