Earlier this year, Empress Of opened for Rina Sawayama on a European tour, and she just kicked off another run of dates with Sawayama, this time in North America. To celebrate, they’ve teamed up for a new single, ‘Kiss Me,’ which is, sadly, not a Sixpence None The Richer cover. It is, however, Empress Of’s first new song since last year’s Save Me EP, and the first taste of an upcoming studio album. It comes on the heels of Empress Of’s recent features with Jam City and Lewis OfMan. ‘Kiss Me’ has with a music video directed by India Harris and shot in the English countryside. [via Stereogum]

Girl group XG have released a music video for ‘Puppet Show’, a cut from their debut mini-album New DNA. The music video for ‘Puppet Show’ star XG as leaders of a cult of faceless people, who are performing a ritual around a giant hole in the earth. The girl group later jump into the hale, transporting them to the tip of a structure that stands above the clouds. “Welcome to the puppеt show / Where we play ’em like their plastic dolls / They’ll do anything, anything, anything / When you got ’em hangin’ by a string, by a string,” XG sing on the cheeky chorus of ‘Puppet Show’. [via NME]

Phoenix-based shoegazer outfit MRCH‘s forthcoming EP, TV Bliss is slated for an October 13 release through Vertex Music Ltd. The follow-up to 2020’s No-Holds-Barred EP, the Phoenix-based shoegazer outfit’s forthcoming EP reportedly represents a bold new era for them: The duo delved deeper into collaboration, first developing demos with the help of Jimmy Eat World‘s Jim Adkins. They also enlisted the assistance of Grammy-nominated producer Tony Hoffer and mastering by Dave Cooley. The EP’s lyrical themes and visual aesthetic were inspired by Mickey Pangburn’s childhood memories of being lost in the escapism of television. TV Bliss‘ third and latest single ‘Cherry Painted Eyes’ is a dreamy bit of sheogaze that brings back memories of 120 Minutes. The song is built around glistening synth arpeggios, Mickey Pangburn’s yearning delivery, buzzing guitars, thunderous drumming and rousingly anthemic, shout-along worthy choruses. But as the band explains, the upbeat nature of the song is actually deceptive. “‘Cherry Painted Eyes’ is a song riddled with anxiety. Describing a series of panic attacks and bloodshot eyes . . .,” the band explains. “We wanted to make the video a little more lighthearted than that thought. Set in the void of space, complete with near hit from a passing comet, and a drink to take the edge off. This vid is a DIY playful nod to classics from The Cure and Smashing Pumpkins.” The video sees the pair employing AI — for good. “We built the sets out of paint, paper, quilt batting, and insulation boards. Then coupled it with AI-generated fill and sketches on ProCreate to help expand the world,” the Phoenix-based duo say. “There’s been a lot of talk in the arts lately about the negative aspects of AI. And there are for sure elements of it that are scary. Ones that can lead to really negative outcomes. But, we’re interested in using it as an opportunity to create beyond our budget. A lot like the approach we take with our music. We use whatever tools we can. Whether it’s the cheapest gear or the newest techniques. It’s all fair game. Some of this new tech kind of gives us a way to realize bigger ideas. The song and video are both a bit about bridging those gaps between fear and opportunity.” [via Joy of Violent Movement]

Pen Pin is the new sun-soaked indie pop project from songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jeni Magana and Emily Moore. Both established musicians in their own right, they met while touring with Mitski and started writing and recording their debut album whenever they weren’t on the road. The result of their “pen pinspiration” has become a chill, vintage pop album that sounds and feels like lounging by a Palm Desert pool when the afternoon becomes the dusk. Their new single ‘The Boredom’ is about the perils of low levels of dopamine. Jeni confides, “I hope it serves as a reminder not to be too hard on ourselves when we find ourselves scrolling through our phones yet again, without knowing how we got there. ‘The Boredom’ isn’t necessarily evil, but it’s a character that you might not always want around but seems to show up when you least expect it anyway.” Surf rock drenched guitars underlay layered breezy melodies for an end of summer earworm.

