“Releasing this song is an exercise in killing my perfectionism,” explains Ottawa‘s abijah of latest single ‘Mountainside’, the track having been written before any of the songs on the 2025 EP Turning, yet sitting in a drawer waiting its turn to be set free. “I wrote the song in the February of 2024 at about 3 a.m. in a symbolism-obsessed, half-dreaming state,” they continue. “It’s hard for me to recall actively writing it — it feels more like I lassoed the song down intact from the dream world.” More than a neat origin story, this idea seems to make up the very fabric of the sound, everything slightly out of kilter yet somehow more cohesive for it, as though operating according to laws slightly stranger and more alluring than any conventional wisdom. What results is a single that’s starkly evocative and loaded with symbolism, a yearning search guided not so much by logic as the implicit desires of the unconscious.

Adjenai – Everything Bagel

Written amid grief and discomfort while caring for a loved one with dementia, Adjenai‘s forthcoming release Did It Hurt? Was It Fun? began more as an exercise in self-care more than anything else, the songwriter aiming to soothe themselves through the act of making music, though eventually it became clear the result was something they wished to share with the world. “I was writing songs to process my feelings,” as the Los Angeles-based songwriter explains. “It wasn’t until I was walking with my mom after we spread my aunt’s ashes in Alaska that I said, ‘I think I need to try again with my artist project. I think these songs might be for someone else to hear.” First single ‘Everything Bagel’ captures the decidedly personal spirit of the release, turning its attention to the fond (and not so fond) details of childhood to sketch out the triumphant feeling of finally being out and proud.

Cameron Knowler – Skipping Town

In recent months, Cameron Knowler has been sharing a series of homespun demos, with tracks like ‘Placer Camp Blues‘ and ‘El Centro‘ grounding themselves in both a sense of history and place with their spare yet evocative arrangements which embrace the limitations of the humble cassette recorder. The final track from this collection, ‘Skipping Town’ continues the style with a bittersweet ode to home, its slow and wistful textures proving the ideal conclusion to a series all about the weight of the past and what it might offer us moving forwards. “This tune to me is related to my hometown of Yuma, AZ, the feeling of desperately wanting to leave and return to a place that you left,” Knowler explains. “Leaning into the sparsity, and being in the sunniest place on Earth.”

‘Skipping Town’ is out now via Castle Dome Records and available from Bandcamp.

Cloudbelly – Bend

Cloudbelly continue to pave the way for their forthcoming new album Throwing The Game with new single ‘Bend’. ‘Oh, Antarctica!‘ and ‘Poppa‘ have already shown the release’s emotionally resonant nature, looking to the future and the past respectively, and the latest track continues this style by looking not forward or back, but inwards. “Tell me again / Scarlet voices in my head / ‘Bout how I’m / So grandiose and / How it shows in the ways I’ve chosen / To write on my precious hours,” Corey Laitman sings in the opening verse, the track a direct confrontation between an artist and their critical inner voice. But it’s one conducted not with fire and fury but a triumphant gentleness, as though understanding that any internal pain requires healing more than anything else.

All of that brightness gone sour
Am I a coward
Corroded by rust and
Discontent and a lack
Of trust

Watch the video filmed and directed by Nick Duncan below:

Throwing The Game will be released on the 13th November and you can pre-order it now.

Eliza Edens – Hot & Mean

“While there might be a certain recklessness to the abandon with which Edens faces this new era, it is all part of deeper pact to seize the moment while it is still present. A joyous, if slightly dangerous, celebration of being alive.” So we wrote of Death Drive, the forthcoming album from Eliza Edens, the Brooklyn songwriter emerging from a difficult period with a newfound lust for life. Latest single ‘Hot & Mean’ is no different, turning its attention to the queer experience in the contemporary moment, especially the rollercoaster of dopamine highs and lows facilitated by the access we’re granted into the lives of others by social media. “The chorus is as much directed at myself than it is to anyone else,” Edens explains. “I hope we can all be sloths and move at the speed of geologic time, at least every once in a while.”

Death Drive will be released on the 30rd October via First City Artists and you can pre-order it now.

Jennah Barry – Old Friends

With albums like Young Men and Holiday, Nova Scotian artist Jennah Barry established herself as one of Canada’s finest songwriters, managing to delve into difficult themes and confront hard truths while always maintaining an overarching sense of compassion, in large part thanks to her striking vocal style. After a five-year hiatus. Barry has now returned with new single ‘Old Friends’ with Forward Music Group, and the track is every bit as lush and subtly powerful as we’ve come to expect. A song which explores the passing of time and the emotional weight it so often carries, capturing the ways in which once pressing feelings are smudged into the backdrop of our lives, no longer immediate yet nonetheless colouring the very fabric of existence.

