Warm Human (aka Meredith Johnston) has released the second single, ‘My Moods!!’, from her forthcoming album, Hamartia, which is due out on October 11 via Sooper Records. The single is accompanied by the Meredith Johnston and Dana Shihadah directed video below. [via The Deli]

Wallice has announced her highly anticipated debut album The Jester (Dirty Hit) out November 15. The LA native has come out swinging, with a double single singles ‘Heaven Has To Happen’ & ‘The Opener.’ ‘Heaven Has to Happen,’ is a confession about suffering from imposter syndrome even while you’re living your dream. “How many more jokes can I make before the wool gets pulled out from over my eyes?” Wallice sings just before a brief, mid-song outburst of distorted bass. [via Ghettoblaster Mag]

Los Angeles-based electro-pop duo Magdalena Bay (aka Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin) have released a new album, Imaginal Disk, via Mom + Pop. Now they have shared its fourth single, ‘That’s My Floor,’ via a trippy music video. Amanda Kramer directed the video, which continues the narrative from the other videos for the album. Watch it below. The band collectively had this to say about the song in a press release: “This song is about how we imagine a party must be like. We’ve never been to one.” [via Under The Radar]

Back in May, Amyl And The Sniffers shared a pair of singles called ‘U Should Not Be Doing That’ and ‘Facts.’ Now, they’ve announced a new album called Cartoon Darkness, the follow-up to 2021’s Comfort To Me. Out in October, it’ll include ‘U Should Not Be Doing That’ as well as the latest single ‘Chewing Gum.’ Amyl And The Sniffers recorded Cartoon Darkness with producer Nick Launay (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) at Foo Fighters’ 606 Studios in Los Angeles earlier this year. ‘Chewing Gum’ has a great, mid-tempo guitar groove, though the band’s punk roots come through in vocalist Amy Taylor’s delivery. “Life is short, life is fun, and I’m young and so dumb/ I’m stuck on you just like a chewing gum,” she snarls. She explains: “The adversity of life is desire never fulfilled. Doing the dishes cleaning, but never the one eating the meal, so close but it’s never enough, and trying to celebrate the ignorance of youth despite it being robbed away, so choosing ignorance, choosing to be dumb and choosing love, despite everything, choosing bad decisions for love, for life, because it is short, or is it long? Surrendering to joy, surrendering to being a vision, in your own power, because making decisions based on emotion rather than logic is liberating, and despite the external inferno, you walk away unscathed, through flames, burnt but only superficially, unstopped, unaffected, unhuman. Life is work, life is not free, we can never work enough because the end goal doesn’t exist, so all we can do is choose to be wrong.” [via Stereogum]

Du Blonde has announced the release of her fourth LP Sniff More Gritty, alongside a new single ‘TV Star’ and an upcoming UK tour. The artist’s fourth LP Sniff More Gritty sees Du Blonde take the role of producer and engineer while enlisting an eclectic list of collaborators, with features from Skunk Anansie’s Skin, Against Me!‘s Laura Jane Grace, Maximo Park’s Paul Smith and The Futureheads’ Ross Millard. Alongside the announcement, Du Blonde has released a new single ‘TV Star’ — a grunge-pop exploration of the toxicity of succumbing to fame, and how people can change with mass attention. “Congratulations, you’re a TV star,” they begin in a monotone drawl over the strum of an acoustic guitar. “Hit the bigtime, bought a brand new car / Was it worth it, do you know who you are? “It’s the story of who somebody was before and after fame, and the sadness of losing the good person they used to be,” Du Blonde says of the raucous track. The accompanying music video stars actor and musician Pete Chekvala, and cuts between new footage and 10-year-old clips of Du Blonde and Chekvala to “depict the purity and innocence of the early years,” the artist explains. “Although I’m acting in the early clips, I can see even now how much softer I was and how much I still believed in the magic of people,” they say of the video that was a decade in the making. “I feel like a lot of the new album swings between characters and mindsets and being able to play with the more unhinged sides of my personality both lyrically and aesthetically has been really freeing and fun.” Sniff More Gritty will see Du Blonde take aim at past loves and record industry execs through a soundscape of glam-rock, punk and pop. [via NME]

