BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE FORTNIGHT 18/04/2025: Billy Woods, Igorrr, Lana Del Rey and more…

I’ve had an ear infection for the last two weeks (I blame it on that new Playboi Carti album – which I will be reviewing soon). I haven’t been able to hear out of one ear, which isn’t convenient if you’re a music blogger. But the following songs were still beautiful/crazy enough to leave an impression. Artists featured this week include Spacey Jane, Jai’len Josey, Billy Woods, Igorrr, Frank Dambra, Restless Mosaic, Bleeth and Lana del Rey.

THE BEST:

‘Through My Teeth’ – Spacey Jane

I stumbled upon Aussie indie band Spacey Jane via a little known radio station in the UK called Radio 1. Usually I try to look further afield when hunting down new music, but Sian Eleri’s Future Artists show occasionally plays some great stuff. ‘Through My Teeth’ features effervescent jangly guitars and an infectious chorus about ‘throwing up on the balcony’. It comes off their new album That Makes Sense.

‘New Girl’ – Jai’Len Josey

Beyonce, is that you? No, this is in fact 24 year old Atlanta singer Jai’Len Josey – star of Spongebob Sqaurepants the Musical (I’m not lying). ‘New Girl’ is a steamy babymaking banger with low-end vocal runs that totally sound like Queen Bey and a crazy beat made up of loopy percussion and 90s rave stabs. It’s very fun!

‘BLK ZMBY’ – Billy Woods ft. Steel Tipped Dove

Over a beat made up of cinematic violins and lumbering fretless bass, New York rapper Billy Woods delivers a dense narrative about ‘black zombies’. Lyrically, it’s a mix of horror, world politics and racial commentary with some esoteric references to the The Usual Suspects and Dune sprinkled in there for good measure. A lot to unpack! The rapper will be dropping a new album titled Golliwog this year.

‘ADHD’ – Igorrr

Accompanied by a music video consisting of AI-generated exploding brains (as well as brain with legs and other surreal scenes involving brains), French metal/breakcore/baroque/trip-hop artist Igorrr delivers this suitably mindblowing new single ‘ADHD’. It’s the glitchiest, fidgetiest, filthiest, noisiest electronic track I’ve listened to in a hot minute. It feels as if someone just took by brain and contorted it like a balloon animal. Is this what ADHD feels like?

‘Pleromatic’ – Frank Dambra

This track came out in January, but I’ve only just got around to featuring it. It’s quite a change of pace from the track above – it’s a slow ambient piano piece made up of ethereal arpeggios that seem to hang suspensefully on the last note. It feels like the score to the sad scene in an 80s romance movie, and equally the score to an 80s horror movie. Horror/romance? Houston-based pianist and composer Frank Dambra has stated that this piece was inspired by Brian Eno and Harold Budd.

‘Circling the Canopies’ – Restless Mosaic

Washington-based producer-singer Restless Mosaic delivers this alluring synthpop single titled ‘Circling the Canopies’. It opens with some sinister pitch-shifted synth choir vocals and then delivers a series of angelic chord progressions contrasted with cold fat synth bass. ‘Restless mosaic’ is in fact a good way to describe this composition – it’s very intricate and refuses to sit still for too long (relatively speaking, of course. It’s still pretty chilled compared to that Igorrr track).

‘Monarchs’ – Bleeth

Bleeth are a Cuban-American sludge metal trio from Miami and this is the first glimpse off their upcoming album Marionette. It opens with a hulking stoner metal riff, briefly pauses at the 1:10 minute mark and then hurtles into a series of uptempo RATM-style grooves, and then gradually simmers back down again. I get the feeling these guys have riffs for days.

THE WORST:

‘Henry, Come On’ – Lana Del Rey

Other than the ‘last call, hey y’all’ pre-chorus (which totally nabs its melody from Miley’s ‘Wrecking Ball’), this slow country song from Lana is pretty unmemorable.  My love/hate relationship with Lana continues.