The Linda Lindas are doubling down on the excitement surrounding their forthcoming album No Obligation by dropping a song with the G.O.A.T. (“Good On Accordion, Tho”) himself, “Weird Al” Yankovic. The raucous garage-rock anthem ‘Yo Me Estreso’ is driven by heavy guitar melodies and a bass line that jabs at Bela Salazar’s vocals as she sings: “I like it better when it’s all in my head.” Weird Al hops in with some tremendous vibes on the accordion. “‘Yo Me Estreso’ is a song about always being stressed, always being anxious, and thinking that people are mad at you when they really aren’t,” explained Salazar. “It was inspired by listening to a lot of corridos tumbados, banda, and duranguense, and doing that in our own punk style.” [via FLOOD]
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]
