In the aftermath of Roe v. Wade’s overturning, Dove Cameron wants to make an impact with her new music video. The singer and Emmy-award-winning actress reverses gender roles in the powerful visual for her song ‘Breakfast.’ Following up on her queer anthem ‘Boyfriend’ from earlier this year, Cameron builds an alternate universe in the ‘Breakfast’ video. Opening with a TV reporter declaring Roe v. Wade’s impact on men, the Lauren Dunn-directed video liberates women at their expense. “With this video, I want to show the disturbing contrast between stylized femininity and masculine power and the gender stereotypes that plague our social commentary,” Cameron says. “I want the audience to notice how strange it is to watch the roles be reversed and it was important to highlight how ingrained these roles really are in our nervous systems.” The video’s ’70s-inspired costume and set design call back to the early movement for abortion rights, which culminated in the Roe v. Wade decision. However, Cameron acts out a thought-provoking twist, where men are the ones stripped of autonomy and forced to fight for their reproductive rights. Wearing an oversized suit, she leaves her husband at home before heading to an office full of female executives and male assistants, turning gender roles on its head. In the spirit of the chorus, “I eat boys like you for breakfast,” Cameron proceeds to be brazenly abusive of the men around her. She inappropriately kisses, touches and feeds alcohol to an underling, who then has to run out for an abortion (which the doctor shames him for as he lies vulnerable in stirrups). However, Cameron’s fantasy of female domination eventually comes to an end. In the final few seconds, news commentators describe the present reality of abortion rights being rolled back, and Cameron is left to settle with the true state of the world. “This is a video to remind us that ‘how it’s always been’ should never be a reason for desensitization or upholding broken systems,” Cameron says. “Hopefully by re-contextualizing these familiar scenes, this video will encourage people to vote for a world where we leave gender discrimination as a thing of the past and stop bringing the past into the present.” Cameron concludes the video with the words, “This is not the end,” before offering four “direct ways to get involved” through abortion funds, voter registration efforts and other organizations working towards gender equality. These include Supermajority, EMILY’s List, Headcount and National Network of Abortion Funds. [via PAPER]
Fauness has put out a new EP every year for the last four years, and now she’s finally ready to put out her debut album. Cora Gilroy-Ware, the art historian and musician behind the project, will release Fauness’ first LP, The Golden Ass, in October. Now, she’s sharing the sparkling pop song ‘Mystery’ as the album’s lead single. “For a while I’ve been thinking about how the concept of ‘Mystery’ is obsolete,” Fauness said in a statement. “Transparency and complete exposure seem to possess the beguiling, coveted allure that mystery once had.” She continued: “The song is an elegy to the idea of mystery, and for the video I wanted to create an embodiment of the concept, a masked character who makes her way into the sea and disappears. I thought that there’s no one better to narrate Mystery’s passing than the maenad, a type of nymph from Greek mythology. Holding her tambourine and sacred staff, a thyrsus, the maenad describes Mystery’s departure from this world.” [via Stereogum]
‘Better’ is a nostalgia-soaked piece of indie-pop/rock from the delightful Yugambeh/Gold Coast duo GENIIE BOY released alongside the accompanying music video. Hot on the heels of the groovy ‘Shaky Ground’, this new single ‘Better’ marks their third release for the year – a cruisy tune packed with warmth and effortless feel-good guitar-driven rhythm. Its magic is punctuated by clever drum fill motifs, polished production and Alisha’s distinctively silky voice that shines in the foreground, as well as in the catchy accents of backing vocals that are bound to have listeners smiling along. Listening once is good, but twice is definitely better. The song was written about the lifelong pursuit of ‘betterness’, and the many ways we duck and weave the obstacles of modern life to find it. Alisha elaborates: “The old saying – ‘if you love something, you’ve gotta let it go’ is almost the entire moral of this story, and that perhaps if we ‘let go of our hold’ on things, we can see the bigger picture more clearly.” In pure GENIIE BOY fashion, they bring all their creative joy and larger-than-life humour in the accompanying music video as they explore a day in their life when performing on breakfast TV – giving the producers a heart attack. Always going the extra mile in their extravagant music videos, all hands were on deck to prep each of their giant paper mache heads before diving head first into this self-produced clip.
