Editor’s Note: Anyone who says there isn’t good music coming out these days — and quite literally, every day — simply isn’t paying attention. Vanyaland’s compilation feature The V List highlights the best in new music, both homegrown and national, over the past month, pulling together the sounds that have soundtracked the website in recent weeks. It’s all the stuff we’re bumping here at Vanyaland HQ, one new bop at a time.
Fontaines D.C., ‘It’s Amazing To Be Young’
Can a band or artist deliver a SOTY contender right after dropping the AOTY? Chappell Roan did it in 2023 into 2024 with The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess into “Good Luck, Babe,” and so it makes perfect sense that bridging last year’s vibe with the fresh sound of now is Fontaines D.C., the Irish standouts who follow the era-defining ROMANCE album with an elegantly dramatic new single called “It’s Amazing To Be Young.” And it’s just fucking massive. “’It’s Amazing To Be Young’ is a song that was written in the presence of a newborn child — Carlos’ child,” says bassist Conor Deegan III, citing guitarist Carlos O’Connell. “It sounded more like a lullaby or a music box then, but with the same lyric — ‘it’s amazing to be young’. The feeling of hope a child can give is profound and moving, especially for young men like us. That sense of wanting to create a world for them to grow up in happily. It’s a feeling that fights against the cynicism that can often overtake us in the modern world.” Put this on your Best of 2025 lists next to that Cut The Kids In Half joint.
Chloe Moriondo, ‘hate it’
As we noted a few very long weeks ago, we are ready for the official Chloe Moriondo glow-up of 2025. The Detroit alt-pop and indie comet has been building a cult-like following over the past few years, and recently unveiled a 20-show North American spring tour, which features a penultimate May 21 appearance at Boston’s Paradise Rock Club. Now we’re getting word of Moriondo’s new album, oyster, which hits next month, and with the news came a playful single called “hate it.” The vivacious electronic-pop joint blurs the lines between love, hate, and obsession — and two of those emotions are rolling through our domepieces as we play it on repeat here at V HQ. “‘hate it’ encapsulates all the feelings of jealousy, hatred, and obsession that can come with a crush on someone unattainable, or yearning for a life that feels unattainable,” Moriondo says. We love it.
Dream, Ivory, ‘Lost Angeles’
It’s not uncommon for us here in New England to spend most of February daydreaming about Southern California (and its weather), but after last month’s wildfires, a lot of our attention has been diverted out that way in this early stage of the year. So we’re particularly feeling “Lost Angeles,” the glowing new single from Dream, Ivory that finds the Los Angeles project led by brother duo of Christian and Louie Baello seeking ways to emerge from difficult times. “2024 was a turbulent year for us as brothers and as a band,” the duo state, with Christian adding: “We had to deal with a lot of change personally — and as a recovering alcoholic, the first part of the year was dealt with sinking lower into rock bottom while the second part of the year was escaping that low point.” There’s likely to be many low points in the year ahead, so take the driving and warmth-soaked “Lost Angeles” with you as a soundtrack of hope. We all can use it, no matter where we’re located and what the weather may bring.
PUNCHBAG, ‘Fuck It’
Back in the early ’90s, revered American poet George Clinton used House Party to utter one of the greatest movie lines in cinema history: “Yeah I did it. Might cry two tears in a bucket, fuck it. Let’s take it to the stage.” We’ve carried that quote with us over the past 35 years, flicking it off our lips whenever necessary. And we are now applying it here as English newcomers PUNCHBAG threw down an unhinged indie-rave of a single this month called “Fuck It.” It’s the South London sibling duo of Clara and Anders Bach’s debut for Mute, and it’s one hell of an introduction. All told, the 2:18-long “Fuck It” is a dizzying spell of pop and rock alchemy, an anthemic techno sermon that has us popping pills in our favorite late-’00s warehouse space and ignoring all threats of coming morning. “We might as well just say go fuck it!” exclaims Clara in perhaps the most appropriate chorus of this miserable shit-fed 2025. “’Cuz we’re all gonna die, die, die!” Take that shit to the stage.
Sydney Jo Jackson, ‘You Should Be Here’
Sydney Jo Jackson is ready for her close-up. The Birmingham-born, London-based artist and longtime collaborator finally set free her debut single “You Should Be Here” this month, and it’s a slow-burning soul gem that exudes a timeless nature through its casual ferocity. Jackson’s voice purrs out of the speakers with whipsmart confidence as someone who has very clearly experienced some shit, and this song — which swirls around themes of confronting personal flaws, breaking cycles, and understanding accountability — feels like a roadmap out of the bad times and into better days. “I can’t afford therapy,” Jackson says in one of the best press quotes we’ve read in a minute, “so I write songs. My music is where I say everything I think out loud — it’s unfiltered and raw in every way.” Carve a path towards the place we all need to be with this playing with purpose in the earbuds.