Last week, Keeled Scales announced they will be releasing These Days, the excellent debut album from Nashville-based songwriter Emily Hines, later this summer—a record we have previously described “as warm and soft as a blanket to wrap around yourself in the cold winter months, but with a sharp pang of something else too, a bittersweet bite more potent than the frost at the window.” To coincide with the news, Hines has unveiled opening track ‘My Own Way’, a hushed but nonetheless defiant folk song about walking one’s own path. “This is the last song I wrote for the record,” Hines describes, “I wrote it on my porch in Nashville. I felt stuck in place and needed to sing myself out of it.” It’s the perfect introduction to a collection of songs that unfold with grace and ring with real emotion, recorded mostly live to cassette for that warm and intimate texture.

Jacquelyn Roy – Shoot Your Arrow

On May Day, Ipswich, Massachusetts artist Jacquelyn Roy released Museum of Time, an album of wonderfully restrained and finely-wrought folk songs. Built on softly tumbling acoustic guitar, unembellished vocals and opaque imagery, these are folk songs in the gothic tradition, equal parts beautiful and darkly spectral. Perhaps the best introduction is ‘Shoot Your Arrow’, the record’s midpoint and an encapsulation of everything Jacquelyn Roy does so well. Roy describes it as a song “about love and loss,” and this is true in a very direct sense. It opens in the springtime, fluttering with the sense of contentment and new beginnings, but eventually slows into doleful resignation as Roy sings “So I’m setting you free / so you can shoot your arrow away from me.”

Jess Kerber – Never Again

“Beginning as a reflective croon and slowly ramping up in emotional intensity, as though ascending through the slightly ethereal haze of the opening towards a newfound clarity.” So we wrote of Jess Kerber‘s ‘Next to You’ last month, praising the combination of traditional Americana and contemporary electronics. With full-length From Way Down Here coming this June on Felte Records, Kerber is back with ‘Never Again’, the album’s opening track which not only further introduces this style but digs into the themes of loss and belonging which it brings to life. “I miss it sometimes / But never for long,” as she sings in the chorus. “I’ll Know it forever / But never again.”

Watch the video edited by Kerber herself below:

From Way Down Here will be released on the 20th June via Felte Records and you can pre-order it now.

Johnny Falloon – Circumcision

“Takes its seriousness unseriously and its unseriousness with reverence.” So reads the bio of self-described absurdist no-wave rock and rollers Johnny Falloon, with forthcoming full-length Tell Hell I’m Not Coming seeing the Athens, Georgia outfit take on the information overload that is the twenty-first century with a suitably raw and chaotic style. Latest single ‘Circumcision’ indicates the kind of intensity you should expect from the record, racing forwards with an almost dangerous momentum, as though at any minute threatening to go veering of the tracks and end in a fiery wreck. John Edmondson’s fervid vocals only escalates the manic energy, the wry humour which often shadows the lyrics doing nothing to dispel their deliver’s rabid preacher tone. The result is furious, searing, sometimes funny, and undeniably odd, the perfect cocktail of moods to describe our current moment.

linoleumville – to see you and talk

What they describe as “a conceptual project comprising a concept album & a literary zine,” linoleumville is the new venture of Alex Blake and Ben Dodd which brings together folk songwriting with electronic compositions. What the band call a song “about the first and final days of a relationship,” lead single ‘to see you and talk’ introduces the album’s melancholy atmosphere, combining sparse electronics and gentle vocals with minimal samples and shadowy negative space. Sheffield dream pop act Prima Hera joins to provide guest vocals, and these harmonies work to smooth the edges of the otherwise downbeat atmosphere.

pearly drops – Mermaid (ft. Cub Sport)

Recording under the moniker pearly drops, Finnish duo of Sandra Tervonen and Juuso Malin make a brand of pop that occupies the full spectrum of the word otherworldly. Lush and ethereal but also strangely alien, originating somewhere other than this world, be it dreams or outer space. New single ‘Mermaid’ invites Aussie rock outfit Cub Sport to lift the song further, bringing to life a track full of shimmer and melancholy which exudes a kind of fallen splendour. “In this song, among other things, the glamorous Hollywood scenarios have already been turned upside down,” the duo explain. “The decline has begun and, for example, a persona as a mermaid in the sewers of Sunset Boulevard seems like a more attractive sidequest.”

‘Mermaid’ is out now via Music Website and available from Bandcamp.

