BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE MONTH 17/10/2025: FKA Twigs, Chat Pile, Danny Brown and more…

Halloween is around the corner so it's time to bring out the creepy tunes. Artists featured this week include FKA Twigs, Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo, Summer Bruises, Les Imprimes, Thee Marloes, Long Fling, Danny Brown and Tame Impala.

THE BEST:

‘Cheap Hotel’ – FKA Twigs

Earlier this year, Twigs dropped Eusexua – an album that I positively described as ‘cerebral sexy pop for aliens’. She’s planning to drop a sequel to it titled Eusexua Afterglow later this year, and ‘Cheap Hotel’ is our first taster. It’s a spacey trip hop song made up of pitch-shifted vocals floating over zero-gravity synths. The part where it slows down is very cool, and the nightmarish ending to the music video caught me off guard. It looks like we’re in for more ‘cerebral sexy pop for aliens’ - but maybe with an unsettling horror edge this time?

‘Demon Time’ – Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo

Oklahoma sludge metal band Chat Pile are back with another creepy song. This one is a bit more subdued and atmospheric than their usual harrowing stuff (no drums or screaming) and features Texan avant-garde guitarist Hayden Pedigo (both Hayden and Chat Pile are dropping a collaborative album together on October 31st). It kinda sounds a bit like The Doors – but a darker Americana version.

‘Death Disco’ – Summer Bruises

‘Death Disco’ lives up to its name – Calgary band Summer Bruises have taken disco and goth rock, and they’ve Frankensteined them together. The song is propelled along by a relentless pulsing bassline that builds up to an ethereal chorus. Accompanying it is a fitting vampire-themed video in which the band perform on stage while the crowd get a little too wild. It comes off the band’s recently released sophomore album Out Of Body.

‘Next Summer’ – Les Imprimes

Let’s take a break from the spooky tunes. ‘Next Summer’ is a melancholy pop song about pining for summer to return. Something everyone in the UK can relate to as we look forward to 4pm sunsets and extortionate heating bills. The echoey bass and drums in the background and chords have a nostalgic 60s ballad tone to them, while the synths keep it feeling current.

‘What’s On Your Mind’ – Thee Marloes

This smooth soul tune reminds me of The Stylistics, but without the testicle-defying falsettos. It’s the work of Indonesian soul band Thee Marloes, and follows their well-received 2024 album Perak. The ‘tell me what’s on your miiiind’ chorus combined with that tremolo piano key tinkling is beautiful.

‘Flung’ – Long Fling

While trawling through the backlog of submissions in my inbox, I uncovered this fascinatingly freakish track ‘Flung’. It’s the work of Dutch indie artists Willem Smit of Personal Trainer and Pip Blom, who have joined forces to form Long Fling. 'Flung' opens with a mangled guitar riff, played on a guitar gifted to Willem that was apparently ‘impossible to tune and beyond repair’. Much of the percussion is made up of samples of a microphone being slapped against cupboards and the floor. But this is not some noisy avant-garde track – it’s actually got quite a glossy and melodic chorus, and I'd never have guessed the drums were made from banging floorboards and furniture.  

‘Copycats’ – Danny Brown ft. Underscores

Danny Brown has rapped over all kinds of beats throughout his career, but this is the first time I’ve heard him on a hyperpop beat. In fact, his upcoming album Stardust looks like it’s going to feature an array of guest artists from the hyperpop fringes. I’m very excited. This bubbly production is so fun and Danny Brown is sounding very upbeat: ‘Dance with the stars/ Imma walk on the moon/ Got my head in the clouds/ I ain’t coming down soon’.

THE WORST:

‘Dracula’ – Tame Impala

What do vampires and this new Tame Impala single have in common? They both suck. Usually, Kevin Parker brings something new to each genre he experiments with, but these new house songs just feel like a watered-down Justice tracks. The new album Deadbeat is out today, and I’ve never been less excited about a Tame Impala album.