16 Finest Songs of the Week: Hatchie, Anna von Hausswolff, Stella Donnelly, Hannah Frances, and Extra
Plus Lande Hekt, Magdalena Bay, Sorry, bar italia, and a Wrap-up of the Final Two Weeks’ Different Notable New Tracks
Oct 17, 2025
Welcome to the thirty sixth Songs of the Week of 2025. We didn’t do a Songs of the Week final week as a result of I used to be up in Washington, D.C. final Thursday and Friday overlaying a few reveals, together with Miki Berenyi Trio at Pearl Avenue Warehouse (learn my assessment right here). So this week’s checklist encompasses the final two weeks’ value of songs, which was a bit overwhelming to be sincere.
This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, and Mark Moody helped me determine what ought to make the checklist. We thought-about over 60 songs and narrowed it all the way down to a High 16.
Of be aware maybe: all the High 5 are solo artists which can be girls and primarily from different international locations (two from Australia).
We have to shut the funding hole for our subsequent situation and are providing 25% off subscriptions, 50% off again points, and as much as 70% off print advertisements. Discover out extra right here.
Difficulty 74, The Protest Difficulty, is out now. It options Kathleen Hannah and Bartees Unusual on the 2 covers and may be purchased from us immediately right here.
In current weeks we posted interviews with Wolf Alice (a digital cowl story), Idlewild, Elbow, Baxter Dury (a My Firsts), and extra.
Within the final week we reviewed some albums.
That can assist you type by the multitude of recent songs launched within the final week, we have now picked the 16 finest the final 14 days needed to supply, adopted by some honorable mentions. Try the total checklist under.
1. Hatchie: “Solely One Laughing”
Hatchie, the shoegaze/dream pop venture of Australian musician Harriette Pilbeam, is releasing a brand new album, Liquorice, on November 7 by way of Secretly Canadian. Final week she shared its second single, “Solely One Laughing.” It’s accompanied by a music video through which Pilbeam works at an amusement park and gloriously appears like one thing straight from the early ’90s.
Pilbeam had this to say in regards to the album in a press launch: “I wrote ‘Solely One Laughing’ to air my frustrations with the state of the world and the place I discovered myself in on the time (early 2023). I needed a rollicking track that felt such as you had been struggling to maintain up with me mainly ranting in regards to the lack of management I felt over my life.”
Beforehand Hatchie shared the album’s first single, “Lose It Once more,” by way of a music video. It was one in all our Songs of the Week.
Liquorice is Hatchie’s third full-length album and follows Giving the World Away, which was one in all our High 100 Albums of 2022. Melina Duterte (aka Jay Som) helped produce the album.
“This album feels just like the end result of all the things I’ve needed to do with this venture since I first began it,” says Pilbeam in a press launch. “I targeted on the finer particulars of the trajectory of affection discovered and misplaced, impressed by my favourite tragic romance movies. I’ve by no means felt extra aligned with an album and might’t wait to share the expertise with everybody.”
Pilbeam and her longtime bandmate/romantic companion Joe Agius had been primarily based in Los Angeles for a time, however determined to cease touring and return to Australia.
“In the end, the inspiration for the album got here from residing a quite simple life and having time to reconnect with myself and be alone with my ideas,” says Pilbeam.
The album was recorded at Duterte’s residence studio and options Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint, Courtney Barnett) on drums. Alex Farrar (Wednesday, MJ Lenderman) blended the album, which was mastered by Greg Obis (Dutch Inside, Sluggish Pulp, Wishy).
Jeremy McLennan (Orchin) co-wrote “Lose It Once more” and Agius directed its video.
“I needed to see my limitations as strengths that inform my model,” Pilbeam says about embracing her influences on Liquorice.
Learn our interview with Hatchie on Giving the World Away right here.
Learn our rave assessment of Giving the World Away right here.
Giving the World Away is Hatchie’s second full-length album, the follow-up to her acclaimed debut album, Memento, which got here out in 2019 by way of Double Double Whammy.
Hatchie was featured on Below the Radar’s twentieth anniversary compilation album, Covers of Covers, the place she covers HAIM’s “FUBT.”
Learn our rave 8.5/10 assessment of Memento right here.
Learn our 2018 interview with Hatchie on her EP Sugar & Spice.
Learn our My Favourite Album interview with Hatchie on Carole King’s Tapestry.
