Zsela is marking her return with brand new single, ‘Fire Excape’. Following a three-year hiatus, the Brooklyn-born artist charts a new course, piecing together lush, grandiose instrumentation alongside a distilled vocal. ‘Fire Excape’ embodies the explosive sensations of passion and infatuation, and comes accompanied with evocative visuals directed by Rob Kulisek. Of the single, Zsela shares: “it’s punchy for a love song..I hope it gives you something to chew on…” Following the success of her critically acclaimed 2020 EP Ache Of Victory, Zsela elevates her contralto register across an alt-RnB backdrop, whilst leaning into experimentation and steering her artistic oeuvre towards a more future-facing direction. The visual “toys with what you see and what you sometimes don’t see…cracking the fourth wall — while being careful not to break it entirely”. [via Clash]
Scene Queen has shared a spectacularly graphic new single, ‘Finger’. Taken from her upcoming debut album Hot Singles In Your Area – which is due out in ‘late 2024’ – the latest effort from our favourite bimbocore star is, according to Scene Queen herself, “about my queer awakening”. She continues: “I also wanted to flip the script on songs written to sexualise women in a way that was for a man’s pleasure. I wrote this song about two women experiencing things equally. So the song is vulgar like any sexual song but with a woman driving the narrative about her own body and taking control of her own pleasure with step-by-step instructions.” Even more brilliantly, Scene Queen says that the accompanying music video “features a dance made to be accessible to anyone both sitting or standing. I wanted to feature that in the video because, as someone who struggles with POTS, I was at one point completely unable to dance like I do standing in the video. So I wanted something to make everyone feel included because sexuality and pleasure is something everyone can and should be able to relate to.” [via Kerrang!]
Yaya Bey shares the latest offering from her forthcoming album Ten Fold with the new single ‘sir princess bad bitch’. Serving as one of the album’s centerpiece statements, the song and its accompanying video embody the complexities of Yaya’s identity as a genderqueer person, with her stating resolutely that she is “no other thing but the thing I am.”
Call Me Spinster has released ‘Burn the Boxes,’ the latest single from their debut album Potholes, out April 12 via Strolling Bones Records. With its jovial bluesy groove and a New Orleans-inspired trumpet to boot, the new song is an empowering anthem about breaking free from societal expectations and re-defining life on your own terms. ‘Burn the Boxes’ arrives with a playful music video, showing the group reusing pieces of cardboard as the colorful backdrop for this impactful metaphor about change. Call Me Spinster on the new single: “‘Burn the Boxes’ is all about tearing down and re-defining terms – of relationships, of our contract with societal institutions. It felt fitting to rip apart and reuse cardboard boxes to make something colorful, haphazard and beautiful – a reminder that change takes the creative, destructive and playful mind of a child.” On the music video: “Amelia’s husband Dan got the idea for this music video at 7 in the morning, groggily watching our six and two and a half-year-olds crafting away, hot-gluing cardboard dioramas and a dollhouse they are perpetually retro-fitting with found objects. By 10am we were deep in a cardboard frenzy, the assembly line led by six year-old Amos and our art director friend Chad. We sent our kid off to first grade the next morning exhausted and still covered in spray paint, but proud of his first (and likely not last) production design credit.” [via Broadway World]
Bambie Thug has shared the music video for their upcoming Irish Eurovision entry ‘Doomsday Blue’. The Cork-born artist leans into black magic in the new video, which follows the story of a witch who inadvertently conjures up a strange creature after casting a spell to make a new boyfriend. It’s a brilliantly vivid visual that is no doubt set to wind up a small but vocal minority in Ireland who weren’t too happy and dared to accuse Bambie of promoting Satanism after they triumphed earlier this year with the alt-rock track. “I think it was quite iconic to have created such uproar. I’m pissing off the right type of people – people who suppress love, compassion, understanding, people who are slaves to their programming, transphobes, the far-right and a few priests so it seems,” Bambie explains. [via Rolling Stone UK]
Ariana Grande has released her second single, ‘We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)’, from her new album Eternal Sunshine — and the music video is heart-wrenching. The singer recently released her chart-topping album,and her latest music video to come from the album pays tribute to the movie which inspired it: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The video shows Grande taking on the character Peaches, who finds herself at the “Brighter Days Inc” doctor’s office to undergo a procedure to erase her painful memories of an ex. The video harks back to the film, which sees Jim Carrey’s Joel and Kate Winslet’s Clementine having similar treatment. Behind the short film is ‘Yes, And?’ director Christian Breslaur, while Dahmer actor Evan Peters appears alongside the singer as her ex. Her character moves through her memories of her ex, triggered by a box of his things. The video sees Peters’ character winning the singer’s character a bear at the arcade, recalling an argument they had in the middle of the night, making snow angels together, holding hands in bed, and sharing a very 16 Candles moment with a kiss over a birthday cake; all of which get deleted from her memory. Then, in perhaps the most heartbreaking scene of the music video, Peaches wakes up crying and clutching at her necklace. She bargains with the medical team to “keep this one please”, and they re-attribute Peters giving her the jewellery to a collar for her dog. In the end, her character seems relieved that her painful memories are no longer there hugging the doctors before her box of things is incinerated. Later, Grande’s character seems to have moved on with someone else, as did Peters’, when they walk past with no recollection of each other. Grande said in an Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe that the song is open to interpretation, but sums up “the album in a video”. “I think it can be applied to any kind of relationship, really, especially when you see the video. I think you’ll understand the importance of it,” she said. [via Pink News]
