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 Merpire, Bad Suns, Soft Loft, milk., Housewife, and Ruby Gill!

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Talk about basking in the heat of the moment  – Merpire herself might as well be emanating flames. The Naarm/Melbourne-based artist’s first song in three years gets hot and heavy with that funny feeling, channeling desire and intimacy into an intoxicating musical sweat. Released on Valentine’s Day (because of course it was), “Premonition” aches with the intensity of love’s first brush – when everything is fresh, new, and exciting, and our heart pretty much takes up permanent residency in our stomachs.

“May as well start off with a bang, huh?” Merpire – aka Rhiannon Atkinson-Howatt – tells Atwood Magazine. “I was reading my first fantasy novel at the time, ‘The Name of the Wind’ by Patrick Rothfuss. The lyrics and scene-building of this song were inspired by the main-character in the novel and the way they felt about another character. The honest detail is achingly relatable. It got me thinking about the most intense moments of a crush. The lyrics just flowed from there.”

‭I’m in the garden buzzing you in‬
I will forget it in a week or two‬
I‭ can’t imagine losing you now‬
‭I hold you closer than I really should‬

‭There’s a pull in my skin‬
To‭ show you where you’ve not been‬
It’s‭ all I think about‬

“I wrote the lyrics and music separately,” she explains. “I love it when a writer doesn’t choose the most obvious chord to go to next or will change a couple of notes in a chord to strengthen the emotion intended behind a lyric. I try to write similarly. It challenges me to keep growing as a writer. I’m not a great guitarist, I don’t know much theory – I know maybe five chord names and the rest is making shapes and sounds. Though sometimes frustrating, the lack of theory helps me play around in the unknown and follow what I like the sound of first.”

“I do know that I wrote ‘Premonition’ in open D with a high e string, a common practice for me. The shapes are easier to play when wanting to incorporate dissonant notes and 7ths and 9ths that I so love. I was learning to sing and play riffs at the same time. Learning to do that brought this song to life.  I can’t tell you how or why I wrote the run-down vocal melodies in the chorus, they just came out. I like how playful the word ‘f*’ is in the chorus.”

Merpire rises to a truly cathartic climax in the chorus, her performance echoing those beautiful and raw feelings within:

When‭ we hug it out‬
‭I get a premonition we are alone‬
‭And we f* around‬
I‭ get a premonition‬
I‭ get a premonition‬

What makes “Premonition” such an exceptional love song – because it is, in fact, a love song – is how Merpire so candidly and colorfully engages with her feelings, putting the spotlight on those emotions, rather than the relationship itself. “I’m at a party making a scene existing only inside of me,” she confesses in the second verse. There’s a whole world right in those twelve words, just waiting to be unpacked and understood. We’ve all been there; we’ve all felt that uncertainty, the insecurity of a crush, the ‘not knowing’ that amps up our anxiety and drives us toward paranoia. “Nervous to even look at you now, in case you see yourself inside my head.”

I’m‭ at a party making a scene‬
Existing‭ only inside of me‬
Nervous‭ to even look at you now‬
‭In case you see yourself inside my head‬

‭There’s a pull in my skin
To‭ show you where you’ve not been‬
It’s‭ all I think about‬

The “Premonition” music video adds further fuel to the artist’s inner (and outer) fire.

“When it comes to creating visuals for my music, each song exists at a time of day to me,” Merpire adds. “The lighting for each song in my mind sets the mood. ‘Premonition’ sits at mid-evening when in the dark, natural scenery becomes dream-like and otherworldly. This video was filmed on my phone by my partner Dom at my Mum’s place who lives in tropical Queensland. I’d had this idea brewing in my head for a while to film me walking around Mum’s property which is thick with tropical wilderness and for the garden to represent the age old symbolism of female anatomy, blooming of desire. This is also the first lyric of the song, ‘I’m in the garden buzzing you in,’ which I’ll leave listeners to interpret as they wish.”

The first of much more to come, “Premonition” is a welcome return from one of Melbourne’s finest, and a provocative, utterly enchanting display of Merpire’s musical, lyrical, and storytelling talents.

