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 group of songs, albums, and artists who’ve caught his ears, eyes, and coronary heart. There’s a lot unbelievable 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 way of our Editor’s Picks, we hope to shine a light-weight on our personal music discoveries and showcase a various array of recent and up to date releases.
This week’s Editor’s Picks options Dancer, Adam Melchor & Mt. Pleasure, CMAT, Arcy Drive, Sydney Sprague, and Charlotte OC!
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“not nothing”
by Dancer
Dynamic, dramatic, and totally all-consuming, Dancer’s “not nothing” is an unapologetic and all-consuming eruption wrapped in a number of the most anthemic indie rock I’ve heard in years. That very same ardour and starvation you’re feeling from The Killers’ Sizzling Fuss and The Strokes’ Is This It – two really simple classics – is current all through Dancer’s daring and boisterous sophomore EP all my finest pals (independently launched April 11th), a “uncooked tribute to resilience and connection” that sees the Newcastle, Australia-based trio pouring their hearts and souls right into a 4 breathtaking, irresistible, and simple barnburners.
I’m not nothing
I’m not something in any respect such as you
I’m not nothing
all of the lies you mentioned ain’t true
Take your vices
I don’t wanna attempt it
I’m a bit of bit glorious
Now you don’t get expertise it
For Dancer’s frontman Chris Quinton, “not nothing” is each a private mission assertion and a ‘f* you’ sort of music – the musical launch of stress and feelings which were build up inside him and his bandmates for years.
“I grew up with an amazing narrative in my thoughts that I wasn’t price something,” he tells Atwood Journal. “It’s a crippling and painful method to see your self. This music got here as my means of telling these voices to f* off; that they weren’t welcome and fully not true. They had been mentioned by somebody in my life who was in ache and who was simply passing it on, making it simpler to see their narrative as simply that, a story. Yeah, it nonetheless hurts to consider, however I obtained a sick music – and I’m fairly proud to have written it.”
Quinton and his bandmates attain a sonic and emotional climax within the music’s feverish refrain, his phrases a sound rejection of previous statements and a spirited embrace of his personal internal reality.
You bought me falling
You bought me falling
However you don’t give a rattling about it
You don’t give a rattling about it
Burning brilliant from a warmth deep inside, “not nothing” is a passionate, invigorating, and empowering anthem – an inspiring music reminding us not simply of our personal potential, but in addition of our energy – that we will reclaim and outline our personal narratives, and we shouldn’t let anybody make us assume in any other case.
I’m not nothing
Been telling myself for years
Cease that feeling
That you simply made me so imagine
You bought me falling
You bought me falling
However you don’t give a rattling about it
Don’t give a rattling about it
With all my finest pals and “not nothing” specifically, Dancer have crafted a cathartic and charming coming-of-age document – one which captures the messiness of progress, the burden of emotional scars, and the fun of lastly discovering your voice. They’re loud, they’re uncooked, they’re relentless — and theirs is strictly the sort of hearth indie rock was made for.
I can stand alone two toes
No man on the mercy seat
Discover spirit in dawn
No distress to hold now
I could make my very own excessive
Not dwelling together with your parasites
Not believing in your junk lies
I’m not nothing, nothing, nothing
“Room on Your Shoulder”
by Adam Melchor & Mt. Pleasure
Just as Bob Dylan did with “Blowin’ within the Wind”; simply as Joni Mitchell did with “Each Sides Now”; simply as Tracy Chapman did with “Quick Automotive”; and simply as Noah Kahan did with “Stick Season”; Adam Melchor has now carried out with “Room on Your Shoulder” – contributing his personal timeless, heartfelt, and achingly lovely entry to the nice American folks custom: A contemporary basic, steeped in tenderness and vulnerability, destined to endure, resonate, and be handed down from technology to technology.
I considered going out,
now I simply wanna keep in
I noticed you leaving city with your folks
I assumed I’d know by now
in the event you and me had been meant
And if you considered
giving this a go once more
Is there room in your shoulder?
Launched January 10th by way of R&R / Good Boy data and that includes Mt. Pleasure’s Matt Quinn and Sam Cooper, “Room on Your Shoulder” is Adam Melchor’s love letter to enduring friendship: An outstretched hand, a candid confession, and an trustworthy plea for assist and emotional assist, all wrapped into one soul-baring, sweetly stirring serenade. The lead single off his forthcoming third studio album The Diary of Residing (out Might 2nd) finds the New Jersey-bred, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter reaching deep into his emotional core, providing up a second of uncooked, human connection. Melchor blends poetic lyricism with a heat, acoustic intimacy as he sings of being there for somebody of their darkest hour — and of needing that very same grace in return. With Matt Quinn’s delicate harmonies and Noah Conrad’s textured manufacturing, “Room on Your Shoulder” turns into greater than a music: It’s a protected house, a sanctuary, and a testomony to the quiet power present in merely displaying up for each other.
