Recording under the moniker Bernardo, vocalist, guitarist and producer Sonia Bernardo combines elements of jazz, indie rock and alt-soul to create songs which owe equal debts to her Portuguese and British heritage. Last week saw the release of Secrets Of Six-Figure Women, Bernardo’s debut full-length album which builds upon the promise of early releases to realise this sound fully—a record packed with confidence and sophistication which meditates on what it means to strive and desire within contemporary society. Single ‘Bobby’s Song’ serves as an ideal entry for the uninitiated, highlighting the sleek mood, intricate detail and assured attitude of the release as a whole.

EERA – Honey, do you see me

The recording project of Berlin-based Norwegian artist Anna Lena Kirsten Bruland, EERA has made a mark in recent years with a moody brand of dream pop. New full-length I’ll stop when I’m done, coming soon via Test Card Recordings, has picked a suitably evocative subject to further the style. Taking its title from a quote by Marilyn Monroe, the album explores the lives of the iconic starlets of Hollywood’s Golden Era, as well as those of the characters they brought to life on the silver screen. Ahead of the album’s release, EERA has shared new single ‘Honey, do you see me’, a track inspired by Billy Wilder’s sixties classic The Apartment. “I was fascinated by the fact that the main character (an intelligent and beautiful woman) is madly in love with a man who has a wife and the boss of a big company,” Bruland explains. “It affected her self-confidence with this man playing with her feelings, promising her the ‘world’ etc. I wanted to write a song from her side of the story but also exaggerate these types of feelings in the song, where you almost feel a bit mad. The desperation of trying to be loved by someone who really doesn’t want to be with you takes over your self-worth. You forget about yourself, and all the focus is on him.”

I’ll Stop When I’m Done will be released on the 26th September via Test Card Recordings.

ear – Ceremony

The project of Yaelle Avtan and Jonah Paz, ear make glitchy collages of indie pop and electronic music that draw on the duo’s background in “experimental electronic hardcore” and twee folk. Following some near-viral success on streaming services with early singles, ear recently released their debut album The Most Dear and the Future, which presents their unique and oddly compelling style to the world proper. Each of the eight songs are short and sweet, slipping effortlessly from gentle, near-whispered pop to headphone-shaking electronica in the blink of an eye. It all feels very now. Like indie pop for the age of short form video, kind of wild and hyperactive but also sad and lonely in a way that’s not easy to describe, nostalgic for something that has never existed. It would fit on the soundtrack to the next Jane Schoenbrun film for sure. You could really start anywhere, but ‘Ceremony’s is my current favourite, so check it out below.

His His – Hardcore Band

We last wrote about His His, AKA Toronto-based songwriter Aidan Belo, back in October 2024 with the release of EP Good Gold, with songs like ‘My Friend Wants to be a Freemason‘ offering “a gentle and folk-inflected [sound] that wears an air of weary wistfulness like the grain in an old film photograph.” Now Belo is returning with brand new EP ’25 via Victory Pool, and single ‘Hardcore Band’ indicates the direction of the release. Recorded entirely to a Tascam cassette deck, the track finds His His at its most fuzzy and intimate, maintaining the earnest tone which has long marked the project and dialling up the closeness through a gauze of DIY texture. Lyrically, the song takes on the age old problem of any folk songwriter. Namely, all of your friends wishing you were in something cooler like a hardcore band instead.

Jamie Lidell & Luke Schneider – The Passing

Fans of experimental music will no doubt be familiar with Jamie Lidell and Luke Schneider, the former one of the UK’s premier practitioners of neo-soul, the latter a renowned pedal steel player pioneering within the genre of ambient country. But their new collaborative album is something different. One designed to aid in the inner explorations brought about by Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy, and awake to the true depths of art’s potential. “A mind is often found more exposed during psychedelic experiences,” Lidell explains. “Specifically in a therapeutic setting, where trust is key to approach issues and work through events in the way of growth. This is music to support and guide the listening with or without psychedelic sensory heightening.” Single ‘The Passing’ is a suitably immersive introduction, regardless of whether you go in sober or substance-assisted.

Jonny Tex – Heifer

Hailing from Boston, MA, Jonny Tex is a youth pastor turned songwriter who makes what has been described as “post-faith slacker rock.” Out via Happene Twice, debut single Heifer / Cherubhead welcomes listeners into this distinctive style, with the lead track pairing playfulness, peculiarity and something more grievous. A song inspired by “Texas floods and Southern dread” which twists the easygoing rhythms and droll swagger of the slacker genre into strange shapes, a sense of desperation needling beneath the surface as the clatter of percussion veers between roguish and unnerving. “I don’t wanna be / Cattle in a flash flood where I’m / Tangled in the trees,” as Tex sings in one verse. “Sucking on salinity for all eternity / Buried by the water that just washes over me / Everything i had / I’d give it all away.”

Mia Wilson – Face To Face

Southern California singer-songwriter Mia Wilson is preparing to release her self-titled debut full-length via Royal Oakie Records this November. The album continues the lineage of LA records from the sixties and seventies, taking inspiration from released like Tapestry by Carole King, Heart Food by Judee Sill and Jackson Browne’s Late For the Sky. Latest single ‘Face To Face’ embodies the lush, honeyed light of this sound, not to mention Wilson’s warm and wistful croon. What results is something rich and welcoming and charged with longing, Wilson’s piano, Wurlitzer and Rhodes accentuated by further instrumentation from Skyler Lusteg (bass buitar, acoustic guitar) and Tim Ramsey (acoustic and electric guitars, organ, percussion, bass VI, Mellotron, pedal steel, bass harmonica, string).

Watch the video filmed by Julia Schwebel and edited by Skyler Lusteg below:

Mia Wilson will be released on the 14th November via Royal Oakie and you can pre-order it now.

Petey USA – Anything In Between

Earlier in the year, Petey USA released The Yips, a concept album set within the fictional dive bar The Yips Tavern, imagining a series of interactions between the diverse clientele who all, in one way or another, struggle through life and experience the dreaded titular phenomenon. Ahead of a fall headline tour, Petey is releasing A Case of The Yips, a new extended version of the record complete with three bonus tracks, one of which is being released now as a single. Described by the artist as “a song about being scared about any possible outcome,” ‘Anything In Between’ was written as a b-side to album favourite ‘Ask Someone Else’ though is far more than a handmaid. Better to think of it as the small devil on the shoulder versus the angel of ‘Ask Someone Else’, corrupting the encouragement of the previous track with a creeping sense of doubt. But, true to the Petey USA sound, the result burns through its anxious concern with equal parts unguarded sincerity and cathartic momentum, making for a worthy addition to barstools at The Yips.

A Case Of Yips will be released later this year.

Weirs – Everlasting

“To ponder whether Weirs exist in defiance or deference of their forebears is to miss the point completely. This is not an attempt to raze conventions, nor reproduce them. But rather imagine how folk could and should sound today.” So we wrote of the North Carolina outfit’s new album Diamond Grove, coming next month via Dear Life Records. Lead single ‘‘I Want to Die Easy’ introduced the style. “A hymn” as we continued, “delivered not from the still air and stone of a cathedral but God’s own Earth,” and now Weirs have returned with new track ‘Everlasting’ to further ground the album’s terrestrial textures. It’s an instrumental recorded during a late night improvisation session and furthered with layers of field recordings. These additional sounds range from drain grates at wastewater plants and street preachers in bus terminals to a walk the old “cow cemetery” in the woods at Diamond Grove farm and scooping cheese curd from the vat in Cedar Grove. The result feels like an accumulation of the area’s history, years superimposed to create something able to transcend the ordinary flow of time.

The post Weekly Listening: September 2025 #4 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

In recent months we’ve been following London-based songwriter Eli Carvajal as he prepares to release new full-length Eyen Forever in October via Safe Suburban Home Records. After singles like ‘Stretch Marks‘ (which “manag[es],” we wrote, “to evoke the ways in which love elevates the ordinary into something wonderful, and creates the possibilities of new myths and dreams before us”) and ‘Scar’ (“welcom[es] the audience into the mundane details of everyday existence in order to gesture towards themes more poignant and sweeping”), Carvajal has returned with the album opener, ‘Forever’. Another emotive, tender track, the song finds Carvajal at perhaps his most intimate, the arrangement stripped right back to its bare necessities and possessing the kind of wistful fondness only accessed when one finds themselves far away from home. As he explains: “‘Forever’ was inspired by my two years’ teaching English in Tokyo, Japan. In the song, I play with the language we use around romance, reframing love and loss with poignancy as well as humour.”

Fulton Lights – Hold That Thought

Recording under the moniker Fulton Lights, Andrew Spencer Goldman last put out new music in 2018, when album Moonwalking into the Future highlighted the ambition and invention of his work. New EP Well the Night Has Come shows the hiatus has done nothing to dampen his creative energies. Take single ‘Hold That Thought’, a song concerned with the very process of making art in a world of distraction. Along with guests TJ Lipple (Aloha) on drums, John Davis (ex-QandNotU/Georgie James/Title Tracks/Paint Branch) on backing vocals and Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu) on percussion, Goldman crafts a sound layered and languid, though the laid-back rhythm belies the urgency and depth of feeling present in the delivery. Because this is a track about “trying to remain open to those moments where creativity is born,” as Goldman explains. “Capturing and releasing them before they dissipate. It can be an act of resistance against all of the things conspiring to distract.”

Leilani Patao – Cut

Starting in 2021 at the tender age of seventeen, Brooklyn (via Los Angeles) based songwriter Leilani Patao put out a series of DIY self-releases, culminating in the acclaimed 2024 album But What If? which earned, among other things, a feature on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. But despite this success, Patao grew disallusioned with the biz, not an unfamiliar story within a contemporary music scene which demands not only on hard work in an artistic sense but an even greater degree of effort (and luck) be spent on self-promotion, algorithmic appeasement and any number of equally soul-destorying things. Many criticize this system but few take concrete action against it, which makes Patao’s new EP daisy, forthcoming this autumn via Audio Antihero, all the more notable. A release which promises to shun streaming services, playlists and social media in order to focus on what really matters, and thus an experiment to judge what exactly is possible within the conditions of the twenty-first century. “Is it possible to share my music properly, pay everyone who was involved, get paid myself, and not have to interact with the many systems in place that make me dread music?” Patao asks. Lead single ‘Cut’ is out now for an early glimpse at a release we’re rooting for in more ways that one.

Little Angry – Outerside

You might know Evan Hashi as part of acts like The Hive Dwellers, Mega Bog, Twig Palace and Flying Circles, but the Seattle-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has also long recorded under the moniker Little Angry, blending pop, punk and psych influences with an experimental, DIY spirit. Set for release next month via Antiquated Future Records, the fourth Little Angry album Screamin’ Inside Your Heart!!! is the first to see the project become a full band, and thus a slightly new name—Little Angry & The Sweets—though the spirit remains the same. With Jen Weisberg (bass guitar, vocals) and Joseph Kuta (guitar, vocals), Little Angry sound better than ever, Hashi using the album’s title (taken from COVID-era safety instructions provided to riders of roller coasters in Japan) to explore the idea of being a ‘good immigrant’ in the US, a notion reinforced through generations. Listen to opener and lead single ‘Outerside’ for an idea of the drama and playfulness of the record.

Screamin’ Inside Your Heart!!! will be released on the 2nd October via Antiquated Future Records and you can pre-order it now.

LUCKY – Olden Goldy

We’ve been following Bay Area supergroup LUCKY (that’s Half Stack‘s Peter Kegler and Andrew St James alongside Marika Christine and Zach Elsasser of Affectionately) in recent months as they gear up to release their self-titled album, with songs like ‘Friends‘ embodying the buoyant rhythm and wistful edge of the project. With the album out now via Royal Oakie Records, LUCKY have shared new single ‘Olden Goldy’ to win over anyone not yet on board. The album’s closer, the song encapsulates everything that makes the outfit so special. “Out in the big olive groves / where the warms wind blows / I’m a young man who’s getting old,” go the opening lines, though again the reflection of the lyrics and delivery is slightly at odds with the upbeat, swaggering style of the sound itself. As though understanding, for all of the slow realisations and dawning regrets, life will go on kicking yet.

Up in the lonely pines
the wind haunts my mind
I spent days just losing time.
The sky’s is getting long,
the night is looking cold
and I’m still a young man who’s getting old

But I can’t let go

Night Teacher – New Cage

Consisting of multi-media artist and singer-songwriter Lilly Bechtel and drummer, writer and producer Matt Wyatt, Night Teacher sits somewhere between indie rock, chamber pop and doom folk in its style, a sound tied together by Bechtel’s emotive, often haunting delivery. Ahead of new album Year of the Snake, coming this autumn via First City Artists, Night Teacher have shared new single ‘New Cage’. The song utilises the Charlottesville duo’s evocative and thoughtful style to meditate on pernicious influences of social media in contemporary culture, positioning such forces as a kind of imprisonment we enter on our own volition. “I was reading Naomi Klein’s brilliant book Doppelgänger, where she writes about the original surveillance system as the concept of God, which in many ways has been replaced by the concept of the idealized self,” Bechtel explains. “Social media may be doing a very old thing in a new way: getting people to run surveillance on themselves in order to become better commodities for the marketplace.”

