Across Blood On the Silver Screen, SASAMI’s lyrics narrate the ecstasies and agonies of being a modern lover, “relenting to illogical passion, obsession, and guiltless pleasure,” SASAMI says, “leaning into the chaos of romance and sweeping devotion—romanticism to the point of self-destruction.” The irrepressible ‘Just Be Friends’ bottles the dizzying longing that can overtake the in-betweens of modern intimacy.

“‘Just Be Friends’ feels like a really grown up continuation of themes/moods from my first two albums. I returned to some of the stream of consciousness, emotional lyrical writing style of my first album and kept riding the country wave that was in the fabric of Squeeze but with a bit more modern country influence,” SASAMI explains. “I love how country songs often tell a story. Longing, lingering, loneliness and lust. When I play this one live, I always dedicate it to anyone ‘sad and horny’ in the crowd… if that means anything.”

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Nothing exemplifies this more than the wistfully optimistic album opener and lead single ‘Slugger,’ released alongside an explosive video directed by Crystalline Structures Studio. On the lively track, SASAMI name checks Dolly Parton, Chopin, and Steve Lacy. Though her background is in classical music and production, she doubled down on Blood On the Silver Screen’s lyrics: “I wanted to be more playful and communicate more with pop culture,” she says. “When I listen to music, I think about how I feel, how I want to feel, how I want to move to it. And that’s what’s special about music—how it connects to culture, how it connects to different styles of music, how it connects to the timbre of the voice of the person singing it.”

Blood On the Silver Screen:

1. Slugger
2. Just Be Friends
3. I’ll Be Gone
4. Love Makes You Do Crazy Things
5. In Love With A Memory (Feat. Clairo)
6. Possessed
7. Figure it Out
8. For The Weekend
9. Honeycrash
10. Smoke (Banished from Eden)
11. Nothing But A Sad Face On
12. Lose It All
13. The Seed

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Following the viral success of her body-positivity anthem ‘Fat,’ singer-songwriter Kate Yeager returns with a stirring new single, ‘Edit,’ in which Yeager delivers a poignant exploration of self-acceptance and the journey to authenticity, especially for young queer people. The track is shared along-side and incredible, Princess Diaries-esque music video, that was brought to life by a queer woman-led video team. ‘Edit’ comes just in time for pride month, encouraging listeners to challenge societal norms and celebrate individuality. “I feel like the qualifier for a pride song is generally about self acceptance and living your truth. But I feel like it often gets lost that it takes a while to get there,” remarks Kate. “This isn’t about the destination. It’s about the journey. It’s about feeling the pressure to mute certain parts of yourself. To be less gay, less queer, to make yourself more palatable for other people. This song is the painful the realization that people don’t get the full you when you make changes to yourself for their happiness.”

Jen Cloher has never shied away from making bold political statements, and with their latest single ‘Annabelle,’ they delve deep into the personal and the political. The track’s accompanying video paints a stark, harrowing portrait of a protagonist undone by her relentless need to win at all costs. Yet, beneath this personal unraveling lies a trenchant critique of white feminism’s dominance in contemporary discourse—a movement that Cloher asserts is often more focused on advances in individual power than on the collective liberation from systemic oppression. Cloher challenges listeners to reconsider the true meaning of equality and justice, pushing beyond surface-level victories to confront the deeper, more pervasive issues at hand. Cloher worked on ‘Annabelle’ with producer Tom Healy (Marlon Williams/ Tiny Ruins.) ‘Annabelle’s’ accompanying video was co-directed by Jen Cloher and Claire Giuffre, bringing Cloher’s original vision to life and marking their directorial debut. The video features Gabrielle Bradbeer, Esther Henderson, Nathalie Pavlovic, and Melissa Fulton. [via Backseat Mafia]

