New Playlist: January 2025

Hey there! It’s time for the January 2025 Rosy Overdrive playlist and round-up. There was a lot of good music that came out last month, and this playlist corrals much of it in addition to some songs from albums from 2024 that I missed initially and a few selections from my journey into the year 1994 that I undertook over late December and early January. You simply won’t get all of this anywhere else out there, but it’s all here on Rosy Overdrive.

Pigeon Pit and Pacing have multiple songs on this playlist (two apiece).

Here is where you can listen to the playlist on various streaming services: Spotify (missing a song), Tidal (missing two songs), BNDCMPR (missing six songs). Be sure to check out previous playlist posts if you’ve enjoyed this one, or visit the site directory. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.

“Swansea”, Ex-Vöid
From In Love Again (2025, Tapete)

Lovely, lovely, song. I’m not sure why Ex-Vöid’s sibling band, The Tubs, seems to get more attention in North America–maybe Trouble in Mind Records really has that level of pull over here in the States, or maybe it’s intentional on the part of co-frontperson Lan McArdle, who stepped down from their previous band, Joanna Gruesome, for mental health reasons. This is all to say that Ex-Vöid have done it again with their latest album, In Love Again, and that its opening track, “Swansea”, is one of the loveliest things in which any of its members have been involved. McArdle and Owen Williams singing together is one of the greatest sounds one can hear in all of indie pop/power pop/jangle pop/et cetera, and “Swansea” blows the band’s second album right open with an excellent helping of it.

“Heads or Tails”, Cast of Thousands
From Useful People (2025)

Whoa, damn, what’s this? Austin power pop/college rock insurgents Cast of Thousands have been busy as of late between their debut EP at the end of 2023 and their first album, Third House, last year, so I wasn’t expecting a new release from the band to welcome us into 2025. Here we are, though, with a rock-solid four-song EP called Useful People, featuring what might be the band’s best song yet, “Heads or Tails”. It’s a chugging alt-rock/power pop/“heartland” rock anthem marked by the odd choice to heavily AutoTune bandleader Max Vandever’s vocals. The gambit works, though–in fact, it’s an inspired way to hammer home the lyrics, a confused plea for a life that makes just a little bit more sense (“I would like to think I have a strong foundation, but I was fed too much information”).

“Spangled”, Fust
From Big Ugly (2025, Dear Life)

“Spangled” is one of those songs that sounds like the greatest thing ever recorded when you’re listening to it. I haven’t felt this way since–well, shit, since the lead single of the last Fust album, “Trouble”, from Genevieve. If there’s any justice in the world, “Spangled” and Big Ugly will launch Aaron Dowdy and his collaborators (a septet these days) to the heights recently achieved by labelmate MJ Lenderman. Or maybe Fust will continue to be one of the best-kept secrets in North Carolina country-rock, if it’s possible to keep something as grand-sounding as “Spangled” like a secret. Dowdy’s performance is one of the most peaceful and gentle-sounding rants I’ve heard in a while–the band give him plenty of runway, and Dowdy uses it to spin a grounded whirlwind about hospitals, Shenandoah, “Precinct 305”, and “feeling pretty spangled”.

“Youthquaker”, Charm School
From Debt Forever (2025, Surprise Mind)

Compared to the tightly-controlled bursts of energy of their previous record, Finite Jest, Charm School’s Debt Forever somehow both looser and angrier; there’s still plenty of that modern Fall-influenced post-punk sound here, but there’s also some San Diego-style post-hardcore/garage rock and turn-of-the-century Washington, D.C. art punk in the mix, too. Debt Forever spends a good deal of time focusing on financial anxiety and insecurity, and it’s baked into several of the record’s best tracks; for one, there’s “Youthquaker”, a song about the American working class (in a way) that somehow shifts Charm School’s sound into a dancefloor-friendly, impossibly-cool kind of punk rock (it kind of reminds me of Perennial, even if it doesn’t exactly sound like Perennial). Read more about Debt Forever here.