Sid Hillman – Even Things

For going on thirty years, songwriter Sid Hillman has been releasing evocative, often melancholic Western music, both solo and as part of the Sid Hillman Quartet, and latest album Oxygen feels every inch the product of this hard won experience and expertise. Take single ‘Even Things’, a slow, almost minimalist folk rock song as wise as it is poignant, rising above the rush of the everyday to share its meditative message. “This is a song about letting go,” as Hillman explains, “not trying so hard to control things, manage things, and seeing that there’s a beauty in taking a step back to allow things to move of their own accord.” Fans of the likes of Low and Red House Painters are sure to find much to appreciate within Hillman’s work, but comparisons are not always helpful with songs like this, as you leave the track with the sense of having experienced something far more personal.

Oxygen is out now via Rare Bird Recordings and you can find more on his website.

Special World – Big Apple, 3am

Back in 2024 we introduced Special World, the personal project of Philadelphia-based songwriter and musician Andy Molholt, with a self-titled release crafting “a place often strange and always colourful,” as we put it, “where the light bends in odd shapes and everything takes on the loaded, abstract logic of dreams.” With a June US tour on the horizon, Molholt has returned with a brand new single ‘Big Apple, 3am’, available as a specialty lathe cut 7″ via PIAPTK Records, which in reality isn’t a new song at all. Rather, the track is built from a demo Molholt wrote all the way back in 2009, with Izzy True (bass guitar) and Eric Slick (drums) joining to bring it to life. The result lives up to the above description in its woozy, cryptic tones, offering all the nocturnal colour suggested by its title and possessing that off-kilter glide unique to the forbidden hours of the night.

Watch the video by Grant Bouvier below:

‘Big Apple, 3am’ is out now and available from Bandcamp. The 7″ is available from PIAPTK.

Teethe – Magic Of The Sale

Texas outfit Teethe have had plenty on their plates since the release of their celebrated self-titled debut album back in 2020, putting out a number of well-received singles and support slots alongside the likes of American Football, Ethel Cain and Horse Jumper of Love. But it is only now they are turning their attention to a new full-length. Coming via Winspear this August, Magic Of The Sale continues to develop what the band call ‘Southern slowcore’, the addition of strings and and slide guitar allowing for a newfound cinematic depth. The lead single and title track embodies the layered style, where a melancholic weight is shot through with something brighter, and small beams of hope manage to penetrate the dark.

Watch the video by Ben Turok below:

Magic Of The Sale is out on the 8th August via Winspear and you can get it via Bandcamp.

Walker Rider – Free

“You took me to the RV show, listed off every engine you thought I’d know,” sings Minneapolis songwriter Walker Rider on ‘Free’. The everyman, perhaps unlikely, setting for a love song captures something of the atmosphere of Fair, Rider’s new record of rough ‘n ready heartbroken lo-fi country. The track is quiet and unpretentious and devastatingly intimate, Rider’s vocals (plus subtle accompaniment from Advance Base‘s Owen Ashworth) bleary-eyed and earnest as a 3am soul-bearing voicemail. A song tender in every sense of the word, aching with fondness yet sore to the touch, and unsure quite what to do with a love which hurts as much as it helps. “I am fine most of the time,” he sings in the refrain. “The other half, you were on my mind.”

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First gaining attention with the EP Eskapism back in 2021, and later when her song ‘Still Dancing’ featured on Turkish Netflix series The Protector, leoblu has garnered international attention, playing shows and festivals in Europe, Asia and both North and South America.

Her latest single ‘cake’, released right at the end of last year, is the perfect introduction for new listeners. A gloomy song that nevertheless maintains a glossy pop sensibility, it finds the narrator returning home for their brother’s funeral and dealing with the first stages of grief and a numb, existential pain. “There’s a hole in the ground that shouldn’t be there,” leoblu sings, “I don’t want to sit and eat cake.” It’s unclear if the events are autobiographical or fiction, but the emotions are so keenly felt that whether these things actually happened seems almost besides the point. This uneasy relationship between stories and reality is something of a signature and adds to the overall sense of volatility. As the press release puts it: “It’s all lies, it’s all truth. It’s leoblu.”

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Pezzettino – Somewhere North of Pescadero

Pezzetino has been the recording moniker of Oakland-based multi-instrumentalist Margaret Stutt since 2008, with the releases numbering into double figures. Indeed, Venus, the 10″ EP out this month, is the eleventh Pezzetino release. “Success to me means having the opportunity each day to witness beauty in life, big or small,” Strutt says. “I just so happen to write music along the way to help me through.”