Perish – God I’m Freaking Out

“A vivid slice of folk-inflected rock which sounds at once wistful and affirming, a combination which looks to be a signature of the Perish sound,” we wrote of single ‘Cool Guys‘ back in July when previewing Brooklyn outfit Perish‘s new self-titled album. “Because while [Katie] Callihan’s delivery is thoughtful, her lyrics probing beneath the surface of things, the sound retains an upbeat, exultant air. As though there’s some energy to be found in the act of being open and honest to the point of vulnerability.” With the record out now via Rue Defense, Perish have shared new single ‘God I’m Freaking Out’. The song started life as something of a slow ballad when Callihan was playing solo, but the new version is altogether different, the full band adding extra groove and charge to a track all about the push and pull of solitude in the face of stress.

Ribbon Skirt – LUCKY8

Principally consisting of Anishinaabe musician Tashiina Buswa and guitarist Billy Riley, Montreal’s Ribbon Skirt won acclaim earlier in the year with the release of their debut Bite Down on Mint Records, an album which explored ideas of memory and heritage with a raw, stark style of post-punk. Fast-forward a few months and Ribbon Skirt are back with PENSACOLA, a brand new EP intended as something of an epilogue to its predecessor. One which seems to exist in the wake of Bite Down, powered by the still-charged air and smouldering heat. Lead single ‘LUCKY8’ welcomes listeners into this space, a track of woozy layers and surreal, dreamlike imagery which nevertheless holds a pulsing urgency beneath the surface. Like a memory bathed in the feedback and distortion of time yet still possessing its serrated edge.

One day you’re gonna wake up crystalline and mountain-clear
Left her hanging on a word in Thunder Bay the 15th year
You lift your shirt up and then tell me you’re the chosen one
The family knew back then that god made you the lucky one
You make it easy to believe that you’re so strong like that
It’s not a promise and believe me
he could con like that

Watch the visualizer by Rory Stobart below:

PENSECOLA will be released on the 3rd October via Mint Records and you can pre-order it from Bandcamp.

Starcharm – The Color Clear

The Fire Talk imprint Angel Tapes has been unearthing emergent artists for a number of years now, introducing the likes of Retail Drugs and Jawdropped to audiences, and their latest addition Starcharm is another act you will want to get to know. Featuring Elena Buenrostro (vocals, guitar), Jasmin Feliciano (bass) and Amaya Peña (drums), the Chicago trio has risen from the ashes of Buenrostro’s defunct project Soft and Dumb with all the confidence and energy of new beginnings. Debut single ‘The Color Clear’ displays both pop and noise sensibilities, pairing off-kilter post punk vibes with a rising intensity so that everything feels a little odd and unreal. The song “is inspired by a time when I lost all faith in love and felt like men were seeing me as a projection instead of a real person,” Buenrostro explains. “I was going through a bit of nihilistic mania during this time which I think you can definitely hear. An avoidant attachment anthem if you will.”

Watch the video directed and produced by Peña themselves below:

‘The Color Clear’ is out now via Angel Tapes and available from Bandcamp.

Tiberius – Moab

With the release of new album Troubadour edging nearer via Audio Antihero, Boston farm emo band Tiberius have shared latest single ‘Moab’. After ‘Sag‘ and ‘Felt‘ introduced the conflicted, searching and cathartic style of the record (“ebbs and flows across its runtime,” we wrote of the former, “pulled in all directions by competing emotions. Uncertainty, doubt, desperation, a recurrent yet skittish determination to embrace some inner truth”) the new song highlights a different dimension. A track more farm than emo, leaning closer to alt country in its warm twang and compassionate delivery, though one no less cathartic for its more relaxed approached. “’Moab’ was a song I wrote about trying to let go. At the time I was defining myself by expectations of a strained relationship. I was feeling pretty insane—like the kind of insane you feel back in 8th grade where you come home crying all of the time because you have absolutely no sense of self,” explains lead Brendan Wright. “Writing ‘Moab’ offered catharsis. Looking back, I feel a lot of embarrassment around those feelings, but it was how I felt at the time and that was the place I was in. I wish I had acted differently, and I strive to now.”

The post Weekly Listening: September 2025 #3 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

With the promise of an album on the horizon, LUCKY have now returned with brand new single, ‘Friends’. Produced and mixed by Joe Santarpia (Mac DeMarco), mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk (Kevin Morby, Woods, Rose City Band) and again released via Royal Oakie Records, the song taps into a buoyant rhythm to bring to life a sense of fondness suitable for its title. St James’s vocals harness this energy to great effect, their affirming spirit shaded by a slightly wistful quality too, as though aware that good times are always on the verge of ending but determined to hold on for as long as possible. But when the chorus comes around and the full swagger of the sound kicks in, such concerns are left by the wayside, the listener swept up along with everything else by LUCKY’s unadulterated joy.

Artwork by Alexandra Bowman, photo by Scott Padden

The post LUCKY – Friends appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Last month we previewed Anniversary & More Songs About Love, the deluxe version of Abigail Lapell‘s recent full-length which expands the album with eight additional songs. Alongside more intimate, acoustic versions of tracks from the original, Lapell also offers a handful of additional songs, and has now released a cover of Tame Impala’s Feels ‘Like We Only Go Backwards’ as part of the package. A minimal, electrified version of which mines the song for all of its stark weight, adding yet another dimension to the diverse picture of love and relationships which the album brings to life.

Anniversary & More Songs About Love will be released via Outside Music on 2nd May. Pre-order it now from the Abigail Lapell Bandcamp page.

Casper Skulls – Numbing Mind

The new album from Sudbury/Toronto indie rock outfit Casper Skulls, Kit-Cat is the product of a band confident enough to spread their wings. From the moody ‘Spindletop‘ and energetic ‘Roddy Piper’ to bittersweet Dylan-esque narrative ‘Dying in Eight Verses‘, each single offered a different style and set of influences, and culminated in a mosaic-like album able to confront a wide range of themes. With the release out now via Next Door Records, Casper Skulls have shared final single ‘Numbing Mind’ to further deepen the picture, exploring the vast media landscape of distractions into which we can retreat from contemporary existence. The song is itself a microcosm of the wider Casper Skulls style, presenting a collage of references (Ms. Rachel, Bob Ross, Macho Man, Rugrats, South Park, ASMR and Antique Roadshow and more) to paint the vast network of small comforts to which we turn.