“You’re Not Singing Anymore”, Mekons
From Horror (2025, Fire)

The Mekons are forty-nine years old this year, and judging by the lead single from their upcoming album (I’m not even going to try to figure out what number LP they’re on) Horror, they’ve still got a lot of great music left in the tank. The Mekons are not always a “this hits immediately” band, but I’ve loved “You’re Not Singing Anymore” from the moment I heard it; it’s the country-folk-rock-and-roll-punk troubadours at their catchiest, singing a sturdy bar anthem that’s hard to believe didn’t exist before now. “You’re Not Singing Anymore” is more or less one giant chorus, and I’m interested to hear it in the context of Horror, which “looks at history and the legacies of British imperialism with mashed up lyrics”, per its Bandcamp page. It’s a very animated tune about “songs from the past” that feels very much alive in the present, catchy but weighty. Still got it!

“Bronco”, Pigeon Pit
From Crazy Arms (2025, Ernest Jenning Record Co.)

On their latest album, Pigeon Pit has solidified into a six-piece “country/punk maximalist” group led by Lomes Oleander and featuring a bunch of Olympia-area ringers. Crazy Arms is both a culmination of “Pigeon Pit the Band” and a statement of their current power; Oleander is still a “folk punk” frontperson, yes, but her vocals and writing have evolved to also encapsulate the kind of world-reverent folk-y indie rock practiced by heroes like the Mountain Goats, The Weakerthans, and certain eras of Against Me!–and, of course, the band is key in helping her realize a more expansive sound for these songs, too. There’s a lot to love on Crazy Arms, including more than one transcendental anthem with the staying power to match their previous best song, “Milk Crates”; rambling, sneakily suave single “Bronco” is maybe the pinnacle of this side of Pigeon Pit, but there are several contenders. Read more about Crazy Arms here.

“Every Summer”, All My Friends Are Cats
From Picking Up on the Pattern (2025, Grey Cat Studios)

Pittsburgh act All My Friends Are Cats still offers a comforting, well-worn feeling that reminds me of a more casual, mostly bygone era of slacker-y pop punk/power pop on their latest EP, Picking Up on the Pattern. All My Friends Are Cats appears to have morphed into a solo project recently, but the new EP contains some of bandleader Dave Maupin’s strongest songwriting yet–like the construction on the EP’s cover, Picking Up on the Pattern feels like a transitional work, but there’s a lot of fertile ground in this in-between. The mid-tempo pop rock targeted strike of “Every Summer” is the record’s best moment–the chorus is an excellent loaded gun, but it’s the shit-eating-grin-delivered verses (“This place is just a ghost town, but the views they aren’t as vast / The buildings are much bigger and the tumbleweeds are trash”) that really make the track transcend. Read more about Picking Up on the Pattern here.

“Parking Ticket Song”, Pacing
From Songs (2025, Asian Man)

A high-flying song about never remembering to do anything about a parking ticket on one’s car “except for when I’m driving”, “Parking Ticket Song” is the “hit” of Pacing’s latest mini-album, Songs. “Parking Ticket Song” to me is about the benefits and drawbacks of being somebody who lets their “instincts” take the reins, either as a coping mechanism for avoiding harder decisions or as a way to maintain some kind of artistic “purity”. It might lead you to sit in the car looking at your phone for a long time after arriving home even if you could go look at your phone in your house with just a bit of focused effort, or write a song with lyrics like “I’m staring at the parking ticket / I don’t remember getting it / So it’s not my fault”, or turning an anti-folk song into a pop punk track at the drop of a hat (which is what happens all of a sudden halfway through “Parking Ticket Song”, springing into action to meet Asian Man Records’ contractual pop punk requirements). Read more about Songs here.

“Chutes and Ladders”, Crayon
From Brick Factory (1994, Harriet/HHBTM)

Pop music! Crayon were a trio from Bellingham, WA and were associated with Washington’s twee/indie pop movement; two-thirds of them went on to co-found the more well-known Tullycraft, and Crayon only ever made one proper album. This is “noise pop”, I believe—loud 90s guitars in bursts and flares and then twee-ish pop music in between them. “Chutes and Ladders” is probably my favorite song on Brick Factory; just incredibly catchy bursts of noise, with some petulant twee-pop in the cracks. I talked about this in the 1994 listening log, but there’s a self-aware skeeviness to a lot of this album, and the refrain of this song (“I do good things, for where good things they give me”) isn’t beating those particular allegations. It really works here, though.

“Lucky You”, Flora Hibberd
From Swirl (2025, 22TWENTY)

Flora Hibberd is a singer-songwriter from Britain who currently lives in Paris and who traveled to Eau Claire, Wisconsin to record her second album, Swirl. The resultant LP is a rich-sounding record of pop music from decades past, with bits of folk and psychedelia and Lou Reed lazily floating around in the ether. The best pop moment on Swirl is probably “Lucky You”, which manages to sound casually off-the-cuff and purely giddy at the same time in a way that reminds me of a more folky version of Parisian guitar pop groups like En Attendant Ana (honestly, this specific combination might just be a “French” thing, native Parisian or no). Read more about Swirl here.

