METTE has released her highly anticipated new single ‘VAN GOGH’. The track is taken from METTE’s forthcoming EP METTENARRATIVE which will be released on September 22. Produced by Jonny Lattimer (Rina Sawayama, Joy Crookes) and Mike Sabath (Raye, Lizzo), ‘VAN GOGH’ fuses catchy pop melodies with danceable funk and R&B grooves to create an upbeat feel. Lyrically, METTE cites icons like Janet Jackson as she sings of finding creative inspiration through a muse. The accompanying music video, directed by Camille Summers-Valli, puts METTE’s stunning dance and movement talent to the fore, evoking a continuous feel with synchronized moves whilst simultaneously switching between various eye-catching characters throughout. Speaking about the track, METTE says: “‘VAN GOGH is a message in a bottle to the many muse(s) that live inside of me – inside all of us, in fact. I’m continually drawing inspiration from my internal and external worlds, and I remain awed by the beauty of dance. I love making music I can dance to, and as the opening lyric to ‘VAN GOGH’ exemplifies, “I’m motivated by the way you move…”

Ukrainian-born, London-based identical twin dark-pop duo Bloom Twins announce the release of their empowering new track, ‘Drunk & Loud’, co-written and produced by Sam Harris from the X Ambassadors. The song serves as an anthem for outliers and misfits, celebrating the power and resilience that comes from the unity of the outnumbered. Echoing the spirit story of David and Goliath, Bloom Twins invite listeners to never underestimate the power of the underdog. The accompanying music video addresses the critical issue of the war in Ukraine, with the twins taking on the roles of two fearless Ukrainian girls confronting a gang of Russian mobsters in London’s iconic boxing gym, Rapton. With scenes reminiscent of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, the video showcases the Bloom Twins’ determination and unity in the face of adversity. Adding another layer of depth, the video is filled with hidden messages and references from the very opening scene, inviting viewers to discover and interpret the deeper meanings.Training over 100 hours with renowned stunt professionals Adam Brashaw, Luke J. Smith, and Fabio Santos, the twins deliver a stunning, action-packed performance. On the track, Anna and Sonia say, “’Drunk and loud’ is a very important song to us. We consider this song to be an anthem to outliers, misfits. It’s about the power, and resilience from unity of outnumbered. We are David from ‘David and Goliath’. Do not underestimate the power of underdogs.” They continue, explaining the symbolism of the video, “Our music video tackles the crucial issue of the war in Ukraine. We play the roles of two Ukrainian girls taken on by a gang of Russian mobsters, even though we’re clearly outnumbered. My twin sister represents the annexed and occupied regions of Ukraine, while I embody the areas fighting for unity and victory against Russia.”

Melbourne’s dynamic six-piece indie pop rock outfit, Lucy Lorenne & The Early Birds, are dropping a vibrant and nostalgia-driven pop anthem, ‘Tamagotchi Nights’, accompanied by an equally charming music video. With her debut EP, Summers Gone, already under her belt, the charismatic Lucy Lorenne and her band continue to grow their endearing sound as they explore new depths of sonic and lyrical maturity with this power pop anthem that takes a colourful trip down memory lane. ‘Tamagotchi Nights’ – co-written by Lucy Lorenne, Matt Hargreaves and Flagrant Artists producer Ben Oldland (Ūla, Ashwarya, Alley Eley, Genes, Sian Fuller) – is a vibrant boppy number that pays homage to childhood innocence and fantasy. With an air of melancholy for the more innocent times gone by, the song captures the essence of post-millennial nostalgia. Opening with an 8-bit synth riff, the track bursts with a delightful blend of upbeat guitars and charming video game-like synth lines, infusing the song with a playful atmosphere. The driving drums keep the energy soaring, while Lucy Lorenne’s absolutely adorable vocals and heartfelt lyricism add a touch of innocence and sincerity to the mix. Effortlessly weaving together the catchy 8-bit elements with infectious indie-pop hooks, the track is a mixed bag of emotions that builds to an exhilarating and euphoric chorus. The accompanying music video for ‘Tamagotchi Nights’ is a visual delight created in collaboration with Mediaroid. Drawing inspiration from the Y2K era, the video brings Lucy Lorenne’s childhood bedroom to life in a dream-like reimagining. A rainbow rug, pink lava lamp, CD player, pixelated screens, Barbies, aqua roller-skates, and butterfly cushions set the stage for a distinctly Y2K, ‘Hi-5-esque’ aesthetic that resonates with zoomers everywhere. The video seamlessly cuts between this vibrant bedroom scene and Lucy Lorenne & The Early Birds performing against a backdrop of bold, poppy colours reminiscent of that era. Interspersed with these scenes are heartwarming home-video recordings of Lucy and band members as kids, adding an authentic touch to the nostalgia-driven aesthetic. The result is a colourful, fun, and energetic celebration of the cherished memories of childhood.

NYC disco-pop group Say She She have announced a run of tour dates for their biggest headlining trek to date. The dates are in celebration of the group’s recently announced forthcoming record Silver, out September 29 via Karma Chief/Colemine. The album’s newest single ‘Astral Plane’ also arrives along with a video directed by Lisa Schiller, who previously directed the visual for Silver’s lead single ‘Reeling.’ Other released tracks include ‘C’est Si Bon,’ an upbeat summer anthem, and ‘NORMA,’ the group’s protest anthem released in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned. [via Flood]

IAN SWEET have announced a new album, SUCKER, the follow-up to 2021’s Show Me How You Disappear. Project mastermind Jilian Medford is introducing the album with “Your Spit,” a hooky and blown-out rock song with the chorus: “Kiss me like you mean it/ Kiss me like you’re leavin/ Your spit tastes different/ Kiss me like you mean it/ Make me believe it.” “‘Your Spit’ is about the joy and fear that surrounds new relationships,” Medford said. “The excitement that’s also accompanied by doubt. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say the song is just mostly about making out.” It was produced by Alex Craig and Strange Ranger’s Isaac Eiger, and it comes with a music video directed by Brittany Reeber that includes cameos from Saturday Night Live‘s Sarah Sherman and Martin Herlihy. [via Stereogum]

Ashnikko unveils the official video for her latest single ‘Cheerleader,’ off her highly-anticipated debut album WEEDKILLER, out August 25. Directed by Joanna Nordahl, the music video melds elements of folklore and surrealism, drawing inspiration from the cinematic atmospheres of Midsommar and the fierce energy of Bring It On. Ashnikko takes on the role as ringleader of a cheerleading cult as they perform competitive ritualistic dance routines with a forced smile. As the video comes to an end, we see the consequences her character faces for refusing to conform to societal pressures. ‘Cheerleader’ is a siren song about modern beauty standards, undercutting imagery of a poised, pom-pom waving poster-girl with blades, blood stains and broken faces. Like a funhouse mirror it warps the infamous cheer from the opening scene of the early 2000’s movie Bring It On into a critique of our cultural obsession with perfection. Ashnikko states, “if youth and beauty are the currency, I will pay it in full until I am a withered husk decomposing on the moss and going back to mother earth. The beast looms in my periphery, constantly gazing and assessing as perform for him, hoping I am good enough!!!!!!!” [via Vents Mag]

Chappell Roan is set to release her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, and she’s giving fans a taste of what’s to come with her brand new track, ‘HOT TO GO!’. The song, co-written and produced by Daniel Nigro, known for his work with Olivia Rodrigo, can be streamed below. In discussing the inspiration behind the track, Chappell reveals, “I wrote this song so I could live out my cheerleader fantasy! I just wanted to make something simple and silly that I could do with the audience because I’m a huge fan of audience participation. Also, selfishly (and shamelessly) wanted to bounce around on stage singing a song about being hot.” [via Dork]

