2nd Grade – Favorite Song
Adeline Hotel – Lightning
Adrianne Lenker – Cradle
Allison’s Gate – Traces
Anna McClellan – Heart of Hearts
Advance Base – Christmas in Nightmare City
Badlands – Slow it Down
Bambara – José Tries to Leave
The Beths – Whatever
Bodega – Jack in Titanic
boygenius – Me & My Dog
Camp Cope – UFO Lighter
Campdogzzz – Sorceress
Cave People – I Shall Believe
Damien Jurado – Percy Faith
Dead Painters – Fool on Fire
Dear Nora – Simulation Feels
Dehd – Dying For
Devon Welsh – Vampires
Diva Sweetly – Detox Island
Doe – Heated
Dusted – Outline of a Wolf
Field Report – Every Time
Frankie Valet – Something to do with a mouth
Gia Margaret – Birthday
Goodbye Max – Old Photos
Good Good Blood – Cannot Be Yours Forever
Gorgeous Bully – Patience
Great Health – Lazarus
Hop Along – How Simple
Hour – At the bar where you literally saved me from fatal heartbreak 
Houses – Fast Talk
Hovvdy – Brave
Hypoluxo – Kentucky Smooth
IAN SWEET – Hiding
Kal Marks – Today I Walked Down To The Tree, Read A Book, And When I Was Done, I Went Back Inside
Katy Kirby – Juniper
Kevin Morby & Waxahatchee – Dark Don’t Hide It
Kississippi – Easier to Love
Kraków Loves Adana – The Day the Internet Died
Lala Lala – Destroyer
Lisa/Liza – Tea Kettle
lowly loverboi – Graveyards in Space
Lucy Dacus – Yours & Mine
Mike Pace & the Child Actors – Escape the Noise
Miranda Winters – The Futuristic District
Mitski – Nobody
Moonface – Minotaur Forgiving Pasiphae
Moon Racer – Friendly Ghost
Nap Eyes – Every Time the Feeling
Nice Try – Micah
Nicole Dollanganger – Uncle
No Age – Drippy
Oceanator – Mistakes
Of The Valley – Ride Alone
Pale Kids – St. Theresa
Pat Moon – I Belong
Pema – Depend
Petal – I’m Sorry
Pink Navel – born-100.dev
Pizza Girl – Body Part
Protomartyr – Wheel of Fortune
Remember Sports – Dripping
Restorations – Nonbeliever
Rivulets – Everything Goes
Ryan Von Gonten – Fabrique
Sabriel’s Orb – Holding
Saccharine – Pumpkin Guts
Sam Moss – Snap
Sara Renberg – Take the Summer Off
Sobs – Sundae
Spartan Jet-Plex – Sweet
Strange Ranger – The Wires
Sun June – Slow Rise II
Swearin’ – Dogpile
Talk, Tired Thanatoid – Everything’s Cool
Tomberlin – Any Other Way
Trace Mountains – Salty Sweet
Trust Fall – Wild Fire/Flowers
TVU – All For Nothing
Weakened Friends – Blue Again
Whitney Baleen – Rainer
Why Bonnie – Stereo
Wild Pink – The Seance on St. Augustine Street
wished bone – reasons
Yellowfront – Cool Breeze
Young Jesus – For Nana
Young Statues – Somebody Else
Yowler – Where Is My Light?

If you missed it, we have also posted our favourite albums list, so check that out too.

The post Favourite Songs of 2018 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Featuring:

Petal – I’m Sorry
Wild Pink – The Seance On St. Augustine St
Big Thing – Spin
Bombshell Nightlight – Death Day
Mount Goldie – Summer
Elsa Lester – Pretty Bad, Man
Why Bonnie – Gold Rush
Devon Welsh – Vampires
Max García Conover – Another Travelling Man
Floating Room – Dog
Izaak Opatz – Bathing in the Ganges
Free Cake For Every Creature – Around You
Indigo De Souza – Home Team
Museum Food Court – bad song
Crisco Dreams – I Like Your Bed
You’re Sister – I Think About You
Russel the Leaf – Let ‘Em Run
Fresh – Daytime
Stevhen Peters – Phone Talk
Tender Age – Don’t Mind
Lord Youth – Do You Have Anything To Add?
Quiet Hollers – Addicted
Blue J – Hard to Know
Post Moves – The Arc of Life
Angus & Julia Stone – Nothing Else
Gia Margaret – Birthday
Sun June – Discotheque
Campdogzz – Souvenir
Field Report – Every Time

*(Due to various issues of availability and licensing, neither playlist has the complete quota of acts, but welcome to the modern age).

You can find all of the previous instalments of Bright Sparks here, and be sure to check back in a few weeks to see what makes the next edition.

The post July 2018 Roundup appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The album can be split into two distinct halves, which Lotz says captures the twin thematic threads of the record. “Tightrope Walker/Miracle Clinger are the two worlds I was living in,” she says, “becoming very skilled at a dangerous performance, which has great consequences if you fail, and also clinging onto the idea that there is hope in all this pain and maybe there will be some great resolution beyond my control.” This duality serves as the driving tension of Magic Gone, an immediate pressure versus distant hope, where pain and sadness can be explored without becoming suffocating, a path to light just visible, no matter how long and winding.

Big crunchy guitars and slapped drums herald ‘Better Than You’, perhaps the record’s most bombastic moment, and an immediate sign that Petal intends to tackle the themes of anxiety and self-doubt with an almost paradoxical blaze of defiance. But, as this is the first half of Magic Gone (AKA Tightrope Walker), these songs are all based on the idea of putting on an act, of trying to continue through a situation that is precarious and ultimately unhealthy. This is equally apparent through ‘Tightrope’ with its sense of desperation and unsustainability, and ‘I’m Sorry’, which recalls Hop Along in its vocal intensity, Lotz’s voice rising in pure emotion as she sings,

“When did it get so personal?
I can’t remember
Even though I’ve tried
Just like a black hole
We collapsed and all
Of our friends stayed in orbit
Because we lied”

On the surface, the songs on the record’s second half (titled Miracle Clinger) are slower and sadder, often sparse arrangements of guitar and piano. But things are more complex than that. These songs were written in the aftermath of Lotz’s breakdown, during a period of recovery, and as the title suggests they contain a lot more hope than it might appear at first glance. ‘Shy’ feels like it’s been carved out of some shadowy material, as Lotz confronts her problems with a sense of determination (“And I know I’m shy / My act is strong”), while ‘Shine’ sees self-confidence begin to poke through.

But it’s on closer ‘Stardust’ that the change really becomes apparent. Both a fierce love song and a rousing acceptance of circumstances, the track is emotionally intense, based on a gentle piano line and Lotz’s charged vocals. The song serves as a finale for the album, a culmination of all the thoughts and feelings that have come before. It finds Lotz reflective, as if she has finally gotten to a place where she can look back on what’s gone on with some kind of context, and having the realisation that even the most difficult moments ultimately allow us to grow.

“Now we’re living in shitty apartments
With mismatched dishes, unlike our parents
Maybe we’d make good parents?
Maybe not, I can’t say
Ooh I can’t say, ooh I can’t say
I didn’t love you”

Magic Gone is out now on Run For Cover Records. Get it from their website (US/UK/AUS), or the Petal Bandcamp page.

The post Petal – Magic Gone appeared first on Various Small Flames.