Allison Ponthier has shared new single ‘Skin’. Out now, it was seemingly prompted by a memorable concert, with Allison Ponthier left enraptured by her favourite artists. There’s a twist, however – she felt genuinely obsessed with the artist. Hailing from Dallas, Allison’s neat melodies and unerringly accurate pen have brought critical plaudits, with songs like ‘Cowboy’ going viral. ‘Skin’ takes her a step further – musically, it recalls everyone from boygenius to Japanese Breakfast, while also lacing in subtle hints of Americana. She comments: “I had this complicated feeling where I absolutely loved the show but also felt overwhelmed with jealousy — I wanted it to be me so badly. I left the venue with the lyrics to the verse in my head and assumed it would become a ballad, but when I went into the writing session I got the idea to sing ‘I wanna wear your skin’ at the chorus. I love how it sounds horror-movie-esque but describes a very real feeling I was afraid to express out loud.” The video was shot by Julian Buchan, taking stylistic cues from 90s thrillers. The clip co-stars Ponthier alongside Independent Spirit Award-nominated actor Suzanna Son. “I’m really attracted to writing songs that explore my weaknesses, and the challenge of ‘Skin’ was to create something that gave a voice to my inner saboteur,” says Ponthier. “I wanted to talk about feeling like you’re not good enough — which is something that every single person goes through — but to do it in a way that’s got some levity and feels upbeat and fun.” [via Clash]
Delilah Bon has just unveiled a triumphant new single called ‘Maverick’. The song’s release coincided with International Women’s Day (March 8), and as such Delilah explains that it’s about “self-worth and reclaiming your confidence, reminding yourself that you belong in the rooms you don’t always feel welcomed in. It’s about looking yourself in the mirror and believing in your power without needing the approval of others.” Excitingly, a press release also confirms that ‘Maverick’ is a “sneak peek into her upcoming second album, set to be released later this year” – so keep your eyes peeled for more on that… [via Kerrang!]
A rising star in the punk underground, Kate Clover recently announced her new record, The Apocalypse Dream, due out April 5. Following the release of ‘Damage Control’, which came alongside her LP announcement last month, now sees a video-only release of her raucous second single, ‘Like A Domino’. The video, directed and edited by Clover, spoofs a late-night talk show performance, and sees her and a cadre of backup dancers broadcast their new dance, “The Domino” to the world. Speaking on the origins of ‘Like A Domino’, Clover said, “I overheard a conversation where a woman told her friend she “played him like a domino”. Intrigued by this sentiment I wrote the chorus with the phrase. I like the innuendo it exudes. With this theme in mind, I enlisted my choreographer friend Sandi Denton of Rated Z dancers to create an original dance to accompany the song, titled “The Domino”. It’s a nod to the twist, the mashed potato and the Loco-motion. I wanted this song to be a garage rock banger that gets people up on their feet and prod some fun.”
Los Angeles indie-poppers the Marías made a name for themselves with their first two EPs, 2017’s Superclean Vol. I and 2018’s Superclean Vol. II, and they were already a big deal when they released their 2021 debut album Cinema. Since then, the Marías have truly blown up, collaborating with big stars like Bad Bunny and Young Miko. Early this year they collaborated with LA producer Eyedress on the singles ‘Separate Ways’ and ‘A Room Up In The Sky.’ Now, the Marías have announced their sophomore album Submarine, and they’ve dropped a pretty great lead single. Submarine comes out this spring, but we don’t have a tracklist or any details yet. What we have is ‘Run Your Mouth,’ a sleek and funky new track. Bandmates María Zardoya and Josh Conway wrote the song, and Conway produced it. It’s a warm and genuinely catchy fuck-you song. The glammed-out video, directed by regular collaborator, looks like a ’90s Gap commercial. Here’s what Zardoya says about the track: “This was one of the first songs Josh and I wrote on Submarine. I was conflict avoidant at the time, and whenever someone wanted to talk about something serious, I’d run and hide. I learned that was a protective mechanism and I didn’t have the capacity to open up. There’s no other song on the album like it, hope you dance to this one.” [via Stereogum]
Toronto-born, Los Angeles-based alternative sensation Abby Sage treats her audience to a captivating video for ‘Three Floors, Three Doors,’ the focus track from her debut album The Rot. The project released March 1st via Nettwerk. The second track of the album, ‘Three Floors, Three Doors’ juxtaposes a dreamy sonic profile with Sage’s uncomfortable realization that she can never return to the innocence she had as a child. The song tears down and rebuilds everything she thought she knew, admitting and welcoming the uncomfortable fact that change is inevitable. Like the rest of the album, ‘Three Floors, Three Doors’ was made in collaboration with London-based production team MyRiot aka Roy Kerr and Tim Bran (who worked on Sage’s 2022 The Florist EP). “Three Floors, Three Doors’, to me, is the realization that nothing can be erased. Everything I’ve been taught and have experienced will always live inside of me no matter how badly I want to pick and choose what I keep and what I let go,” Sage explains. “It describes a spiraling moment I had one evening where I felt like I was looking at my body from three floors above. From above, I could clearly map everything out and think rationally but when I returned to my body nothing had changed, I still felt everything I had before.” The accompanying music video serves as a captivating voyage of self-revelation, offering viewers a glimpse into Abby’s mind as she struggles with, and eventually embraces the concept of interconnectedness. With figures draped in both black and white, the video presents a compelling visual dichotomy – symbolizing the complexities of memory and perception, echoing Abby’s internal conflict as she navigates the contours of her own psyche. “‘Three Floors, Three Doors’ deals with acceptance of self and the vertigo of change in your journey,” Sage continues. “Masks have been this visual throughline in the project so far, and I think they worked especially well here to capture the feeling of struggle and the different masks you wear along your journey. I also wanted to demonstrate that struggle through the choreography. The scene with the two doors specifically, shows the push and pull of navigating through two sets of choices to find the right path forward.” [via Broadway World]
