Atwood Journal is worked up 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 hear. By means of our Editor’s Picks, we hope to shine a lightweight on our personal music discoveries and showcase a various array of recent and up to date releases.
This week’s Editor’s Picks options Billie Marten, benches, Gatlin, The Blissful Suits, BODHI, and rapidly, rapidly!
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“Feeling”
by Billie Marten
Tright here’s a second simply earlier than nightfall when the world exhales – when the wind stills, the timber hush, and all the pieces appears suspended in golden mild. Billie Marten’s “Feeling” lives in that second. It’s a tune of delicate grace and quiet catharsis, gently unfolding like a whisper within the breeze. One of many sweetest, softest songs I’ve heard all 12 months, “Feeling” stopped me in my tracks the primary time I heard it reside – simply Marten, her guitar, and a room filled with hearts quietly breaking open inside Woodstock’s Bearsville Theater. She opened her set with it that evening, and two weeks later, I’m nonetheless floating.
Sweep the leaves and lower the air
Discover a secret hanging there
You might be hiding on the prime of the steps
The place you may be alone
Drawing roads into the sand
Falling deep into your arms
Barely grown sufficient to face
And searching up at you
The second single off Marten’s forthcoming album Canine Eared (out July 18th by way of Fiction Data), “Feeling” is softly gorgeous – a dreamy, aching give up that swells with heat and surprise. Each breath, each lyric, each lullaby-like guitar strum feels deeply intentional and deeply felt. The refrain alone – “And also you look so good / And you’re so clear / I’m on my means, hey, hey / I’m barely respiration” – is sufficient to knock the wind out of you, even because it lifts you up.
And also you look so good
And also you look so clear
I’m on my means, hey, hey
I’m in between feeling
Feeling…
Marten describes “Feeling” as a tapestry of reminiscence and sensory impressions. “I’ve found that I’ve a extremely explicit long-term reminiscence: I’ve particular sensory recollections from once I was two onwards, that I can recall simply now,” she tells Atwood Journal. “One among these is marking out roads in my grandmother’s patterned carpet, for my Dad’s outdated 1950/60s toy vehicles to drive on. I used to hint patterns in all the pieces: material seats on the dentist, carpets, wallpaper and partitions, raindrops on automotive home windows. Every thing had a sample to be observed.”
That sensitivity to element – to motion, texture, mild, and shadow – flows by means of this tune’s each notice. “One other robust reminiscence is the sensation of huge, heat arms once you’re a toddler and the way comforting and protected that feels,” she continues. “The notion of age being so distant from you, however it’s a future inevitability, and that you simply’re in your means there. The inarticulateness of that ‘feeling’ you may’t describe but, however you’re conscious of a push on the earth that you simply don’t but perceive.”
We’re oh so evenly right here
Softer than a rabbit ear
Watch me as I disappear
Into the nice unknown
It’s this intangible, tender pull that offers “Feeling” its form and soul. That, and the spellbinding guitarwork of Núria Graham (one other former Atwood artist-to-watch), which Marten says “sparks the album into life and actually units a benchmark when it comes to rhythm.”
“Feeling” is extra than simply an album opener – it’s a mild awakening, a shimmering prelude to no matter’s subsequent. It’s a tune to breathe with, to hum alongside to on hazy summer season nights, to wrap your self in when phrases gained’t come. The musical equal of a heat breeze, it drifts by means of the air and lingers lengthy after it’s gone. If this finally ends up on my listing of the perfect songs of the 12 months, I gained’t be in the slightest degree stunned – it’s that particular, and with Canine Eared out in only a month’s time, Billie Marten is barely simply getting began.
And also you look so good
And you’re so clear
I’m on my means, hey, hey
I’m barely respiration
Into the sensation
Into the sensation
“Kill the Lights”
by benches
benches’ “Kill the Lights” is an unassuming beast of a tune – the sort that creeps beneath your pores and skin, then units your soul on fireplace. From the primary hear again in April, it gripped me with its feverish power and by no means let go. Two months and numerous performs later, I’m lastly prepared to speak about it – and rattling, what a shocking, sub-three-minute fever dream it’s.
