This autumn sees the release of Electric Bouquet, a new full-length from Anna McClellan on Father/Daughter Records. An account of the past four years, the album charts a period which saw McClellan go to school to become an electrician, move cross country and experience the end of relationships, and single ‘Endlessly’ captures the release’s atmosphere of bittersweet tenderness. A slow burner which slowly shakes itself from a melancholic piano-led opening into something freer and more affirming, McClellan rising from the blues in real time with an overarching message of hope. “‘Endlessly’ is definitely a mile marker song for me,” McClellan describes. “I think it retains all of the common traits of my songwriting while reaching a new level of maturity. It feels important and urgent to express this idea that we are each other’s truths. We can’t look to the supposed leaders of our system or the media for truth.”

Watch the video filmed by McClellan, Mychal Marasco and Ryan McKeever and edited by Harrison Martin below:

Electric Bouquet will be released via Father/Daughter Records on 25th October. Pre-order it now from the Anna McClellan Bandcamp page.

Anne Malin – River

“I saw my heart beating in a river and left it there for the earth to save / Some muscle wet in the weeds, and flooded through still I will sing.” So sings Anne Malin on ‘River’, the lead single from forthcoming album Strange Power!, set to be released next month via Dear Life Records. The lines not only capture the essence of the song but the wider thematic resonance of the album as a whole. The Durham, NC-based songwriter and poet explores how nature and its inherent motion might possess the key to the process of healing in the aftermath of trauma and loss. The album is being released in tandem with book-length poem, What Floods (published under the name AM Ringwalt), the two not only complimenting and deepening one another, but intersecting on ‘River’, whose lyrics appear within text.

Strange Power! is out on the 25th October via Dear Life Records and you can pre-order it now. What Floods will be published by Inside the Castle and you can find more here.

El Tee – Baby

Based in Naarm/Melbourne by way of California, El Tee (AKA songwriter Lauren Tarver) introduced itself in 2020 with debut full-length album, Everything Is Fine—an album built around an ongoing quest for self-realisation and acceptance. Building upon these themes, new single ‘Baby’ sees El Tee once against push against the grain in the knowledge that confronting discomfort is the only path towards the truth, and moreover directly calls out those who would prefer to avoid vulnerability via the sly tactic of self-sabotage. “I wrote ‘Baby’ about the experience of doing this to myself, but also about being on the receiving end of someone sabotaging a good thing when it feels hard,” as Tarver explains. “Self-sabotage can be a form of protection—creating predictability can give the illusion of safety. At least, that’s what my therapist says…”

Watch the video by Tarver herself below:

‘Baby’ is out now and available from the El Tee Bandcamp page.

Kareem Rahma & Tiny Guns – Baby I Could Never Win

Kareem Rahma might be best known as the comedian, host and creator behind viral TikTok and Instagram series Subway Takes and Keep The Meter Running, but also records as part of the band Tiny Guns along with Tyler McCauley (guitar), Joe Tirabassi (guitar), Matt Morello (bass, piano, backing vocals) and Dale Eisinger (drums, percussion). With new EP No Worries If Not coming next week, Rahma and co. have shared opener ‘Baby I Could Never Win’ to whet the appetite. A hectic dash of a track which pulls the audience into its forward momentum alongside Rahma’s uber cool delivery.

Oceanator – Get Out

Oceanator has long offered lead Elise Okusami a vehicle to explore the emotional landscape of life in a collapsing world, with previous albums Things I Never Said and Nothing’s Ever Fine wrestling with what it means to love and long for things in a time where the approaching end is so apparent. Their latest record, out now via Polyvinyl Records, is the culmination of these ideas, something written in its very title—Everything is Love and Death. As you might expect, the range of emotions on show is vast and ever-changing, but don’t be fooled into thinking such high stakes sap any of the defiant energy from the songs. Take ‘Get Out’, a promise to meet the world on its own stark terms and seize the moment to make itself heard.

