Atwood Magazine is excited to share our Editor’s Picks column, written and curated by Editor-in-Chief Mitch Mosk. Every week, Mitch will share a collection of songs, albums, and artists who have caught his ears, eyes, and heart. There is so much incredible music out there just waiting to be heard, and all it takes from us is an open mind and a willingness to listen. Through our Editor’s Picks, we hope to shine a light on our own music discoveries and showcase a diverse array of new and recent releases.

This week’s Editor’s Picks features Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, JayWood, Vacation Manor, Mumford & Sons, Dreamer Isioma, and Blind Pilot!

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Sharon Van Etten describes Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory as “a meeting of the minds and a sonic trust fall.” Speaking to a captive audience this past Monday night at Woodstock’s Bearsville Theater, she explained how, for the first time in her career, she and her bandmates wrote and recorded everything together until they had a full album’s worth of material – and how this collaborative spirit resulted in a creative freedom she’d never felt before.

You can tell when a record is an “artist” album versus a “band” album – and Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is unmistakably a band album through and through. The combined talents of Van Etten, Jorge Balbi (drums, machines), Devra Hoff (bass, vocals), and Teeny Lieberson (synth, piano, guitar, vocals) are on full display from when the spellbinding “Live Forever” takes flight, to the final moments of “I Want You Here.”

The songs are bold, brash, experimental, and exhilarating – easily Van Etten’s most diverse work of art in her 15-plus year career – and yet, there’s a cohesion to the experience that makes Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory as memorable as it is mesmerizing. Catchy pop-structured songs like “Trouble” and “Afterlife” – two of the record’s singles – put Van Etten’s cathartic, contemplative songwriting on full display, while tracks like “Indio” (which employed alternative scales) and “I Can’t Imagine (Why You Feel This Way)” capture the band’s inventive spirit and originality – a flair that sets them apart, not just from past Van Etten works, but from most contemporary rock artists.

As if the album experience were not enough, the band’s live show is another beast entirely. On stage, the four-piece deliver a soul-stirring, shiver-inducing performance that defies definition. Bits of indie rock, new wave, math rock, garage, post-punk,  psychedelic, and more shine through the haze as, with Van Etten’s breathtaking vocals at the helm, the group deliver a dizzying, dynamic rock show that taps into the core of human experience. It’s a rush, a reckoning, and a raw reflection of where we’re at in 2025.

A soulful ray of sonic sunshine, “BIG TINGS” is an anthem for all the dreamers and believers out there to keep fighting the good fight and gathering that wool. JayWood’s first single of the year sees him collaborating with Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner of art-pop duo Tune-Yards on a song that blurs (and breaks) musical boundaries, all while capturing the magic of hope and the human spirit. “Running outta steam for a living, no givin in. Bite back, you can see me like this, or like that.” JayWood sings at the top, his voice calm, head in the game as in the background we hear, “Big tings coming, coming, coming our way.”

And they sure are.

Ridin on a dream for a lifestyle
Deterring my deathstyle
Deterring my deathstyle
You can see me like this? Or like dat
You can see me like this? Or like dat

So when you’re feeling high
Throw dem hands up to the sky
I got big tings
coming down the pipe so what

So what. It’s hard

“I honestly don’t even know when I became such an optimistic person!” JayWood tells Atwood Magazine. “Most of the time I feel like I’m moody or depressing, but then I see what I choose to write about, and I guess that changes my view a bit. I think the song to me really is just about trusting the process and leaning into the unknown cause you never know what you’ll get from that experience. I wanna believe that as much as life or a situation might be hard or tasking, it only means that better things are to come your way. So I hope that any listener can take a bit of hope from the track and find a way to create their own connection with optimism and fate.”

Hope is a hard thing to come by, especially in a world that seems to take pleasure in beating us back and hitting us when we’re down. JayWood has always been a charismatic character – especially in his art – and in “BIG TINGS,” it’s a seductive strain of hope that shines a light on him and all listeners, illuminating the path forward.

It’s an all too perfect way to kick off 2025 – starting the year off by diving headfirst into the future’s powerful potential.

“There’s a lot going on in the world right now,” Jaywood reflets. “It’s not hard to see that. I think people try to find an escape from this current reality within art and connections with other people so by putting this track out at the start of the year I hope to make a bridge within that experience.”

“My hope this year for my music is to create a community and fanbase that cares to dive deeper into the art I make as well as just taking a bit of a step back from everything going on around them and just having a safe chill space to go for a bit. In hopes to make the realities of life a bit easier even just for a moment – [laughs] – there I go again with this random ass optimism.”

