January '25 in Music

Introducing a monthly music review segment! Inside: FKA twigs, Quiet Light, Cameron Winter and more.

So I’ve been completely out of my mind and writing in Greek these days. Having decided to enter my culture blogger era and do this little series listing things I’m doing/seeing/trying in Athens over the course of each month, I realized I couldn’t not reserve a spot for monthly listens. However. I’ve always been shit at talking about music in Greek. I find that it’s perhaps to do with a certain malleability of language needed to convey sound and atmosphere effectively which is the great privilege that English affords a writer. Maybe I’m just terrible at my native language and music, by nature being one of the most complicated arts to put into words, simply reveals that upfront.

Those posts can get away with a cute playlist linked at the end, but since I feel like my international readership cares more about my silly music takes, I’ll try to coordinate them with posts in English, reviewing music that piqued my interest within the month. These will be as short and sweet as a Sabrina Carpenter song and will possibly be going through new and older releases alike. It’s literally whatever’s been on rotation. Without further ado, let’s get into January.

ICYMI: My “Best Songs of 2024” post went up at the very beginning of the year. Check it out to find out all about last year’s favorites!

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Albums:

Mary Margaret O’Hara – Miss America

This reached my ears through culture reporter and Popcast co-host Joe Coscarelli who profiled Mk.gee (Michael Gordon) back in September. Allegedly, while spending time together in-person in service of the piece, Gordon played third track “Body’s In Trouble” in the car which I can see how Coscarelli found totally revelatory. The guitar tone, emotional resonance, room for error — all speak to what the world has come to know as a signature Mk.gee sensibility post the release of the singer-songwriter’s breakout 2024 album Two Star & The Dream Police.

Suitably, this is a late ‘80s artefact. Suitably, fairly obscure (with Mary Margaret O’Hara’s strongest connection to pop culture being her sister Catherine O’Hara of Home Alone fame). Nonetheless, a perfect record. O’Hara sounds ethereal, at once brittle and soothing, leaping over these (mostly) guitar-led songs with non-committal attitude towards genre, as she flirts with country, pop and jazz. Give this a listen if you like Mk.gee. Give it two if you don’t.

Nala Sinephro – Endlessness

Listened to this for the first time sitting at a coffee shop with a book, and read for the precise duration of the record. Can’t recommend it enough for that exact activity — the cozy ambience of Nala Sinephro’s soundscapes articulates one of my favorite forms jazz can take. While cuts like “Continuum 1” deal in propulsive free jazz, ones like “5” or “6” swirl around in your head practically begging to be put on a five-hour loop. I have a soft spot for “9” and its entrancing, blippy arpeggios as it brings to mind an Astrid Sonne favorite — “Staying here.”

Four Tet – Pause

Four Tet makes electronic music sound so warm, engaging and unpretentious. I love the organic, earthy quality to 2001’s Pause, an album which sounds like not even a day has washed over it. This is lustrous and vibrant ambient music to walk around to rather than read or write — a body of work that feels diaristic and intimate like lived-in leather despite its delicate presence on the ears.

Quiet Light – Pure Hearts

As it seems, I got really into ambient last month. If you know me, you know Quiet Light has been one of the indie artists on my radar I’ve been most excited to see thrive. While Riya Mahesh’s electronic folk project took significant leaps through songwriting-forward work like recent EPs Contact and Going Nowhere, the Texas musician revisits the flavor of her earlier productions on her latest endeavor, Pure Hearts: a seven-track collection of ultra-romantic, mellowed out electronica adorned with sparse lyricism and the occasional sample. Lovely music that will make you dissociate at the supermarket.

FKA twigs – Eusexua

I did say this was one of my most anticipated projects of 2025 and that’s true. Neutral statement. Good, well-produced music — another neutral statement. Were my expectations lived up to? I hate to be the person who casts an album into the “its best songs are still the singles” category, but the cases are unfortunately too many. The gift has already given most of what it had to give — this is especially highlighted by the absolutely excellent opening three-track run being followed by songs noticeably below its caliber.

There are moments I love on here and one of them, as implied, is “Girl Feels Good” which, besides sounding like the essence of London melted into soundwaves, features a lyrical concept I find really charming and refreshing. Another one is “Striptease” which, out of all the songs on the project, harkens back to earlier (I’m talking LP1) twigs the most. Still, I’m particularly aware of the fact the latter is not exactly what I tuned in for.

I appreciate that I’m hearing twigs’ voice in ways I never have from her. The problem is whom I have heard those placements from: Björk, Madonna, the Spice Girls, The Cranberries’ Dolores O'Riordan, countless ‘90s house records with faceless vocals. Pastiche isn’t unpleasurable, but it is pastiche. And neither “Eusexua” nor “Drums of Death” prepared me for it?

Songs:

Fousheé – “still around”

I finally got the chance to check out Fousheé’s Pointy Heights and its penultimate cut has proven addictive. An immaculate percussion and guitar loop with the singer-songwriter’s vocals lounging over the track’s intricate rhythm. I would like to live in this song.

Fabiana Palladino – “In The Fire”

One of the least dance-ready moments on a self-titled debut full of groove and ‘80s pop influence, Fabiana Palladino’s “In The Fire” leans into an R&B sensibility with its minimal drum pattern and tender, falsetto-laced melody. Breezy flute notes juxtaposed against somber synths accentuate Jai Paul’s versatile production with Palladino herself sounding icy and fragile at once.

Cameron Winter – “Nausicaä (Love Will Be Revealed)”

People seem to be just now acknowledging this early December-released solo project from Geese’s frontman, Cameron Winter. Although I wasn’t particularly fond of the record in its entirety (a mixed bag, at times weaving jarring avant-garde elements into its bedroom folk framework), this song has been stuck in my rotation and won’t leave my mind. Your easy morning playlist standard; yet something about Winter’s slack, husky voice turning more croonery with each verse, combined with wind instrument touches renders it so alluring. I also find it particularly amusing how his pronunciation of “Nausicaä” approaches the correct Greek one.

Playlist:

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