North Carolina’s hemlocke springs releases her debut EP going…going…GONE!, out now via AWAL. Alongside the release, she has shared an offbeat video for new single ‘pos’, in which keen eyed fans will spot the ghosts of music videos past. The debut body of work from hemlocke springs, going…going…GONE! unfolds across seven infectious songs which showcase her knack for channelling her far-roaming influences and eccentric flourishes into heartfelt indie-pop bangers. On the EP, hemlocke reflects; “The title going…going…GONE! refers to what is currently happening to the idea of where I thought would be. The path I thought I would be walking is going….going…gone. I am now at a point where I’ve realized I don’t really know anything: the past, the present, and particularly the future. going…going…GONE! serves as my commentary as I thought about those periods of time.” [via Northern Transmissions]

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In Sofia Dobrushin’s ‘Codependency,’ being codependent isn’t a pathological personality flaw but a rallying cry. The Brooklyn-based actor, director, and musical comedian’s ballad is as smart and original as it is catchy, taking the stack of self-help books we have sitting on our nightstands and building something useful out of them; in this case, a song that celebrates our messy, often ridiculous humanity. The video is a technicolor-dipped, ‘80s-inspired dreamland of violet and glitter hearts, informed by John Waters and public access dating show camp. In the video, Dobrushin, who uses she/they pronouns interchangeably, plays herself and hosts a dating show titled “Attached at the Hip” that goes haywire, to say the least. “Codependency/ Stay in bed from 3 to 3/ Bed sores and monogamy/ The only way I want to be,” Dobrushin sings with a natural performer’s vibrato with a melody that plays on loop in your brain like the comforting, incessant reminder of sticky note affirmation on a mirror, backed by Dobrushin’s own close harmonies and light, glistening guitar from Evan Sites. Dobrushin wrote ‘Codependency’ in 2020 during a time when a lot of their friends were moving in with their partners during the pandemic. Dobrushin and their partner Matt Albani, who is also in the video, ultimately decided not to live together. (They do live together now.) “My Cancer-cusp-Leo brain was like, ‘how do I rationalize this? So I bought like three self-help books: Attached, All About Love by bell hooks and Pleasure Activism. I haven’t finished one of those books,” Dobrushin tells NYLON. “I read the one chapter of Attached, where it was like, ‘Codependency is a myth’ and I was like, ‘oh my god what?’ And then I closed it and put it away and now I’m here. I hadn’t heard about codependency in a positive way of, maybe, you’re not crazy and have attachment issues, maybe you’re just not getting your needs met.” Dobrushin produced the song alongside Sites in the winter of 2021 in a recording studio in their room, and shot the video around the same time with a group of their actor and comedy friends, including rising comedy and music stars Jes Tom, Gara, and Softee. While Dobrushin directed the video, their roommate Caroline Knight assistant-directed and edited alongside Dobrushin’s childhood best friend Gaby Sant’Anna, whom Dobrushin grew up filming sketches with. The video’s behind-the-scenes intimacy and conspiratorial silliness is as crucial to it as its aesthetic. The real breakthrough moment, so to speak, of ‘Codependency,’ isn’t the earnest acceptance of the flawed parts of our personalities; it’s the tongue-in-cheek, poking fun of our obsession with self-diagnoses at all. “Only child syndrome is my scapegoat for never taking any accountability,” Dobrushin sings in one line. “My therapist says it’s from my dead dog,” they declare in another, drawing out “eh” in “dead.” “But that’s not how my brain works/ Believe me I’ve tried/ I’ve read Pleasure Activism 45 times,” Dobrushin adds again at a particularly observant moment. As much as we’d like to read a book or follow an Instagram account to figure out why we’re sad, it’s not that simple; we can’t blame our anxieties on being an only child or having a childhood dog die, and ‘Codependency’ pokes fun at the very real school of thought that suggests reading Pleasure Activism makes you more self-actualized, something someone might want to tell the three separate people Dobrushin saw reading the book Jacob Riis beach last week. “When I write comedy songs, it’s really when I’m just feeling a lot of things and music is easier for me to compartmentalize,” Dobrushin says. “It’s fun to have people come up to you and be like, I did not know this was something other people felt.’ You feel like you’re in an echo chamber and then it starts to resonate with people and you remember why you did it.” [via NYLON]

UK vocalist Chrissi has shared new single ‘Lipo’. Blending soulful songwriting with a tendency to over-share, this Essex riser is the all-too-relatable voice you’ve been waiting to hear. Last year’s Back In The Day EP was a sparkling debut, and Chrissi returns with something new as summer hits its peak. ‘Lipo’ is a tongue-in-cheek ode to a failed romance, with Chrissi musing on male expectations, and body positivity. Out now on her own Listen Generously imprint, ‘Lipo’ has a fun exterior, but there’s a serious message underneath. “​I wrote ‘lipo’ because I was upset with a guy who’s sexualised me and then decided he couldn’t be with me because he didn’t want his friends to know what he’s into,” she says. Transforming a negative experience into something more positive, she laughs: “Everyone has to kiss a few frogs I suppose… Made a banger out of it though!” The video comes from Denisha Anderson of Caviar, and features Chrissi (and friends) engaging in a fun dance routine. [via Clash]