A sun-soaked, smile-inducing revelry, “BIG TINGS” is a big, bold, and beautiful dose of sonic inspiration – and a mainstay of my diet for months to come.

Without a doubt, January got the short end of the ‘month stick.’ It’s cold, it’s dark, and it has to follow the “most wonderful time of the year.” There’s no coming back from that – and to that end, I feel I’ve found a kindred spirit in Vacation Manor’s  “January (Over & Over).” The emotionally charged lead single off the Virginia duo’s upcoming Back to Town EP (out May 15, 2025 via Nettwerk) aches with the desolation, the isolation, and the sheer bleakness of my least favorite month – and it does so with a strikingly seductive alternative heat.

January found you in your bed
Wishing you were somewhere else instead
When they all made resolutions
It started messing with your head
Now January’s got you standing on the edge
Standing on the edge

Thinking you struck out
Wishing you could come down
Like the lights went out
Over and over, over and over again
Over and over again

As the band explains, this song came from feelings of top-of-year exhaustion and emptiness. “I remember I definitely felt a sense of being overwhelmed, wondering where some fresh inspiration was going to come from,” Nathan Towles, who plays in Vacation Manor together with Cole Young, tells Atwood Magazine. “I just needed to write a song about that and get it off of my chest. It deals with feelings of insecurity or comparison when starting a new record.”

Living in the moment’s not so bad
But now it’s gone and it was all you had
You slept right through the Winter
And forgot about the Fall
Now living through the moment’s
Got you living on the еdge
You’re living on the еdge

Thinking you struck out
Wishing you could come down
Like the lights went out
Over and over, over and over again
Over and over again

A golden-hued pop-rock reverie, “January (Over & Over)” is a bona fide come-up from the comedown: A dreamy, dramatic outpouring of catchy and cathartic sound here to remind us that we’re not alone in our misery: Everyone hates January. It’s how it’s always been, and it’s how it will always be. Maybe it has to do with the December’s unfiltered holiday high: That dopamine rush that comes with closing out the year with countless festivities. You celebrate and ring it all in, only to find you have to do it all over again. “January (Over & Over)” is a welcome balm – a warm and wondrous reverie, here to offer a little light in the darkness.

There’s no one standing up in your way
But it’s so easy to blame
It’s no matter of time
And it’s no use waiting ’til everything feels right

Thinking you struck out
Wishing you could come down
Like the lights went out
Over and over, over and over again
Over and over, and over and over
Over and over again

Britain’s original “stomp and holler” band is back and sounding better than ever: With the release of “Rushmere” in mid-January, Mumford & Sons not only delivered their first song in a year’s time (since Jan. ‘24’s “Good People” with Pharrell), but they also announced their first studio album of the 2020s: RUSHMERE, the long-awaited ‘follow-up’ to 2018’s Delta, will come out on March 28^th via Glassnote.

Don’t you miss the breathlessness
The wildness in the eye?
Come home late in the morning light
Bloodshot dreams under streetlight spells
A truth no one can tell
And I was still a secret to myself

A folk-rock fever dream that feels a fresh as it does timeless, “Rushmere” is a stunning homage to the band’s roots – both musically and metaphorically. It was around Rushmere Pond, on Wimbledon Common in southwest London, that Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwane decided to form a band.

And what better way to honor your origin story, than by returning to the sounds that first inspired you? Casual listeners would be forgiven for mistaking “Rushmere” as some long-lost track off Sigh No More, the band’s multi-platinum debut. There’s an instant kinship between the new song and now-‘classic’ hits like “Little Lion Man,” “The Cave,” and “I Will Wait.” Sixteen years on, the acoustic guitars are still jangling, the banjos are still twanging, and Marcus Mumford’s rustic voice still aches with an undeniably raw passion, angst, and yearning.

The band find both a musical and an emotional release in the chorus – a dramatic, cathartic climax that’s as nostalgic and wistful as it is grounded in the moment. Mumford & Sons transport as back to the beginning, reminiscing fondly while harnessing that same energy that drove them onward in their earliest days. It’s upbeat, intimate, exhilarating, and beautifully human:

Light me up, I’m wasted in the dark
Rushmere, restless hearts in the end
Get my head out of the ground
Time don’t let us down again

This is folk rock at its finest; a nod to Mumford & Sons’ past, embedded with their DNA, that nonetheless feels like the exciting start to a brand new chapter – which it most certainly is. All told, “Rushmere” is the perfect reintroduction to Mumford & Sons – a reminder of why the world first fell in love with them nearly two decades ago, and a testament to their enduring ability to capture our ears and our hearts.

