After ‘wes anderson (your dog)’ brought this to life via a “slow creeper which looks to escape the sluggish rhythm of its present situation, evolving with an organic grace into something dreamy enough to transcend the moment,” following single ‘looking for you’ showed a more emotionally immediate side to the boyhood. sound. “An exploration of love and grief most striking for its authenticity,” as we wrote of the song, “delivered with the ambience of the moment left intact.” Both tracks found an artist inspired by specific moments in their life, be they looking to preserve these memories or else process their impact within a wider whole.

With the release of EP communal roosting fast approaching via AWAL, boyhood. has returned with new single, ‘magdalene’. Described by the artist as “a song about trying to fit a square peg into a round hole,” the song continues the process of thinking through ideas of identity and belonging, and is fittingly boyhood’s most collaborative track to date. Deloyd Elze, AYUSH and McCall all provided additional production, while Melina Duterte (Jay Som) and Nick Garcia mixed and mastered it respectively. The result is unsurprisingly vivid in execution. Because while the opening is slow and hazy, the sound gradually rises as the track progresses, rising towards energy and clarity as though experiencing some kind of epiphany in real time.

communal roosting will be released on the 16th May AWAL. ‘magdalene’ is available from the usual places.

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Writing of Astra Forward back in 2022, we described how the London-based artist combines “classic folk stylings as well as a timeless ethereal atmosphere channeling a bond between human emotion and the natural world that feels somehow ancient.” New single ‘Ben’s Birds’ again possesses a link to nature, though this time the real focus is memory. Joe Taylor (drums/percussion), Callum McGuinness (production/bass/nylon strung guitar) and Laura Hussey (violin) help create a sound capable of conjuring thoughts of a past friendship in vivid detail, and thus breath new life into something precious. “With writing ‘Ben’s Birds’, I hoped to bring into colour ageing memories that felt like they were fading,” the artist explains. “The song seeks to reflect something of this gentle soul’s beauty and our connection, while expressing broader themes of memory, endurance and grief.”

Bennett Heidelberger – Eater of God/100usd

Having been around the Nashville music scene for a number of years, Bennett Heidelberger finally decided to release some songs of his own in 2024, starting with EP Wood Ducks. That record was a collection of small, tender tracks which centred on loss in various guises, from bereavement to the end of a romantic relationship. Now Heidelberger is back with new double single ‘Eater of God/100usd’, a pair of songs no less heartfelt in their execution yet showing a newfound sense of scale and weight. The former opens in a sincere hush before developing into something bigger and bolder, and ‘100usd’ follows suit with Heidelberger’s weightiest sound to date, the tone slightly more wry but lacking none of the emotion.

boyhood. – looking for you

Back in August we wrote about boyhood., a project which represents “an attempt […] to consider what has been gained and lost through the slow process of self-actualisation,” as we put it. “To save the parts worth saving, and potentially fill in the gaps.” Like previous single ‘wes anderson (your dog)’, new track ‘looking for you’ rises from restrained, downbeat beginnings into something richly affirming, as though the track’s confessional tone coaxes the sound to life. An exploration of love and grief most striking for its authenticity, delivered with the ambience of the moment left intact. “I recorded dozens of ‘clean’ vocal takes between October and now, and ended up just keeping the crude demo and bringing in friends to help me build around it,” boyhood. explains, “keeping the imperfections and clicks and bits of conversation to maintain the emotional space I wrote it in.”

‘looking for you’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Lavender Blue – Wishbone

Based in the mountains of Asheville, NC, Lavender Blue is the recording project of Kayla Zuskin. Following on from 2022 EP Slow Down, Lavender Blue is back with new singles on Ghost Mountain Records. The latest of which, ‘Wishbone’, takes inspiration from the image of a tree split in two yet continuing to grow, something moving in different directions but fundamentally united at the root. “[The song is] about the cognitive dissonance we all can experience when people or places inherently grow apart but alas remain connected,” as Zuskin puts it. Mary Steinbrecher (bass, vocals) and Jack Victor (drums) lend the talents to bring to life a sound that owes as much to emo as it does folk or dream pop, combining sharp and smooth textures to evoke the duality at the track’s heart.

Lofi Legs – Chain

With a new album on the way, San Francisco indie rockers Lofi Legs have returned with the single ‘Chain’. We previously wrote about how they melded “garage rock and bedroom pop with psych and surf sensibilities […] to capture the highs and lows of life,” and the new track builds upon the vibe to gloriously hazy results. Harking back to the buzz bands of the early 00s, ‘Chain’ delivers a brightly carefree spirit within a bundle of scrappy energy and fuzzed-out textures, leading to a sound that is entirely committed despite not taking itself too seriously. Watch the suitably surreal video below:

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

Matthew Squires – Song of a Cactus

‘Song of a Cactus’, the latest single from Matthew Squires, was penned during the pandemic, though its sense of lost direction was familiar before the virus, and has persisted to the present day. “I have that annoying songwriter habit of wanting to defer to the work itself rather than my explanation of it,” Squires says, “but I’d say it’s about finding some quiet sense of desperate hope in an apocalypse.” Fans of the Texas songwriter will recognise the idiosyncratic and heartfelt tone, with a newfound use of synths deepening the mood without sacrificing the raw immediacy so key to Squires’s work. The result feels like an urgent dispatch from within an uncertain present. As Squires concludes: “I wanted to make sure I released it before the election as my little quixotic attempt at creating a psychical place of refuge in anticipation of whatever direction the world might lurch.”