When‭ we hug it out‬
‭I get a premonition we are alone‬
‭And we f* around‬
I‭ get a premonition‬
I‭ get a premonition‬

The fire Bad Suns lit thirteen years ago continues to burn bright, as evidenced by the indie rock band’s latest, luminescent single. A glistening, golden-hued reverie, “Communicating” is a seductive and sun-kissed expression of love. It’s euphoria manifest in sound – a dreamy, feel-good embrace of that person who lights up our lives, and how the more we get to know them (and they us), the more we come to appreciate their eccentricities.

Check my phone
Am I dreaming?
New message
“Are you doing anything this evening?”
I’ve got some time and a bottle of wine
Researching your sign
Pick you up at nine

Late night showing
Take you home and

Frontman Christo Bowman explains how he used the early days of his relationship with his fiancée as an inspiration or template for the song, “reminiscing on those first dates and initial conversations that would provide the foundation of his relationship today.” The pair recently celebrated 12-plus years together, but as well know, such stability only comes from navigating a wealth of unknowns and unspoken expectations.

 “Lyrically, I was inspired to reflect and sift through my memories of our earliest times together, back when we couldn’t have possibly predicted what the future held in store for us,” Bowman tells Atwood Magazine.

Do you want me to stay?
You’ve got a really funny way of
Communicating
Do you want me to go?
It’s like I never really know
If you love or hate me

Tongue in cheek, I’m anxious
Now you’re speaking my language
Do you want me to stay?
You’ve got a really
funny way of communicating

Musically, the band seem to have homed in on their latest EP’s title, seeking to bring more Infinite Joy to life in their sounds and style choices. “It had been a cold and rainy couple of weeks in February but that morning, the clouds parted, and the sun emerged for a beautiful, sunny day in Los Angeles,” Bowman explains. “There were palm trees all around me and I just wanted to write a song that captured that essence.”

He describes it as a “quintessential SoCal moment,” and the shoe, unsurprisingly, fits: Through its sweet ebbs and sweaty flows, “Communicating” offers a colorful, cathartic exhale of light and love, warmth and wonder to all who listen. It’s a smile-inducing anthem beckoning us to dance, dream, and bask in the glow of something greater than ourselves.

It’s the fragility and tenderness of Jorina Stamm’s voice that hits first; hot on the mic, Soft Loft’s lead singer and songwriting aches inside and out as she elegantly dances between the brutal and beautiful, the highs and lows of a love story that ought to end, but seemingly never does.

Released January 8^th via [PIAS], “Leave the Light On” is a beautifully dramatic reverie – a source of comfort and catharsis, passion and pain that finds the Swiss indie rock collective channeling the intimate heat of a fractious relationship into a sweaty, spellbinding, and soul-stirring seduction.

I’ve got allergies
you’re cleaning your carpet
next to my room
where is the timing off
Your space filled all of my afternoon

you leave the light on
you keep the light on
with the water in the pot
hu hu hu hu hu

“The light is never really out, and they keep falling back to each other, but never really in a good way,” Jorina Stamm explains. “There’s always a little bit of water left in the kettle to keep it boiling. It’s that fine line between something good and something you never want to go back to. And you keep on wishing for that person to just turn the light off.”

“‘Leave the Light On” is the first of six new songs we recorded some time ago in a studio in Germany, during our first tour playing international shows,” she continues. “Just recently, we reflected on what these new tracks mean to us, and we all agreed that the process felt incredibly freeing. Having already released our debut album, it was as if we were given the space to experiment again – to simply make the music we felt inspired to create in that moment. This song is the first glimpse into those fresh ideas. It’s the one that most closely resembles the sound of our debut album, for us kind of building a bridge between our previous work and our upcoming EP, Modern Roses.”

hands on cheeks
this feels like a moment of release
I never wanna leave
but after all I swear this is my plea

you leave the light on
you keep the light on
with the water in the pot
hu hu hu hu hu

“Lyrically, ‘Leave The Light On’ explores the difficulty of letting go and the weight of what’s left behind when someone leaves. It could also be about how annoying it can be when your roommate leaves the light on; you choose where the song takes you!”

oh tell me where did time go my dear
is this right I fear
where did time go my dear
is this right I fear

soft and sweet
you‘re waving from afar
so I can’t reach
a taste of pine my love
just close enough
to haunt me in my dreams