Olivia Rodrigo has shared a new single called ‘Bad Idea Right?’. The song will appear on the pop singer’s second studio album Guts, which is due for release on September 8 via Geffen. Written by Rodrigo and her producer Daniel Nigro, the crunchy guitar anthem follows the singer as she weighs up whether to meet an ex. “Seeing you tonight/ It’s a bad idea, right?/ Seeing you tonight/ Fuck it, it’s fine,” she sings over a punky instrumental. In the chorus, Rodrigo chants: “Yes, I know that he’s my ex/ But can’t two people reconnect?/ I only see him as a friend/ The biggest lie I ever said.” The official video, directed by the star’s regular collaborator Petra Collins, sees Rodrigo attend a house party with some of her real-life friends before making a swift exit to find her former partner. Later, she hitches a ride in the rain on the back of a pickup truck, travels on public transport, and eventually makes it to her ex-boyfriend’s place. You can watch the journey unfold here: “I had such a fun time making this song with @dan_nigro in NYC last year,” Rodrigo wrote on social media upon the single’s release. “We wrote the chorus as a joke but we loved it so much we made it into a full fledged song lol! I had a ball making the music video with my friends @petrafcollins @madisonhu @tatemcrae @irisapatow and I’m so happy it’s out in the world.” Speaking about creating ‘Bad Idea Right?’ in the studio, she added in a statement: “We were throwing the weirdest things at the wall – in one of the choruses there’s a part that sounds like an instrument in the background, but it’s me gradually screaming louder and louder.” [via NME]

Later this month, Brooklyn indie rock quartet Wetsuit are set to debut their first full-length album, Sugar, I’m Tired, arriving August 17 via Substitute Scene Records. Ahead of the album’s release the band have already shared a pair of new singles, ‘Local Celebrity’ and ‘Twiggy,’ and now they are back with a third and final single, ‘Clovers’. ‘Clovers’ is a work of winding indie pop bliss, traveling in the same vein as Indigo de Souza or Alvvays. Nils’ guitar lines have an ephemeral, dreamy quality, shining bright amongst the steady sway of the rhythm section. In contrast, Becker’s voice is strong and striking, infusing the track’s quiet moments with wistful longing and its hazy climax with blooms of rippling cathartic weight. It’s a simple combination, but one the band uses to great effect. Meanwhile, Becker’s lyrics are sweet and inviting, finding lovely poeticism in small moments of devotion: “Cover me in roses / Find me when the bar closes / Stitch me back together / Paint me shades of blue.” Becker says of the track, “‘Clovers’ is a love song. It was Summer 2021 and my partner Anders and I had been living together for about a year. I was feeling so much gratitude and contentment in my life, having built this stable relationship and home together and watching it blossom. Life just felt so cozy and nice like taking a big nap in a field of clovers. I wanted to write a song that wrapped you in gooey, cozy, fuzzy warmth, like pulling you under a blanket of clovers. With Wetsuit I sought out to prove that you don’t need to be a musical genius to write good songs. My hero Sharon van Etten described writing songs as seeking melodies within chords and once that clicked with me it unlocked a confidence in songwriting I never knew I had. I wrote Clovers with just 2 chords and harnessed that simplicity as a superpower, not a limitation.” Beckers continues, saying of the video, “Before I started writing music and formed my band, knitting and crocheting was my main creative outlet. It was a huge part of my life. I spent all my free time fulfilling orders from my Etsy shop and making pieces to sell at craft fairs. ‘Clovers’ is all about being comfortable and secure in a relationship for the first time. I knew I wanted to tie in that cozy, squishy soft imagery, and had an idea that I could use crochet dolls to represent my transition from one creative outlet to another, from knitter to musician. I made the giant hood you see in the video, but crochet dolls are not my specialty. For those, I found this amazing crocheter Jeri Thompson on Etsy. She blew us away and even surprised us by making an entire drum kit without me asking.” [via Under the Radar]

Critically-acclaimed, non-binary, London-based artist, Jazmin Bean has released their brand new single, ‘Favourite Toy’. The sunny and string-driven track addresses everything from addiction to intense, toxic relationships, with honest lyrics that find the singer grappling with their self-worth amidst the chaos. The track is accompanied by a music video shot in LA and created, directed, and styled by Jazmin Bean. [via Prelude Press]

Singer, producer and multi-disciplinary artist Rainbow Chan has delivered her new track and accompanying video ‘Seven Sisters’. The video is as vibrant and culturally rich as the music behind it, taking the viewer on a deeply symbolic journey as Rainbow navigates bitterness towards arranged marriages and patriarchal rule. On ‘Seven Sisters’, Rainbow Chan seamlessly weaves modern art-pop production with traditional Chinese folklore and a powerful bell-like vocal delivery. The result is a stunning paradoxical feeling of anxiety and self-assuredness, beauty and gloom. Inspired by a Hong Kong folktale wherein a group of devoted sisters plunge into the ocean as an act of rebellion against their arranged marriages, ‘Seven Sisters’ is a nuanced exploration and feminist reimagining of traditional folksongs in the lead-up to arranged marriage. Explaining her inspiration for the track, Rainbow says: “’哭嫁歌’or ‘Bridal laments’ refer to a female custom that was performed by the 圍頭 (Weitou) people. As marriages were arranged, becoming a bride signified a kind of death for a woman. Not only would her ties to her natal home be severed, but she would remain an outsider to the groom’s family. To mourn this profound sense of loss, Weitou women would perform a bridal lament cycle before their wedding day, a ritual which involved singing and weeping in front of family and friends over the course of three days.” Rainbow has Weitou heritage through her mother but only learnt about this fascinating bridal ritual recently as the practice ended in the 1960s. The video offers decadent visuals, blending old with new and tradition with rebellion. Rainbow is surrounded by crimson handmaids and watched by Weitou village elders who personally lived through this history themselves. ‘Seven Sisters’ was directed by Capsule48 creative director Anne Berry, who Rainbow Chan previously collaborated with for her ‘Oblivion’ (2019). It draws on more than five years of intense research done by Rainbow: interrogating intergenerational and cross-cultural perspectives on diasporic identity as part of her collaboration with Weitou-led conservation program Caritas Lung Yeuk Tau Community Development Project. [via FBi Radio]

COBRAH has lost her mind—and all we can do at this point is hold on for dear life. An experimental electronic artist with the sort of bravado to paint our emotions for us—albeit with a razor for a paintbrush—COBRAH has a bright future ahead. After debuting on Big Beat Records earlier this summer, she’s now returned with ‘MANIC,’ a sultry track inviting fans to explore their own perceptions of sexuality and self-expression. Here, COBRAH’s badassery shines through her unapologetic lyricism: “I just get a little drastic, want to blow things up with matchsticks / Let it out with holy godspeed, I’m so nice if it wasn’t for my kink.” Electronic music fans will recognize COBRAH from her seductive vocal performance in Chris Lorenzo’s global house hit, ‘MAMI.’ She twists the knife into that style in ‘MANIC,’ where her come-hither, slithering sound melts into a four-on-the-floor club beat. “I loved making this record but if anything, it really brought out the manic in me,” COBRAH said in a statement. She’s not kidding. COBRAH also released the official ‘MANIC’ music video, a madcap audiovisual that shows her heart is as black as her signature latex. The video finds her embracing her desires without inhibition in a noir world where sensuality and dominance are canon. [via EDM]

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The new single is the latest to be taken from the American singer, rapper and songwriter’s upcoming studio album, WEEDKILLER, which is set for release next month. The LP will follow on from Demidevil – the debut mixtape from the musician, released in early 2021 through Parlophone and Warner Records.

According to Ashnikko – whose real name is Ashton Nicole Casey – ‘Cheerleader’ is centred around modern beauty standards, and acts as a social criticism for the obsession with perfection.

“It’s twisting this perfect cheerleader into a monstrosity. It’s commentary on the need to be fuckable to be commercially viable, and I really do feel that pressure,” Ashnikko said, discussing the meaning behind the track.

“It’s so tiring and played out,” she added. “No matter how much logic I’ve built up in my head, there’s still some carnal part of my brain that says ‘You have to be fuckable to sell this music, bitch!’ It’s draining on my spirit and makes me feel like I have literal car exhaust in my brain.” [via NME]

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Having established herself as one of Australia’s most important voices and striking songwriters of recent years, Melbourne-based artist Eliza Hull has proven the longevity of her art, and continued evolution. With the release of her new single ‘Running Underwater’, the songwriter and musician embraces a beautiful new chapter of creative and personal expression; the threads of experiences from both sides of her being knitting together beautifully in creating a gorgeous piece of new music. ‘Running Underwater’ saw Hull work with ARIA Award-winning producer Pip Norman (Baker Boy, Missy Higgins) on production, recording the track at BIGBANG Studio. Mixed by Simon Lam (Woodes, Cub Sport) and mastered by Idania Valencia (Sam Smith), ‘Running Underwater’ – in its final form – lets the dynamism of Hull’s vocals and arrangement take prominence, flourishing with each sonic swell. ‘Running Underwater’ is the first song Hull has written about being disabled and living with a condition called ‘Charcot Marie Tooth’. The condition, a degenerative nerve disorder, has affected Hull’s walking for a long time; it was a disability that she kept hidden, specifically in the music industry. In recent years however, Hull has emerged as an accessibility advocate within the industry; her determinism and approach to educating and spurring on change in perspective and structure, when it comes to the way disabled musicians are treated within the industry, has been incredibly influential. ‘Running Underwater’ is a powerful musical representation of Hull’s strength, and an example of the artist coming further into her own.“For a long time I hid my disability, especially in the music industry. This was due to under-representation of disabled musicians and I was constantly shown that disability was a deficit or something that should be feared and hidden. It was such a heavy weight holding onto these beliefs, it was exhausting to constantly hide. This song is about pushing up against society’s view of disability, it’s about letting go of the fear and being authentic and true to myself and showing that it’s ok to be different.“ Working with director Keiran Watson-Bounce, Hull has also produced a moving music video for ‘Running Underwater’, filmed at The Goods Shed in Castlemaine. Featuring the talents of dancer ‘roya the destroya’, the experience allowed Hull to bring the song to life in a beautifully unique way onscreen. And in doing so, has represented disability onscreen in a way not generally seen. “The music video features my very good friend ‘roya the destroya’. She is a brilliant disabled dancer who moves like nobody I know. She actually started busking with an early version of the song and sent me a video of her performing with it. When I watched that video I knew I had to collaborate with her on the official music video. She has a beautiful ability to inhibit what I am feeling in my music and then express that through movement. In the music video she is like my alter-ego, almost like the spirit part of what I am feeling in the lyrics. Keiran Watson-Bonnice is the director of the music video. We have worked together in the past on the ABC Kids TV show And Then Something Changed, which I produced and wrote the music for. We shot the clip in one day, in mostly one take in the Goods Shed on a freezing winter’s day.“

Next month, Christine And The Queens are releasing a new album, PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE, recorded with super-producer Mike Dean. We’ve heard ‘To Be Honest’ and the 070 Shake-featuring ‘True Love’ from it so far, and now Chris is sharing another new one, ‘Tears Can Be So Soft.’ “Tears can be so soft was born out of the marriage of a Marvin Gaye sample that caught my attention, this intoxicating, elegant, almost poised in its melancholy string arrangement,” Chris said in a statement, adding that they wanted to create “this deep sense of almost womb-like, hypnotic space where the voice could soar in its loneliness, [an] interplay between the suffering that motivates tears and the gentle healing effect they can have.” [via Stereogum]

In June, This Is The Kit will release a new album, Careful Of Your Keepers, which follows 2020’s Off Off On and is produced by Super Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys. We’ve already heard lead single ‘Inside Outside,’ and now they’re back with another album track, ‘More Change,’ which comes with an animated video created by Benjamin Jones. Jones explains of the video: “With this video I wanted to create something that felt homemade, organic and very much alive. Using very simple puppetry with some old coat hangers and some basic stop motion (and some surprisingly willing neighbors who lent me their faces) I’ve tried to create a few characters and scenarios which are connected in some ways, but also reflect the themes I picked up from the music – sadness, compromise, exploring new ground, and finding new ways to help each other move forward.” [via Stereogum]

Water From Your Eyes have released a new single and video ’14’, the latest preview from their forthcoming album and Matador debut Everyone’s Crushed, out May 26. A crescendo of swelling strings, pizzicato and electronic drone moving around a cyclical vocal refrain of “How many is 14?,” the band describe the song as “a quasi-serial inkblot signifying submission to personal demons and the realization that change is both necessary and inevitable.” Watch the widescreen black & white video directed by the band’s Rachel Brown below. On the video, Brown says: “I was largely inspired by Meshes of the Afternoon, Last Year in Marienbad, and Spirited Away, as well as the painting The Triumph of Baccus by Diego Velázquez, a favorite of Nate’s. I wanted to capture the feeling of being haunted by one’s own inner turmoils and the act of letting those conflicts go.”

Late last year, art-pop masterminds Kate NV and Angel Deradoorian announced that they’d joined forces to form a duo called Decisive Pink. Next month, they’ll release their debut album Ticket To Fame. Now, they’ve also shared a joyous piece of spiky weirdness called ‘Dopamine.’ ‘Dopamine’ is a six-minute piece of deadpan art-funk about the emptiness of consumerism. Kate NV and Angel Deradoorian chant the names of products with arch, sarcastic glee as their music mechanistically tics away. In the video, director JJ Stratford films the two of them in theatrical makeup as they work in a warehouse full of boxes. Both musically and visually, ‘Dopamine’ recalls some of the artiest post-punk of the late ’70s and early ’80s. [via Stereogum]

Ashnikko has unveiled the official video for her single ‘WEEDKILLER’, directed by Furmaan and Vasso. It follows the release of her other recent singles ‘You Make Me Sick!’ and ‘Worms’, which will appear on her highly anticipated debut album of the same name, due to arrive imminently via Parlophone Records. “This song is the one that gave birth to the whole album,” stated Ashnikko. “It’s the climax of the record, the epic fight scene in the wasteland. Swords drawn, roots deep into the ground, I have come here to photosynthesise and eliminate the weedkillers. It is a violent fantastical storytelling set in my realm.” [via Dork]

Louise Post – of seminal band Veruca Salt – is sharing the video for her first debut solo track ‘Guilty,’ a perfect reverie of guitar haze. Directed by Meeno and written and produced by Post, the video showcases a married couple’s relationship on the fritz with no one person more guilty than the other in their wrongdoings. About the song, Post reflected, “I wrote this on a Tuesday and recorded it on Thursday, writing most of the lyrics on the drive from my house over to the studio. This song literally poured out of me. I was sleeping when it woke me up and demanded to be written. The first verse and chorus landed as an accusation, but then I realized it was far more interesting, and much more true to life, to have everyone in the song be guilty of something. To have the narrator own up to her own guilt, and then acknowledge the universality of it all. I mean, what would we be without our secrets? The song is ultimately about not taking ourselves so seriously.” [via AntiMusic]

Singapore-born, London-based artist Yeule has released a new single, ‘Sulky Baby’, alongside news of new US and UK headlining shows later this year and their signing with Ninja Tune. ‘Sulky Baby’, which is accompanied by a visually stunning music video directed by Yeule themselves and Jaxon Whittington, is a melancholic tune that blends 2000s alt-rock and shoegaze. Yeule said of the newly released track via a press statement: “‘Sulky Baby’ was like a 2000s alt-rock shoegaze hybrid tinted in sad satire. I felt like I was talking to a younger version of me, stopping her from crying, looking back at the ways I betrayed and neglected that innocence from myself. I failed to protect her and I felt like I needed to go back in time and fulfil what she was starved of. So that she could return to my side. So that I can smile like a little kid again.” They continued: “The song gives quite vivid descriptions of a depression I felt with almost a burning passion, yet I tried to give it a light-hearted tone. I think romanticizing is not always that bad. It helps to do it sometimes when you’re dealing with a repressed memory. I think it is called an advantaged delusion? Sometimes, that’s the only way I can remember parts of me I don’t want to remember, so that I can lay her to rest and heal. My mother used to tell me as a child, not to sulk all the time. I guess that’s why sulking is so special to me.” [via NME]

Lana Del Rey has released the 10-minute music video for ‘Candy Necklace’ featuring Jon Batiste from her new album Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd. The video, directed by Rich Lee and shot in Los Angeles, sees the singer take on the role of numerous Hollywood starlets throughout history like Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Short, also known as the The Black Dahlia. The black and white video features behind the scenes shots of Del Rey through the camera finder, in the make-up chair and alongside collaborator Batiste at the piano. “The whole thing about the video — why it was all supposed to be behind the scenes — was because all these women who changed their names and changed their hair, like me,” Del Rey tells the crew at one point in the video. “It’s like they all fell into these different snake holes. So the whole point is like, how do you learn from that and not fall into your own thing?” [via NME]

‘The Most Wanted Person In The United States’ — the recently released 100 gecs track — has finally received the goofy visuals to match its irreverent sonics. The new video finds Laura Les and Dylan Brady masking up to steal packages off of porches, brandish plastic swords at Ring doorbell cameras, kick a life-sized plastic horse, and hold up a convenience store with automatic weapons made of Monster Energy cans, among other misadventures. [via The FADER]

Borderline Toxic have made their long awaited return, releasing latest single ‘Sir Satan’. The band’s desire to explore emotive, personal lyricism paired with a raucous background of scuzzy riffs is exhibited in full. Featuring another flamboyantly crafted video, Borderline Toxic continue to illustrate why their sound has struck a chord with press both at home and abroad. ‘Sir Satan’ delves into themes about our own character, our flaws, our strengths, our relationships and how these individual traits are influenced by both positive and negative experiences that have shaped us. Hypnotic front-woman Kerry Glass delivers the line, “…nothing is A-Ok, said Sir Satan…” with stinging aplomb. Kerry is telling the listener that our demon is always in the back of our mind causing doubt and, ultimately, sabotaging the healthy relationships we create. Kerry’s own personal rebuke to the paternal issues she has faced growing up are laced throughout the song and are cocooned by filthy, face melting guitar riffs, biting drum beats and a grooving baseline.

Sweden’s Hot Breath returns with the new hot single and visually stunning music video ‘Keep On Calling’. The track is a highly energetic rock explosion with powerful vocals and thrilling riffs, of which the band comments: ”’Keep On Calling’ is a song about trying to break free from forbidden duets – even though your body is as tense as a bow-string”.

Ukrainian refugee and pop singer-songwriter Natisa Gogol has shared the video for her latest single entitled ‘Aesthetics’. The disco-infused dance pop anthem is a love letter to the LGBTQ+ community, especially those in Russian occupation who are further discriminated against. Natisa confides, the song “is a tale of love that is more powerful than life itself, overcoming injustice, prejudice, and any obstacles it may encounter.” The futuristic video is a dedication to the LGBTQ+ community, portraying a love affair between two women that transcends space and time. ‘Aesthetics’ further highlights many people’s concerns that if Russia occupies Ukraine, the LGBTQ+ population will have their current rights taken away. Natisa’s music delivers a powerful message about holding onto strength and hope, even in the most disastrous and dark of times, as she herself was forced to flee her home in Ukraine to begin a new life.

Toronto–based songstress Sam Casey wears her authenticity like your favourite pair of well–worn jeans. Her unfiltered and unapologetic songs are inspired by the past two years of her life: all the breakups, the makeups, the drugs, the dancing, the crying, the anxiety and the love. Her passive aggressive song, ‘7 Second Superstar,’ was inspired by TikTok fame. It comes off as judgmental because it is. Sam and her co-writers, Julianna Eye and Chloe Kay, felt critical of social media – TikTok in particular – and how it promotes a culture of one hit wonders. “Julianna, Chloe, and I wrote this song over Zoom in 2021 with TikTok reaching its height of popularity and all of us being quite literally forced to participate on the app,” Sam explains. “After a conversation regarding our experiences in the early-2000’s and late 90’s (before social media existed), we decided to try a blink-182 vibe and about 2 hours later we had a song.”

Grace Potter is gearing up to release her fifth studio LP Mother Road via Fantasy Records on August 18. An audacious and heart-pounding map of the soul, Mother Road finds Grace deconstructing her deepest fears and darkest regrets, charting the fallout with brutal honesty and emotional daring. To celebrate the release, Potter has shared the inviting, irresistibly twangy title track. The single comes alongside an endearing Pulp Fiction meets Thelma and Louise styled video. Grace Potter reflected on the meaning of Mother Road, saying, “In Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck called Route 66 the ‘The Mother of all roads…the road of flight.’ As I zeroed out my odometer and started west on my road trip across the US, I hoped that driving the road of flight would give me a bird’s eye view of my life. But it didn’t take long to realize that I was not flying; I was running away. In the solitude, I found myself smashing open the piggy bank of deeply-buried memories. Those gems of my real-life exploits spilled into my creative consciousness and emboldened me to write an album that reaches far beyond what actually happened–launching me down the alternate-reality roads of what could have happened.” [via uDiscoverMusic]

Grammy-nominated Nigerian dance-pop vocalist Kah-Lo releases her new single ‘fund$’ on Epic Records. Spinning a tale of greed and glory, Kah-Lo’s latest single sees her fierce vocals cut with a darker edge. A powerful anthem that flaunts Kah-Lo’s intrinsic ability to seamlessly blend genres at her will, ‘fund$’ commands attention with its shiny synth stabs, punchy basslines, and rhythmic percussion. Kah-Lo’s playfully audacious lyrics add a feminist flare to the track as she sings, “Girls just wanna have funds, can’t have fun if you don’t have funds”. As with all of Kah-Lo’s originals, her vibrant persona shines through on ‘fund$’ as she teases her more rebellious side. ‘fund$’ arrives with an official music video that sees Kah-Lo take a murderous turn to enact revenge on those who have done her wrong. Portraying a femme fatale in this Kill Bill-esque music video, ‘fund$’ is an enticing introduction into Kah-Lo’s villain era. [via Find Your Sounds]

