“To me, it sounds like the first sunny day after a week-long depressive episode, the day when you remember to drink water again and find symbolism in everything but are definitely not okay yet,” shares vocalist/guitarist Livvy Bennett. “I hope it offers company to anyone going through loneliness, loss, and general confusion of the heart. Sometimes you’re left only with a sad song or two to make sense of some bullshit, the sole survivors of a world of hurt.”

Hover finds Mamalarky – vocalist/guitarist Livvy Bennett, keyboardist Michael B. Hunter, drummer Dylan Hill, and bassist Noor Khan – at their most uninhibited and assured, drawing on years of unbridled discovery and dreaming up a daring convergence of indie-rock, chamber-pop, and spacey psychedelia. Produced and engineered by Bennett and Hunter, the record’s spellbinding sound came to life at their home studio in Glendale, CA. Once serving as an old Hollywood backdrop artist’s studio, Hunter notes, “I think you can really feel the room and its history across the new record.”

Along with cutting most of Hover‘s rhythm tracks to tape, the album was heavily shaped by the band’s DIY ethos, “we do a lot of things ourselves that we don’t necessarily have to,” says Bennett. To shape the record’s earthy, yet mercurial sound, Mamalarky captured everything from the delicate jangle of wind chimes to field recordings of bells and rain, even transforming their studio into a makeshift echo chamber feeding vocals through a guitar amp.

Hover:

1. Relic
2. Sad Songs
3. Sycamore Tree
4. Eye Contact
5. Uh Oh
6. Never Love You Right
7. That Girl
8. Mirage
9. Word for Word
10. Sweet Tooth
11. The One
12. How Could You Go

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‘Gotta Run’ is an escape room of urgent, punk, claustrophobic, yet upbeat sounds, held in by fast drums. SMILE have a point and won’t stop til you join their side, til you cave in. The accompanying playful video of handy cam street scenes, fishnets and animal heads, place you in a seedy pseudo-reality, more akin to computer game, GTA. The video captures the landscape of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Rubee Fegan’s hometown. Dressed as a pink poodle, Rubee drives and walks through the city, taking in the different impressions of a place that has deeply shaped her. Albuquerque is a city of striking contrasts, marked by its vast desert surroundings and distinct cultural identity, but also by poverty, crime, addiction, and the visible effects of social inequality.

“The goal is to get out.” say the band. “GTA 6, first person, free world exploration style. It’s about leaving and why; what a violent system teaches the body to do even after escape.”

Gun-Shy:

1. Lola Moon
2. Gotta Run
3. Lockstep
4. Cruelty Has a Human Heart
5. What Is There to Say
6. Stem To Petal
7. Saltstare
8. Spermpusher
9. Hot Friend (pink room)
10. Bait

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PINS – friends Faith Vern, Lois MacDonald, Kyoko Swan and Abbi Phillips – released their album Girls Like Us in 2013, followed by the acclaimed Wild Nights in 2015, which marked its 10-year anniversary last year, their Bad Thing EP (featuring Iggy Pop) in 2017, and Hot Slick in 2020. In February, they return with If I’m Alive Now, Then I Was Dead, which marks a profound rebirth for the band, signalling a fresh new chapter in their sound. Created as a cathartic exploration of existentialism, the deeply meaningful collection of songs explores the themes of true love and the complex dualities of life and death, with the album’s rebirth-themed title borrowed from a Sylvia Plath poem ‘Love Letter’.

Introducing the album is new single ‘All Over’, which was recorded at Stockport’s Resonance Studios and engineered and mixed by Joel Patchett (King Krule, Let’s Eat Grandma), with the band leaning into a more organic and real approach to the recording process. Opening with poised yet disconcerting guitars, backed by fierce, smoky vocals that build into a chant-like anthemic chorus, the song references PINS early musical influences from the 60s girl-group sound of The Ronettes to the gritty punk of The Stooges. The video inspires a feeling of empowerment and new beginnings as it follows the band on a nocturnal journey through Manchester. 

The band says, “’All Over’ started as a demo about desire. It was one of the most fully formed songs that we had when we started working on our new album. The structure and everything was already there, it was just about getting the sounds down. The energy is driving and it feels a little angular.”

If I’m Alive Now, Then Was I Dead:

1. All Over
2. I’ll Be Yours
3. Rose
4. If We Could Go Back Again
5. Young Love
6. No Tears
7. I Dream Of You
8. Is It True?
9. Do You Still Think Of Me?
10. I Do
11. Watch It Burn

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Working with longtime collaborator, The Coral’s James Skelly, and recorded at his Kempston Studios in Liverpool, Too Late For Tears is 11 tracks of modern soul. With one foot firmly in the timeless influence of the past and the other very much in the future, Brooke perfectly straddles the sounds of old with a modern edge. Recorded live with her formidable band, when the needle hits the wax, for a precious moment the world seems to stand still. Such is the power of Brooke; the purity of a voice with the power to both heal and cut to the bone. Hers is the soul of British youth; youth of the future and youth of old.