J.W. Ricci – Realization

We last wrote about J.W. Ricci back in May with the release of Through a Frame / Pollen Drop, a debut solo guitar double single which introduced a new era for North Carolina-based songwriter. For having played in bands for a decade while working exploitative jobs (the “twin meat grinders of the music industry and life,” as we put it), he now finds himself in a newly stable position and eager for a creative fresh start. “There’s an clear sense of authenticity to Through a Frame / Pollen Drop as a result,” as we wrote, “each track recorded live with no overdubs and feeling like an artist not only reflecting on their journey to the present, but also coming to understand a healthier path they might follow from here on in.” Now J.W. Ricci is back with new single ‘Realization’, a track every bit as considered as those which preceded it, moving with a calm grace that nevertheless carries its own reflective, almost mournful edge.

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

The Male Pattern – I Was Shot in the Heart!

The last time we checked in with the protagonist of I Was Shot in the Heart!, the new album from The Male Pattern, he was rapidly sinking into the dark side of life, fresh off a divorce and thrown into trouble by a harebrained scheme to make a quick buck. “Firearms and narcotics have never been a good mix, especially not when the characters involved are quite so desperate, and an ostensibly foolproof plan to rob a small-time dealer inevitably tilts towards disaster.” With the album now out via Audio Antihero, Will Schwartz has shared the title track and closer to hint at the ‘happy ending’ offered by the release. “Our guy has struggled against the confines of his putrid personality, seeking fruitlessly for love, glory, meaning, or at the very least self self-annihilation in the form of screen addiction and benzo abuse,” as Schwartz explains. “He finally finds what he’s looking for in a shootout with police at a White Plains Stop and Shop.”

Sammy Weissberg – II – String Quartet no.2

Brooklyn-based composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist Sammy Weissberg is preparing to release his new album Music for Strings and Brass via Dear Life Records this November, and lead track ‘String Quartet no.2’ highlights how he channels the spirit of late-Romantic and modernist composers to paint a picture of everyday life in all its elaborate detail and humble simplicity. “This was the first movement I composed for String Quartet No.2,” Weissberg explains. “I used the melodic material as a foundation to write the rest of the piece, and it’s loosely based on the traditional symphonic form. The quartet was composed with a conventional structure, but this movement was written intuitively, almost like a stream of consciousness. I wrote the melodies while singing on my bike. It feels more lyrical, like a folk song.”

Sasha Adrian – Punch

“Reimagines the traditional boundaries of a love song to explore a form of relationship not so often explored,” we wrote of Sasha Adrian‘s ‘wish that i had called you’ back in June. “Namely the incredibly close bond formed between teenage friends, where every emotion is heightened and you are certain the relationship will continue perpetually.” Now the Copenhagen-based songwriter has returned with ‘Punch’, a brand new single which continues this examination of less publicised sides of relationships with a raw yet compassionate meditation on ghosting and growing apart. “Losing a friendship is a slow kind of heartbreak,” Adrian says. “It’s hard to find words for it because we haven’t really been taught how to talk about it. Do you tell a friend that you’re growing apart? Can you ghost someone you’ve known for over ten years? Honestly, I don’t know—I just know it hurts deeply to love someone who’s walking away.”

Son Lux – Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother

This autumn sees the release of Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, a film directed by Bassam Tariq which casts Mahershala Ali as a devoutly religious hitman, and the soundtrack by Son Lux is every bit as inventive and bewildering as the movie itself. Driving electronic beats capture the energy of the action, but an array of mysterious and mystical electronic flourishes deepen the soundscapes into something more interesting, mirroring the film’s pairing of visceral violence and metaphysical majesty to create a style that manages to be urgent, contemplative and reverent simultaneously. The soundtrack will be released physically by Waxwork Records and digitally by This Is Meru, and the title track is available now to introduce what to expect.

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother will be released via Waxwork Records & This Is Meru and you can pre-order it now.

Stonefruit – Friendship Food Mart

Featuring Olivia Langan (guitar, vocals), Gavin Wallace (bass), Jory Gomez (drums) and Jerry Cannon (guitar), Stonefruit is an indie rock outfit based in Bozeman, Montana who set out to capture the full nostalgia and strangeness of the American experience. Earlier this year, the band released their debut album Good News Only and single ‘Friendship Food Mart’ is an ideal introduction to the side of the country they look to evoke. Described as “a love letter to the flyover states of middle America,” the song is the sonic equivalent of driving through a landscape of parking lots and shopping malls, those sprawling edge of town hinterlands that might be exciting or depressing, depending on your frame of mind.