Madeline Kenney has announced her fourth album, A New Reality Mind, arriving July 28 via Carpark Records. Following 2021’s Summer Quarter EP, A New Reality Mind was produced and recorded by Kenney in her basement and processes the abrupt end of a long-term relationship. Along with the album news is a lead single, ‘Superficial Conversation,’ which also has a self-directed video. “‘Superficial Conversation’ is my way of looking back at the ways I shrunk myself or ignored my own needs in favor of the needs and desires of others,” Kenney explains. “While I wish I had acted differently, I want to be kind and forgiving to my past self and be able to grow and move forward with more power and love.” Of the video, Kenney says: “I wanted the video to show a forced transformation, from the inside and out. Jess Bozzo’s choreography really captured what I wanted to evoke; a painful change that becomes a pretty joyous opening with room for desire and play.” [via Stereogum]

Australia’s acclaimed alternative dance trio Haiku Hands have returned with a new single and music video. Claire Nakazawa, Beatrice Lewis and Mie Nakazawa are on fiery form on their new track, titled ‘Nunchucka’. A dancefloor cut with punk energy, the addictive track offers an instant sonic adrenaline rush. “A super charged high energy self affirmation anthem for anyone who wants to wipe off the patriarchal stain of self-loathing,” the band says about their single. “A song to listen to before you go out, when you’re out, and when you get home. Enjoy your life.” The accompanying music video, directed by Triana Hernandez, sees Haiku Hands and a set of mysterious characters matching the rebellious spirit of the track. [via The Brag]

Up next from LA’s resident femme-punk royalty, The Aquadolls, comes ‘Far Far Away,’ the final single before the June 2 release of their album Charmed. A slice of upbeat summer optimism, the song featuring production by Chris Szczech (The Goo Goo Dolls), is a call to arms for anyone looking to ferociously take back their independence. In the single’s official video directed by longtime creative collaborator Jenna Houchin, the band is drenched in a retro malaise as they attempt to bust out of the norm. Lead singer Melissa Brooks said, “’Far Far Away’ is a fairytale twist on the working class, discussing that the only person who can truly save you is yourself. Recorded by Chris Szcech, this up-tempo track features surfy guitar licks reminiscent of early Vampire Weekend and hand claps to ensure that anyone can clap and chant along to this modern self-love fairytale.” Bassist Keilah Nina chimed in saying that this is, “A tune about struggling with work-life balance. The painful reality of getting trapped in the same 9-5 routine and feeling blocked or detached from personal growth, success, and/or love as a result. It’s also a tale of acceptance, sometimes you have to pull yourself out of the dirt, and that’s okay!”

Sarah Kinsley is pleased to share details of a new EP, Ascension, for release next month via Verve Forecast/Decca Records UK. The EP is released on June 9, and previewed with ‘Lovegod’ and accompanying music video. The video is produced by Sarah who also hand-crafted the ‘Lovegod’ character who features throughout the video. The song itself was written, performed, recorded, produced, and mixed by Sarah. Sarah Kinsley on the new track: “’Lovegod’ is the most devious I think I’ve been in my writing, My own ‘lovegod’ is a perfect lover, an answer to a prayer, an antidote for romantic pessimism. Where can one find love these days? Why do we need it? Why do I find myself begging for some spiritual deliverance?”

Berlin-based, Belgium-raised rising pop icon MOLI returns with her dreamy new single ‘It’s Not My Fault’. Produced by JUNGLE’s Tom McFarland, this nostalgic new cut evokes the 80s with its shimmering electro-pop leanings, wavy synths and MOLI’s signature delicate, soulful vocals. Speaking on the single, MOLI said – “‘It’s Not My Fault’ is about coming to the realisation that you need to leave something that is bad for you and finally feeling a glimpse of that sense of freedom you were missing after feeling pulled down and heavy for so long. I personally felt like certain romantic situations I was in really weighed me down. They felt very one sided. Always chasing people, putting them on a pedestal and putting so much of myself and emotions into it only to end up feeling like I was never enough for them. I would feel so vulnerable and susceptible to being taken advantage of. I didn’t feel like being my true self was okay as I was so focused on pleasing the other person. Making it to the other side of that and experiencing healthier relationship dynamics made me feel so much lighter, confident and independent. It is so freeing to be unapologetically me. At the same time, I have been learning to navigate a very male dominated industry. I feel a lot of growth has happened for me over the last few years. I have my own opinions and I am confident in what I do which has made such a big difference if ever I do end up in a room with someone who I do not feel respected by. It is a very liberating feeling to not be so dependent on someone else’s validation, opinion and it’s that sense of freedom and confidence that I hope ‘It’s Not My Fault’ portrays.” The single arrives with a slick and sumptuous video shot by director Marek Partyš and inspired by the drama and hijinks of old films. Transporting viewers back to the 80s, the visual is set in a casino following a host of glamorous con-men manipulate a roulette wheel, before MOLI in her most baddass, empowering performance yet, unexpectedly swoops in and steals the final riches. Speaking on the video, Partys said -“The first time I listened to the song It is not my fault, I got a whiff of the 80s. The mysterious club, the strange characters, the detective, the casino, the smoke, all popped into my mind while listening to the song. It was a fun ride to piece all these elements together into a story where the singer Moli herself plays one of the main roles. And I’m convinced that she did it perfectly. The whole crew deserves a lot of thanks and respect for helping us with the whole production process.”

Sydney Sprague has released ‘smiley face’ via Rude Records. The video, which was done entirely through CGI and a phone app called “in3D”, which takes viewers through an metaverse driven, wild world of Sydney and her band as avatars, complete with dancing and an epic ending of Sydney flying into the sun. “The visual parts of making music can be really stressful for me,” explains Sydney” “… so going into the making of this video the most important thing to me was that everyone involved was having a good time. That’s why I really love this video, because every part of it was us going “what’s the dumbest thing that could happen” and doing that.” “smiley face: dance-y indie pop/rock. I wrote ‘smiley face’ about this dream I had that made me wake myself up because I was laughing really hard out loud, ” she continues.

Turning the page to a new chapter, multi-platinum singer-songwriter Bishop Briggs shares a confessional new single entitled ‘Baggage’. Bishop also announces the arrival of her highly anticipated new EP, When Everything Went Dark – out June 23. On the track, Bishop embraces her stark humanity like never before. She adds, “I am not perfect. In fact, I’m quite messy. I could say life is messy, which it is, but part of becoming an adult has been acknowledging the messiness that I have too. ‘Baggage’ is the first song where I stand in the mud and triumphantly stomp my feet in it. I can only hope that others feel empowered to own their version of messy and know that they aren’t alone in it. I have found that when I unabashedly show my imperfections and my wounds I am growing. So, there you have it, that’s my baggage.” Re: the striking accompanying music video for the track, Bishop comments: “I didn’t know how well I could hide my sorrow until I did it. Outwardly I would have fleeting moments of socially acceptable niceties and then the minute I was alone I would dissociate, completely unable to function. How could these two extremities exist in one body? It was and is exhausting. I wanted this music video for ‘Baggage’ to show that our blue circles aka our trauma can be meticulously hidden even if someone appears okay on the outside. I hope that whoever watches knows that they are not alone and that there’s a community of people waiting to be supportive.”

