New songs for November 24th, 2025

 here they are:


"Ain't Nobody Making Me High" by Bartees Strange:  Thanks to musicians like Jimi Hendrix and Lenny Kravitz, we have seen Black performers who enjoy hard rock music. A more recent and rarer phenomenon are Black performers who enjoy indie music. TV on the Radio are such a group, and in the 2020's, Bartees Strange seems to have taken on this mantle. But on Bartees' latest song, "Ain't Nobody Making Me High," he shifts his gears from indie to more of a blues-y, gritty funk/soul flavor! It's the type of soulful song Lenny Kravitz himself might have done back in the day, and a lot of it brings about '70s funk vibes a la Funkadelic or Rufus ("Tell Me Something Good" especially comes to mind here!) Even the lyrics to the song are minimalist and blues-y, and the photo on the album's single showing a black and white photo of Bartees with a serious, somewhat contemplative expression and his hair in cornrows sets the tone for the song!

"I Believe in Love" by Tyler Ballgame:  Take me out to the (Tyler) Ballgame and take me out to that nice, friendly crowd who loves the kind of breezy psychedelic folk-rock this song brings about! The title alone sounds like a long lost hippie relic, and the song sounds that way too! However, beneath the song's sunny vibe, "I Believe in Love" has ironic indie lyrics that fit right in with the 2020's. For instance, lyrics like "Never mind the where and why/It's a lonely life," and "Left overnight, I would never level the tree of life" convey how Tyler truly feels. It's more like he wants to believe in love, but doesn't know if he should, almost telling a white lie to himself during the chorus to calm himself down.

"Rusty Mountain" by Neko Case:  The gentle, breezy sound of this song belies its true message of essentially being a F-you to pop radio! By the second verse of "Rusty Mountain," Neko goes meta and sings, "I round on this chorus with most unholy gorge," and then really packs a punch with the line, "Take your radio and shove it!" Whoo! What a line! The song only becomes more sour from there!! Critiquing lyrical cliches ("All your 'he's' and 'she's' and rhyming 'love'"), critiquing her own self ("I'm not special and I never was"), and then essentially stabbing any "oldies" formats in the back ("Just a two-fisted son of a b**ch with no sickening nostalgia for this"), this song is an exercise in rightfully taking back what's yours!!

"So Long" by The Lumineers:  Each Lumi's song from this year seems to be more bitter than the last! We started with "Same Old Song," a bittersweet reflection of fame and whether that's truly a good thing, the awkwardly-titled "@$$hole (First We Ever Met)" where Wesley Schultz criticizes his own self for what a jerk he thinks he was in a previous relationship, and now "So Long," where once again, the title alone conveys the song's intended emotion. Musically, the song is slightly heavier than the previous two singles, using electric guitar and drums in the background, while still maintaining the band's trademark folk-rock-y sound. Lines like "Everybody's famous for a while/So long," "I don't care if your family hates it," and the recurring line, "Sit in isolation all the time," all put forth regret and angst that wasn't near as palpable in the band's early material. It's great to see these guys evolve musically while still staying true to the sound that made them popular!


"The Wreckage" by Silversun Pickups:  Probably the heaviest rock song on this list (and the last), "The Wreckage" roars into your ears right from the start with its pounding drums and thudding bass! Once the guitars come in, they trick your ears, being kind of "indie-lite" during the chorus, but then switching to a harder rock sound afterwards. SP are one of the few indie groups that have a bit of a grungy hard rock influence, but it makes them stand out from other groups. Even the lyrics of this song are somewhat nihilistic ("Last chance to draw weapons/Cold hands on open sores," "I sink to the ocean floor"). The song has a brief piano interlude in the middle, but it's more disquieting than it is truly soothing, almost like something bad is about to happen, but you don't quite know what. The song also ends with this same interlude...I guess that means nothing was truly resolved. But with a title like "The Wreckage," did you really expect this to have a happy ending?!