January ‘25 Monthly Music Recap
With the month of January tends to come an overuse of the word “new.” From new beginnings to new year’s resolutions, we as humans usually hold a more optimistic outlook on life during the first 31 days of the year. And while these ideals often get lost as annual intentions of gym-going and money-saving quickly fall prey to the uncertainties of life, music is an outlet where the concept of newness lasts all 365 days of the year as musicians old and new push sonic boundaries with new releases.
Recently announced upcoming albums from promising names in indie, alt and rock have already birthed stellar singles that give listeners a preview of what 2025 has in store. From sad girl rock to euphoric art-pop, here are some of the most notable and best tracks from the first five New Music Fridays — and many a New Music Tuesday and Wednesday — of the year.
Samia ushers in a profoundly eerie era with “Bovine Excision”
Watch the music video for “Bovine Excision” on YouTube.
If anyone could make lyrical poetry from the concept of cattle mutilation, of course it would be 28-year-old wordsmith Samia. The singer-songwriter began singing the then-unreleased “Bovine Excision” while on tour with Bleachers last summer, and after selling some eponymous merch and scattering Instagram captions with cow and blood drop emojis, it’s not surprising that Samia would enter a new album era with the song’s official release.
In “Bovine Excision,” what starts as a folksy acoustic melody methodically untangles into a head-banger, as the instrumentation progressively gets fuller until the song reaches a fiery and loud apex in the outro. When talking about the meaning behind the lead single, Samia said she sees the bloodless death of a bovine excision as a metaphor for “the clinical pursuit of emptiness,” heard as she repeatedly laments, “Drain, drain bloodless” in the song’s final 30 seconds. The talented storyteller she is, Samia frequently alludes to this self-extraction metaphor in the verses’ clever allusions. Referencing the classic fairytale The Princess and the Pea, she sings “I felt the pea, can I eat it?” A seemingly odd lyric, the line takes on a clever meaning when put into the context of Bloodless, Samia’a upcoming album with themes inspired by the “impossibility of femininity.”
Between her history of profound songwriting, her silky-smooth lilt and the promise of a seemingly darker album, Bloodless will be nothing short of a showcase of Samia’s immense talents upon its April 25 release.
Lucy Dacus is the people’s princess in “Ankles”
Watch the music video for “Ankles” on YouTube.
There are some songs that capture the essence of times long past, that when you listen to them, you’re transported to a different decade. While some tracks may feature the over-the-top synths of the 80s or the bubbly, autotuned sound of an early 2000s pop hit, Lucy Dacus’s “Ankles” harks back centuries, to the sound of the Renaissance.
A string section precisely punctuating a staccato line lays the foundation for the song as Dacus sings about treading lightly with a lover in the first verse. The scene heats up in the pre-chorus as a cautious drum beat enters and Dacus sings “So bite me on the shoulder / Pull my hair.” By the chorus, a glittering harpsichord line comes to the forefront, emulating the feeling of sparks flying as Dacus fantasizes of the simple pleasures in a relationship like doing the morning crossword and making tea. As if the string section and harpsichord don’t paint enough of a Renaissance picture, the music video for “Ankles” depicts Dacus as a princess in a luxurious ruby-red ballgown escaping from her portrait in a museum. In the video, Dacus and a museum security guard — portrayed by Bottoms’ Havana Rose Liu — romp around Paris, igorning the bewildered looks of passerby.
As fans await the March 28 release of Dacus’s fourth studio album Forever Is A Feeling, they can be sure to expect a masterful cohesion of lyrics and sound and an upcoming music video featuring a “hot masc” from a smart casting call on Dacus’s part.
Oracle Sisters make a melody for mankind in “Blue Left Hand”
Watch the music video for “Blue Left Hand” on YouTube.
If you’re looking for some groovy new music and a compelling book recommendation, look no farther than Oracle Sisters’s “Blue Left Hand.” The third single from the trio’s upcoming album Divinations, “Blue Left Hand” is inspired by Silvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch, a 2004 nonfiction title about how sixteenth and seventeenth century witch-hunts allowed for the expansion of hierarchical capitalism.
What I continually find so compelling about Oracle Sisters is how their astute songwriting meshes with their explorative sound — just listen to 2023’s “Lunch and Jazz Chords,” an imagery-driven track with cascading piano and string lines and a boisterous “la la la la” outro. In “Blue Left Hand,” the three-piece taps into a more emphatic production, with a catchy repetitive clean guitar line outlined by a hi-hat heavy drum beat opening the track. Lead singer Christopher Willatt matches the straightforward tone by proclaiming “I got my money / I got my place / I got my car / I got my dishful of youthful delinquency,” singing mostly monotonal as drummer Julia Johansen adds a harmony line. As Johansen sings a more melodic vocal line for the chorus and ethereal synth lines continuously join the mix, the narrative becomes more complex, reflecting the nuances of a growing capitalistic society. When Willatt questions, “Where is the laughter? / Where is the taste?” Johansen answers that a materialistic life is simply “pulling a hat from the cat.”