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It’s been a fascinating run for Alaska Reid and now comes news that she co-produced her debut album with A.G. Cook, the PC Music ringleader and hyperpop pioneer. That album, Disenchanter, is coming in July via Gorilla vs. Bear’s Luminelle label, a subsidiary of Fat Possum. It’s said to draw from country, grunge, and easygoing California rock as filtered through Cook’s signature electronic eccentricity. Lead single ‘Back To This,’ which arrives with a video by Santiago Cendejas, is a misty, prismatic pop-rock song that contains glimmers of all that but mostly goes down smooth. “Running through these dreams,” Reid sings on the chorus. “I wanna go back to this.” According to Reid, it’s inspired by a time when she encountered a group of service workers on a break while hiking in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness: “It was late summer and they looked happy and dusty. It was like a painted reverie from a classical painting. I fantasize about other people’s lives, other people’s professions, and writing is a way I can approximate what it must be like to be someone else. So this song is about stumbling upon a scene in someone else’s life and wanting to be a part of it, but it’s also about wondering if I ever seemed as cool or as worthy as those smokejumpers did. I also had this idea of looking back at a photo and wondering why, at the time, I did not feel like the version of myself looking back in the photo.” [via Stereogum]

HotWax have dropped their new single ‘Treasure’. Their first since signing to Marathon Artists, the track arrives ahead of the band’s upcoming UK mini tour, which kicks off on March 11 at Folkestone’s Quarterhouse. The Hastings trio are also soon to join Pearl Hearts on tour, and have a string of summer festivals coming up, including Mad Cool and All Points East. [via Dork]

PVRIS has released a video for ‘Goddess’. The track was released earlier this year to coincide with a bunch of UK and European dates, with Lynn Gunn commenting: “It’s a celebration of femininity, all shapes and forms, and a cathartic, guttural scream at the same time.” [via Dork]

‘May’ is JGrrey‘s first release as the lead artist since ‘Theirs13’ arrived in January, although she did contribute to Baxter Dury’s ‘Aylesbury Boy’ single recently. JGrrey says of the single, which is teamed with a Pip + Lib-directed video, “I’ve known Kojey for about 10 years and the timing aligned for us to work together. I knew that whatever I sent to Kojey, he would listen. I hadn’t created something that I felt made sense to send him, until writing ‘May’.” She adds, “Forgetting the sound of someone’s laugh isn’t something I thought I’d lose so much sleep over…James died and had his funeral on my birthday (classic James) – he left suddenly, dramatically magically..like? I still don’t really believe he’s gone.. like he’s giggling somewhere, laughing at us all for missing him so much. This video and this song are for him.” [via Line Of Best Fit]

Art-pop greats Christine And The Queens took a detour out of their main discography with last year’s Redcar les adorables étoiles, released under the name Redcar or Christine And The Queens Presents Redcar. This summer Chris will return to the Christine And The Queens moniker with an ambitious new album called PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE. The 20-track collection was co-produced by hip-hop legend Mike Dean, who is linked with Lana Del Rey and Beyoncé in the album’s press materials but not longtime collaborator Kanye West for obvious reasons. It contains three Madonna collabs and two by 070 Shake. Chris shared this statement: “This new record is the second part of an operatic gesture that also encompassed 2022’s Redcar les adorables étoiles. Taking inspiration from the glorious dramaturgy of Tony Kushner’s iconic play, Angels in America, Redcar felt colourful and absurd like Prior sent to his insane dream-space. The follow-up PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE is a key towards heart-opening transformation, a prayer towards the self – the one that breathes through all the loves it is made of. Prior’s real agony in Angels in America is a deep, painful becoming, a shedding of all waters and memories, that then allows angels to immerse deep too, and offer back profound, narrative-altering love – a rest in true love.” Lead single ‘To be honest’ is an immaculate synth-pop power ballad, like an old Celine Dion smash hit reimagined for the Drive soundtrack. It rules. Watch the Chris-directed video below. [via Stereogum]

Mae Muller is going to represent the UK at Eurovision this year. Set to be held in Liverpool on behalf of Ukraine, she’s taking her new single ‘I Wrote A Song’, co-written with Karen Poole (Kylie Minogue, David Guetta, Galantis) and Lewis Thompson (Anne-Marie, Little Mix, Steve Aoki). Mae says: “’I Wrote A Song’ is a track I wrote after the fallout from a relationship. I was hurt and also a little angry, so I thought, where can I put this negative energy and make something positive out of it? The song is less about revenge and more about empowering yourself. While I was recording the song, I envisioned me and my girls dancing to it on a Saturday night, and that’s exactly what I want people to do! To dance, sing, let go, and feel empowered after listening.” [via Dork]

flowerovlove returns with a new music video for her recent single ‘Love You’ that sees her shining brighter than ever. In the track, which was dropped to coincide with Valentine’s Day, flowerovlove explores a more universal type of love rather than focusing on simple romance — a refreshing change of pace, celebrating a sense of overall camaraderie and earnest affection amid a lush guitar-driven soundscape. Keeping in line with the theme of self-love, the visual sees the artist fully feeling herself, starring front and center, singing joyfully to various versions of herself. The visual also folds in the artist’s love of nature, as her name would suggest, expanding the idea of love to encompass taking care of the planet with a simple scrawled-out “Smoking Kills” in chalk. “’Love You’ is an incredibly magical song I wrote with my brother,” flowerovlove says of the track. “The song is about universal love, all-inclusive love. This is a love song that can be sung about anyone — your mum, your dog, your best friend or even your grandmother. I want everyone to feel nostalgia from ‘Love You’ and to be able to connect it to a loved one.” [via Paper]

Fever Ray’s new album Radical Romantics is out now, and along with the record, The Knife singer has shared the music video for single ‘Even It Out,’ featuring Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Reznor and Ross both co-produced and performed on ‘Even It Out,’ an anti-bullying track aimed at the former nemesis of Karin Dreijer’s son. “This is for Zacharias/ Who bullied my kid in high school/ There’s no room for you/ And we know where you live,” the artist trills, over ominous synths and machine-like percussion. Meanwhile, the track’s music video takes a campier approach, as Dreijer dons a thick slab of drag makeup in a nod to John Waters’ Female Trouble. Reznor and Ross also make cameos in the video. [via Consquence]

VOLK is Nashville indie-rock duo Eleot Reich (drums, vocals) and Christopher Lowe (guitar, vocals). Their new EP, Stand the Test (out Apr. 28), delves into bluesy retro-futuristic dance punk, synthwave, new wave, and nostalgia-filled roller rink bangers. Their masterfully designed video for ‘I Fed Animals’ is a cyberpunk spectacle of stylized street fights and music performance, shot partially on location in Tokyo. The visceral and animalistic core of this song beckons you to tear the clothes off of your lover. “I wrote this after going through one of my first breakups,” says Reich. “I was angry and just wanted revenge. I was out there doing my thing, and I wanted it to get back to him. I thought of the line “I Fed Animals” and loved the metaphor of it all. I love the history of blues and using these types of sexual metaphors.” The Blade Runner meets Ghost in the Shell meets Tekken music video for ‘I Fed Animals’ is a retro-future, VFX-heavy labor of love that took months of production. Director Patrick Pierson even flew to Tokyo to shoot the streets and neon of Shinjuku to capture the authentic feeling of his cyberpunk vision. The video is a feast for the eyes as the band performs against neon geometry and banks of neo-futuristic screens while a cyber girl and street demon face off in beautifully choreographed fights through rain and city streets. Each meticulously crafted frame is a work of art in its own right. The cinematic majesty of the video pulls no punches and lands in the echelon of masterpieces like director Seth Ickerman’s video for ‘Turbo Killer’ by Carpenter Brut. “I saw VOLK live at a mid-sized club,” says Pierson, “but they’re sound is so big, like AC/DC or Queen. I knew I wanted to work with them, and I knew I wanted to work within a cyberpunk aesthetic. I took a page from anime, grindhouse, 70s sci-fi b-movies and old kung fu films. We shot VOLK in a studio, and I flew to Japan to shoot the background plates to honor the anime roots of the idea. For the fight scene, we brought on O’Calla Joslyn to do the choreography and professional dancers Doug Hooker & Gretchen Marie Olson. I wanted the fight to mimic a murmuration of birds, the way they dance and fly together in a rhythmic pattern.”

