Anna McClellan – Endlessly
This autumn sees the release of Electric Bouquet, a new full-length from Anna McClellan on Father/Daughter Records. An account of the past four years, the album charts a period which saw McClellan go to school to become an electrician, move cross country and experience the end of relationships, and single ‘Endlessly’ captures the release’s atmosphere of bittersweet tenderness. A slow burner which slowly shakes itself from a melancholic piano-led opening into something freer and more affirming, McClellan rising from the blues in real time with an overarching message of hope. “‘Endlessly’ is definitely a mile marker song for me,” McClellan describes. “I think it retains all of the common traits of my songwriting while reaching a new level of maturity. It feels important and urgent to express this idea that we are each other’s truths. We can’t look to the supposed leaders of our system or the media for truth.”
Watch the video filmed by McClellan, Mychal Marasco and Ryan McKeever and edited by Harrison Martin below:
Electric Bouquet will be released via Father/Daughter Records on 25th October. Pre-order it now from the Anna McClellan Bandcamp page.
Anne Malin – River
“I saw my heart beating in a river and left it there for the earth to save / Some muscle wet in the weeds, and flooded through still I will sing.” So sings Anne Malin on ‘River’, the lead single from forthcoming album Strange Power!, set to be released next month via Dear Life Records. The lines not only capture the essence of the song but the wider thematic resonance of the album as a whole. The Durham, NC-based songwriter and poet explores how nature and its inherent motion might possess the key to the process of healing in the aftermath of trauma and loss. The album is being released in tandem with book-length poem, What Floods (published under the name AM Ringwalt), the two not only complimenting and deepening one another, but intersecting on ‘River’, whose lyrics appear within text.
Strange Power! is out on the 25th October via Dear Life Records and you can pre-order it now. What Floods will be published by Inside the Castle and you can find more here.
El Tee – Baby
Based in Naarm/Melbourne by way of California, El Tee (AKA songwriter Lauren Tarver) introduced itself in 2020 with debut full-length album, Everything Is Fine—an album built around an ongoing quest for self-realisation and acceptance. Building upon these themes, new single ‘Baby’ sees El Tee once against push against the grain in the knowledge that confronting discomfort is the only path towards the truth, and moreover directly calls out those who would prefer to avoid vulnerability via the sly tactic of self-sabotage. “I wrote ‘Baby’ about the experience of doing this to myself, but also about being on the receiving end of someone sabotaging a good thing when it feels hard,” as Tarver explains. “Self-sabotage can be a form of protection—creating predictability can give the illusion of safety. At least, that’s what my therapist says…”
Watch the video by Tarver herself below:
‘Baby’ is out now and available from the El Tee Bandcamp page.
Kareem Rahma & Tiny Guns – Baby I Could Never Win
Kareem Rahma might be best known as the comedian, host and creator behind viral TikTok and Instagram series Subway Takes and Keep The Meter Running, but also records as part of the band Tiny Guns along with Tyler McCauley (guitar), Joe Tirabassi (guitar), Matt Morello (bass, piano, backing vocals) and Dale Eisinger (drums, percussion). With new EP No Worries If Not coming next week, Rahma and co. have shared opener ‘Baby I Could Never Win’ to whet the appetite. A hectic dash of a track which pulls the audience into its forward momentum alongside Rahma’s uber cool delivery.
No Worries If Not is out on the 20th September and you can pre-order it now.
Oceanator – Get Out
Oceanator has long offered lead Elise Okusami a vehicle to explore the emotional landscape of life in a collapsing world, with previous albums Things I Never Said and Nothing’s Ever Fine wrestling with what it means to love and long for things in a time where the approaching end is so apparent. Their latest record, out now via Polyvinyl Records, is the culmination of these ideas, something written in its very title—Everything is Love and Death. As you might expect, the range of emotions on show is vast and ever-changing, but don’t be fooled into thinking such high stakes sap any of the defiant energy from the songs. Take ‘Get Out’, a promise to meet the world on its own stark terms and seize the moment to make itself heard.
Get up get up get out tonight
I’m not going down without a fight
I wanna be here not stuck in my head
Imagining all the things I never said
The track comes with a video directed by Paul DeSilva which casts Okusami as an actual demon slayer. Watch below:
Everything is Love and Death is out now via Polyvinyl and available from Bandcamp.
Quarterly – Illuminati
Last week saw the release of Adonis, the third album from Brooklyn duo Quarterly. The husband and wife duo Kristen Drymala and Christopher DiPietro work at the intersection of folk and neoclassical, combining guitar and cello in wordless compositions of rich depth and sober intensity. Their most formally adventurous yet, the new record sees the pair throw off the shackles of trying to make something that can be played live in favour of experimental tunings, polyrhythms and innovative forms. Album closer and final single ‘Illuminati’ is a good introduction. What the press release calls an “A24-soundtrack-ready track [which] imagines the sound of pre-Christian folk music,” it’s mysteriously beautiful, Drymala’s cello following DiPetro’s guitar in intricate passages before soaring off on its own.
Adonis is out now on Ruination Record Co. and is available via Bandcamp.
Sea Lemon – Crystals (feat. Benjamin Gibbard)
Hot on the heels of 2023 album Stop At Nothing on Luminelle Recordings, Sea Lemon has returned with a brand new single ‘Crystals’. The previous record saw the Natalia Lew draw on ideas more typically seen in horror films or literary fiction, with narrators which feel, as we put it, “at once fearful and dangerous, some absence at the heart of their existence pushing them toward the darkest of places.” The new single, which sees Benjamin Gibbard lend vocals too, might not be quite so foreboding, but still bucks expectation with its willingness to forgo escape attempts and instead embrace the gloomy present. “I wrote most of the song after coming to this realization that ‘manifesting’ or looking for signs in nature or everyday life is mostly just a coping mechanism to get by day to day,” Lew explains. “When Ben came on and wrote his verse, I loved his added angle—rather than attempting lighter coping mechanisms, just submitting oneself to being upset and living in that darkness for a while can be a way to cope in and of itself.”
‘Crystals’ is out now via Luminelle Recordings and you can get it from Bandcamp.
Shovel Dance Collective – The Rolling Wave
“A stripped back sea shanty hushed with the inevitable loss of grand adventure, the titular vessel just another claimed by the ocean’s mysterious whims.” So we wrote of The Shovel Dance, the forthcoming album from Shovel Dance Collective on American Dreams. As it progressed, the track revealed itself as more than a simple folk song, landing alongside the likes of Lankum and Shane Parish in its mission, as we put it, “to push old sounds and stories into new dimensions.” With the album’s release fast approaching, the London nine-piece have shared new single, ‘The Rolling Wave’. It’s another example of the depth and intricacy of the Shovel Dance Collective sound, not to mention the intuitive spirit which hangs everything together. The humble three-minute runtime might seem modest compared with the previous single, but with a wistful and inherently playful arrangement, the track again offers a portal through which the audience is invited.
Check out the video by Tom Hardwick-Allan, with finishing and colour by Rafi Siraj and bleeds by Nick Granata:
The Shovel Dance is out on the 11th October via American Dreams and you can pre-order it now from the Shovel Dance Collective Bandcamp page.