Georgia Gets By, the project of New Zealand’s Georgia Nott (BROODS), shares a video for ‘When All You Can Manage Is A Sigh,’ a gorgeous and quietly devastating new single. “I wrote this song for a friend a few years ago while they were navigating a divorce. There are those moments where thinking can’t balance out the feelings. You can rationalize all you want but you are still there, holding that enormous heavy sensation that no words can describe,” Georgia explains. “There, on the other side of falling in love, looking around at empty space and wondering whether you can bear to try it all again. This song is a parting gift of some sorts; something to fill the emptiness for a couple of minutes. As Imogen Heap says ‘there is beauty in the breakdown’.”

Gustaf, the Brooklyn no wave / post-punk band announced their debut album last month and now they are back with a double single and video for ‘Here Hair / Hard Hair.’ The first is a brooding, slow-motion growl peppered by birdsong and stabbed by pinpricks of guitar, while its chaser, ‘Hard Hair,’ is 45-second outburst of energy, invective and regret. The songs were produced and mixed by Erin Tonkon with initial production from Carlos Hernandez. Its accompanying video directed by the band’s own Lydia Gammill, features the band wigged out among heart shaped hair brushes and roses.

Manchester’s finest alt-punks The Empty Page just released a gritty new video, calling out the ‘Cock of the Fifth Year’. “Cock of the fifth year is what we called the biggest jock types when I was in high school. Cocky, brash loud and overly confident. Puffed up and swaggering and often quite intimidating. I liked the name for a song and wrote it initially about a cartoonish bloke who unselfconsciously uses up all the space available and makes others feel shoved out of the way. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of blokes like that I encounter when walking around my home city of Manchester. Swaggering, mouthy bellends who can be pretty intimidating when you’re a woman just trying to get from A to B. I was thinking about the idea that being a big deal in high school is the peak of some people’s lives. I hated school with a passion and my own life has got better and better as my school days have receded in the rearview. Seems a weird flex now to have been a big deal in high school,” says Kel, singer/guitarist/songwriter of The Empty Page. [via Loud Women]

Babehoven will return with a new album this spring. The New York-based duo of Maya Bon and Ryan Albert have announced Water’s Here In You, out April 26 via Double Double Whammy. This week sees the release of a new song called ‘Birdseye,’ following the previously released album track ‘Chariot.’ Seemingly aware of the blandness that runs through most modern indie rock, ‘Birdseye’ opts for something more ambitious and strikes a balance between melancholic and soaring, jangley and ornate. The music video, directed by Ash Kron, makes a comforting blanket out of the threads of whimsy in the song, depicting Bon as a balloon-aided bird flapping across the coast and taking advantage of the nice weather to do some human-watching. [via The FADER]

Last year, Saya Gray shared her Qwerty EP. Now, the art-pop musician announced its sequel, Qwerty II, and shared the hallucinatory single ‘AA BOUQUET FOR YOUR 180 FACE’ with a video directed by Jennifer Cheng. “180 face is my bass moment off of qwerty ii EP,” she said in a statement. “it’s about a spooky moody boy with a 180 face.” Qwerty II was made in isolation in 2023, and Gray describes it as “a collection of ideas and collages stuck together as the ying to the yang of the first half.” [via Stereogum]

The new visuals for Fever Ray‘s ‘Shiver’ come from frequent collaborator Martin Falck; Main, the trollish office drone Dreijer has portrayed in this era of visuals, falls from the sky to a red planet. They’re healed by a buff doctor, played by none other than International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation pro bodybuilder Irene Andersen, whose office also doubles as a BDSM chamber. Some light physiotherapy ensues. The new clip was inspired by the Lovers of Valdero, a pair of Stone Age skeletons that were buried for millennia in an intimate embrace. “We fantasized about what might have happened to these two skeletons,” Dreijer says. “Were they so in love they had their mouths and noses too close to each other, or couldn’t stop kissing so they died of carbon monoxide poisoning? Or did a dinosaur kill them, and they died in fear holding each other? Was it a volcano, and they were protecting themselves from the lava burning their flesh? Maybe they weren’t in love at all; perhaps they were lifelong enemies facing their final struggle strangling each other? We felt there was a beautiful story there about the struggles of falling in love and the vulnerability you might feel being ‘examined’ by your love interest who wants to make sure you really are the one they can trust and form a relationship with, that will last for eternity.” [via The FADER]

Tierra Whack has dropped ’27 CLUB,’ the latest preview of her new album, WORLD WIDE WHACK. A reference to the infamous 27 Club of celebrities who died at the age of 27 — including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Kurt Cobain — the new single was produced by Whack’s frequent collaborator J Melodic and ProdbyBRIANNA. The track dives deep into Whack’s mental health, as she sings about losing touch with family and friends while embodying the pain of coming up against seemingly insurmountable obstacles. After explicitly mentioning thoughts of suicide, Whack sings, “Like a glass full but I’m empty/ Said, ‘I’m broken, can you fix me?’/ If I’m dreamin,’ you should pinch me/ Got a gun to the head, don’t tempt me.” Addressing the song in an Instagram post, Whack wrote, “I was in a dark place for a long time, and no one knew. I found my way out and made a choice to keep living. I wanna be completely transparent with my ‘whackos’ because I’m human just like you and we all have rough days. The key is to keep going! Be kind… you never know what someone else is going through. For the longest time, I felt like I didn’t belong, but now I know that I do, and my hope is for other people to know that, too.” [via Consequence]

Toronto-born, Los Angeles-based alternative artist Abby Sage sustains her musical momentum with an introspective new single, ‘Soak.’ This radiant track offers another peek into her creative process while heightening the anticipation for the release of her forthcoming debut album, The Rot, out March 1 via Nettwerk. Embellished with delicate vocals and complemented by upbeat guitar strums, ‘Soak’ strikes a sonic balance between melodic buoyancy and industrial undertones. Introduced by a simple drum beat, the song gradually reaches its climax in a lively and sparkling chorus. This sweeping alternative-pop track is a testament to self discovery, and an exploration of the liberation found in triviality. “‘Soak’ is the acceptance and surrender to complete unimportance.” Sage says. “It’s recognizing how insignificant everything is and how small I am. It’s celebratory in a way because there is something so beautiful and freeing about letting go of ego and self importance. It frees up a lot of space.” Regarding the video, she continues, “I wanted to focus on the ‘giving in’ aspect of that first so the set was designed to feel chaotic and crowded with the masks and the wind blowing while I struggle to let go. Later in the video, the optical illusion of the puppet ‘carrying’ me around is that manifestation of my surrender and embrace of my insignificance.” [via Broadway World]

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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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This week, Samia released her sophomore album, Honey. Title track “Honey’ is about always being drunk enough that you don’t have to look around,” she says. “To me it’s the saddest song I’ve ever written, because it’s mocking my attempt to convince people I was good. Caleb Wright turned it into a campfire song, though, and I love that it can be interpreted as fun too.” [via Stereogum]

Last October, Fever Ray (Karin Dreijer) returned to us with their first new single in five years. Co-produced by their brother Olof (of the Knife), ‘What They Call Us’ was the siblings’ first new studio recording since the Knife’s 2014 Europa Europa collab ‘För Alla Namn Vi Inte Får Använda.’ Happily, the Dreijers didn’t stop there. Now, they’re releasing ‘Kandy,’ which also has a video and is co-produced and performed by both Fever Ray and the Knife’s Olof Dreijer. Over looping vocal whoops, “Down Under”-sounding percussion, synths, and flute, Karin Dreijer sings in a deep register: “She laid me down and whispered/ All girls want kandy/ Can you bring me back/ Sll girls want kandy.” [via Stereogum]

Biig Piig has dropped a video for ‘In The Dark’. It’s a track from the star’s debut mixtape, Bubblegum, in addition to recent drops ‘Picking Up’ (with Deb Never), ‘This Is What They Meant’ and ‘Kerosene’. “Bubblegum is sweet and nice to look at, but it’s sticky,” she says of the release. “I like the innocence, but was drawn to the texture — balloony, elastic, stretchy. And it bursts, too. That’s what the tape felt like.” [via Dork]

Combining classic pop punk and modern chart sensibilities, FLØRE is sure to provide all the energy you need with this new cut ‘ZOMBIE’ out via Valeria Music. In a story many can relate to, it was written about those old flames that long died that keep resurfacing, bring back all the wrong energy that saw it all go wrong in the first place. Speaking about the song, FLØRE explained “The song is about the on-off relationships you have with past lovers. They keep crawling back to you like mindless Zombies, bringing back to life what was already dead. I think breaking free from those toxic on-and-off relationships is so hard, because somewhere there’s a part of you that still gets excited when someone’s name pops up on your screen months or even years later. Which makes you fall in these memory holes again and you catch yourself wishing one day it would be different and it would work out. But some relationships can’t be killed and instead remain undead forever.”

Tchotchke arrived on the scene last summer with a self-titled debut record collecting upbeat pop-rock anthems packaged with a vintage ’70s sheen. Considering the album’s sound ranging from twee to jangle-pop—all while maintaining its period-piece aesthetic—it’s no surprise that The Lemon Twigs were behind the boards producing the project, as both groups scratch a unique itch the indie rock scene’s ignored since bands like Foxygen and Girls were on the come-up. Tchotchke have released their first single since that album with ‘Come on, Sean,’ a campy story about a rendezvous between a gardener and a housewife littered with double entendres and soundtracked by the band’s unique sonic palette, this time embellished with chintzy orchestration to match the vocals’ Joanna Newson–esque acrobatics. Additionally, the track’s Ambar Navarro–directed visual helps to flesh out the narrative, confirming its setting in 1970s suburban America. [via Flood]

From quantum physics to the worlds of high fashion and fine art, Brooklyn-based Sandflower is an artist with interests as varied as her sound. Drawing on the contrast of the buttoned-up academia of her private school upbringing against New York’s vibrant music scene, the artist cites everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Cindy Sherman, Salvador Dalí to Allen Ginsberg as inspirations for her own blend of rap-infused pop. Sandflower returns with a rowdy dancefloor-ready self-empowerment anthem, ‘Shake That Boom (Cargo Room).’ Giving off a Paula Abdul-meets-Lizzo type of vibe, the catchy single features an interesting blend of retro and newer sounds that includes “an Atlanta snare drum line, Caribbean dancing 808’s, sound design from a vintage Buchla modular synthesizer and stadium-pulsing organs,” according to producer David Sisko. The single arrives alongside an equally if not more energetic music video that sees Sandflower taking us to the streets of Tokyo. Serving up tightly choreographed numbers and bright comic interjections, the visual is just as youthful and bright as the single, with Sandflower fully feeling herself every step of the way. “’Shake That Boom (Cargo Room)’ is the energy of undeniable self-love — no — obsessive self-confidence,” Sandflower says of the track. “This song is a sonic Ted Talk about revering the wonder that is you — and the wonder that is your body. This is the song that plays in my head when I look at myself first thing in the morning. This song is the aura that wraps around me when I saunter down Lafayette Street in SoHo and when I literally ran through the streets of Tokyo while filming the video. This song should come with a warning: If you listen to this while walking down the street, this song will induce massive amounts of compliments, new friends and possible new opportunities.” [via Paper]

Refusing to stagnate in the electronic scene, Alexis positions herself as enigmatic and ever-resilient. It’s a difficult task having grown up in Texas and moved to London, yet, the now UK-based producer, vocalist and DJ has come to the forefront of her genre – an already exciting addition to the genre via her sets at Boiler Room and podcast on Resident Audio. Now, this attention is taking her forward as she becomes the second artist launched on the newly launched London label Remedy!, and kicks her musical aspirations off with the release of ‘angelcore’. Carried by a bedding of hypnotic industrial rhythms, Alexis delivers a bewitching whispering of vocal lines. A gradual build of anticipation is felt throughout the track by a slow knotting of pulsing beats and low-end noise. You are constantly in the balance between paranoia and jubilation. With an almost unsettling other-worldly quality, you get the feeling that Alexis has built a world of her own that is channelled through her music. As she walks you through the song you feel simultaneously laid back and at knife-edge. In an air of confusion, you can’t help but fall deep into the sound. Alexis’ true talent shines in crafting a song which has an elegantly simple feel but is no doubt complicated and intricate in composition. It is often underestimated how much care and attention to detail must go into making a sound that you can call your own, but it’s in moments like this where it should be commended. [via Line Of Best Fit]

Taylor Swift has shared the music video for ‘Lavender Haze,’ a cut from her latest album Midnights. Taking its title from a Mad Men episode, ‘Lavender Haze’ sees Swift singing about antiquated gender roles. It was also partially inspired by Swift having to dodge “weird rumors” and “tabloid stuff” over the course of her career. Laith Ashley De La Cruz, a transgender actor and activist, plays Swift’s love interest in the video. “There is lots of lavender. There is lots of haze. There is my incredible costar @laith_ashley who I absolutely adored working with,” Swift wrote in a tweet upon the video’s release. “This was the first video I wrote out of the 3 that have been released, and this one really helped me conceptualize the world and mood of Midnights, like a sultry sleepless 70’s fever dream. Hope you like it.” Swift has been a longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. During a 2020 speech commemorating the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall riots, Swift called out the erasure of transgender and nonbinary people from the US census. “When you don’t collect information on a group of people, that means you have every excuse in the world not to support them. When you don’t collect data on a community, that’s a really, really brutal way of dismissing them,” she said at the time. [via Consequence]

LVRA has shared new single ‘anxiety’. The Chinese-Scottish multi-hyphenate has a true gift for sound design, interpolating electronic tropes into her singular realm. A flurry of singles have seen LVRA sketch out a unique identity, with seven-track project Soft Like Steel landing on March 22. News of the announce coincides with something fresh from LVRA, who has just shared the startling, multi-faceted digi-jewel ‘anxiety’. A real message from the heart, the lyrics deal with mental health issues, while the electronic production hurls her vocal far off into the future. A song that truly stands apart from its peers, ‘anxiety’ pivots between over-thinking and the urge for self-acceptance. She comments… “I’ve lived my life as an overthinker, my mental balance completely tipped over by even the most minuscule of events. Music allows my brain to focus on something else, and creating gives me something to channel the energy into. Often I’m trying to turn negative emotions into a source of strength and I feel like Anxiety was borne out of my desire to live and accept this part of me. It’s kind of ambiguous whether or not it’s the voice inside my head that’s taunting me or some kind of f u to the voice inside my head.” [via Clash]

Cementing herself in the upper echelons of Australian singer-songwriters, Gena Rose Bruce navigates emotional turmoil, fragility, death and honesty on Deep Is The Way, her second record, out now via Dot Dash / Remote Control Records. To coincide with the release, Gena Rose Bruce shared a video for the doom-laden ‘Destroy Myself’, directed by Ryan Downey. With its buzzing synths and chugging guitars, the track sees Bruce reflects on her own dark compulsions.

Kimbra releases her single and accompanying music video for ‘Foolish Thinking,’ the third single off of her upcoming album A Reckoning. Directed by Alex Cook, the music video is an intimate vignette into the experience of being a mother. The subject of the song is Kimbra’s future daughter, who is shown confronting the struggles of growing up and eventually has to face young motherhood herself. Kimbra has to accept that she cannot always protect her child, reflecting, “It’s not my place and no matter what I say, you’re gonna do what you want anyway.” Of the release, Kimbra says, “I wrote this song at the piano in a matter of hours. It started as a letter to my future daughter but quickly partnered with melody. It felt as though I were channeling my future self; a Mother trying to protect her child from pain while understanding that they must experience adversity to grow. I was imagining the loss of control when you realize the most loving thing is to let go. Having Ryan sing the second verse added a beautiful dimension because he has the actual lived experience of being a father so could perform my words from a very personal place. I feel there’s a lot of expectation on mothers to have it all figured out before they pass on their blueprint to the next generation. I wanted to make a song that would ease that external pressure a little, because we will always be learning right alongside them.” Director Alex Cook adds, “Hearing the track for the first time, there was such a rare sincerity and emotional depth in the song and lyrics. There is often an almost inseparable sense of wonder and pain in the experience of growing up. Sometimes it isn’t until years later that we begin to understand the full emotional complexity of a life event. We hoped to carry those feelings into the video as we follow a mother watching her young girl grow up through life stages until she has a child of her own. The mother’s light, her warmth, follows her daughter through scenes of her life, until she enters into her own phase of motherhood.” [via Broadway World]

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