“It’s the spirit of soul, of ska, of Motown, Stax and 2-Tone,” Brooke says of the album. “It’s the soul of radio, old radio — midnight radio — some unknown station you accidentally find between a sea of static; a song that sticks with you for the whole of the next day and the day after; one song that might change the course of your life. Soul for the soul, to stave away the cold.”

Alongside the announcement Brooke has also released the album’s latest cut in new single ‘Passing Faces’. An infectiously upbeat number, ‘Passing Faces’ takes you back to the soul clubs of the 70s. “I wrote this one dead fast in the kitchen,” Brooke says of the track. “Danny was upstairs in the music room editing a demo we’d just worked on for the album, and I was going through what we had, seeing if there was any type of song we were missing. I needed something light-hearted, catchy, upbeat… I started playing my guitar and the chorus sort of wrote itself. I had the whole melody, so I just thought of lyrics to go with it. It really began to take shape when I started trying different organ lines to open the song with. Once we settled on that and the soulful guitars playing off each other were added, it became its own thing. Pure mod.”

Too Late For Tears:

1. How Can I Tell You (To Love Me More)
2. Tears Won’t Lie
3. Love Was Made Of Stone
4. Price To Pay
5. Passing Faces
6. What Will I Do?
7. It’s Not Over
8. Don’t Go Blaming Me
9. So Glad (I’m With You)
10. I Still Love You
11. Am I Losing You?

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Warren unveiled the first look at the album with the lead single ‘Automatic,’ a driving, angsty tune that finds the narrator exhausted by the endless cycle of striving, falling, trying again, and discovering that the only home she can ultimately count on is the one inside herself. The accompanying video features found footage filmed by a teenage Warren with a digital camcorder visualising excerpts from her dream journal.

“I’ve been on a bit of a mission these last few years to resuscitate within myself a spontaneous, uncomplicated way of making art for pleasure, like children do,” stated Warren, harkening back to her experimental EP The Night of the Wind based on a book she wrote when she was 3 years old. “My high school friend Leora and I recently reconnected out of the blue, and we got to reminiscing about all the weird art we used to make for fun/to stave off the doldrums of suburban adolescence. I remembered this one film in particular and just had an inkling it could make a good music video for ‘Automatic.’ When I put the song over the footage, the way the two things lined up was spooky.”

Frog in the Belly of a Snake:

1. Web
2. The Current
3. Circular Logic
4. Automatic
5. Invocation
6. A Power Greater
7. Islamorada
8. Wildcrafted
9. Silver Light
10. Voice of Reason
11. Frog in the Belly of a Snake
12. Bathwater Baby
13. New Friend Blues
14. Feeding Me Feeding You

The post Johanna Warren announces new album, Frog in the Belly of a Snake, alongside lead single & video ‘Automatic’ appeared first on She Makes Music.

Shares guitarist Dan Fuson: “On this record I think we as a band gelled more than we ever have and made space for each other while still elevating each song. The goal of serving each tune was always in mind and we hit the fricking bullseye.”

“I f***ing love this record and I love that I got to make it (once again) DIY in a garage with my two favorite people,” adds front woman Coco Kinnon. “I especially love that we get to give our fans and new listeners something real in a world of slop.”

Concludes bassist Austin Luther: “In true Winona Fighter fashion, we put our blood, sweat, and tears into the making of this record. Our goal was to evolve as a band while still delivering the hard hitting and melodic songs we love to make. Please enjoy at full volume.”

Along with the news comes a grungy and self-aware new single titled ‘LEECH’. Fans can watch the music video, which was directed by Hannah Hall and embodies the song’s feelings of apprehension. ‘LEECH’ marks the second song to be released from the upcoming record; the band shared the explosive and confrontational ‘BOMBS AWAY’ earlier this year.

Winona Fighter tapped self-taught artist Glen Martin Taylor to create the cover art of Brutal & Extremely Underrated. His work maintains the same DIY ethos and authenticity found throughout the band’s discography, as he explores themes of transformation and healing through fractured pieces.

Brutal & Extremely Underrated:

1. TV On The Radio
2. BOMBS AWAY
3. LEECH
4. DEAD HORSE
5. You Don’t Have A Clue
6. SELF AFFIRMATIONS
7. HAWK FOOT
8. OUT! THERE!
9. Lily Cut Her Hair
10. PARA SIEMPRE
11. BULLY BUSTER
12. Title (REDACTED)

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One of two tracks on the album recorded with, and benefiting from musical contributions from the history-making David Bowie and T-Rex producer, ‘Apocalypse Queen’ features a rollcall of major league, award-winning musical contributors. Alongside Visconti on bass and backing vocals, the recording of ‘Apocalypse Queen’ welcomes Blackstar bandleader and saxophonist, Donny McCaslin, guitarist, Gerry Leonard (David Bowie, Suzanne Vega, Rufus Wainwright), eight times Grammy Award-winning engineer, Kevin Killen (Peter Gabriel, Tori Amos, Kate Bush) and drummer, Gunnar Olsen (Bruce Springsteen, Liam Gallagher, Miley Cyrus).

