Musings On Music: February 2025
Love is in the air... and I'm loving a lot of new music from this past month.
One day I’ll stop making lame puns in these monthly writeups. But now is not that day. Check out what I thought of the new music I listened to in February 2025 and then listen to it yourselves!
As always, every song & album mentioned here is linked in each writeup, and a Spotify playlist from the month is located at the end of the article. Happy listening!
February 2025 Album Reviews
Album Of The Month: Sharon Van Etten - Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory: 8.3/10
SVE adds a post-punk tinge to her signature indie sound and it makes her latest one of her best. Full review:
Bartees Strange - Horror: 8.2/10
Making the same kind of album over and over again usually leads to lesser and lesser results, but when you’re Bartees Strange, your musical variance allows for repeated success. Horror isn’t that much different from 2020’s Live Forever or 2022’s Farm to Table, and it doesn’t even lean into horror or gothic themes all that much. But Strange’s again dabbles into indie rock, rap music and electronica, weaving genres together often within the same song in unique and engaging ways. These interwoven tracks attack the horror of modern life, like finding love (Lovers), finding a place to live (Baltimore) and finding the time to love yourself (Too Much). Bartees is as solid of a performer as ever, and even if it is similar to past efforts, there’s plenty of little things to keep you coming back for more.
Squid - Cowards: 7.1/10
The ominous, foreboding cloud that hangs over the entirety of Cowards telegraphs its sound. The guitars are tuned in a very muted way, and even its liveliest melodies feel like they’re holding back. It’s all well crafted and you can sense the passion put into its creation, but when it comes to post-punk albums from 2025, I enjoyed the Sharon Van Etten record from above much more than this one.
Drake & PARTYNEXTDOOR - $ome $exy $ongs 4 U: 4.8/10
This is really the lowest testosterone “sexy” album I’ve heard in some time. The Kendrick Lamar beef does hang over Drake’s latest, but he’s mostly content to ignore it to try and appeal to the ladies, which he does a pretty poor job of. Even though it’s been a while since we’ve heard from Nice Drake, the Ladies Drake, these beats still sound tired and unoriginal. Drizzy himself almost sounds bitter at times, as if the women he’s around should feel honored that he’s there rather than like him for the corny and horny dude he is. PARTYNEXTDOOR is too busy playing with his nose to really add anything of note either. I’ll just keep listening to “Hotline Bling” thank you very much.
Porridge Radio - The Machine Starts To Sing EP: 7.3/10
It’s fitting that “No need to talk about it, no need to cry about it/Like dust, it all just blows away” are the most memorable lines from Porridge Radio’s last release. Those final musings on “Don’t Want To Dance” sum up both the group’s finale and the group’s general ethos through their run. The four songs on The Machine Starts To Sing are doomy and gloomy, and not a bad way to end a run that included a Mercury Prize nomination.
Reviews Of 2025 Releases From Past Months
The Weekend - Hurry Up Tomorrow (from January): 8.4/10
If this is the end for The Weeknd as a project, he goes out in the only way he knows: as big and dramatically as possible. Full review:
flipturn - Burnout Days (from January): 7/10
Everything about Burnout Days is perfectly… functional. Tracks go through the motions, some catchier than others, but each track works in its own right. flipturn could stand to make their sound a little more unique to make something truly memorable, but they’re only on their 2nd LP, and I expect them to keep getting better as time goes along.
FKA twigs - EUSEXUA (from January): 8.3/10
Twigs really made an album so good she had to come up with a whole new word to describe it. The term “eusexua” is described by FKA twigs as akin to the moment of clarity as you stumble upon a breakthrough. In that sense, EUSEXUA is a mighty fine breakthrough into a danceable world. Top to bottom, this is as accessible as twigs’ music has ever been, pulsing with jittery synths and magnetic rhythms. It’s a dancefloor unlike anything she’s dabbled in before, yet she feels totally at home in this uncharted territory. Her nymph-like voice gently guides us through catchy track after another, like the vibrating “Girl Feels Good” or the intensity of the Koreless-assisted “Drums of Death”. The synth climax of the title track is one of my particular favorite moments. She’s never not at home on any of these songs, making EUSEXUA another winner for twigs and another wholly unique experience in her catalog. And shout out to North West for rapping in Japanese(?!?!?) on the bouncy “Childlike Things”. If only her father wasn’t such a nutjob these days.
The Weather Station - Humanhood (from January): 7.5/10
2021’s Ignorance was one of my favorite records of that year, a masterpiece that combated climate change and existential dread with lush sophistipop melodies. Its follow up doesn’t quite live up to those heights, but Humanhood follows a similar path to its own level of success. It’s frequently beautiful with its string arrangements and Tamara Lindeman’s voice navigating through personal turmoil. It’s just that it was done so well on the previous record that it’s just tough to measure up to.
horsegiirL - v.i.p.- very important pony EP (from January): 6.5/10
When the lead single to your project has the zany virality of “eat, sleep, slay, 🔁”, it’s a tall task for the rest of the ensuing project to match it. Most of the songs on this EP are passable in their hardstyle intentions, but alas, they’re just not as galvanizing as that first single.