With her new album Hold The Girl set for release on September 16 via Dirty Hit, Rina Sawayama is releasing the video for the title track. Directed by Ali Kurr, the video acts as a “metaphor for Rina’s emotional breakthrough in therapy” which inspired her to write the song. “’Hold the Girl’ was the first song I wrote for the record at the end of 2020–I had gone to therapy and had a revelation, so I decided to write this song…that was the start of it,” Rina explains. “I was crying before going into the studio to write about it.” [via DIY]

Former IZ*ONE member and soloist Choi Yena has released the music video for ‘Smartphone’, the title track of her sophomore mini-album of the same name. In the vibrant visual, Choi is a gamer who guides an avatar of herself through a playground filled with whimsical mascots, eventually stopping at a shooting game inspired by the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise. “Mix and match as you like / Airplane in my hands / No matter where you’re going or what you’re going to do, get connected / This star is too narrow to contain me,” Choi sings. [via NME]

Stella Donnelly’s new album Flood will arrive at the end of this month, and now she’s promoting it with one more advance single following ‘Lungs’ and the title track. The brisk ‘How Was Your Day?’ taps into the talky vocal vibes that are all the rage these days, but in a way that reminds u of Blur’s ‘Parklife’ turned wistful. It’s an approach Donnelly’s been rocking since her 2019 breakthrough Beware Of The Dogs, and it sounds incredible here. Donnelly on the lyrics: “This is my attempt at building a song out of a very specific dynamic between two monogamously involved people. The verses are just excerpts from real conversations, fragments of what two people talk about when they both know they need to have a real talk but neither wants to be the one to bring it up. This song came out of lockdown and seeing a lot of friends break up or get married.” As for the video, by Nick Mckk and Claire Giuffre, Donnelly writes, “This video does a really good job of portraying how annoying I am! We shot it from opposite sides of the world which was a little bit stressful but a lot of fun.” [via Stereogum]

Ahead of their debut album, Truly Trash, due October 28, London-based international punk quartet Ghost Car are sharing their new single and video, ‘Sex’. Ghost Car look to make the most of their diversity by exploring different writing styles, all the while expressing themes of openness and empowerment. Their new album provides Ghost Car with that platform, as they rage against political injustice and attack patriarchal inequality, homophobia, racism, and toxic relationships. The album was originally planned to be released by Burger Records, though the band pulled out of the release as accounts of sexual assault and exploitation of women by associates of the label came to light. Ghost Car say, “This album is our way to express what bothers us, from personal interactions to international politics. We wanted to explore different themes in a simple way so that they could be accessible to everyone.” Of the video, they say: “We asked our good friend Simon Eaves, who is a director and also in the band Pleasure Complex, to direct this. We’ve always loved his style and knew he would send the song into another dimension, literally. The idea originally was to have Maeve as Kuntessa’s character but we all loved Kuntessa’s style as a performer and thought she brought a different kind of energy we really needed. She is that annoying person you’re stuck in a lift with, no awareness of personal space but also doesn’t give a sh*t. The concept is really just all of us slumming it in a lift: Clara, late for an interview, Laura, the psycho boss from hell, Maeve, the nonchalant grocery shopper, and Cece as a depressed mechanic working in the building, and then Scott, the weird, male architect no one asked for. The idea was contextually different than the content of the lyrics; Simon’s idea was to really go into that feeling of headbanging to your favorite pop banger. There’s something really jumpy about the staccato chords we like. Then when we all hit the ground, we all lose it and get that euphoric, full-body feeling. I suppose it’s about feeling really uptight, going to work, then clocking off, going to that gig, hearing music really loud, incredible. The euphoric part when the music goes a bit more extraterrestrial was so fun to shoot; look at our hair! Our make up! Our outfits! The making of it was pretty wild; Simon managed to pull it all together in two weeks, even sourcing a real elevator, real buttons to push, the ‘sex’ lift panel, real posters made by Maria De La O Garrido, etc. The attention to detail was just incredible. So they rebuilt it for the set, and that’s us, in a real elevator, having existential breakdowns.” The grungy pop-punk anthem and lead single ‘Sex’ channels names like Stiff Little Fingers and The Undertones, mixing the band’s ’60s girl-group influences with the explosive rock sound of iconic acts like The Runaways. The band say that the track is, “about having an interaction with someone once and thinking more of it than it actually was. Especially with social media, being able to see that person all the time, thinking you have a connection when really you just snogged them at a party once. It made us so happy to be a band formed by women from different parts of the world but with the same feelings and frustrations!” [via New Noise]