The title observe off the San Diego band’s lately launched EP, “Kill the Lights” is a searing, cinematic indie rock reckoning: Unrelenting, immersive, and emotionally charged. It doesn’t simply really feel like catharsis – it is catharsis. A visceral purge of hysteria and existential dread, this tune hits like a panic assault in movement, then holds you regular because it crashes into launch. “I nonetheless get that feeling that there’s poison in my coronary heart,” frontman Anson Kelley sings, his voice uncooked and looking out. “In one other life, I used to be virtually me / On the coast, close to the angels / The place the sunshine can’t see me.”
I nonetheless get that fantasy that tears me aside
I positive was a fighter once I performed the guitar
These fingers obtained stiff, I took one other sip
And allow you to go
All of the years fade from my thoughts
All of the years fade from my thoughts
All of the years fade from my thoughts
“At its core, the tune is about worry,” Kelley – who performs along with Ethan Bowers (drums), Evan Ojeda (lead guitar), and Charlie Baird (bass) – tells Atwood Journal. “I believe it’s a quite common feeling to be afraid to make the mistaken choice and find yourself residing a life that isn’t in keeping with what you had been hoping for. This tune is like an anxiety-driven play-by-play of a worst-case state of affairs. A life the place you made all of the mistaken selections and each time you catch a glimpse of the ghost within the rearview, you drive quicker in the other way attempting to flee it.”
“I believe worry and fear and this form of existential dread that’s tied to all of it is a driving think about plenty of what I do, and I believe these feelings make for potent songs. Typically after we write, we prefer to attempt to have a vacation spot in thoughts. And most occasions, anxiousness and uncertainty will creep up and bleed into the work. So plenty of occasions I simply find yourself writing about these all-consuming fears, unintentionally. It’s important to embrace what scares you and face it head on. Often if one thing scares you, there’s one thing necessary there.”
I nonetheless get that feeling that there’s poison in my coronary heart
Jesus was a household pal, however he by no means despatched me playing cards
Effectively, just a little alcohol for the OCD
In one other life, I used to be virtually me
On the coast, close to the angels
The place the sunshine can’t see me
I attempted to allow you to go
However I do know they nonetheless make enjoyable of me on a regular basis
Can all of the years fade from my thoughts?
There’s no pretense right here – simply uncooked, radiant warmth. The band pour themselves into each second: from the raunchy, distorted guitar tones to the propulsive, driving rhythm part that offers the observe its depth and edge. Kelley’s vocals teeter on the sting of unraveling, and that’s a part of what makes this tune so gut-wrenching. It’s unfiltered, pressing, and painfully human.
“Kill the Lights” doesn’t run from the darkish – it lives in it. And in doing so, it shines.
All of the years fade from my thoughts
All of the years fade from my thoughts
All of the years fade from my thoughts
It’s only a fantasy
It’s only a fantasy
It’s only a fantasy
A silly fantasy
“If She Was a Boy”
by Gatlin
Tright here’s a form of ache that lives in silence – within the issues we don’t say, the needs we bury, the fears that maintain us from talking our truths. Gatlin’s “If She Was a Boy” cracks that silence open with grace, vulnerability, and a dizzying, dreamy magnificence. Her first launch of 2025, and her debut for Dualtone Data, seems like each a reckoning and a launch: a young, aching coming-out tune that’s as candy as it’s sorrowful, as liberating as it’s fraught. It’s brutally trustworthy and unfiltered, and but there’s one thing wondrous and radiant about it – like daylight breaking by means of clouds.
I caught her like a chilly in August
Is there a tablet to cease the physique aches?
She touched my hand stated
“Wanna be chaotic”
I’ll do my time and pray all of it away
She took all my plans and tossed ‘em
Drew up all my traces and crossed ‘em
Warning, talking to a responsible aware
I don’t actually assume I’m seeing straight
I’ve been a fan of Gatlin’s for the reason that starting – in premiering 2019’s “Curly Hair,” I admired her lyrically-potent, melodically-savvy artistry, praising it as “an artist deep within the technique of discovering herself and coming into her personal as a self-aware mover and shaker in her neighborhood.” 2020’s debut EP Sugarcoated was simply that – a stirring outpouring of vivid and susceptible emotion, all packed into an totally fascinating report on the intersection of the pop, various, and indie people worlds. She has persistently dazzled all through the previous five-plus years, and but, this second seems like a reintroduction – – like she’s entering into a brand new chapter, boldly and unapologetically. “If She Was A Boy” floats on reverb-drenched synths and tender indie-pop textures, however it hits like a confession that’s been sitting in your chest for years. “If I used to be born one other time, one other state / Would I be torn between somebody you’re keen on and somebody you tolerate?” she sings, her voice trembling on the sting of heartbreak. “But when she was a boy, I’d be in love.”
