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 Soot Sprite, Black Country, New Road, Spacey Jane, Joan & the Giants, The Ting Tings, and Brandon!

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Raw, angry, and loud, Soot Sprite’s first song of the year is a cathartic, emotionally charged eruption: A 21st Century fever dream fueled by angst and unrest. Released February 25^th via Specialist Subject, “All My Friends Are Depressed” channels our individual hardship, collective trauma, and generational ennui into a dynamic release of tension, turmoil, and soul-shaking indie rock sound. The Exeter trio of Elise Cook (lead vocals/guitar), Sean Mariner (bass/backing vocals), and Sam Cother (drums/backing vocals) hit hard and leaving a lasting mark on the ears and the heart while refusing to roll over let hardship, uncertainty, and fears for the future consume them.

All my friends are depressed
Over worked under stress
Just trying to make it through
the year with less and less
All my friends are getting sick
Weighted down with politics
Something in reality doesn’t quite click

While they reckoning with life’s harsh realities in the verses, Soot Sprite use the chorus as both an emotional climax and an olive branch – offering advise and support in the refrain, “Change what you can, what you control. Let the rest wash over you, try not to fold.”

If your escapism is a sign
That something in your stars aren’t quite in line
Change what you can, what you control
Let the rest wash over you, try not to fold

For Cook, this song is personal, political, and deeply tied to the current state of the world – both on a macro and micro scale. “[It’s] my observation of the mental health crisis we’re in, how widespread it feels, and how sociopolitical factors are playing such a huge part,” she tells Atwood Magazine. “It’s also a reminder to myself that I need to stop distracting myself from my issues and try and change something or face things, or nothing will happen and I’ll never shake off the episode.”

“This song was essentially my exasperation in struggling with my own mental health, and seeing the struggle all around me in my friends and my family,” she continues. “It’s so easy to feel crushed by the weight of things totally outside of our control; I’ve certainly been under it. The only way out of that cycle I’ve found is by trying to find the changes I can make. ‘Change what you can. what you control’ is some kind of mantra I’ve tried to hold onto.”

All my friends under duress
Waiting for whatever’s next
What can be taken to cut us off at the knees
All my friends are in a mess
Scrambling for security
And I’m not an exception by any stretch

If your escapism is a sign
That something in your stars aren’t quite in line
Change what you can, what you control
Let the rest wash over you, try not to fold

Last we connected with Soot Sprite was around their 2021 EP Poltergeists, which I hailed at the time as “an honest and urgent upheaval of radiant, dreamy indie rock – an immersive soundtrack to (and the result of) intimate reflection and isolation: To moments where we can’t connect outward, so we connect inward instead.” The trio have continued to tap (and hone) the same pool of passion and power that fueled those songs, finding in “All My Friends Are Depressed” a way to speak not just for themselves, but for their entire generation.

As the lead single off their upcoming debut album Wield Your Hope Like a Weapon, “All My Friends Are Depressed” sets the tone for Soot Sprite’s new era – a moment born from social discord, helplessness, fury and frustration, and a truly relentless aching deep down in our bones. The song refuses to be ignored while demanding our undivided attention, ensuring that we come away feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, if not altogether inspired.

Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious
We’re all just rain clouds with a sunny disposition

If your escapism is a sign
That something in your stars aren’t quite in line
Change what you can, what you control
Let the rest wash over you, try not to fold

I can’t help but smile from ear to ear every time “Besties” comes on. An intimate embrace of best friendship delivered with the might of a sonic sledgehammer, Black Country, New Road’s first single in three years’ time is earnest, charming, and utterly unapologetic in its delivery. Released January 30^th via Ninja Tune, the lead single off the English sextet’s forthcoming third studio album heralds an artistic evolution from a band that has forever refused to sit still or fit neatly into any single box.

We call them “indie rock,” but the truth is so much more exciting than that – as exemplified in this breathtakingly bold return to the spotlight, replete with a stunning harpsichord performance, achingly expressive saxophone blasts, and Georgia Ellery’s emotionally-charged vocal delivery (marking the first time she’s taken lead on a BCNR song).

I wanna be anywhere other than this
I wanna see my best friend waving at me
I wanna be living with you
Seeing it through
Do you wanna play?
Forever how long can I play?
A song l made, yeah, it’s a song
I’m gonna read something that’s good
But I’ll listen to you

I’m not asking much
Just enough, fill my cup
Get me up
You make me laugh, babe

I’ve read various reviews of “Besties” seeking to capture both the unique sonics of the song, as well as its heartfelt substance – both of which are worth elevating and celebrating. One writer dubbed it “post-punk jazz at its finest,” while another affectionately called it a “Beatlesque baroque pop number.” These descriptions go far to help fill in the many colors of Black Country, New Road’s brave new world (and it’s true, The Beatles’ oeuvre did influence in this music), but ultimately what shines brights on “Besties” is the sentiment itself. Tender melodies support a message of timeless friendship – a bond that can (and will) weather all storms.

The band hit their high in a chorus full of love, punchy instrumental hits, and spirited drum fills:

Yeah, I know what’s expected of me
Besties, night and day
Remember when I said
he shouldn’t treat you that way,
and are you sure?
I know I want something more

Out April 4^th, Black Country, New Road’s third album Forever Howlong sees the band’s three female members (Tyler Hyde, Georgia Ellery, and May Kershaw) taking the reins on both songwriting and vocal duties.

“It created a real through line for the album, having three girls singing,” says Ellery. “It’s definitely very different to Ants From Up There, because of the female perspective – and the music we’ve made also complements that.”

Arriving at a time that feels all too bleak, dark, and difficult to navigate, “Besties” serves to remind us of the people who matter most in our lives – and how our time and energy is far better spent on them. Complete with a music video (courtesy of award-winning director Rianne White) that accentuates this very point, “Besties” will forever be a kind of light in the darkness – a musical beacon here to enthrall, inspire, and illuminate the path forward.

And what about you?
In fact, don’t answer that
Wouldn’t want it any other way
‘Cause this feels
Bestiе girl
Take it back now
What you feel is the hole in your lifе
And she’s probably right
She’s probably right, right, right…

(Just enough) I project
(Fill my cup) I get wet
(Get me up) I get dry
(You make me laugh, babe)
You make me cry, babe
Yeah, I came out and where were you?
I think you see right through me
Bestie, on my mind
Just lean into it
I’m a walking TikTok trend
But the colour runs out in the end

We’ve all got unwanted chaos and trauma in our lives – baggage we’re holding onto, despite knowing we’d be much better off without it. “It’s all just f**ing noise,” Spacey Jane sing in their first song of the year.

Damn right about that.

The sonically charged cathartic exhale 2025 so desperately needs, “All the Noise” is a savage and searing indie rock reckoning with the past. The lead single off Spacey Jane’s forthcoming third album If That Makes Sense (out May 9^th via Concord Records) finds the Australian four-piece in a state of friction and fervor – getting a massive weight off their chests the way they know best.

Get me a girl from the middle of nowhere
I’ll show you who made me
And show me a man that you can’t control
And I’ll get you their baby

Like ah
Well it’s all just f*in noise
Ah well it’s all just

“‘All the Noise’ was mostly written in a hotel room in Sydney having landed in Australia for the first time in 6 months,” Spacey Jane’s frontman Caleb Harper tells Atwood Magazine.

“I suppose there was something about being down under again that made my version of the story of the beginning of my life feel so vivid. It’s angry, but not at someone, and it’s sad because I can’t quite get to the bottom of what or who made me. It might be my favourite riff of Ashton’s and the tightest Peppa and Kieran have ever locked. It’s gonna be so fun live and we’re beyond excited to be sharing our first new music in over a year!”

