Singer-songwriter OLI is back with lush soundscapes and feel-good pop songwriting on the new single, ‘Float’. The London based artist’s powerful vocals pierce through the melancholic piano backing, forming a dancing melody that puts the layers of OLI’s incredible voice front and centre. ‘Float’ is the first new music to arrive from OLI since her acclaimed duet with Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan ‘Does That Hurt’, which was released earlier this year. The song begins with intensity, the keys echoing as it progresses, swelling to an outburst of falsetto backing and peaceful rhythmic textures on the chorus. Lyrics filled with emotion and longing on “If I could float up I would see it all how I know I should” tackle the dreamlike aspect of the song as OLI incorporates themes of satisfaction, positivity, space, and wonder on the downbeat pop track. “My dad actually came up with the lead melody, he was playing around on guitar and sent me the idea.” Says OLI, who started her alt-pop songwriting journey as a child growing up in a musical family. “It made me think of all those feel-good Disney songs that leave you really happy and satisfied at the end. The idea of Floating up above everything and everyone fit so perfectly with it too. I think it’s something many people imagine. We are pretty small in the grand scheme of things so it’s easy to feel existential from time to time. I just wanted the song to paint that emotion in a more positive way. I personally take a lot of comfort in knowing how much there is out there.” The new single is also released alongside a visually remarkable Heini Susanne directed music video, which sees the contrast of childlike wonder and summer days with pensive nights by the water in the stunning wilderness settings: “I am extremely proud of the video. It was filmed in Finland by the production company Cocoa. We wanted it to seem slightly dreamy but also darker. Heini and I took inspiration from ‘where the wild things are’ which I think really shows in the end product.”
Taylor Swift has released a new video for ‘Bejeweled’. It follows the video for ‘Anti-Hero’ which dropped last week. Swift shared her 10th studio album Midnights last Friday, October 21. In usual form, the Cinderella-style visual has Taylor joined by famous friends including Danielle, Alana and Este Haim, Laura Dern, Jack Antonoff, Pat McGrath and Dita Von Teese. Eagle eyed fans have spotted that in a previous trailer for the Midnights visuals, imagery appears that we have not yet seen in the videos released so far, so it’s likely that at least one more will be on the way. In a still from the video, where differently coloured buttons in a lift reflect her discography, fans have also noted that the 13th button shares the colour with ‘Speak Now’, increasing speculation that Taylor’s Version of her 2010 album will be next re-record to arrive. [via Dork]
New York-based trio, Tchotchke releases the ‘50s-inspired music video for their single ‘Wish You Were a Girl,’ following the release of their self-titled debut album. The video, which stars band members Anastasia, Eva, and Emily as distraught runaway-brides and housewives, is a statement on rejecting traditional feminine ideologies. “The entire video plays with this fictitious smokey dollhouse world where the band runs away from all feminine responsibilities and forced ideologies,” director Ambar Navarro shares. Throughout ‘Wish You Were a Girl,’ we see the trio trapped within the confines of heteronormativity, and as it progresses, we see them grow increasingly frustrated, leading to their eventual escape from these age-old ideologies. [via FLOOD]
ella jane has spent the last few months teasing her sophomore EP Marginalia with a string of sugary, heart-pounding pop songs about chasing love and trying to hold onto it. But on ‘Warhol,’ the LA-based singer isn’t searching for a partner—she’s searching for herself. “I’ve been waiting forever to be noticed,” jane sings on the track, “I’ll keep twisting the image ’til I’m not myself at all.” The final cut on the EP is a tender but confident piano number about shapeshifting into someone new and then trying to figure out which version of yourself fits best. “I originally planned for it to be a song about this guy who told me I reminded him of his girlfriend—something kind of fun and stupid,” she shares. “But soon the line ‘’Cause lately I don’t have a shape / I’m blurry lines without a face’ spilled out, and it quickly became obvious that I was writing about myself. I’ve always been a big believer in ‘fake it ’til’ you make it, but the acceptance of my public persona—a much more confident, self-assured girl—as me has made me question who the real ‘me’ actually is. So in short, this song is an exploration of that.” [via FLOOD]
Last fall, Adele returned with 30. The formidable piece of work revealed the singer at her most vulnerable and human, sharing intimate recordings about regrets, panic, and familial love. Now, she’s reminded us that it’s nearly been a year since the release of her most personal album by dropping a video for the Eltonian ballad ‘I Drink Wine’ that was directed by Joe Talbot. Here, in a fairytale forest, Adele lives out one of my dreams: Floating down a lazy river in a couture gown with bottomless rosé at the snap of a finger. And even though it sounds perfect, there’s a sense that this fantasy is too good to be true. “They say to play hard, you work hard / Find balance in the sacrifice / Yet I don’t know anybody / Who’s truly satisfied,” she sings as she passes a charming fisherman who catches her eye. Later, he swims to her and is pushed away by the synchronized swimmers guarding Adele with libations in hand. By the end, Adele wants out of this adult version of the boozy It’s a Small World ride, rejecting the delusion of ego. Heavy stuff. [via FLOOD]