“Feel Like Going Home”, Zuzu’s Petals
From The Music of Your Life (1994, Roadrunner/Twin/Town)

Zuzu’s Petals were a short-lived Minneapolis band led by Laurie Lindeen, an author and professor (and ex-wife of Paul Westerberg) who passed away last year. They lasted for two LPs and I listened to the second one, The Music of Your Life, for my 1994 listening log. I listed Throwing Muses, Tsunami, and Scrawl as points of comparison, although there’s a push and pull between wanting to be a more serious, mature rock band and embracing full-on guitar pop. My favorite song on the record, “Feel Like Going Home”, is in the latter camp, although the bashed-out power pop of this song is hardly “too” simple. This is one of those “could’ve been a hit” type lost college rock-adjacent songs; let’s all close our eyes and imagine hearing this on the radio in between Soul Asylum and Belly (it’s hard to imagine a better world some days; this might be the best I can do today).

“Blue Seersucker”, West Coast Music Club
From 1989 (2025, 72rpm)

West Coast Music Club–generic-sounding band name, but good tunes! They’re Brits actually, from West Kirby (“about as far west as you can go in the UK without getting wet”), which makes their name a bit more forgivable than if they were Californians, but regardless, their most recent record is a solid but brief collection of jangle/power pop. West Coast Music Club are planning to release an album later this year (considering they’ve apparently put one out every year this decade so far, that’s not so surprising), and they’ve started off 2025 with a three-song preview EP called 1989. When I talked to the band about this record, I learned that “Blue Seersucker” isn’t even planned to be on the digital version of the album (but will show up on the physical double LP), and it must be very good if West Coast Music Club can relegate a song as strong as this one to semi-B-side status. “Blue Seersucker” (named after the suit, I presume) captures the moment that post-punk and new wave became “college rock” and “indie pop”, melodies and a strong rock backbone springing forward effortlessly and all of it being held up by a massive chorus.

“Color of My Blade”, Ex Pilots
From Watch Out for Joker Bob: A Birthday Tribute to Robert Pollard (2024, Unmarketed Products)

Ex Pilots covering Guided by Voices is almost too on the nose, but I can’t pretend that their version of “Color of My Blade” doesn’t completely rock and/or get me completely hyped up nonetheless. Originally released on a vinyl-only tribute to Robert Pollard last year (alongside contributions from bands like Kiwi Jr., The Gotobeds, and, um, Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy), the Pittsburgh noise pop group put out their Guided by Voices cover (of a song that was originally the B-side to “Motor Away”) digitally this year, and it sounds a lot like an Ex Pilots song. That is to say, it sounds kind of like a Guided by Voices song polished up and with a bit more shoegaze heaviness around the edges. I have to give Ex Pilots credit for choosing a GBV song that hasn’t been flogged to death, too–not that I would expect any less from this group, who are true Pollard sickos who’ve been known to pull out Suitcase and side project tunes to play live.

“ifonly”, T a F F Y
From lull (2025, Club AC30)

There’s a really strong guitar pop movement going on in Japan right now, it seems–hardly early adapters, Tokyo’s T a F F Y have been around since 2011, even though I’ve only just now heard of them. Lull is the band’s sixth album and first since 2019, and it’s a really fun indie rock record–there’s dream pop, jangle pop, and even Britpop in the sound of this album, which features guitar lines that remind me of early Radiohead and a psych-dream cover of R.E.M.’s “Hairshirt”. “Ifonly” is probably the catchiest song on Lull, but it’s still a bit odd–the rhythm section is almost locked into a post-punk groove, the vocals are pure dream pop, and the guitars, as I alluded to earlier, are very “No Surprises”/“Let Down”. It’s all an interesting combination from an interesting new-to-me band.

“A Little Bit of Bad”, NRBQ
From Message for the Mess Age (1994, Forward)

“I Want You Bad”, off of NRBQ’s beloved 1978 album At Yankee Stadium, is maybe my favorite power pop song of all-time. Nothing that the (brilliant) band has done since quite reaches that, but I was pleased to discover during my 1994 odyssey that “A Little Bit of Bad” is about the closest they’ve gotten, at least among the NRBQ albums I’ve heard thus far. It sounds like a classic John Hiatt song, but without the John Hiatt-ness that’s a turnoff for some people (not me, though, I like John Hiatt). Message for the Mess Age really does seem like a hidden gem in NRBQ’s catalog of hidden gems–don’t go into it expecting a bunch of songs like “A Little Bit of Bad”, but considering that they pretty much nailed it with this one, it was probably the right choice to leave it at that anyway.

“Walking Down the Road”, Henrik Appel
From Shadows (2024, PNKSLM)

Straight out of Stockholm, Sweden is a rock and roller named Henrik Appel; since 2018, the singer-songwriter has made three albums inspired by everything from The Velvet Underground and Bob Dylan to post-punk and jazz. Shadows is probably one of my favorite post-2024 discoveries from last year–it falls somewhere between the smooth, Velvets-influenced garage-psychedelia of Weak Signal and the European party-college rock of EggS, which is pretty much a direct bullseye for me. “Walking Down the Road” has it all–a simple, chugging post-post-punk guitar riff, saxophone squalls, electric Dylan-esque vocals from Appel, and a bizarre descent into throat-thrashing vocal screaming towards the end of the song. It’s just incredibly catchy rock music that cribs from the past without being obvious or predictable about it, which is probably harder than it sounds.

“Obsession”, Des Demonas
From Apocalyptic Boom! Boom! (2024, In the Red)

Oh, yes. This rocks. Des Demonas are a garage rock band from Washington, D.C., which I probably could’ve told you within seconds of hearing the absolutely massive Farfisa organ hook that opens “Obsession”, the first song on their newest record Apocalyptic Boom! Boom!. The band–led by Jacky Cougar Abok and backed up by musicians who’ve played with The Make-Up, Kid Congo Powers, Medications, and fucking Two Inch Astronaut–are a tour de force throughout Apocalyptic Boom! Boom!, but to me there’s no beating the opening fireball of “Obsession”. It’s their first record in four years and features some lineup shifts, but Des Demonas sound right at home on this one, the band grooving along to Abok listing off a bunch of “new obsessions” (including “white collar crime”, “communication”, and “parental supervision”).

“Boy Wonder”, The Michael Character
From My Cow! (2024)

People would probably have a lot more sympathy for “gifted kid syndrome” if everyone made songs as good as “Boy Wonder” about it. But then again, we can’t all be The Michael Character’s James Ikeda. “Boy Wonder” is a striking piece of wondrous Emperor X-style folk rock that is apparently a decade old, having first appeared on a Michael Character album in 2016. There’s something indescribable about hearing these childhood snapshots (“I was the sage of cabin B12 / The summer I turned 13 years old / The kids all thought I was a genius / I talked about white dwarfs and black holes”) run through again all these years later (with help from an all-star band featuring members of Miss Bones and Lonesome Joan), and Ikeda updating the final stanza’s “Now I’m turning 25 in New England” to “35”.

“Crasseux”, Rosa Bordallo
From Isidro (2025, Bad Auntie)

Rosa Bordallo’s Isidro recalls “indie music” of that band’s late 2000s/early 2010s heyday, a mishmash of forward-thinking synths, “art rock”, and bright, vibrant guitar/indie/psychedelic pop music. Isidro sews Bordallo’s different lives and influences together expertly–there’s the stately coastal psych-folk artiste in her presentation (reflecting her current home of New York), her post-punk past (in the band Cholo) in the record’s more lively moments, her island of origin (the Pacific U.S. territory of Guam) in her writing, and the sun-baked psychedelia previously chronicled by producer Ben Etter (who’s worked extensively with Deerhunter) in Georgia, where the album was recorded. “Crasseux” is one of the brightest pop moments on the record, utilizing jangly psychedelic pop sound to captivating and dynamic ends. Read more about Isidro here.

“Getaway Girl”, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
From Into the Wild (2024, Nonesuch)

I’m glad I checked in on what Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway have been up to lately during the new music lull of December/January, because I wouldn’t have heard “Getaway Girl” otherwise. 2022’s Crooked Tree is one of my favorite bluegrass albums in recent memory, and while 2023’s City of Gold didn’t connect with me, the grab-bag Into the Wild EP is a nice reassurance that Tuttle can still pen an excellent tune. The EP is hit-or-miss, especially the covers (I’m sorry, “Good 4 U” just does not work as a bluegrass song), but the originals are all very strong, especially “Getaway Girl”. Golden Highway are note-perfect on this one–banjo, fiddle, upright bass all deployed excellently–and Tuttle is a large-than-life personality, smoothly and suavely delivering the sweet rebuke that gives the track its title.

“Grow High”, Motherhood
From Thunder Perfect Mind (2025, Forward Music Group)

Everyone’s favorite Maritime Province art punks Motherhood are back, following up their excellent fourth album (2022’s Winded) with a little something called Thunder Perfect Mind. I tagged it “RIYL Tropical Fuck Storm” in a tweet–er, Bluesky post–last month, and I’ll stand by that: it’s not as accessible as the weirdly catchy punk energy of Winded was, but it’s strange and hypnotizing and I look forward to giving it some more time. “Grow High” is a pretty immediate highlight from the LP, regardless–the vocals have that Motherhood trippy hip-hop-influenced (but not trip-hop) hollering to them reminiscent of Australian acts like TFS and Dom Sensitive, and the post-punk instrumental is well-oiled and fiery but still somewhat hard to pin down.

“Waded for You”, Uzumaki
From Waded (2024, Everything Sucks)

Hey there–do you like Sugar, the Pixies, and 90s pop punk? You might want to check out the most recent release from London quartet Uzumaki, Waded, if so. I’m not sure if this is what “bubble-grunge” is, but the opening semi-title track “Waded for You” utilizes 90s alt-rock tropes to incredibly catchy ends for the entirety of its 2.5-minute runtime (if the very “remember the nineties?” album artwork didn’t already give it away). There’s the Kim Deal bass, the SoCal punk rock vocals, the Copper Blue guitars–all of this and “Waded for You” still manages to sound pretty laid-back and even “slacker”-y. I don’t know too much about this band–this appears to be their first album, and their label, Everything Sucks, has put out good stuff from Good Grief and Schande in the past–but judging by Waded, they’re one of the better upstart British bands at the moment.

“Rocks Hit My Window”, Answering Machines
From Star Charms (2025, Inscrutable)

When I wrote about Good Flying Birds’ Talulah Tape I shouted out “Rocks Hit My Window” by Answering Machines as maybe my favorite song of 2025 so far, so I have to include it in this playlist even though it’s not on any of the major streaming services. Inscrutable Records’ Star Charms compilation features three new tracks apiece from Good Flying Birds, St. Louis indie poppers Soup Activists, and Answering Machines, a no-fi power pop group from Chicago. “Rocks Hit My Window” got my attention immediately and it’s only grown on me since–there’s garage rock, classic punk rock, and straight-up rock and roll in its DNA, all covered in a borderline-irritating level of scuzz and fuzz. All this is well and good, but it’s the simple yet deadly effective refrain that launches “Rocks Hit My Window” to the next level–there’s something about proclaiming “I wanna hear rocks hit my window!” over dirty rock and roll guitars that captures the spirit of this whole damn music thing better than just about anything.

“Rollercoaster”, Everything But the Girl
From Amplified Heart (1994, Blanco y Negro/Atlantic)

I heard Everything But the Girl’s Amplified Heart for the 1994 listening log, and I’m glad I did, because I really enjoyed it! Even though (perhaps because) it wasn’t quite what I was expecting; between Tracey Thorn’s somewhat soulful voice, the tasteful acoustic guitar, upright bass, and overall jazz sensibilities, this is pretty close to stuff that gets derided as “coffeehouse folk” music. I think people are too dismissive of a lot of this kind of music! And the fact that this album is apparently quite acclaimed is heartening. “Rollercoaster” is the opening track to the album, and it’s more emblematic of its sound than “Missing”, the song that formed the basis for their fluke dance/club hit. Jazzy and even a bit spacey indie folk pop/soft rock stuff. Look, it’s very good, and you should check it out if (like me, until recently) you haven’t.

“If I Had to Go I Would Leave the Door Closed Halfway”, zzzahara
From Spiral Your Way Out (2025, Lex)

It seems like the first couple of zzzahara releases were more low-key, pulling from the 2010s style of Captured Tracks-esque dreamy indie rock and adding some California sunniness to the music; Spiral Your Way Out is the big, shiny, polished coming-out, enlisting a bunch of notable Los Angeles indie rock/pop musicians to bring the record to fruition. The jangly guitar pop of previous zzzahara releases is still present in Spiral Your Way Out, but there’s also…more, as Zahara Jaime and their collaborators hammer out an ambitious LP of huge-sounding but moody pop rock songs. Spiral Your Way Out is a break-up album, which may help explain the title of “If I Had to Go I Would Leave the Door Closed Halfway”; regardless, it’s an excellent, inspired-sounding pop song, sporting a gorgeous melody in the verses and soaring power pop guitars. Read more about Spiral Your Way Out here.

“Hourglass”, Celebrity Sighting
From …They’re Just Like Us (2024, NightBell)

It’s just a nice garage-y power pop/pop punk song by a band I didn’t know about at all until this month. In fact, I still don’t know too much about the band Celebrity Sighting–they appear to be from Madison, Wisconsin, are a duo made up of “Doons & Ty”, and put out their first record (a full-length cassette called …They’re Just Like Us) on a new local label called NightBell Records. The whole album is a nice jolt of energy, but I’m going with “Hourglass” for the playlist–we’ve got what I assume are both band members shouting out the lyrics for basically the entire song length, and they’re accompanied by a sick, simple fuzzed-up garage rock-pop instrumental. Kind of reminiscent of the more tuneful side of that late 2000s/early 2010s “shitgaze” scene. Either way, it rocks.

“Metaphorical Ohio”, Little Oso
From How Lucky to Be Somebody (2025, Safe Suburban Home/Repeating Cloud)

Maine quartet Little Oso’s guitar-driven dream pop sound is in full bloom on their debut album, How Lucky to Be Somebody. Every aspect of the record (from the chorused guitar chords to the floating leads to Jeannette Berman’s confident and anchoring vocals to guest musician Eddie Holmes’ synth contributions to even the bass at various points) is shedding great melodies all over the place, resulting in fully-developed guitar pop anthems that keep the entire record fresh. Single “Metaphorical Ohio” is just about perfect in its dreamy jangle pop synthesis–I love when bands that aren’t from the Midwest mythologize Ohio, by the way, and it makes so much sense that this track features probably the most beautiful incorporation of the phrase “four-piece chicken” into a song’s lyrics ever put to tape. Read more about How Lucky to Be Somebody here.

“Some Days”, Benny P
From No Place (2024)

Ben “Benny P” Polito may not be at the center of the Philadelphia power pop revival, but the latest Benny P album, No Place, is a good argument for, at the very least, a mention of them alongside the Hurrys and 2nd Grades of the city. Polito recorded No Place with Eric Lichter (who also contributes slide guitar and keys/organ) at Dirt Floor in Haddam, Connecticut, and the two of them put together an expansive forty-five minute collection of jangly power pop and college rock with plenty of highlights. “Some Days” is probably my favorite song on No Place–it’s a pretty no-nonsense track, jumping pretty much immediately into robust jangle pop hooks and not letting go for its roughly three-minute runtime. If Benny P sounds anything like they’re for you, then they probably are!

“Sex Thoughts”, Really Great
From Be the Light On (2025, Disposable America)

It’s been a bit since we’ve heard from Boston emo-power-pop-punks Really Great, and Be the Light On is a record that reflects a band that’s taken the interstitial time to grow. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still pop punk underdogs, but the scrappiness of their first album, So Far, No Good, has been augmented by some polished Rozwell Kid-esque guitar heroics, a couple of sprawling song lengths, and just a pinch of instrumental self-control and restraint in the right places. Owen Harrelson as a frontperson and songwriter has always been Really Great’s key attraction, and the instrumental growth of Be the Light On doesn’t detract from this–just check out “Sex Thoughts”, a two-minute perfect pop song about loneliness and lost innocence. Classic Really Great! Read more about Be the Light On here.

“Tide Pools”, Pigeon Pit
From Crazy Arms (2025, Ernest Jenning Record Co.)

Crazy Arms begins with three polished (for Pigeon Pit, at least) folk-rock-punk tracks that roll out the red carpet in a way that feels new but one that hardly abandons the “Pigeon Pit” sound; “Tide Pools”, which follows immediately after those, takes us back to the project’s beginning with a recording that’s made up entirely of bandleader Lomes Oleander and a warped-sounding acoustic guitar. Nevertheless, it’s exactly the right choice for the “contemplative but also moving at a hundred miles an hour mentally” track and hardly wrecks Crazy Arms’ momentum (quite the contrary, in fact!). Oleander really keys on tide pools as a powerful metaphor in this song; I’ll let her do the explaining herself: “Each one needs the others to stay trapped there to survive”. Read more about Crazy Arms here.

“Regulator Watts”, Hoover
From The Lurid Traversal of Route 7 (1994, Dischord)

Finally listening to the sole album from Dischord Records cult group Hoover was definitely one of the highlights of my 1994 listening journey. I’ve seen Hoover compared to Fugazi, and while I hear it in some places, I actually think I like this more than any of the Fugazi albums. They do the spitting punk thing very well, but things get weirder and more my speed as the album goes on; Hoover get more jazzy, less aggressive (except in short bursts), and a little more Touch & Go-y on later record highlights like “Regulator Watts”. It’s a five-minute deconstructed post-punk atmospheric thing; there’s aggression in all parts of the song, but somehow it’s all kept to the periphery of this huge track nonetheless.

“Slowly, Slowly”, Magnapop
From Hot Boxing (1994, Play It Again Sam/Priority)

This Athens, Georgia band has a bunch of legit early college/alt-rock connections—Bob Mould produced this album, Michael Stipe produced some of their others, and the lead vocalist previously was in a band with Matthew Sweet. That being said, this album fits in very well with mid-90s power pop—loud guitars, aggressive power chords, and a 90s drollness are all key features of Hot Boxing. It sounds excellent (thanks, Mr. Mould!), and while not every song lives up to its impressive ingredients, when Magnapop hit on something, they really hit on it. “Slowly, Slowly” opens up Hot Boxing with some smooth-moves alt-rock/power pop, doing some cool stop-start Pixies song construction but not really enough “stop” to live up to “slowly, slowly”. That’s a good thing, though. 

“Afternoon Tea”, Linda Smith
From I So Liked Spring (1996, Shrimper/Captured Tracks)

Cult Baltimore lo-fi pop musician Linda Smith has seen a bit of a resurgence in recent years thanks to a reissue campaign from Captured Tracks, who famously (at least to me) helped usher in a Martin Newell/The Cleaners from Venus revival a decade ago. Last year, Captured Tracks dredged up a couple of mid-90s Smith releases, including I So Liked Spring (originally released by Shrimper in 1996), in which the singer-songwriter adapts the poetry of Charlotte Mew to her lo-fi bedroom/indie pop style. If that sounds too “high concept” to you, then I encourage you to listen to “Afternoon Tea”, a handclap-heavy guitar/folk pop tune that would’ve fit perfectly with the “twee” and “C86” bands across the Atlantic at the time.

“Like a Million Bucks”, Delivery
From Force Majeure (2025, Heavenly)

Oh, Delivery are back! How nice! 2022’s Forever Giving Handshakes by the Melbourne group is probably one of my favorite LPs from the current crop of Aussie garage punk groups, and they earned the call-up to Heavenly Recordings for their sophomore album, Force Majeure. I’m not sure if Force Majeure lives up to the insane promise of Forever Giving Handshakes on the whole, but it starts off excellently–the first four tracks are all instant classics, and I could’ve put any of ‘em on here. I went with “Like a Million Bucks”, which is speedy but not the most intense moment from Delivery thus far–it’s a nice mix of droll vocals, intermittent garage rock electricity, and odd moments of acoustic guitars, too. One of Delivery’s main strengths is being able to pull together a few different “Feel It Records”-core sounds together deftly, and it’s on full display on “Like a Million Bucks”.

“No More Songs!”, Pacing
From Songs (2025, Asian Man)

The more I think about it, everything on Pacing’s Songs mini-album has some kind of surprising twist or addition to it that I don’t think I would’ve predicted before giving it a spin. Mid-record track “No more songs!” is the familiar folk-pop Pacing of previous records, but, for one, it’s possibly the most meta track on the whole album (“I want crazy chords and times / Like ones that I read about,” goes the refrain), and it’s surprisingly polished both from a vocal perspective (I didn’t know Katie McTigue could sing like that! Or, probably more accurately, I didn’t know that she wanted to!) and a musical one (I don’t know who Noah Sanchez de Tagle is, but those are some nice bass contributions). It’s tempting to just throw all of Songs on this playlist because it’s so short (go listen to it right now if you haven’t yet), but if I’m choosing songs to highlight, I don’t think I can leave off “No More Songs!”. Read more about Songs here.