The Night Flight Orchestra - Give Us The Moon (from January): 7.8/10
Put your fist in the air and rock on with reckless abandon. Full review:
February 2025 Songs
Song of the Month: Lady Gaga - “Abracadabra”
Oh yeah, Lady Gaga is back. And I liked the Chromatica era too! “Abracadabra” features Gaga battling between her past self and her present, mining the best bits of Born This Way and ARTPOP to create an industrial pop banger for the modern age. Her voice sounds so full and in control over the pummeling synths, acting as a commanding general amidst what could soundtrack a full-on dancefloor battle. She’s recaptured her past glory without blatantly repeating it, and that makes “Abracadabra” an early contender for the best pop song of 2025.
10 Other Great Songs From February 2025
Avalon Emerson - “Don’t Be Seen With Me”
After making one of the decade’s best dream pop albums, Avalon Emerson finds herself back on the dancefloor she cut her teeth on. This first single in a new series is a cover of an obscure 1980’s song by Oppenheimer Analysis, a project not named after the Father of the Bomb but certainly inspired by him.
Bartees Strange - “Backseat Banton”
Horror’s closer hits a zenith of pop rock that could only have been produced by Jack Antonoff. It’s as Top 40 as any Bartees Strange has ever been, but it’s proof in another world he’d dominate those charts like he dominates fusions of rap and rock in this world.
Bon Iver - “Everything Is Peaceful Love”
We’ve got a new Bon Iver album on the way, and its lead single is as 90’s soft rock as the Justin Vernon-led project has ever sounded. He fits that mold well, and “Everything Is Peaceful Love” is one of Bon Iver’s brightest, most hopeful tracks in some time.
Destroyer - “Hydroplaning Off The Edge Of The World”
Hydroplaning might be too intense of a word to describe Dan Bejar’s mood here. He’s moreso loafing off the edge of the world, spewing aimless poetry over a sophistipop instrumental that’ll grab a hold of you and never let go.
JPEGMAFIA - “Valentine’s Day Freestyle ‘25”
Just to make sure all his fans had something to do this V-Day (because they definitely weren’t around women), Peggy dropped an 90’s R&B-heavy song that’s jams pretty hard.
Lucy Dacus - “Best Guess”
As Lucy gears up for her first solo album since 2021, her magic touch for making you cry about relationships you’ve never been in is still intact. “Best Guess” features a very hummable melody and production from Bartees Strange, and it makes for a winning combination.
The Night Flight Orchestra - “Miraculous”
Nowhere else on Give Us The Moon do The Night Flight Orchestra fly higher than on “Miraculous”. Every element of 80’s nostalgia is pitch perfect, from over-the-top vocals to an electric guitar solo to the phenomenal pre-chorus at the climax.
Sharon Van Etten - “Somethin’ Ain’t Right”
The post-punk stylings that define Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory hit their peak towards the latter half of the record on “Somethin’ Ain’t Right”, a slow burner worth traversing. The woozy synths and Sharon’s deep voice lead into an addicting chorus, which leads to a magnificent climax later on.
Skylar Spence - “Espresso (Skylar Spence Remix)”
One of future funk’s founding fathers has been dormant for a while now. Hell, it’s been 10 years since his seminal 2015 album Prom King blessed our ears. But he’s back now, and Ryan DeRobertis adds his signature flair to the 2024 hit on this return remix. One can hope it leads to true blue new music soon.
Youth Lagoon - “Gumshoe (Dracula From Arkansas)”
The final single for an album I plan to check out this month, “Gumshoe (Dracula From Arkansas)” gives me Amen Dunes vibes.
Classics Corner
Femi Kuti - “Pà Pá Pà”
I picked up a Femi Kuti 7” single with this track on it, and it sent me down an Afropop rabbit hole I was happy to traverse.
Destroyer - “Bangkok”
I’d never given Poison Season as much time as other Destroyer albums, but when I did earlier in February, I was rewarded with “Bangkok”. It’s a beautiful piano-driven track that sees Dan Bejar as his most melodramatic.
Chappell Roan - “Pink Pony Club”
I saw the betting odds to be the next Super Bowl Halftime Show performer had Chappell Roan as the co-favorite, which is wild when you think of how obscure she was just two years ago. She’d put on a banger show.
The Postal Service - Give Up
One of the most listenable albums of the 2000’s.
Arctic Monkeys - AM
AM is twelve stories that have been told time and time again, but the way Alex Turner and his bandmates style them make them sound fresh and new. The drama and heartbreak here is just dripping with pain and a thick British accent, one that colors a breakup album like few others can.
The Smiths - “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”
I thought about trying to start a hashtag on Instagram with #MiserableMondays and this being its theme song, but there’s enough misery in the rest of the world for that. I’ll leave it to Morrissey to put it into song form.
Until next month! Read more from my blog below.
