Irish indie rock band Pillow Queens dive into intoxicating feelings with punchy, cathartic track and official video ‘Heavy Pour’. ‘Heavy Pour’ is a track that lays the foundation for a story of unshakable conviction in the face of doubt and feeling inadequate. Sonically, lead guitarist and vocalist Cathy McGuinness shares, “It feels like a bit of a bizarre journey or a fever dream.” Opening with a 90s grunge vibe, twangy distorted guitars and open strings, it gets progressively heavier before a cathartic release. McGuinness says, “The guitar becomes more palatable in the middle eight, totally contradicting the previous section of discordant chaos. It then falls into a glorious half time with ‘oohs’ to support the instruments, giving a feeling of clarity and resolve before snapping back to the chorus.” Lyrically, lead vocalist, guitarist and bassist Pamela Connelly adds, “A lot of the lines in this song could convey the typical sweetness of a love song, but it has brief moments of outside perspectives that cast doubt over the conviction represented. The song tries to show the “heavy pour” as a compulsion that while having moments of joy, ultimately heightens personal insecurities.” The band also touches on gender and common misconceptions with the line, “I want more, but I’m not man enough.” Vocalist, guitarist and bassist Sarah Corcoran says talk regarding that line has sparked conversations about gender, particularly the tendency to equate masculinity with bravery. “Intrigued by this dynamic, we wanted to delve into and dissect the idea that one’s gender expression is impacted by their perceived level of courage. Spoiler: it’s not. All genders can be courageous and/or scared.” The track’s accompanying video, directed by Kate Dolan, is inspired by old silent films like The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, Faust and Nosferatu. The idea for the video came immediately to Dolan upon hearing the track. Dolan says, “The song felt like a haunting and I felt the video needed to be something quite stylistic. I came up with the idea of the music video being a long lost silent film that has never been seen, a haunted piece of art buried in an attic somewhere. Then, as the band performs the cursed film is purged, burning up. The band are always up for having some fun so the shoot was a lot of fun and we played a lot on set.” The spooky video was aptly shot at Glenmaroon House in Dublin. The Tudor-style Edwardian mansion, dating back to the 1850s and once owned by a member of the Guinness family, exuded an eerie charm perfectly suited for the video’s aesthetic.

Babe Club says they were inspired by Mark Ronson and Lykke Li’s song ‘Late Night Feelings’ to make a new dance groove beat. While ‘Late Night Feelings’ is about heartbreak, Babe Club’s new single, ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,’ is about uncovering your deep dark secrets. Here’s what the band had to say about their new song: “We wanted to make a dance song that inspired people to get weird and mischievous. We abandoned the idea for a year, picking it back up while being inspired by how interactive and hype Chappell Roan’s songs get with the audience. Singer Jenna Desmond recalls channeling her inner weird Barbie-the damaged one- for the lines, ‘let’s just have fun, kill the lights now turn it up,’ in hopes people will be sweating out their demons with strangers on the dance floor. It’s murder on the dance floor.” [via Holy City Sinner]

Australian trio Telenova returns with their latest elegant, disco track ‘Power.’ The song comes with an official video directed by frontwoman Angeline Armstong that is brimming with vibrant colour and otherworldly imagination. In a day of big announcements, the band has also shared news of their debut album Time Is A Flower (to be released on August 16 via Fiction) which will be played live across their forthcoming European tour which will see them touch base in London on October 1st at The Outernet’s The Lower Third. The track was co-produced by the band and Styalz Fuego who has also produced tracks for Troye Sivan, Tate McCrae, Odesza, Imagine Dragons. Speaking about the song’s creation Angeline explains “The song is a fable-like story of a flower in love with the sun, but the sun is setting. And the flower is afraid of being left alone in the darkness without the very thing that gives it power and strength. Of course, the flower unaware that the sun inevitably always rises again. The more we kept building out the lyrics the more Josh and I realized its a fairly multi-layered metaphor for love. Inevitably (and beautifully) people will hear different things in the meaning of ‘Power’, it resonates on a romantic-love kind of micro level, but can really extend out to a divine kind of love and existential longing – whatever your idea of ‘God’ or the universe or something ‘bigger’ it’s the cry of a human being out to whatever is out there, to like, not be abandoned basically, not be left to our own devices all on our own. And then we shroud that all in a big fun dancey disco tune – because why not.”

