Next month, Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker is releasing a new solo album, Bright Future. She’s shared ‘Ruined’ and ‘Sadness As A Gift’ from it so far, and now she’s back with another single, ‘Fool,’ which was one of the first songs recorded for this album. “I feel like I can hear her laughing and smiling when I listen back to this song. The joy is palpable,” the album’s co-producer Philip Weinrobe shared in a statement. “It’s easy to forget that Adrianne can do unbridled ecstatic happiness just as deftly as every other emotion in the human experience.” [via Stereogum]
Lucy Rose swoops back into view with new single ‘Whatever You Want’. The English songwriter has really been through it, becoming a mother and enduring health issues. With her mobility restricted, a sense of isolation creeped in, as well as an enduring awareness of the beauty of small moments. New album This Ain’t The Way You Go Out will be released on April 19, preceded by the introductory tracks ‘The Racket’ and ‘Could You Help Me‘. New song ‘Whatever You Want’ is endlessly beautiful, the softness of her approach matched to a calm assurance. Lyrically, she explores parenthood, the feelings of watching her son grow during a time of real uncertainty. Lucy Rose explains… “I think a lot about my son Otis’s future, and instead of having a grand, extravagant life, I just want him to be happy, it’s very much how I feel about my own life now. The things I really dream of and care about are so different now, so many people I know are struggling in different ways, a lot with their own mental health and I just want them to be happy. I think the pressures of society can be a real contributing factor to their unhappiness. I paired this idea with my own personal experience of suddenly feeling so helpless during the time my back was most in disrepair, and then the moments when I was able to walk down the road to my local cafe again and the huge amount of joy that gave me, just being able to do the small and simple things in life again. I distinctly remember thinking, if this is all my life is from now on, just being able to get out the house and doing these small things then I’ll be happy.” Shot alongside film maker Zach Scheiwiller, the video takes Lucy on a night-time stroll around Brighton, with “no plan at all, all instinct based…” [via Clash]
South Korean singer BIBI has released the music video for ‘Sugar Rush’, featuring appearances by (G)I-DLE‘s Soyeon and Choi Yena. In the clip, BIBI performs the song in a colourful, candy-covered set, while wearing outfits that resemble sweet confectioneries. Meanwhile, Choi Yena and (G)I-DLE rapper Soyeon make special cameos as controllers of a claw machine that feed BIBI candies. “I’m sweet, like candy / You could look don’t touch / Don’t try to get handsy / You get sugar rush,” BIBI sings on the chorus of ‘Sugar Rush’. The song was originally released on on February 13 as part of her special single album Bam Yang Gang. [via NME]
Los Angeles based EVOCAPOP artist R E L has shared a new music video. Entitled ‘Intuition’, the emotionally raw and powerful track delves into the profound journey of self-discovery, emphasizing the importance of embracing vulnerability and truth. Her poignant lyrics tell the story of her own recovery, one of healing from a desensitized and overstimulated culture that many of us experience in the modern western world. She confides, “We are conditioned to believe that we need validation or likes or certain status markers, or a certain amount of money or body type to be successful, to be likeable, to be valuable, when we really are all so valuable inside- underneath the facade we’ve built is a society aching for authenticity.” In the accompanying music video, R E L takes on the persona of a pierrot, symbolizing the facade we often wear. As the video unfolds, she sheds her costume and mask, revealing a newfound freedom and inner strength. The cinematic visual beautifully captures the essence of the song’s message, that by stripping away our protective layers, we can discover resilience and the power within.
Natasha Khan last released a Bat For Lashes album in 2019 with Lost Girls. Now, she’s announcing its follow-up, The Dream Of Delphi, and sharing the title track. It comes with a video produced in collaboration with creative director and choreographer Alexandra Green and directed by Freddie Leyden. “This is the manifesto of the album,” she said of the song. “It’s like a spell being cast. It’s the conjuring, the manifestation, the drawing-down of Delphi from the ether. This is me calling on her soul. It’s about going up into the stars and down into the underworld simultaneously, how celestials and deep guttural sounds can come together, how that reflects the journey I went on. It’s about what happens when you’re stretched physically, mentally, even vaginally! I think it’s just humbled me, too, becoming a mother. It’s made me feel more vulnerable than I’ve ever felt before. But I feel more human, more embodied. I can’t escape life by making beautiful things as much as I did. But there’s sort of a beauty to my mortality now.” During quarantine, Khan gave birth to her daughter Delphi, an experience that was formative for the LP. “Motherhood I thought would take me away from my art, but it opened up this massive world,” she said. Last year, she also released a hand-illustrated Tarot deck called Motherwitch. It was done in collaboration with the wellness brand She’s Lost Control. [via Stereogum]
KAETO releases her new single ‘Don’t Ask’ via Lava/Republic Records. The emerging London-based artist is fast carving a space for herself with her unique genre-spanning sound that blends elements of trip-hop, dance and electronic music with punk, alt-pop and more. ‘Don’t Ask’ comes with a video directed by Kaeto and her creative collaborator Maisy Banks and was produced by Max Rad. “In this song I am writing about my relationship with myself”, Kaeto says. “Maisy and I directed the video. The video is a celebration of our skin and the beautiful human body. Liv Lockwood is the incredible choreographer that we worked with. She has an amazing brain and she really understood what we were trying to create. The choreography perfectly encapsulates the internal struggle we experience that is reflected in the song and I loved the use of the symbols of teeth, the mouth, hair and the tongue.”