Get up get up get out tonight
I’m not going down without a fight
I wanna be here not stuck in my head
Imagining all the things I never said

The track comes with a video directed by Paul DeSilva which casts Okusami as an actual demon slayer. Watch below:

Everything is Love and Death is out now via Polyvinyl and available from Bandcamp.

Quarterly – Illuminati

Last week saw the release of Adonis, the third album from Brooklyn duo Quarterly. The husband and wife duo Kristen Drymala and Christopher DiPietro work at the intersection of folk and neoclassical, combining guitar and cello in wordless compositions of rich depth and sober intensity. Their most formally adventurous yet, the new record sees the pair throw off the shackles of trying to make something that can be played live in favour of experimental tunings, polyrhythms and innovative forms. Album closer and final single ‘Illuminati’ is a good introduction. What the press release calls an “A24-soundtrack-ready track [which] imagines the sound of pre-Christian folk music,” it’s mysteriously beautiful, Drymala’s cello following DiPetro’s guitar in intricate passages before soaring off on its own.

Sea Lemon – Crystals (feat. Benjamin Gibbard)

Hot on the heels of 2023 album Stop At Nothing on Luminelle Recordings, Sea Lemon has returned with a brand new single ‘Crystals’. The previous record saw the Natalia Lew draw on ideas more typically seen in horror films or literary fiction, with narrators which feel, as we put it, “at once fearful and dangerous, some absence at the heart of their existence pushing them toward the darkest of places.” The new single, which sees Benjamin Gibbard lend vocals too, might not be quite so foreboding, but still bucks expectation with its willingness to forgo escape attempts and instead embrace the gloomy present. “I wrote most of the song after coming to this realization that ‘manifesting’ or looking for signs in nature or everyday life is mostly just a coping mechanism to get by day to day,” Lew explains. “When Ben came on and wrote his verse, I loved his added angle—rather than attempting lighter coping mechanisms, just submitting oneself to being upset and living in that darkness for a while can be a way to cope in and of itself.”

‘Crystals’ is out now via Luminelle Recordings and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Shovel Dance Collective – The Rolling Wave

“A stripped back sea shanty hushed with the inevitable loss of grand adventure, the titular vessel just another claimed by the ocean’s mysterious whims.” So we wrote of The Shovel Dance, the forthcoming album from Shovel Dance Collective on American Dreams. As it progressed, the track revealed itself as more than a simple folk song, landing alongside the likes of Lankum and Shane Parish in its mission, as we put it, “to push old sounds and stories into new dimensions.” With the album’s release fast approaching, the London nine-piece have shared new single, ‘The Rolling Wave’. It’s another example of the depth and intricacy of the Shovel Dance Collective sound, not to mention the intuitive spirit which hangs everything together. The humble three-minute runtime might seem modest compared with the previous single, but with a wistful and inherently playful arrangement, the track again offers a portal through which the audience is invited.

Check out the video by Tom Hardwick-Allan, with finishing and colour by Rafi Siraj and bleeds by Nick Granata:

The Shovel Dance is out on the 11th October via American Dreams and you can pre-order it now from the Shovel Dance Collective Bandcamp page.

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Back in December we introduced a new release from East Vancouver post-punks Aversions with single ‘New Whip’, a track which “combine[d] heavyweight riffs, pounded percussion and acerbic vocals to comment on our contemporary moment.” Album You Wanted the Bike has now been released, and as single ‘Undecider’ shows, the record builds upon the promised heft, leaning towards post-hardcore in its pummelling momentum. Written in the chaotic final days of the Trump presidency, it’s a song full of anxiety and latent violence, drawing on a whole host of political and social themes in three and a half minutes of Strummer-esque polit-punk. Check out the video directed by Bruno Trivelli of Death XII:

You Wanted the Bike is out now and available from the Aversion Bandcamp page.

Green Gardens – This Is My Fault

Leeds art rock outfit Green Gardens have announced a new record, This Is Not Your Fault, with the release of lead single ‘This Is My Fault’. Written in what the band say was “a whirlwind state of inspiration after hearing a Ralph Ineson monologue in which he’s crying and pleading with God to lift an imagined curse from him,” the track is the perfect introduction to the four-piece’s distinctive style, combining swaying, laidback harmonies with fuzzy guitars and an almost Medieval preoccupation with heavy themes and gothic imagery.

Gabby’s World – Mussel

When we say Gabby’s World, the project of New York producer and songwriter Gabby Smith, is releasing new album GABBY SWORD this this year on Carrot All Records, we mean year quite literally. Because Smith is unveiling a new song every month, concluding in a full release in December. The final offering of what Smith calls a “triad of gay awakening songs,” latest offering ‘Mussel’ represents the evolution of Smith’s sound and focus since albums like 2015’s O.K. A sincere engagement with what it means to become entwined with another person captured in a style at once physical and ethereal. Watch the video directed by Grace Weir, Barrie Lindsay, and Gabby Smith themselves below:

GABBY SWORD will be released on the 1st December via Carrot All Records.

The Handsome Family – Joseph

Hollow, the forthcoming album from The Handsome Family, originated in a single, unnerving moment shared by Brett and Rennie Sparks during a long winter night. “One night around 4 a.m. Rennie started screaming in her sleep,” Brett explains. “She screamed, ‘Come into the circle Joseph! There’s no moon tonight.’ Scary as it was, I thought, man, that’s a good chorus!” The resulting track ‘Joseph’ develops this moment into a wider context of supernatural foreboding, though within the ominous imagery lies a sense of humanity too. Something nostalgic, a sense of longing, as though within the portents and omens lies the promise of something almost romantic.

It’s 1:49AM
Crawl under the bed
Whisper my name
It’s time to begin

Hollow is out on the 8th September and you can find out more on The Handsome Family website.

Katherine Kyu Hyeon Lim – As It All Goes By

Starling, the debut album from New York-based composer and violinist Katherine Kyu Hyeon Lim, is both an encapsulation of an individual’s unique understanding of patterns and sound and a testament to the value collaboration. Together with Alfredo Colón (EWI/soprano saxophone) and Kalia Vandever (trombone/fx), Lim creates soundscapes within this spirit—unapologetically singular in its improvisation yet fully dependent on the input of others—with each musician offering one solo track on the album as though to call attention to their individuality before knitting back into the wider sound. Closer ‘As It All Goes By’ plays as the triumphant reunion of the these forces, bringing Lim’s vision to life it all of its detail and wonder. As Joey Chang’s album notes so cogently conclude: “Starling demands the right to self-determine, to be the driver of one’s own story, and to say, without apology, who you are.”

Oceanator – Part Time

We’ve written about Elise Okusami’s Oceanator quite a lot over the last few years, taken with her ability to explore pretty deep themes and feelings with fun and energetic indie rock. Co-written with Greg Katz (of Cheekface), new standalone single ‘Part Time’ (out now via Polyvinyl Records) might be the catchiest thing Okusami has made to date. A song about taking small steps toward making positive changes, it captures a sunny 60s rock & roll vibe with springy keys, crisp guitar riffs and the ear-worm chorus of “I know that I can get by if I try /Part time!”

Patio – En Plein Air

Their first new music since 2019 LP Essentials (which we described as “a knowing smile, a bitter laugh and an angry scream, all at once.”), ‘En Plein Air’ is the new single from New York post-punk trio Patio. Released via the good folks at Fire Talk Records, the song immediately shows that the band have still got it; all negative space, skittering percussion and razor-sharp stabs of guitar. There’s deadpan delivery and wry humour, a luminous vulnerability and even a subtle glow of disco bliss. The band say its a song about “winning a fight, for once, but by proxy—finding the right thing to say, but five years too late.” But as they say, better late than never.

‘En Plein Air’ is out now via Fire Talk and available via the Patio Bandcamp page.

