The title track explores the ways in which our sense of self can be distorted by pernicious others, pushing through vulnerability to reclaim a sense of agency. “[‘Dragonfly’] rejects this sentiment in favour of self-love,” we wrote, “embodying an album that champions softness, vulnerability and what is too often labelled as imperfection within a society pathologically attached to certain modes of living.” Elsewhere, ‘More Than a Friend‘ views this idea from a different angle, reflecting on previous relationships and the compromises which came with them before deciding on the freedom of being single, while ‘Young Girl’ pushes back even further to childhood trips to Oregon. “While the lyrics offer a layered picture of a personal, the sound itself opts for simple clarity,” we wrote of the single. “An arrangement which allows the vocals, and the narrative picture they evoke, to take centre stage, and thus highlight [McCoy]’s growing talents as both a songwriter and storyteller.”

With the album now released, Ava McCoy has returned with a brand new video for ‘More Than a Friend’. Directed by Aidan Millroy, shot and colored by Clark Ivers and with additional shots and photography by Eden Niefer, the vid was filmed in part during closing hours at the Met Museum, as well as around Central Park. “Making a music video in one of the most iconic museums in the neighborhood where I grew up was a proud moment for my inner child,” McCoy explains. “This video highlights my personality in new ways, and the range of emotions I feel throughout the song while working through the aftermath of a relationship. We encountered weather changes, and were forced to adapt to whatever the city was giving us on our shooting days. I think this video is very honest, carefree, and visually captivating. It feels very me.”

Dragonfly is out now via Acrophase Records and Secretly Distribution and available from the Ava McCoy Bandcamp page.

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A collaboration between multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Tessa Collins and drummer Andrew Wilkinson, Altai create music that lands somewhere between dream pop, post-punk and folk. Both members live on farms, and say their forthcoming debut EP was created “between dodgy Wi-Fi and driving tractors.” Lead single ‘Like You Need It’ is a good introduction. Released just as the southern hemisphere moves into autumn, the song is suffused with a romantic nostalgia and the gnawing melancholy of the changing seasons. “Wanting to be wanted, feeling woeful as the cheery summer days come to an end,” the band describe. “You turn to your partner for affectionate reassurance that might just ease the seasonal blues.”

‘Like You Need It’ is out now via Broken Palace.

Ava McCoy – More Than a Friend

Described by the artist as “a patchwork quilt of me post-college,” Ava McCoy‘s forthcoming album Dragonfly “run[s] the gamut between hushed folk and driving indie rock to offer a sonic palette wide enough to paint a diverse collection of scenes and feelings,” as we wrote in a preview. With the record set for release via Acrophase Records at the end of the month, McCoy is back with ‘More Than a Friend’, another square in this mosaic which focuses on a Christmas spent in the UK reflecting on past loves and the compromises which came with them. But with a propulsive energy and bright jangle, the track finds freedom in the situation, embracing the agency of being single.

Don’t Worry – Unbelieveable

“Balancing heart-on-the-sleeve emo confession with a distinctively British self-deprecation.” So we wrote of Don’t Worry‘s forthcoming album Idealism back in April, a full-length which sees the Essex outfit evolve their sound while staying true to the spirit that has won them fans with previous albums. With the record set for release this summer on Specialist Subject Records, Don’t Worry are back with ‘Unbelievable’, a song which evokes the dystopia of lockdown-era Britain with a disarmingly bright and sunny sound. The single therefore owes an equal debt to the romanticised past and soul-sapping present, the warm Beatles-esque tones belying the cold hard reality of the contemporary moment.

Frankie Cosmos – Bitch Heart

New York indie favourites Frankie Cosmos are returning this June with brand new full-length Different Talking on Sub Pop, with the ever present lead Greta Kline joined by Alex Bailey, Katie Von Schleicher and Hugo Stanley in the project’s current iteration to create what might be their most collaborative record to date. The album collects a myriad of memories and images into a cohesive whole, exploring growing older amid the unstoppable passage of time, and latest single ‘Bitch Heart’ centres on the competing allures of comfort and raw experience which push and pull a person over the course of their lives. The track comes complete with a video by Eliza Lu Doyle which further pushes into these ideas, all shot on infrared and thermal cameras to position it firmly within a surreal space. “To me the song is about being torn between the comforts of domesticated life and your innate wildness,” Doyle explains. “There’s a yearning for a more feral time—before you touched your fucking phone all day. So we made Greta into a dog-shepherd, someone who straddles those two realms.”