Whether your head is in the clouds or your feet are planted firmly on the ground, you’ll find ‘Balance’ with Aaria Tae’s new track. Mixing 70s soul with Kendrick Lamar-esque flutters, her distinct melodic tone pierces across dark soulful basslines – effortlessly dancing between sonic spectrums. The stunning self-directed video is in her own words a ‘London meets Egypt’ fever-dream, an offering of self-acceptance as she realises she doesn’t need to be boxed into one culture. “At first, I found it hard feeling like I did not belong to just one specific culture but I have now come to see how it is what makes me and my art stand out” – and thanks to visually captivating drops such as this, we are waiting on tenterhook for her next move. [via Wonderland]

Jazzie Young’s melodic charisma could have easily been inherited. The LA-based indie pop artist is the daughter of Jesse Colin Young whose band The Youngbloods and their iconic anthem, ‘Get Together’ was a major influence in the 60s movement. Jazzie herself looks like a page out of a 60s magazine and sounds like the soundtrack of a long drive up in Malibu in a vintage Ford convertible. For her second EP 27 Club, Jazzie showcases her evolution of sound and further experimentation as an artist providing the listener with velvet smooth vocals and music to float away to. She has just released the title track and it’s accompanying video. Jazzie tells Ladygunn of the song: “I love this song because I feel like the lyrics are very real, but there’s a really cheeky, funny attitude layered on top of the song that keeps it lighter and more tongue-in-cheek. The upbeat piano and production definitely help with that too. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the idea of the “Saturn Return,” but it’s basically this concept of completing these heavy cycles in your life and that’s said to happen around the age of 27. And the strange thing for me was it really hit me like a semi-truck as soon as I turned 27 last year. The whole year was just filled with so much learning and digging through trauma and growing. It was like a year of emotional spring cleaning, which is rough, but also so liberating once you’re through it! So about half way through 27, I really just wanted to write about how I was feeling, but in a way that wasn’t too heavy. I wanted honesty and humor, and that’s where ’27 club’ was born. [via Ladygunn]

Aotearoa all-stars Dateline share the final single from their upcoming debut album Dumb For My Age, out on August 27 via Sunreturn, plus a video directed by Olivia McClymont. The talented foursome of songwriter Katie Everingham, Callum Devlin (Hans Pucket) Priya Sami (BUB) and Ruby Walsh (Lips) feature in the new clip, with a cameo from Annabel Kean (Sports Team and recent UTR Assistant editor). Recorded by Callum Passells (also of Hans Pucket), the visuals for ‘Love Hertz’ show the band in a doctor’s waiting room, where Everingham’s pining for the healing touch of an alluring doctor (Geo Bidois) becomes extreme (and extremely relatable). The grungy pop-infused distortion electrifies Everingham’s delicate vocals and attentive lyrics in a suitably fuzzy blur of infatuation… “I think I was just being a bit moody when I wrote this… It’s me kind of complaining while acknowledging that actually life and love is good and I wouldn’t change anything, but I may just go “humph” from time to time,” Katie Everingham explains. Olivia McClymont adds: “‘Love Hertz’ was an extraordinarily fun music video to make… the premise for the Love Hertz is a bit literal! It’s about how far you’ll go to be with your ‘true’ love… even if that love isn’t reciprocated. Sometimes love truly hurts! Perhaps this is a bit of a warning to anyone who might think otherwise? Self-love before all other kinds of people! In the video, Katie figures the only way she can be with the Doctor she’s enamoured with is if she has legitimate reasons to go to the hospital… but is it all worth it in the end? (short answer – no, haha).”” [via Under The Radar]

Tāmaki Makaurau via Pōneke duo Earth Tongue, aka Gussie Larkin (Mermaidens) and Ezra Simons (Soft Bait), have unleashed their first official new tune since 2019’s debut long player Floating Being. Entitled ‘Miraculous Death’ and recorded with Jonathan Pearce (The Beths), Earth Tongue have created a self-directed cinematic masterpiece in miniature for the single, visually channeling the lurid spirit of ’70s European horror and suspense, while pushing the over the top elements of their own heavy-psych / prog-rock sound to delirious heights. Shot by Simons on French 16mm cinema camera and ’80s lenses, star of the clip Larkin explained Earth Tongue’s commitment to conveying the true feel of classic horror in their stunning visuals, made with support from NZ On Air. “When I went to the states a few years ago I visited The Stanley Hotel from The Shining – not the one they shot the film in, the ACTUAL hotel that Stephen King stayed in which inspired the novel,” says Gussie. “That was a cool spooky experience that lingered in my mind for a few years after. I’d been daydreaming about finding a location like that and had even looked into filming at The Chateau Tongariro, although that didn’t work out. I found this house on a shoot location website and it felt like striking gold! It literally ticked every box – the mini hedge maze, the fountains, the winding staircases and OTT dining room. It’s usually a wedding venue but the people who owned the place were very generous with letting us run wild for a day.” [via Under The Radar]

HYRA is throwing it back to the early days of hyperpop with her new single, ‘REM (No Sleep).’ The energetic track draws upon the ever-looming impact of PC Music on today’s cultural landscape and marries elements of its production with that of more mainstream EDM, morphing it into a musical framework that’s as synthetic as it is real. That realness comes through HYRA’s songwriting: “The track is about falling in love with somebody to the point that they’re present in your dreams,” she tells PAPER. “It’s the romanticization of being with someone so adamantly that the ‘person of your dreams’ becomes your reality. REM paints the picture of fast nights infused with energetic and numbing love.” HYRA comes from a long lineage of pop songwriters who combine their emotive side on the lyrics with boisterous electronic production, with Charli XCX and Lady Gaga having been two of her biggest influences. She’s bounced back and forth between all of the US pop capitals — LA, NYC and Miami — and brought with her a full deconstruction of the genre. As a filmmaker herself, HYRA has a keen eye for visuals, waking us up in a futuristic hospital-of-sorts painted in full white. It’s a scenery that normally serves to sterilize — sucking the life out of anything that enters its four walls — but it can’t stop HYRA and her guests from partying the night away before we’re blasted into the real world, color and all. [via PAPER]

Almost two years since the release of the critically acclaimed Conscious Control, KAYE releases her latest EP Neon God. In a new era of freedom from former relationships, societal expectations of women in their thirties, and self-restraint, KAYE has created a masterclass in bridging rock, disco and pop. The EP also arrives with an official video for ‘Respect Me’. On ‘Respect Me,’ she allows her bass skills to shine through on the funk-driven anthem. The official video was directed by KAYE’s sister Liann Kaye. This marks their 15th video together; a testament to the creative identity the two sisters have crafted over the years. In the video, KAYE and her girl band of clones shred and seduce, all with her signature style of kooky choreography.

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Award-winning country soul singer-songwriter Tami Neilson has shared ‘Careless Woman,’ available now via Outside Music. The rebellious country-blues anthem is accompanied by a spectacular official music video – co-starring New Zealand-based actress Olivia Tennet (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Power Rangers RPM) and Ling Zhang of Parris Goebel’s esteemed Royal Family Dance Crew. “‘Careless Woman’ was inspired by a 1938 collection of ‘Dating Tips’ in Parade Magazine,” says Neilson, “one of which read, ‘Careless Women never appeal to gentlemen. Don’t talk while dancing, for when a man dances, he wants to dance.’ Director Abe Mora was inspired to bring this era to life and built an amazing coin-operated music box for me and my band of Careless Women to perform in, like a human jukebox. As the song plays, the women in the bar are empowered and begin to dance and throw off the oppressive rules of propriety.”

Beija Flo is back with a spectacular new video for her latest single ‘Waiting for the Sun’. The new visuals directed by Sam O’Leary (notable for his work with hit BBC series ‘Inside No.9’ and supernatural videos for the likes of Witch Fever and Bleach Boy) are as surreal as they are sublime and bring a whole new dimension to Beija’s latest release. Bearing witness to the day the laughter dies, the viewer is drawn into the back streets of Liverpool to the most unusual of murder scenes. Starring Beija herself, along with a cast of clowns and a sprinkling of psychedelic animation from the mind of Sam O’Leary, the results are a lysergic blend of tragedy and comedy that make for an engrossing watch. Speaking about the new video, its director Sam O’leary says: “I’m so grateful that Beija doesn’t say no to silly ideas. Because silly doesn’t mean you’re not taking it seriously. I think we’ve walked the tightrope between drama and comedy well. The clowns were fantastic and INCREDIBLY patient as we were shooting this in one take over and over again until there was no more sunlight left. And as the whole video is in slow motion, we had to do everything in one go at twice the speed. I always love making music videos for Beija, and ‘Waiting for the Sun’ is such a fantastic song to work from, especially in terms of getting to subvert expectations.” The video offers a fitting companion to ‘Waiting for the Sun’, a track which fuses a Sharon van Etten-esque sense for drama with a climactic orchestral bombast born for the widescreen. Initially written shortly after Beija was diagnosed with MRKH syndrome and experienced heartbreak for the first time, it’s a track born from under the darkest of clouds. Having lived with Beija almost her entire adult life until its release this year, the song has taken on many meanings and guises for her as an artist, but that sense of raw emotion is as vivid and palpable now as it was when she first penned it. Opening-up about the release, Beija says: “I suppose I find talking about ‘Waiting For The Sun’ so difficult because it’s a medal. It’s a big medal I wear across my chest, day in, day out. It was born in the middle of a war, and is now a growing series of very precious battle scars. It’s hope…. It feels like such a milestone in my life to finally be releasing it.”