Last month, Shannon And The Clams announced The Moon Is In The Wrong Place, their new album that they started working on following the tragic death of bandleader Shannon Shaw’s fiancé Joe Haener. They shared ‘The Moon Is In The Wrong Place’ at the time, and now they’re releasing ‘Bean Fields’ with a music video directed by Vanessa Pla and animated by Amber McCall. ‘Bean Fields’ focuses on Haener’s family farm in Aurora, Oregon, which was the site of his fatal car accident but remains a beautiful meeting ground for his family and friends. [via Stereogum]
The 20-year-old newcomer Raven Numan shares a beguiling statement-of-intent as she shares her debut single ‘My Reflection’. ‘My Reflection’ achieves a haunting melancholia that blurs the boundaries between the modern dark-pop scene and the dark intensity of classic ’80s goth and industrial – all while exploring contemporary conversational issues that affect young women all over the world. Her voice is both sultry and elegant, yet with an emotionally detached air that complements the song’s take on the horrors of body dysmorphia. It’s the result of her ongoing creative collaboration with Ade Fenton. Raven says, “‘My Reflection’ is about the unrealistic beauty standards that have been pushed on us since adolescence. We’ve been fed lies about beauty from a young age through countless mediums: lingerie models, makeup commercials, even cartoons employ beauty standards. They try to tell you that these products, this makeup, or our underwear will make you look and feel amazing but that’s not the case. They feed your insecurities and then try to sell you something to make it all better. It breeds self-hatred and insecurity, and both myself and the overwhelming majority of women I know suffer from the unrealistic beauty standards of today.”
Canadian electro-pop sensation, Kiesza releases an electrifying new dance floor single, ‘Dancing and Crying’ featuring Sugar Jesus. This marks the second track of new material from Kiesza’s long-awaited forthcoming album, also called Dancing and Crying: Vol. 1, scheduled for release May 24. Produced by Sugar Jesus (One Direction, Little Mix, Mario), ‘Dancing and Crying’ blends elements of electro-pop and house styles offering listeners an up-beat and immersive dancing experience. In this epic dance-pop whirlwind, Kiesza collaborated with Grammy-nominated songwriter K Sotomayor (Selena Gomez) and Sugar Jesus to write the track. ‘Dancing and Crying’ channels Kiesza’s dance music roots while embracing captivating pop styles reminiscent of artists like Dua Lipa, Kylie Minogue, Sophie Ellis-Baxter, and Raye. “My new song, ‘Dancing and Crying’ was the initial spark that launched this upcoming volume of music. It was the first song Sugar Jesus and I began, and the last to be completed for this volume. ‘Dancing and Crying’ is an Opus. A series of contrasting musical ideas, woven together by a foundation of house beats and bass lines, bridges the gap between my folk origins and the dance music that marked my place on the global map,” states Kiesza. “When my close friend, Grammy-nominated songwriter K. Sotomayor, joined our bite-sized writing team, we revisited this song with fresh ears. Together, the three of us brought it to completion, with a new perspective on the journey we had embarked on, both together and individually. So, in a way, ‘Dancing and Crying’ is both the beginning and the end of Vol. 1. You can think of this title track as the MC of the show, preparing you for what lies ahead. This song is the catalyst for all that has come and will come to pass in this chapter. From its womb came the vision as a whole, from which all else has and will unfold.” The accompanying video was shot at the Raven in Toronto and it was done on a whim. Kiesza was doing a photoshoot and instructed the director D. G Hagey to start filming.
Allie X has shared startling new single ‘Weird World’. The songwriter has carved out a unique niche, subverting pop tropes while also excelling in them. A technically gifted artist, Allie X also brings to the table a gleeful sense of rebellion, infusing each song with her vivid personality. Having written for the likes of Troye Sivan and BTS she’s dealt with some major league players, but this has pushed Allie X away from her solo catalogue. New album Girl With No Face is out now, her first major project since 2020’s Cape God. New single ‘Weird World’ is out now, and it relishes 80s tones – analogue synths pushed to the limit, the audio counterpart to those sensational Dynasty-style power shoulders. She lets the sonics dip a little, though, her playful, DIY approach reminiscent of the retro-futurist fetishim of John Maus, say, but delivered in a vey melodic, sincere format. [via Clash]
