The essential new songs released this week, featuring mary in the junkyard, caroline, MORN and more.

mary in the junkyard – ‘Drains’

Like a warp upon a loom, mary in the junkyard’s vulnerability and emotion has served as the foundation of the London-based outfit’s highly expressive musical identity. Now expanding on their sound as if stretching and weaving wefts over and under, their latest single ‘Drains’ displays a heavier, more distorted sonic approach. Following last year’s debut EP and subsequent singles ‘This Is My California’ and ‘Bear Walk’, the new track is the trio’s first release of 2025. Guitars meander with gritty distortion atop a layer of driving drums, supported and mirrored by Saya Barbaglia’s surging bass riffs, and Clari Freeman-Taylor’s vocals maintain her signature cadence: emotion-riddled, round-edged and airy as they gently float into your ears like caring whispers from a loved one. Discussing the track in more detail, Freeman-Taylor said, “I am curious about the bowels of the city, we don’t see what’s below but there are many pipes and caves and my friend once said ‘if you bury yourself I will dig you out again’ and I wanted to immortalise it because it made me feel so warm”. ‘Drains’ is released alongside a music video directed by Edie Lawrence, in which the group demonstrate some masterful puppetry and showcase a brand-new look. (Otis Hayes)

caroline – ‘Coldplay cover’

‘Coldplay cover’ is the final single released from caroline’s new album, released today. The track is a striking fusion of two separate but similar compositions, overlaid in analogue. The group explain that the first song was recorded by half of the band in a room in their manager’s house before the other half started up the second section in a different room. Halfway through, we hear a microphone being carried from the first room into the second, floorboards creaking and everything. The two songs loosely complement each other, but still clash slightly where the “when you lie” refrain loops over the second tune. This song speaks of the way the whole album is packed with these unconventional means of shifting between musical ideas, using simple, joyful pop melodies for formally ambitious ends. (Lloyd Bolton)

MORN – ‘Modern Man’

Formed of two sets of siblings, Welsh newcomers MORN are the latest act to grace the guitar-studded halls of cult label Speedy Wunderground’s coveted singles series. In stark contrast to the quaint, bucolic farmlands of South Wales where the 4-piece originally hail from, the band’s debut offering ‘Modern Man’ blusters with an abrasive post-punk exuberance, rattling with the sort of adolescent restlessness that steers itchy feet directly towards the closest urban centres, as quickly as their circumstances will allow. Capturing the raw, rambunctious fuzz and live energy of the band, the new track is said to be “a desperate sprint through the loneliness and madness of routine” and “a strange reflection on the dream of escape”, and this, through the spartanly authentic lens of Dan Carey’s production, earmarks MORN as a group of newcomers to keep your eye on. (Hazel Blacher)

Gelli Haha – ‘Spit’

Searing with a sweltering dancefloor thump, found mostly in the floor-lit, happening basements of the alternative late night underground, Gelli Haha’s ‘Spit’ pulses with loose-hipped liberation and a sense of fun so unrelenting that the concept of bedtime quickly becomes a meaningless time immemorial. Describing their sound as “somewhere between Studio 54 and Area 51” and aesthetically calling to mind the playful eccentricity of offbeat contemporaries like Mermaid Chunky, the Idaho born, LA based artist first caught our attention with their stunningly weird and wonderful alt-pop debut ‘Bounce House’. On their latest single, blistering synth pop beats entwine with peculiar analog sound effects, and the track’s decidedly hench, repetitive bassline quickly engulfs you into its prismatic, groove-baked flamboyance. Landing somewhere between cosmic disco, new wave and electropop, ‘Spit’ is the third single from Gelli Haha’s debut album ‘Switcheroo’, due for release on the 27th June via Innovative Leisure. (Hazel Blacher)

Ex Agent – Jessie’s Christ

For decades, Bristol has been a hotbed for innovation, experimentation and dynamism. To look at the city’s musical output now is to discover one of the country’s most interesting scenes birthing a sway of progressive experimental music, from the space of Quade all the way to the claustrophobia of LICE. To exclude Ex Agent from this discussion would be more than an error; it would be a transgression. With the release of ‘Jessie’s Christ’, Ex Agent cement themselves not only as one of the country’s best post-rock acts, but as one of the nation’s finest up-and-coming talents. Melding the blistering heat of early Swans with the atonal frenzy of Thelonious Monk, the new track is a triptych, using gristle as the medium and flesh as the canvas. Moving from the rumbling chaos of migraine drums and piano volleys to an open, Slint-infused climax, ‘Jessie’s Christ’ is dynamic, declarative, wholly Ex Agent. (A.L. Noonan)

Formal Sppeedwear – ‘Wait (Hatchet Gets A New Hide)’

Cut with all the slick bounce of a tight 80s perm gliding above tailored, angular power-suit shoulders, ‘Wait (Hatchet Gets A New Hide)’ is the latest funky and danceable offering from Stoke-on-Trent’s Formal Sppeedwear. Jutting bass grooves and squelchy synths strut in quirky, polyrhythmic synchronicity as lead singer Beck Clewlow half sprechsegangs, half sings with an abstract, David Byrne-esque inflection. True to its retro feel and use of new wave and art funk compositional techniques (with the band citing influence from Brian Eno’s ‘Oblique Strategies’ on their debut EP released last year), the track was almost entirely recorded on a vintage Tascam 488 cassette recorder, capturing perfectly the trio’s quirky, offbeat effervescence. (Hazel Blacher)

Web – ‘News’

The latest single from Web marks something of a recorded comeback and reinvents what the band are. Where older compositions tended to stretch out expansively across motorik grooves, ‘News’ bottles it all into a compact two minutes. The result feels set to explode. A churning rhythm thrusts us along, while fluttering trills of flute, piano and voice flash before us with overwhelming rapidity. Operating in the opposite way to their longer compositions, this single takes its intensity from its pace, suggesting more powerfully a world of possibilities because of the restraint with which each element is released and snatched back. This form perfectly anchors the lyrics, which reflect on the whiplash of television news between the horrific and the mundane. (Lloyd Bolton)

Hotel Lux – ‘Another One Gone’

London-via-Portsmouth bunch Hotel Lux are back for their first outing since the 2023 Christmas-themed banger ‘The Carvery’, releasing new single ‘Another One Gone’. Taking a vast departure from the scuzz-filled, self-aware, tongue-in-cheek, frenetic indie-punk that they’re best known for, the band veer towards the melancholy in their latest offering, a sorrow-filled jangled post-rock ballad. Of the single itself, Hotel Lux state, “It’s about having lost friends, and the fear of losing others; a sort of lament for the former, and a prayer for the latter”. Alongside new music, Hotel Lux will also be playing in London for the first time in a good while on the 7th June at the Moth Club. (Brad Sked)