A song that’s “about embracing your strength, realising your power and unleashing our potential…possibly just in time for the end of days.” ‘Apocalypse Queen’ is apt follow-up to the artist’s striking, standalone summer dystopian bop single, Simple Pleasures. On both and tracing the themes of the lazer-focused album to come, de Bastion’s position couldn’t be clearer: “If we’re going out, we’re going out loud!”

Here Lies Human:

1. Here Lies Human
2. Simple Pleasures
3. Apocalypse Queen
4. This Is How The World Ends
5. Biometrics
6. So Long Forever
7. Vitamin Happy
8. New Town
9. Miracle
10. Becoming

The post Roxanne de Bastion announces bold new album Here Lies Human with Tony Visconti produced single ‘Apocalypse Queen’ appeared first on She Makes Music.

Renowned for her vivid, gothic-tinged storytelling, Coburn’s new record is a cabinet of curiosities, where the supernatural hides within the domestic and beauty exists alongside the grotesque. Musically, it reaches for dreamlike arrangements and cinematic crescendos, with production once again by Bill Ryder-Jones, it shifts from theatrical brass to melancholic strings and haunting harmonies.

Offering the first glimpse of the record is the uncanny new single ‘I Just Want To Say’, which comes paired with a playful video that nods to Amelia’s love of film. Written from the perspective of an unreliable narrator: a woman sending love letters to a serial killer, exploring how love can tip into obsession. As Amelia explains: “It’s inspired by hybristophilia – the intense attraction some people feel towards criminals. Where is the line between love, lust and obsession, and how far would you go for the person you believe is the love of your life?”

The album also includes a collaboration with Paul Weller, a longtime champion of Amelia’s music. She guested on his last record, Find El Dorado, and later joined him on tour for sold-out shows in Newcastle and Liverpool.

Myself and Other Monsters:

1. The Awakening
2. It Burns
3. Adeline (feat. Paul Weller)
4. There Goes The Neighbourhood
5. Invisible People
6. This Body Is Yours to Keep
7. I Just Want To Say
8. Metamorphosis
9. Unwinding
10. Wine to Your Funeral
11. Heavy the Heart
12. The Deep Blue Sleep

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Goodwife might ring with the playful, irreverent spirit of nights spent on the dancefloor, but at its heart lies a story that fights for that level of freedom. Anna Friedberg (writer, vocals, guitar, percussion, cowbells) remembers her grandmother as “a really strong woman”. “She lived in the countryside her whole life, but she was very smart and read lots of books and learnt French in her 70’s and was into poetry,” she smiles. Tied to a husband who “couldn’t handle her having a life outside of him”, however, she found herself stuck in an abusive marriage. On Goodwife’s title track, replete with cheeky nods to Inner City’s 1988 banger ‘Good Life’ and shared today as the album’s first single, Anna imagines a way to “rewrite her past” and give her a new ending. “To me,” she says, “this new ‘Goodwife’ is leaving co-dependency behind and being good to herself rather than to everyone else. A message that feels, sadly, more urgent than ever given everything happening in the world right now around women’s safety and autonomy.”

The track was co-produced by Anna Friedberg with Daniel Brandt and Hot Chip’s Al Doyle and Joe Goddard in their Shoreditch studio. “We were just jamming on all their amazing synthesisers, it was so much fun,” Anna recalls. “One of my favourite memories from the whole album is standing on Hot Chip’s studio dancefloor, margarita in hand, listening back to our tracks at an abnormally loud volume.”

Goodwife:

1. Tomorrow
2. Understanding
3. Come See Mine
4. Tricky Situation
5. Mitsubishi
6. Goodwife
7. Vera
8. Copy Copy
9. Partymus
10. That’ll Do
11. La Grande Bouffe On Rewind
12. Get Down With Schneider
13. Call Your Mum

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“It’s a very different record for me,” says Louise. “I’m Gen X, we tend not to confront our emotions or display them easily to the outside world. There’s strength in that, but also solitude. I got to the point where I felt I was dissolving. Like if I didn’t put my discomfort somewhere, I’d cease to exist.”

Written and recorded between Paris and Manchester, the album was produced by Joe Cross (The Courteeners, Hurts, Louis Tomlinson, The Slow Readers Club). “We made the album over 18 months, working in small bursts. I wasn’t in a great place when we started, and the recording sessions became these vital touchstones. Brief windows where life made sense.”

The record moves through grief, regret, loneliness and the struggle to let go. Ultimately, it’s about coming through – finding the strength to stop making yourself smaller and discovering there can be freedom on the other side of something you thought might destroy you.

Lead single and album title track, ‘End of the World’, leans into that feeling. “It’s a song about breaking free. The moment you turn round and say: Enough. I’m done. Whoever is hurting you – a partner, a family member, a way of life that no longer fits – leaving may feel like your world is ending. It might also be the most liberating thing you can do.”

End of The World:

1. Up Not Crying
2. End of The World
3. Trenches
4. Incomplete
5. The View
6. I Don’t Need Anybody
7. Nothing
8. You Killed Beauty
9. Get Home
10. Let Go of Desire

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