Polish techno misfit VTSS (real name Martyna Maja) shares ‘Body Mind Hell’, taken from her vocal-led mutant pop forthcoming EP, Circulus Vitiosus out September 16 on Ninja Tune. Across four tracks, her musical character steps further into the light, backed up by razor-sharp production. From recently released ‘Make You Scream’s deadeye hooks and devastating seduction to the self-reflexive, low-slung ‘Incredibly Annoying’, ‘Body Mind Hell’ is a fever-dream of physical intimacy that teases with a confidence all too often denied to women in the hypocrisy of male-defined societal values. The meaning is many-layered as a sample repeats, “out with the old, in with the new,” with VTSS embracing the liberation of this new self-defined sphere she moves in. It’s the perfect summation of Maja’s intentions with this release, to not hold back on what she wants to explore about herself and the identity she is shaping. It gives away something of herself, but only she knows for sure how much. For the rest of us, we’re learning as we go, and every cryptic line feeds our curiosity.
ALASKALASKA have shared new single ‘TV Dinners’ in full. The group remain impossible to pin down, sitting somewhere between gilded synth pop and free improvisation, nestling up against South London’s much-vaunted jazz and post-punk scenes while retaining a curiously original identity. New album Still Life – out on October 14 – spins the creative dials once more, with Simian Mobile Disco’s Jas Shaw helping to align their flood-tide of ideas into something approaching coherency. ‘TV Dinners’ was constructed during one of our many lockdowns, and it’s a stream-of-consciousness ode to the pleasures of time alone. Left-field moves that still feel resolutely ‘pop’ in its loosest sense, ‘TV Dinners’ is neatly melodic while also billowing past any boundaries, or preconceived rule set in its path. Lucinda Duarte-Holman comments… “‘TV Dinners’ was the only song on the album written during lockdown (the rest were written previous to Covid). I wrote it in about 20 minutes as a stream of consciousness kind of poem. Very literal. Even though, like a lot of people, I wasn’t really sure what to do with myself under the circumstances, I was still really quite happy to have some time doing nothing – noticing the way the light changed in my flat and the sound of the birds and trees outside. I felt a real sense of privilege that I was able to enjoy a space in time that for a lot of people was incredibly testing on so many levels. And with that privilege, a sense of guilt: “What once was bliss, becomes a certain kind of ignorance.” We all take part in it in some way – you can change the channel if the news becomes too much, or steer away from doom-scrolling, and I think you should as a way of protecting yourself, but I also think it’s important to recognize that its a privilege to be able to do so.” [via Clash]
Margo Price is starting to roll out a new set of songs. We don’t have any news on a new album yet, but she’s billing her new single ‘Been To The Mountain’ as the start of a new era. She wrote the song with husband Jeremy Ivey, and Jonathan Wilson produced it during a weeklong stint at Fivestar Studios in Topanga Canyon. The song’s punchy strut is matched by the music video, directed by Courtney Hoffman in Los Angeles. A quote from Price: “’Been To The Mountain’ is part one of an introspective trip into our subconscious. It is the perfect continuation of my search for freedom in my art and freedom in the modern age. I have a lot of high hopes for this next chapter and truly believe this is the most exciting music I’ve ever made in the studio with my band. We have all grown so much, we operate like one single organism – it’s telepathic. Courtney Hoffman brought my wild visions to life with the help of an incredible cast and crew in the music video. I wanted the story’s hypothetical 8 to 12 hour window to feel like a mini-lifetime. We also wanted to portray how an intense psychedelic experience has the potential to become a spiritual experience, and how that can change your perception of the world around you.” [via Stereogum]
Rising LA-based pop trailblazer Grace Gaustad has shared their new single and music video for ‘Old Ways’ – taken from their upcoming multimedia concept album PILLBX: whts ur fantasy?. Each track from the album will be released like an episodic mini-series, culminating in Summer 2023. ‘Old Way’s is a stunning piano led pop ballad, that showcases Grace’s cathartic and triumphantly considered songwriting at its most raw. The music video sensitively and artistically captures Grace interacting with past versions of themself – resembling self-growth, new mindsets, and evolution of identity. Speaking about the track they say: “’Old Ways’ is one of the more personal records on the album. For me, it represents the desire to revisit the past with all of the knowledge I know now. Old habits and old people hold value because there is safety in the devil we know as opposed to the devil we don’t. I think everyone has wished to revisit old versions of themselves in hopes that maybe by redoing the past, they could rewrite the future.”