Different Talking is out on the 27th June via Sub Pop and you can pre-order it now.

Fuubutsushi – Loop Trail

This June sees the release of Columbia Deluxe, a live release by ambient jazz quartet Fuubutsushi, via American Dreams. Taken from a show at the Columbia Experimental Music Festival, the project’s only live performance to date, the collection finds the quartet working to adapt tracks recorded remotely for the live setting, drawing from the breadth of their work and allowing intuition, risk-taking and collaborative spirit to flourish in close proximity. Half the magic of the release is the way in which the tracks flow into one another across the performance, meaning it is best experienced as a whole. Though lead track ‘Loop Trail’ offers a suitable snapshot of what to expect. A number indebted to both the patience of ambient aesthetics and old-school punk ethos, drawing the audience into a soundscape at once poignant and meditative.

HLLLYH – Uru Buru

Last month we introduced HLLLYH, a project risen from the ashes of 00s favourites the Mae Shi which is preparing to release brand new album, URUBURU. What the band describe as “an end-of-the-world story written on a mobius strip” the record lacks none of the invention and personality which made the Mae Shi stand out so clearly from the crowd of indie buzz bands. Released as the latest single, the opener and title track shows such a spirit is present from the very start, the newly invigorated outfit wasting no time to establish their fist-pumping charm and offering a timely reminder that energy persists irrespective of everything. “We’ve been eating our own tail for as long as i remember / We’ve been doing it wrong right from the start,” as the opening verse states. “But one thing I know / one thing that’s sure / one light outshines.”

URUBURU is out on the 27th June via Team Shi and you can pre-order it from the HLLLYH Bandcamp page.

Hudson Freeman – Good Faith

Combining the atmospheric intensity of slowcore with the closeness of bedroom pop, the work of Hudson Freeman pushes boundaries in terms of genre conventions while maintaining a direct emotional resonance. Later this month the Springfield, Missouri songwriter will release Is A Folk Artist, a brand new album which employs this style to explore some of the largest themes possible. Because though the record is situated within a coming-of-age experience, it probes deeper than the usual uncertainty and angst of young life. Rather, Freeman follows the likes of David Bazan in using the period to reflect on the metaphysical as well as the personal, drawing on a religious upbringing to explore how meaning might be located within the digital present. Check out latest single ‘Good Faith’ now:

Is A Folk Artist is out on the 29th May via Mendel Records.

Jack Goldstein – MUD MICE

The music of Margate’s Jack Goldstein is nothing if not ambitious. He bends the pop spectrum into a perfect circle and makes himself comfortable at the point where both poles—earworm commercial and oddball avant garde—meet. Forthcoming album HELLFIRE BUMPER STICKER COWPUNCHING JEWBOY is a case in point. Goldstein describes it as ​”a fever dream in a parallel dimension where Britney Spears makes a fully fledged country and western album around the time she shaves her head—the moment this cosmic heartache begins to envenom the world.” If that’s hared to envisage, then give lead single ‘MUD MICE’ a spin. A ludicrously infectious and imaginative song that displays both a  country twang and pop polish.

HELLFIRE BUMPER STICKER COWPUNCHING JEWBOY is out on the 20th June via Fabulous Things.

Juan Wauters – Dime Amiga

Although now based in NYC, Juan Wauters was born in Montevideo and, for the first time in his career, returned to the Uruguayan capital to make album MVD LUV, coming via Captured Tracks. Created not just in his own studio, but also the city itself (on sidewalks, rooftops, in the homes of friends), the album has a sense of Montevideo in its very bones. Latest single ‘Dime Amiga’ is a good place to start. Sung in Spanish, it’s a gentle and heartwarming song about the importance of loved ones. “‘Dime Amiga’ is a song that sparked while seeing my daughter cry,” Wauters sings. “The chorus just came out as we were there. I wanted the song to highlight life’s difficulties and how important it is to have a friend on your side if it ever gets hard.” His daughter also has a starring role in the video (written and directed by Lucía Garibaldi, Fatos Marishta, Eric McLeland, Matthew Volz and Wauters himself), which sees her wander off into the bustle of New York as Wauters’s busks for donut money.