If I used to be born one other time one other state
Would I be torn between somebody you’re keen on
and somebody you tolerate
I’m too afraid of what you assume and who’s above
But when she was a boy
I’d be in love, I’d be in love
“I wrote this dangerous boy with two extremely proficient queer ladies, Chloe Kraemer and Amanda Cy, whereas working in London,” Gatlin shares. “It was such a particular room to be part of – it’s not usually I’ve gotten to make a observe with all ladies. As I used to be packing for my journey to London, I had misplaced my present journal so introduced one from years prior that had some empty pages within the again. The day earlier than we wrote this tune, I used to be flipping by means of the outdated pages and again in 2018 I had written about my first time having a crush on a woman. One of many issues I had written was ‘If she was a boy I’d be in love’ – so I introduced that into Chloe and Amanda and it was one of the crucial seamless songs written on the album. Humorous sufficient, the lady I had a crush on was from London, large full circle second.”
Perhaps it’s simply trigger she’s obtained a British accent
Perhaps it’s simply trigger I wanna appear to be her
It’s only a section, I’ll brush it off
And I gained’t take into consideration her contact or
How her pores and skin and hair and lips would pull me beneath
If I used to be born one other time one other state
Would I be torn between somebody you’re keen on
and somebody you tolerate
I’m too afraid of what you assume and who’s above
But when she was a boy
I’d be in love, I’d be in love
There’s magic in that full circle – in taking a line written years in the past in a diary and turning it right into a shimmering, soul-baring anthem. “If She Was A Boy” is the form of tune that brings artist and listener nearer collectively: It makes area for queerness, confusion, longing, and liberation. Gatlin wraps uncooked emotion in magnificence and lets it breathe. It’s a tune for anybody who’s ever questioned what love is meant to appear to be – and who they’re allowed to like. And if that is just the start of her subsequent period, I can’t wait to listen to what comes subsequent.
If I used to be born one other time one other state
Would I be torn between somebody you’re keen on
and somebody you tolerate
I’m too afraid of what you assume and who’s above
But when she was a boy
I’d be in love, I’d be in love
“Every thing You Do”
by The Blissful Suits
The Blissful Suits’ “Every thing You Do” seems like a jolt of pleasure straight to the guts – just like the sonic equal of a confetti cannon exploding midair: A radiant, rambunctious rush of feel-good fervor that hits arduous, quick, and leaves you grinning like an fool. It’s loud, it’s vigorous, it’s unabashedly enormous – the form of cinematic indie rock anthem that fills each inch of a room, lifts the spirit, and reminds you what it feels prefer to be totally, really alive.
This can be a band I’ve recognized from the very starting – once I featured their debut EP Awfully Apeelin’ again in 2016, I wrote: “Calvin Langman and Ross Monteith are as stunned as anybody else is by the success of their band The Blissful Suits’ debut EP, however on reflection, maybe they shouldn’t be…” 9 years, a number of albums, and numerous tour stops later – together with Lollapalooza and different competition phases around the globe – The Blissful Suits are nonetheless delivering that very same spark I first heard in “Whereas You Fade Away,” however with much more firepower, polish, and fervour. Their fourth album Lovesick is out September 19th, and “Every thing You Do” is its first exuberant, heart-on-sleeve style.