Watch the video directed and edited by Bosmo below:

Kit-Cat is out now via Next Door Records and you can get it from the Casper Skulls Bandcamp page.

Classic Trucks – Oil

“Pairs a rich, warm sound with Jarman’s approachable, near-spoken vocals and a dark, distressed lyrical style. But instead of playing as a contradiction, the resulting track looks to solve the concern at its heart in real time, fashioning a cure to the complaint itself.” So we wrote of ‘Letting In Too Much Light’ by Classic Trucks last month, the first single from the new solo venture of Langkamer‘s Josh Jarman which introduced the empathetic nature of the project. With EP Century Songs set for release in late May, Classic Trucks are back with new single, ‘Oil’. A meditation on some of the grandest existential questions—free will, nature vs. nurture, the apparent futility of life—housed in a bright, pop-inflected brand of folk, again highlighting Jarman’s ability to approach difficult subjects without being overwhelmed by their weight.

Gay Meat – Champaign Ill

The recording project of producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Karl Kuehn, Gay Meat has made a name in recent years with a distinctive blend of self-deprecation and sincerity, something embodied by 2022 EP Bed of Every. Mixing indie pop, rock and emo sensibilities, the release clocked in at barely thirteen minutes but managed to evoke a compelling inner world all the same. Recent single ‘Champaign Ill’ builds upon the style, a wistful lo-fi ode to the ways in which people change over time, as well as those who stay the same despite everything. Again the tone possesses a wry edge, but one which does nothing to limit the unguarded earnestness at its heart.

Gum Parker – Crocodile

“Draws on the considerable DIY history of its members to create good old-fashioned indie rock.” That’s how we described the debut album from Portland, Maine outfit Gum Parker, with singles ‘Two Subarus‘ and ‘Hive‘ packing a real punch despite the vastly different moods which underpinned them. With the album out now via Repeating Cloud, the outfit have shared final single ‘Crocodile’, and the song again embraces the chaotic, irrepressible energy of the do-it-yourself aesthetic to find joyous momentum within ordinary life. “Lately I’m trying to just write down phrases or bits of language that I like and scrape together a song from them,” as lead Galen Richmond explains. “It seems to have worked out for this joyful mess. The chorus is sorta a half-joke about how I couldn’t write a chorus for this one.”

Jangus Kangus – No Future In This

Christened by Emerson Dameron as “LA’s foremost purveyor of imagist garage surf,” Jangus Kangus is making a name with a sound at once hazy and raw, with debut album Fortune Cookie highlighting how evocative and playful such a contradictory style can be. Lead Jasmine Sankaran is joined by Steph Anderson (keys/backing vocals), Antonio White (lead guitar/backing vocals), Dan Perdomo (drums) and Ryan Kellis (bass), and together the band eschew genre convention in favour of instinct experimentation. Single ‘No Future In This’ serves as an ideal introduction, a track which preserves some of the DIY spirit of the project’s previous releases yet comes wrapped in a golden retro hue.

LEYA – Corners (Chanel Beads Rework)

Last year we wrote about ‘Corners’ by LEYA, a single from their EP I Forget Everything on NNA Tapes which displayed how harpist Marilu Donovan and vocalist/violinist Adam Markiewicz create “evocative and ambiguous” soundscapes, as we put it, which “explore the avenues open to us in the face of catastrophe.” Like much of LEYA’s work, the song occupied a strange space between medieval and futuristic tones, feeling like both a throwback and a promise of something new. Now rising pop favourite Chanel Beads has reworked the track to further deepen this contradictory tension. With additional layers of lush sonic textures and extra pop polish, the new interpretation serves as a heightened version of the original, playing like the interstitial space between the Now and the Then with all the instinctive longing left intact.

Watch the self-directed video starring model Mariah Morvant below:

‘Corners (Chanel Beads Rework)’ is out now via NNA Tapes and available from Bandcamp.

LUCKY – Traveler

LUCKY are a new Bay Area supergroup featuring Half Stack‘s Peter Kegler, Andrew St James, Marika Christine and Zach Elsasser (Affectionately). A slice of upbeat country rock that also provides the obligatory shadow to its light, debut single ‘Traveler’ gives an indication of what to expect from the project. A song full of backward looking despite its forward motion, resulting in a mood at once wistful and affirming. Produced and mixed by Joe Santarpia (Mac DeMarco) and mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk (Kevin Morby, Woods, Rose City Band), there’s real talent behind the project too, making for a polished, accomplished sound that retains its authenticity via a subtle lo-fi edge.

Maryse Smith – Freedom

This May sees the release of Transience, the new full-length from Massachusetts songwriter Maryse Smith, via Ghost Mountain Records, and latest single ‘Freedom’ both introduces the album’s warm folk rock sound and furthers the thematic resonance of the its title. It’s a song about regaining a sense of ownership and agency in the face of apparent restriction, placing trust in the transience of any condition in the way all longing must. Fittingly, the track is the product of one such process of overcoming. “‘Freedom’ was written upon returning from a festival that friends put on every year in Vermont,” as Smith explains. “I didn’t play that year, I was feeling bummed about being in a long writing dry-spell and couldn’t bear the thought of playing songs I had written years prior. But I felt so inspired after seeing so much good music I pretty much came home, sat at the piano and wrote this. I remember feeling afterwards, on a deep level, that the dry spell was broken and it was.”

Steel Wool – Fading

What the band describe as “a collision of sound experiments wearing the borrowed work uniform of rock music,” the self-titled debut EP from LA shoegaze outfit Steel Wool brings together the varying tastes of each of its four members. Shoegaze fuzziness meets not only its natural bedfellows in dream pop and indie rock, but also folk and screamo too, resulting in something that uses familiar ingredients in a fresh and innovative way. “The band has always been more of a sonic game of tug-of-war than a regiment in lockstep,” Steel Wool continue. “Stepping outside these orthogonal backgrounds in search of common ground, we’ve ended up somewhere that isn’t quite home turf for any of us.” Opener ‘Fading’ is the best place to start, a hazy and soaring dream pop song that eventually boils over in a snarl of feedback and wailing vocals.

