Katy J Pearson shares new single and music video for ‘Maybe’, four mesmerizing minutes of glorious ultra-melodic pop music. September 20 sees the release of Katy’s third long player on Heavenly Recordings, the outstanding Someday, Now. Talking about ‘Maybe’, Katy said: “I’ve had this song with me for years now — it took a while to get there… When I was in the rehearsal room with Huw Evans [H. Hawkline], a few lyric tweaks happened. The chorus used to be maybe I need your love / to show me that I’m good enough and he was like why are you being like this to yourself? It should be the other way round! And I was like oh, ok, thank you, feminist ally in the room. When a man’s telling me what to do in a studio I can get my back up pretty quickly, so it was brave of him to suggest it, but he was right. When we changed the sentiment of the song [now maybe I don’t need your love / to show me that I’m good enough] my whole feeling about it changed, and it meant that we managed to actually get a handle on what it was meant to be like sonically. It just shows that it’s really important who you choose to have in a room with you…” The track is accompanied by a wonderful video directed by Edie Lawrence and based around an archery competition, a sport widely recognized as pioneering equality for women’s participation. Talking about the video, Edie said: “Katy and I first met on the ‘Alligator’ shoot, the last video I shot for her. Since then we’ve been great friends and excited to collaborate again. We’re both keen to support each other and other women in the creative industry, both being more than aware of the gender inequality in both of our fields of work. The concept for this video is again about female empowerment. Throughout history, archery has had a link to female strength and empowerment. It is known as the sport that pioneered equality for women’s participation, being one of the first sports to include a women’s event in the Olympics in 1904. This video is all about celebrating sisterhood and women working together. With a mostly female crew again, it wouldn’t have been made without the expertise of our extremely talented choreographer Sophie Chinner and costume designer Kiera Saunders. Sexism and misogyny is still rife in this world which is why celebrating and supporting other women is so important.”

The latest track from Pearly Drops, the Finnish duo composed of Sandra Tervonen and Juuso Malin, might give the careful listener déjà vu. Their new single, ‘Lost In The Dark,’ is a haunting reimagining of their song ‘Breathless,’ previously released in 2020. But that doesn’t mean that the music is stale– Tervonen and Malin instead show off their growth, further establishing themselves as a force within synth-pop that cannot be ignored. Pearly Drops are unique in their ability to draw inspiration from their own earlier work. Compared to ‘Breathless,’ the lyrics to ‘Lost In The Dark’ still draw on the same themes of dissociation and dismalness. In a distorted voice, Tervonen sings, “All that’s sweet / And prime in me / Hides somewhere inside so deep / Hibernating / I’m hibernating.” The chorus solidifies this feeling of stuckness and remove, with the deceptively sweet vocals continuing, “Lost n the dark / I couldn’t breathe.” Against a background of bouncing synths, the bleak lyrics feel like an invitation to dance away (or perhaps toward) the darkness. ‘Lost In The Dark’ shows proof of development from the group– While ‘Breathless’ was catchy and cute, this new track contains a depth that is perhaps less apparent in earlier releases. ‘Lost In The Dark’ comes with a short film directed by Joonas Lind. The video is creepy, strange, and absolutely stunning, with Andrea Villarreal confidently leading the macabre ordeal in her role as The Bride. The film depicts a dangerous and devilish relationship between a bride and her groom, with Villarreal dancing and writhing beside a deliciously menacing Sebastian Freiberg as The Man. Lind‘s direction brings a creative edge that amplifies and adds onto the otherworldly texture of Tervonen and Malin‘s work. In a music landscape that is increasingly focused on short form video content and clickable short clips, it’s refreshing to see artists create a more involved narrative that will really engage the audience. [via High Clouds]