MVD LUV will be released via Captured Tracks on 27th June. Pre-order it now from the Juan Wauters Bandcamp page.

Mourning [A] Blkstar – Letter To A Nervous System

We’ve covered a couple of singles from Mourning [A] Blkstar‘s new full-length Flowers of the Living in recent months, first the patient and quietly radical ‘Stop Lion 2‘ and then the striking ‘Let ‘Em Eat‘. The latter “pivots from bright, affirming beginnings into something else entirely,” we wrote in our piece, the song staying “true to the visionary, boundary-pushing spirit of the project” by shifting the vibe entirely and welcoming rapper Fatboi Sharif for a closing verse. With the album out later this week on Don Giovanni Records, MAB has unveiled final single ‘Letter To A Nervous System’ and the track is no less inventive. Another lesson in the power of understatement, the languid rhythm and crooned vocals full of assured confidence and aching longing.

Flowers of the Living is out on the 16th May via Don Giovanni Records and you can pre-order it now.

Snake Lips – Thumbs Up

This summer sees the return of Portland, Maine indie punk outfit Snake Lips with Cat Beach, a brand new full-length on Repeating Cloud. Previous release Happy Anxious was an album “delivered with both volatility and wry humour,” as we wrote in a preview, “as though strung out between hope and despair and choosing to ride the instability,” and the new record looks to build upon these foundations, as introduced by lead single, ‘Thumbs Up’. It’s a surf-inflected slice of garage rock which again embraces the danger and thrill of sheer momentum, burning bright and quick no matter consequences and ultimately revealing the real threat comes from within. “Brake check / I’m driving in the wrong lane / Blacked out / Alcohol and cocaine,” as the song opens. “So cool / I’m calling you the wrong name / Too bad / I’m the only one in my way.”

Watch the video by Ninety-Five Films below:

Cat Beach will be released on the 25th July via Repeating Cloud and you can pre-order it now.

Will Orchard – Nothing Fog

“A dream-folk track which preaches the benefits submission within an overwhelming world, complicating the lines between playfulness, sadness and acquiescence.” So we wrote of Will Orchard‘s ‘Down‘ back in April, what has since been revealed to be the closing track of his forthcoming third album, Behind The Shadow Glass. To announce the record, Orchard has shared another single, ‘Nothing Fog’. Again presenting a nuanced atmosphere, the track uses a decidedly sincere style to explore a sense of uncertainty, its confessional tone unafraid of revealing its own vulnerabilities and loss of confidence. Yet it is the sound’s brightness which persists in spite of all of this, leading to something ultimately affirming. “‘Nothing Fog’ expresses something very central to my struggle as a human,” as Orchard puts it. “The feeling of pushing your own wants and needs aside, and always trying to consider every perspective, until you can no longer recognize your own.”

Yoshika Colwell – A Poem About Walking

In April we introduced On The Wing, the forthcoming release from Yoshika Colwell on Blue Flowers. An album, at its heart “about acceptance and release, and freedom from old binds,” as Colwell herself describes, collecting a series of key experiences and events from across the years in order to not only process the journey so far but to chart a more hopeful path forward. Latest single ‘A Poem About Walking’ embodies the compassion and self-acceptance of this endeavour, finding its subject at the rock bottom of a troubled relationship though still holding onto small embers of possibility. The hope, that is, to achieve a more fulfilling and healthy existence, even if it means passing through a period of solitude and reflection in order to map out its shape. Watch the video by Tilly Wace below:

On The Wing is out on the 25th July via Blue Flowers and you can pre-order it now.

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Described by Acrophase as “a coming-of-age record in the truest sense,” the album sees Ava McCoy expand her sound to new territory, running the gamut between hushed folk and driving indie rock to offer a sonic palette wide enough to paint a diverse collection of scenes and feelings. “Dragonfly feels like a patchwork quilt of me post-college,” as McCoy explains:

Realizing the dumb decisions I made (maybe don’t get that tattoo in your dorm room), the things I should’ve said, the ways in which I’ve changed. My tendency to self-sabotage. Friendships and relationships that have gone sour. Surviving sexual harassment and assault, and allowing myself to speak about it freely after spending almost a decade being ashamed. Since writing and recording these songs, I’m no longer afraid to say everything on my mind.

Highlighting the cathartic dimension of Dragonfly, the title track explores the loss of identity which can come with viewing yourself through the eyes of others, and how we might reclaim our sense of selves from within such pernicious conditions. “At that time in my life, I wasn’t eating, and I was the smallest I had ever been,” she says. “I went to the doctor weekly out of concern for my well-being, but I was being praised by the person I loved for the drastic changes in my body.” The result rejects this sentiment in favour of self-love, embodying an album that champions softness, vulnerability and what is too often labelled as imperfection within a society pathologically attached to certain modes of living.

Watch the video by Aidan Millroy below:

Dragonfly is out on the 30th May via Acrophase Records and you can pre-order it now.

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Following on from EP Closer to the Bugs, Ava McCoy‘s first release with Acrophase Records, the Brooklyn-based songwriter has returned with brand new single, ‘Young Girl’. Recalling childhood trips back to her Oregon roots, the track represents “a love letter to my younger self and all of the dreams she had,” as McCoy describes. “There have been many iterations of my creative self, and this song ties all of the varied versions of me into one. I sing about mistakes, breakthroughs, disappointments, and my core music memories as a kid.” But, while the lyrics offer a layered picture of a personal, the sound itself opts for simple clarity. An arrangement which allows the vocals, and the narrative picture they evoke, to take centre stage, and thus highlight McCoy’s growing talents as both a songwriter and storyteller. Watch the video by director, videographer, editor, producer and colorist Aidan Millroy below:

‘Young Girl’ is out now via Acrophase Records and you can get it from the usual places.

Avery Friedman – Photo Booth

“Seems to sit in the interstitial space between trauma and growth. That lull between the ceasing of decline and visible signs of recovery, where improvement exists only as a nascent understanding of the possibilities which lay ahead in time.” So we wrote of ‘Flowers Fell’ back in January, the lead single from Avery Friedman‘s debut album New Thing, forthcoming on Audio Antihero this spring. With the release fast approaching, Friedman has returned with new track ‘Photo Booth’ to continue to develop this picture. The song leans into a spontaneous space to unveil the latent playfulness which sits inside a person, waiting to be activated under specific conditions. “Something about the novelty, containment and ephemerality of a photo booth just invites a sort of flirtatious mischief,” she explains. “This night out in particular felt like an encapsulation of spin-the-bottle-type ‘second adolescence’ that many queer people experience when coming into themselves after their adolescent years pass.”

Califone – the bullet b4 the sound

Led by Tim Rutili and brought to life by a rotating cast of collaborators, Califone have been creating idiosyncratic and emotionally charged songs for going on thirty years now, rising from the ashes of Chicago indie rock outfit Red Red Meat and pushing the envelope of folk music through all manner of experimental sensibilities. Out via Jealous Butcher Records, new album The Villager’s Companion continue this mission. Rutili pairs his singularly abstract, poetic lyricism with arrangements full of reverb and electronic whirring to create the signature Califone blend of compassionate and haunting.  Single ‘the bullet b4 the sound’ is the ideal point to jump in, full of loaded imagery and opaque meaning yet ringing true with human emotion, the kind of track that has you returning in search of its elusive truths. “You never were a magazine / the bullet will hit you before the sound / before the sound / before the sound,” Rutili sings in the opening lines. “the atom’s been split / teeth marks in soft metal / throw the knife at the candle come back as a bug / come back as a snowdrift in a streetlight // sin eaters rest their eyes / too dumb to be afraid / crawl inside a warmer simulation.”

Eliana Glass – Shrine

Later this spring, New York-based songwriter and pianist Eliana Glass is releasing her debut full length album E with Shelter Press. It’s an introduction to a finely crafted yet often improvisational style which blurs the border between ethereality and the everyday. Glass adds a variety of electronic flourishes to the piano-led arrangements in a way which both deepens their impact and complicates their meaning. Lead single ‘Shrine’ is the first step into this world, presenting a level of abstraction which functions beyond simple narrative to get to the heart of memory as it is experienced. “This song is more a series of images than a clear story,” as Glass puts it. “It’s about people that you encounter in life and parts of them that live in you, unbeknownst to them. It’s also about feelings of isolation; feeling secluded or remote.”

Watch the video below, filmed, directed and edited by Jules Muir with the video concept by Costa Colachis Glass and typography by Sid Zach:

E is out on the 25th April via Sheltered Press and you can pre-order it now.

Fine Food Market – Sometimes

Fine Food Market, the recording project of Montréal-based musician Sophie Perras, takes its name from the grocery store that sat below the apartment where its initial demos were written, and something of the fact makes its way into I’m afraid to be in love with someone who crashes their car that much, the new EP coming soon on Arbutus Records. Because while Perras’s country sensibilities contain a sense of authenticity, as well as emotional immediacy, there’s also a certain playfulness, as though in writing and recording in a sincere, conversational voice, an incidental whimsy bled into the songs too. Built on pedal steel by Benjamin Vallée, lead single ‘Sometimes’ captures the tone perfectly, lifting its melancholy heart with a theatrical richness to achieve something both heartfelt and wry.

Julia Graye – Telephone

Working within a pop-inflected brand of indie folk, New York-based songwriter Julia Graye uses music as a vehicle through which to locate humanity within the contemporary experience. To make sense of a world which seems to be constantly shifting around us. New single ‘Telephone’ explores such themes with a melancholic yet compassionate tone, looking not only at all the ways in which we are altered as the years roll by, but also how we might keep the channels of communication open between the person we are and the people we have been. A track born in a specific moment of vertigo upon realising the speed and scale of change. Graye explains:

A couple of years ago I was watching old camcorder videos my aunt kept of me as a child. There I was, sitting on a plastic-covered couch reading a book aloud. I flipped the pages and told a story about a girl alone in the woods. But as the video played on, it became clear I couldn’t actually read. I was making it all up. A wave of intense grief washed over me and I started to cry. I was her, yet I felt so distant from her. I had an overwhelming sense of dread about the quickness of it all, of my childhood and of time.

‘Telephone’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Nona Invie – Called a Fool

“Its slow-building style beginning with mournful quiet but blooming into something warm and affirming, as though quite literally stepping out from beneath a shadow and into the light.” So we wrote of ‘Last of Our Shadow’ from Nona Invie‘s Self-soothing back in December, a track which embodied the spirit of the Minneapolis songwriter’s new full-length. With the album out now via Boiled Records, Invie has shared final single, ‘Called a Fool’. With its delicate piano lines, harp harmonies and Cole Pulice’s saxophone, the track continues this process of healing in the face of drastic change. “This song is about new beginnings, a hopefulness for the future,” as Invie explains. “The fool is unafraid to try new things, to fail. They are at peace with their desires.”

Watch the video by director/lead videographer Connor Lynch and videographer Zoe Prinds-Flash below:

Self-soothing is out now via Boiled Records and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Robert Ascroft – Vagabond (feat. Tess Parks)

After Ruth Radalet (on ‘Faded Photographs’), Zumi Rosow of The Black Lips (‘Empty Pages’), Britta Phillips (‘Where Did You Go?’), Kid Congo Powers (‘Devil Opens The Door‘) and Christopher Owens (‘Echo Still Remains‘), it is now the turn of Tess Parks to collaborate with Robert Ascroft on the latest single from his full-length Echo Still Remains on Hand Drawn Dracula. Complete with a moody monochrome video Ascroft made with Luz Gallardo, the song possesses all of the nocturnal allure and ambiguity which has so far marked the record. A slow, midnight sashay full of sultry longing which nevertheless bristles with a hostile edge.

Echo Still Remains is out now via Hand Drawn Dracula and you get it now from the Robert Ascroft Bandcamp page.

Uwade – (I Wonder) What We’re Made Of

Hailing from Nigeria and now based in North Carolina, Uwade is a musician and academic scholar who has so far made a name helping others—be that providing the vocals at the beginning of Shores by Fleet Foxes or opening for the likes of Jamila Woods, Sylvan Esso and The Strokes—but this spring sees the release of her debut solo album, Florilegium. Latest single ‘(I Wonder) What We’re Made Of’ highlights the tender, assured style of the Uwade sound, where a warm and rich arrangement supports vocals loaded with an authentic sense of heart. “Romantic love gets a lot of attention so when I was workshopping the project that would turn into ‘I Wonder,’ I wanted it to take on a different shade,” she explains of the track. “It was about affection, gratitude, and devotion. Who better to dedicate it to than the people who have carried me through my life: my friends.” Watch the video by director Jason Wishnow and director of photography Marco Fargnoli below:

Florilegium is out on the 25th April via Ehiose Records/Thirty Tigers and you can pre-order it now.

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