Yuno – Massive

Having won acclaim with 2018 EP Moodie and a number of subsequent singles, Jacksonville-based pop visionary Yuno is releasing debut full-length Blest this May with Sub Pop. An artist in constant flux, Yuno has moved from skate punk and Johnstonian anti-folk to downbeat pop across his career to date, and the new album not only continues this evolution but pushes the sound to its most expansive, inventive spaces to date. Latest single ‘Massive’ embodies the sound’s widescreen richness, pairing languid pop confidence with fuzzy rock sensibilities to create a rueful backdrop for what is a reflection on the passing of time.

Watch the video directed and Edited by Yuno himself below:

Blest will be released on the 16th May via Sub Pop and you can pre-order it now.

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Last week saw the release of Melody Trail, the new record from the ever-prolific Sam Sodomsky’s The Bird Calls. Again put out by Ruination Records, the album in part deals with Sodomsky losing his position at Pitchfork after Condé Nast’s decision to absorb the site into GQ last year, pulling the rug from under his feet and throwing into doubt one of the last bastions of independent music criticism. But anyone expecting a minor key downer will be sorely disappointed, instead drawing on a range of left of centre pop and folk to create something quite unlike any previous The Bird Calls work. The title track is probably the best place to start, a catchy and breezy acoustic strum that somehow sounds both weary and hopeful, vowing to make a fresh start if not quite committing to actually doing it.

And I’m trying to get my life back
Riding on the right track
Time to move on

Born Ruffians – Mean Time

Having made their name in the indie rock boom of the 00s, Toronto’s Born Ruffians have constantly evolved over their near-two-decade lifespan, resisting the temptation to settle into a groove or rely on nostalgia to instead push their sound to new dimensions. Forthcoming this summer via Wavy Haze and Yep Rock Records, their new album Beauty’s Pride represents another reinvention, embracing change alongside the real-life experience of becoming a parent, as highlighted by lead single ‘Mean Time’. A “sort of autobiographical/speculative non-fiction inspired by Nabokov’s beautiful autobiography Speak, Memory,” as vocalist/guitarist Luke Lalonde puts it. “It’s about those two black voids, the before and the after, and all of the extraordinary moments in between.”

Beauty’s Pride is out on the 6th June via Wavy Haze Records and Yep Roc Records.

Cameron Knowler – Felicity

CRK, the (quasi-)self-titled by Arizona musician Cameron Knowler forthcoming on Worried Songs, is fundamentally a record of time and space. A meditation of Knowler’s hometown of Yuma, Arizona both in its physical presence and historical weight, all achieved via a style of instrumental folk both traditional and visionary. Together with a video featuring local landmarks ranging from the purple Gila Mountains to lettuce fields and a long abandoned adobe prison, single ‘Felicity’ offers the listener an introduction to this style. A soundscape littered with features of the past, indeed shaped by their weight, yet one which is neither overburdened by the load nor bewitched by the seductive will to return to that former place.

Watch the video shot, edited and directed by Steven Perlin below:

CRK will be out on the 4th April via Worried Songs and you can pre-order it from Bandcamp.

Elskavon – How Cold

Elskavon’s new album Panoramas, coming this summer via Western Vinyl, sees Chris Bartels continue to evolve the project, drawing on everything which came before but finding a novel form. As lead single ‘How Cold’ shows, this involves challenging preconceptions of genre and style, crossing boundaries and questioning conventions, be it around what exactly a song or album can be, or indeed the role vocals can play within this. This exploratory mindset allows for a real authenticity to develop, creating an emotional resonance unhindered by any constraints. “This album is a deep dive into everything that’s shaped me as a creator,” as Bartels explains. “My favorite songs and albums are tied to memories and seasons—beautiful, painful, grand, and small—and those experiences inform everything I do.”

Panoramas is out on the 20th June via Western Vinyl and you can pre-order it now.

Fake Dad – Machinery

Consisting of Andrea de Varona and Josh Ford, LA’s Fake Dad make crunchy pop rock that’s concerned with both having fun and making a point. With new EP Holly Wholesome and the Slut Machine on the horizon, the duo have unveiled single ‘Machinery’ to introduce this style. It’s a track which originated after a bad experience at a musical showcase, where female artists were forced to play into their own objectification in order to earn attention. “This song was written as a response to the way this kind of woman on woman (or more generally, artist on artist) hate perpetuates these spaces while the real culprits—our sick, sad society governed by narcissistic, billionaire white men—totally fly under the radar,” de Varona explains. “In the end, the man is the real one we’re calling out. The one that we’re sick and tired of watching get what they want, while we sit back eating from their palm.”

‘Machinery’ is out now and available at the usual places. Holly Wholesome and the Slut Machine is coming soon.

Hour – Hallmark (Live at Philamoca, Philadelphia)

Following on from beautiful 2024 album Ease the Work, a release we described in our review of last year’s best releases, as “perform[ing] the same small miracle of the previous records, presenting the everyday in all its joy and melancholy, comfort and strangeness,” Philadelphia ensemble Hour are returning this month with new live album Subminiature on Dear Life Records. Collected across two years of live performances, the album serves as what the label calls “a capstone for the band’s oeuvre to date,” offering versions of pieces from Tiny Houses and Anemone Red alongside brand new arrangements to best represent a project that’s always adapting and evolving. Different songs recorded at different shows, performed by a changing cast of musicians across various months and years, yet all linked by the same spirit. That vital piece of the Hour DNA which commits to such fluidity as a fundamental part of what the project represents.

Watch the video directed/edited by Matt Ober below:

Subminiature is out on the 14th February via Dear Life Records and you can pre-order it now.

Larum – O Virga Mediatrix (feat Bill Orcutt)

The recording project of Chet Doxas and Micah Frank, Larum combines woodwind and electronics to create a sound full of detail and intangible depth, something evident on 2022 EP The Music of Hildegard von Bingen Part One, which occupied a unique intersection between the early medieval and avant garde cutting edge. As the title suggested, the release was only the first instalment of the project, and this April Larum will return with appropriately named follow-up The Music of Hildegard von Bingen, Part Two. Again the result is almost paradoxical in form, managing to imbue the work of an eleventh-century theologian, mystic and composer not just with contemporary resonance but a sense of pioneering potential. Featuring guitarist and composer Bill Orcutt, single ‘O Virga Mediatrix’ embodies this aesthetic, the track representing a thread which stretches away from the present in both directions, inviting the audience to following towards the mysterious spaces beyond.