Seattle-based songwriter Puck is among a unique category of artists whose musical career has unfolded in a particularly non-linear fashion. Their debut record Best Friend is set to arrive next month, yet they’ve already performed on SNL and toured the country performing massive headlining gigs playing keyboard and contributing backing vocals to an impressive list of artists most notably including SZA and Maggie Rogers. Yet with Best Friend, Puck is free to follow their own path, with new single ‘Trapped’ demonstrating just how raw and out-there their songwriting instincts can be. The opening track and second single from the collection sets the scene for the record both by spotlighting Puck’s vocal talents and intriguing synth palette while introducing a lyrical “Shakespearean chorus” narrating the full lifespan of a doomed toxic relationship. “I wrote chords that are reminiscent of Michael McDonald,” Puck shares, citing influences on the new single. “Thundercat’s first record, The Golden Age of the Apocalypse, is one of my favorites of all time and was a huge influence for me. The drums are sampled from drum machines lent to Lily Wen and I by Gotye, whose studio was upstairs from Figure 8 where we were recording.” Watch the Devin Gant–directed video for the track, which weaves together reality, fantasy, and horror elements over the course of the track’s five minutes as Puck is seen getting lost in thought as the ice cream slowly drips off their cone and down their hand. [via FLOOD]
Electro-pop powerhouse artist Dragonette, aka songwriter/producer Martina Sorbara, returns with the final focus track ‘T-Shirt’, lifted from the new full-length album Twennies out now through BMG. Regarding ‘T-Shirt’ she added, “This song came together so fast that I can barely remember the process of writing it. Every songwriter has had the experience of leaving the studio to get a drink or take a pee and inadvertently coming back with one of the missing keys to the song. I have a strong memory of that with the chorus of this song. But I literally have no memory of writing the verses. It’s like they pre-existed the session. Every song writer has that experience as well. The result is feeling like you just got given a present, out of nowhere, and it’s not even your birthday. I love this song for its lush cuddle of warmness while lyrically it most definitely does not want to cuddle.”
London indie pop songwriter Eaves Wilder returns with new melter ‘I Stole Your Jumper’. 2022 ends with a bang for the London artist, who has just inked a deal with independent powerhouse Secretly Canadian. It follows a string of impeccable singles, fusing indie rock tropes with pop to create a raucous yet melodic sound. A full EP is slated to land in January, with Eaves opting to kick off her new era with ‘I Stole Your Jumper’. A rabid, three-minute cruncher, it’s a song about the pettiness of a break-up, and learning to re-assert yourself in fresh ways. Thirsting for revenge, ‘I Stole Your Jumper’ amplifies her early charms, laying down a marker for what could follow. As she puts it, “it’s a very British and passive aggressive revenge fantasy.” [via Clash]
A couple years back, the Los Angeles band Suzie True released their charming debut album, Saddest Girl At The Party. Now, they’re back with their first new track since then, the fuzzy and bright ‘Backburner.’ “I wanna get drunk on the metro/ Yeah, I wanna cause a scene/ Want you to kiss me in the rain/ Like some romantic comedy,” goes one of its punchy, ramshackle verses. “I wanted ‘Backburner’ to feel really sentimental both lyrically and musically,” the band’s Lexi McCoy said in a statement. “The song is about being in love with someone who keeps you on the ‘backburner’ instead of prioritizing you. You would do anything for them, but they don’t really care about you, they’re just having fun and toying with your emotions in the process.” McCoy continued: “Once all the instruments come in, the song feels like it takes off running, like how your imagination might run wild with dreams of being with this person in the song. The choruses slow down to feel sad and melancholy, coming to terms with the fact that you’re being used by this person. We wanted the instrumentation to sound angsty but wistful—wistfully angsty!! The way it ends feels unsure and sad because that’s how the situation has led you to feel.” [via Stereogum]
SZA has finally released ‘Shirt,’ a single that she first teased on Instagram in early 2021; that snippet ended up going viral with an accompanying dance on TikTok, and SZA preformed the track for the first time in a livestream later that year. The track was also teased in the music video for SZA’s last proper single, ‘Good Days,’ a song that came out nearly two years ago. ‘Shirt’ is the latest (maybe) dispatch from SZA’s sophomore album, the long-awaited followup to 2017’s CTRL, which marked its 5th anniversary earlier this year with some bonus tracks. The song’s Dave Meyers-directed video, co-starring LaKeith Stanfield, ends with a lengthy tease of another new song called ‘Blind.’ There’s also a license plate with a “DEC” sticker in the corner, which has some fans speculating that a new SZA album called NO CTRL could be dropping in December. [via Stereogum]
After dates in New York, Boston, and Atlanta, Automatic have shared a new video for ‘Teen Beat’, taken from their new album Excess (out now via Stones Throw), On the song, the band explain “The title was taken from a preset on a dinky drum machine, and the song is about the chaos of climate change descending upon Gen Z.” [via Northern Transmissions]
Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul are closing out the year with a gauzy video for Topical Dancer track ‘Mantra.’ In a press release about the song, Adigéry and Pupul said, “’Mantra’ is a reworked version of our Yin Yang Self-Meditation, the audiovisual meditation tape which we released back in 2019. We used elements from this original recording in ‘Mantra’ such as the stream of consciousness and the the heartbeat which we sped up to use as one of the bass drums in ‘Mantra.’ Whereas Yin Yang Self-Meditation invites you to look inward, we invite you to express yourselves with ‘Mantra.’” [via Pitchfork]
There’s something breezy and refreshingly uncomplicated about the indie-pop sounds of Daisy the Great—even when the subject matter of their music delves into the complex realms of causality and relativity raised by the hypothetical existence of time travel. With their sophomore record All You Need Is Time out now, the pair are sharing one last single with the swooning sci-fi anthem ‘Time Machine,’ which Kelley Nicole Dugan and Mina Walker wrote alongside Coyle Girelli and Carter Matschullat—and which they call their favorite song they’ve ever written. “As we were all talking at the beginning of the session, Coyle brought up an article that he’d read that morning about a group of physicists who were researching the potential for electrons to move backwards into the recent past, which was being billed as evidence that time travel might be possible,” they recall. “We got so locked on that idea and we all kept talking for a really long time about time travel, fate, regret, second chances, loss, love… “Eventually,” they continue, “we started to imagine writing this giant song, set at the end of the world. Kel sat down at the piano and started playing these really epic, crunchy chords and Min started yelling ‘Are you listening to the clocks in this house / They are growling at me saying, how can it be that the whole world is falling apart.’ That became the intro, and then the rest quickly spilled out of us. After that day, the song became an immediate favorite in our tour set and we could not be more excited to be releasing it.” [via FLOOD]
Bad Waitress have released a video for their new song ‘Racket Stimulator’. The video was directed by Danny Alexander. The song appears to be a standalone single and is out now via Royal Mountain Records. Bad Waitress released No Taste in 2021. [via Punk News]
Dropping a string of singles throughout the year, Derbyshire-born but London-based singer and songwriter Sophie Kilburn releases her new EP Not Bitter, Just Bored via Luna Sky Recordings. A five-track collection detailing her journey through the stages of overcoming heartache, from the initial pain to rebuilding her self-worth and confidence, it’s a body of work that showcases Sophie’s best work to date. Listing influences through the decades including 70s rock icons Fleetwood Mac, 80s pop frontrunners Blondie and Kate Bush, and modern songwriters Haim and Lucy Dacus, Sophie’s stellar alt-pop-slash-rock makes for a thrilling listen – and this EP is solid proof of that. Rife with addictive pop melodies, the EP explores heartache in all its forms. Touching on heavy themes by diving into gender conditioning and internalising pressures that transform into harmful behaviours during adulthood, Not Bitter, Just Bored investigates unlearning these early behaviours to enable us to have healthy relationships in the future. The EP’s lead single, ‘Love Condition’ [produced by Lloyd Hinhelswood (Mabel, Liz Dawson, San Soucis)], takes the form of a raucous blend of guitars and hearty bass patterns that showcases the light-hearted side to Sophie’s songwriting. Wrapped in warm synths and punchy percussion, the single aims to empower those who are finding themselves. Watch the Blind Date-inspired video above. “I wanted to find the funny side of frustration of heartache because it gets to a point particularly with selfish or toxic behaviour that it is just so predictable,” Sophie explains. “We all want to be loved but all have habits that suggest otherwise.”
NYC-based singer, poet, and musician Stella Rose is making her official debut with an electrifying, yet haunting single entitled ‘Muddled Man,’ released alongside a theatrical accompanying video. Wrote Stella Rose of her debut single: “With anger as it’s mother and disorder begging on its knees, Muddled man, Is grease in a comb, Cowboy killers in the left jacket pocket, A murder of your most precious possession.” ‘Muddled Man’ was produced by Yves Rothman (Yves Tumor, Girlpool, Blondshell). Stay tuned for more music from Stella Rose, out via KRO Records.
Hamburg based artist and producer Deniz Çiçek aka Kraków Loves Adana and former Chromatics members Ruth Radelet & Adam Miller have shared their collaborative track ‘When The Storm Comes’. The song is the first single off Kraków Loves Adana’s upcoming 7th album Oceanflower, out February 14, which Çiçek wrote between the winter of 2020 and 2021 in her home studio. The announcement comes with a Wesley Doloris directed music video for ‘When The Storm Comes’, where the musicians filmed contributing scenes in Los Angeles and Hamburg. While exchanging several song ideas for the new record with Adam Miller the demo for ‘When The Storm Comes’ especially stood out. “I came up with the title and the chorus almost 10 years ago but never managed to build a proper song around it. When I showed the demo to Adam it immediately struck a chord with the both of us”, Çiçek remembers. Both melancholic and anthemic, the song is about overcoming hardships and looking optimistic into the future. Ruth Radelet shares on the collaboration: “I became friends with Krakow Loves Adana after playing some shows with them in 2019. I am a big fan of their music and they are fantastic people as well, so I was excited when Deniz asked me to contribute guest vocals on ‘When The Storm Comes’. Filming the video was a fun project too – Adam and I had a great time running around LA together, and I love how Wesley Doloris’ shots of us work so well with Deniz’s footage from Germany.”