Proof that the most effective issues take time, Melchor reveals that this music has been seven years within the making – having began when he was on tour with Mt. Pleasure again in 2018. “‘Room on Your Shoulder’ is a music about friendship, longevity, and the true testomony of the inventive course of – and it lastly obtained completed this previous 12 months once I was recording The Diary of Residing,” he smiles. “This music meant a lot to me and a lot to us that it actually took a very long time to get the manufacturing proper. After I lastly confirmed it to Noah Conrad, the producer of the album, he actually knew what to do with it and stripped it again to its most simple kind, which is principally simply the way it sounded the day we wrote it. Mt. Pleasure is among the first bands that ever let me open for them on tour, and it actually led to me loving the street life a lot. So, this music is a very, actually nice reminder of how lengthy good issues can take.”
Tryna to avoid wasting your colours
whereas the partitions are caving in
Appears like rising gardens from cement
I’m simply left to marvel
in the event you had some like to lend
And in the event you thought
about giving this a go once more
Is there room in your shoulder?
Is there room in your shoulder?
I don’t know get there,
however I do know what I would like
Is there room in your shoulder?
Each intimately private and universally enduring, “Room on Your Shoulder” captures each the brutal lows and euphoric highs of our shared human situation. Thematically, Melchor and Mt. Pleasure reckon with emotions of heartache, nostalgia, grief, and craving, exploring acquainted pangs of loneliness and longing, and the way we so naturally flip to our family members in our darkest moments. It additionally captures the heat of getting these of us close by, and what it means on a visceral stage to have that sort of deep love and emotional mild in our lives. Melchor’s mild lilt meets Matt Quinn’s raspier grit in a fragile concord that seems like a dialog between previous pals – bruised however not damaged, susceptible but full of affection.
“It has taken many twists and turns, however the complete time the music nonetheless remained close to and expensive to our hearts,” Melchor tells Atwood Journal. “This music is supposed to be a music about forgiveness and a future previous the ache you’re feeling within the current. It additionally turned out to be an ode to camaraderie and friendship, and the way the chapters of our lives wouldn’t have to outline the chapters forward.”
“The lyrics within the bridge are, ‘you had been at all times by my facet from LA to NJ,’ and each of those locations have given me the remainder of the world. I really like NJ, I really like LA, and I really like the neighborhood that it’s given me.”
I discover it exhausting to go to sleep when nobody out right here will get mе
‘Trigger you had been at all times by my sidе from L.A. to New Jersey
And if you considered giving this a go once more
If you considered giving this a go once more
The newest addition to the pantheon of basic folks songs, “Room on Your Shoulder” aches inside and outside within the sweetest and warmest of how. It’s breathtaking summation of the human expertise; the sort of music that reminds us we’re not alone — that even in our heaviest moments, there’s at all times room for connection, compassion, and hope. Subsequent time you want somebody, all you must do is ask, “Is there room in your shoulder?”
Is there room in your shoulder?
Is there room in your shoulder?
I don’t know get there,
however I do know what I would like
Is there room in your shoulder?
Is there room in your shoulder?
Inform me what you want
“Operating/Planning”
by CMAT
A radiant unraveling wrapped in shimmer and strife, CMAT’s “Operating/Planning” aches with the burden of expectation and the desperation to really feel sufficient. It’s the sound of somebody caught mid-sprint, making an attempt to maintain up with a life they by no means consciously selected — an electrifying, emotionally-charged anthem that confronts the pressures of societal conformity, particularly as they have an effect on ladies. Gliding on glistening synths and regular, hypnotic beats, the Irish singer/songwriter (and longtime Atwood favourite!) turns private turmoil into one thing surprisingly euphoric: A lament disguised as a candy singalong, a reckoning wearing glitter.
“‘Operating/Planning’ is about having to chase your individual tail to be adequate to exist,” CMAT explains. “It’s an abstracted view of societal stress on ladies – particularly by means of a relationship lens: You begin courting somebody, you get engaged, you get married, you’ve got youngsters, and so forth. and so forth. and so forth… every little thing has to comply with this linear sample.”
