February ‘25 Monthly Music Recap
Love, spellbinding melodies and shredding guitar lines were in the air this month.
With new releases abounding, it only feels right that Valentine’s Day fell on New Music Friday this year and gave fans the gift of fresh tunes. From indie rock treasures to folksy favorites, here are some of the best and most notable tracks that helped soundtrack OTR’s February.
Rachel Bobbitt bares her soul in “Sweetest Heart”
Watch the visualizer for “Sweetest Heart” on YouTube.
When the wintry air of February means using headphones as earmuffs, a craving for sonic warmth emerges that can only be quenched by songs that feel like being hugged. With a voice as smooth as butter and a discography filled with dreamy melodies, Canadian singer-songwriter Rachel Bobbitt is the perfect remedy for the bite of winter, and her newest single, “Sweetest Heart,” is a treat to the ears.
Bobbitt pulls listeners in from the get-go with a majestic vocal run on the first lyric, backed by guitar arpeggios that give the track a spacey feel. With her nature-driven lyrics, Bobbitt extends the boundaries of a love song, carefully piecing together lyrics to create the ultimate metaphor for love. In the first verse, she sings “There are sirens that sound when you're away from me / Bent towards the ocean stretching limbs out wantonly” before comparing her yearning to the strength of a tide barreling towards the shore in the chorus: “All of my loving / Pushing water, swimming in towards the sand.” The pulled back production in the chorus couples Bobbitt’s lyrics, reminiscent of a receding tide.
In the description of the song’s visualizer on YouTube, Bobbitt said “Sweetest Heart” is the first song from the recording sessions of her upcoming debut album. While the track is a standalone, it sets a promising foundation for Bobbitt’s debut, slated for Fall 2025.
Sarah and the Sundays are the “rockstars of the night” in “Casanova”
The popular music catalog is filled with angry and sad stories hidden behind head-banging and happy-go-lucky melodies. Just look at classics like Outkast’s “Hey Ya” and Foster The People’s “Pumped Up Kicks.” With their new album Like A Damn Dog, indie rock band Sarah and the Sundays have delivered a collection of new anthems to rock or cry your heart out to.
Track three, “Casanova,” showcases the five-piece’s ability to write relatable, cleverly crafted lyrics and demand listeners’ attention with punchy melodies and catchy choruses. In “Casanova,” the band relays the universal feeling of inadequacy in blunt and somewhat comical ways, like when lead singer Liam Yorgensen professes “I’m no Cassanova / I don’t know what they told you / But I’m here, I’m paying rent.” While Yorgensen may sing of feeling mediocre, the band’s sound is anything but. Unassuming staccato acoustic strums introduce the song but eventually become overtaken by intentional feedback and unison full-band hits that counter brief moments of silence, emphasizing the lyrics “And in the same breath I use to confess / I tell a lie like usual.”
“Casanova” is Sarah and the Sundays at their best: blending poignant songwriting with their quintessentially indie rock charm. Sharing an album with soul-crushing tracks like “Crystal Ball” and head-bangers like “Pipe Down,” “Casanova” is in good company on Like A Damn Dog.
Wallows flies “up up and away” to new heights in “Coffin Change”
Watch the music video for “Coffin Change” on YouTube.
Indie rock gem Wallows are back and serving up a surf rock jam with a side of existential crisis. Following the release of “Your New Favorite Song” last month, the trio dropped “Coffin Change” in preparation for their March-arriving EP More.
The bright, clean guitar in the track’s first four bars paints a deceptively sunny picture before a bass and keyboard line joins the mix, adding crunch to the chords and making the song live up to its moody name. Braedon Lemasters takes the vocal lead on “Coffin Change,” his rough-around-the-edges voice bringing passion to lyrics like “Time, I used to waste all mine / Now time, time wastes me.” With its guitar-heavy, restless nature, the track’s raucousness is reminiscent of the band’s debut album, Nothing Happens. Yet, the shimmers of techy synths in the song’s instrumental bridge hark to the newer sound the trio has landed up in recent releases like their 2024 album Model.
As Off The Record contributor Avery Heeringa wrote in his review of “Coffin Change,” “the song is a product of what Wallows does best: pen songs that are to the point, easy to follow and shine with melodies that get embedded into the ripples of one’s brain folds. If ‘Coffin Change’ proves anything, it’s that More is likely to offer five additional cuts that capture the trio’s strengths.”
