Atwood Journal is happy to share our Editor’s Picks column, written and curated by Editor-in-Chief Mitch Mosk. Each week, Mitch will share a set of songs, albums, and artists who’ve caught his ears, eyes, and coronary heart. There may be a lot unimaginable music on the market simply ready to be heard, and all it takes from us is an open thoughts and a willingness to pay attention. By our Editor’s Picks, we hope to shine a light-weight on our personal music discoveries and showcase a various array of latest and up to date releases.
This week’s Editor’s Picks options Matt Maltese, sombr, Hannah Cohen, OSLO SLOW, Wafia, and Fontaines D.C.!
observe EDITOR’S PICKS on Spotify
“Buses Substitute Trains”
by Matt Maltese
“Bmakes use of exchange trains and white strains exchange planes, however tright here’s no changing you and I.” Matt Maltese has lengthy had a method with phrases, however his newest launch is one thing particular: A beautiful, timeless, heartrending addition to the ever-growing pantheon of nice love songs. Launched in mid-April, “Buses Substitute Trains” finds the beloved British singer/songwriter at his most tender and poetic, spinning scenes of departure and distance right into a quiet, breathtaking meditation on love’s permanence in a world stuffed with change. Together with his signature heat and wistful candor, Maltese turns on a regular basis photographs into one thing sacred, capturing the ache of affection in transit – and the gravity of what it means to really miss somebody.
Shut ain’t shut sufficient
I wanna’ tiptoe in your thoughts
Ceaselessly is just too brief
I wanna’ make love within the afterlife
And time gained’t cease being form
Minds gained’t cease altering minds
Buses exchange trains and
White strains exchange planes however
There’s no changing you and I
Buses exchange trains and
Highways exchange lanes however
There’s no changing you and I
Oh, I’d wish to see them strive
“It’s most likely one of many purest love songs I’ve ever launched,” Maltese tells Atwood Journal. “An in depth Welsh buddy of mine has an uncle who all the time needed him to name his band ‘Buses Substitute Trains.’ I bear in mind listening to that phrase – I’d seen it earlier than whereas touring, however there was one thing so mundane about it… In a long-term relationship, you understand you’re simply making the boring lovely half the time. It’s in regards to the on a regular basis, the small issues. I assumed it was the right title for a love music. I used to be in a position to be extremely earnest and passionate underneath the guise of a ridiculously drab British phrase.”
There’s a soul-stirring magnificence in the best way Maltese captures love’s smallest moments — the bizarre areas that fill with depth, historical past, and that means over time. “You sweep your tooth, I do the dishes / It’s these exchanges that I miss,” he sings, wrapping home mundanity in a blanket of longing. “Buses Substitute Trains” is a love music not of grand gestures, however of fidelity and care — the rhythms of cohabitation, the consolation in routine. Strains like “Don’t want fireworks or setting suns / Simply somebody who gained’t attempt to run” strike with unvarnished honesty, distilling affection into its most important type: Presence.
Each single morning
You wrap- you wrap your legs round mine
And satellites gentle above,
mythological crеatures run
Simply to catch a glimpse of her
And busеs exchange trains and
White strains exchange planes however
There’s no changing you and I
Buses exchange trains and
Motors exchange sails
However there’s no changing you and I
Oh, I’d wish to see them strive
A lush, expressive orchestral association courtesy of legendary arranger Rob Moose (Bon Iver, Paul Simon, Taylor Swift) heightens the music’s emotional affect, his string swells complementing each Maltese’s lilting piano efficiency and his tender, sentimental vocal supply — elevating the observe’s intimacy into one thing cinematic and lasting – an instantaneous fashionable basic.
With “Buses Substitute Trains,” Matt Maltese doesn’t simply write about love — he honors it. Majestic, profound, and effortlessly shifting, this music is a reminder that among the strongest expressions of devotion dwell within the margins: Within the missed mornings, the mundane exchanges, the areas left behind. “I do know it’s not that easy, however it’s,” he repeats within the outro, distilling life and love right into a single, soul-stirring fact – a mantra we will carry with us, in our hearts and on our tongues.
The newest single off Maltese’s upcoming fifth studio album Hers (out Might 16th through The Orchard), “Buses Substitute Trains” is the sort of music that lingers lengthy after the ultimate chord – a tender ache, a figuring out smile, a held breath – and in its simplicity, it says all of it.