That push-pull dynamic is written all around the music, particularly in its mesmerizingly cyclical, repeating refrain – a deliberate nod to the relentless suggestions loop of societal norms. The observe doesn’t simply query the “customary” path laid out for girls (date, marry, have kids); it exposes the emotional toll of deviating from that script, and the way shortly love, autonomy, and even household assist can really feel conditional the second you step off target.
“That slender path that everybody is meant to be on… the minute you get outdoors of that, it will get extremely demanding,” CMAT confesses. “I don’t know anybody who’s like, ‘Yeah, love this!’”
CMAT (aka Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson) is not any stranger to tackling exhausting matters head-on; her critically acclaimed sophomore album Crazymad, For Me discovered her unpacking an enormous, life-changing breakup six years after the actual fact, bringing perspective, critique, and pure ardour to songs stuffed with uncooked, unflinching emotion.
“Crazymad, For Me isn’t a lot CMAT’s revenge, as it’s her cathartic, all-consuming eruption,” we wrote on the time. “An intoxicating, impassioned musical launch channeling years’ price of pent-up feelings and uncooked, bodily stress and turmoil into one spellbinding, cinematic enterprise, occurring to reward the document as charming, churning, and charged.
Launched March 25th by way of CMATBABY / AWAL, “Operating/Planning” is the lead single off CMAT’s forthcoming third album, EURO-COUNTRY (out August 29th) – which she calls her most necessary document up to now.
We really feel that weight on this music, too: What makes “Operating/Planning” so highly effective isn’t simply its message – it’s how CMAT delivers it. Her vocals soar with vulnerability and defiance, gliding over pulsing rhythms as she captures each the stress to carry out and the quiet sorrow of not becoming in. It’s a music stuffed with motion and melancholy, stress and tenderness – all coexisting in the identical breathless, lovely house. For anybody who’s ever questioned their price, resisted expectations, or struggled with the quiet guilt of selecting their very own path, “Operating/Planning” is a surprising, validating anthem of resistance.
“The Itch”
by Arcy Drive
Arcy Drive bottle lightning on their new single “The Itch,” a radiant and roaring indie rock anthem pulsing with youthful restlessness and hard-won perspective. From the jangling guitars to the regular, driving beat, each inch of this music shimmers with urgency and heat – the sound of wide-eyed twenty-somethings studying to dwell with uncertainty, to snort by means of the rising pains, and to lean into the chaos with hearts huge open. It’s infectious in each sense of the phrase, carried by brilliant tones, irresistible power, and guitarist/vocalist Nick Mateyunas’ uncooked, passionate vocals that crackle with emotion.
Stone man days like a rolling wave
It goes on and can’t break
It′s a fats stone to be skipping
With one foot within the quicksand
Effectively all his pals obtained the itch as properly
Some misplaced, some can not inform, properly, properly
We’re too younger to be working
And too previous to be bitching
Launched March seventh, “The Itch” is the fifth single taken off Arcy Drive’s forthcoming debut album The Pit (out April 18th by way of AWAL). Following earlier releases like “Oak Tree (Daydream),” “Time Shrinks,” and “Depraved Styley,” “The Itch” finds the Northport, Lengthy Island-based indie rock band at their most unapologetic, uncompromising, and unrelenting.
“Of the songs that made the album, ‘The Itch’ has definitely had the longest journey,” Mateyunas tells Atwood Journal. “The music at all times embodied the power of individuals of their early 20s. I wrote the primary verse/pre-chorus once I was 21 years previous, nearing commencement and nonetheless feeling insecure about turning into an grownup/beginning a profession.”
He continues, “The traces ‘Too younger to be working, and too previous to be bitching,’ I actually preferred on the time. They highlighted these ideas of uncertainty in a cool blue collar form of means. It additionally rolls into the pre-chorus properly with the traces, ‘And there ain’t no use in realizing what to do or when, as a result of we’ll by no means understand how, and we’ll by no means not care,’ admitting and accepting these emotions of insecurity in a naïve and carefree means. I preferred what the verse needed to say and the course of the music usually. As well as, the music was brash and carried a youthfulness that I assumed actually complimented the lyrics. However one thing was nonetheless lacking. The refrain wanted to sum up the sensation of the music, but it surely didn’t come.”
That lacking piece would take years to reach. “It took me one other 12 months to lastly write the second verse,” Mateyunas says. “I at all times knew that it wanted a real-life expertise that will give the music some reality and vulnerability. I made a decision to select a particular second from our first tour. It’s a humorous little story of the band sneaking right into a resort and consuming the continental breakfast. We had been younger and actually on the peak of our youthful rascalyness. I really like the carry it offers and assume it actually offers the music weight.”
