In the months following the album’s release, Sonya dropped several outtakes and b-sides that didn’t quite make the cut on his Soundcloud page. Due to popular demand, he has now bundled these together and released them as a separate collection, titled What’s The Alternative​?​, Demos. Despite the name, the songs are far more polished than the usual demos, forming something of a coda to At What Cost?, again walking the line between easy-going indie pop and emotive ruminations on relationship troubles. What he calls “a short love story on hard break-ups,” ‘Just Pretend You’re Okay’ is a great starting point, a barely two minute track of sweet pop hooks and fraught emotion.

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Though led by poet/fiction writer Mike Young, Clementine Was Right is far more than a solo project. With Young now joined by fellow poet Gion Davis, as well as a core group of musicians based between Denver and Arkansas, the project is one always moving and always changing, adapting to each present moment to best convey the stories which feel most pressing at that given time. So while ‘Dreaming of Dancing in a Different Town‘ offered nostalgic country rock and ‘Takes Tall Walks‘ pushed towards Killers-esque indie polish, latest track ‘There Are No More Almond Trees’ adds a scrappier immediacy. Still falling under the wider ‘Western emo’ tag they’ve made their own, the track is full of the wistful fondness we’ve come to expect, but balances this with a newfound playfulness.

Heartrunner – Faltering

‘Faltering’ is the debut single from Toronto indie rock band Heartrunner. Lead vocalist & songwriter Adina V is supported by Eric Bernhardt (guitar), Chris Parnis (bass), and Aidan Lucas-Buckland (drums), who together craft a lush sounds that’s tinged with sadness or longing. The track opens with sedate acoustic guitar and measured percussion, eventually swelling with electric guitar into a rich and emotionally charged finale. The band say the single “takes listeners through the dissociation, slipping relationships, and failing drive that comes with substance abuse,” and this helplessness and loss of self-confidence is captured in the loaded final lines.

Good God I’m faltering
I’m no good at anything

Jeremy Ferrara – Darkness Is A Bright Sound

Next March,  Portland, Oregon-based songwriter Jeremy Ferrara is putting out a brand new full-length, Darkness Is A Bright Sound via American Standard Time Records and A For Effort Records. Though continuing what we’ve previously called a practice centred “on openness and sincerity” which “conjures warm and welcoming songs within which he invites the listener,” the album sees Ferrara adopt a full band arrangement for the first time, resulting in his richest sound to date. The title track and album opener serves as the door through which the audience can enter this world, highlighting the sense of subtlety and control which marks the Jeremy Ferrara sound.

Mal Not Bad – AP

“Drawing the analogy of an athlete going through the highs and lows of competition to ask how one continues to push forward when exhaustion and disappointment have sapped all will to carry on.” That’s how we described ‘Sports’ from Mal Not Bad‘s Continuous Short Feature Film last year. But push forward the LA-based musician and visual artist did, as new single ‘AP’ attests. The first glimpse of a new project due in 2024, the track displays a newfound depth within the Mal Not Bad sound, leaning further into electronic sensibilities while simultaneously interrogating the impact of technology, resulting in a nuanced exploration of the human experience within the digital present.

The song comes with a video co-directed by Hauser and Seannie Bryan, a solo dance-performance created in collaboration with choreographer Alyssa Allen:

‘AP’ is available now from Bandcamp.

Mia Joy – 4th of July

Mia Joy‘s 2021 album Spirit Tamer utilised a dreamy style to form “a chronicle of [Mia] Rocha’s history,” as we put it in a review. “A way of collecting the seemingly disparate pieces that make up a life in the hope of making sense of them, and learning more about the resulting whole.” Again released via  Fire Talk Records, new EP Celestial Mirror sees the Chicago artist continue this exploration, digging into the way people and events can come to shape your sense of identity. Single ‘4th of July’ fashions a safe haven from its hazy sounds, giving space to drop the armour of self-protection in favour of a more vulnerable, open state. “Time is a teacher,” as Mia Joy sings in the opening lines, “so teach me how to love / without the fear of its cost.”

Moselle – Pesticides

“I think I accidentally / smoked pesticides or PCP  the year before I left for college,” sings Moselle on their new single, ‘Pesticides. “Everything looked like a deep fried meme / I think somebody laced my weed / I didn’t do it to myself I promise.” The first taste of an EP coming sometime next year, the track positions the Ozarks folk punk project alongside contemporaries like Pacing, where deadpan delivery and playful details are fashioned into an image of a specific moment and frame of mind. Self-deprecating perhaps, but full of wry humour too. “What if I broke this stupid glass over my dumb head?” as the chorus asks:

Let all the blood run down my arms ’til the garden’s fed
Wait til the flowers bloom in the same place that I bled
Make a bouquet hoping I’m half as useful when I’m dead

Rosie Tucker – Unending Bliss

Following recent “mini visual album” Tiny Songs Volume 1, LA’s Rosie Tucker is back with a brand new single, ‘Unending Bliss’. Packed with power chords and crashing percussion, the single is a fervent and furious treatise on the power of forgiveness and resistance in a society which seems hellbent on pitting people against one another. “’Unending Bliss’ is about petty personal beef,” Tucker describes, “and, simultaneously, about my fury at the material conditions that encourage us to treat each other like crap in order to survive.”

I want nothing but unending bliss for my enemies

Watch Vanesa De La Mora’s animated video below:

‘Unending Bliss’ is out now via Sentimental Records.

Sonya – God Save Your Soul

With new album At What Cost? on the horizon, California-based alt pop act Sonya has shared the first single, ‘God Save Your Soul’. With a sound that flits between chilled and urgent sensibilities, the song offers the sultry pop soundscapes of the late 00s buzz bands and adds a through line of energy. What results might be buried in a sun-kissed haze, but nevertheless possesses a tangible immediacy, Sonya’s vocals emerging from within the hypnotic atmosphere as though looking to shake you from its hold.

‘God Save Your Soul’ is out now via streaming services.

Sophie Gault – Christmas in the Psych Ward

Having previously recorded as Sophie & the Broken Things, Nashville-based songwriter Sophie Gault is releasing new album Baltic Street Hotel on Petaluma Records next spring, and single ‘Christmas in the Psych Ward’ gives an indication what to expect. The record was produced by Ray Kennedy, collaborator with folk royalty including Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams and Patty Griffin, and the single very much follows such a lineage, delving into highly personal experiences of bipolar disorder with a tone both steely and wry.  “There’s a guitar they give you if you’re doing good / It’s got four strings and it’s made of plywood,” as Gault sings. “I’m gonna go write down some songs and take them to Nashville / ‘That’s funny, honey, just swallow a few of these pills’.”

Baltic Street Hotel is out via Petaluma Records on the 12 April 2024.

Trinket – Silver Thread

Trinket might have originated as the solo project of Madison Kate Proffitt, but soon welcomed Basil Lee (drums), Nara Avakian (bass) and occasionally Sean Camargo into the fold and evolved towards a jangling, eighties-inflected pop style. Debut EP New Hobby is coming soon on Sad Club Records, and single ‘Silver Thread’ highlights why audiences should be anticipating their potent blend of lush nostalgia and serious self-reflection. “This song is about idealization, getting to a point with someone important in your life who sends you mixed messages,” Proffitt explains. ‘Maybe you want them to be someone they aren’t, maybe you’re projecting onto them […] It’s about stopping that cycle and letting yourself move forward.”

‘Silver Thread’ is out now via Sad Club Records and available from the Trinket Bandcamp page.

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