Cloud Time is a great album title, not least of all because it appears to be a truth-in-advertising situation. Emily A. Sprague, the synthesist and songwriter perhaps best known for leading Florist, wrote Cloud Time during “a profoundly healing and impactful journey” through Japan last fall. Opening track “Tokyo 1,” out today as the lead single, is an ambient synth piece that will indeed have you levitating skyward, submerged in cirrus, stratus, and cumulus. Listen below via V Haddad’s official visual for the song.

Jeff Tweedy and Jack White, two great veteran Midwestern rockers, are both baseball guys. And you know how baseball guys are. They love stats and random achievements and personal missions. Tweedy and White have both set themselves missions in the world of Major League Baseball, and both of them have now completed those missions.

We’re a week into August, the season’s colloquial Dog Days, which means by now you should have some ideas about what constitute’s this year’s Song Of The Summer. As we always do at this time, we’re asking you all to help us decide. Our 2025 Song Of The Summer readers’ poll is live.

Hot Mulligan’s new song “Island In The Sun” is not a Weezer cover, which is probably for the better. That would probably be boring, and this track is not boring. It’s a nice dose of the band’s typical rapid-fire, neurotic pop-punk that never gets old.

Today, NYC artists Anysia Kym and Tony Selzter announced their collaborative album Purity, out next month via 10k. The pair first met while Selzter was working with labelmate MIKE, producing 2024’s Pinball. According to a press release, their creative relationship bloomed when they “bonded over their mutual love of the drums.” Kym and Selzter’s new single “Speedrun,” previewing the forthcoming project, is centered around thin skittering percussion.

Israel is still killing people in Gaza. The Palestinian genocide continues to escalate; the region has reached two out of three famine thresholds (plummeting food consumption and acute malnutrition) according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) platform. Topshelf Records — the label whose roster includes artists such as Ekko Astral, Weatherday, Parannoul, Peel Dream Magazine, and Mal Devisa — has announced that they are raising funds for aid in Gaza and released a statement urging fellow music peers “to join us in solidarity with the Palestinian people, and to take up the fight for their freedom wherever possible.”

In The Alternative Number Ones, I’m reviewing every #1 single in the history of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks/Alternative Songs, starting with the moment that the chart launched in 1988. This column is a companion piece to The Number Ones, and it’s for members only. Thank you to everyone who’s helping to keep Stereogum afloat.

Field Medic releases surrender instead this Friday. The singles have served as delightful previews with the forlorn doo-wop gem “MELANCHOLY” and the breezy travel-inspired tune “castle peaks.” Now the endearing singer-songwriter is back with an innocent, sweet love song called “simply obsessed.”

Low Girl announced their debut full-length Is It Too Late To Freak Out? last month alongside the release of the lead single “Handbrake.” Now the British indie rock band is back with a glitchy, snarky anthem called “No Reasons.”

After five years of being a band, dust have finally announced their debut full-length, Sky Is Falling. The Australia post-punk five-piece is sharing an invigorating taste with the rapid-fire ripper “Drawbacks” today.