On Friday, Meghan Trainor released the music video for her new single ‘Mother,’ and the visual features none other than Kris Jenner as the video’s main star. Dressed in a white dress and a pixie cut, Jenner takes Trainor’s place as the Charm La’Donna-directed video’s lead pop star as she lip-syncs the track’s lyrics. “I am your mother, you listen to me. Stop all that mansplainin’, no one’s listening,” Trainor sings in the chorus. “Tell me who gave you permission to speak? I am your mother, you listen to me.” The doo-wop-infused track samples The Chordettes’s ‘Mr. Sandman’ in the post-chorus as Trainor repeats, “You just a bum bum bum.” Some scenes capture Jenner and Trainor dancing alongside each other before Trainor shows off her ultrasound photos as she sings the lyric, “You with your God complex/But you can’t even make life, bitch.” [via Rolling Stone]

Garage rocker Olivia Jean has shared the psychedelic official music video for ‘Trouble.’ The track comes from her just-announced third solo album, Raving Ghost, arriving via Third Man Records on Friday, May 5.

Chappell Roan is a Missouri-born 24-year-old singer-songwriter who began uploading songs online as a teenager, was discovered and released an album on Atlantic when she was just 18. Now an independent artist, she’s been releasing a string of strong singles in collaboration with Olivia Rodrigo’s chief collaborator, Daniel Nigro, and the latest one is the most irresistible to date: ‘Casual,’ a graphic paen to, as the press release calls it, “modern dating and young lust” that pairs explicit lyrics with a stately, Lana Del Rey-esque delivery towering chorus that dares radio not to play it. “I’ve heard so many rumors/ That I’m just a girl that you bang on your couch/ I thought you thought of me better… “Knee deep in the passenger seat and you’re eating me out/ Is it casual now?,” the chorus goes. “Baby, get me off again/ If it’s casual, it’s casual now.” [via Variety]

Ashnikko has released a new video for ‘Worms’. It’s a cut from upcoming debut album WEEDKILLER, which follows 2021 mixtape Demidevil and will be released on June 2 via Parlophone Records. Speaking about the video, director Raman Djafari says: “I wanted to create a vast world that stretches way beyond the bounds of this one music video, like there’s an abundance of stories waiting to be told. I indulged my love for creature design and developed dozens of individual characters, monsters, robots and a huge monster truck. It was important to me to bring the world around this album to life, with a richness that reflects the depth of the music and lyrics. Working with Ash and Vasso was a truly precious collaboration between artists, they supported and trusted my personal interpretation of the universe they created together. Looking back, I wish I could have spent more time in this world. I feel like this video barely scratches the surface of what I would love to create together with Ashnikko. Fingers crossed we’ll get another chance to collaborate in the future.” [via Dork]

Sir Chloe—the project of vocalist, songwriter and guitarist Dana Foote—unveils the video for, ‘Hooves,’ directed by Molly Hawkins and Grant Spanier. The song is the lead single from Sir Chloe’s debut album, I Am the Dog, slated for release May 19 via Atlantic Records.

Following on from her 2022 collab with Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oli Sykes, Alice Longyu Gao has just unveiled the full EP from which it’s taken. Alice’s second EP – entitled Let’s Hope Heteros Fail, Learn And Retire – arrived along with a new video for the song ‘Come 2 Brazil’. And, as we’ve come to expect from the one-of-a-kind artist, it’s an incredibly fun and entertaining watch. The musician says of her EP that, “You’re listening to the future of music,” with Let’s Hope Heteros Fail, Learn And Retire. [via Kerrang!]

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Singer-songwriter Harriette announces that she has signed to AWAL Recordings. The Texas-born but Brooklyn-based artist has also announced the April 27 release of her debut EP, I Heart The Internet and shares the first taste via the single ‘Goodbye Texas’ which embraces a Western dancefloor glow as she ironically examines her lack of place in her home state—a concern that hit close to home after the political contests of the last few years drove friends and families apart. She says, “I wrote ‘Goodbye Texas’ two years ago as I was driving out of Texas after Christmas. I lived there for 18 years and always felt like I stuck out. As I got older it seemed like everything I wanted to achieve was going to happen elsewhere. It came to a point where I really needed to take some space from being home and this song was my key to the door out.” She continues, “The song was surprisingly easy to write, it felt like everything I wanted to say came out so naturally. It was easy to recall what I have always admired about the state – the sunsets, wide open spaces, bluebonnets and yellow roses. But just like the song explains, the sunsets became too hot, the spaces weren’t green anymore and I felt like the bluebonnets had forgotten my name.” Watch the video, directed by Jacqueline Justice & Muriel Margaret below.

Maisie Peters has dropped a new video for her latest single, ‘Body Better’. The first cut from her soon-to-be-announced second album, it was penned alongside Ines Dunn (Griff, Mimi Webb) and producer Matias Téllez (girl in red, AURORA). “’Body Better’ is one of the most honest songs I’ve ever released, and definitely the most personal,” Maisie explains. “I wrote it after a breakup and it deals with the ugly things you think to yourself in the aftermath, when you’re painstakingly going through everything small thing you did and were and wondering what you could have changed. It’s a song about insecurity and vulnerability, about giving a lot of yourself away to someone who decides they don’t want it anymore and knowing where to go from there.” [via Dork]

Ailbhe Reddy is sharing the video for ‘Last To Leave’, the latest single to be taken from her forthcoming second album Endless Affair, which arrives on March 17. ‘Last To Leave’ is a beautiful and dreamy lo-fi journey of love, romance and embarrassment. Ailbhe says: “It’s about having an infatuation with someone who you find frustrating and watching as they make a fool of themselves at a party, while knowing you might be doing the same thing.” Of the video, she continues: “I sent the album onto Mark Logan & Collective Dublin a few months after it was finished in August 2021, Mark immediately connected to Last to Leave and we decided to work on something together. He had so many amazing ideas for it and was so passionate about bringing them all to life! Shooting with the crew and cast over 2 days was incredible, especially Danielle Galligan who managed to help me act as well as being the emotional driving force behind the narrative! Big thanks to Elton the pig for playing me in the final shots too!”