Yet one more evening of additional time
Preserve me up on this field with knuckles white
Effectively I’ve obtained payments to pay, and I’ve obtained mouths to feed
I’m so moody, moody, moody
(Moody, moody, moody)
You then caught me abruptly with this helpless feeling
All people needs to like you
You’re the apple of my eye, what I’m at all times consuming
All people needs to like you
Oh, everyone needs to like you
(All people needs you)
However I can’t afford to like
“Every thing You Do” feels just like the musical manifestation of that electrical, butterflies-in-your-stomach form of love – the sort that hits like a freight prepare and leaves you breathless, giddy, and alive. From the primary notice, it bursts ahead with radiant power: Pulsing drums, hovering strings, and Calvin Langman’s signature cello traces exploding into technicolor euphoria. It’s pure serotonin – the form of observe that calls for to be blasted with the home windows down, arms outstretched, coronary heart vast open. And beneath that jubilance lies a thread of craving and vulnerability, grounding the observe in one thing actual and relatable.
For all its bombast and brilliance, “Every thing You Do” continues to be a love tune at its core – one bursting on the seams with emotion, longing, and vulnerability. Langman’s lyrics toe the road between pleasure and desperation, capturing the spiraling rush of falling head-over-heels for somebody you’re feeling you may’t have: “I can’t get my thoughts off loving you / ’Trigger I’m in love with all the pieces you do / So assist me please from falling quicker / There’s no stopping this catastrophe.” It’s giddy, breathless, and just a little bit unhinged – a heartsick anthem set to a euphoric soundtrack. That stress between exuberance and emotional chaos is precisely what makes it hit so arduous.
I can’t get my thoughts off loving you
Trigger I’m in love with all the pieces you do
So assist me please from falling quicker
There’s no stopping this catastrophe
Save me, gained’t you say you’re keen on me too?
“I learn someplace that the quantity of married US adults dropped from 67% in 1990 to 53% at present,” frontman Calvin Langman shares. “On the similar time, over 50% of millennials are taking up a number of jobs and ‘polyworking.’ I’m no knowledge scientist, however why is it so rattling costly to be in a relationship as of late? Perhaps it’s simply my social circles and algorithm, however there’s a shared feeling amongst the hoi polloi of being overworked, underpaid, and underloved. It’s not that we don’t need to be in relationships, it’s simply that we merely cannot afford to like. ‘Every thing You Do’ is my very own inside battle of combating for my coronary heart vs. being sensible and rational. Figuring out me, the guts at all times finds a approach to win…”
Langman continues, “ “For the grand premiere of the larger, higher The Blissful Suits 2.0, we knew we needed to present what we do finest: carry out! The video was shot within the basement of the punk-world-famous First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia, together with a skeleton crew of fellows who knew methods to squeeze each ounce of vibe out of that area and into the video. Mockingly, we had been kicked out two hours sooner than we anticipated because of an Agnostic group who had rented the area after us, claiming they rented it sooner than it stated on the decision sheet. They appeared fairly positive about this for a gaggle of people that aren’t positive about loads. Nonetheless, over 11 hours of taking pictures, we obtained the handfuls of takes wanted for our first performance-based music video ever, and the primary look into the way forward for The Blissful Suits.”
I say, you say, “What’s the deal?
It’s a really brief life with no enchantment”
Effectively I’ve obtained time to kill and I’ve obtained drugs to take
I’m so moody, moody, moody
(Moody, moody, moody)
You then caught me abruptly with this helpless feeling
All people needs to like you
You’re the apple of my eye, what I’m at all times consuming
All people needs to like you
Oh, everyone needs to like you
(All people needs you)
However I can’t afford to like
I can’t get my thoughts off loving you
Trigger I’m in love with all the pieces you do
So assist me please from falling quicker
There’s no stopping this catastrophe
Save me, gained’t you say you’re keen on me too?
There’s a sure magic to this band’s musical alchemy – the best way they mix catharsis with pleasure, unfiltered emotion with electrifying hooks. “Every thing You Do” is an ideal instance: a tune that wears its coronary heart on its sleeve whereas compelling you to bop, shout, and sing your lungs out. It’s a testomony to their evolution and their unrelenting sense of enjoyable – the sort that’s constructed not simply from expertise, however from belief, chemistry, and years of shared progress.
The Blissful Suits have at all times been the form of band that makes you’re feeling higher simply by urgent play. And now, practically a decade in, they’re not simply nonetheless doing that – they’re doing it greater, louder, and extra fantastically than ever earlier than. “Every thing You Do” isn’t only a comeback – it’s a celebration.