Whether we take it at face value or dig a little deeper, there’s no denying the simultaneously charming and churning nature of this achingly enchanting indie rock song. “Leave the Light On” is a call for closure, a call for connection, and a call for catharsis all in one. Whether we get there or not is a story for another time, but here, Soft Loft are without a doubt laying a strong foundation not just for their upcoming EP, but for their identity as a band and a purveyor of human emotions.

you leave me losing
you keep me moving
with the water in the pot

you leave me losing
you keep me moving
with the water in the pot

you leave the light on
you keep the light on
with the water in the pot

The song is called “Don’t Miss It” – and yet, I very nearly did. Milk’s one and only single of 2024 (following 2023’s acclaimed 3, the EP., is a spectacular sonically and emotionally charged fever dream reckoning with unresolved emotions. The Dublin band hit the ground running with a swift, tight, and catchy dramatic upheaval of those turbulent, aching emotions that eat us up from the inside out; the feelings we need to let out, lest they consume us whole:

I’ve been dealing with this feeling.
That I’m selfish.
But I can’t help it.
I’ve been holding out on hope.
And I feel foolish.
Cause I don’t do this.

I don’t miss it,
no I just miss you///

“‘Don’t Miss It’ has already become an important song for us and a fixture of our live show of late,” drummer Morgan Wilson tells Atwood Magazine. “We have closed the show with it across the last tour purely because of how fun it was to play, and it has become very closely linked with a real feeling of togetherness and excitement for us. It will always remind me of our live show, and we sought to carry as much of that tangible energy into this recording as we could.”

I’ve been facing my mistakes.
And don’t make me say it.
Cause I’ll just fake it.
I’ve been drooling over you.
Don’t just say it.
Please display it.

I don’t miss it,
no I just miss you…

Candid lyrics and a cathartic, fiery soundbite of a chorus herald milk.’s comeback in a big, bold way. With their long-awaited debut album supposedly in the works (after three incredible EPs) and, there has never been a better time to hop on the bandwagon and get to know one of my personal favorite bands – a group who tells it like it is, truly holding nothing back when they declare, “I’ve been dealing with this feeling.“

Oof. Pour yourself a tall glass of milk. and prepare for an unforgettable onslaught of white-hot sound.

I just said I want to be alone to see if I’d believe it.
Take the time to figure out the things that I’m not seeing.
I’ve been dealing with this feeling.
That I’m helpless.
And I can’t help it.

A spirited anthem and a soul-stirring surrender all in one, Housewife’s “Work Song” reckons openly and honestly with our own humanity. The Canadian indie alt-pop artist channels feelings of full saturation and emotional burnout into a cathartic and energetic upheaval full of rich vocal harmonies, raging guitars, and warm, lush melodies aching with feeling. The scene is raw, yet redemptive, expressive and exhilarating, and altogether unapologetic.

After all, why should sharing our truths, heavy or otherwise, be anything but celebratory? Even whilst acknowledging her own limits, Housewife – aka Brighid Fry – embraces all those special parts that make up her unique self. To that end, “Work Song” is not just her own intimate song, but an anthem for us all.

I only wear glasses when I travel
Can’t even see the street signs
Hollow talk about you for an hour
Break down your issues
so I don’t have to feel mine

Slow me down
I’m dying to work a miracle
Bail me out
I’ve got all my cards on the table
My sleeves are unraveling now

“‘Work Song’ is about trying to balance having really high expectations for myself and having a lot of big goals I want to achieve while also being someone with executive functioning issues, who’s a bit of a mess a lot of the time,” Fry tells Atwood Magazine. “It’s about trying to figure out how to feel like I’m doing what I need to do while also respecting my health and not burning myself out.”

“I have a lot of ongoing health issues and was diagnosed this year with autism and ADHD, and I think with non-visible disabilities it can often feel like you’re making an excuse for not functioning on the same level as other people when it isn’t really something you can help. I wrote this song before being formally diagnosed and so I think I was grappling with those feelings in a more unsure and self-deprecating way. That being said, it was important to me that the song not feel like a downer, so I also chose to kind of poke fun at myself for maybe not always doing the things I need to do to be functioning at my best.”

“‘Work Song’ was written and produced with the very talented Toronto producer Derek Hoffman, and the video was made with Carly Boomer. Funnily enough, I think I was both sick for the recording of the song and the making of the video, but I still did my best, which is sometimes all we can do!”

