Back in March we introduced Spellbreaker, the new full-length from LA pop duo Bouquet. Having not put out a record for a decade, the release sees interdisciplinary artist, writer and composer Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs and songwriter and producer Max Foreman evolve the project while staying true to its spirit, with singles ‘Hold On‘ and ‘Moon Was Made‘ showing off “a rich and romantic style,” as we put it, “that championed restraint within a genre often prone to excesses.” With the album now out, Bouquet have shared the title track—a song which confronts suffocating societal expectations, both in terms of their subliminal pull on us and the agency to be found in rejecting their logic.

Coral Grief – Rockhounds

Seattle trio Coral Grief are set to release their debut album Air Between Us this summer, a joint relase between Suicide Squeeze Records (digital), Anxiety Blanket Records (vinyl) and Den Tapes (cassette) which promises to represent a notable addition to the current dream pop revival. Because though the krautrock and synth pop styles underpinning the project might be drawn from the past, Coral Grief do so much more than peddle nostalgia. Rather, they take familiar sounds and recombine them into something entirely new, as displayed by lead single ‘Rockhounds’. It’s a track of ethereal tones and intricate detail built around a spine of sleek drum loops. The lyrics hint at the core themes of a release all about travel and exploration, championing not the productive gains of such things but rather the inherent value of the process. “I love beachcombing and searching for small treasures,” frontperson Lena Farr Morrissey explains. “This song is an ode to that process, especially when you don’t find anything but it was still worth the journey.”

Watch the video directed and edited by Nick Shively below:

Air Between Us will be released on the 18th July via Suicide Squeeze Records, Anxiety Blanket Records and Den Tapes and you can pre-order it now.

Horsepower – Excalibur

Horsepower, the project of NYC songwriter Charlotte Weinman, is preparing to release a self-titled debut EP next month via Rose Garden, and Weinman has shared new single ‘Excalibur’ to introduce the release. Produced by brother Noah Weinman (of runnner fame), the song offers a glimpse at the heavier dimension of the Horsepower project, following the tender, dreamy tones of previous track ‘Are You Blushing?’ with something altogether more charged and raw. The result is both earnest in tone and inventive in execution, Weinman drawing on her background in theatre writing and performance to convey personal fury in an unapologetically heightened, dramatic register. “I grew up as a massive fan of Hole and Sleater-Kinney and Kim Gordon, and I’ve always generally had a huge attraction to women who are being serrated and disgusting with their language and presence,” Weinman explains, “and not aestheticizing their anger—“feminine rage” etc.—but expressing it with a critical mass of urgency and conviction to dress it up or perform it any other way.”

Watch the video directed by Jonas Bishop Hayes below:

Horsepower will be released on the 27th June via Rose Garden.

OK Cool – Waawooweewaa

Back in 2023 we wrote about Chicago-based project OK Cool, describing how album fawn saw duo Bridget Stiebris Haley Blomquist rise from “a rich lineage of forebears, from contemporary bedroom pop to Midwest emo and feedback-soaked shoegaze” while still “keeping things fresh and experimental.” Now OK Cool are preparing to release follow-up Chit Chat in August on Take A Hike Records, and lead single ‘Waawooweewaa’ suggests the album will build upon these foundations. It’s a track which combines emo confession with an infectious forward motion to create something genuinely cathartic despite its dark tone. “I wish I could say fuck it / and walk out into the lake,” as the final verse goes. “My entire life relies on being far away /  i’m sorry, it’s my own fault.”

Paola Bennet – Landmines

Drawing on a mix of folk, pop and rock sensibilities, Boston-born, New York-based songwriter Paola Bennet is an artist unafraid of the personal, her music delving into intimate themes of illness, desire and relationships with equal parts tenderness and weight. Described as “agony put to sound,” new single ‘Landmines’ shows the full range of this style within a single track. An examination of a friendship conducted in its aftermath, where residual bitterness and burgeoning regret are matched with more complicated emotions. The identity-shaking experience of losing a person from your life when you had always imagined them a part of it. The poignant croon of the opening conjures the vulnerability of such a situation, and the gradual introduction of rock energy drives the track towards its fiercely cathartic climax.

Soot Sprite – Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon

We’ve featured a number of tracks from Soot Sprite‘s new full-length Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon in recent months, what we’ve called “a call to arms to fight against the forces that make contemporary life so difficult, and a reminder of the radical potential within empathy and community” that focuses on both a societal (on tracks like ‘All My Friends Are Depressed‘ and ‘Days After Days‘) and personal (‘Vicious Cycles‘) level. With the album now out via Specialist Subject Records, the trio have unveiled the title track to celebrate. A mission statement for the record and an embodiment of its cathartic defiance and determination. “As long as there’s blood in my body / I’ll never stop raging against the dark that’s gonna crush me,” as lead Elise Cook sings. “And as long as there’s air to breathe / I’ll do everything just to show you my teeth.”

