After a dreamy intro which seems to be passing through the haze of reflection in real time, the title track sees Avery Friedman immediately begin to excavate the past for anything which might warrant a place within this time capsule. Only such reflection inevitably leads back to trauma, and soon a key event begins to reveal itself. The dark centre around which the album orbits. Friedman wrote the song while riding the subway for the first time since being mugged at knifepoint months before, existing within a newly brittle version of life, where sudden violence can upend the expected physics of any given day. “It’s a little bit of a new thing / It’s a little hard to predict,” as she sings, “And I can’t quite describe it / But it’s like a magnet flipped.” But, as we noted in a prior piece, the song confronts this new mode of life in order to do more than merely describe. “[‘New Thing] represents the beginning of the path forward, allowing Friedman a method by which to return to her body and start the process of becoming whole again.”

Positioned in what we called “the interstitial space between trauma and growth,” ‘Flowers Fell’ represents the first step forwards along this arc of healing. A song too close to ground zero to offer bright epiphanies, sheltering instead within “that lull between the ceasing of decline and visible signs of recovery,” as we continued, “where improvement exists only as a nascent understanding of the possibilities which lay ahead in time.” Tracks like ‘Photo Booth‘ and ‘Finger Painting’ follow and seem to confirm the wisdom of this patience. For while there’s an undeniably morose air hanging over the songs, there are also signs of small shoots pushing through. Be it the latent mischief of the former and the playful potential therein, or sensuality of the latter, with longing registered as intimate as it is intense.

Which isn’t to say such a path from trauma to health is linear. Bathed in a kind of fog of ambience and reverb, ‘Somewhere to Go’ finds a person stuck within a strange contradiction, their external stasis matched by a constantly churning mind. A mind which seems set on retrospection, turning back towards the past in lieu of anything more productive if only to escape the agonising tedium of the present. “So stuck inside / Centrifuge / And eye-for-an-eye,” as Friedman sings. “Appeasing, Stifling, Rummaging, Rifling / Somewhere to go.”

How these frustrations are navigated is what comes to mark the record. A combination of patience and burgeoning trust. Be that in the very ability of a person to come back to life, or else in the humble loves that make such a goal worthwhile.  Take the gentle defiance of penultimate track ‘Biking Standing’, a mood triggered not via gritted teeth or the pulling of bootstraps but a “surrender to surprise” on a July evening. “They played country / I stood and danced with you,” one verse goes. “Warmth and darkness / Not quite opposites /  Surrender to surprise.” Closer ‘Nervous’ might be more hesitant in tone, but still pushes further into this mood. Its tone full of confession and vulnerability and the closeness inherent in sharing such things with another person. An ending to a record which might not represent the apex of the curve from trauma to health, but in fact something more sustainable. One beginning to realise, slowly, gradually, that the process is forever ongoing, but life can continue nonetheless.

New Thing is out now via Audio Antihero and available from the Avery Friedman Bandcamp page.

The post Avery Friedman – New Thing appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The release of Avery Friedman‘s forthcoming album New Thing is fast-approaching on Audio Antihero. Previous singles ‘Flowers Fell’ and ‘Photo Booth’ introduced a sound which, as we put it, “seems to sit in the interstitial space between trauma and growth,” and if these two states exist at opposite ends of a continuum, then latest single and title track sees Friedman dig further back in her personal history towards the difficult end. “I wrote ‘New Thing’ in one sitting after riding the subway home alone at night for the first time since being mugged at knifepoint months prior,” as she explains. “I was shocked and disoriented by the anxiety I experienced doing something so routine—I felt foreign to myself.” But however directly the song confronts this upsetting experience, it also represents the beginning of the path forward, allowing Friedman a method by which to return to her body and start the process of becoming whole again.

Hallelujah The Hills – Fake Flowers at Sunset

Boston indie rock royalty Hallelujah The Hills have never been ones to shy away from a challenge, Ryan H. Walsh and co. have released a plethora of idiosyncratic albums across their near two-decade career. But their latest project DECK pushes the boat out even for them. A joint release between Discrete Pageantry Records and Best Brother Records, DECK is a something of a magnum opus—a quadruple album two-and-a-half years in the making which maps entirely to a deck of cards. That’s four LPs (fittingly titled CLUBS, DIAMONDS, HEARTS and SPADES) and fifty-two songs, all brought to life with an enviable supporting cast which includes Craig Finn (The Hold Steady), Patrick Stickles (Titus Andronicus), Sadie Dupuis (Speedy Ortiz), Tanya Donelly (Belly, Breeders), Clint Conley (Mission of Burma), Ezra Furman and Cassie Berman (Silver Jews). It is Berman who appears on new single ‘Fake Flowers at Sunset’ (that’s three of diamonds within the pack), providing supporting vocals to a song which evokes the push and pull of love in its combination of mournful folk and pressing disco beat.

