Tomorrow night, Hannah Wicklund will be performing at the excellently named Snug Harbor venue in New Paltz, a small town 80 miles north of New York City, and if she’s short of things to say to the crowd, she can tell them about her triumph in our latest Tracks Of The Week contest. And then, perhaps, she could play her winning entry. Look, here it is.
Trailing in Hannah’s triumphant wake were Sazon and Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse, but those podium positions aren’t to be sniffed at, so we won’t. This week’s great eight are below.
Royal Blood – Mother Never Told You
Combining the gnarly, heavy urgency of their debut with the swashbuckling confidence and life experience of the last few years, Mother Never Told You is the sort of loose yet tight, ferocious banger that fans will be genuinely delighted to hear in a setlist. Swaggering blues rock with noisy punk in its heart and fire under its skin. Need another reason to check out their new album Dead Company (which, incidentally, just came out) in full? This is your reason.
Steven Wilson – Murmuration
This is one of our favourite tracks on the modern-day progressive auteur’s new album, Requiem For A Village. A mellower moment in an album full of twists and dark shapes, its offbeat spookiness (the low, ominous opening synth notes set a wonderfully creepy tone) translates into something strange but extremely moving. Lyrics don’t quite make “sense” but that’s part of its poetic atmosphere. Beautiful.
The Courettes – Killer Kiss
Need a short, sweet and very stylish dose of 60s pop, doused in Ronettes/Spectoresque ambiance and even some jingle bells in the background? (Christmas ain’t far off, right?) Listen to this one. “We wanted to write a 3 minute song that could breathe out all the thrills and chills of a good night out,” the band (married couple Flavia and Martin Couri) reason, “passion and dangers, drinks and strangers, lust and city light and…a killer kiss! Play it loud and never mind the cherry red lipstick stain in your record player.” Saucy.
The Mission – Kindness Is A Weapon
Delayed from its planned 2025 release – while frontman Wayne Hussey had open-heart surgery – Songs For Kith And Kin begins its journey into the world with this first taste, full of cavernous shadows, hypnotic guitars and heavy mystique. “It’s definitely had an influence lyrically,” Hussey says of his recent experiences, “almost every song mentions ‘heart’. Really, the surgery has made me care even less what others think. I’m doing what I want to do in the new songs, what feels natural.”
Lovehoney – Audience
Enjoy some belated Halloween spookiness with the Brooklyn rockers’ latest – all B-movie blood, smoke and crystal balls wrapped in riffy, Hendrix-y psychedelia, haunted woodlands and sinister record crackles. Appetisingly evocative of the late 60s/early 70s (even if its slim runtime left us wishing there was more) for anyone craving something emphatically AI-free. More to come on their new album, which is due out next month.
Devin Townsend – Covered By Causes
Building through orchestral layers, choral swoops, keys and spine-tingling performances from Devin and co-vocalist Lynn Wu (from Chinese progressive metallers OU), Covered By Causes is a stunningly cinematic highlight from Townsend’s ambitious record The Moth. Captured at its live premiere in Groningen, the Netherlands, this newly released video captures the storytelling, delicacy and emotional weight that Dev, at his best, combines so brilliantly.
Ann Wilson – Me and Comanche
In which Heart singer Ann Wilson and her band Tripsitter perform a live-in-the-studio(s) version of the epic Me And Commanche, one of the highlights of last month’s Consecrated Ground album. It’s the kind of spooky Americana Robert Plant does so well with Alison Krauss (Plant and Wilson? Now there’s an idea!), with sharp but restrained musicianship, a high desert vibe, and Wilson’s warm but powerful voice still setting standards by which others will be judged.
Twisted Teens – I Spend My Time Crying
Another pearl drops off the Twisted Teens production line, with this highlight from the New Orleans duo’s third album of 2026 (their first for Sub Pop) continuing their habit of producing songs that could have been written by Ray Davies in the 1960s but are otherwise 100% weird America. Take pieces of punk, bits of blues, fragments of folk, a soupçon of soul and a ragged, almost other-worldly production, and you’re left with something that’s warm-hearted and strangely timeless. Lovely video, too.
(LouderSound)
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