Nonetheless, the refrain didn’t click on till they had been within the studio. “It truly took me till the studio to lastly discover the best refrain for the music. And I keep in mind having a smile whereas recording the music as a result of it’s virtually as if I’m speaking to my youthful self from the verses,” he displays. “The traces ‘Don’t act confused, I stand by you’ is a means of me telling my youthful self to loosen up and that it’s all going to be okay… sort of lol. The refrain nonetheless holds the sensation of uncertainty and insecurities as a result of at 24 I nonetheless don’t know what I’m doing. However now that I’m older I’ve a bit extra perspective and left the refrain with ‘We’re blissful as hell’ to point that naivety is bliss.”
And there ain′t no use
In realizing what to do or when
‘Trigger we’ll by no means understand how
And we’ll by no means not care
Began weirding me out
Are we actually all there?
However don′t act confuse, I stand by you
Tossing our youth, and we′ll by no means not care
By no means not scared, however we’re blissful as hell
In the long run, “The Itch” is a coming-of-age anthem constructed on reality, stress, and time. From Mateyunas’ emotionally uncooked vocals to the band’s sun-soaked, full-throttle instrumentation, Arcy Drive strike a robust chord between chaos and readability – capturing what it feels prefer to not have the solutions, however to maintain going anyway. It’s a reminder that we develop within the mess, and typically, it takes a couple of years – and perhaps a stolen resort breakfast – to comprehend you’re doing simply fantastic.
A rained out present and a borrowed van
Off to an inexpensive resort
We obtained stoned simply to sneak in
They left fruit within the kitchen
And all my pals obtained the itch as properly
Take, take, to please your self
It′s a fats stone to be skipping
With one foot as we kick
‘Trigger we’ll by no means understand how
And we′ll by no means not care
Began weirding me out
Are we actually all there?
However don’t act confused, I stand by you
Tossing our youth, and we′ll by no means not care
By no means not scared, however we’re blissful as hell
“Honest Subject”
by Sydney Sprague
A disorienting fever dream soaked in vulnerability, anxiousness, and warped actuality, Sydney Sprague’s “Honest Subject” captures the surreal, spiraling chaos of a foul journey in a resort room — and the emotional fallout that lingers lengthy after the excessive fades. Set to a backdrop of distorted guitars and frenetic rhythms, the Arizona singer/songwriter’s newest launch is a uncooked, unfiltered reckoning with psychological well being, overstimulation, and life on the street. Equal components playful and panic-inducing, “Honest Subject” appears like spiraling out — in actual time.
Too excessive on the truthful area
Going quick as f* on a ferris wheel
It’s a great distance all the way down to the car parking zone
There’s a voice in my head, and it by no means stops
Know I misplaced time on a protracted drive
Now I obtained an excessive amount of, and I can’t determine
If I’m too turned up within the plot twist
And what if we kissed?
On the free continental breakfast
May I withstand the implications?
“I wrote ‘Honest Subject’ final summer time after a full-blown panic assault on tour, triggered by an edible in a resort room in Hays, Kansas,” Sprague shares. “The music carries this underlying stress—virtually playful, but in addition unsettling—that initially captured the chaos of life on the street. Recently, although, it seems like a mirrored image of the world at massive, every little thing unraveling in actual time.”
That sense of unraveling is palpable from the bounce: “I’m too excessive on the truthful area / going quick as f* on a ferris wheel,” Sprague sings, launching listeners right into a disjointed, hallucinatory headspace the place each thought spirals, and even the mundane — a continental breakfast, a passing motorcade — takes on surreal significance. The strain between humor and horror pulses all through the observe, making it as entertaining as it’s existentially crushing.
I pull up twenty minutes late
Caught in gridlock behind the motorcade
Least I’m fortunate sufficient that there’s somebody guilty
Guess the presidеnts on the town for presidents’ day
Now that that’s carried out, and all out of thе means
I can sit on this chair, and take into consideration your face
It’ll most likely move in a few days
However I gained’t ever know
When you ever felt the way in which that I did
I ought to most likely die of embarrassment
You gained’t ever felt the way in which that I did
I believe I’m gonna cry
Sprague recorded “Honest Subject” at dwelling alongside her band — Chuck Morriss, Sébastien Deramat, and Matt Storto. Following a cut up from Impolite Information, the observe marks her first absolutely impartial launch. “Reclaiming full inventive management has been extremely liberating,” she says. “It’s all about making music I really like, alone phrases, and simply having enjoyable with it once more.”