What’s the point of having all the answers
If you don’t wanna hear em
Climbing out of the holes that I made
Now it’s getting cliched to fall in again

Slow me down
I’m dying to work a miracle
Bail me out
I’ve got all my cards on the table
My sleeves are unraveling now

It’s all too fitting that this particular Editor’s Picks arrives as the clock strikes 5 PM, and I end what has been an especially long and arduous work week. There will no doubt be many more of those kinds of weeks ahead, only this time, I’ll be armed with an extra special song that reminds me of my worth, all while lighting a fire deep inside.

Woke up, got scared
Ghosted my therapist
Choked up, not fair
Don’t care, I’m over it

Slow me down
I’m dying to work a miracle
Bail me out
I’ve got all my cards on the table
My sleeves are unraveling now

The weight of the world come and goes on Ruby Gill’s first song of the year – easily one of the most intimate pieces of music I have ever heard. Released February 5^th, “Touch Me There” is the Naarm/Melbourne-based singer/songwriter’s personal coming out – not just to the world, but to theirself. It’s a cathartic, diaristic confession, live and in real time, said aloud so that it can be felt – and accepted – within.

I know few songs that are as raw, or as real, as “Touch Me There”; that hit as hard as Ruby Gill does when they sing these words, softly, over a bed of gentle acoustic guitar strums. This is their life, after all – and over the course of four soul-stirring minutes, they give the whole world a window into what is possibly the most vulnerable, and personal, moment they will ever experience.

touch‭ me there‬
where‭ I don’t let anyone go‬
you‭ know I like it slow‬
‭say a prayer‬
‭over me from down below‬

I‭ haven’t been kissing the people I want to‬
been‭ making excuses
but mostly they’re nonsense‬
I’ve‭ heard myself lying‬
‭like I don’t like women‬
‭like I don’t feel anything
except when I’m drinking‬

“During the longest dry spell of my life, I came out to myself,” Gill tells Atwood Magazine. “The first time I said it out loud was in this song – all that sitting by a river waiting for the truth to come out led to me being honest for the first time about who I was attracted to and what kind of sex I wanted in my life.”

“It took almost two years of zero kissing to get to that point of self-knowledge. Not intentionally – everything just felt so wrong and scary after being touched in really unsafe ways before that. I was numb for years, but I finally felt sensation in my body again after writing ‘Touch Me There.’ It broke me open. I hope it breaks other people open too, whether it’s about queerness or otherwise. You have a say over your love and pleasure.”

I‭ don’t want to be angry
with you there above me‬
I‭ want to feel power in this little body‬
‭I want to get naked‬
‭go swimming in the river‬
want‭ you to look over
like you can’t wait any longer‬

‭I don’t want to be just here
alone in this pleasure‬
I want to feel braver‬
‭want to taste and to savour‬

“I’ve‭ spent all my life thinking that I am a problem‬, that‭ this is the kiss that will get me in trouble‬,” Gill confides in song, “‭but I want to love you right here on the carpet‬, want‭ someone to know what I like when I’m tired‬.” Slowly, steadily, they unravel, coming into themself in parallel with their song’s own seductive slow-burn. Ultimately, they rise to a spellbinding, beautiful fever pitch, repeating the line “‭I haven’t been kissing the people I want to‬” as a mantra of empowerment, fully embracing their sexuality for the very first time.

‭I’m doing my best to let go to get over‬
‭to silence the devil that sits on my shoulder‬
‭who tries to convince me that I am an angel‬
when‭ I just want you to f* me on the table‬

‭I haven’t been kissing the people I want to‬
‭I haven’t been kissing the people I want to‬
I‭ haven’t been kissing the people I want to‬
‭I haven’t been kissing the people I want to‬

They’re not shouting into the depths; they’re singing to themselves, and looking up toward a brighter, sweeter, and more self-assured future ahead.

And just like that, the weight is lifted once and for all.

The latest single off Ruby Gill’s upcoming sophomore album Some Kind of Control (out March 28^th), “Touch Me There” is truly one-of-a-kind.

‭touch me there‬
where‭ I don’t let anyone go‬
you‭ know I like it slow‬

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