SONGS WE LOVED! 12-18 May 2025
A compilation of the most unique, creative, and exciting song releases.
Featuring The Ataris, Skinny Lister, Some One's Sons, Electric Penguins, Tolü Makay, The Barefoot Bandit, Night Windows, Mark Fry, Mags McCarthy, Adrian Crowley, Brigid Mae Power, King Kong Blues, and Mad Sneaks
Follow the SONGS WE LOVED! playlist on Spotify
The Ataris - Car Song
Photo credit: Aaron Ehinger
The Ataris return after 15 long years with Car Song, a dust-blown, bittersweet pop-punk road trip wrapped in the scent of gasoline, grief, and...Breaking Bad.
Frontman Kristopher Roe pays a soul-stirring tribute to his late father with a limited vinyl pressing that includes his actual ashes. The song itself feels lifted from a VHS of summer memories, where sun-faded choruses and analog warmth blur the edges just right.
Its accompanying video finds Roe joyriding through the Breaking Bad universe in Walter White’s actual Volvo, dodging cops, meth, and mortality with a wink.
Car Song opens the throttle on a long-overdue new chapter, humming with the familiar warmth and worn-in honesty that defined their early years.
The Ataris hit the road this summer for festival sets at Riot Fest, Aftershock, Slam Dunk, and more (see all tour dates here)
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Skinny Lister - Song From The Yonder
Skinny Lister charge into spring with Song From The Yonder, a stirring anthem that fuses punk spirit with folk heart. Carried by Lorna and Dan’s gravel-and-honey duet, it’s a windswept letter home; one part longing, one part reconciliation, and all soul.
Backed by a compelling mix of accordion, fiddle, and whistle, the song pulls from the same well as classic folk club singalongs but still lands with a shot of emotional voltage. It’s a track that belongs shoulder-to-shoulder with Six Whiskies and George’s Glass, but it brings a matured perspective, less barroom brawl, more fireside honesty.
With their seventh album, freshly released, Song From The Yonder stands as the anchor that ties together themes of seafaring, heartache, and holding fast.
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Some One's Sons - Day Two
Some One's Sons return with Day Two, a love song that doesn’t ask for much, just a quiet moment, a late-night glance, and the courage to try again. It’s not about grand declarations; it’s about nametags in wedding halls, four a.m. drinks, and the connection that sneaks up on you when your guard is down.
Daniel Allen sings like someone who’s lived the lines. Half-skeptical, half-swept away, turning phrases like 'last first dance' and 'Will I meet you in Smiddys or Clarkes' into something that feels more like memory than metaphor.
The arrangement is warm and spacious, echoing Irish folk roots without tipping into nostalgia; contemporary, but grounded in tradition.
Some One's Sons hit the road this summer with dates across Ireland, including Galway Folk Fest, Fleadh Cheoil, and Electric Picnic. More info here.
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Electric Penguins - When The World Is On Your Shoulder
After more than a decade, Electric Penguins re-emerge not with a whisper, but with a quiet strength. When The World Is On Your Shoulder is a song that sneaks up on you - gentle, patient, and unexpectedly gripping. It doesn't chase trends or cling to past glories; it sounds like a band that’s lived through something and come back with the wisdom to tell it simply.
It opens with a low, simmering tension and builds toward something quietly anthemic. It asks big questions in clear, disarming lines: What does it mean to flee with your family, to cry like an animal, to age without becoming numb? Beneath it all runs a single, tender refrain: 'Sometimes we just need each other' - a line that might sound too soft in other hands, but here feels earned.
The song marks the first single from their upcoming album The Way Lights a Fire, Pt.1, out June 6, 2025.
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Tolü Makay - WAR
Photo credit: Bobby Zithelo
Tolü Makay's WAR is a defiant cry of resistance against fear, silence, and self-doubt. The Irish-Nigerian artist shapes this empowering anthem through emotional power and soul-stirring storytelling.
Built around pulsing drums, evocative harmonies, and her commanding voice at the forefront, War calls those who feel small to speak out and reclaim their power. As she sings, "your whisper can be heard over an army", it’s clear that this isn’t just a battle for the self, but for those who have been silenced or overlooked.
WAR is a compelling introduction to her upcoming EP, People Still Cry in Summer, setting the stage for what’s to come.
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The Barefoot Bandit - Summer High
With Summer High, The Barefoot Bandit deliver the sunlit escapism we all need as the weather warms up. From the first few bars, you’re pulled into a sea breeze of laid-back reggae grooves, dubby echoes, and mellow pop hooks that feel tailor-made for lazy afternoons and golden-hour beach hangs.
Frontman Laurie Ward sums it up best: It’s a vibe - pure and simple. That vibe radiates through every sun-soaked beat and relaxed vocal line, conjuring images of beachside afternoons and cocoa ice-creams.
This is a sonic postcard from paradise; no passport required.
Connect with The Barefoot Bandit
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Night Windows - Your Phone Call
Photo credit: Jessica Hughes
Night Windows tap into something quietly devastating with Your Phone Call, the lead single from their new EP Nonsense. Rooted in themes of emotional distance, disorientation, and memory, the track evokes that feeling of living half in the past, where you keep replaying the things you wish you’d said, and life keeps moving whether you're ready or not.
"This time tomorrow I’ll be living in / the phone call and missing you" sings Ben Hughes, grounding the track in a disarmingly simple refrain that hangs like an unanswered message.
There’s a weightlessness to the verses; Hughes’ smooth, unforced delivery floats over soft guitar textures and unhurried percussion, gradually opening into something fuller.
They don't force the emotion; they let it breathe, letting the listener sit inside the space between what was said and what was left behind.
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Mark Fry - Daybreak
Mark Fry's Daybreak, is a tender ballad that leans into the quiet clarity of early morning after a sleepless night. His soft voice carries the ache of someone who’s lived with regret just long enough to recognize its futility. Wrapped by gentle instrumentation, the song feels like a whispered plea to the sun: come quickly, quickly.
Lyrically, Daybreak hovers between exhaustion and hope, cycling through insomnia, memory, and emotional surrender. "Even if you stole the sun /Only left me cloud and rain", Fry sings, resigned but resolute.
The song is taken from the upcoming album Not On The Radar, out May 16, which Fry will celebrate with a rare live performance at London’s Stone Nest.
Connect with Mark Fry
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Mags McCarthy - Ring That Bell
With Ring That Bell, Irish country artist Mags McCarthy teams up with cancer immunotherapy pioneer Dr. Bruce Levine to deliver a stirring tribute to those walking through cancer treatment. Rooted in real experiences, the song honors the moment patients ring the bell at the end of treatment, a symbol of survival, hope, and support.
McCarthy’s heartfelt vocals carry the message with sincerity, turning a medical milestone into a deeply human moment. The collaboration draws attention to CAR T-cell therapy, a groundbreaking treatment changing lives around the world. While the science is revolutionary, the song keeps its focus on the people; the families, doctors, and fighters at the center of it all.
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Adrian Crowley featuring Brigid Mae Power - Golden Streets, Bitter Tears
Golden Streets, Bitter Tears is a deeply moving piece from My Grief on the Sea, a compilation of historically rooted songs tracing Ireland’s 19th-century migratory tides. Adrian Crowley and Brigid Mae Power draw directly from migrants' letters to North America, threading their voices through tender piano and the warm, vintage sound of the mellotron. Their delivery is utterly transfixing, evoking the hush of distant shores and unspoken goodbyes.
The song is part of a wider project curated by Bring Your Own Hammer, a historical song faction bringing together musicians and historians to breathe new life into overlooked narratives.
In this first vinyl release, their collaboration with Dimple Discs sets a high bar. Golden Streets, Bitter Tears stands out as a hushed, graceful piece of storytelling. Intimate in sound, yet expansive in scope.
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Connect with Brigid Mae Power
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Connect with Bring Your Own Hammer
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King Kong Blues - Sur l'écran noir
Channeling B-movie bravado and full-throttle garage rock, Sur l'écran noir is King Kong Blues at their most flamboyant and unhinged.
Equal parts James Bond fantasy and rock’n’roll rampage, it’s a glam-soaked joyride through swaggering riffs, fuzzed-out vocals, and lyrics that flip the script on every loser-turned-legend fantasy.
The song is taken from their latest album, Ils cassent le monde. Treat your ears to the full album here.
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Mad Sneaks - Biocide
The São Paulo trio barrels forward with a song that feels like it clawed its way out of a '90s basement gig and slammed straight into 2025.
What starts as a hypnotic, off-kilter guitar pattern escalates into a full-blown maelstrom. Distorted, menacing, and magnetic. There’s a push-pull tension between the eerie calm of the intro and the full-throttle whirlwind that follows, built for dark venues and blown speakers.
This is a surge of pure voltage from a band that knows exactly how to hit where it hurts.
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Spotify Playlist
About Chris Roditis
Chris Roditis has been an active musician since 1995 in various bands and projects across a variety of genres ranging from acoustic, electronic to nu metal, british rock and trip hop. He has extensive experience as a mixing engineer and producer and has built recording studios for most of the projects he has been involved with. His passion for music steered his entrepreneurial skills into founding MusicNGear in 2012.
Contact Chris Roditis at chrisroditis@musicngear.com
In this section of the blog we feature standout new releases across all genres - songs that moved us, impressed us, or simply stayed on repeat. Expect a diverse mix of fresh tracks from both emerging and established artists that we believe deserve your ears.
Got a track you think we should hear, or interested in writing for this section as a guest or joining the Musicngear team as a Contributing Author? Contact us at info+blog@musicngear.com