Routine Caffeine – Philodendron

We first wrote about Routine Caffeine at the beginning of the year, describing how single ‘In The End Now’ embodied the Louisville outfit’s “penchant for rich, bittersweet soundscapes” and introduced their EP, Weeds Under Concrete Stones. With the full release now out in the world, Routine Caffeine have shared new single and opener ‘Philodendron’. It’s a track which marries a taut central rhythm with a dreamy haze, and hints at a sharp bite too, all highlighting just how much control Katie O’Brien Kelley (vocals, guitar), Madison Elizabeth Case (bass, synth, background vocals) and Emma Treganowan (drums) have over the mood of their work.

Sarah Swire – Tight!

Recording under the moniker Sister Swire, Toronto songwriter and actor Sarah Swire has caught our attention with with a delightfully idiosyncratic brand of art rock, from the nuanced, ominous take on psychosis on ‘I Shot the President’ to the unapologetically malicious fun of ‘Pulleys and Gears‘. Released under her own name, new single ‘Tight!’ is every bit as inventive as its predecessors, and has no less force in its bite. Owing as much to the weird fiction of Joy Williams as it does Captain Beefhart or Nick Cave, the track is a monologue delivered in the manner of a wound spring, twisting tighter and tighter until it unravels in a moment of chaotic release. The video—directed by Swire and shot by Nicole Cecile Holland, with animations and editing by Eric Stephen Martin—only furthers the surreal intensity of the track, Swire’s movements charged and contorted by her words as if not so much speaking or singing as channelling a deeper energy.

‘Tight! is out now and available from the usual places.

Shady Baby – Held In

Released to celebrate a successful year including a performance on the main stage at Y Not Festival and shows with Malice K, Shady Baby‘s new single ‘Held In’ is a fitting way to cap off 2024. With the Brighton outfit leaning further than ever into the bittersweet drama of nineties alt rock, the song finds Sam Leaver and co. pairing weighty crescendos with emotional depth, leading to what might be their most assured, evocative sound to date. A sense of control binds the majority of the track, though the constant simmer of its energies pays off in the soaring conclusion. Watch the video filmed by Meg Sweeney and directed and edited by Leaver below:

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

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Our first glimpse of an EP forthcoming via AWAL, new single ‘wes anderson (your dog)’ was conceived in a fit of boredom during a screening of Anderson’s Asteroid City, and channels the experience into a sound capable of exploring wider themes. Guitar from LA-based producer and musician AYUSH and drums by New York’s Giulianna Iapalucci (pka Rocco!) flesh out the track, and mixing from Melina Duterte (Jay Som) and mastering by Nick Garcia make this perhaps the most collaborative boyhood. release to date.

It’s a slow creeper which looks to escape the sluggish rhythm of its present situation, evolving with an organic grace into something dreamy enough to transcend the moment. “Feeling stuck (but free to leave) in my seat echoed the feeling of being stuck (but free to leave) a relationship that isn’t working anymore, he describes. “This song is an ode to the monotony of a certain kind of cyclical dysfunction.”

‘wes anderson (your dog)’ is out now via streaming services.

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This summer sees Nick Ferrio return with brand new record, Television of Roses, and the style is more apparent than ever. Intended as a document of fatherhood for his son, the record draws upon a whole host of experiences and relationships unique to Ferrio in order to get closer to what it means to love and be loved. “Being a parent has made my focus more intense,” he explains. “Thinking of life through the metaphor of a camera, the aperture has been adjusted and what is important is now much more clear. Music and family are the subject and everything else is just noise in the background.”

The album is also something of a who’s who of Candian indie music. Recorded at the rural Port William Sound studio of Jonas Bonnetta (Evening Hymns), Television of Roses sees Caylie Runciman (Boyhood), Evangeline Gentle, Lewis Parker (For Esmé), Nathan Truax (Said the Whale) and Tanner Paré (Heaps/The Kents) all help Ferrio craft the rich sound, with mixing from Gavin Gardiner (The Wooden Sky) and mastering by Philip Shaw Bova (Bahamas). Anyone familiar with the work of Bonnetta and Gardiner will recognise the depth underpinning the sound, and how it serves to ground the immediacy of the emotions with a semblance of distance and reflection.

Nowhere is this clearer than on lead single, ‘The Dam’. Pitched in the tension between fond nostalgia and life’s harsh truths, the track inverts the theme of parenthood to explore Ferrio’s relationship with his mother. There’s affection in the rhythm and energy, but recollections break the rose-tinted glow. “My mother wrote a letter to me a few years ago, asking me if I remember her before her struggles with addiction began,” Ferrio explains. “This song is a response to that letter. It explores those early years of my life, the poverty we experienced, but also my mother’s resilience and strength.”

The track pulls no punches, in the small memories of hurt and suffering, the brittle promises repeated unto truth. But the Nick Ferrio sound is capable of exploring such complexity without getting lost within it. Instead, it soars above with empathy and solidarity, capable of holding the most difficult relationships at arms length and recognising the human struggle within. “We were estranged from each other at times in our lives,” Ferrio continues, “and she passed away a year ago after being diagnosed with leukaemia. But, I played it for her before she passed and we made amends.”

Check out the video directed by Tanner Paré below:

Television of Roses is out on the 18th June and you can pre-order it now via the Nick Ferrio Bandcamp page.

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