2. Anna von Hausswolff: “Wrestle With the Beast”
Swedish musician/composer Anna von Hausswolff is releasing a brand new album, ICONOCLASTS, on October 31 by way of YEAR0001. Yesterday she shared one other new track from it, “Wrestle With the Beast,” which is over eight minutes lengthy. It options Otis Sandsjö on saxophone.
Von Hausswolff had this to say in regards to the single in a press launch: “I wrote this track after a detailed pal skilled a psychosis. There was one thing unstoppable and fully disconnected about her, as if she had been residing and reigning in a parallel universe of some type. She was so far-off from the individual I knew, as if all of her social limitations had fully dissolved. There was a brand new, bizarre brilliance to her manner of speaking and being. She had no filters. I’m glad she’s again to regular right this moment, but it surely made me consider how weak and complicated all of us are, and that there are layers of unresolved trauma and unstated truths inside everybody.”
Beforehand von Hausswolff shared two new songs from ICONOCLASTS: “The Complete Girl” (a duet with Iggy Pop) and “Stardust.” “The Complete Girl” was one in all our Songs of the Week. The album’s subsequent single, “Going through Atlas,” additionally landed on Songs of the Week.
The album additionally options Ethel Cain, Abul Mogard, and Maria von Hausswolff. Von Hausswolff produced the album with longtime collaborator Filip Leyman. Her final studio album, All Ideas Fly, got here out final in 2020 by way of Southern Lord. In 2022 she launched the dwell album, Reside at Montreux Jazz Competition.
3. Stella Donnelly: “12 months of Bother”
Australian singer/songwriter Stella Donnelly is releasing a brand new album, Love and Fortune, on November 7 by way of Dot Sprint Recordings / Distant Management. Final week she shared its newest single, the sincere ballad “12 months of Bother.”
Donnelly had this to say in regards to the track in a press launch: “This one is all coronary heart no ego, all ache no acquire. I initially tried to make this a dance-floor heartbreak however I used to be being too formidable and overthinking it. Julia [Wallace] helped me determine that I simply wanted to play it on my own.”
Love and Fortune contains “Standing Ovation” and “Baths,” two songs Donnelly shared in August. “Standing Ovation” was one in all our Songs of the Week. When the album was introduced she shared “Really feel It Change,” additionally one in all our Songs of the Week.
Love and Fortune is Donnelly’s third album and follows 2022’s Flood and 2019’s Watch out for the Canines (each launched by Secretly Canadian). It was recorded in Naarm and Melbourne with collaborators each longtime (Marcel Tussie, Jack Gaby, and Julia Wallace) and new (Sophie Ozard, Timothy Harvey, and Ellie Mason). A press launch says Love and Fortune options breakup songs.
“These songs wouldn’t depart me alone,” Donnelly says within the press launch. “Like seagulls, they screamed at me once I rode to work, they pecked at me whereas I wrote essays, and so they stole my chips the second I assumed I used to be happier with out music.”
Learn our interview with Stella Donnelly on Watch out for the Canines.
Additionally learn our rave 8.5/10 assessment of Watch out for the Canines.
4. Hannah Frances: “The House Between” (Feat. Daniel Rossen)
Hannah Frances launched a brand new album, Nested in Tangles, final week by way of Hearth Speak. Final week she additionally shared one final pre-release single from the album, “The House Between,” which options Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear.
Frances had this to say in regards to the track in a press launch: “‘The House Between’ is the end result level of the album. It’s an exploration of give up with out resolve or forgiveness, of residing within the areas left.”
“The House Between” was accompanied by a music video made by Frances and Vanessa Castro.
Castro had this to say in regards to the video: “In ‘The House Between’ Hannah Frances performs a contemporary ballet duet with an avant-garde twist choreographed by New York Metropolis Ballet’s Emma Engel. Impressed by Marcel Dzama’s performs and the surrealist creativeness of Leonora Carrington, the piece follows Hannah’s youthful self, additionally performed by Engel, who guides her by a dialogue along with her many components. These selves are embodied by a solid in animal masks, transferring by a dreamlike world that blurs childhood creativeness play with the self-discipline of rising up as a performer.”
Engel provides: “The choreography is dreamlike, constructed on playful shapes and gestures that return all through the video. At first the motion is mild and foolish, however as the 2 characters develop nearer, it transforms into one thing extra highly effective and heartfelt. Mixing hints of ballet with free and summary motion. The dance displays connection, love and the enjoyment of transferring in sync with another person and in the end your self.”
Beforehand Nested in Tangles single “Surviving You” made our Songs of the Week checklist.