Snake Lips – Smooth Brain No Wrinkles

Portland, Maine punk outfit Snake Lips are set to return with Dice EP later this summer with Repeating Cloud and Totally Real Records, and lead single ‘Smooth Brain No Wrinkles’ invites listeners into the distinctive personality of the project. Because, as the song’s title might suggest, the Snake Lips style combines its compelling energy with a mischievous irony, tapping into a Japandroids-esque momentum to unleash the cathartic potential of self-deprecation. Couple in the FromSoftware-inspired video, and the ‘Smooth Brain No Wrinkles’ will have you dodgerolling right the way through the summer months.

Dice EP is out on the 11th August via Repeating Cloud and Totally Real Records and you can pre-order it now.

 Strawberry Runners – Circle Circle

Their first new release proper since 2017’s superb In the Garden, In the Night, Strawberry Runners have returned with single ‘Circle Circle’ on Duper Moon Records. Lead Emi Night arranged the track alongside Michael Cormier O’Leary, and invited the likes of Benedict Kupstas, Erika Nininger and Stephen Becker to lend their talents. Written during the fevered state of illness, the song taps into the cyclical movements of a troubled mind, though Night pushes through the experience to find solid ground on the other side. As though learning to suspend attempts to fight against exhausting rhythms and instead recognise them as a part of life. What emerges is a sense of stability informed by understanding an compassion, a patience which lessens the impact of any specific discomfort or frustration in favour of a wider curiosity.

Find out more about Strawberry Runners here.

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It is tempting to read the title as a reference to Bazan’s return to his old moniker, but the reference is more overtly geographical than mythological. Bazan and his family left Phoenix, Arizona when he was twelve, and the album focuses its lens back on that time. The songs are intensely personal, the irony that abandoning a solo career to pick back up as a band has led to music more introspective than ever not lost on Bazan himself. “I didn’t realize what calling my music Pedro the Lion again would mean to me,” he says, “but it’s re-connected me to parts of myself and my history (both sonic and personal) that I had lost touch with.”

After the organ-like synths of the opening instrumental, ‘Yellow Bike’ opens with a modest and ordinary scene. “On a desert Christmas morning, 1981,” he sings, “one month shy of six years old, in the valley of the sun.” Though the simplicity belies gravity of the song, the first movement of a deep dive into childhood—an anguished but unflinchingly honest reckoning with the past in attempt to reconcile the present.

The song fuses the freedom of his first childhood bike ride with the lingering pain of isolation, feelings that can be extrapolated through to today, projections or self-inflicted fantasies that can come to define a life. A single taut guitar line backs the opening verse, a systolic drumbeat heralding the arrival of the full band, like a new dawn after years as a solo artist.

Placed in the context of a strict Christian upbringing, ‘Powerful Taboo’ plays as an child’s confused attempts to become themselves amidst a maze of barriers, dogmatic rules undermined by forces intrinsic and personal. The experience becomes one of guilt and shame, the middle ground where truths both religious and intimate are betrayed simultaneously in doomed effort to remain faithful to both. Such a predicament haunts ‘Circle K’ too, a tale of a childhood Bazan trying to collect enough pocket money for a Santa Cruz skateboard. The song is ostensibly unremarkable, but the writing and vocal delivery make the image of his child self spending his savings on candy and soda pops suddenly momentous, a harbinger of a thousand adult decisions.

Fittingly then, the salvation imagined on ‘Model Homes’ comes not via self-actualization or some higher power, but rather the offer of better living, a time where scrimping and saving in a lonely town is ended by the lottery of the American Dream. The isolation made clear on ‘Yellow Bike’ is ever-present, and the biggest draw of such a prize is the magnificent company that surely awaits its winners—suburbs as they appear in made-for-TV movies, full of friendly kids and fun adventures.