Lead single ‘Somewhere North of Pescadero’ operates according to this sentiment. Led by a mellow piano line, the track is an encapsulation of the calmness to be found in the small details of nature—mindfulness in its pure sense, before it became co-opted by the productivity ghouls of our age. “I enjoy the flavor of fruit and the color of sunsets,” Strutt explains. “I can’t believe how many sunsets I wasted in my 20s. There is so much to be found beneath the surface of everyday, boring life.”

Check out the video below, which was edited by Christiana Charalambous, with footage by Chris Coad:

Venus is out now and you can get it from the Pezzetino Bandcamp page.

Bedtime Khal – Black Tears

Bedtime Khal is the recording moniker of Michigan-based bedroom artist Khal Malik. After releasing two EPs last year, Malik has teamed up with the good people at Devil Town Tapes for a brand new release. Described as an “introspective” EP of ” love, isolation and the feeling of nostalgia,” Fog finds Bedtime Khal at its most developed and honed, taking inspiration from the aesthetics of the late 90s/early 00s and combining post-punk, indie rock and singer-songwriter styles.

Lead single ‘Black Tears’ gives a good indication of how this turns out. Intended as a meditation “on life as a black and brown individual,” the song’s tight rhythm evokes both frustration and unease, though below this energy lies an overwhelming sadness too. The restless melancholy of post-punk has sometimes fallen victim to existential navel gazing, and Bedtime Khal is here to revitalise the sound and direct it toward more pressing concerns.

City Dress – Showing Up

City Dress is the recording moniker of Brooklyn-based songwriter Christina Skramstad. With help from Johnny Simon Jr., Skramstad draws from folk, rock-and-roll and jazz to create lush, narrative-based songs that combine emotional immediacy with a desire to evoke memories and tell stories.

New single ‘Showing Up’ serves as the perfect introduction. “‘Showing Up’ is a response to a tension that built up with my best friend as we navigated walking deeper into the wonders and hardships of adulthood,” Skramstad explains. “It speaks to the insecurities that follow us as we get older. There are still so many humbling moments when we feel small and vulnerable, just like we did when we were young.”

Check out the video by Glenn Gallagher with visual narrative and illustrations by Liana Finck:

Prudence – Heart Sways

We covered Prudence, the recording project of Australian multi-instrumentalist Tom Crandles (of COLOURS and Au.Ra), a few times last year. First the single ‘Euphoria’ introduced a smoky dream-like atmosphere before the full EP Major Tom was released on Forged Artifacts. The release explored “realms both strange and reassuring, disquieting and beautiful,” drawing on post-punk and new wave to capture an alluring blend of the joyous and sinister.

This month sees Prudence return with a brand new single, and something of a shift in the project. Enlisting the talents of pianist Aleesha Dibbs (of Divebell, Lorelei), bassist Kat Harley (The Laurels, Mezko) and drummer Steve West (Obscura Hail), Prudence has evolved into a full band, and new song ‘Heart Sways’ utilises this to weave a vivid dream pop soundscape. The warm currents evoke the themes too, with the volatile patterns of love charted in all of their fickle beauty.

You know it’s not done.
Don’t ruin all the fun,
Cos’ I’m becoming numb.

I know your mood swings with the moon.
I know your heart sways

Check out the video directed by McLean Stephenson:

Heart Sways is out now and available from the Prudence Bandcamp page.

Jess Williamson – Wind on Tin

LA-based songwriter Jess Williamson has been steadily establishing herself as a leading name in the Californian folk movement. Released in 2018, her last record Cosmic Wink introduced a subtle esoteric edge to her country-inspired sound, and Williamson’s forthcoming fourth full-length album looks sets to continue in that direction. Sorceress, to be released this month on Mexican Summer, might not be overtly psychedelic, but it carries a mysticism nonetheless.

Lead single ‘Wind on Tin’ is the perfect example. Born out of an experience during a memorial service for a friend in a remote town, the track sees Williamson lean into the spiritual dimension of the desert, where the air shimmers over the land and the wind carries its own mystique and power. “We heard an unexplainable sound in the wind that made us all pause,” she explains. “Like a flute, but more angelic. It kept going. We tried, unsuccessfully, to record it. The sound was indescribably beautiful and heavenly.”