5. Lande Hekt: “Favorite Pair of Footwear”
Final week British indie-pop singer/songwriter Lande Hekt (previously of Muncie Women) introduced a brand new album, Fortunate Now, due out January 30, 2026 by way of Tapete. She additionally shared its lead single, “Favorite Pair of Footwear,” by way of a music video.
Hekt had this to say in regards to the track in a press launch: “I wrote this track once I was listening to a number of The Bats and The Chills, it in all probability sounds nothing like all of that Flying Nun stuff however that was what was inspiring me on the time. Regardless of the traces that lean in direction of despair, I feel that is fairly a hopeful track. It’s about rising out of a pit of hopelessness and doing one thing actually constructive. The track options my outdated pal and longtime collaborator Samuel Bedford. We first sang collectively after we had been 16, we recorded a track collectively for his folks solo venture, then we had been in an indie rock band collectively after we had been 21 known as Egocentric Son. Sam sang on my track ‘Kitchen’ in 2020 and now he sings on this track and ‘Coming House.’ Every of those collaborations are 5 years aside which is tidy.”
Hekt wrote and recorded Fortunate Now with producer Matthew Simms (Wire, It Hugs Again).
6. Magdalena Bay: “Human Occurs”
This morning, Los Angeles-based electro-pop duo Magdalena Bay launched two new songs, “Human Occurs” and “Paint Me a Image.” We had been break up on which track we preferred finest, with them each getting a brand new equal variety of votes, in order that they each make this checklist. “Human Occurs” had the slight edge, with three extra factors within the vote.
The songs observe two different new songs the band shared in September, “Second Sleep” and “Star Eyes.” Each made our Songs of the Week checklist.
Magdalena Bay are Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin.
“Right here’s one other pair of songs that complement one another,” the band collectively say in a press launch. “Totally different than the final, completely different than the subsequent.”
The current 4 songs observe Imaginal Disk, their acclaimed sophomore full-length album launched final 12 months on Mother + Pop. It was #1 on our High 100 Albums of 2024 checklist. The band just lately introduced {that a} film related to the album can be launched quickly. Amanda Kramer directed it and Tenenbaum and Lewin wrote and edited it. The precise launch date is TBA.
Stream Imaginal Disk right here.
Learn our rave 9/10 assessment of it right here.
Learn our assessment of Magdalena Bay’s September 2024 live performance on the 9:30 Membership in Washington, D.C. right here.
7. Magdalena Bay: “Paint Me a Image”
8. Sorry: “Immediately Would possibly Be the Hit”
9. bar italia: “omni shambles”
10. Preoccupations: “MUR”
11. Woman Scout: “Similar Youngsters”
12. Courtney Barnett: “Keep In Your Lane”
13. Nonetheless Clean: “Similar Solar”
14. Bizarre Nightmare: “Perpetually Elsewhere”
15. Ladytron: “I See Purple”
16. Doves: “Spirit of Your Buddy”
Honorable Mentions:
These songs virtually made the High 16. There are much more songs on the Spotify playlist.
Black Thought and Hazard Mouse and Rag’n’Bone Man: “UP”
DARKSIDE: “One Final Nothing”
The Dears: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow”
Drop Nineteens: “Fools”
Ezra Furman: “One Hand Free”
Gorillaz: “The Manifesto” (Feat. Trueno and Proof)
HAIM: “Tie you down” (Feat. Bon Iver)
Haley Heynderickx and Max García Conover: “Fluorescent Mild” and “Boars”
Jamie Lidell and Luke Schneider: “New Land”
Jay Som: “Previous Lives” (Feat. Hayley Williams)
Jenny on Vacation: “Dolphins”
Jo Handed: “Ico”
Joyce Manor: “Effectively, No matter It Was”
Joyer: “On the Films”
Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore: “Melted Moon”
Kelly Lee Owens: “ASCEND”
Lala Lala: “Does This Go Quicker?”
Midlake: “The Calling”
Molly Ringworm: “Passenger Princess”
The Mountain Goats: “Chilly at Evening” and “Rocks in My Pockets”
Preoccupations: “PONR”
Steve Gunn: “Morning on Okay Highway”
Sugar: “Home of Lifeless Reminiscences”
Tame Impala: “My Outdated Methods”
Whitney: “Harm”
Right here’s a helpful Spotify playlist that includes the High 16 so as, adopted by all of the honorable mentions and a few extra songs:
