Best New Releases, January 17: The Weather Station, Ela Minus, and more

Avatar photo
Best New Releases - Weather Station

It’s still early in the year yet, and we’re just barely scratching the surface of new music being released in 2025, but as our most anticipated albums list shows, there’s a lot to look forward to. Today’s list is a bit shorter than it’s likely to get in just a few weeks, but it still features some gems, including our electronics-laden Album of the Week, the return of a stellar singer/songwriter, as well as a compilation curated in collaboration with a visual art exhibit in Oslo. Check out this week’s Best New Releases below.


Fat Possum

The Weather Station – Humanhood

Tamara Lindeman, the singer/songwriter behind The Weather Station has been gradually expanding the sound and scope of her music, most notably on 2021’s Ignorance, which featured looser and more lushly arranged songs that drew from post-rock, jazz and more. With Humanhood, that outward expansion continues, her latest comprising a set of songs that explores her own personal experiences undergoing a mental health crisis via rich and beautiful songs that continue to build on where she’s been. We’ll have more on this one soon.

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)


Ela Minus DÍA review
Domino

Ela Minus – DÍA

Five years after her darkwave-tinged debut, Ela Minus returns with new album DÍA, a bright and imaginative electronic album that pairs danceability with artful songwriting. It’s currently our Album of the Week. In our review, Adam P. Newton said, “These are productions primed for European dance clubs, and it’s because Ela Minus possesses a cunning grasp of how to combine space and sound into kinetic grooves.”

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)


best new releases - Jordsvingninger
Smalltown Supersound

Various Artists – Jordsvingninger

This is a bit of an unusual one. Smalltown Supersound has released a new compilation of music to accompany an exhibition of art by Edvard Munch at the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway. And its lineup is pretty spectacular; the compilation features contributions from the likes of Actress, Kelly Lee Owens, Lindstrøm, Lost Girls (feat. Jenny Hval) and more. As a conceptual piece it’s fascinating on its own, but in practice it features some of the best artists in contemporary electronic music, which makes it a can’t miss. We’ll have more on this one soon.

Listen: Spotify


best new releases - Soft Vein
Artoffact

Soft Vein – Through Blinds

In 2023, darkwave artist Justin Chamberlain, a.k.a. Soft Vein, released his debut Pressed in Glass, fully of moody synths and stark, yet danceable rhythms. His follow-up, Through Blinds, retains that eerie minimalism, with pulsing synth patterns influenced by European coldwave and industrial/EBM artists of the early 1980s, as well as an accessibility that makes it prime fodder for writhing in the shadows. A recommended winter listen for those with a tendency toward gothic atmosphere and icy, electronic textures.

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp

View Comments (0)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Scroll To Top