MacGregor Burns – Put It All On Me

Described as “a new wave sad boy anthem that is a longing cry to pass the blame,” ‘Put It All On Me’ is the latest single from LA-based singer-songwriter MacGregor Burns. Previous tracks ‘Silent Answers‘ and ‘Can’t Go Back‘ highlighted the artist’s idiosyncratic style, “combining nostalgic nods […] while forging a new path forwards, [looking] for further clues in the fertile space between the familiar and the new.” ‘Put It All On Me’ continues this vibe but with some stylistic differences. Namely the lack of guitar, leading to a decidedly wistful sound that nods to the likes of the Psychedelic Furs but nevertheless carries its own bright forward motion.

‘Put It All On Me’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Royal Oakie Records – Canyon Country: LA Fires Benefit Compilation

“[Displays] a sense of cohesion and togetherness which hints at the radical potential within the collective, something we need to remember now more than ever as the suite of challenges which marks the contemporary moment only widens and deepens,” so we wrote of if only i could fly, a compilation in support of those affected by the LA fires organised by  Little Mazarn, hemlock and Jolie Holland. But we could easily have been writing about Canyon County, the new benefit compilation from Royal Oakie Records too. Featuring a mix of unreleased and album tracks from the likes of Holy Matter, Half Stack, Michael James Tapscott and Lauren Helene Green, the comp is what the label describe as a “love letter to Los Angeles and its surrounding canyons and coastlines,” as embodied by the languid warmth of Sandy’s ‘Band Without A Song’.

The Taxpayers – At War With The Dogcatchers

Portland, Oregon emo outfit The Taxpayers might have been on hiatus from releasing new music for going on a decade, but this March puts an end to that. Released via Ernest Jenning Record Co., their latest full-length Circle Breakers reckons with the changes in the world in the time since their previous record, with understandably dark results. Alongside the global pandemic, continued climate breakdown and turn towards reactionary politics were a series of personal tragedies too, and the record sees The Taxpayers pushing through a seemingly unending experience of loss with both fury and hope for something better. Latest single ‘At War With The Dogcatchers’ draws on a run-in with the titular enemies after a deceased friend’s dog was seized and taken to a pound. A song about “loving the broken things in spite of the dogcatchers of the world,” as the band explain, “and trying to find meaning in those things amidst the tragedies.”

Watch the video by Preston Spurlock below

Circle Breaker will be released on the 21st March via Ernest Jenning Record Co. and you can pre-order it now.

Yael S. Copeland – 2AM

“Unable to lose the romantic notion that things can be different, can improve. Mellow Submarine looks for good thoughts amid the chaos, and might just have you believing they are just around the corner after all.” So we wrote of Yael S. Copeland‘s most recent full-length back in 2023, applauding the manner in which the Queens-based songwriter looks to preserve the small, fleeting moments within an often calamitous world. Detailing an after hours encounter between two receptive strangers, new single ‘2AM’ is no different, offering a distinctively nocturnal tone to conjure a sense of ethereal romance. A sort of lightning-in-a-bottle sensation both characters can only cling to while it lasts. “You know we / Will probably be / only friends / for this night,” as Copeland sings in the chorus, “Maybe till the morning?”

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Following a slew of singles, Royal Oakie Records have now released the debut Holy Matter album, Beauty Looking Back. Aptly named after a painting by 17th Century Japanese artist Hishikawa Moronobu, the album is unsurprisingly preoccupied with time and the impact of the past on the present moment, following the changing seasons of a life with equal doses of nostalgic longing and reassuring closure. “It seemed an appropriate title because this is a collection of backwards looks,” Kaiser explains. “A survey of emotions and moments, written between 2020 and 2023. I think a lot about the past, how a life is built up of all that came before it.”

Opener ‘Autumn’s Envy’ “occupies the liminal space between the real, emotional and spiritual,” as we described in a preview, “as though through loss and introspection, one can lead themselves towards uncanny places.” And the follow-up ‘Eve’s Hollywood’ is no less dreamy, drawing on the cinematic aspect of Kaiser’s parallel career to craft what we previously called “an immersive country-tinged dream pop croon worthy of a David Lynch set-piece.” But if that track was succinct, ‘Fallen Leaves’ pushes concision even further. A brief, ethereal snapshot of the most ephemeral of seasons, though one which lingers much like leaves persist upon the forest floor.

This willingness to offer compact, swift songs not only helps Holy Matter circumvent the more self-indulgent aspects of the dream pop genre, but also feels intrinsically linked to the themes and mood of the album. The songs cycle through as one might a collection of memories, each appearing fully formed and dissolving before we move onto the next. Be it the retro pop croon of tracks like ‘Wishing Well’ or ‘Prince Gloom’, or the hypnogogic and slightly surreal instrumental ‘Queen of Hearts’. ‘The Dove’ encapsulates the style perfectly, a brief yet elegant track which plays like something between a nursery rhyme and fable in all of its heightened longing. In my tower sewing / I can hear the doves’ song,” as Kaiser sings. “In their circle crowing / My love comes to me, anon.” Watch the video directed by Yun Chen below:

Final track, ‘Lore in Green and Blue’ was the first song Kaiser wrote for the record, a decision which on another record might seem like an odd one, but here seems perfectly fitting. Something of a companion piece to ‘Fallen Leaves’ it again looks back to a disconsolate period of anxiety and depression. She says it’s a song about “missing the green and blue hillsides of the Ozarks, thoughts on astrology, numbness and apathy, the whole kit and caboodle,” and this vulnerability is palpable. Both in the gentle, quiet folk of the majority and the swelling catharsis of the finale. “I wanted the last part to be a lot different and more bombastic,” Kaiser explains. “It’s like a final cry out. I wanted it to feel desperate and raw but also lead to something more resolved on the horizon.”

Beauty Looking Back is out now via Royal Oakie Records. Get it from the Holy Matter Bandcamp page. A physical release for those of us in the EU and UK will follow in early December.

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Over the past thirty years, Cursive have established themselves as one of the most consistent and inventive indie rock/emo bands, providing a series of albums which delve into dark, challenging themes with a searing energy. And they show no signs of letting up, with new album Devourer coming later this year on new label Run For Cover. Every bit as intense as anything in their back catalogue, the record explores ideas of consumption in its various guises and how this inevitably slides towards imperialistic exploitation of power. Lead single ‘Up and Away’ introduces the themes with a surprisingly poppy style, though one which squares melody and dissonance off against one another to better capture the tension at the album’s heart. “‘I had the ‘up, up, up, up, up, up and away’ section of lyrics in my head from its inception but hadn’t planned on using something so bright, cheery and arguably trite,” explains singer/guitarist Tim Kasher, “until it occurred to me that what I was really singing about was something floating away from me, something I was losing, not my personal elevation into some stratosphere.”