Star Moles – Key Change

Recording under the moniker Star Moles, multi-instrumentalist Emily Moales has put out a wide range of releases since 2017, with a myriad of singles and covers sitting alongside full-lengths like Camelot, released via Earth Libraries. The oeuvre is a lesson in the potential of bedroom pop, refusing to settle for genre conventions to push the style in new directions. Again out via Earth Libraries, latest single ‘Key Change’ is a worthy addition to the catalogue. A track representative of Moales’s growing boredom with idealised romance of polished pop, choosing to instead get its hands dirty and dig into the messy guts of what love really means. The result is off-kilter and idiosyncratic and all the more believable for it, unfurling as a stream-of-consciousness with little filtered out.

Tyler Bradley Walker – Moon Broke Quiet

Perhaps best known as one half of electronic rock duo Gone to Color, Tyler Bradley Walker is now preparing to release his debut solo album, The Sun The Moon The Earth and Me, next month. Gone to Color have always broken new ground with their work, blurring the boundaries between pop, rock and concert music with traditional and electronic instrumentation, and lead single ‘Moon Broke Quiet’ suggest Walker’s solo work is no less ambitious. A spacious, evocative soundscape which seems to sit at an angle to reality, everything a little stark and surreal and strange. Tim Rutili of Califone fame adds his distinctive vocals, and the result occupies that nocturnal liminal space between waking life and dreams.

Watch the video by Chris Del Rio below:

‘Moon Broke Quiet’ is out now and available from Bandcamp.

Willi Carlisle – Beeswing

After the acclaim of 2024 album Critterland, Missouri songwriter Willi Carlisle is wasting no time getting back in the saddle with Winged Victory, a brand new full-length coming next month via Signature Sounds Recording Inc. The quick turnaround is perhaps at least in part explained by the urgency of the tracks therein. These are folk songs driven by (or in opposition to) the ever collapsing present, as though sensing that it is within moments of great change and suffering we might be allowed to imagine new ways of living. But far from pie-in-the-sky utopian dreaming, the album acknowledges the blood and sweat required to achieve such a thing, something made clear by Carlisle’s rendition of ‘Beeswing’. “I wanted the record to include a song about romantic love that had ideas about freedom and victory,” Carlisle explains. “For me, the song turns on the line ‘And they say her flower’s faded now / from hard weather and hard booze / but maybe that’s the price you pay for the chains you refuse.’ If you want to be untouchable by the regular world, maybe freedom is actually a really expensive thing, and maybe you have to try really hard to reach it.”

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

Back in March we wrote about ‘Hold On’, a single from LA’s Bouquet which teased the duo’s first full-length album in a decade, Spellbreaker. The song was a slice of dream pop “rich and romantic [in] style,” as we put it, that “championed restraint within a genre often prone to excesses.” Now Bouquet are back with new track ‘Moon Was Made’, offering a further glimpse at the record. A vintage Linn Drum machine is paired with the hi-hats of an old Roland rhythm box to weave a sound almost ethereal in its analog charm, all supporting lyrics which push and probe for answers amid an enveloping sense of uncertainty.

Watch the video shot and directed by Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs below:

‘Moon Was Made’ is out now and available from the Bouquet Bandcamp page.

Bug Crush – Mikey Told Me

With a new four-song EP Somehow I go in circles all the time set for release next month, Brooklyn-based songwriter Carolyn Fahrner, AKA Bug Crush, has unveiled new single, ‘Mikey Told Me’. Written after first moving to the city and living in less than perfect housing conditions, the track finds Fahrner tapping into the universal, slightly surreal experience of discomfort in a new place, where everything feels a little hazy and out of sync. “I wasn’t sleeping well because my bedroom floors were three inches uneven. In my groggy waking hours, I wandered around Brooklyn and frequently passed by a store called Mikey’s Hook Up. I thought it was a funny name and it stuck in my head. I wanted to write a song that wasn’t really about me, or anyone I knew, but I think it inevitably ended up being a reflection of my experiences in the world.”

‘Mikey Told Me’ is out now and available from the usual places, Somehow I go in circles all the time will be released on the 16th May.

JLJR – Thumbtack

“Adopts a tone both reflective and defiant to chart the end of a distinctive kind of relationship. One troubled and difficult to live through, yet equally one whose closure takes something from you too.” That’s how we described ‘Arms For Eyes’, the lead single from JLJR new EP The Rest of Your Life, coming soon on Paper Moon Records. Latest single ‘Thumbtack’ is no less reflective in style. A mosaic of iPhone takes and tape loops which weaves a lo-fi representation of memory itself, while the disarmingly sincere vocals meditate on grief to give the ostensibly inviting sound a real emotional edge.

The Rest of Your Life is out via Paper Moon Records.