Honey I’m Home – Wishful Thinking

Dutch outfit Honey I’m Home might have already supported the likes of Goat Girl, The Buoys, Blood Wizard and Hotline TNT, but have only now released their debut single, ‘Wishful Thinking’. Operating at the intersection of shoegaze, indie rock and post-punk, the song introduces the band’s penchant for shadowy textures and visceral energy, tapping into ethereal moods without sacrificing a certain emotional immediacy to achieve a cathartic sound. “‘Wishful Thinking’ explores the longing to reconnect with people no longer in your life, whether it’s a lost love or a departed family member,” as vocalist and guitarist Thom Schotanus explains. “We tried to capture the intensity of that unfulfilled desire with a layered, dreamlike soundscape.”

‘Wishful Thinking’ is out now via streaming services.

Jahnah Camille – what do you do?

Writing last May, we described how Jahnah Camille‘s album i tried to freeze light, but only remember a girl used a number of different styles and genres to “offer a picture of late adolescence in all of its bittersweet nuance, its introspective contemplation matched only by its bold confessional attitude.” The record, released via Winspear, made the list of our favourite releases of 2024, so it is very much welcome news that Camille is returning with a new EP, My sunny oath! As lead single ‘what do you do?’ shows, the six-song release sees a newfound focus on the louder, stormier end of the spectrum, Camille working with producer Alex Farrar (Wednesday, Indigo De Souza, MJ Lenderman) to explore grunge and shoegaze-inflected styles of indie rock. Exploding into life from the off, the song packs a newfound punch without sacrificing the heart which marked previous releases, and emerges with an affirming sense of forward motion.

Watch the video below, directed by Harrison Shook with assistance from Polycarpe Ancelet and Ava Cavasos:

My sunny oath! is out on the 13th June via Winspear and you can pre-order it now.

Ruby Gill – The Flood

We’ve featured a couple of songs from Ruby Gill‘s forthcoming album Some Kind of Control in recent months, with both the title track and ‘Touch Me There‘ highlighting what the artist describes as a “cheekier, looser, gayer and even more raw” style. Both singles explored ideas of agency and control in various guises, from the experience of lockdown to the empowerment found in the queer community, and latest track ‘The Flood’ is no different. A song inspired by Gill’s experience of being trapped in the cyclone which struck eThekwini/Durban in 2023 which questions just who possesses power in a contemporary society facing a worsening environment year upon year. Watch the video directed by Emily Dynes below:

Some Kind of Control is out now and available to purchase.

Sea Lemon – Stay

After the success of 2023 EP Stop At Nothing (an evocative release populated by protagonists, as we put it, which “feel at once fearful and dangerous, some absence at the heart of their existence pushing them toward the darkest of places”) and subsequent singles like ‘Crystals‘ and ‘Sweet Anecdote‘, Natalie Lew’s Sea Lemon is preparing to release debut full-length Diving For A Prize this June via Luminelle Recordings. As the prior singles suggested, the album looks to broaden the dream pop and shoegaze styles which inform the Sea Lemon sound, pushing towards increasingly fantastical directions. And new single ‘Stay’ is no different. Suspended in gauzy textures, the track weaves a warm, enveloping space into which the listener is invited, then reflects the world back to us at odd angles to more fully reveal the strangeness at its core. “‘Stay’ […] is a little vignette of a man I saw in a local thrift store,” Lew explains. “This older guy, probably in his 70s or 80s, was acting as a security guard at this thrift store near my house, but he was basically asleep on the couch the entire time I was there. I couldn’t stop thinking about him after I left, and wrote Stay as a reaction to seeing this guy who I felt deserved to take a break.”

Watch video by Otium with styling by Greta Akopov below:

Diving For A Prize is out on the 13th June via Luminelle Recordings and you can pre-order it now.