“Blue Left Hand,” accompanied by the jubilant “Alouette” and reflective “Riverside” — the other released singles from Divinations — shows the continuous sonic and lyric growth for the Paris-based trio. Divinations is Oracle Sisters’s sophomore album, following the release of 2023’s Hydranism.
FKA twigs makes the girls feel good in new album, EUSEXUA
The difference between an album and a work of art is that the latter has a clear, artistic essence. Genre-bending musician FKA twigs has proven her mastery of cultivating an album’s spirit with her third studio album, EUSEXUA. At the end of the cinematic music video for the opening and title track, for instance, a title card reads “Eusexua is a practice. Eusexua is a state of being. Eusexua is the pinnacle of human experience.” To be more specific, twigs explained in an interview that eusexua is “the moment before I get a really good idea of pure clarity. Like, when everything moves out the way, everything in your mind is completely blank and your mind is elevated.”
If eusexua as a whole is the euphoric feeling of lucidity, then track two, “Girl Feels Good,” is eusexua in its most explicit form. As evidenced by the album’s name, EUSEXUA does not shy away from often taboo concepts and leans into feminine sexuality. That being said, “Girl Feels Good” is a divinely feminine track whose hollow, electronic production provides a feeling of elevation with a side of danceability. While lyrics like “When the night feels young, you know she feels pretty” paint a more stereotypical picture of femininity, other lines like “Beautiful boys, I wish you knew how precious you are / Your mother's, sister's, lover's heart is where there's healing” speak to the tenderness of womanhood.
Packed with futuristic elements and bouncing synths reminiscent of Madonna’s music, “Girl Feels Good” is just one of the sonically explorative tracks on EUSEXUA, showcasing what FKA twigs does best. As OTR contributor Avery Heeringa writes in his review of the album, “If one goes looking for intricacies past the untrained ear’s abilities, EUSEXUA brims with emotional and sonic multitudes beyond comprehension.”
Staff Picks:
Maddy Yen - “A Question Of You” by Inhaler
Jaymee Gallagher - “Lucky Eyes” by The Namby Pamby
Alyssa Scinta - “Some Girls” by Anxious
Suma Sesay - “BAILE INoLVIDABLE” by Bad Bunny
Tabita Bernardus - “Soft Again” by Cece Coakley
Logan Goettemoeller - “Anytime, Anyplace, Anyhow” by Matt Maltese
Seay Howell - “Dog’s Dinner” by SOFIA ISELLA
Dany Mireles - “Limerance” by Lucy Dacus
Regan Jones - “Had Enough” by Greer
Sullivan Jordan - “Orbit” by Ashlyn Sisco
Sinead Cochrane - “Do It Again” by Angel Addo
Nymisha Mattapalli - “Love Is Unkind” by BANKS
Check out some of our January coverage!
Live Shows:
“Throughout the night Barnes and his band delivered a show more than full of humor, love, and outstanding talent.” - Natalia Pfeiffer on Ben Barnes in Chicago.
New Music Reviews:
“Perverts takes you on a journey you cannot imagine until you have experienced it fully. Cain sought to create a project that transcended music and she accomplished just that.” - Sullivan Jordan on Ethel Cain’s Perverts.
“This album brings an interesting perspective on being alive in a world where everyone simultaneously has so many emotions and experiences in common, and also so few.” - Cece Faulkner on Franz Ferdinand’s The Human Fear.
“Each track is a journey, moving from whimsical and playful to deeply romantic and reflective. For those who appreciate artists willing to experiment with their sound while staying emotionally grounded, Honeybee offers a sweet and satisfying listen.” - Arna Churiwala on BØRNS’s Honeybee.
“The singer-songwriter’s four-track project pulls its listeners into a warm embrace—one that elicits tender nostalgia and profound appreciation for present moments with those we love. Where there is lush grass and the perfect summer breeze to combat a creeping heat, you’ll find Coakley bottling up each moment, saving the feeling to pour into her narrative songwriting.” - Tabita Bernardus on Cece Coakley’s Soft Again.
Interviews:
“That's what I enjoy about each release we do and especially new music we have, is that there's always going to be a different side of Native Sun.” - Danny Gomez of Native Sun in an interview with Emma Hug Rosenstein.
“We're going to make the best thing we know how to make, and we're not going to stop at anything until we're completely happy with it.” - Hunter Kelly of Trestles on a new album in an interview with Maddy Yen.
“So when punk happened, that brought everything right in front of you. It also gave you permission to do stuff - to be a writer, to be a photographer, to be creative without feeling like you had to learn the skill. It kind of democratized everything. Just do it with passion and energy. And that's something that I've always really loved, whether it's music, whether it's fashion.” - Keanan Duffty on punk and fashion in an interview with Emma Hug Rosenstein.