Did you want half of me would that have been better
Would you have got way more sleep in colder weather
And even though I can’t see why you couldn’t leave it
I don’t know differently so I’m bound to repeat it

This is the way that you gave to me
A getaway car with keys in it down the street
And a bucket of nothing a trap for my feet
A promise that I would hurt
everybody that I ever meet

Like ah
Well it’s all just f*in noise
Ah well it’s all just

A favorite of these pages for several years now (as well as one of our 2023 artists to watch), Spacey Jane have the uncanny ability of bringing sweet rays of sunshine into the darkest corners of the room. Even here – on a song filled with tension and inner turmoil – the band succeeds at instilling a sense of hope into a hopeless state, refusing to be broken by experiences outside of their control.

Set to arrive three years after their critically acclaimed sophomore album Here Comes Everybody (which Atwood specifically praised for its expressions of “reckoning and resilience,”) If That Makes Sense promises to deliver moments of both catchy charm and cathartic churn as Spacey Jane continue to unravel themselves on record.

Did you want half of me would that have been better
Would you have got way more sleep in colder weather
And even though I can’t see why you couldn’t leave it
I don’t know differently so I’m bound to repeat it

“This album isn’t trying to be anything in particular,” the band recently stated. “Sometimes it is sure of itself and other times it whispers uncertainty. It feels like a contradiction of forgiveness and anger, love and breakdown and that’s what I was trying to reconcile in the title. It’s hard to give it a theme other than an overwhelming sense of confusion and a less than successful attempt to tie up emotional loose ends. We went to the U.S., we put our faith in new collaborators and finished making a self-funded record without a label home for it. We stepped off the cliff everyday and loved it, and we have never been happier with our work than we are now.”

“All That Noise” is an exciting, exhilarating first look at 2025-era Spacey Jane, a band committed to bringing their very best – and their authentic selves – to every second of their songs, even if it hurts.

I’m not feeling straight anymore
Years of f*ups rolling in and knocking at my door
I can’t take the blame anymore
Yes it’s all my fault and I have years of keeping score

I found the boy from the middle of nowhere
Showed him what they made me
And he opened his mouth for a chance to tell me
Jesus killed my baby

And that was the way that they gave to me
A getaway car with its brakes cut down the street
And a head full of nothing a dream without sleep
A promise that I would hurt everybody that I ever meet

We never know how strong we are, until we’re faced with a challenge and come out the other side – still alive, still breathing. Atwood artist-to-watch Joan & the Giants have stepped into 2025 acknowledging that timeless truth with a deep, dramatic exhale of resilience, acceptance, and release. As cathartic and breathtaking as it is achingly emotional, “Still Breathing” is a testament to the enduring sting of loss and the vivid depth of our own inner strength. It’s a spirited rallying cry for broken hearts and brooding souls – an anthem that aches inside and out, reckoning with what it means to love, let go, and move on.

Waging war
Upon your shore
Getting pulled out with the tide
Fighting for
Who we were before
Lost behind your lines

But some things are best kept in the past
And I know we weren’t built to last
Broke this home
Got nowhere to go
I can’t stop the bleeding
But I’m still breathing
I’m still breathing

“‘Still Breathing’ came about so organically in a jam room setting between the four of us,” Joan & The Giants’ frontwoman Grace Newton-Wordsworth tells Atwood Magazine. “Liam started playing the delayed opening bass chords, and the song came so naturally it felt like it was already written and just handed to us in a kind of divine, working with your intuition and feeling the flow type way. I think the strongest songs we’ve written have come about like this, where all the parts and lyrics are just organically there, and you don’t have to overthink or come back to it a thousand times.”

“When it comes to the lyrics. this song was written by Aaron Birch and myself, really in the midst of an absolute storm and the inner chaos of a post-nine year breakup. After Aaron and I chose to part ways romantically, we really tried our hardest to keep the band going together for over a year afterwards, and it truly just became so deeply painful (almost Fleetwood Mac style) for the two of us, to the point where the healthiest decision was to part ways entirely.”

“The lyrics really speak about an inner war, trying to fight for the people you once were but knowing you have to let it all go – ‘But some things are best kept in the past, and I know we weren’t built to last.’”

“Still Breathing” is personal both to Grace Newton-Wordsworth (and former bandmate Aaron Birch), as it is central to Joan & the Giants’ own story; the band continues to soldier on, despite the loss of a member, having weathered a rift that certainly threatened to sink the ship.