Take me back to empty lawns
And nowhere elsе to go
You say, “Come get lost in a fairground crowd”
Wherе no one knows your name
There’s only honest mistakes
There’s no price to a wasted hour

Well, light me up, I’m wasted in the dark
Rushmere, restless hearts in the end
And get my head out of the ground
Time don’t let us down again

It’s the sheer heat of “Did You Ever Care” that hits first: Dreamer Isioma’s first song of the year, released January 31^st in tandem with the explosive upheaval “Dead End,” is hot, heavy, raw, and raging: A smoldering seduction that aches inside and out. The first look at Isioma’s new album StarX Lover (pronounced ‘star-crossed lover,’ out this Spring) finds the singer/songwriter embracing a harder edge, mixing alternative and rock elements into their genre-fluid music for a new sound they affectionately call “Afropop rock.”

She has the type of looks that kill
The type of looks that
start a war for generations
I’ve been waiting patiently
For the kiss of death
I’m such a wreck
Please take my breath away

I just want you next to me
I just wanna f* then go to sleep
I just wanna f* then go to sleep
with you in my arms, oh honey

The result is nothing short of breathtaking, as “Did You Ever Care” welcomes listeners into its bold, lush, and cinematic soundscape. All-consuming synths soar, guitars glisten, and drums pulse a sweaty beat – and at the center of it all lies a human reckoning with a deeply familiar, haunting pain. Dreamer Isioma’s vocal performance is as sonically intense as it is emotionally charged as they channel their unrequited love into this sonic fever dream, evoking the passion, the hunger, and the unrelenting angst they feel within.

I’m not your type and I
What are you into
When I’m high all the time
And I don’t know what is real life is
My psychiatric care is go nowhere
so they won’t stare at me
I wish you were next to me
I just wanna f* then go to sleep
I just wanna f* then go to sleep
with you in my arms oh honey

As unapologetic as it is unfiltered, “Did You Ever Care” captures a broken heart and soul’s reeling. It’s the product of emotional churn, which makes it an all-too perfect accompaniment to February 2025’s blues. As the world burns and we feel helpless to stop it, we deserve music that fits the moment – and Dreamer Isioma has delivered in spades.

Start a fight start a riot I don’t care
I’m beyond numb beyond selfish
I am self-aware
F* it

Did you ever care about me
Because I love you
Did you ever care about me
Because I love you
Did you ever care about me
Because I love you

Hear me out: We Are the Tide remains my all-time favorite, but In the Shadow of the Holy Mountain is, without a doubt, home to some of their best music – and easily the most cohesive, cathartic, and well-rounded record of Blind Pilot’s 18-year career.

The indie folk band’s fourth studio album, released last year (and featured on Atwood Magazine‘s “Best Albums of 2024” feature), was made with a collaborative spirit in mind, and finds the Oregon group dwelling in the depths of human connection, empathy, ancestry, and understanding, while embracing the rich harmonies and warm acoustic instruments that have long been their trademark.

All that it bleeds, all that it takes
Counting off how many years,
how many days
Faces of light wait for you to see
You’re not alone. You’re just lonely

From the sweet revelry of album opener “Jacaranda” and the radiant passion of immigrant anthem “Brave” – an enchanting song breaking down borders and constructs of ‘home’ – to the dreamy warmth of “Don’t You Know,” the charm and churn of “Just a Bird,” the powerful perspective shift (being alone vs. lonely) of “Faces of Light,” and the tender, visceral yearning and catharsis of album closer “Believe Me,” Blind Pilot imbue their latest album with both a musical and a spiritual light.

That light shined especially bright this past Saturday, as the band returned to Woodstock after playing a stripped-down set there just thirteen months ago – right before they recorded the album in Josh Kaufman’s studio. While they brought a plethora of songs from all four albums to life onstage, it was the cuts from their latest effort that hit hardest and resonated the deepest. In the Shadow of the Holy Mountain truly is Blind Pilot’s most beautiful, colorful, cathartic, and compelling album to date – and I just hope more people get to hear, and feel, this record’s golden-hued musical magic. “Faces of Light” and “Lucky” are personal favorites, but in all sincerity, start at the top with “Jacaranda” and let the whole thing wash over you.

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