I do know it’s not that easy
However it’s
I do know it’s not that easy
However it’s
I do know- I do know it’s not that easy
However it’s
“I don’t wanna get undressed for a brand new particular person another time.” With one easy, gut-punch of a line, sombr captures the exhaustion and hesitancy of opening your coronary heart after heartbreak. Launched March 21st through Warner Information, “Undressed” is dreamy and aching by means of and thru — an irresistibly catchy indie pop reverie wrapped in bittersweet longing. Glistening guitar loops and honeyed vocals masks a quietly devastating emotional core, because the 19-year-old singer/songwriter and producer confronts the burden of intimacy, reminiscence, and emotional renewal.
You had a dream, you needed higher
You have been sick of all of the holes in your sweater
You appeared to me and puzzled whether or not
I used to be the lamppost to which you have been tethered
I’m lookin’ at you, and also you’re lookin’ at me
However the glimmer in your eyes
is sayin’ you wanna depart
You’re sayin’ to me what you’re sayin’ to me
However the glimmer in your eyes
is telling me different issues
“This music is about eager for a previous love and navigating the emotions and energy wanted to begin over with somebody new,” sombr explains, and that longing bleeds into each beat. There’s a mild vulnerability embedded within the observe’s tender shimmer, a heavy-hearted nostalgia woven into its breezy pulse. “Undressed” lingers like a bruise – heat and melodic on the floor, however aching simply beneath.
I don’t wanna get undressed
For a brand new particular person another time
I don’t wanna kiss another person’s neck
And need to fake it’s yours as an alternative
Whereas the LA-based, New York native (née Shane Boose) has been on the rise for fairly a while, current singles like “again to pals,” “do i ever cross your thoughts,” and “undressed” appear to be tipping sombr totally into the mainstream highlight – and it’s simply as effectively: His newest touches a young human core, resonating with anybody who’s ever needed to choose up the items and attempt to love once more.
“Mountain”
by Hannah Cohen
“Losing you is a mountain of stillness.” So begins Hannah Cohen’s “Mountain,” a dreamy, aching requiem to a misplaced buddy that finds solace in sorrow and sweetness in grief. Featured on her beautiful new album Earthstar Mountain, the music is pure, sincere, and uncooked — a gut-wrenching meditation on absence and remembrance. “I miss you unhealthy, I miss my buddy,” Cohen laments within the refrain, her voice buoyed by wealthy harmonies and heat, glowing textures that evoke each the ache of loss and the tenderness of affection that lingers on.
Dropping you is a mountain
Of stillness
A distant star flashes
Your mischief
A nasty thought rises
And I really feel sick
I gained’t ask questions
Forgiveness
I’ll simply play it on time and again
A love like that gained’t ever finish
We might be like this or that as an alternative
I miss you unhealthy I miss my buddy
“It’s onerous for me to speak about as a result of I misplaced a buddy actually all of the sudden… and that was my method of processing it,” Cohen shared with Atwood Journal. “If you lose somebody out of nowhere, your nervous system remains to be hooked up to them and related to them, and your nervous system remains to be kind of trying to find them. And so in a method, you all the time want the issues that you might have stated to them, or that you simply need to say to them.”
“That was my method of sort of coping with – and with the ability to specific – the grief that I used to be experiencing. It’s about how grief may be so pervasive and it may well really feel like you possibly can’t escape it.” That ache programs by means of each lyric — from the light plea of “Maintain on to me such as you imply it” to the ghostly picture of a soul untethered: “I do know you’re free, I can really feel it / Your ft don’t contact the bottom.” With touches of Fleetwood Mac heat and her personal distinct vulnerability, Cohen crafts a music that doesn’t shrink back from damage, however strikes with it — a wide ranging tribute to the sort of love that by no means really leaves.
“SUN EYES”
by OSLO SLOW
Bproper, daring, and superbly dazzling, “SUN EYES” seems like sunshine in music — a second of pure, golden readability captured in sound. OSLO SLOW’s debut single is blissful and glowing, dreamy and deep: A wash of tender vocals, ambient textures, and reverberant guitars swells into one thing intimate and all-consuming. The London and Essex-based duo of James Kellegher and Chris Lehane (previously of Eliza and the Bear) step into the highlight anew, providing a radiant reflection on life’s fleeting, formative moments — the type that flood the center and stick with you ceaselessly. “Solar eyes, you saturate me / Soak me within the second that I realise my readability,” they sing, conscious within the gentle.