Watch the video by Brea Grant below, the first in a series of collaborations between Cursive and genre directors which draws on horror tropes to bring the themes of depression further into relief.

Devourer is out on the 13th September via Run For Cover Records and you can pre-order it now.

Evan Uhlmann – Lake Michigan

After penning his first song at the tender age of five and later studying under Ray Davies of The Kinks, it’s fair to say songwriting is in Evan Uhlmann‘s blood. The Chicago-based musician has now enlisted the help of brother Greg Uhlmann (who you might now from his collaboration with Hand Habits as Duffy x Uhlmann on Orindal Records) to record a new collection of songs to be released via Future Gods. First single ‘Lake Michigan’ is the perfect introduction to the kind of intimate, reflective tone of this phase of Uhlmann’s career, tapping into the quotidian rhythms of life to better explore a deep well of emotions. “I wrote this song while grappling with self-doubt in a new relationship, consumed by the fear of not being worthy and the anxiety of anticipating where things might lead before they even started,” he explains. “Lake Michigan became my reflective space; a place to process this unfolding experience.”

Watch the video below with art direction and animation by Sam Congdon:

‘Lake Michigan’ is out now via Future Gods and available from Bandcamp.

Great Klons – Twilight Gardener

Starting out as the bassist for indie pop outfit Eureka Birds in the 2010s before moving to record solo as Great Klons, Scott Klon has been making music for over a decade now, exploring everything from dub-adjacent noise pop to Spaghetti Western-inspired psych folk. The latest Great Klons EP expands upon this with another inventive collision of genres, as indie rock, psych, folk and Krautrock influences all coalesce into a singular sound able to explore ideas of instability within the contemporary moment. With its dual vocals, woozy organ and underlying Motorik beat, single ‘Twilight Garden’ uses Klon’s current home of Finger Lakes, NY as an example of the friction and unease of our present. A time when wealth and poverty make uneasy bedfellows and once proud places crumble amid a wider gentrification. “Lakeside transitory towns / and in between a hundred more,” as Klon sings in the opening verse, “and in the middle the church is falling down / where there are more graves than people.”

‘Twilight Gardener’ is out now via streaming services and you can follow Great Klons on Instagram.

Herr God – jesus candle in the liquor store

The side project of songwriter Chloe Gallardo, San Francisco-based slowcore outfit Herr God is named for a line in a Sylvia Plath poem, a reference which goes some way to illustrate its bruised, introspective style. Herr God has recently released debut single ‘jesus candle in the liquor store’, a song which introduces this style perfectly with its lethargic, downbeat atmosphere. Distorted guitars grumble and smoulder behind shuffling percussion and Gallardo’s listless, mumbled vocals, all coming together to evoke something dark and gloomy but with a strange fatalistic energy.

Watch the video by Ella May Sahlman (director), Liz Charky (director of photography), Zoé Kraft (editor) and Natalia Minguez (PA/BTS) below:

‘jesus candle in the liquor store’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Holy Matter – Wishing Well

Last October we wrote about Leanna Kaiser’s Holy Matter, describing how single ‘Autumn’s Envy’ “occupies the liminal space between the real, emotional and spiritual, as though through loss and introspection, one can lead themselves towards uncanny places.” Again released via Royal Oakie Records, latest single ‘Wishing Well’ sees the LA-based musician and experimental filmmaker continue to mine the rich strangeness of such spaces, where desires are matched by the understanding of their own impossibility. Amid a dreamy, retro soundscape, Kaiser admires a crush from afar while knowing deep down any potential romance is doomed to fail, a weightless headspace where things are both decided and not. “This was a rare instance of knowing exactly how I wanted a song to sound as I was writing it, and it actually turning out identically to how I heard it in my head,” as she explains. “I kept thinking about this restaurant I went to as a kid called The Wishing Well, which had a faux stone well in the middle of its wood-panelled dining room. I imagined this song playing in that dingy room over some crappy 70s restaurant speakers.”

Watch the video directed by Kaiser herself below:

‘Wishing Well’ is out now via Royal Oakie Records and available from Bandcamp.

Luce Rushton – Slinky

Back in April we introduced Slinky, the debut EP from Luce Rushton. Then writing of single ‘How It Works’, we described how the EP is “follows the travails of a young artist attempting to negotiate their own tricky interior within an already overwhelming world,” delivered with a “seamless blend of wry humour and earnest emotion.” Now the record is out in full, Rushton has released a video for the title track which furthers the exploration of gender presented across the release. “The word originally referred to feeling forced into ‘slinky’ women’s clothing throughout my life,” Rushton explains. “In the song, I look back on those feelings and reflect on how much I’ve changed and learned about myself.’’

look how hard i try to
climb up to the ladies room
and what you made me do
sped all day and it costs a fortune
debtor
corner
but you wouldn’t catch me dead in it anymore though

Slinky is out now via Sad Club Records and available from Bandcamp.

No Beauty – JUNE

Led by Helena Alexandria alongside Jonathan Malstrom and Will Fachin, No Beauty is a Hamilton, Ontario-based project gearing up to release their new EP, No Beauty Will Remain, this summer. Single ‘June’ typifies the blend of lightness and weight which constitutes their brand of indie rock. Weighty guitars are propelled by a driving drum line, positioning No Beauty alongside the likes of Basement Revolver in their cathartic heft. But amid the density lies an altogether brighter dimension, with ‘JUNE’ offering a picture of summertime love radiant enough to transcend any encroaching darkness.

a cashmere glow from a small window
fell on the bed
we talked for all the hours on the bed
we found out we had perfect bodies on the bed

Watch the video by Alice Hirsch (director, DOP, editor) and Helena Zogogiannis (AD, creative director, props) below:

No Beauty Will Remain will be released later this summer. No Beauty can be found at the usual places.

Sam Weber – Oregon

Ahead of hitting the road with Anna Tivel this month, Vancouver Island-based singer-songwriter and guitarist Sam Weber has revealed the latest track from his forthcoming album, Clear + Plain. ‘Oregon’ typifies the fusion of traditional and contemporary sensibilities which marks Weber’s sound, with strong percussion and bass anchoring layered vocals and his signature guitar work to offer an ode to its titular state. “‘Oregon’ was written on a trip to Ashland,” as Weber expands. “We were renting a casita on this big property where all these hippies lived. It’s a bit of a sensory abstract poem that just sort of emerged. I think the imagery is my own from the I-5 corridor, seeing the lush green flora, very pagan-beautiful, natural imagery of the state, contrasted with the scraps of humanity strewn around. And the progressive culture of Portland.”