On her brand new single ‘Comic Trip’, Sylvie Kreusch nosedives into a fantasy world where anything is possible. It is a song that buzzes with colors, sensations and Big Emotions – with a stylistic nod to bands like The B-52’s and Stereolab. “On ‘Comic Trip’, I wanted to create a world where everything is possible, where reality and fantasy intertwine.” Kreusch says about her latest song. “The inspiration came from the nostalgia for my childhood, when I could lose myself for hours and hours, reading vintage comic strips in my grandmother’s attic. I was immediately reminded of those Roy Lichtenstein-sounds, which I added in both the arrangements and the lyrics.” With its bright, sparkling arrangements, ‘Comic Trip”’resonates like the pop music version of a retro sixties comic that’s brimming with spectacle, intrigue and suspense. Kreusch turns into a superheroine protagonist who jumps kinetically from panel to panel. “’Comic Trip’ harkens back to childhood, the days when you still looked at the world with wonder. I think we as adults can learn a lot from that.” Kreusch adds. “I am now in my thirties and everything is becoming slightly predictable. I now have a little more control over my life, so it is sometimes shocking when you lose that spontaneity. Being a bit more naive in the world, especially as a creative person, is a very important thing to keep doing. So that’s what I’m looking for now.” ‘Comic Trip’ is a very visual song, so there really had to be a video. The things I wanted to do weren’t that easily executed either. It is about children who completely lose themselves in comic books and look in amazement at a world in which everything is possible. I tried to put that world visually in a video. It turned out really cool, and it required a lot of preparation. It’s very conceptual, even though I don’t normally write like that. You constantly bump into things that are not feasible. There is certainly something of a Western influence in it: comics and Westerns are two worlds that often go well together. There was a lot of shooting in terms of choreography on a treadmill. The world I am in is a kind of desert landscape, in which things travel my way. And the children act as a shadow of me. Sometimes they follow me around and then they disappear again. That was maybe the hardest part: finding children in which gender and age looked fluid. That there is something very playful and young about them, but they are also very mature in how they move, in their way they imitate me a little bit. Part of the video for ‘Comic Trip’ was actually filmed on location, and partly animated. The idea behind it is that you’re not supposed to be able to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s fantasy.”

Kate Nash has shared ‘Space Odyssey 2001’, as the latest single from her forthcoming album, 9 Sad Symphonies. The track sees Kate nash recount a first date with her now-partner and pokes fun at her own movie choice. “It’s the wrong film for a date, but I love the film. I like making jokes in songs. I like that there’s this beautiful love song but it’s also complaining about this critically acclaimed film being too long. I don’t recommend it for a first date,” she explains. “‘Space Odyssey’ is a love song about my partner who I was friends with for many years, but we met up at just the right time in the summer of 2017, both single and very unexpectedly fell in love,” Nash continues. “Romance came back into my life in this effervescent, joyful and healing way. I’d been through so much pain and toxicity. In the video, I arrive at this homestead having been through hell, exhausted and at the point of no return. I am rescued by a half man/half donkey. It’s inspired by Shakespeare and the way his plays use surrealism, fairy tale and classic love stories, but also the genuine complexities of human relationships. I’m taken into this homestead as I’m ready to give up and am healed by sunshine, friendship, food, joy, animals, nature and falling in love with someone you really don’t expect, which transforms me from a broken, bloody mess to a higher level self (in this case, a fairy).” [via Line Of Best Fit]

MOTHICA has shared another new single and video from her upcoming album Kissing Death. Following last month’s first single ‘Doomed,’ the artist unveils a song attached to her name, ‘Curiosity Killed The Moth’ – and as such, she says that it felt like an especially “daunting” one to write. “I thought of the phrase ‘curiosity killed the cat’ on the way to a session with David Burris and Alexandra Veltri, and we twisted it to be about a moth,” MOTHICA explains. “Like a moth to a flame. Icarus flying too close to the sun. “I’ve always wanted to write a song about moths, but of course, it being my namesake that felt like a daunting task. I wanted every song to feel like it was from a soundtrack since I knew I was going to do a music video for every song, and so it turned into this dark cinematic feeling that I really love.” [via Kerrang!]

Calva Louise has revealed the extraordinary cinematic Sci-Fi video for their new song, ‘Under the Skin’, and the news they have also signed to Mascot Records—home to P.O.D., VOLA, Defects, Conquer Divide, Dragged Under, and Oxymorrons,. ‘Under the Skin’ was co-written by Allanic and Pendulum’s Gareth McGrillen and is a mesmerising blend of raging metal riffs, swirling electronica, and Allanic’s extraordinary ability to flit between ethereal vocals and demonic howls. It swoons in and out of a stunning narrative, with melodic twists along the way that are penetrated by an attack of hypnotic aggression. ‘Under The Skin’ follows a complex Sci-Fi narrative and is the introduction of a conceptual storyline about the characters and their counterparts called the Doubles. Talking about the song, Allanic says, “The lyrics deal with the obstacles that arise between them as one is looking for freedom and the other is looking to perpetuate their consciousness, but the expectations are not the same for both sides.” The video is a feast for the eye and was directed and edited with VFX by Jess Allanic. This first single release is accompanied by Calva Louise’s most ambitious music video production, including a Sci-Fi movie-style short film telling a story about parallel dimensions where the characters are looking to perpetuate their consciousness beyond the real world.

Shannon & The Clams release their latest single ‘Big Wheel’ and its accompanying music video. The song will be featured on their upcoming album The Moon Is In The Wrong Place out May 10 via Easy Eye Sound. Kicking off with resounding Moog synthesizer instrumentals and vocals from guitarist Cody Blanchard, ‘Big Wheel’ chronicles the unavoidable passage of time and life’s impermanence. On the track, Shannon & The Clams showcase their remarkable knack for making big, devastating feelings more tangible through upbeat melodies and creating a place for listeners to celebrate life. In August 2022, singer and frontwoman Shannon Shaw’s world was turned inside out: with mere weeks to go until their wedding, the singer’s fiancé, Joe Haener, died in a horrific car accident. It was a devastating loss that hit Shannon & The Clams — who were all incredibly close with Haener — with cataclysmic force. Cue ‘Big Wheel,’ guitarist Cody Blanchard’s response to Joe’s death — a meditation on how time and reality become distorted in the face of sudden loss. The lyrics ruminate on the feeling of helplessness as time marches on after someone dies, like the feeling of being strapped into a ferris wheel seat that you don’t want to be on — as if you have accidentally gotten on the wrong ride and everything has “gone off the track” and you desperately want to pull the stop lever. The song also explores the impotent desire to rewind time and to keep the gap between “now” and “before” as small as possible, like the urge to keep a child at a certain innocent age before the harshness of the world turns them cynical. “See the boy waiting in line, weep for him on the other side.” The accompanying music video, directed by Vanessa Pla, is an eerie exploration of time visually reminiscent of silent era films. [via Concord]

Following last month’s single ‘Maverick’, self-styled brat punk Delilah Bon has unleashed another ferocious single in the form of ‘Finally See Me’. Taking inspiration from her school days, it’s a raw and riotous exploration of Delilah’s teenage school experience, and the mental health struggles she faced, feeling lost and alone as a free-thinker in a system that didn’t understand her. “This song is about craving recognition and validation,” says Delilah. “I receive messages from so many young people who feel just like I did back in school. They tell me they use my music to get through the day, which hits close to home for me. I remember spending lunch breaks hiding in the school toilets, listening to P!nk, just trying to escape the world.” [via Kerrang!]

Cross Dog is a noisy, experimental, bass-driven hardcore punk band from Peterborough, Ontario. Their music is played at ear-splitting volumes, but the band’s socially conscious messaging cuts through the noise loud and clear. Formed in 2013, the intentional omission of a guitarist from the lineup leaves Cross Dog lacking absolutely nothing. Affirming the power in the rule of three, Tracy A (vocals), Mark Rand (bass), and Mikey Reid (drums) explode with a multiplicative force that betrays the finite bounds of their instrumental limitations. Cross Dog’s newest album (and first for Stomp Records), All Hard Feelings (out June 7), sees the band maintain the sonic onslaught they’ve become known for, but with a few tweaks. ‘Hard Feelings,’ the first single to be shared ahead of the LP’s launch, is a pseudo-diss track that stemmed from Tracy feeling blindsided and betrayed. It encapsulates the moment when you are all pure and reactive emotion before you calm down and view your current situation through a healthier, more balanced lens. It’s the perfect “scream-it-in-your-car” song, so you don’t end up screaming it in someone else’s face.

Taylor Swift has released her first Tortured Poets Department music video. The visual is for the album’s opener, ‘Fortnight,’ featuring Post Malone. Watch the new video, written and directed by Swift and co-starring the musicians with Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles, below. [via Pitchfork]

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Gia Ford has released a new single. ‘Poolside’ follows on from her recent track drops ‘Alligator’ and ‘Falling in Love Again’, as well as her support slot with Self Esteem at her huge Sheffield Don Valley show. “’Poolside’ was first inspired by an image from a coffee table book, depicting affluent 60s Los Angeles,” she explains. “A birds-eye shot of houses with pools in the hills. I imagined a poolboy, disillusioned and angry at the world, and began describing what he felt and saw, working in a well-to-do LA neighbourhood. There’s this separation between him and the people he’s working for. He’s invisible to them.” [via Dork]

Longevity is a hard quality to achieve in this ever-churning music industry. So is reinvention. Somehow, though, Chloe Saavedra has achieved both, sustaining a career in music that’s spanned projects, sounds and roles. Now, she’s announcing the next chapter in that ever-changing journey, her first solo album under the moniker WTRGRL: Drïpsody, a darkly moving collection of dance-inflected pop songs that fuse the spirit of the club with the torn pages of a poet’s notebook. Premiering her new single, ‘are u up’, along with a seductive new video, Saavedra has provided listeners a glimpse into Drïpsody’s chaotically expanding universe. She says of the video, “I’ve always been interested in body architecture in paintings and photos. I wanted to portray the movements of bodies with a minimalist black backdrop like a baroque painting and to juxtapose the bouncy, sexy demeanor of the song with the seriousness of a high-quality medium. The director, Natasha Wilson, did an amazing job straddling the concept of overt sexuality and the sterile backdrop of fine art. My incredibly talented friends really made the video what it is. Natasha, Stephanie Dobash (DP), Angel Tailan (stylist), Elise Gehrke (MUA), Alec Nicholas (editor), Maia Saavedra Weisenhaus (pyro technician), the dancers, models and my friends who came through to help with the production, were the best team to create with. I felt like we built this super-family on set and had a blast making it, which is why it’s so close to my heart.” [via PAPER]

Discovery Zone shares another enchanting track and video from her forthcoming LP Quantum Web, coming in March on limited hologram edition LP via RVNG Intl. Video directed by Janosch Pugnaghi. [via Gorilla vs Bear]

Anglo-American duo Still Corners kick off the new year with a brand new single, ‘The Dream’. ‘The Dream’ is the second single announced off the eagerly awaited sixth album Dream Talk, available on April 5 via their own record label, Wrecking Light Records. ‘The Dream’ is Still Corners at their most seductive and romantic. This mysterious tale centres around a quote from Shakespeare’s illustrious A Midsummer’s Night Dream: “Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream”. Shakers and a lone rhythm guitar drop into a fast-paced beat of bass and drums, reminiscent of a train travelling at speed through a desert night – “we are on a night train, heading to the east end”. Tessa Murray’s melodic vocals are revealed gradually as the instrumental moves towards its climax. Shifting synths combine with crescendoing congas, gradually revealing the complete picture of this epic adventure – “dream within a dream”. Speaking of the accompanying music video, Tessa Murray added: “The video is based on our deep love of mystery novels and cosy crime fiction. I play a new character called Penelope Braithwaite as she investigates the “Mystery of the Repeating Dream”. Folks from the fictitious town of Reverwood, Sussex have been falling into a repeating dream trap; when they wake up, they realise they are, in fact, in the same dream. Penelope arrives at a mysterious house to investigate. Does she solve the mystery, or is she also stuck in a looping dream? That’s for you to find out.” Beautifully filmed in the English countryside by the band, featuring steam trains and a dilapidated mansion set in vast gardens, this detective story is not to be missed!

In 2021, the eclectic group Shannon And The Clams shared the album Year Of The Spider. Now, they’re announcing its follow-up, The Moon Is In The Wrong Place, produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys. The title track is out now with a music video directed by Bobbi Rich. In August of 2022, bandleader Shannon Shaw was weeks away from her wedding when her fiancé, Joe Haener, died in a tragic car accident. “We all felt the urgency of making something that reckoned with this meteor that smashed into our planet,” keyboard player Will Sprott said in a statement. “This is the most focused record we’ve ever done, as far as everything coming from a singular traumatic event.” [via Stereogum]

Bad Omens and Poppy have teamed up for a new single, ‘V.A.N’. Out now via Sumerian Records and written and produced by Bad Omens frontman Noah Sebastian, the song is the first glimpse of what the band will be offering on their upcoming album. Their ‘CONCRETE FOREVER’ project is the soundtrack to their ‘Concrete Jungle’ comic book universe, which they’re also touring Europe in support of from January 27. Noah explains: “That’s a song that started just with the hook ‘Violence against nature’, and then after saving the project with the acronym and seeing it we realized it could be fun to think of ‘VAN’ as a name. Thus the rabbit hole of ideas began that led us to decide to write lyrics from the perspective of an artificial intelligence gone rogue.” [via Dork]

Tierra Whack broke out with her brilliantly weird visual album Whack World almost six years ago. In the time since, she’s released a lot of one-off tracks and a series of genre-themed EPs, Rap?, Pop?, and R&B? Since the last of those came out in late 2021, she’s been keeping a low profile, but she’s finally ready to release a full-length album. Out in March, WORLD WIDE WHACK is being billed as Whack’s official full-length debut. “I really took my time with this,” she wrote on IG, “so I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.” [via Stereogum]

Jewelia wants to uplift you. A pop songwriter who uses music to inject optimism into our lives, she takes from different eras – 80s synth pop, 00s indie – to build her own elixir. New album Little Wins is out on April 19 and it parallels synth auteurs like Goldfrapp, or cutting edge pop savants like Caroline Polachek. Amid her disparate influences, though, lies a tender heart. She comments: “The binding concept behind ‘Little Wins’ is that we all do the best we can at a particular moment in time, with the resources we have at that moment. Those resources can mean anything: time, energy, knowledge, confidence, money, love, other people, self-belief, self-love. So really, there’s no point in beating ourselves up, and instead of constantly focusing on the climb ahead, we should take some time to look back and see how far we’ve come, and learn to celebrate the little wins.” New single ‘Invisible Wall’ leads the way. A delicious pop moment, it wears its retro aspects on its sleeve – all knowing glances and a cute chorus, Jewelia really displays her finesse. Of the single and it’s neat new video, she says… “I’ve always wanted to dig deeper into a retro pop sound and imagery. I actually wrote ‘Invisible Wall’ back in 2017, and it stayed in the vault up until last year, when I realised that it fitted perfectly within the concept of my new album. In video games, an invisible wall is a boundary that limits where the player can go, even though there’s nothing physically there to stop them. It seems like the perfect analogy for the pre-guided life pathways that society tends to force us into, but also for self-limiting thought patterns, both of which are driving ideas behind the concept of ‘Little Wins’.” [via Clash]

Here’s a great song title: ‘All My Exes Live In Vortexes.’ Here’s an opening lyric that will grab you: “I hope no one had to piss in a bottle at work to get me the thing I ordered on the internet.” Both belong to the new single from Rosie Tucker’s upcoming album UTOPIA NOW! The pop-punk-ish indie-rocker’s latest will drop in March. It’ll be their first since getting dropped by Epitaph Records, and it includes last fall’s single ‘Unending Bliss.’ [via Stereogum]

Grammy award-winning DJ and producer Purple Disco Machine has shared his latest single ‘Beat of Your Heart’ in collaboration with Icelandic artist ÁSDÍS. Combining Purple Disco Machine’s trademark disco infused sound with ÁSDÍS’s magnetic vocals, the high-energy track is laden with danceable grooves, big synths and catchy melodies. The accompanying music video, directed by NDVD, brings all of the joy of the dancefloor to life intertwining love, freedom and fantasy. Speaking about the track, Purple Disco Machine says: “I was sent the vocals by ÁSDÍS and I immediately fell in love with her voice. I wanted to release the track as a single and we later re-recorded it together in my studio in Dresden, which was really great.” ]via Fab UK Mag]

Paris Paloma has shared her first new music of 2024 with the reflective yet triumphant single ‘My Mind (now)’ out now via Nettwerk. Following on from her 2023 singles ‘notre dame’, ‘labour’, ‘yeti’ ‘as good a reason’ and ‘drywall’, Paris continues to evolve the magical, yet real world created within her music, with a new chapter within the narrative with ‘My Mind (now)’. A melodic folk-pop track underpinned by dark and despondent journal-like lyrics about the chaos and emotions of the mind, “what did I do wrong, will you tell me what I did wrong”, the song builds introspectively to a jubilant release. The track is accompanied by a compelling video directed by Matt Grass, which perfectly conveys the atmosphere of the song. Paris says: “’My Mind (now)’ is about the BC and the AD of trauma, and what it did to my mental state, the feeling that an event was so cataclysmic that it rearranged the chemical makeup of my mind. The song is a reflection of my struggle with OCD and anxiety as a response to traumatic events, and the electrical storm of emotions that exists inside my head, filling it with noise that never seems to leave, as I search for a few seconds of respite and quiet from it. It is also about the power other people hold to set that trauma into motion, and both the fragility and strength of the human mind. my mind (now) is an embodiment of the the act of creation in the form of art and writing as a coping mechanism that comes out of the overwhelming noise and chaos of the mind.”

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Last week, Philadelphia indie-punks Mannequin Pussy announced some big plans. They’ve bought back their masters from Tiny Engines, their former label, and they’re reissuing their 2016 sophomore album Romantic on their own newly-formed label Romantic Records. But Mannequin Pussy aren’t just reissuing their older music. They’ve also just released a brand-new single. Mannequin Pussy recorded their new single ‘I Got Heaven’ with veteran indie rock producer John Congleton, and it’s a revved-up anthem that moves from stomp-scream fuzz-rock fury to twinkly shoegaze melody and back again. Lyrically, bandleader Marisa Dabice is on her Patti Smith shit: “And what if we stopped spinning?/ And what if we’re just flat?/ And what if Jesus himself ate my fucking snatch?” It’s Mannequin Pussy’s first new song since their 2021 EP Perfect, though Dabice appeared on the remix of Dazy and Militarie Gun’s ‘Pressure Cooker’ last year. Mannequin Pussy haven’t announced a new record yet, but there’s more new music on the way. Here’s what Marisa Dabice says about ‘I Got Heaven’: “‘I Got Heaven’ is a song intended to merge the sacred and the profane and to serve as a reminder that we are all perfect exactly as we have been made and that no one gets to decide how a life should or should not be lived. Heaven is here on a planet that gave us everything we needed to survive. Heaven is in the plants and in the water and in the animals who we share this world with. Heaven is inside of me and inside of you. The weaponization of Christianity for political means, for individual profit and power, as a tool to intentionally divide us, is one of the greatest threats to our modern world and a threat to our ability to find solidarity through love. To allow the hatred and the violence and the noise to rise is to reject our sacred purpose as individuals, which is simply to love.” Mason Mercer and Anthony Miralles directed the ‘I Got Heaven’ video, which has a sunlight gothic folk-horror storyline and which might be lightly NSFW. [via Stereogum]

Sheffield’s Gia Ford has shared her striking new single ‘Alligator’. Word of mouth hype in her home city indicates that Gia Ford is pretty special, playing cafes and bars around the city. New single ‘Alligator’ is out now, a superb distillation of her influences. You can hear aspects of Nick Cave’s brooding torch songs in her work, alongside a penchant for Fleetwood Mac at their deliciously dark best. There’s a vein of originality, however, with Gia Ford pushing her own voice high above those reference points. The lyric yearns for emotional validation, with the songwriter urging others to accept her feelings as being real. Beautiful but also flecked by intensity, ‘Alligator’ is a fine start from a bold talent. She says… “‘Alligator’ is a song about a desperation to be seen and heard. I am being facetious by painting myself as multiple unbelievable creatures to garner attention. In the opening statement, I am an Alligator. Then, when that goes ignored, I am “Ten feet off of the ground, with feathers” — a whole new creature, perhaps still the Alligator, perhaps something different. The emotionally human nature in the first lines of verse two; “too far along now, I wouldn’t even know how to turn around” sees the Alligator swimming through a broken and contaminated landscape that it is getting used to and triumphantly withstanding. In the chorus, the final line “Albatross in the sky, aim my crossbow in the night” is a reference to ‘Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner’ by Coleridge. In the poem, the mariner is cursed after he shoots down the bird; it represents a self-inflicted burden.” [via Clash]