Helpless, helpless, helpless
We all sang along
There is a braid that binds us
And his thread ain’t gone
Heard a sound so heavenly
Were the angels singing just for us?
Or is that what the wind
Out here does on tin?

I heard god

Sorceress is out via Mexican Summer on the 15th May and you can pre-order it now.

Toner – Dark Ecstasy

Oakland band Toner describe their music as ‘lovers rock’, though the tag doesn’t quite get close to the noisy amalgamation of slacker, garage rock and slowcore that constitutes their sound. Last month saw the release of their brand new record, Silk Road, on Smoking Room, an album that completes the outfit’s total transformation from solo project of lead Samuelito Cruz to no holds barred rock band.

Single ‘Dark Ecstasy’ sets the tone, Cruz’s vocals perched atop of the dense sound and weaving a carefree, nocturnal air. But beneath the buoyant energy runs another force, some desperation, as though everything is slipping away with the motion of the track, leaving Cruz to reach out as they move away. “No sleep, gin on the backstreets,” he sings. “My time is on your lease just to calm / your ease but you leave.”

Karina – Teko

Helsinki duo Karin Mäkiranta and Helmi Tikkanen record under the moniker Karina, and in 2018 won critical acclaim with their self-titled debut album. Built from a sense of intimacy that veered between warm and haunting, Karina was a record of serious emotion, blending folk sensibilities with the indie rock weight of Daughter, and maintaining a certain mysteriousness too—establishing them as one of Scandinavia’s most intriguing acts.

Ahead of their second record, the aptly titled 2 that’s out on GEMS this summer, Karina has unveiled a brand new single, ‘Teko’. Weaving a detailed soundscape populated by the pair’s ethereal vocals, the track sits at the intersection of dream pop and indie rock, pushing the Karina sound in an increasingly ambitious direction. Indeed, with the peaks and troughs, ‘Teko’ has roots in post-rock too, and the transcendent climax (which in fact kicks in around halfway through and refuses to let up) packs a punch of which Sigur Ros would be proud.

2 will be released via GEMS on 3rd July.

Eliza Edens – Garden of Sound

Raised in Massachusetts and currently residing in Philadelphia, Eliza Edens weaves a delicate, finger picked brand of folk music. Taking inspiration from the slower rhythms of geological time, her debut full-length Time Away From Time removes itself from the rush of modern life to probe and ponder at a more leisurely place, finding beauty and melancholy in both nature and the process of living.

Lead track ‘Garden of Sound’ welcomes you into this world. Carved from a wistful fondness, the song balances intuition with mystery, offering a natural ambiguity where knowing and unknowing marble into something wonderful.

I lay down
In a garden of sound
And I remembered
I remembered
Inside of you
Is a place that has never been wounded
Don’t you remember?

State Park Ranger – Mountain Kin / Anodyne

Hailing from Asheville, North Carolina, State Park Ranger are a folk rock duo with an added bluesy streak. Released last month, Days Gone is a three song EP that’s paving the way for a forthcoming full-length, and each of the tracks capture a different side to the outfit that suggest the album will be both versatile and ambitious.

There’s much to admire in the gentle acoustic strum of the title track, and the hauntingly spacious hymn ‘Bright Morning Stars’, but the slow-burning ‘Mountain Kin / Anodyne’ really stands out. Shaking into life with a lazy flow, there’s a deep-set anger at the heart of the track, one that is allowed out not in melodramatic bursts of noise but rather the flat delivery and spikes of guitar. “‘Well it never ends’ is all I’ve been thinking lately,” they explain, referencing the opening line of the song. “Being caught at the bottom of the economy never allows for a break. Even being at home now, I am spending borrowed and stolen time. I don’t own my time, I’m a thief for resting, and I’m lazy if I do not desire more than what I need. Capitalism is unsustainable.”

Renée Reed – Out Loud

Born and raised in southern Louisiana, Renée Reed makes music as a continuation of a rich cultural lineage. She is the granddaughter of Cajun accordion player Harry Trahan and both her parents are Cajun musicians too. Reed is currently studying Traditional Music and French at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette and working in the Archives of the Center for Louisiana Studies, in some ways following in the footsteps of another family member, great-uncle Revon Reed who was a folklorist from Mamou, Louisiana.