Glasser, the elevated electronic project from Cameron Mesirow, has announced the expanded version of her third album crux. crux deluxe includes seven previously unheard tracks and is released by One Little Independent Records on September 27. Glasser uses entrancing and dreamy experimental pop to explore themes of personal identity, emotional vulnerability, and the human experience. crux deluxe collects exclusive material written alongside the sessions for crux as well as complete pieces that had been gestating prior to the album’s release. It also features a slower, early version of her single ‘Drift’, which highlights a darker side to the composition. Of ‘Drift Slow’, she says; “I made like 40 versions of that song. And I still can’t listen to it. It’s been my obsession for the last, I don’t even know how long. That lyric is just something that came out of me like “What a good life / Except for all those times / When you want to die” It was kind of meant to be a joke but sounds quite serious in the context of the entire record. But also, like, jokes are serious sometimes too. It’s good to joke about serious things, for me at least. I made so many versions. And I really wanted the final version to have sort of a dance vibe to it because dancing about death is better than weeping. They’re both good, but I wanted to dance about that.”

Sabrina Carpenter and Jenna Ortega fight to the near-death over a shared lover in the singer’s gory new music video for ‘Taste,’ the opening track on her sixth album, Short n’ Sweet, out now. After a warning advising viewers that the following contains “explicit content and depicts graphic violence,” the music video sees the two former Disney Channel stars alternate strangling, axing and shooting each other. The video is inspired by Death Becomes Her, a 1992 film starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn. With the lyrics, “Oh, I leave quite an impression / Five feet to be exact / You’re wonderin’ why half his clothes went missin’ / My body’s where they’re at / Now I’m gone, but you’re still layin’ / Next to me, one degree of separation,” Carpenter, 25, sings about finding out her ex (played by Halloween actor Rohan Campbell) is back together with his former partner (Ortega). “I heard you’re back together and if that’s true / You’ll just have to taste me when he’s kissin’ you / If you want forever, I bet you do / Just know you’ll taste me too,” she sings. Just before the video ends, Ortega is seen kissing her boyfriend, who, mid-kiss, turns into Carpenter. When Ortega opens her eyes and sees Carpenter, she grabs a chainsaw and pierces the singer in the abdomen. However, after Carpenter’s bloodied body falls into the pool, she turns back into Ortega’s boyfriend. The final scene shows the two bonding at the boyfriend’s funeral as they walk away hilariously comparing notes on him. “I don’t know how you put with [him],” Ortega questions recalling that he was “very insecure.” Carpenter adds: “Very clingy, lots of trauma.” [via The Independent]

Nemahsis has announced her highly anticipated debut LP, previewed by the new single ‘coloured concrete.’ Verbathim will be released independently on September 13. It follows the 2022 EP eleven achers as well as the career-shifting debacle the singer-songwriter born Nemah Hasan faced last October when she was dropped by her record label over her pro-Palestine activism. ‘coloured concrete’ arrives alongside a music video directed by Hasan’s frequent collaborators Norman Wong and Amy Gardner. With a steady pulse that crescendoes in the chorus as the artist sings hooky vocables and lyrics reflecting on dreaming of a certain unattainable lifestyle growing up, it’s a prime example of Nemahsis’s poised, thought-provoking and effortlessly catchy alt-pop approach. [via Exclaim!]

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Cyn releases new video for her new single ‘Losing Sleep’ via Unsub Records. “I wanted to bring mine and Lissyelle Laricchia’s art direction to life!” Cyn says about the video, “I let the lyric ‘it’s a dreamlike reality cuz of you’ inform every artful decision. I wanted to create a dream world, liberated from the logical or familiar. I’m so grateful to the entire team for helping me bring this vision to life.” Maintaining a reputation for show-stopping visuals, the songstress pulled out all the stops like she always does. Once again, she teamed up with filmmaker and New York Times Bestseller, Kyle Newman [Fanboys, Barely Lethal, 1Up] behind the camera for the video. Newman says, “Cyn’s clever lyrics and unique sound elicit strong visuals. The song’s overall playfulness inspired our exploration of the surreal. The collage stylings were a creative and effective way to play with scale akin to Alice In Wonderland and setting by placing her in a multitude of unconventional locations.” The clip co-mingles live action, collage animation, and immersive backdrops to create a gorgeous aesthetic of its own. As she tries and fails to catch some shuteye, it finds Cyn on the moon sipping a cocktail, towering over the pyramids as a UFO circles, overlooking Los Angeles Godzilla-style, and dancing in a cowboy hat on a pasture. It evokes the deliriously catchy melodies of the track with commensurate cleverness.