In 2022, Fievel Is Glauque released their debut album Flaming Swords. Now, the enigmatic duo is announcing its follow-up, Rong Weicknes, and sharing the mystical lead single ‘As Above So Below.’ About ‘As Above So Below,’ Zach Phillips said: “This phrase comes from the Emerald Tablet, a 9th century hermetic text foundational for alchemy and later occultist movements; it refers to the reciprocality between heaven and earth, the knowable and unknowable, the here and the hereafter. Sounds heady, right? But as usual, the title came out of nowhere, gleaned from phonetic murmurings during the writing process, and Ma and I laughed a lot making this one… Normally we write linearly, improvising bit by bit using only piano and voice, but we ended up constructing As Above out of scattered song sections we’d recorded with my laptop mic in free software over a loop from a ‘70s drum sampling record, which drummer Gaspard Sicx and percussionist Daniel Rossi reinterpreted in the studio. After writing upwards of 35 songs over the course of a couple 2023 writing trips, we were surprised to knock out probably our most conventional tune yet. The lyrics could be said to both troll and co-sign typical pop lyricism. Thom Gill’s blazing guitar solo gets me every time… When [music video director] Joey Agresta asked what I was imagining visually, all I could muster was, “The Sound Of Music, Ma spinning in a field, ‘90s ‘positivity,’ Dido… Phillips and Ma Clément recruited a crew of collaborators for the LP: Thom Gill on guitar, Logan Kane on bass, Daniel Rossi on percussion, André Sacalxot on saxophone and flute, Gaspard Sicx on drums, and Chris Weisman on guitar and electric sitar. They all convened at a farm and music studio in upstate New York called the Outlier Inn with recording, mixing, and mastering engineer Steve Vealey.” [via Stereogum]

Earlier this year, Okay Kaya returned with ‘The Groke,’ her first new music since 2022. Now, the Norwegian-American alt-pop musician is announcing her fourth album Oh My God – That’s So Me and releasing the radiant single ‘Check Your Face.’ “Clive James said, ‘Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing,’” Kaya Wilkins explained in a statement. She continued: “Wrote this slacker disco song About wanting to be, if not a not a brightsider, then at least a belly laugher Sometimes tricky to access just that bliss but if you’re happy and you know it, check your face! It was fun and warming to make this track in frigid winter on the island It was a quiet time without much social stimuli If you’re gonna dance alone in your basement Might as well make a song to dance match.” The animated video directed by Lou Beauchard matches the playful energy of the tune; watch it below. [via Stereogum]

Peach PRC is having the time of her life. The breakthrough Australian singer, songwriter, and pop sensation reveals new single entitled ‘Time Of My Life’ out now, following the announcement of Peach PRC’s return to the UK headlining the icon Brixton Electric in London on the 4th of October. The official music video for ‘Time Of My Life’ is directed by Josh Harris, the director behind Peach PRC’s breakthrough singles, ‘Josh’ and ‘Like A Girl Does.’ With three alternative character endings, Peach PRC wrote the treatment, made the outfits and designed every intricate detail of ‘Time Of My Life’, collaborating with Josh to bring her vision to life. The music video director, Josh Harris, comments, “This is my third time collaborating with Peach, and her unique vision never fails to inspire. The initial idea was to blend the visual aesthetic of a gritty women’s prison with Peach’s own unique style. ‘Time of My Life’ is about reflecting on a chaotic past with a sense of fondness or nostalgia, and Peach’s performance, staying lost in her own world while everything erupts around her, reflects this. I’m really proud of the cast and crew who worked on this project – they really poured their hearts into it – and their creativity and hard work has brought it to life”.

Last month, Blackpink’s LISA released ‘Rockstar,’ her first solo material since 2021. It was produced by Ryan Tedder and Sam Homaee, serving as her debut on LLOUD Co. and RCA Records. Now, the pop sensation is back with ‘New Woman’ featuring Rosalía. ‘New Woman’ is produced by Max Martin and ILYA, as well as co-written by Tove Lo, who also co-wrote George Daniel’s recent debut single ‘Screen Cleaner.’ ‘New Woman’ is a summery banger with a killer beat change and it comes with a music video directed by Dave Meyers and shot in Los Angeles; watch it below. [via Stereogum]

For AUDREY NUNA, every track lends itself to its own audiovisual world. The one she’s created for her latest single ‘Suckin Up’ draws from worlds very familiar – her hometown ‘hood of downtown New York City – and worlds apart in galaxies far, far away. This juxtaposition is emblematic of NUNA’s artistry as well, which is particularly evident on the just-over two-minute track which sees the musician address her thoughts on the superficiality of modern society. “Yeah, I talk, talk pretty, and I stink, and I’m smelly, if you / If you’re super jelly, don’t say sh*t about my belly,” she sings on the first verse before hitting the chorus. “Restart, don’t need puppy lovin’, cut the leash off / Tryna profit off me, I’m like Mona Lisa.” The track comes accompanied by a striking music video, which finds NUNA galivanting across the Lower Manhattan Chinatown streets – as well as fitted in another futuristic “fashion-as-a-weapon”-inspired outfit in a dreamscape universe. “Thankful for every drop of blood, sweat, tears, [and] urine that went into the audio-visual experience,” she shared on Instagram of the single. “Creating this video in New York/New Jersey made me feel young and naive again, and for that I am very grateful.” [via Hypebeast]

Critically acclaimed, rebellious political-punk act Lesibu Grand (pronounced Le-SEE-boo) has released their debut album Triggered via Kill Rock Stars. They’re thrilled to share the Blondie-influenced final album cut ‘Oh Erica…’, a song of conflict between supportive love and the worry of being left behind, written for a fearless and adventurous friend of the band. The band worked with Liliana Penagos (Mastodon, Cardi B, Lizzo) for the accompanying animated official video also released.

Pale Waves have shared new single ‘Gravity’. The Manchester goth-pop group are back, with new album Smitten set to land on September 27 via Dirty Hit. Heather Baron-Gracie is driving their maturity forwards, the lyrics show a broadening sense of self. New single ‘Gravity’ displays her exacting sense of creativity, a song that took Pale Waves months to bring to completion. Lyrically, it deals with the push-and-pull of a blossoming relationship, with the object of Heather’s affections torn between her feelings, and her religion. She sings: “She’s pulling me like gravity everywhere she goes / Am I in too deep, or out of my reach? Little does she know…” Speaking about the track, Heather comments: “’Gravity’ is about a woman who chose Jesus over me. It took the longest of all of the songs on the album to finish, I think we must have rewritten it millions of times to get it to where it is now.” [via Clash]

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With its ethereal vocals soaring across wheeling guitars, perhaps no song on Someday, Now better encapsulates Katy J Pearson’s transformation than ‘Sky’, on which she is at first “Curled up in a ball”, and then “Through it / Pushed to exist / Not on my knees / Look how I go / I’m an eagle / I am the sky”.

“It really feels like me saying to myself look how far I’ve come, I deserve to be here” reflects Katy. “I’ve always been shy of taking up space. Now I’m like hang on, this is my third record! I’m still doing this, I got to work with an incredible producer, and a hand-picked band of the most fantastic musicians, who all wanted to make this with me — and I’ve come out with something that I think is my best work so far.”

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Sophie Ellis-Bextor has shared the captivating video and dance routine for her new track ‘Hypnotized’ with Glaswegian producer, composer and performer Wuh Oh, which is out now via Cooking Vinyl. Directed by long-term collaborator Sophie Muller, the ‘Hypnotized’ video is a mesmerising visual for the track, which was filmed at Glasgow Barrowlands and sees Sophie performing an entrancing dance routine alongside an ensemble of dancers accompanied by Wuh Oh DJ’ing. The track is a return to her original dance roots, but in her true alternate style with the avant-pop track, which features an experimental off-kilter melody backed by immediate lyrics. Sophie says; “As soon as Sophie Muller heard the song she had a vision of me line dancing in Glasgow Barrowland with 100 dancers while Pete DJ’d on the stage. The video has brought that vision to life. I love it all. The dance routine, the venue, the crying and the latex. It really brings out the wonky pop of the melody and the lyric, and just like all the best videos, it brings new dimension to the song.”

Katy J Pearson has shared a video for ‘Howl,’ a track from her most recent album, Sound of the Morning. View the video, directed by Clump Collective, above. Clump Collective state in a press release: “Having previously worked on the shoots for ‘Miracle’ and ‘Alligator,’ we know how fun Katy is to work with, so we felt really comfortable in exploring quirky ideas for ‘Howl.’ With the resurgence of cheesy ’80s horror, we thought it would be hilarious to plunge her into that world, especially as it feels a real juxtaposition to her music. “Our team of five works collaboratively in direction and production, with each of us heading off different areas of the art department relevant to each video. Gathering references for ‘Howl’ was a joy—and we settled on a cross between Scooby Doo and Friday the 13th. We wanted the video to be equal parts silly and gross, with Katy proving herself as a force that can’t be stopped.” Pearson adds: “‘Howl’ was written five or six years ago, when my brother and I were in our previous project. I started playing the keyboard line and then myself, Rob and Josh Day-Jones (our friend, also in the project) wrote it in a day and produced it on logic. We sent it to our management and label at the time but they thought it wasn’t good enough and too ‘indie.’ It had been hanging about for years, and when we started thinking about the next record it resurfaced. Heavenly (Recordings, my current label) encouraged me to work on it and I’m really glad they did as it was such a fun song to arrange and record. My friends Freddy Wordsworth (caroline) and Campbell Baum (Sorry) came to the studio to lay down saxophone and trumpet on it and my good friend Orlando Weeks sang backing vocals, which was really special as I’ve been a fan of his for so many years. The song is about when you love someone, and how the emotions towards that person can feel quite primal, like a wolf howling.” [via Under the Radar Mag]

Over the past few months, the Canadian duo Partner have put out some songs, including ‘Time Is A Car’ and ‘Not Today,’ and now they’re announcing that those and a few more will be included on a new EP called Time Is A Car. They’re also sharing another single, the catchy ‘Fear That Closes The Heart.’ “This was the very first song we wrote during our sessions on Gabriola Island. The song is about fear, and how the sensation of fear can prevent someone from feeling like they’re living in the moment,” Partner shared in a statement, continuing: “We drew influence from Heart and 80s pop rock. The summer after we wrote this song, we went to the Folk on the Rocks music festival in Yellowknife, and participated in a collaborative project called ‘Emerging Wildly’ with Celeigh Cardinal and Cartel Madras. When Cartel Madras showed us their videos we immediately knew we wanted to work with them. We were blown away by the cinematography and their vision. We are so happy to present this video that they absolutely knocked out of the park.” [via Stereogum]

Following previous singles, ‘2LATE,’ and, ‘Sad Bitch Bad Bitch,’ Iyla is back with her latest offering, ‘FOH.’ Featuring a walking bass line, romantic string sections, trombone and a rocking hip-hop beat, the track sees Iyla grappling with the volatile back and forth of a toxic relationship. Full of colorful lyrics like “Dizzy Gillespie cheeks” and the catchy refrain of “Baby, go break a leg,” Iyla ups the theatrics for an overall exhilarating ride. The new single arrives alongside a Janelle Ginestra and Luke Rihl-directed music video that channels the song’s energy into a cathartic flurry of movement. Featuring choreography from Genstra and styling from Brookelyn Styles, the visual shows Iyla manically dancing through what appears to be the gutted and abandoned department store stomping in doorways and climbing stationary escalators. “While the song tells the story of me and my partner going eye for eye, the videos message lies in the battle of me vs. myself,” Iyla explains. “Life can be challenging and sometimes even when we find the strength to get back up we fall down again. Not everyone ‘wins’ all the time and finding peace in the dust allows us to the will to rise again. Powering through the struggle is what makes us grow new wings.” Iyla goes on to add, “The reality of the ‘FOH’ video is that success takes hard work, struggle and vulnerability. This shows the battle within ourselves even in the moments that you don’t always win, you keep rising and fighting through every range of emotion. Sometimes life knocks you down and has no guarantees.” [via Paper]

King Princess has released her new album Hold On Baby, and, with it, the music video for the track ‘Let Us Die.’ Directed by Quinn Wilson, the video is dedicated to the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who performed on the song. Hold On Baby is the second album from the Brooklyn-based songwriter, following 2019’s Cheap Queen. The full-length has contributions from Mark Ronson, Tobias Jesso Jr., Bryce and Aaron Dessner, and more. [via Pitchfork]

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LA-based musician Wallice shares another brilliant video for her latest single ‘Funeral’. The track comes from her new EP 90s American Superstar, out now via Dirty Hit, on which Wallice envisions herself as a fictional celebrity idol, charting her own rise and fall across five tracks. On ‘Funeral’, Wallice crafts a funny and slightly tragic tale as her protagonist fantasises about her own memorial, a surrealist affair complete with her “casket in a muscle car.” Teaming up with director Phil Stillwell again to bring the story to life, we see Wallice pursued through the Californian desert by a band of grim Reapers, before accepting her fate and embracing her memorial as one last rock show. She tells us “The video for ‘Funeral’ was really important to me. It’s my favourite song that I’ve made so far. I pictured a concert-like celebration instead of a traditional solemn funeral, sort of taking the heaviness of a funeral and treating it lightly. In my videos I like to incorporate my lyrics in a literal way, but I also try to capture the tone of them as well. This video walks the line between melodramatic and sarcastic in a way that really captures my sense of humor. The video is also more broadly a symbol for how I’m evolving as an artist– the “death” of cowgirl Wallice is meant to mark the end of that era and the beginning of the next.”

Over the last several months, Dehd have been rolling out their new album Blue Skies. We’ve heard several songs from it already, including ‘Bad Love,’ ‘Stars,’ and ‘Empty In My Mind.’ The album is out now and the band is back with one more single/video. Dehd’s latest is ‘called ‘Window.” “‘Window’ is about being obsessed with true love and the construct of ‘the one,’” Emily Kempf said in a statement. “I wrote it to address my addiction to the terrible and wonderful pursuit of perfect love.” ‘Window’ comes with a video directed by Kempf alongside Kevin Veselka. [via Stereogum]

Katy J Pearson has released a third outing from her Sound of the Morning album titled ‘Alligator’, which is accompanied by a video starring Paul McGann (Doctor Who, The Three Musketeers, Luther). Pearson said of the new outing, “I wrote this track with Dan Carey at his Streatham studio. The day we did so I was having the worst morning ever; I was really stressed as I had a £500 electric bill that I had to pay. I burst into tears at the studio and from that feeling, the song just surfaced from all my anxieties. The lyrics are quite literal and were born from the idea of dissociation when experiencing anxiety. The chorus note ‘it felt just like a dream, and it keeps on happening’ refers to when you are really stressed, things just don’t seem real. There is this juxtaposition between the lyrics and the soaring chorus which is quite euphoric – it’s quite tongue in cheek and I like that about it. Dan played the bass on this track and Yuri from the band Honeyglaze played drums which really gives the track some gusto!” Sound of the Morning will follow Katy J Pearson’s 2020 debut album Return, and is co-produced by Ali Chant and Speedy Wunderground’s Dan Carey. The new album features contributions from Orlando Weeks (after Katy J Pearson contributed to his January album Hop Up) and Pet Shimmers’ Oliver Wilde. “I want people to feel things with my music, but I don’t want to cause my listener too much trauma,” Katy J Pearson said. “Counselling is expensive, so you’ve got to pick your battles…” [via Line Of Best Fit]

Brooklyn musician Zannie Owens (Really Big Pinecone, Potted Plant) will release their debut album as zannie, How Do I Get That Star, on August 19 via Kill Rock Stars. It was conceived as an homage to The Golden Record, the album of earth sounds and greetings that Carl Sagan and Lynn Margulis created to send into space with the Voyager probe in 1977. “I was following this narrative idea about an alien on Earth trying to find their way back to their home planet,” says zannie. How Do I Get That Star includes last year’s ‘mechanical bull’ single, and zannie has now released ‘a rose for every puppet,’ a very charming, gently bouncing song that’s somewhere between Feist and Angel Olsen. Above you can view the song’s whimsical video which was conceptualized by zannie, and shot and edited by G. William Duncanson. “This video was made in collaboration with my three good friends Geoff, Richard, and Will at the Cuneen-Hackett Theater in Poughkeepsie,” zannie says. “The theater opened in 1881 and the energetic history is palpable. The video is designed to be a Henson-ian daydream sequence from the perspective of a janitor. This character is a wink both to the origin of the word janitor (from the Roman god Janus, keeper of metaphorical doors, transitions, and the unification of dualities), and the late night warriors and dreamers of our world doing the unseen dirty work. The hands of fate are more tolerable when holding your friend’s hand. or a puppets hand. or your friend’s hand is a puppet holding your hand, etc.” [via Brooklyn Vegan]

Last year, Noga Erez released a new album called Kids, plus an acoustic version called Kids (Against The Machine). We last heard from her back in January, when she returned with a live cover of Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow’s ‘Industry Baby.’ Now, she’s back with a new song of her own. Erez’s latest is called ‘Nails.’ “‘Nails’ is a song about jealousy, and how being jealous of people, in this particular case another woman, makes you idealize that person in a very weird and dark way,” Erez said in a statement. [via Stereogum]

Chicago post-punkers Ganser are great at making brooding, propulsive songs with twitchy, swaggering hooks, and they’re coming up in the world. The band released the breakout album Just Look At That Sky in 2020, and they followed it last year with Look At The Sun, a remix EP that featured contributions from people like Bartees Strange, Sad13, and Algiers. Now, Ganser have announced the impending release of Nothing You Do Matters, a new three-song EP that was produced by Liars frontman Angus Andrew. Ganser co-leader Alicia Gaines tells Rolling Stone that Angus Andrew pushed the band to mess around with vintage synths: “Having Angus in a room, like, conducting as we were doing vocals and just really pushing us to go above and beyond where we’ve been before was a joy.” Opening track ‘People Watching’ moves with itchy purpose, driven by an erratic rhythm section and stabby, revved-up guitars. The new Ganser EP will also feature a Liars remix of ‘People Watching,’ and the song has an impressive video made by Ganser themselves. Ganser’s two leaders, Alicia Gaines and Natalie Garofalo, co-directed the ‘People Watching’ video, and it shows Garofalo’s bandmates burying her alive. Garofalo works in the film industry, and the band filmed the video with an LED Volume backdrop — the same advanced projection-screen technique that Disney uses to film shows like The Mandalorian. [via Stereogum]

Last month, Lorely Rodriguez returned with a new Empress Of song called ‘Save Me.’ Turns out that is the title track and opener of a new EP, billed as a transitional work between 2020’s I’m Your Empress Of and whatever Rodriguez has in store next. It’s out in late June. Along with the announcement, Rodriguez has shared another new song called ‘Dance For You.’ Much of the EP reflects on the end of one relationship while looking forward to the possibilities of new ones, and that’s a factor in ‘Dance For You.’ “I love the lyrics on this song,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “I made this in Minneapolis with BJ Burton. It was freezing outside. I was in a cave-like studio in the snow literally dancing as I wrote this. ‘Surrender to me like this’ is a touching lyric for me because I’m not hurt over this person anymore. I’ve come out the other side.” Like ‘Save Me’ before it, ‘Dance For You’ comes with a video directed by Alexis Gómez. [via Stereogum]

If you’re looking for a good old-fashioned, noughties break-up banger, CARR is here to help with ‘Cold Charlie’, taken from her new EP TV Boyfriends, out now. Recounting a frustratingly one-sided relationship, ‘Cold Charlie’ is bringing you that angsty, punky slacker pop that we all love to revisit. The single is taken from her new EP giving effortless, nostalgic indie-punk sounds with a modern twist in her strikingly honest lyrics. This is as much for anyone looking to revisit the 2000s as it is for the new generation who need a coming-of-age soundtrack. [via Gigwise]

