“Love, love is a verb. Love is a doing word.” So go the unforgettable opening lines of Massive Attack’s 1998 trip-hop hit “Teardrop.” The tune might hold the crown for greatest vibe of any song ever, if such a thing were quantifiable, with its ghostly beat, chiming synths and Elizabeth Fraser’s hauntingly gorgeous vocal. The Cocteau Twins singer’s voice is so intrinsic to the song’s ethereal beauty that it takes either a very brave or a very foolish artist to eschew vocals on a cover of the track.
Fortunately, Burlington jazz and experimental trio Breathwork’s new cover of “Teardrop” comes off as courageous rather than empty. Guitarist Xander Naylor teases evocative and searching notes from his trusty Telecaster. It’s wild to take a song with that much atmosphere and make it even spacier, but Naylor and bandmates Rob Morse and Ethan Snyder have done just that. Check it out now, streaming on Spotify.
Montpelier punks Magic User have a brand-new single, “Bullhorns in Bed,” a ska-adjacent explosion of punk rock and pure energy. According to bassist Nate Ingham, who also runs the Naive Melody Instrument Exchange shop in Montpelier along with his bandmates Mandy Przybylak and Jeff Thomson, the track is a tribute to the band’s late friend Ryan Thoresen Carson, a community organizer and poet who was stabbed to death in Brooklyn in 2023. Carson’s poem “Title Track” provides the song’s lyrics, which repeat the cry “Community is resistance!”
*FREE PILE by Magic UserThe tune is an advance single from the forthcoming LP *FREE PILE, which drops on December 15 on CD, vinyl and streaming. Check out “Bullhorns in Bed” at magicuservt.bandcamp.com.
“Nobody gives a fuck about an artist until they die, but I avoid suicide out of spite,” raps Burlington MC Omega Jade on her latest single, “Dark Night of the Soul.” Over a classic boom-bap beat cooked up by Dmytro Khomenko and mixed and mastered by Zach Crawford, aka SkySplitterInk, Jade drops bars about resilience, icing out the haters and staying true to oneself. Give this latest track from a prolific local artist a listen now, streaming on major services and at omegajade.bandcamp.com.
Dark Night Of The Soul by Omega JadeNew and Upcoming Vermont Releases
1. Magic User, *FREE PILE, out December 15
2. Ben Patton, Dinner, out now
3. LACES, LACES EP, out now
4. Vallory Falls, Porch Lights & Field Guides,
out now
5. The Path, Godless Vermont, out now
6. Deep River Saints, A Good Place to Die,
out now
7. Seth Yacovone Band, SYBlings VOL 2, out November 29
Listening In
Playlist of Vermont jams
This article appears in Nov 19-25 2025.
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