Adapting the blueprint of contemporary artists such as Cate le Bon and Jessica Pratt, Renée Reed uses her music to bring this sense of history and culture into the present moment, resulting in what she describes as “dream-fi folk from the Cajun prairies.” ‘Out Loud’, Reed’s first single on the reliably excellent Keeled Scales, is a wonderful introduction. It’s a beguiling and magnetically dreamlike folk song which Reed says is about “surviving an unhealthy relationship… by embracing and being yourself fully.” Check it out below:

‘Out Loud’ is out now on Keeled Scales. Get it from the Renée Reed Bandcamp page.

That’s all folks for Vol. 34! Be sure to check out the Reviews and Previews sections for more in-depth writing, and do let us know what you’ve been listening to on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

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‘falling asleep to spoken word’ kicks off the release, a typically morose and sincere lo-fi folk sound, somewhere between dissatisfied and disinterested, that somehow conveys the opposite emotion. However, ‘found your old casio in the attic’ follows with a taste of the other string in the plant food bow, comprising of nothing but an ambient drone and soft sound recordings. Amongst birdsong and tape crackle sounds the only voice in the track, though it’s too distant for any words to be revealed. ‘baked beans’ follows with something of an amalgamation between the two styles. Here the simple bedroom pop strum is dragged off kilter by various effects and recordings, and again the natural world seeps into the space, knitting into the fabric of the track.

The short, striking simplicity of ‘playing hooky’ is followed by the ethereal ‘you in front of the chapel,’ where again the sounds of nature leak between the notes. The stark patience is only increased on ‘mkat’s kicking in/slacking off in your basement’, sounding like an abandoned country house haunted by a folk song as the rain drums on the porch, before ‘powder worries’ picks up the tempo with a nostalgic beat. It is appropriate that ‘such a beautiful thing’ closes the release, just over sixty seconds of something that feels equal parts dreamy and focused, at once mournful and imbued with gentle sense of hope.

koalas hug trees to keep cool is out now via Fox Food Records and you can get it from Bandcamp, including a nice cassette edition.

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The story of artistic retreat and self-imposed exile seems to be a popular one in press releases, so we thought it might be interesting to ask Joensuu a few questions to see, amongst other things, just what it is about the wilderness that seems to attract people intent on creating music.

Hello Mikko, thanks for taking the time to speak with us. How is Finland at this time of year?

My pleasure! Surprisingly there’s a lot of sun and heat up here, after a long and cold winter. Very nice indeed.

How does it feel to have the first piece of your Amen trilogy out in the world? Can you relax and enjoy the release, or is there a lingering sense of anticipation for the other two?

It feels very good that the process of releasing has finally began, but I guess the proper relax-moment for me is somewhere in the summer of 2017. Lots of stuff lingering, definitely.

How challenging was it to separate the songs into a three-record series? Was it clear which song belonged on which album? Did some exist in a grey area between two?

I guess there was a bit of grey area for one or two songs, since in the end there are so many ways you can record or arrange a song. I guess one thing to point out is that I never intended to make three albums or a “trilogy”. I had written different kinds of songs for many years and found it very hard to fit them in one album, so I just kept writing and decided not to release anything until the idea of an album is clear. I later realised that the album I was making was actually three albums long. So it was the long process that eventually showed me what songs every album should have.

The press release informs us that you confined yourself to “the darkness in a remote part of Finland’s woods” in order to create the records. Did you get away with the intention of recording these albums? Or did you go with no idea of what might emerge?

It was after the realisation that there’s three albums when I decided that I needed more space and time to sit around with it. I built a studio in a cabin to record everything I could and to really sink into the world of these songs. Every album is very different but they are part of the same idea or story. I did write more songs there and went through a lot of old ones to get every album the form it needed to have. My time there really made me see what the albums should be in detail.

More generally, what is it about isolation that is so conducive to your creative process? Is it just a case of fleeing distraction? Or achieving a Zen-like concentration? Or to avoid falling into familiar lines of thought (as Nietzsche said, “When I am among the many I live as the many do, and I do not think as I really think”). Can/have you ever written without some degree of isolation?

I think I’m fleeing distraction so that I can give all of my energy just to think about the form of the music. I really enjoy sinking into writing with everything I got. On top of this I feel the isolation and nature breathes into the creative process. I sometimes went fishing in the middle of the lake six in the morning after recording 12 hours straight, just to be quiet. It’s nice to be in complete silence when you are having a break from writing or recording. I would say that nature and isolation highlights my normal state of mind. I don’t pay too much attention on what’s going on in the world of music, but the isolation gives me more space to see what the ideas really are. I hear songs in my head all the time so I really don’t need isolation to make them, but it does help a great deal.