London pop figure Liz Cass is an over-sharer. Someone who pours every ounce of her soul into her music, incoming debut album The Words finally affords Liz Cass a broader landscape to work with. Out on October 21, it’s led by new piledriver ‘Near Miss’, an alt-pop statement that delves into her thoughts on relationship. Refined, finessed electronic pop, ‘Near Miss’ is “about not wanting to give up on someone when they can’t figure out what they really want. When you’re not ready to let go but have that need to be able to look back and say you gave it everything you had.” Brisk of vocal and buoyant of chorus, ‘Near Miss’ is a deliberate attempt to re-shape the narrative around Liz Cass’ work As she puts it: “The song shows a different side to me and comes from a less melancholic place. I was in a better headspace when I wrote ‘Near Miss’ and wanted to reflect that with some really uplifting pop. There’s no more wallowing from me… At least for a while!” A jewel of a single, we’re able to share the Conrad Gamble directed video, which takes you around the singer’s favourite East London haunts. [via Clash]
On new track ‘End Of My Life’, Kailee Morgue unpacks the pressures of young adulthood. Anyone who’s reached a certain point in their 20s will know that life looks very different depending on who you are. One of your friends might be getting married, while the other solo travels the world, the other lives solely to party, and the other’s on a career drive just two steps away from being CEO. This tapestry of circumstances is one of the beautiful things about our younger years – there are so many options, but equally, look around and you may well think: “What the hell am I supposed to be doing?” ‘End of My Life’ sees the Arizonan alt-pop artist platform this pressure of feeling time’s scarcity despite being merely at the beginning of adulthood. Inspired by the Bridget Jones Diary book series, Morgue’s fears of getting older are brought to life by a light-horror-esque music video, both symbols of her long-standing love of light entertainment forms like ‘90s movies and soap operas. She channels this into her own brand of “coming-of-age” art which she uses to empower her inner teenage self and likely many young listeners of today. The good news is that ‘End of My Life’ is taken from Morgue’s newly announced debut album Girl Next Door – due on October 28. [via Wonderland]
Scene Queen and Set It Off have collaborated on new single ‘Barbie & Ken’. Scene Queen says of the new track: “This song is the perfect combination of the crazy chaotic hyper feminine “Bimbocore” sound my music has combined with the high energy and theatrical sound of cinematics era Set It Off. I was so excited to get in a session with Cody in general but the collab that it morphed into was honestly more fun than I could’ve even hoped for.” Set It Off’s Cody Carson adds: “We knew as the song was coming together that this was something fun and truly special. I even got to tap into a little bit of the neurosis I let out on our previous album Cinematics. So I feel like Set It Off fans will really appreciate that.” [via Upset]
Greentea Peng has shared details of a new mixtape, Greenzone 108, which is set to be released next month. The news comes a week after the artist returned with a spiritual new song called ‘Look To Him’, which has now been given an official video alongside the mixtape’s announcement. Discussing the new mixtape, which will be released on September 9, in a statement, Greentea Peng said: “GREENZONE 108 is a free flowing, open field of expression. A collection of works accumulated over a transitional period of my life. An elevation of sorts from MAN MADE, in the sense that so much has changed and formed in the 2 years since that conception. GREENZONE108 is freer, less formed and more of an open dialogue/ space exploring all different types of topics from spirituality, and originality to mental health and politricks hence why this is a mixtape and not an album.” Talking about the meaning behind ‘Look To Him’, the artist added: “‘Look To Him’ explores the idea of originality and the notion of tapping into source energy for creativity and inspiration rather than just searching for it amongst your peers and surroundings,” Greentea Peng said of the new song in a statement. “At the same time, it challenges the idea that anything is truly original as nothing is truly our own rather seeped into us from a Higher Power and thus channelled from God him/herself.” [via NME]
