On This Track: Weekend Listening #3
- Raven
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Five releases worth spending time with this weekend
Five releases questioning the stories we tell ourselves
This week's On This Track: Weekend Listening #3 moves between post-punk, indie-pop, art-pop, shoegaze and alternative pop, but each release begins with a familiar assumption before quietly turning it inside out. Whether questioning success, fear, healing, independence or the way songs themselves survive, these five artists remind us that some of the most interesting music starts by challenging ideas we rarely stop to examine.
Sex Mask – "Raid"
Few forms of independence begin as a choice. More often, they emerge when the help we expected never arrives. Melbourne trio Sex Mask channel that frustration into the explosive energy of "Raid", a track built around snarling vocals, relentless rhythms and increasingly adventurous electronic textures. Rather than celebrating self-reliance as a personal virtue, the song presents it as something born from disappointment. "Raid" captures the moment when resentment becomes momentum, transforming abandonment into action. In doing so, Sex Mask remind us that resilience is sometimes less about confidence than necessity.
🎧 Stream "Raid" on Spotify
Clover Stieve – "Quantum Leap"
Healing is often imagined as a destination waiting beyond grief. Clover Stieve suggests something quieter. Inspired by her own journey through loss, "Quantum Leap" embraces joy not as something that simply arrives, but as something people gradually learn to choose again. Blending indie-pop, folk and soul, the song carries warmth without denying the pain that shaped it. Rather than presenting recovery as a dramatic breakthrough, Clover Stieve finds hope in small emotional shifts, reminding listeners that moving forward rarely happens all at once.
🎧 Stream "Quantum Leap" on Spotify
Teanga Teanga – "Around The World"
Cover versions often reveal more about the present than the past. Teanga Teanga's reimagining of Nat King Cole's "Around The World" strips away the orchestral grandeur of the original and rebuilds it through cinematic synths, spectral electronics and Pamela Sue Mann's intimate vocal performance. Rather than preserving the song as a museum piece, the duo search for its emotional core and ask how those same feelings might sound today. The result is a reminder that timeless songs survive not by remaining unchanged, but by continuing to find new voices.
🎧 Stream "Around The World" on Spotify
RxGhost – "Subway"
Fear often begins long before experience does. On "Subway", Kansas City outfit RxGhost explore how media narratives and cultural assumptions encourage people to distrust places they barely know. Wrapped in shimmering guitars, shoegaze atmospheres and slow-building post-punk tension, the song examines the ease with which misinformation creates convenient enemies. Rather than portraying the city itself as dangerous, RxGhost question the stories that persuade people it should be feared. The result is a thoughtful reminder that anxiety is often shaped as much by the narratives we inherit as the realities we encounter.
🎧 Stream "Subway" on Spotify
Lara Ruggles – "No Matter"
Success is usually measured through numbers: streams, sales, followers or income. Lara Ruggles proposes a different definition. Opening with the striking line, "I don't want a million dollars," "No Matter" rejects the assumption that artistic achievement must be tied to financial ambition. Instead, the Tucson songwriter places community, purpose and creative integrity at the centre of her vision. That perspective extends beyond the song itself, reflecting a broader commitment to making music that aligns with personal values rather than commercial expectations. "No Matter" ultimately asks a deceptively simple question: what if a meaningful life cannot be measured at all?
🎧 Stream "No Matter" on Bandcamp
These releases travel through very different musical worlds, yet all five challenge assumptions that often go unquestioned. Whether rethinking independence, healing, memory, fear or success, each artist offers a different way of seeing familiar experiences. Weekend Listening invites exactly that kind of shift in perspective, along with five releases worth returning to long after the weekend ends.
Explore more of our current selections through On This Track, Three Track Week and the INDIENOXZINE | Selections Spotify playlist.
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