Sweetbreads – The Anvil

Melody Stolpp’s Sweetbreads has shared a number of single in recent months, all leading up to new album Punisher.  ‘Punisher of Love‘ was “an exploration of [the] contemporary rat race, delving into the weight of expectations and self-sabotage which results,” while more recently ‘Open Mic‘ fought to keep the love of art amid the inevitable tussle between ambition and disappointment. With Punisher now finally released, Sweetbreads has released new single ‘The Anvil’, perhaps the happiest song on the record which embraces the radical potential of kindness and positivity. “They say to write what scares you most. I was honestly so terrified writing the lyric ‘You are good’,” as Stolpp explains. “As an extremely self-critical person, taking that weight off and practicing radical self love can be really challenging. In today’s world, we are constantly beating ourselves down and pushing ourselves to be more productive under the pressures of capitalism. Resisting these forces and believing you are enough is a revolutionary act. You matter because you are a living, breathing being. I hope this song can serve as a reminder of that to anyone who hears it.”

Punisher is out now and available from the usual places.

The post Weekly Listening: September 2026 #4 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“Are you so bored, or just boring?” asks American Cream Band‘s Nathan Nelson on ‘Don’t Burn the House Down’, the latest single from their new full-length Twin, coming next month via Quindi Records. A repeated refrain dripping in sardonic wit and clearly pointed towards the malicious forces currently extending their tentacles across the US and beyond. Based in the Twin Cities, Nelson and co. have experienced the blunt end of contemporary fascism in recent months, something which charges the new record with an almost electric urgency, as ‘Don’t Burn the House Down’ attests. A rich, colourful and caustic track which stands its ground against those who would destroy the places we call home if given half a chance.

Aubrey Jane – Karmic

Next week, New Orleans-based songwriter Aubrey Jane will release Starshiner, a new full-length album which builds upon the foundations of previous release Calamity, using vulnerability and emotional honesty to move beyond difficult experiences and towards something new. Latest single ‘Karmic’ is the ideal entry point, demonstrating Jane’s mix of folk-inflected brand of indie rock and the confessional bedroom pop sensibilities which underpin it. Flowing between relative restraint and urgent peaks of intensity, the track confronts a dysfunctional relationship head on, probing at the parts at hurt with an almost masochistic compulsion. “And I’ll play the victim / Cause I’ve always been good at it,” as Janes sings:

Wait till you have the words to tell me
What I did
Maybe all this is karmic
Maybe it’s deserved
So I’ll be the bad guy if you be the damsel
Cause I like how it hurts

Watch the video filmed, produced, directed and edited by Quinn Young below:

‘Karmic’ is out now and available from Bandcamp. Starshiner will be released on the 15th May.

Félicia Atkinson – Les Yeux II

Ghent’s VIERNULVIER runs a series called VIDEOROOM, where classic cult films are shown with new live soundtracks, with 2026’s programme featuring the likes of Mary Lattimore playing a score for Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy and Alabaster DePlume doing Peter Kass’s Time of the Heathen. Félicia Atkinson‘s new album SANS VISAGE stems from the project, taking the reimagined soundtrack for Georges Franju’s 1960 horror classic Les Yeux sans visage (Eyes Without a Face) she performed live and condensing it into a continuous, non-linear composition. One which considers the “female and animal gaze” of the film, repositioning the focus towards the resistance displayed by the victims to open up a feminist counter-narrative, and ultimately working to show how old art might offer sites to imagine new ideas. Listen to first cut ‘Les Yeux II’ now:

J.W. Ricci – Through a Frame

Though Through a Frame / Pollen Drop is the debut solo guitar released from J.W. Ricci, the double single is far from the first time the North Carolina-based songwriter has attempted to put his music into the world. He spent the best part of the last decade playing in various bands to different levels of success, all while working a series of underpaid, exploitative (and sometimes downright dangerous) jobs, though ultimately emerged feeling discouraged and burnt out having been chewed up on either side by twin meat grinders of the music industry and life. But fast-forward to the present, armed with stable employment and some sense of perspective, Ricci has turned to writing instrumental guitar songs which speak to a new creative headspace. “I feel a sense of spaciousness, ease and openness in those pieces,” he explains, “in contrast to the white-knuckled, clenched, grasping that I hear in my older music.” There’s an clear sense of authenticity to Through a Frame / Pollen Drop as a result, each track recorded live with no overdubs and feeling like an artist not only reflecting on their journey to the present, but also coming to understand a healthier path they might follow from here on in.

Watch the video by Emma Geiger for ‘Through a Frame’ below:

Through a Frame / Pollen Drop is out now and available from Bandcamp.

Laura Lucas & Luke Sital-Singh – Same World

Described as the closest Winnipeg-based songwriter Laura Lucas has ever come to penning a love song, ‘Same World’ was a single on her 2025 debut There’s a Place I Go. A track which turned to the beauty of the organic world as an allegory for human connection, equating the symbiotic bonds of nature to the mutual benefits of a loving relationship. “The first verse of the song is one of my favourite things I’ve written,” she explains. “The line ‘I’ll use your light after you go’ is basically saying ‘I will photosynthesise off of you’, which I think is what falling in love is meant to feel like, like they are the sun and you are the leaf.” But Lucas was not quite finished with the song, and has now returned with an alternate version recorded with Luke Sital-Singh. The essence of the original is preserved, but the addition of an extra voice only accentuates the tenderness and romance.

