Niykee Heaton is streaming a new single, “Cold War”, a song about moving on and learning from bad love: “Baby, I just want to thank you / I want to thank you for that pain / How you branded me with shame / Made me hate my own mistakes …” This new song follows behind the streaming…
You’ve just got to hear the vocal harmonies on this new Natalie McCool single, “Pins”. The London-Liverpool singer’s song is an electronic-pop/soul gem that reminded me at times of the style of Esthero, Rainbow Chan, Tei Shi and even a little Supreme Beings of Leisure. “Pins” is a song about the remnants relationships leave behind. I’m a big fan of these beautiful…
There are times I think Courtney Barnett is the best songwriter on the planet. But I can mention her name randomly to friends and my guess is I’d be hard pressed to find one that’s heard of the Melbourne singer. No time to lament that fact though, because Barnett announced today that she’s releasing a…
So good to hear Jana Hunter’s voice on a new track. Makes my day. Lower Dens are streaming a beautiful new retro single on YouTube called “To Die In L.A.” from off their upcoming release, “Escape From Evil”, due out March 31. Hunter’s vocals are lovelier and clearer than ever, singing about love: “I wish…
Kagu (aka Sean Heathcliff) is streaming a second single, “Human”, from off an upcoming debut EP with a March 6th release date. The new song follows his the previously released and much more sedate single, “Shadow of the Wind”. Heathcliff started his Kagu project after the break up of Melbourne band he was in, Snakadaktal. “Human” might be closer…
Tonik Ensemble is the project of Icelandic composer Anton Kaldal Ágústsson, and he’s streaming a track, “Imprints” (with Icelandic vocalist Johann Kristinsson), from off his upcoming release, “Snapshots”. Both the song title and album title seem to suggest this musical venture will contain elements of short but indelible imagery. The promotion copy mentions Ágústsson’s current obsession…
Nashville dream-pop artist, Grave Pool, released the first single, “Through the Skylight”, from his upcoming sophomore release, Mnemonics. It’s a gorgeous song, that opens with buzzing synth, steady-building drums, and piano. There’s something throwback here, sticky sweet but tinged with melancholy, nostalgia, love and loss. The vocals are echoed but buried under a shimmer of pretty, oscillating guitar melodies.…
The Brooklyn seven-piece band, all boy/all girl, are streaming a new song called “Glitters”, from off their upcoming EP release Trophy, due out March 3rd via Grind Select. The band feels akin to a more upbeat Dark Dark Dark. Lead singer Danielle Lovier’s has as much range in her voice as the band does with its instrumentation.…
Who says I don’t like straight up dance-pop? If you want to make music that’s radio friendly, catchy, highly melodic and danceable, than you might as well make it good –and that’s where so many trite radio hits fail for me. Brooke Fraser’s “Magical Machine” from off her 2014 release, Brutal Romance, is an empowering pop track/love…
Chicago synth-pop trio Kinky Love debuted a pretty confection called “Sugar”. The single will surely bring you back, with its nostalgic 80s-styled keyboard and a laid back style that’s as relaxing as an island breeze. The promo copy I received mentions artists like Pet Shop Boys, or the soundtrack to a sequel to Michael Mann’s “Scarface”. There’s something to…
Colleen Green is streaming a second single, “TV”, from off her upcoming LP release, “I Want to Grow Up”, out February 24th via Hardly Art records. The song’s opening verses are a hoot: “TV is my friend / And it has been / With me everyday / From an early age / TV is my…
Brisbane’s Olivia McCarthy (aka Joy.) is streaming a new electronic track called, “Weather”, about love as a force of nature: “I know that I’m the only one that you want to hold.” This is her follow up single to “Stone”, a song she streamed three months ago. While the latter was a beautiful and breathy low-key love song, meant for…
Denmark singer-songwriter Lisa Alma was officially signed to Dumont Dumont this week, which is also the home of Jose Gonzalez and RY X. Now Alma is streaming a new single, “Man”, a song off her upcoming record, “Sweater”, due out April 21st. There’s a radio hit feel to this light 80s-styled, synthesized beauty. It’s a love song…
Intensity and release. That’s the modus operandi of Ivol’s new song, “Losing Sight”, which appropriately uses rising balloons as the cover image for the single. The song begins with heavy, dirge-like piano chords and a litany of one and two-word phrases about the quotidian activities of waking up from sleep, before the track hits its cathartic and doomed…
Virginia-based Colombian singer Kali Uchis wears vintage on her pink angora sleeve, and you can hear it in a slinky sugary soul cut called “Lottery”, from off her upcoming release, “Por Vida”. Her vocals call to mind Amy Winehouse, but Uchis likely has as much in common with Mary Wells and The Supremes as say FKA Twigs, Erykah Badu…
Powerful stuff. Lilla Vargen released her debut single today via soundcloud. It’s a gorgeous piano-based ballad called “This Is Love”. It’s a heartbreaking relationship song, romantic and tinged with sadness. The song’s simplicity is part of its strength. It consists of contemplative cascading piano, solitary vocals sung atop light piano resonance, ending with an elegant flight of verses…
Yannick Iluga (aka Petite Noir) is streaming a slick new single, “Shadows”, from off his upcoming EP release The King Of Anxiety, due out January 19. Petite Noir posted “Chess”, from the same five-song EP, as a teaser last month. Like “Chess”, Iluga’s vocals on this latest cut remind me of a kind of cross between Human…
It’s only January, so clearly it’s too early to be naming best new LPs, but I’d be surprised if this soon-to-be-released stunner, Count Yr Blessings, from Portland, Oregon’s Sister Palace doesn’t hit many a blogger’s radar. Count Yr Blessings is the follow up to their 2014 release, The Purple Tape. There’s so much to love about their sound, which alternates…
Weightless. That’s certainly a good word (to steal from the lyrics) to describe The Black Ryder’s (Aimee Nash & Scott Von Ryper) new track, “Seventh Moon”, from off the upcoming LP release, “The Door Behind the Door”, out February 24th. It’s akin to the atmospheric pieces of Mazzy Star, with Nash’s beautiful sigh-like incantations about love backed by…
In Waxahatchee’s (aka Katie Crutchfield) music I’ve always heard a gritty kind of musical connection to an artist like Scout Niblett, along with a lyrical cleverness (sometimes delivered as if the lines where throwaways) like Courtney Barnett and Liz Phair before her. But with this new song, “Air”, it feels like a lightening of the sound of “Cerulean Salt” (2013). The familiar…
Everyone needs more Lilacs & Champagne (aka Emil Amos, Alex Hall, Jay Clarke and Zachary Reno) in their lives. Really underrated band that mixes equal parts psychedelica, dark urges and deterioration. But this time around, they’ve released a new single that blends more chill, dub beats, 70s R&B and hip-hop into their style — and it works.…
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