Kate Bollinger has been putting out dreamy pop songs for a while now, primarily collected in a string of EPs and singles that date back to 2017. Now, the Richmond musician (who is now based in LA) has announced her debut full-length, Songs From A Thousand Frames Of Mind, which will be out in September. Collaborators on it inclue Sam Evian, Matthew E. White, Jacob Grissom, and Adam Brisbin. Lead single ‘Any Day Now’ is out now. “My good friend Matt [E. White] was visiting from Virginia and we got together to play some music,” Bollinger shared in a statement. “We wrote this song and then drove around Los Angeles together. That same day he helped me realize the kind of record I wanted to make, which I subconsciously knew but couldn’t really find the words for until then.” She continued: “A few months later, I recorded the song at Sam’s [Evian] place in upstate New York with a band we put together. We spent the first day practicing the songs. The next day we recorded the first two songs, ‘Any Day’ Now being the second one. We did it all live in the room, no headphones or click, done in the spirit of most of my favorite music from the late 60s.” [via Stereogum]

MOTHICA has released a new music video. The new music video, for the track ‘The Reaper,’ is taken from the Los Angeles-based alt-pop singer-songwriter’s upcoming new album, Kissing Death, which is scheduled to be released in August this year, via Heavy Heart Records/Rise Records. Speaking about the new song and the accompanying music video, the artist says, “I was listening to a lot of movie soundtracks when I was writing this album, like the synthwave in the movie Drive. I wanted to write an upbeat love song you could dance to. I rarely write about relationships or love, but this one was a fun twist with the subject being my infatuation with the grim reaper. Lyrically, I try to rationalise that he’s a good guy and it became this more lighthearted song of the record that is unlike anything I’ve ever released. I invited dozens of my friends to be in the music video, where I sung the song in 2x speed so you saw this slow motion of a neon-lit club around me, and there’s some humour in there like the grim reaper teaching me how to play pool or my friend dancing on his scythe like its a pole.” [via Distorted Sound]

Detroit five-piece Habibi are sharing ‘In My Dreams,’ along with an accompanying video. ‘In My Dreams’ lulls you gently into the band’s world, encapsulating the glittering and evocative side of new album Dreamachine. The track centers on a steady drum machine pulse, which the band colors with a dazzling array of synth textures and dreamy melodies. The vocals lilt and float above the shimmering instrumentation as the lyrics explore the push and pull of a strained romantic relationship: “The skies above you took away, my own compass gone astray. / I can’t let you hear, I can’t feel you near / How do hands unheld grow old? How does something true unfold? / Now I must be saved, I never asked you to stay.” The band’s Lenny Lynch says of the track, “‘In My Dreams’ beams us up to a dazzling dreamland, a cosmic world of sleepless nights and a hopeless romantic tug-of-war. This song encapsulates the mood of the album: a relentless longing, like something that feels out of reach, but that we are deeply connected to. That emotion is steering the song, as it unfolds like an inward dive into the pulp of Dreamachine. I had been listening to a lot of minimal synth early 80s music, and my dad gave me a keyboard so I started writing songs on it. We had always wanted to go in a synthier direction eventually. James Richardson is our friend in Hudson Valley, NY, and we wanted him to listen to the almost-finished album to see if he was compelled to add anything. He added some mellotron to this song that gave it some really surreal elements in the background.” [via Under The Radar]

When many musicians are remaining silent on the Israel-Hamas war, Kehlani is standing next 2 Palestine. In their new music video for ‘Next 2 U,’ the R&B performer and a troupe of dancers wear keffiyehs on their shoulders and dance in front of Palestinian flags. “They gon’ have to come get me / They gon’ have to see about me / to get next to you,” Kehlani sings, twisting the song’s message to a lover into a statement of defense. (‘Next 2 U’ is a single off their to-be-announced new album.) The video also opens with an anti-war quote from Palestinian poet Hala Alyan: “Keep your moon / We have our own / Keep your army / We have our name / Keep your flag/ We have fruits and in / All the right colors.” Additionally, it closes with a message about the children killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. “We tried to make a scroll honoring the names of thousands of deceased children,” it reads. “The list was so long that our fastest scroll at 3 minutes was illegible.” Instead, Kehlani is encouraging fans to read the list of names “at your own pace.” [via Vulture]

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