And I think we live in the same world
And I’ll wait for a sign
Think my nature is something like yours
And yours something like mine, mine

Lemoncello – Tomorrow Nostalgia

In recent weeks we’ve shared a couple of singles from Perfect Place, a full-length from Dublin duo Lemoncello which sees Laura Quirke (guitar/vocals) and Claire Kinsella (cello/vocals) adopt a newfound clarity and emotional honesty within their work. First came ‘Meet Me Halfway’, a song featuring “a complicated relationship between intimacy and distance,” as we wrote, “a sense of push and pull,” then ‘Articulate Animal’, which was “something like a mantra,” as we put it, “a spell intended to cut to the quick of the self, hurdling over the rational part of the mind and sinking into the instinctive.” With the album now out with Claddagh Records, the pair have shared new single ‘Tomorrow Nostalgia’ to further convince audiences of their talents. With a combination of taut, almost brooding tones and altogether more ethereal textures, the song faces up to the dangers of our preoccupations with both the future and past, where the seductive urge to fill a life with dreams of either results in not much of a life at all. Watch the video directed by Eilís Doherty below:

Perfect Place is out now via Claddagh Records and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Max Knouse – Angel’s Share

“The title Goat Pupil could be aspirational, like a name for a student of greatness,” explains Max Knouse of his new record, coming next month via Ruination Record Co., though the LA-based artist offers a number of alternate reads too. “It could be something about seeing in widescreen—goats have amazing rectangular pupils. Or it could be a self-deterministic thing. Goats are pretty Satanic. I like the paradox of following someone who follows no one. There’s a lot of stuff in the songs about harnessing your own powers of evil or about perseverance while witnessing the evil around you.” Following hot on the heels of 2025’s Chimpmunk’d Away, Goat Pupil is itself a story of perseverance. An album created under considerable financial constraints (which, of course, equates considerable practical constraints), that, with help of producer Chris Schlarb, somehow manages to twist this fact to its benefit. How long does it take to capture lightning in a bottle? Judging by this, it takes exactly a day and half in a studio above an Arizona pizza shop. Listen to the lonesome, languorous lead single ‘Angel’s Share’ for an early preview:

Rowena Wise – Blood Ties

Naarm/Melbourne-based songwriter Rowena Wise won acclaim back in 2024 with Senseless Acts of Beauty, an album which drew as much from the classic folk of the sixties as it did contemporaries like Aldous Harding and Julia Jacklin to create a sound able to explore the difficult themes of loss, longing and alienation with an ever-burning compassion and warmth. New single ‘Blood Ties’ continues to develop this style, using a steely yet earnest tone to confront pain head on, and emerging with the possibility that suffering might be conquered if we could look at it honestly. “I wrote ‘Blood Ties’ after a close friend experienced a mental health crisis,” Wise explains. “In the aftermath, I watched his father struggle to respond, not because he didn’t love his son, but because he didn’t know how to meet him emotionally… In Australia, especially, emotional restraint has long been normalised… But that silence creates space for shame to grow, particularly within families where unspoken pain lingers beneath the surface.”

Watch the video directed by Didirri below:

‘Blood Ties’ is out now via Beloved Recordings and available from Bandcamp.

Trivial Shields – First Edition Paperbacks

Having cut his teeth with college band My Dear Disco, Christian Carpenter has gone on to play with the likes of Renata Zeiguer, Luke Winslow-King, Kent Odessa, Anna Ash and Cassandra Jenkins, though has also built up a considerable catalogue of his own work under the moniker Trivial Shields. Recorded analog to tape at the renowned Tiny Telephone studio in Oakland, latest single ‘First Edition Paperbacks’ is the ideal introduction for anyone unfamiliar with the project. The tale of two relationships which come to mirror one another (one with a bookseller, another with an experimental ‘plant musician’), both enthralling the narrator despite (or perhaps because of) proving somewhat unobtainable in the grand scheme of things.  “Living off of manic lust in excess / Eating from your supple hands,” Carpenter croons in typically passionate fashion. “When brilliant minds / antagonize / Is there fault to contest? / I don’t know but…” The result is lush, woozy and sensual, committed to romance even while understanding such things are doomed, and savouring the grandeur of feelings while they last.

Watch the video below, directed by Melanie Drew Chambers, filmed and coloured by Otium, featuring the puppets of The Bob Baker Marionette Theater:

‘First Edition Paperbacks’ is out now and available from Bandcamp.

The post Weekly Listening: May 2026 #2 appeared first on Various Small Flames.