Today's Top Tune

A child of Los Angeles, Ariella has been nurturing her creativity and fine tuning her songwriting since early on. This indie folk artist recently released her debut album Crybaby. From it, we share “Call Me Your Angel.” 

Pablo Drexler (aka pablopablo) is the son of Academy Award-winning/Grammy-darling songwriter and guitarist Jorge Drexler. And pablopablo is shaping up to be a major player in the awards space himself, with two Latin Grammys already under his belt. 

The London-based indie artist connected with Helado Negro at a festival last year where they were playing on the same line-up. They quickly decided they wanted to work together. Pablo shares this insight: "What's incredible is that, no matter how much you love someone's work, there's no guarantee that when you get together one afternoon to make music, something worthwhile will come out of it. However, in this case, we were very lucky; I felt that every idea we had was enhanced in the hands of the other. I wish it were always like this!" You can hear their bond on “Lejos de Más,” or “Far From” in English. 

We’re excited by the prospect of a new album by Sharon Van Etten, but this one is a little different. The self-titled LP (due Feb. 7, 2025)  will be the debut of her collaborative work with her band The Attachment Theory — adding a new dimension to the sound and songwriting. “For the first time in my life I asked the band if we could just jam,” Van Etten muses. “Words that have never come out of my mouth, ever! But I loved all the sounds we were getting. I was curious. What would happen?” Magic, apparently. Van Etten went on to share that two tracks from the forthcoming album were written within the span of an hour through this process. We’ll have to wait to hear those, but we can all enjoy “Afterlife” right now. It’s a good preview of what’s to come with its weighty message boosted by a rapturous melody. 

With Halloween around the corner and our Masquerade blowout at the Mayan tonight(!), we turn to a haunting track written by Z Berg (a founding member of The Like). “Better The Devil” is a song she constructed for the sleeper hit, summer thriller Strange Darling. We offer it here for your listening and downloading pleasure. 

For Joseph Mount, mastermind behind the UK outfit Metronomy, The Posse EP Volume 2 represents a way of connecting with new music and new artists. It’s his way of championing newer performers and connecting with them. “The more I do stuff with other people, the more excited I get about doing my own music again…” explains Mount.  “For me it’s a way of separating myself from the last 20 years of what I’ve done. You want to be proud of it and then move on.” To prove it, today we’re sharing “Contact High (Feat. Miki & Faux Real).”

It’s been roughly twenty years since London-based Tunng crept onto the scene with their genre-defying and timeless “pagan folktronica” debut album — This Is… Tunng: Mothers Daughters and other Tales. To celebrate, the band will release their eighth studio album Love You All Over Again on Jan. 24, 2025 via Full Time Hobby. It’s a record brimming with crunchy textures, nods to renaissance folk, and (maybe) a dash of Simon & Garfunkel. Enjoy this first foray into the LP — “Didn’t Know Why.”

Las Palabras, or Words in English, is the Spanish-language solo project of punk-scene veteran and member of !!! (Chk Chk Chk) — Rafael Cohen.  Of his sophomore album Fe (Faith), Cohen says: “[it] deals with what it means to have faith, what it means to have doubts, and what it means to stay open to the idea that something untouchable and unknowable may exist”. 

Each song on Bon Iver’s new EP SABLE reveals an autobiographical imprint of a different point in frontman Justin Vernon’s healing process. The title suggests the projection of built-up darkness and, ultimately, its release. “Things Behind Things Behind Things,” dates back to 2020 — a song born from a restless anxiety brought on by Vernon’s uncertain future as an artist. It’s a song through which he unpacks the past while puzzling himself back together. 

We’ve got a new one from alt-country singer Margo Price! “Too Stoned To Cry” finds the singer sharing a mic and guitar duties with her friend Billy Strings. Price is a natural storyteller and this song illustrates why country music has always been a comfort to her, even in her darkest days. And it signals more to come as she prepares new music to be delivered in 2025. 

If you’re a skeptic about love, it’s time to take a listen to the collaborative work of songwriters and producers Baba Stiltz and Okay Kaya. The pair’s aloof, anti-folk hymn “I Believe In Love” is “about loneliness, longing, and safety,” Baba Stiltz explains. “[It’s about] the joyful silliness of coupling and the fear it inevitably can lead to.” Kaya adds: “I am very lucky to get to sing this banger of a song with Baba. He makes me believe in all the silly things.”