So It Was – In a Rose

We first covered Daniel Lobb’s So It Was back in 2023 with the release of full-length Round the Mountain, an album which ranged from the “combination of earnest heart and laidback charm” of singles like ‘Speak Now!‘ and “something altogether more taut and building” in the case of ‘Dance Now!‘, a song which “confront[ed] the uneasy truth of change with as much positivity as it can muster.” Now So It Was has returned with ‘In a Rose’, a new single which combines the ornate detail of acts like Beirut, a Vampire Weekend-style playfulness, and some of the indie rock attitude of The Strokes to take on the modern blight of consumerism. “Aaa-ccumulation / Is such a silly pose,” as Lobb sings. “We countin’ on our fingers / We countin’ on our toes.”

Soot Sprite – Days After Days

Writing back in February, we introduced Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon, the new album from Exeter-based emos Soot Sprite, calling it “a call to arms to fight against the forces that make contemporary life so difficult, and a reminder of the radical potential within empathy and community.” With the release via Specialist Subject Records on the horizon, Soot Sprite have now shared new single, ‘Days After Days’. The album’s opener, the song acts as a mission statement, not only raising awareness of the stakes at hand but also the importance of celebrating every inch of ground won. “It’s about facing the endless horrors of the world and remembering to pay attention to the good,” as lead Elise Cook explains. “People on the ground, activism, and remembering that we shouldn’t be hardened by everything we witness or we can lose empathy. And it feels like without empathy we’ll never be able to achieve class consciousness, and lose our sense of community.”

Uncanny Valet – Almost Island

The recording project of New York-based electronic musician and producer David Queen, Uncanny Valet is a descendant of the likes of Oneohtrix Point Never and Ryuichi Sakamoto, marrying precise production with an unbridled creative vision in effort to push electronic music into uncharted territory. New album Almost Island carries the mission further, taking elements of eighties pop, ambient, dub and even Saturday morning cartoons and recombining them into something new. The result rarely sits still (just listen to the stylistics differences between the sleek sophisti-pop grooves of ‘Cameo Glass’ and melancholic drift of ‘Archway’), not only straddling the nostalgic and the contemporary but mining this juxtaposition for all of its thematic resonance, making for a sound that wouldn’t be out of place in an Adam Curtis documentary. Nowhere is that more obvious than on the closer and title track, a graceful and thickly-textured piece of ambient beauty.

Almost Island is out now and available from the Uncanny Valet Bandcamp page.

Why Dogs Why – Clunkers

Los Angeles-based project Why Dogs Why are preparing to release brand new EP Play The Hits this May, and have shared lead single ‘Clunkers’ by way of introduction. Writing back in 2023, we described previous EP Homebody as “full of buoyant energy and wacky lyricism, anchored by an underlying volatility and unease,” and the ‘Clunkers’ is no different. It’s a song which embraces both scrappy indie rock sensibilities and the smooth surf pop of yesteryear to explore themes of idealism and disappointment, the sound filled with brightness and forward motion but again troubled by the possibility of a less than perfect reality. “We’ll book a tour up the coast / And drive right through the bay,” as lead Alex Johnson sings, “When no one comes out to see us / We’ll hit the motel bedbug hay.” But however disheartening real life might prove, Why Dogs Why champion committing to your dreams if only for the romantic hell of it.

Let’s write some clunkers together, baby,
Some songs we’ll sing for fourteen fans.
Let’s write some clunkers together, baby.
Our dads will never understand.

The post Weekly Listening: March 2025 #5 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

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.

The post Weekly Listening: March 2025 #1 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Many of these tracks were born of anxiety—from my turning to a guitar to externalize (and organize) a sense of chaos that otherwise felt trapped inside me. We recorded the bulk of it with a live band as a means to maintain the raw energy at the center of the record. What results is a time capsule for a year of intense personal expansion in my life—and the layers of warmth, wonder, sensitivity, and sharpness that come with growing.

With the album set for release this April on Audio Antihero, Avery Friedman has unveiled lead single ‘Flowers Fell’ to introduce the style. With a melancholic yet rising sound, the track 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.

The idea behind the song originated during a night-time walk down Greene Avenue in Brooklyn. “I had noticed that the flowers that once lined the branches had been replaced by leaves—seemingly in the blink of an eye,” Friedman says. “I was briefly disappointed until I considered that the petals had made way for something more sustainable—and equally full of life. The song became a meditation on the concept of place—how things of our surroundings like ‘sidewalks,’ and ‘balconies’ and ‘trees,’ can act as fixed backdrops upon which we measure our personal evolutions (and the evolutions of our relationships) across the span of many seasons.”

The flowers fell off when I was asleep
But it’s okay, ‘cause now it’s all green

Design by Alexa Terfloth, photography by Mamie Heldman

The post Avery Friedman – Flowers Fell appeared first on Various Small Flames.