Clear + Plain will be released on the 23rd August and you can find Sam Weber at the usual places.

Secret Flowers – Malibu Burns

Los Angeles fourpiece Secret Flowers—that’s Michael Hentz (vocals, guitar), Jacquelyn Sky (vocals, drums), David Greening (guitar), and Abraham Rodriguez-Smith (bass)—fall somewhere at the intersection of dream pop, psych and shoegaze, offering a sound as confident with dark romance as with laidback jams. New release Balboa EP shows off the full potential of this blend, as shown by lead single ‘Malibu Burning’. Inspired by the wildfires in California over recent years, the song offers slow, lush duet which envelops the listener, evoking not only the stasis of our alarming moment, but the wish to retreat to the small comforts of our loved ones amid encroaching catastrophe.

Slice – Shopping

Consisting of Megan Magiera (guitar, vocals), Barbara Barrera (bass) and Alex Hattick (keys, vocals), Slice have developed a loyal fanbase in Long Beach with their impassioned indie rock sound. After almost a decade of playing together, new single ‘Shopping’, out via Selenite Records, signals a new era for the outfit. It’s the culmination of what has come before, drawing equal does of angst and catharsis to explore themes both personal and political. “When I was writing the lyrics, I was thinking about the different clear-outs of unhoused communities in Echo Park, in Santa Monica, even in Downtown Long Beach,” Hattick explains. “The irony of unhoused communities being cleared out while unaffordable high-rise loft apartments are being built is impossible to ignore. When you’re removing people from these spaces, where do they go? Where do you expect people to go when there’s nowhere to go?”

Thavoron – My Man

Seattle-based Cambodian-American artist Thavoron has made a name for emotive, searching songwriting through a series of singles with Trailing Twelve Records, exploring themes of grief, desire and cultural identity from within the queer experience. Latest track ‘My Man’ is every bit as evocative as we’ve come to expect. A slow-burn anthem which aches with longing, shot through with striking imagery and unguarded emotion. But the sound escalates as the song progresses, gathering a momentum as though Thavoron finds a newfound conviction within it’s build, coming to reach the conclusion that the other he so desires does not hold the key to his own identity. That feeling at home in one’s body is a process to be face on their own terms. Watch the video directed by Thavoron and Maddie Ludgate below:

‘My Man’ is out now via Trailing Twelve Records.

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Royal Oakie also co-released Half Stack‘s Sitting Pretty alongside Forged Artifacts, an album which saw the Bay Area outfit evolve their sound in exciting new directions. “The record loosens its grip on the country aesthetic and in doing so allows all sorts of stylistic directions to show themselves,” as we put it last summer. “Psych rock, power pop, even a dose of honky tonk, each song opens up a new avenue to explore. But this unpredictability feels less like a band experimenting with possibilities as one finally able to embrace their fuller selves. The dusty cowboy aesthetic remains, but there’s more to Half Stack than that. Now they’re allowing their true spirit to shine through.”

To celebrate the year, Royal Oakie Records has released Greatest Hits of 2023, a compilation which collects the “fan favorites and deep cuts” from across their roster. All of the prior mentioned acts feature, as do Jeff Moller, Michael James Tapscott, Well Well Well, Whiskerman, Go By Ocean and Bard’s Flying Vessel. Listeners unfamiliar with the label can use this as the perfect primer, but equally, just as with Orindal Records’ recent compilation Powerful Forces Beyond Our Understanding, those already acquainted can come to appreciate the label more fully, with the chance to hear their artists back to back allowing fans to find the links and resonances between otherwise disparate projects.

Greatest Hits of 2023 is out now and available from the Royal Oakie Records Bandcamp page.

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With a team of collaborators including Cameron Iturri-Carpenter (guitar), Evan Hiller (pedal steel), Judith Horn (saxophone), Paul Montes (bass), Alex Miner (drums), Eva Goodman (violin, voice), Lanéya Billingsley (keyboard) and Brian Ellis (clarinet), LoPilato again weaves a tapestry of lush sounds and melancholic moods, all processed through a cosmic desert country style. Opener ‘house of cancer’ is suggestive of the presiding tone of the record, where the drifting tones offer a reflective kind of sadness which submerges the artist and audience both. Single ‘backseat driver’ follows suit, a shimmering indie pop song that’s light a sonic lenticular image, alternating between cool melancholy and the warm glow of contentment as you turn it around in your brain.

Those looking for the best way into the record could do a lot worse than starting with the short film which accompanies it. Directed by Billie Ocean, the video collects three singles—’shadow of doves’, ‘$@Lt’ and ‘phony’—into a single film, not only introducing the key themes of the record but expanding upon them with its dreamlike imagery. It shifts from the retro nostalgia of old-timey monochrome to a vivid burst of film-grained colour as it follows anthropomorphic animals on a quietly epic journey.

six is out now via Royal Oakie Records and available from the Credit Electric Bandcamp page.

Album art by Lanéya Billingsley (Billie 0cean) and Ryan LoPilato

The post Credit Electric – six appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Now Holy Matter is back with brand new single, ‘Autumn’s Envy’. Again released via Royal Oakie, the song dials back some of the smoky atmosphere for a more spacious yet no less atmospheric sound. Brought to life with help from guests Kate Bollinger, Andy Kahn, Raphi Gottesman (Sonny and the Sunsets) and Josh Housh (Michael James Tapscott), the song plays less like a dancehall ballad than one delivered within the shadowed under canopy of the woods in fall. “I often get phrases stuck in my head and I kept thinking about the Pavement song title Summer Babe,” as Kaiser explains. “What happens to a Summer Babe in the fall?”

The result occupies the liminal space between the real, emotional and spiritual, as though through loss and introspection, one can lead themselves towards uncanny places. “‘Autumn’s Envy‘ is about experiencing someone drift away as the seasons of love are fickle and change, and the jealousy and insecurity that come along with knowing you are ‘out of season’ while watching someone move on,” Kaiser explains. “It’s about doubting yourself. About longing and calling out for someone, wanting them to open themselves to you completely and the comfort and relief that brings.”

Darling, won’t you call my name
So I am happier, again?
Cut off from the agony and the envy
of a Summer Babe in the Fall
(in the Fall, oh)

‘Autumn’s Envy’ is out now via Royal Oakie Records.

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