Following the release of her March debut album If My Wife New I’d Be Dead, CMAT is sharing the video for ‘Peter Bogdanovich’. “I wrote the song Peter Bogdanovich after listening to a podcast about the making of the film The Last Picture Show,” CMAT explains. “To cut a long story short, Peter ran away and left his wife for yungwan (the lead actress in the film, Cybill Shepherd). I was taken by this particular story because I love his early films, and I loved finding out that his wife, Polly Platt, was the player who was actually responsible for what I love most about his films. I was really interested in everyone’s motivations – Peter for acting so selfishly, Cybill for throwing a bomb on a marriage and her work, and most of all Polly, for staying to work on the film even after the affair came out. I think it is a great allegory for the role that the construct of gender plays in all of our decisions, and how if gender and sexuality wasn’t really seen as such a rigid ‘thing’, our lives would be very different. I approached director Jake Passmore with the idea of doing a video where I was in Boy Drag because a) it worked with the theme of the song b) I thought it would be really fun. Himself and Sam Brautigan, who co-directed, then came up with a brilliant abstract treatment around me playing Peter Bogdanovich that involved choreography, Orson Welles and a puppet. What more could I possibly want? These are all my favourite things, and all of the actors and crew were wildly talented and so pulled it off, which I don’t think was easy given how weird the joint is.” [via DIY]

Following her outstanding debut EP far from home, Swedish singer and songwriter Mimi Bay shares a tender moment on the emotive track ‘helium cowgirl’. This lush return from the artist sees us entering the world of heartbreak with grace, charming our way through the pain with a dose of Bay’s incredible vocal range. On the new single, Bay strips back any bold instrumentation to allow her vocals to float gently over a minimalistic piano melody. A subdued moment in Bay’s catalogue, ‘helium cowgirl’ is a transcendent offering from an artist that has already impressed with previous releases. Resisting the urge to return with an outlandish statement, Bay’s calming, hazy and soft-in-the-centre single provides the goods without losing its impact. “‘helium cowgirl’ is about trying and failing to keep someone around and realizing there’s nothing you can say or do to change their mind,” Bay says. “Like gravity having no effect on helium.” The single comes paired with a silky 50s-inpsired visual that sees Bay in all her minimalistic glory. An evocative visual that pulls on the heartstrings, ‘helium cowgirl’ promises the recovery of heartbreak will be sad but short, an important moment in life where we truly find ourselves questioning our next move. Bay honestly confronts the notions of wanting to keep that person in your life because you believe you’d be lost without them. But in a few months time? You’ll be back out in the world, shining brightly with a new lease of life. [via Earmilk]

Kynsy has returned with a new single, ‘Point Of You’. “’Point Of You’ is me trying to work my way through the different sides of romance, happiness and disappointment,” she explains. “It’s about being stuck in the same cycle of falling in love with people who don’t or will never love you back and the feeling of tiredness that comes from attempting to have romantic relationships with people that never go your way. It’s about being love hungry for an honest and pure connection but being so fed up and dissatisfied by trying and trying that you start to ask yourself, ‘what’s the point’?” The new track comes alongside an accompanying video, of which she reveals: “We wanted to try and portray the pain and mental chaos that comes with rejection. We focused on the idea of a patient in therapy trying to unravel a failed relationship and slowly losing her mind as she analyses the relationship and herself. We wanted to try and create a visual representation of the chaos of an overactive mind by strange movement within a singular space.” [via Dork]