“Aurora”, 12 Valentines
From Secret Infinity (12V.1) (2024)

12 Valentines describe their music as “pop songs with comic book/superhero tropes, intended to be karaoke-able” and their makeup as “generally Californian”–they seem to be something of a collective, and I first heard of them because of their association with Huan-Hua Chye of excellent Madison, Wisconsin bedroom pop project Miscellaneous Owl. To be perfectly honest with you, Secret Infinity is probably some of the nerdiest shit to ever grace the digital pages of Rosy Overdrive, but at its best it lives up to its lofty indie pop goals, and then some. So, I don’t really know all that much about Northstar and Aurora and the X-Men and Alpha Flight and whatnot, but I enjoy this synthpop song that seems to be about them (the music and lyrics are credited to Dominic Mah, and the vocals to Vic Ess).

“Francesca D”, The Bedbugs
From 6 PACK Series, Vol. 8 (2025, Bed Go Boom)

Rochester, New York’s Tim Sheehan and his project The Bedbugs are true believers in lo-fi basement indie rock/pop–since the mid-90s, he’s been plugging away with his brand of Paul Westerberg-influenced “bedroom power pop”, and much of his music is only available on CD (and I think you have to email him at bedbugs.contact@gmail.com to actually get these CDs as I don’t they’re “for sale” anywhere). The Bedbugs started off 2025 with six songs that you can hear digitally, however, and the 6 PACK Series, Vol. 8 EP opens with a real winner in “Francesca D”. Described by Sheehan as “a plaintive little song about Francesca da Rimini as totally roasted by Dante in his Inferno”, it’s a jaunty but, yes, plaintive acoustic folk-pop tune with a little bit of synths shading the edges. Wherever Sheehan came up with this source of inspiration, it’s working for him.

“Costume Party”, Jake Mann
From Sidewalk Runways (Orbits & Oscillations Vol. 2) – Demos / Outtakes 2018-2023 (2024, Mannik Frequencies)

Jake Mann is a Santa Cruz-based indie rocker making music inspired by the Paisley Underground, Neil Young, and–to my ears, at least–Paul Westerberg’s solo material. My first brush with Mann’s music is through an “outtakes” collection; Sidewalk Runways features demos and recordings that didn’t make the cut for his most recent proper album, 2023’s Outta Mind a While. “B-side” nature aside, there’s some very strong material on Sidewalk Runways, including my personal favorite track, “Costume Party”. This one really leans into the aforementioned Westerberg influence–maybe I’m just thinking about “Swingin’ Party”, but I think it’s deeper than that, as the song’s laid-back but navel-gazing narrator is a dead-ringer for the Midwesterner even as the instrumental is a bit more SoCal desert folk rock.

“Consider the Priesthood”, True Green
From Consider the Priesthood/Falconry (2025, Spacecase)

True Green–what a band! Last year’s My Lost Decade was one of my favorite albums of 2024, and established Twin Cities-based novelist Dan Hornsby as an up-and-coming songwriter for all of us to watch eagerly. Hornsby’s first new music since My Lost Decade is a two-song 7” single through Spacecase Records that emphasizes the quieter, subtler, almost psychedelic folk side of True Green. Compared to stuff like “Polycarp” and “Hopeless Diamond”, “Consider the Priesthood” and “Falconry” are much more thorny and insular, but Hornsby’s writing is so on point here (aided by the excellent touches from multi-instrumentalist Tailer Ransom on banjo and synths) that I don’t think there’s any harm with starting here vis a vis My Lost Decade if you’re unfamiliar with True Green. Give these songs a couple listens to really stand out, though–you’ll be sucked in sooner or later.

“Rain Delay”, Souled American
From Frozen (1994, Moll Tonträger/Scissor Tail)

I’ve heard some say not to start with Souled American’s later albums (Frozen is the second-to-last-one) because they only got weirder and weirder, but I’m happy to disagree with this take because I loved this record from the cult Chicago alt-country act. Not to say it isn’t weird—I can imagine Frozen not being everyone’s cup of tea. But this specific combination of molasses-slow playing, traditional folk and country experimentation, and an ambient Chicago experimental nature to the material creates something that just…works. “Rain Delay” is an eight-minute slow-moving ballad stuck right in the middle of the album; for a lot of bands, this would be a pure momentum-killer, but Souled American prepares us for strange detours from the very beginning.