No one really knows why love begins or ends, but just that it does. The LA-based artist, Arima Ederra, poses the question we all know too well—the one we might to scared to ask or hear the answer to—with her new deeply-felt single ‘Portals.’ The second offering from her long-awaited fall project is sewn with the tenderness of falling and the truthfulness of doubt when yearning for something that as already come and gone. Gently serene vocals carry her sincere confession that all rests on a blanket of sweet guitar strummings and lightly layered vocal riffs. Following her first single,’Free Again,’ Ederra expands on her intent to follow the tendrils of her psyche through reflection and revisiting the people, moments, and dreams that inevitably lead us to who we are. “’Portals’ is a message about longing to be longed for. How humility guided me through a portal back to myself after heartache. It’s about confronting why the absence of love seems to be the only time we realize we’re out of time to say how we earnestly feel,” the artist shares. The accompanying video follows the artist into a manifestation of her into the unconscious as she slowly untangles the mystery of love, heartbreak, and what comes after. “I’ve always been a fan of surrealism, magic realism, and the beauty of the subconscious mind. The video was a way for me to express what sort of dialogue occurs during the meeting of the selves, both literally and figuratively. When do we allow ourselves to reach that stage of vulnerability? If the sun took us all tomorrow, would we then be able to say how we really feel? It’s hard to know where I end and you begin and for that reason I think it’s important to hold space and compassion with myself and others during the journey.” [via Flaunt]
Effortlessly witty and seductively playful, ‘Taste of V’ is the ultimate read-it-and-weep anthem for industry moguls who have tried and failed to stunt Rromarin’s creative expression. With her ever-joyful vocals out to play, Rromarin delves straight into a sexy narrative that celebrates lust and desire from a female perspective — a concept that is all-too-often shunned from charts even within the modern day. In keeping with her daring approach to storytelling, the single also comes hand-in-hand with a mesmerising visual, showing the Melbourne vocalist and producer in a state of freedom, where inhibitions are left at the door. In her own words, Rromarin explains, “While playful, flirty and tongue-in-cheek, ‘Taste of V’ is also a deeper commentary on my experiences as a female artist navigating a largely conservative music industry. Over the years there have been countless moments in which I’ve been pressured by those in power to dilute my creative vision, to write music that is ‘safe’ and ‘accessible’ – in other words, ‘vanilla’. This pressure to conform and fit in the box also extended to my identity as Rromarin, and is an issue that I felt deeply when making the decision to step into motherhood. ‘Taste of V’ is my response and retaliation to this; it is a celebration of taking creative risks, a challenge to those who don’t, and my attempt to break the stereotype of what a female artist should be.” Ensuring her addictive pop hooks and pulsing production remain prominent throughout, ‘Taste of V’ has given us all of the energy and angst necessary to combat an otherwise conservative society — with no apologies necessary. [via Wonderland]
London based alt-pop force Selin returns with ‘cool’. The Istanbul-born artist is fast becoming a key player within the UK pop scene, with her lyrical over-sharing and superb vocals standing out from the chasing pack. New single ‘cool’ comes at the tail end of summer, but it taps into those party energies. A bolshy, exuberant return, Selin comes bursting out the speakers, with perhaps her most on-point vocal performance yet. ‘cool’ has another side to it, however, with Selin depicting the fissures within a post break up relationship. As she puts it… “It’s a song about the realisation of how it is genuinely hard to stay friends with an ex-partner due to current relationships and the fact that you’re no longer with them anymore. Although there are moments in the song where I am being slightly petty, it was primarily a fun way to let go, move forward and highlight that sometimes it’s hard for people to accept change. It’s a weird feeling of detachment that you have to accept. Memories fade. Your worlds are different now. The act of letting go and moving on from the past can be challenging and this song is kind of a bittersweet anthem highlighting those situations.” The video leans on the sheer colour and vitality of her performance, depicting a pop star in bloom. [via Clash]
Rising So Cal rock trio The Aquadolls have released their new single, titled ‘Beachy’, out now. The song, produced by Chris Szcezech (Goo Goo Dolls), finds The Aquadolls dipping into their nostalgic roots, for a 60s meets 90s dream pop self-love song. ‘Beachy’ tackles the hardships of coming out of a global pandemic and quarantine. Front woman Melissa Brooks says the song, “takes the listener on a trip to the California sunshine with reverb-y guitar and saccharine vocals. While alone at home, we are left with the thoughts of missing those we are far apart from, but realize that self-love is key to making it through these hard times.” ‘Beachy’ serves as the lead single to the band’s upcoming Charmed LP. [via TotalNtertainment]