Ailbhe Reddy has a disarming sense of honesty. Lyrically, she’s an over-sharer – funny, astute, and always on-point, the Irish artist pours her feelings into her music, and let’s the world listen on their own terms. Her debut album Personal History landed back in 2020, was amid widespread acclaim it climbed to the shortlist of the Choice Music Prize. Surging into fresh areas, Ailbhe Reddy returns with fuzzy-buzzy new single ‘A Mess’ and it’s a riotous ear-worm. A helter-skelter pop song, ‘A Mess’ tries to pin down why those old patterns of behaviour forever shine through, a kind of self-analytical blast of guitar pop energy. She comments: “‘A Mess’ is about not feeling good enough in a relationship and examining old patterns and habits. It’s about feeling fed up of going around in circles, while focusing on a throw away comment that ‘no wonder it was such a mess’.” Georgia Kelly of CLTV directed the super-fun visuals, which match both the exuberance of the arrangement and the quiet melancholy of the lyric. Ailbhe adds: “I wanted to keep the playfulness of the music alive in the video and make sure it was tongue and cheek rather than very serious. Georgia came up with a few scenarios that were funny representations of feeling ‘not good enough’ and giving up.” [via Clash]

A few years ago, Becca Kauffman started performing as the alter ego Jennifer Vanilla while they were still in the art-rock band Ava Luna. JV has become Kauffman’s main concern over the past couple years, resulting in a lot of stray singles and 2019’s J.E.N.N.I.F.E.R. EP. Last month, they shared a single, ‘Body Music,’ and now they’re announcing a whole Jennifer Vanilla album, Castle In The Sky, out in August. Kauffman wrote and produced it with their longtime collaborator Brian Abelson. “That’s what the process of living inside of an alias has been for me, a way to identify the vision, see where you’re at, and close the gap,” Kauffman explained of the project. “I started Jennifer Vanilla so I could learn in front of people, and display a kind of curiosity and openness which I would probably be far too fearful to do without the cover of an alternate identity. It’s a distinctly Jennifer kind of courage to be curious out loud in this exhibitionistic way.” Jennifer Vanilla is sharing a video for new single ‘Take Me For A Ride.’ [via Stereogum]

Brooklyn-based musician and songwriter Grace Ives’ new album Janky Star is out now via True Panther/Harvest. Grace also has a new video for Janky Star track ‘On The Ground,’ directed by Sara Magenheimer. “Grace was one of my students who eventually became my assistant and friend,” Sara says. “I have been rooting for her for years, so in a way this video is a love letter to her, a way of showing how much I see in her and how truly incredible I believe she is. This video is also a celebration of music videos as an art form. I referenced Warhol’s work for MTV and Deee-Lite’s videos to honor the way in which this humble form has acted as a Trojan Horse, bringing experimental moving image art into homes across the world. I love the punk vibe of this medium and this video embraces its young wild history.” [via Brooklyn Vegan]

New York-based audiovisual project Sound of Ceres are sharing their new single and visual ‘The Fawn’ taken from their new album Emerald Sea. The remarkable visual (directed by Jacob Graham and cinematography by Michael Vanderpool) includes an appearance by conceptual performance artist Marina Abramović, who also provides narration across the record. Speaking about new track ‘The Fawn’, project member Ryan Hover says: “Venus Physica, Universe incarnate, completes their transformation into Venus Verticordia, changer of hearts. This is the final struggle of the human mind, a defiant creation of meaning within the cloud-tides of entropy, a last fever rage against the slow but unstoppable hand of time.”

Rina Sawayama has shared the visuals for her recent single, ‘This Hell’. Sticking to the country theme of her recent live performances, we see Rina making her way to wedding featuring cowboy boots, a stretch limo and a dance routine. The video was directed by Ali Kurr. Speaking about the filming, Rina shared: “It was amazing to get back together with director Ali Kurr (‘XS’, ‘Bad Friend’) for the video for ‘This Hell.’ We always like to tell engaging stories through film together so this one was about love and community in the face of hatred and dissent.” [via Dork]

Nova Twins have shared their new single and video, ‘Choose Your Fighter’. The song is taken from their 5* second album Supernova, out now via Marshall Records. They explain: “‘Choose Your Fighter’ is a motivational track. It’s got that go-get attitude that you need! There will always be obstacles thrown at you but this tune is about powering through, no matter what!” [via Dork]

Queer whimsical ethereal alt pop artist Summy has shared a new otherwordly video. Entitled ‘Said It After’, Summy confides that “this is a song about being in love with someone whose words can put you into a deep trance by saying all the things you want to hear. Only to realize that it was all a cover up for their demons and battles that were placed on you and ultimately, broke you. So when their words come out again, they mean nothing anymore because they ‘Said It After’ struck the heart for the last time.” The fantastical video is an immersive cinematic fairy dreamland. Watch above.

Burgeoning young singer-songwriter Maddie Zahm unveils the single and video, ‘You Might Not Like Her,’ taken from her forthcoming debut EP of the same name out later this summer on August 12 via AWAL. ‘You Might Not Like Her’ is a deeply personal track that highlights Maddie’s emotive vocals and allows her powerful storytelling abilities to shine. The release is accompanied by an equally moving video, directed by Gus Black, that acts as a tribute to her past and sees her current self reflecting on some of her most vulnerable moments. On the track, Maddie shares “‘You Might Not Like Her’ was the easiest song I wrote on the EP. Most of my past work has been about my relationships with other people and never about my relationship with myself. This was the first time I allowed myself to be truly vulnerable in my music and it kickstarted my project. It means the world to me because it’s how I came out to myself and my family.” [via Broadway World]

Maddy Jane has released her new EP Island Time, marking its arrival with a music video for the lead single ‘Eddie’. ‘Eddie’ is an anthemic cut from the Tasmanian singer, who screams “I don’t give a fuck, then I think too much / I’d rather be a woman than just keep my mouth shut” through the song’s chorus. Its accompanying clip was directed by Tas Wilson, and features Jane in a variety of settings, including a small bedroom, a tiger-striped chair, and a room with “Eddie” written all over the walls. [via NME]

From Naarm/ Melbourne comes the soaring melodies of art-pop singer-songwriter Georgia Fields. Making her debut in 2009, Georgia has an impressive collection of releases under her belt, as she introduces us to a new era with her latest single ‘Holding My Hands Out’, a vulnerable and fearless taste of what’s to come on a forthcoming album. With a steady foundation built by warm and wobbly key’s chords and intricate yet minimalistic beats, ‘Holding My Hands Out’s swirling synth melodies and layers of strings steadily build to a climax, Georgia’s vocals taking the lead dynamically as they dance between sincere and soft to powerful and soul-moving. Beautifully composed and delivered between gritty and dainty moments, the release is a testament to Georgia’s abilities as a songwriter and a vocalist. [via Pilerats]

Amidst a fast-paced world where social media likes and follow counts define our self-worth more than anything else, it can be all too easy to lose sight of what is really important in life. Having experienced this herself, LA-based indie pop artist Jazzie Young turned towards her tune-crafting to create ‘wallflower’ — a spellbinding tale of a woman clawing her way back to herself. Released alongside a moving music video, Jazzie buries herself in fallen petals as she reminds herself of the times she has spread herself too thin to please others. Under a blanket of sombre notes and uplifting synthesisers, ‘wallflower’ builds a narrative that is not only relatable to all but also has reassurance baked the whole way through it. As the track draws to a close, when the rising melody reaches a point of triumph, Jazzie regains her wings and learns to be there for herself in times of loneliness — a welcomed departure from the usual boy-saves-lonely-girl narrative. Elaborating further on the track, Jazzie explains, “‘wallflower’ is a song I wrote about the pieces of myself I had lost or changed in my attempt to please the people around me. It’s an intimately produced song that tells the story of how I ended up disconnected from myself and through that admission, how I was slowly returning to a more authentic and whole place. The accompanying music video reflects the ups and downs of this process through imagery of loneliness, coinciding with metamorphosis and a heavy emphasis on shadows vs light.” [via Wonderland]

There’s a cold, unfeeling place where young entrepreneurs enter as the “World’s Best Entry Level Employees” and exit as cash-chasing nightmare bosses. And Automatic just captured that hell in a lone, shiny ‘Skyscraper.’ The Los Angeles band dropped a video to accompany their single ahead of their forthcoming album Excess, due out June 24 via Stone’s Throw. The Alex Thurmond-directed vid conveys a detached corporate dystopia where morale plummets with the stock market and “every dollar gets you off.” Her carefully-place visual gags — such as a “please no crying the lobby” bulletin — match the caustic bite of lyrics like “No country or cause / You’re lost in the fog / Your skin is so tight now / You can’t move at all.” “’The pitfalls of capitalism and corporate life can be easy to fall into,” shares Thurmond. “American Psycho and Office Space were both points of reference, the glorification of monotonous tasks and success measured by climbing the corporate ladder. Those movies have such an over-the-top, satirical quality that really matches the tone of the song, and it was fun to play that up.” [via Vanyaland]

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