Solar eyes,
I’m feeling what you’re doing to me
Solar eyes,
I’m feeling what you’re doing to me
Solar eyes, you saturate me
Soak me within the second
that I realise my readability
It’s a high-quality line, this timeline is completely flawed
This second is fleeting, so take it; it’s yours
Operating in desires and I’m breaking by means of partitions
I’m conscious now I’m with you
Solar eyes, I’m feeling what you’re doing to me
“‘SUN EYES’ is a music about little moments in your life that make you are feeling one thing intensely,” OSLO SLOW share. “They could solely be a second or a number of seconds on the time, however you spend an infinite extra time pondering and reflecting again on them. The precise second you realised you have been in love, if you determined you have been going to suggest to that particular person, the primary time seeing your new child child. Generally they don’t even need to be massively important occasions, it may simply be being within the automotive with household or a buddy/group of pals, however at that particular time you felt fully content material.”
That sense of vivid, present-tense reminiscence fuels each layer of “SUN EYES” — made all of the extra significant by the loss that helped reshape it.
“Once we initially began scripting this, a buddy of ours, Geraint John, misplaced his spouse, Debs, to most cancers. He posted footage, recorded podcasts and offered updates all by means of their journey, all of the ups and downs, with little tales and anecdotes. There was one thing so profoundly lovely in what was, and nonetheless is, such a horrible scenario and set of occasions. His and his household’s journey actually resonated and fully modified the route of what and the way we have been writing. It modified the mind-set extra typically outdoors of music too; it made us re-evaluate how we dealt with grief in our personal lives and whether or not we actually had processed it within the first place. It seems we hadn’t. There’s one thing poetic in that although isn’t there? Somebody who’s now not right here is constant to have an effect and higher different folks’s lives. We hope this music, and this interview, can proceed to increase that to others too.”
Can we keep right here?
Pause this second like
we don’t get to take it ’spherical a second time
Can we keep right here
on this blinding gentle?
I’m conscious,
I’m conscious, I’m conscious right here
(That’s once I felt love)
I’m conscious right here
The music’s manufacturing mirrors its emotional breadth: Lush, natural, and subtly experimental. Produced by Harvey Carter (aka Tutara Peak), “SUN EYES” incorporates area recordings, clapping CD instances, and even out of doors vocal takes, blurring the strains between artwork and ambiance.
“Harvey requested us sure questions on us and the music that no person else had come near, which confirmed to us how deeply he needed to immerse himself and the way otherwise his thoughts works. One other piece was that we have been all very eager on experimenting sonically to try to improve the songs. You’ll hear a few of this in ‘SUN EYES – a recording of a automotive passing by means of a tunnel at across the 30 second mark, backing up snares with clapping CD instances collectively, recording vocals outdoors and so on. The entire technique of experimenting and the concept of no concepts being off limits was actually thrilling and actually simply made us love writing and enjoying music once more.”
That collaborative vitality extends to the beautiful brief movie accompanying the one, created by UK director Olly Fawcett.
“We actually needed the music to accompany the video and never the opposite method spherical; we predict Olly and the remainder of the workforce did an incredible job. It seems to be beautiful. Initially of OSLO SLOW we all the time stated we needed to make sure that we get to work with a small set of attention-grabbing and modern creatives alongside the best way. Creatives which are genuinely good to spend time with and discover artistically with; ones that you simply really feel fully assured in to know will add incremental worth to what you’re engaged on. Each Harvey and Olly are emblematic of that. We’re shifting into a brand new world now, and it’s by no means been extra essential that creatives proceed to assist different creatives the place they will.”
In each spirit and sound, “SUN EYES” is a luminous debut: A heartfelt meditation on presence, perspective, and the emotional readability that arrives like a sudden beam of sunshine. OSLO SLOW don’t simply make you are feeling; they make you are feeling alive. What’s extra, this music is a inventive marvel — the results of daring experimentation, radical honesty, and a deep dedication to capturing life’s micro-moments in all their vivid, fleeting magnificence. “SUN EYES” explores what the band name “optimistic photokeratitis of the center and soul”: That sudden, blinding readability that comes when every little thing — love, loss, gentle, that means — falls into place, even when just for a second.
“SUN EYES” isn’t only a music — it’s a snapshot of the chic, and the beginning of one thing really particular.
“Whatever you do, I wanna do it with you gently. I’ll observe you wherever you go if you happen to let me.” Wafia hits like a heat breeze to the chest on “Background,” the third observe off her long-awaited debut album Promised Land. A sun-kissed, quietly radiant love music, it embraces the great thing about selflessness in relationships — of loving somebody so deeply that you simply’re content material to face beside them, not in entrance. Tender synths and breezy acoustic strums swirl round Wafia’s tender vocals as she sings from the sidelines with grace, vulnerability, and devotion.