You withdrew
Took it all with you
Left me in the fight
But I run back to you
Like I always do
Every lonely night

“All of the pain sits within the verses and pre chorus, and finally there’s just a huge release in the chorus of ‘I’m Still Breathing,’” she continues. “This line to me is so powerful and accurate to what we were going through, complete internal suffocation and drowning, but still having the ability to fight and know we’re alive, we’re still breathing and it’s okay to let go of the past and move on. I love the ending of this song, and the huge crowd singalong of the ‘woah oh oh ohs’! It’s really moving when we play this one live, as I think every person goes through deep heartbreak and pain in this life, and the truth is we’re all Still Breathing and we’re all in this together.”

“As some of you may have seen, Aaron has stepped away from Joan & The Giants in an announcement made in January this year, and this song sort of feels like a perfect farewell and parting of ways. I’m really proud of the music we’ve made together, and how far we’ve come as people, and I love that we’ve put it all into our songs, and can let go of all this pain now and breathe.”

“Still Breathing” is a beautiful balm – both a reckoning with the past, and a map for the future. It’s a welcome return from one of our favorite indie pop bands, and a show of force alongside the reassurance that, come hell or high water, they’re not going anywhere.

But some things are best kept in the past
And I know we weren’t built to last
Broke this home
Got nowhere to go
I can’t stop the bleeding
But I’m still breathing
I’m still breathing

It’s the warmth of “Danced on the Wire” that hits you first: A sonic heat that wraps around the ears and heart, immersive and intense, like a weighted blanket for the soul. Released in November as a double-single together with the track “Down,” The Ting Tings’ first release in five-plus years is a smoldering, seductive, and stirring folk-soaked fever dream. Achingly raw and beautifully vulnerable, with rich vocal harmonies and gentle acoustic guitar lines reverberating throughout, “Danced on the Wire” is a breathtaking return for the English duo of Katie White and Jules De Martino.

I can’t explain the feeling, but you know it
Why we wait so many years to feel the same
If I was wise, then I would try to ignore it
I would stay here, it’s familiar and it’s safe

Shake the tree and watch the apples rolling
I tried my hardest to catch them in my shirt
We will never stop the next new ones from growing
Next spring, we’ll pick up all the ones we hurt

I just can’t wait anymore
I just can’t wait anymore

“‘Danced on the Wire’ is a story about the moment in life that you go forwards with the need to end something… and the grief that is triggered for both sides,” the pair, who relocated from London to Ibiza in 2020 with their newborn child, tell Atwood Magazine. “We really focused on good old-fashioned songwriting and storytelling.”

Those who remember The Ting Tings for their 2008 album We Started Nothing – home to their breakout single, “That’s Not My Name” – should be ready to toss out that memory and start completely fresh. The 2025 version of the band is more in line with the sounds and songwriting styles of 1970s Fleetwood Mac – or the more recent, made-for-television version, Daisy Jones and the Six. “Danced on the Wire,” “Down,” and the recently released “Good People Do Bad Things” represent the first few looks into The Ting Tings’ forthcoming sixth studio album, HOME (out June 6^th, 2025 via their own label, Wonderful Records).

“This album has taken us four years to write and record,” White and De Martino explain. “It is a love letter to everything we have come to love as songwriters. It has a late ‘70s soft rock, yacht rock inspiration. And in all honesty, we just made music we wanted to hear. All those great old records make us feel warm and nostalgic, they change the mood in the room or car and with the songs on this album we chased that feeling. We live on the island of Ibiza with our daughter and slow living and creativity, attention to detail and really learning our craft has been our focus for the past few years. If people get that warm feeling from this record then we will be over the moon.”

I’m sorry if I broke to you my promise
And I’m sorry if I went back on my words
Now you’re looking over at me
in the most peculiar way
I could tell you my whole story,
I just don’t know what to say

But I just can’t wait anymore (you know that I)
I just can’t wait anymore
I just can’t wait anymore

As a self-described ‘scholar’ of classic rock, this new era of The Ting Tings feels like a gift come true. For all those who say they don’t make ‘em like Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, or Steely Dan anymore, here comes a group to challenge the notion that music’s greatest eras are behind us; that ‘classic’ sounds can only exist in the past.

“Danced on the Wire” is especially intimate, meaningful, and moving, as it reveals the achingly human depths of the duo’s artistry. “It means the years spent trying to compromise, balance, and perform to keep a relationship working,” they say of the phrase itself. Tender and heartfelt, urgent and aching, their instrumental and vocal work accentuate those raw emotions – and the lived experiences of two dedicated, working artists. This song expresses real pain; real frustration; real tension and turbulence. It’s beautiful in its honesty, and for that – together with the sheer heat of the production – I will forever cherish it.

In the middle of the night,
the places we’ll say we’ll be
Watched everybody leave,
we held on desperately
Oh, what a day, oh,
what a day to leave
Danced on the wire,
waited patiently

Danced on the wire
I danced on the wire

Who knew a sonic diary could feel so… enveloping? Brandon’s latest single is a candid, cathartic, and utterly captivating conversation between artist and audience. The LA-based artist (née Brandon Joseph) spills his aching heart and weary soul in dramatic fashion, holding nothing back as he sings his love for the one who got away. Released February 20^th, “Right Back” is brutally brooding and beautiful: A dreamy, genreless, all-consuming enchanting.

I get lost in your pretty gaze
I just wish that you’d feel the same still
My old mind ain’t a lovely place
Try, I’ll try, but I can’t erase all
The pain I faced when you ran away
wasn’t a simple place
We’re onto different things now,
but I still want you bad, I do

You’re like cyanide
but baby, I still want you
Oh, I can’t lie
Yeah, you hurt like hell too
Oh, why, oh, why
do I come right back to you?
You’re the drug I like
You got me running right back to you

“‘Right Back’ is one of my favorites from the album,” Brandon says. “It packs everything. The lyrics, the energy, the emotion, and the story. It’s a special one to me. Every time it comes on it, makes me want to dance.”

Lyrically vulnerable and sonically smoldering, “Right Back” hits with the warmth and weight of the artist’s innermost confessions. He sings into existence all those thoughts and feelings we traditionally keep to ourselves, saying aloud what so many of us might be too afraid to express.

I don’t mind waiting all my life for you
I don’t wanna keep on fighting and rioting
I still got a lot of things on my mind
but to you it’s all a waste of time
I don’t mean to bother,
but it’s messing with me
Just give me one more chance,
now you over with me
Just tell me why this breakup
is harder than it’s supposed to be?
Said, “I love you,”
why you gotta be so cold to me?
Listen

Hey lil’ mama!
Let’s cut the drama!
Spin that ‘Silkk da Shocka’
Double-entendre
I just want your love-ah
Listen to this song!
Hear my heart beating like a drummer!
Playing my guitar-ah
I wish it was the summer!
I just want forever, me and you
Yeah, I played too many games
Now you tell me that it’s through
I feel the pain,
man, I can’t even move, yeah
Get me in tune, baby

A breathtaking song in its own right, “Right Back” is also the lead single off Brandon’s forthcoming debut album Before You Go (out May 9th via Secretly Canadian), which he describes as not just a document of heartbreak but an embrace of love’s complexities: “The beauty of uncertainty and the inevitability of change.” It’s an unapologetically, uncompromisingly human record, and one that brings us face to face with Brandon’s mind, his heart, and his soul.

And it’s true that there’s something wholesome and altogether wonderful about an artist manifesting their innermost self in song; finding the right combination of words and sounds to express everything they need to share in a given moment. “Right Back” hits home – and feels good – because it is authentic to where Brandon was when he wrote it. Full of nostalgia, love, and longing, the song is a deep groove, and one that promises to sit with listeners long after the music fades.

You’re like cyanide,
but baby, I still want you
Girl, I can’t lie
Yeah, you hurt like hell too
Oh, why, oh, why
do I come right back to you?
You’re the drug I like
You got me running right back to you

— — — —

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Editor’s Picks

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