However whilst she finds freedom in creation, “Honest Subject” doesn’t shrink back from discomfort. It’s a brutally trustworthy depiction of tension and dissociation — and the way these moments could be simply as humorous and absurd as they’re terrifying. For longtime followers of Sprague’s emotionally sharp indie rock, this music is each a continuation and a reset: Daring, bleak, and undeniably human.
“God, We Tried”
by Charlotte OC
Charlotte OC’s “God, We Tried” is heartbreak in sluggish movement – a smoldering, soul-stirring breakup anthem that lingers within the ruins of a love that was by no means going to final. Equal components susceptible and self-aware, the observe finds the British singer/songwriter (née Charlotte Mary O’Connor) proudly owning her grief, her messiness, and the simple great thing about making an attempt, even when the tip feels inevitable. “God, we tried, didn’t we? Nothing lasts ceaselessly, particularly you and me… We simply have to bleed,” she sings within the haunting, slow-burning refrain — her voice aching with equal components ache, grace, and resignation.
I made a scene on the social gathering
I drank an excessive amount of
You mentioned we’ll discuss within the morning
We didn’t contact
If I don’t snort
I’ll most likely cry
Who’s gonna run your tub tonight?
Launched March nineteenth by way of Embassy of Music, “God, We Tried” is the primary we’ve heard from Charlotte OC correctly in practically 5 years, because the launch of her sophomore album Right here Comes Hassle in 2021. “I began scripting this music the day after a failed relationship,” she tells Atwood Journal. “A relationship I obtained into straight into after my dad’s dying in hopes to fill a void.”
What adopted was one among her most unfiltered and liberating inventive periods up to now.
“I’d by no means arrived on the studio barely tipsy earlier than, however that day was the primary time I did so in entrance of Dimi my producer and Val, whom I had by no means met earlier than,” she remembers. “General, it was fairly embarrassing, and for somebody who overthinks every little thing… at that second… I simply didn’t give a shit about how tragic I used to be being.”
That uncooked, unguarded power pulses by means of each be aware of “God, We Tried,” from the hushed piano traces to the aching vocal harmonies. It’s a music of give up – to not defeat, however to the reality. This holds very true within the observe’s brutal, emotionally charged refrain:
God, we tried
Didn’t we?
Nothing lasts ceaselessly
Particularly you and me
They are saying time is all we want
I’m sick of listening to it’s a healer
We simply have to bleed
From the soul-shaking cries of “God, we tried” to the aching acceptance of “we simply have to bleed,” O’Connor’s phrases are heavy, encumbered by emotional turmoil – darkish storm clouds which have but to clear up. Her passionate voice trembles, scorching and heavy on the mic as she spills her guts.
Going again to that studio session, O’Connor remembers how readily the music and lyrics poured out of her.
“I performed the concept I had, which was the verse and refrain melody, and as I used to be doing so, the lyrics appeared. I simply allowed the music to occur,” she says. “It was maybe essentially the most pleasurable writing expertise I’ve had, and for somebody like me who can get too accustomed to co-writing, which frequently leads me to second-guess my concepts, I didn’t query something in any respect.”
There’s a hanging confidence that comes by means of within the music’s simplicity — a quiet reclaiming of voice and vulnerability that transcends the heartbreak at its core.
“If something, I’m pleased with myself,” she displays. “This music jogged my memory that I can truly write. It additionally made it clear how inconceivable it was for anybody to be with me right now in my life, therefore the title ‘God, We Tried.’”
Oh, I’ve a mouth like a sailor
That’s my insecurities shining by means of
You mentioned you thought that I used to be psychological
However you noticed me and I noticed you
And now we brush our enamel
We are saying goodnight
However one thing isn’t proper
God, we tried
Didn’t we?
Nothing lasts ceaselessly
Particularly you and me
They are saying time is all we want
I’m sick of listening to time’s a healer
We simply have to bleed
Greater than a breakup music, “God, We Tried” is a mirrored image of grief, therapeutic, and self-acceptance — a quietly highly effective reminder that even in our most damaged states, there’s power in honesty. “It additionally made it clear how inconceivable it was for anybody to be with me right now in my life,” she provides, “therefore the title ‘God, We Tried.’”
If that is really the start of Charlotte OC’s subsequent chapter, then we’ll be right here — on the prepared, hearts and ears open, to obtain each aching web page of her songbook because it unfolds in actual time.
And now we brush our enamel
For the ultimate time
‘Trigger one thing isn’t proper
God, we tried
Didn’t we?
Nothing lasts ceaselessly
Particularly you and me
They are saying time is all we want
I’m sick of listening to time’s a healer
We simply have to bleed
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