Who/what do you consider to be the biggest influences on your songwriting and sound? Have non-musical art forms (literature, visual art etc.) played a role too?

In music there are of course so many. Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, Scott Walker, LeeHazelwood, Roy Orbison to name a few. I think through Scott Walker I really began to be interested in making music, and not what style should be. I also get a lot of inspiration from short moments that speak to me in a strong way. They can be from something I see in everyday life or a few seconds in a movie. Film makers like Andrei Tarkowsky or David Lynch are artists who can create these very inspiring moments in so many levels.

Finally, could you name the 4-5 artists you are currently listening to most often? They can be new favourites or old classics, global hits or local gems, whatever you’re enjoying at the moment.

Dennis Wilson
Bob Dylan – Ten of Swords
Deradoorian
Erkin Koray
Harmonia and Brian Eno

You can buy Amen 1 now from the Mikko Joensuu Bandcamp page, or on vinyl via Svart Records.

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“In the summer of 2012 I built a studio in a small cabin by a lake in northern Finland. I spent a month staring towards the lake, writing and recording. During that time I realized what I had was actually three different albums, all stemming from the same state of mind, expressing various sides to the same story.”

Our first taste of the work will be Amen 1, what Joensuu considers the “most fragile” part of the story. “It’s an effort to find balance between great sadness and beauty”, he continues, “to understand the very strange state when one’s mind is close to collapse and yet at the same time more alive than ever.” As if to prove this enticing, mysterious description, he has put out ‘Warning Sign’ as the first single, a track with all the delicate beauty of spun glass or maybe some intricate ice structure, conjured into being by the strange forces of nature. Lyrically, the song revolves around a narrator doomed to self-destructive repetition, a man caught within Einstein’s definition of insanity and tragically aware of if. Check out the video below, directed and edited by Ezra Gould with Osku Pulkkinen on camera:

Amen 1 is due for release on Svart Records on the 10th June. You can expect to see the subsequent parts (presumably Amen 2 and 3) in late 2016 and early 2017 respectively.

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“Three lovely dream pop songs, complete with sweet and lovelorn vocals…[which are] doing a pretty good job of making me feel warm and fuzzy during a particularly cold and grey December day.”

Victoria from Pretty Sad recently got in touch to say that her other project, Eerie Summer, had made an album titled the way I don’t understand anything anymore. The band are a duo, Victoria from St Petersburg joined by Maxim from Finland, and make really great, lo-fi indie pop that sounds sweet but hides a complexity of emotions. It’s the aural equivalent of a sad kid’s Tumblr page, all cuteness and charm at first glance, but with a lot of anxiety and sadness hidden just below the surface.

Opener ‘No Big Deal’ dives straight in to the vibe of the album, a slice of jangly lo-fi pop with sugary vocals delivering a chorus of “It doesn’t matter baby, it doesn’t matter / if I’m almost dead / if I’m almost dying”. ‘Never Good Enough’, my favourite song from the album, is an anthem for the shy and belittled, spiky and catchy and shimmery in all the right amounts:

“I wish I could talk to you
I wish I was louder
I wish I had social skills
I wish I was stronger”

The rest of the album doesn’t let things drop. ‘Not the kind of girl to hang around’ is romantic fuzz pop with defiantly headstrong lyrics (“You don’t have to take me home you can drop me off the road / you can tell your friends to piss off and leave me all alone” & “I won’t change for anybody, I won’t change for anyone”), and ‘i don’t need anybody else but you’ is similar in tone but the lyrical flip side, displaying a total devotion to an other. ‘Weird around you’ is another favourite of mine: Slightly slower and bigger with echoey lo-fi undertones, it sounds like a garage band playing a slow romantic number at their high school dance. As if to reinforce the message, closer ‘Its okay’ is probably the best illustration of the album as a whole – a perky pop song with lyrics more kind and understated than gushing about true love:

“its okay to be sad
its okay to feel bad
i’ve got my life (?)
you’ve got your life (?)
and you’ll never see me try
to win your heart”

It’s a great little album all in all and a must for those who like their romantically fuzzy indie pop with a colouring of angst. You can get the way i don’t understand anything anymore on a pay-what-you-want basis via the Eerie Summer Bandcamp page. I’d suggest you do so right now!

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