Final evening, I made out with you
in your sofa within the attic
Felt all the celebrities in my eyes flip to static
Perhaps I obtained too excessive or perhaps it hit excellent
However I held your hand
as we watched the world shatter
Soften into blackness, then, again into matter
I discovered the brighter facet
proper once I misplaced my thoughts
No matter you do, I wanna do it with you gently
I’ll observe you wherever you go if you happen to let me
Preserve me nearer at your fingertips
And if you happen to want me now
Child, I’ll be within the background
“Traditionally, I’ve fallen in love with individuals who labored ‘behind the scenes’ and would ultimately develop disdain for the way a lot I beloved what I did. And until my present relationship, I’d by no means been with anybody that felt the identical method,” says Wafia. “We’re each these large, dramatic, applause-loving artists, however with that comes a steadiness we each have to navigate, taking turns within the limelight so this partnership can work. It was the primary time I felt what my exes had felt being backstage at my reveals, solely being somebody’s associate to another person. And actually, it was humbling. I believe any good relationship has to have that push and pull. This music is about desirous to observe somebody by means of it and seeing it from the opposite facet.”
And it’s no secret you like my ego
No stealing the present
‘Trigger we’re good with taking turns
You make it straightforward to really feel so snug
I like doing each
It’s simply the best way I like you
That emotional shift — from middle stage to accompaniment — is strictly what makes “Background” so shifting. There’s one thing so refreshing a couple of love music that doesn’t beg to be seen, however as an alternative affords regular presence and assist. “Background” is strictly that: A delicate, earnest ode to being part of another person’s life — not the principle character of their story, however a chapter they will all the time rely on. Wafia’s supply is gentle however resolute, filling the music with emotional weight whereas holding its ambiance easy. It’s the heartfelt recognition that love isn’t all the time about main, however figuring out when to observe. It’s love with out ego, and in its softness lies its energy.
No matter you do, I wanna do it with you gently
I’ll observe you wherever you go if you happen to let me
Preserve me nearer at your fingertips
And if you happen to want me now
Child, I’ll be within the background
“It is Wonderful to Be Younger”
by Fontaines D.C.
“It’s the fee that brings you down, nevertheless it’s superb to be younger.” That line hits like a punch to the chest — sharp, aching, and profoundly true.
Fontaines D.C. have all the time dealt in uncooked truths, however “It’s Wonderful to Be Younger,” the Irish indie rock band’s February single (a part of ROMANCE’s recently-released deluxe version), is one thing else completely: Visceral and susceptible, brutal and blissful all of sudden. It seems like a slow-burning catharsis, a post-punk lullaby with battle scars. Because the band trades snarl for tenderness, they discover energy not in rage, however in resolve — within the resolution to nonetheless imagine in magnificence, in youth, in one thing price defending.
Generally I get up and it’s darkish
Carry out the ritual that places me within the half
However I sang them each phrase I had
Looks like they’re by no means gonna perceive
“‘It’s Wonderful to Be Younger’ is a music that was written within the presence of a new child little one — Carlos’ little one,” bassist Conor Deegan III shares. “It sounded extra like a lullaby or a music field then, however with the identical lyric — ‘it’s superb to be younger.’ The sensation of hope a baby may give is profound and shifting, particularly for younger males like us. That sense of desirous to create a world for them to develop up in fortunately. It’s a sense that fights towards the cynicism that may usually overtake us within the fashionable world. So we needed to declare which facet we have been on — it truly is superb to be younger. We’re nonetheless free, and need to make that feeling unfold. We need to shield it for the others round us, and perhaps in doing that, can even assist shield it for ourselves.”
That the fee
Brings you down
However it’s superb
To be younger
Generally I get up and it’s darkish
Carry out the ritual that places me within the half
However I sang them each phrase I had
Looks like they’re by no means gonna perceive
That declaration turns into the soul of the music – an intense, immersive, aching anthem for resilience in an age of disillusionment. It’s not a denial of darkness, however a refusal to provide in to it. There’s existential angst woven into each line — a quiet confrontation with the burden of being alive, the price of merely shifting ahead — however Fontaines D.C. don’t give up to it. As an alternative, they attain for gentle, nonetheless fleeting, and maintain it shut. Fontaines D.C. nonetheless imagine in marvel, in youth, in hope. And on this second, so do I.
That the fee
Brings you down
However it’s superb
To be younger
— — — —
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