Poppy has released her new single ‘Church Outfit’. It comes on the back of her newly inked record deal with Sumerian Records. Poppy performed a sold-out show in London last November, and dropped her last EP Stagger in October. Poppy adds: “It’s an artist’s responsibility to always change. I don’t think I’d want to be in my body if I was repeating the same thing over and over again. I’m only competing with myself. I will continue to write the story until I get tired of the book. Then, I’ll write another one.” [via Dork]

This week, the producer Yaeji released her her debut album, With A Hammer. Before that. Yaeji returned with one more album preview: ‘Passed Me By,’ which comes with by a video directed by Enayet and Zanzie. In a recent interview with New York Magazine, Yaeji describes how ‘Passed Me By’ is directed toward her younger self, in particular the Korean-sung lyric “I almost didn’t recognize you”). “She’s always been looking at me, but I was always averting my gaze and rejecting her existence,” Yaeji explains. “And this is the moment I lock eyes with her, and I’m like, You’re there. I see you.” [via Stereogum]

Iraina Mancini has shared her wonderful new single ‘Cannonball’. A retro-pop amalgam, Iraina seizes on the best aspects of the past, blurring those impeccable 60s and 70s influences with a touch of modernity. A full album is incoming, with new single ‘Cannonball’ online now. It feels like the lost theme to a 60s spy film, a kind of Modesty Blaize character updated for the modern era. A female-forward slice of action-packed pop, it was co-written alongside Simon Dine, and produced by Sunglasses for Jaws (with the redoubtable Erol Alkan on additional production). The neat keyboard arpeggios in the background recall the Killing Eve soundtrack work constructed by Unloved, while the loping bassline is sheer McCartney. A psych-pop whirlwind, ‘Cannonball’ finds Iraina yearning for freedom. She comments… “I wrote ‘Cannonball’ about taking a chance in life and following your heart. It’s that moment where you meet someone or something and it knocks you for six! Your intuition kicks in and you’ve got to go with what it’s telling you. I really wanted to write something that grabbed people’s attention, I got lost in my head in an action packed, 60s stylish thriller film.” Equipped with some lovingly kitsch visuals, you can check out ‘Cannonball’ below. [via Clash]

It’s been about two years since the Japanese band CHAI released their last album, 2021’s Wink, and since then they’ve dropped a series of singles. Now, they’re back with a fresh song for us, the energetic and bright ‘We The Female!’ “We are human and were born as female, but we have both female and male aspects in each of our souls, each with our own sense of balance,” CHAI said in a statement. “We can’t just label ourselves into clear-cut, simple categories anymore! I’m not anyone else but just ‘me,’ and you are no one else but just ‘you’. This song celebrates that with a roar! Yooooooooo!!” [via Stereogum]

Indie-rock rising talent Mazey Haze (aka Amsterdam based musician Nadine Appeldoorn) releases her new EP Back to the Start and shares the video for its title track. The EP’s titular, opening track perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the project. Announcing itself like a Californian daydream, awash with synths, heavenly vocal harmonies and jangling guitars, the song’s accompanying video was directed by Pasqual Amade. The EP’s title track captures a certain struggle Appeldoorn has untethering herself from the umpteenth setback. “I’m just being very honest and very real, being like, ‘I went through all this shit for a reason, but now I’m clueless again,’” she explains. “But I think that’s basically what life is: you constantly get over these really hard, big things.”

Garage rocker Olivia Jean has shared ‘Raving Ghost,’ the title track of her third solo album arriving via Third Man Records on Friday, May 5. The track is accompanied by an official music video directed by Olivia Jean herself alongside Erica Salazar, a perfect complement to the slinking, noirish quality of the music.

Breaking up with a friend is a tricky scenario to navigate, not least because the moment of realization that the relationship isn’t working can take so much longer to come into focus. That is the central tension at the heart of ‘Aspartame,’ the latest single from New York-based May Rio. Named after the artificial sweetener that can cause digestive issues and increased blood sugar in some people, ‘Aspartame’ compares a friend whose company slowly reveals itself to be a similarly toxic influence on her life. Themes of co-dependence and low self-esteem are laced through the song’s lyrics as Rio sings “You’ve got a lil problem, It’s not my job to fix it” and “Maybe the problem, Was I just felt so lucky, Just to have anything.” The words are the main focus here, with a minimal percussive backdrop putting thoughts of how voids get filled front and center. Speaking via email, Rio says: “I wrote ‘Aspartame’ in one day. It was born out of an important but complicated friendship that I needed to exit. The song has a melancholy, but it’s also angry. In the midst of that crossover, I found empowerment. Like I said I wasn’t going to take this shit anymore, and here I am, not taking it anymore.” [via The FADER]