However the reality is different, and making friends requires compromise and self-deception. The title character of ‘Quietest Friend’ seems to be a part of Bazan himself, a part he kept hidden like Bukowski’s bluebird in an effort to connect with “fickle friends” since he was a child. “I didn’t see it coming but now it’s pretty clear,” he sings, “I traded my own wisdom for a jury of my peers. I ignored you for 30 years.” The accompanying video, directed and shot on 16mm film by Jason Lester, sees Bazan come face to face with this persona, quite literally.

‘Black Canyon’ uncoils slowly into a hard, flat rhythm, as sparse and unforgiving as the desert plains themselves. Based on family stories recalled from his childhood, the song details the aftermath of a road accident from the perspective of the men and women called to the scene. “My uncle Ray was a paramedic,” Bazan’s sings, “one of the first boots on the ground, he saw the man beneath the truck in several pieces, obviously gone.” The song echoes ‘Car Crash While Hitchhiking’ from Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son, displaying the same stunned realism in the face of sudden violence, beauty and the grotesque meeting in strange communion.

Such a juxtaposition lies at the heart of Phoenix. Childhood is remembered with intense dread and desperate fondness, a time to be blamed, pinpointed as the beginning of every adult hang-up and dead-end yet still somehow precious, even glorious. “My Phoenix still shines,” Bazan sings on ‘My Phoenix’, where the possessive ‘my’ highlights the track’s position. “My Phoenix will rise.” The idea extends to faith too, the cause of every destructive neurosis that still manages to command thought and awe, an idea hardwired into DNA, too deep for any rational writing off.

If the vision of the Christ
My family sees
Is my blurry vision’s greatest enemy

Then I still try to tune it in
When I get lonely
You know I chase around this desert because I think that’s where you’ll be

Closing track ‘Leaving the Valley’ finds the Bazan family crammed into a U-haul and moving on from Arizona, and, as is the way of things, the conclusion triggers affection. A perfect home it might not have been, but it was a home nonetheless, and nothing is more appealing to those destined or cursed to keep moving on. “How do you stop a rolling stone?” Bazan asks, “How will you know you’re finally home?”

The songs ends with a list of places and images from the desert, an incantation of pure nostalgia and also in many ways the recipe for the present day Bazan—the shaping influences, the unshakeable wishes, the things made forever sacred purely by happenstance. If Phoenix is, as Bazan says, “the result of mining your past for who you are now,” then listening to the record feels like spending a restless night at his side, watching as he examines a disparate series of scenes from his life, his origin story, projected onto the ceiling, the room cast in a wistful Super 8 glow.

Phoenix is out now on Polyvinyl Records. You can get it in a variety of formats from the Polyvinyl webstore or the Pedro the Lion Bandcamp page.

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Familial themes have always threaded through Owen albums and L’Ami du Peuple is no different. However, in a ‘real life’ example of Kinsella’s progression, he is now father to two children, and the lyrics have changed accordingly. The pressures on him have shifted, now pressing from a new direction. How long have I been sleeping? he sings on ‘Vivid Dreams’. I’m a dad and my dad’s dead. On an album that is always going to be compared to previous work, this shift in focus and point of view serves almost as a metaphor for his development, a signal that he is charting new territory, as eager to learn as ever.

The album is produced by Neil Strauch, a prolific producer who has worked with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Iron & Wine to Andrew Bird, Ben Weaver and Hot Club de Paris. Kinsella and Strauch worked together throughout a recording process that was spaced across a few months, allowing them to pursue different moods and ideas, pushing songs in direction that would otherwise have not existed. Having a producer adept at different genres seems to help Kinsella, allowing him to explore different influences with the album.

It is the combination of styles that you really take away from the record. Kinsella has plied his trade with bands like Cap’n Jazz, American Football, Joan of Arc and Owls, and Owen has been reserved for his explorations of his singer-songwriter side. L’Ami du Peuple feels like a convergence of the two, with the best bits cherry picked from all of his previous projects to make an album that has surprising diversity and depth.

L’Ami du Peuple is out on the 2nd June on Polyvinyl Records.

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