Vera Blue has shared a striking new preview of her forthcoming second album, winding back the energy for a soaring ballad titled ‘The Curse’. Drawing parallels to her 2017 hit ‘Mended’, the new song centres Blue’s rich and reverberant tenor against a backdrop of bold grand piano chords, synthesised strings, modulated vocal clips and stabbing 808s. Thematically, ‘The Curse’ is described as “what happens when true love can feel like torture”, inspired by an acquaintance of Blue’s that fell in love with a close friend and had to “reckon what that might mean for the friendship itself”. The track arrives with an accompanying video directed by Tim Madden, showing Blue playing along to it on a piano in a pitch-black studio, before snow begins to rain down on her. In a press release, Blue further described the ways she gleaned inspiration from her friend’s turbulent experience: “When I see my friends hurting or going through something, it hurts just as much as it would if it were myself. I am a big empath so raw emotions immediately come to the surface. When writing ‘The Curse’, I’ve found myself inspired by the lives of those I’m close to, yet all these things that I’m writing about, I relate to 100 per cent and have happened to me. It’s almost like it’s happening all over again, but my perspective is on the outside.” She noted that it had “been a long time since [she’d] put out a song like this”, and teased more songs in the melancholic vein of ‘The Curse’. “I think it’s time to show those raw emotions again,” she said, “in more of a deep, heavy way, with more sadness.” ‘The Curse’ marks the first song Blue co-wrote with her partner and producer, Billy Johnston, who came into the mix after Blue wrote an early version solo on her home piano. On the process, she said: “I think the most unique thing for me was the trust and openness we had when writing together. I felt a new level of fearlessness to say certain things I normally wouldn’t.” When it came to making the song’s video, Madden “didn’t want edits or the usual music video tricks to be an unnecessary distraction”, so he endeavoured to film it in one continuous shot – entirely in slow-motion, with no special effects or convoluted set pieces – so that the clip would “allow us time to feel Vera Blue’s emotion, as it’s a very raw and emotional song”. The director continued: “[Blue] is a fantastic performer and on a really challenging shoot, when there’s no cuts, everything has to go right or you could get 90 per cent into a take and have to start over because the smallest thing went wrong. Not to mention, the video is in slow-motion too, meaning Vera had to perform everything twice as fast, the snow had to fall at the right time, the crew had to move lights into position mid-take, it’s like a dance.” [via NME]

Toronto indie pop singer-songwriter Alex Porat is back with another new single, ‘Sensitive’. ‘Sensitive’ sees Porat once again deftly balancing confessional songwriting and insistent pop hooks. Porat confronts her own insecurities and frustrations, confessing, “I hate that I’m so sensitive / All the time / I can’t say what’s on my mind.” However, the track’s ruminative bent comes wrapped in potent alt pop songwriting, bolstered by lustrous synth passages, punchy drumming, and tightly layered vocal melodies. Together, these make for a delirious pop delight, one that is full of introspective intimacy buoyed by sharp melodic sensibilities. Porat says of the track, “I’ve always known that I’m an overly sensitive person,” Alex shares about the track. “I definitely cry a lot and I let my emotions take control of me. My default is reading into situations, taking a lot of things personally, and constantly overthinking. I make my own life harder than it needs to be and that’s the whole concept behind Sensitive. Sometimes I’m convinced it’s a secret super power being able to pick up on all the little things but sometimes those little things are all it takes to bring me down.” [via Under the Radar]

Emily C. Browning is a singer-songwriter, musician, and producer from New Zealand. Not too long ago, she released a dreamy music video for her lovely indie-alternative single, entitled, ‘Andy.’ In the video, Emily and Andy nearly drown at the local swimming pool while drifting in and out of reality. ‘Andy’ tells a heartfelt tale about Emily C. Browning’s recent date with a chain-smoking guy named Andy. Apparently, they were getting along, having a nice conversation, and their eyes were always locked on each other. During their intriguing dialogue, she learned that Andy has a thing for a pretty girl on TV, someone she admires. Months later, she apologizes to her date, “Andy, if you’re listening, I know I dropped the ball, and the rulebook of attraction is elusive at most. Hope you’re doing well, hope you like the way I tell it. ‘Cause, it’s at best an apology, Andy, I’m sorry.” ‘Andy’ contains a relatable narrative and tender vocals that will resonate well with fans of Billie Eilish, Kimbra, and King Princess. The likable tune possesses mellow synths and piano-laden instrumentation flavored with alternative and indie-pop elements. Furthermore, ‘Andy’ serves as a tasty appetizer to what listeners can expect to hear from Emily C. Browning in the near future as she continues to release new music. “I wrote this song about a real date with Andy. It went really well and we talked for hours. But I just couldn’t find that real spark and I was so annoyed with myself for not being into him, so the song is kind of an apology to him!” Emily C. Browning explained. [via Bong]

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