¡BangBang Watergun! got busy making masterpieces on new album
Hailing from Norway, alt-pop band ¡BangBang Watergun! is constantly pushing the boundaries of their rock and jazz-infused sound, and they’ve once again upped their own ante with their sophomore album, Nostalgia / Again It’s On. The dreamy album’s closing track, “BusyBusyBusy,” serves as the perfect culmination of where the band has been and where they’re going.
From a bouncy, hollow synth line that feels like floating on air to a smooth bass groove that grounds listeners, “BusyBusyBusy” is simply a sonically satisfying track. But, it’s the main electric guitar refrain between verses that elevates the song and makes it a true ear worm. The cutting sound and upbeat melody of the guitar line contrasts the thinner production of the verses, making it all the more catchy and proving that you don’t need intricate ornaments to absolutely shred on guitar. Meanwhile, lead vocalist Ragnhild Og playfully lilts over the more relaxed verses and conveys the all-too-familiar feeling of getting stuck in your head: “Being busy busy busy overthinking is a whirl.”
So, if you’re looking for new music that will keep your ears on high alert, I suggest getting busy listening to ¡BangBang Watergun!
Staff Picks:
Alyssa Scinta - “Bambi’s Theme” by Anxious
Dany Mireles - “Lucky” by Dora Jar
Jaymee Gallagher - “Misconstrued” by The Namby Pamby
Jackie Fortis - “Teenage Love” by Katie Gregson-MacLeod
Jack Kolpitcke - “all 4 the best” by PARTYOF2, Jadagrace and SWIM
Maddy Yen - “Sally, When The Wine Runs Out” by Role Model
Seay Howell - “You Killed The Music” by Debbii Dawson
Logan Goettemoeller - “If It’s Not” by hey, nothing and lighthearted
Madison Avery - “No Loss, No Love” by Spiritbox
Cece Faulkner - “It’s Amazing To Be Young” by Fontaines D.C.
Tabita Bernardus - “Again” by Inhaler
Kay Wolfer - “Silver Spoon” by Eric LeCount
Check out some of our February coverage!
New Music Reviews:
“What’s not to be misconstrued is how intricately crafted each layer of the instrumental has been implemented into the track; the song is lovingly and intentionally somber in the best way possible, sounding exactly like the dark hum of a February evening.” - Logan Goettemoeller on the Namby Pamby’s “Misconstrued.”
“Welcome to the wonderful world of Mandrake Handshake. Take a seat whilst the London/Oxford-based collective takes you on a journey of the senses.” - Sinead Cochrane on Mandrake Handshake’s Earth-Sized Worlds.
“Grace Shaw, the Brisbane native behind Mallrat, has a way of building a lyrical world so intricate that it’s hard not to be swallowed whole by the words she sings. Each song is a blend of simple yet complex electronic details, perfectly reflecting the ebb and flow of life, the intense and chaotic highs, while also the softer and more reserved lows.” - Cece Faulkner on Mallrat’s Light hit my face like a straight light.
“Weaving philosophical fables into carefully crafted melodies, the Paris-based trio made music for the chronic thinkers and daydreamers with their sophomore album, Divinations.” - Brooke Shapiro on Oracle Sisters’s Divinations.
Live Coverage:
“Though the band has been touring for almost three decades, hence the tour titled “25 Years of Noise”, each time the band addressed the audience it was filled with recognition and gratefulness to the sold-out crowd. 2,500 friends and family, as the band called them, lined the walls with starry eyes.” - Peyton Mott on Silverstein in Toronto.
“Jordana does not just sing, she does not just perform, she invites you in. And for one night in Seattle, everyone in the room got to be part of her world.” - Chloe Kapoor on Jordana in Seattle.
“There’s something special about a show that makes you forget where you are for a while, whether that means physically, or emotionally. Soccer Mommy’s set at Thalia Hall last Thursday did exactly that as she brought a set full of dreamy & melancholic indie rock that had the crowd dialed into the sounds created by her and her band from start to finish.” - Nico Beauchamp on Soccer Mommy in Chicago.
Interviews:
“It’s hard though to answer questions like that because I feel like my personal growth as a human being and my music are so intertwined that there's never going to be a point where my environment isn't influencing my art, and my art isn't influencing my environment.” - Matilda Marigolds in an interview with Tabita Bernardus.
Music Extras: