Welcome to “Cut Through the Noise,” an entertainment column from the St. Louis Park Echo covering new music releases. Every week, a different Echo staffer takes on the role as writer, reviewing recent single releases from a variety of artists. 

Big Thief —”Certainty” ★★★★☆

Off of their new album, “Certainty” maintains Big Thief’s day-dreamy folk sound with a romantic twist. The melody brings to mind a sort of cowboy’s love song, with the lyrics incorporating nature and a Bonnie-and-Clyde-esque feeling of adventure. This, along with the laid-back tone, evoke a childlike sense of ease and familiarity in the depicted romance, emphasized by the line “for you I am a child, believing.” I would say the only problem with the song is its simplicity, but I think that’s a product of the folk genre. Over producing and overthinking a song like this would ruin it. 

Mitski —”Working for the Knife” ★★★★☆

Famous for heart-wrenching ballads, it’s not surprising Working for the Knife carries the same tone as Mitski’s previous work. The song depicts the struggles and emotional labor that go into having a career and has a despondent, strung-out melody that effectively makes the listener feel as the writer does. Mitski sings in a somewhat monotone voice that could definitely draw away from the song for some, but I feel emphasizes the point. She’s been worn out by “the knife,” and it’s made her a shell of what she used to be, bleeding her dry of all the artistic drive she once had. She can’t focus on her music because it’s art, and art has no monetary value. 

Spoon — ”The Hardest Cut” ★★★☆☆

From Lucifer on the Sofa, the band’s upcoming album, The Hardest Cut shows Spoon is capable of producing a song that feels at once exciting and foreboding. The guitar riff is stylish, the beat is fast-paced, and the lyrics are creepy. They warn about a vague and approaching “hardest cut,” the nature of which is left up for interpretation, though there are references to world wars. Where the song falls flat is that it’s not very interesting: songs that evoke the same feeling have been done before and done better. When I was done listening to it all I could really think was “meh.”