After teasing fans over the past week, via their social media pages, Dorian Electra has officially made their comeback. When an artist wipes their socials and updates their profile picture, it’s safe to assume that they’re about to enter a new era. Singer-songwriter Dorian Electra did just that, at the end of the March, leaving fans speculating as to what may be happening behind the scenes by asking them to “pledge to Freak Mode” via a link to their website. Now, Electra debuts their first release of the year with ‘Freak Mode’. Co-produced by Clarence Clarity (Rina Sawayama), the single comes with a music video which was co-directed by Electra and Weston Allen. [via Line Of Best Fit]

Nikki Lane has released the video for her single ‘Denim & Diamonds,’ the title track of her latest album, directed by Desert 5 Spot’s Wade Crescent and Chase Manhattan. Filmed in Los Angeles, the video is the result of a crafty production, emphasizing the underlying theme of women’s empowerment that the song conveys. The video has a vintage feel, with scenes of casual glamour following several women’s unique yet unifying experiences. The set design and styling consist of custom Western apparel with one-of-a-kind pieces from Nikki Lane’s new Nashville vintage shop, High Class Hillbilly. Amongst Black Leaf Flower floral arrangements, the singer-songwriter wears a Catherine D’Lish gown, a custom hat from Ben Kennimer, with diamonds and jewelry by Esteembale Objects. [via Flaunt]

Caroline Polachek has unveiled a new live performance music video for ‘Smoke.’ In the clip for her Desire, I Want to Turn Into You song, Polachek performs with her band amid volcano sculptures, smoke, and glowing red scenery. Polachek’s band comprises Maya Laner, Matthew Horton, and Russell Holzman. Watch the Matt Copson–directed visual below. [via Pitchfork]

American singer-songwriter Eva Grace has dropped a new music video for ‘always be a fan’ directed by B. It was written by Eva Grace and produced by Josh Nabors. Eva Grace shared on social media, “this song always hits harder in the car”. She planned to release one new song and corresponding music video every month for a year, starting in August. Eva Grace told Tucson Weekly about her music, “I love the idea of creating visual art that represents all of my auditory art. I’m extremely excited to have music videos to go with everything. I think that it brings new life to the songs and really illustrates the kind of feeling that I want people to get from the songs.” She continued, “I’m always writing songs and trying to beat myself and make better songs than I did previously. It’s really just picking my favorite ones that I’ve done. I only want to put out my best work.” [via pmstudio]

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A departure from the grungy, rowdy alt-pop seen on her previous releases, ‘Japan’ showcases Wallice’s more reflective and sentimental side – an atmospheric ode to reconnection with her Father’s homeland and in turn her heritage. 

On the track, Wallice comments; “My father was born and raised in Tokyo and lived there until he was 27, and my mother lived there for a couple years in the 90s, so Japanese culture has heavily influenced my identity. I don’t know my father’s family in Japan at all. I’ve only met them once when I was little at my grandfather’s funeral, and since then my grandmother has passed. Recently my mother moved across the country from California to Georgia which has left me without that familial sense of home. This song explores where home is and why I am so drawn to Japan.”

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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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‘Funeral’ is the EP’s closing track, and sees Wallice’s protagonist craft a funny and slightly tragic tale in which she fantasises about her own memorial, a surrealist affair complete with her “casket in a muscle car.” Wallice plans the event as if it were her last big rock show – “don’t forget the camera crew” she begs.

“‘Funeral’ is a spin on the usual emotions and celebrations (or lack thereof) at a funeral– shifting the view to make it more like a concert. It’s taking the EP’s “larger than life” concept of being a celebrity (or at least trying to) and having this funeral be a massive party. I talk about having a pregame for the funeral, an open bar, a camera crew and rocking and rolling” says Wallice. “This is my favourite song I’ve ever written. We tracked live trombone, saxophone, flute, trumpet, I played cello, and then my guitarist Callaghan Kevany recorded an insane guitar solo at the end. It’s a marriage of my classical and jazz roots with the rock sound that I’ve grown into. I want people to dance to this song and have fun. Even though it’s a song about death, I don’t think it necessarily feels that way. Maybe we should shift the perspective of funerals to not be so sad.”

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