Kicksie, the project of Toronto musician Giuliana Mormile, has been home-recording and self-releasing since 2018, and they’ve been very prolific. Her last album, 2020’s All My Friends, was given a wider re-release by Get Better Records, and now she’s got a new album called Slouch–her fifth LP overall–due April 14 via Counter Intuitive Records. Alongside the announcement, they’re premiering single and music video ‘You’re On.’ The song rings with fun, guitar-forward emo-pop, taking cues from the early 2000s. [via Brooklyn Vegan]

Amber Arcades has shared the suitably moody music video for her latest single ‘True Love’, from her new album Barefoot on Diamond Road out now. [via Dork]

The Santa Cruz rock band Scowl are about to head out on a massive North American tour with Show Me The Body, Jesus Piece, Zulu, and TrippJones. Now, they’ve announced the Psychic Dance Routine EP, their follow-up to their 2021 debut album How Flowers Grow. It was produced by Will Yip, and they’re introducing it with the fearsomely catchy ‘Opening Night.’ “‘Opening Night’ is a song I’m particularly excited about because I really worked on this song’s structure with the boys in the band,” Scowl’s Kat Moss said in a statement. “I felt inspired by early 2000’s indie rock songs written by bands like The Strokes and Vampire Weekend.” Moss continued: “Lyrically this song takes a pretty literal stab at my experience of feeling jolted from stage to van, and back again, every single night. I also had experiences on tour where I was seeing faces in the crowd that belonged to people from my past, and it was pretty shocking.” [via Stereogum]

Ashnikko is back with her first new single since 2021, ‘You Make Me Sick!’. ‘You Make Me Sick!’ is their first outing since covering ‘Carol of the Bells’ for Spotify in November 2021, and is accompanied by a Saam Farahmand-directed video. Ashnikko says of the track, which was written with longtime collaborators Slinger and Oscar Scheller, “I’ve decided to come back with my angriest, most cathartic song to date. My own personal rage room for me to smash my plates.” [via Line Of Best Fit]

While physically thousands of miles apart, the partnership between Greek pop artist KID MOXIE and German pop artist NINA came organically. Upon connecting, it was instantly clear the two were “synth sisters” destined to make music together. The result is a 5-track EP collection titled Lust set for release on March 24 via Italians Do It Better. The title track ‘Lust’ is out now alongside an edgy and seductive neo-noir music visual shot in Athens by director Paige Von Bank. The Lust project first began as a desire by KID MOXIE, the musical moniker of Greek born, LA-based composer and musician Elena Charbila, to recreate the Jennifer Lopez hit ‘Waiting For Tonight.’ After connecting with synthwave doyenne NINA (Nina Boldt) via Zoom, the idea emerged that a sultry female duet is exactly what this track needed. The notion of a duet-driven project was very appealing to both artists who’ve firmly established themselves with successful solo releases, and notable past collaborations. It was clear both pop/synth songstresses shared a similar headspace and bonded over their affection towards dark cinematic scores such as Blade Runner, Twin Peaks, and Drive.

Georgia Mooney reveals her stunning debut offering ‘War Romance’. Cinematic and full of emotion, ‘War Romance’ is here as an incredible debut solo moment from Georgia Mooney. Offering dreamy escapism and fantastical romance, the Australian musical polymath has put her best foot forward and proves to be a one-of-a-kind artist to watch. Georgia Mooney is an ARIA-winning singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Sydney. Her music is ornate and hand-crafted, sculpted by a strong mind and a delicate heart. ‘War Romance’ is the first taste to be taken from her upcoming debut album, coming later this year via Nettwerk. Taking inspiration from the beauty and potency of vulnerability, and the complexities of connection and perception, Mooney’s talent for songwriting is showcased by her soaring ethereal voice and lush soundscapes. Influences from every member of the Wainwright family, Laura Marling, Joni Mitchell, the sophistication of the Great American Songbook and even classical composers sift through her songs seamlessly, alongside fuzzed out guitars and production that evoke the unsettling genius of Kate Bush – both her idiosyncratic wall of sound instrumentation and unexpected turns of chords and melodies. ‘War Romance’ is born out of the maelstrom of the contemporary world – climate change, covid, political unrest and relentless waves of global tragedy. When life is beyond your control and the world seems to be slipping beyond the bounds of repair, we cling to the clarity and desperation of love. On the single, Georgia Mooney shares, “I have always loved wartime films & novels for the way they portray relationships. When life is fragile and we are faced with our mortality on a daily basis, we cling to one another for comfort. Superficial problems fall away and the bonds of love feel extraordinarily strong and vital. It’s a bit melodramatic, but romantic and earnest too. Like standing on a cliff, clutching a letter, staring out to sea.” The ‘War Romance’ music video stars award-winning comedian and guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under Rhys Nicholson (they/them) making their drag debut as Georgia Mooney, and Mooney herself as Nicholson. Romantic and fantastical, the clip sees them move and sing around a beautiful old hotel in a time and place that is impossible to define.

Tove Lo is already following up her 2022 album Dirt Femme with a funky new single called ‘Borderline.’ If you’re thinking that ‘Borderline’ sounds like it could’ve been pulled from Dua Lipa’s latest album, there’s good reason: “Tons of love to @DUALIPA for trusting me with this baby,” Tove Lo wrote of the track on Twitter. “This is the very first song we wrote together and the very start of our friendship so this feels extra special.” But like many of Tove Lo’s best hits, ‘Borderline’ is a love song with an air of darkness: “I like to feel my bones when they crash into my heart/ I like the taste of blood when you’re tearin’ me apart,” she sings against the song’s heavy, thumping bass line. Watch the Nogari-directied video for the track below. [via Consequence]

With her trademark hot-pink hair, brassy London belt and punky electro-pop, girli is hard to miss — but in ‘Imposter Syndrome,’ the artist is unrecognizable to herself. “I’m so paranoid that everybody hates me/ Wear a big smile when it’s in style,” girli sings in the single’s music video over a breakfast of eggs, toast and ketchup reading ‘Fraud’ as a circus ensemble of diner characters steal glances at the superstar. Becoming more surreal by the second, the crowd of eccentric on-lookers jeer and scowl at girli, pushing her from the trippy diner into a dark alley, where she dodges the spotlight, finding herself swarmed by a crowd of real-life fans protesting the pop star. Signs reading ‘FAKE’ push against girli as the mob grows volatile, silently mouthing “fake,” “fraud” and intelligible screams under girli’s anthem. As the visual closes, the crowd dissipates in a cloud of smoke and girli finds herself alone, begging the question of how much of the raucous scene was imagined by the singer herself, creating characters of her intrusive thoughts as if building her reality from smoke. Milly Toomey (AKA girli) has been on a journey of self-discovery, which comes out through ‘Imposter Syndrome’ and previous single ‘I Really F**ked It Up,’ arriving at the conclusion that she will always surprise herself — and it’s okay to not know what comes next. “I was overthinking everything, feeling like a fake, scared that I was an underachiever and that everybody knew it and was laughed behind my back about it,” girli says. “I kind of go through life feeling like everybody else has a guidebook, and I’m just making it up as I go and getting it wrong. This song is about wanting to run away because of that feeling and being so unsure of yourself it scares you.” [via PAPER]

Bite Me Bambi have released a new single, just in time for Valentine’s Day, ‘Let Me Love You’. Along with the song comes a new video, a veritable special effects extravaganza. Just watch out for Cupid’s arrow! [via that’s good enough for me]

Athens, GA psych-folk group Immaterial Possession, who are led by Cooper Holmes and Madeline Polites and include Kiran Fernandes (son of Olivia Tremor Control’s John Kiran Fernandes), will release their second album, Mercy of the Crane Folk, on May 5 via Fire. They’ve just shared ‘To The Fete,’ which should appeal to fans of Syd Barrett, Broadcast, and the places in between. The video, shot and directed by the band, feels like a lost short from the silent film era. [via Brooklyn Vegan]

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