Problem Patterns have announced their debut album. Recorded and mixed by Niall Doran at Start Together Studios and mastered by Peter J Moore at The E Room, the Belfast-based punks will drop Blouse Club on October 27 via Alcopop! Records. To celebrate the news, the band have also shared new AA single ‘Lesbo 3000’ / ‘Poverty Tourist’. Bethany Crooks says: “‘Lesbo 3000’ was written partly out of frustration and also to reclaim and have ownership over my sexuality. The frustration is that lesbianism is consistently invalidated, we’re told that we just haven’t ‘met the right man’ yet or that some random man in a bar has a magic appendage in his trousers that will completely negate your attraction to women. The reality is that homophobic attacks are becoming more and more consistent with right wing social media emboldening bigots, while ‘lesbian’ remains one of the top search topics on all porn websites. (Mostly) men think that lesbians exist for their sexual gratification, but if they see two women holding hands they go absolutely berserk. I also thought it was important to reclaim the slur ‘dyke’. I’ve been called a dyke multiple times by homophobes who want to hurt me, but if I can reclaim that word it completely takes the power out of it. Yes I am a dyke. And that feels really powerful to say.” [via Dork]

The Kills, the long-running collaboration between Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince, haven’t released a new album since 2016’s Ash & Ice. In 2020, Mosshart and Hince released the B-sides/rarities collection Little Bastards, and last month they released a pair of singles, one for each of the coasts: ‘New York’ and ‘LA Hex.’ Now, the Kills have announced their sixth studio album, God Games, which is coming October 27 via Domino. In addition to the album announce, the duo are sharing a new single, ‘103,’ which comes with a video directed by Steven Sebring. According to a release, ‘103’ is a temperature measured in Fahrenheit and “highlights the brutal reality of daunting uninhabitability through the lens of a dark twisted love song.” [via Stereogum]

Holy Wars have signed to Pale Chord, and are celebrating the news with an explosive single, ‘Deus Ex Machina’. The Los Angeles duo – vocalist Kat Leon and guitarist/producer Nick Perez – are building on early momentum with an impressively realised sound and vision, with Kat sharing of the band’s new song and what it all means: “’Deus Ex Machina’ was inspired by my love of psychology and how fascinating the brain is. The God of the human machine. Deus Ex Machina meaning God from the Machine really helped shape the message of what I wanted to say lyrically in this song, how our personal narrative is powerful. We often rewrite our stories as the hero’s tale but we very possibly could be the villain in another’s. Our words are powerful and our story is our legacy. In this song I wanted to display the attack side of the narrative, how any issue I have had with another has stemmed from projection, a choice and the power I allow it to have. The ghost in the machine haunting my thoughts and puppetting my actions. ‘Deus Ex Machina’ is a hard-hitting wild sonic ride of the mania that lives underneath us all.” [via Kerrang!]

Canadian-Dutch-Korean singer-songwriter Jeon Somi has shared the music video for her single ‘Gold Gold Gold.’ The music video comes fresh off the heels of her EP, Game Plan, of which’“Gold Gold Gold’ is the first track on the album. Game Plan marks Jeon Somi’s comeback after two years. That era was capped by the release of her debut album XOXO. Now she begins a new chapter, evolving both musically and as an artist, offering a more elevated look and sound. Jeon Somi participated in the songwriting of ‘Gold Gold Gold,’ showcasing her growth as a singer-songwriter alongside TEDDY and Danny Chung with production by 24 and Dominsuk, who are known as the hitmakers behind BLACKPINK. ‘Gold Gold Gold’ has Jeon rapping and singing with overflowing confidence over a trendy and infectious beat with a melodic bridge and addictive chorus. In true Somi fashion, the music video for ‘Gold Gold Gold’ is colorful, energetic, and full of glitz, glamor, and unbeatable choreography. [via uDiscoverMusic]

Following on from 2019’s Flamboyant and 2020’s My Agenda, Dorian Electra’s pending third LP promises to continue building their fantastical world of boundary-pushing pop – at least, that’s if new track ‘Puppet’ is anything to go by. Playfully merging traditional musical influences (the intro samples Beethoven’s ‘Fur Elise’) with thoroughly contemporary touches, it explores notions of control via both its lyrics and accompanying video (which you can watch below). [via DIY]

Following on from the success of her hit track ‘Padam Padam’ everyone’s favourite Australian popstar, Kylie Minogue, is here with another banger to see us through the end of this drizzly old summer. Her new single is called ‘Tension’. And so is her upcoming album, available for fans to gouge on in full come September 22. Of course, the 55 year old looks about 20 in the new music video – as she does – which sees her rocking a number of different guises, including a red-haired, silver-sequined goddess and a gothic, lace-clad blonde. As if some funky outfits weren’t enough, Kylie is also frolicking around in an imagined ‘retro future’ alternate reality. ‘Tension’ is the fourth song on the album, the second single to be released after ‘Padam Padam’, and was written by Kylie and long-term collaborators Biff Stannard and Duck Blackwell. Never has ‘do, do, do, do’ been so catchy than it is in the chorus of this instant club classic. It’s full of the enthusiasm of ‘Padam, Padam’, and laced with sass queen energy. The music video sees retro Kylie strutting into a futuristic world, with a sparkling, huge Kylie hologram stepping out of a screen and into reality. Retro Kylie – in a vintage hat and dress – sheds some layers and has a little flirtation with gothic, blonde Kylie, and the film unravels into disco chaos. ‘Tension’ gives seriously empowering vibes, and seems to be more about self-love than a partner when Kylie sings repeatedly in the chorus ‘touch me right there.’ The end of the music video sees the Kylie multiply into many forms in an electrifying crescendo, as the pop queen exits the world with energy still visibly buzzing in and out of her body. [via Metro]

Listen to the euphoric folk of Karin Ann Masters’ ‘a stranger with my face’. The symphonic folk-tinged tune is about losing parts of yourself when gaining feelings for someone else, becoming a version of the other person, or who you think they want you to be. Backed by bluesey guitar lines and flawless, Fleetwood Mac-esque harmonies, Karin Ann sings on the theme of over-idolisation. Of the track, Karin Ann says: “Some of the lyrics almost felt religious to me, so I wanted it to sound like a choir on the chorus. It’s almost like you’re making that person your God, you’re worshipping them in a very toxic and unhealthy way. You end up talking their slang, adapting to how they speak… it’s not even about trying to make them like you, more so that you like them so much that you almost want to be more like them. You end up not knowing who you are without them.” The accompanying video is part 1 of a short film by American director duo, TUSK (Camila Cabello, Alessia Cara, Tate McRae). Shot in Prague, Czech Republic, the visual follows a queer spy romance, set in 1950’s Hollywood. Starring Karin Ann alongside British-American athlete and actor Gus Kenworthy, and US actress Ashley Moore, the story follows a young secretary (Karin Ann) at a Hollywood film studio, who is tasked with finding out the truth about a movie star’s (Moore) scandalized love affairs with various men. Upon spying, the secretary finds out that such affairs are all a cover up for her true sexual identity, very much taboo at the time. During the film, it seems as though the secretary and actress may indeed have a connection between themselves… To be continued, part 2 will follow as the music video for Karin’s next single, coming soon. [via Soundsphere]

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An unflinching allegory for destructive relationships that have had their brakes cut, Gia’s voice invokes a haunting, introspective sound awash with waves of dream-pop reverb that leads the subtle guitar-based backing down a long and emotionally charged road.

“It’s a song about toxic love – about how sometimes people get used to their car crash romances, so much so that it becomes normal and romanticised -even masochistic – to the point that they descend together into this alternate world.” Says Molly McCormick, assuming the moniker of Gia Ford. “It’s interesting to me how fine the lines are between pain, pleasure, love and hate – and maybe it’s because they cannot exist without the threat of one another. Sonically I’m entering a totally new era – for the first time I feel I’ve arrived at a sound that truly represents me; that’s genuine reflection of all my life influences – I’m excited, I can start all over again.”

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