You drive me loopy on a regular basis
You spin in circles ’spherical my thoughts
And if the celebs would all align
Then would you’re keen on me?
Would you be mine?
I can’t get my thoughts off loving you
Trigger I’m in love with all the pieces you do
So assist me please from falling quicker
There’s no stopping this catastrophe
Save me, gained’t you say you’re keen on me too?
“The Little Dove”
by BODHI
Oh how I like a great brood – and BODHI’s “This Little Dove” hits that emotional candy spot with gorgeous precision. A smoldering, soulful seduction, it’s each soothing and aching: an atmospheric, slow-burning confession that stirs one thing deep inside. Their voice – stunning, daring, and heartbreakingly tender – aches with uncooked vulnerability, turning ache into poetry and burnout into balm. It’s a tune you really feel in your bones, in your breath, within the quiet locations you don’t at all times let others see.
If I’m on the bend, please save me from myself
Set my vices on a fireplace, depart me wadin’ within the water
Should you want me right here I swear pray for my well being
I worry my physique’s getting outdated,
I worry I’m losin’ my composure
“This Little Dove” is the third single of the 12 months from the 23-year-old Bridgeport, CT-based artist, and it’s as fascinating as it’s cathartic. BODHI opens with a plea – “If I’m on the bend, please save me from myself” – and from there, the burden solely builds. “I’m on fireplace, fireplace! This little dove is drained…” That lyric alone seems like a gut-punch, a whispered cry for assist carried on the wind. Burnout, fatigue, and the desperation to maintain going pulse by means of each concord and each breath, their voice weaving between cinematic swells and tender, aching silences.
I’m on fireplace (fireplace)
Please tear me off the wires
I’m dropping all management now,
you act such as you don’t know
I’m on fireplace (fireplace)
This little dove is drained
I’m working low on hope now,
you act such as you don’t know
I’m on fireplace, fireplace, fireplace (I’m on fireplace), fireplace
“To set the stage for my album of self-reflection, I begin at my lowest second. A second of pure burn out and devastation,” BODHI tells Atwood Journal. “The construct up of instrumentation, harmonies, and quantity is a illustration of the construct up felt inside. This message on this tune is felt universally, and I hope to attract listeners in to listen to and heal with me by means of the remainder of the story.”
That intent radiates by means of each second of this observe. The manufacturing is immersive and restrained, letting every phrase land like a heavy fact. Their vocal efficiency is otherworldly – gripping, ghostly, gorgeously human. It’s the form of tune that doesn’t simply echo your individual exhaustion; it affords a quiet place to take a seat in it, to honor it, and to perhaps begin therapeutic from it.
My momma advised me I run in my sleep
I’ve been runnin’ for eternally, lookin’ ahead to forgettin’
The land I lay the younger, the wild, and free
I’ll write till the chains off, I’m alive till the chains off
I’m on fireplace (fireplace)
Please tear me off the wires
I’m dropping all management now,
you act such as you don’t know
I’m on fireplace (fireplace)
This little dove is drained
I’m working low on hope now,
you act such as you don’t know
BODHI could also be at first of a brand new chapter, now signed to Nettwerk and prepping their debut challenge, however their voice already carries the burden of expertise and the promise of one thing unforgettable. “This Little Dove” is a wide ranging introduction to an artist who isn’t afraid to fulfill the darkness head-on – and who sings with the hope that we’ll come out the opposite aspect collectively.
I’m on fireplace (fireplace)
Please tear me off the wires
I’m dropping all management now,
you act such as you don’t know
I’m on fireplace (fireplace)
This little dove is drained
I’m working low on hope now,
you act such as you don’t know
I’m on (fireplace, fireplace, fireplace, fireplace)
“Take It From Me”
by rapidly, rapidly
quickly, rapidly’s “Take It From Me” seems like a secret being whispered proper into your ear – tender and serene, quietly enchanting and deeply comforting. A uncommon and radiant standout off the Portland artist’s fourth studio album I Heard That Noise (launched April 18 by way of Ghostly Worldwide), it glows like a heat, incandescent mild: all tender acoustics, glistening textures, and hushed emotion. There’s a way of nearness within the music – like Jonson is sitting within the room with us, guitar in hand, singing gently into the quiet.
I walked in, coated my ears
You stated, “Don’t come”, however I’m already right here
I do know you’re pissed off from working the present
I used to be simply attempting to lighten the load
You parked down a few blocks
Close to a campsite, buying and selling cash for rocks
I unlocked your passenger door
And also you stated, “I can’t reside with this anymore”
Take it from me…
“This was a type of melodies that I simply had in my head for some time earlier than I recorded it,” Jonson tells Atwood Journal. “Once I lastly did put it down it was cool however didn’t stand out sufficient so I let it sit for just a few months. Once I got here again to it, I utterly restructured the tune to suit extra within the universe of the others on the album. There are two separate tales on this tune – the primary verse is a lived expertise of a damaged relationship, and the second a extra inward look upon myself. Each finish within the resignation of ‘take it from me’ as a blind plea for some form of change.”
There’s one thing deeply cathartic about the best way “Take It From Me” unfolds – in the way it holds stress after which releases it with the softest of sighs. “I walked in, coated my ears / You stated, ‘Don’t come,’ however I’m already right here” – the scene is ready in quiet chaos, filled with harm and miscommunication. Jonson paints intimate portraits of heartbreak and unraveling: “You parked down a few blocks / Close to a campsite, buying and selling cash for rocks… I unlocked your passenger door / And also you stated, ‘I can’t reside with this anymore.’” The lyrics ache with unstated grief, with loneliness, and with resignation.
“Take it from me,” he repeats like a plea – one half give up, one half quiet power. “An ideal storm is coming over the hill / I hope it don’t hit, however I do know that it’s going to / It’ll cut up me from my coronary heart and my pores and skin / It’s not if, however a matter of when.” That imagery lingers lengthy after the music fades. Jonson captures the delicate great thing about vulnerability – the form of uncooked honesty that offers you chills. “I’m not pleased with who I’ve turn out to be / I’m alone, however so is everybody. Take it from me…” That mantra-like chorus lands like a tender reassurance at midnight – a reminder that ache isn’t ours alone to bear.
An ideal storm is coming over the hill
I hope it don’t hit, however I do know that it’s going to
It’ll cut up me from my coronary heart and my pores and skin
It’s not if, however a matter of when
I’m not good (Not good)
A pair issues beneath my hood
I’m not pleased with who I’ve turn out to be
I’m alone, however so is everybody
Take it from me…
As Jonson explains, “‘Take It From Me’ was written throughout a tough a part of my life. I wished to discover the thought of the 2 meanings – as in taking a burden off of any person, and as in a shared expertise.”
Like a lot of I Heard That Noise, the tune is autobiographical and emotionally open-ended. “It was all form of written throughout the identical a part of my life,” Jonson says. “So plenty of the songs are related themes of affection and loss and anxious attachment. They’re additionally autobiographical, and ‘Take It From Me’ isn’t any totally different.”
There’s additionally a deep humility and quiet confidence to Jonson’s course of. “I believe it’s actually necessary for songs – particularly autobiographical songs like this – to be obscure sufficient so the listener can join with no matter that means they need to it,” he displays. “Once I make music, I are inclined to disassociate from the precise lyrical content material of the tune and it feels prefer it wasn’t even written by me. So, I get to create that means in that as properly.”
For these simply discovering rapidly, rapidly now, that is the right entry level – a mild invitation right into a challenge outlined by subtlety, heat, experimentation, and emotional honesty. “I like to make music!!! It’s actually the one factor I’m good at,” Jonson provides. “I’m tremendous fortunate to play music with a few of my finest pals. We even have matching tattoos of a roadrunner.”
His challenge could also be named rapidly, rapidly, however this tune envelops the soul slowly, slowly – and I wouldn’t have it another means. If that is what it sounds prefer to reside together with your coronary heart in your sleeve, I hope Graham Jonson by no means places it away. “Take It From Me” is a quiet triumph – a stunningly soul-soothing second of reflection that leaves you feeling just a little extra understood, and rather less alone.
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