Myriads – Call It Quits

Described as “a study of love, happiness, depression, and the search for meaning in these universal human experiences,” Find Ourselves Again is the new EP from Portland, OR-based outfit, Myriads. The work of frontperson Maria DeHart has morphed over the years, evolving from a solo endeavour built upon acoustic and later loop pedal foundations into the full band which would become Myriads, though has maintained a sincere, confronting tone throughout the arc. The new EP represents the next step in this process, blending elements of bedroom and dream pop with the heft and energy of indie rock to communicate in a typically unguarded, empathetic manner. Single ‘Call It Quits’ embodies the style, its wistful fondness counterbalanced with fuzzy weight, capturing the experience of a break-up in all of its conflict and longing.

Old Man of the Woods – Anticipating

“Tendrils is a collection of devotionals, written at a yearning distance from their beloveds. It’s the recognition of the vines that bind us to all we adore, at times only felt once they become taut, begin to quiver, reverberate, fray, snap, curl.” So describes Miranda Elliott of the new album from Old Man of the Woods, set for release this June. Recorded during a residency at the Culterim Gallery in an abandoned German sanatorium, the album explores the close relationship of preservation and decomposition, evolving the goth pop of previous releases like Votives and Triptych I to increasingly evocative results. Lead single ‘Anticipating’ provides a hint of the haunted vibe therein, playing like a private party for one held in memory of all that came before which nevertheless, as per its title, holds hope in the possibility that that which has been lost might be accessible some way down the line.

Tendrils will be released this June.

Penny & the Pits – Pool Party

“Lacks none of the mood or bite of the Motherhood sound, [Penelope] Stevens matching head-banging heft with an abstract, poetic lyricism which plays like a personal journey into the strange currents and slacks of this thing we call life.” So we wrote of ‘Montenegro on Ice’, the first single from Penny & the Pits‘ debut album Liquid Compactor, forthcoming this summer via Forward Music Group. Described as “a gritty, adventurous punk-rock album that processes feminist joy, rage and revenge,” the record harnesses this energy for both fun and fury, something exemplified by latest single, ‘Pool Party’. A surf punk number full of playfulness and bite which again highlights the imagination of the project, telling the delightfully dark story of a girl gang hell bent on revenge against the men who have wronged them.

Watch the video by director of photography Amelia Bailey below, with art direction by Audrey Kirk and Penelope Stevens and editing/colouring by Nicole Cecile Holland:

Liquid Compactor is out on the 27th June via Forward Music Group and you can pre-order it now.

Rose Haven Motor Hotel – Trasig

If any one feature marked Things Don’t Stay, the 2024 EP by Jackson-based project Rose Haven Motor Hotel, it was a sense of perpetual change, the style switching from traditional folk to alt-country swagger and back again on a whim. The release was “appropriately titled,” as we put it, “not only evoking the overarching wistfulness which marks the release, but also speaking to the stylistic fluidity which occurs across the five songs.” Released in preview of a forthcoming EP, latest single ‘Trasig’ sees Ben Atkinson continues to push the project towards new styles and influences. An instrumental guitar track he describes as “George Harrison meets Delicate Steve meets a biker gang.” A song of retro richness and a notable mean streak which refuses to outstay its welcome and maintains an air of mysterious cool as a result.

Slake – Votive

Back in March we introduced Slake, the recording project of self-described ‘lesbian doom folk’ songwriter Mary Claire, with single ‘Bonecollector’. Serving as “both a window into the singular vision of the Californian artist and an embodiment of the collaborative spirit which brings their work to life” as we put it, the track was the first glimpse of Slake’s new album Let’s Get Married, coming this June with Cherub Dream Records. New single ‘Votive’ further grounds this style and suggests all of the album is delivered with the same shadowy atmosphere and intimacy that made its predecessor so striking. Against the backdrop of a subtle yet poignant arrangement, it is Claire’s vocals which represent the heart of the track. A voice that plays as both a plea and a prayer, looking for a way to move beyond present suffering or else come to understand the purpose of the pain in order to better withstand it.

Soot Sprite – Vicious Cycles

With the release of new album Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon fast approaching on Specialist Subject Records, Soot Sprite have shared final single ‘Vicious Cycles’ to further whet appetites. We’ve previously described the album as “a call to arms to fight against the forces that make contemporary life so difficult, and a reminder of the radical potential within empathy and community,” and the new single zooms in on the most personal experiences to explore how such a mission might look on an individual level. “‘Vicious Cycles’ is about addressing your patterns of behaviour and the damage done in previous relationships,” as lead Elise Cook explains. “The fear of retribution for the smallest of hiccups that sticks with you long after the impacting relationship is done. The thought that you’ll never fully shake it off.”

I can’t wash off the oil from your spill
Part of me is always blackened by your will
Try to leave it in the years
But I still shake with fear
The eggshells stab like little spears

Sucker Crush – Stranger

Echoqualia is the latest EP from Sucker Crush, the recording project of Oakland-based songwriter Marissa Deitz. Built from a myriad of home recordings made between 2016 and 2021 and elevated beyond the sum of its parts with extra work in the subsequent years, the release has been long in the making, and this extended gestation period only served to add to its richness and weight. “A lot has happened in that time (personally, politically, pandemically…),” as Deitz says, “and it’s a strange and beautiful thing to hold these songs as they are now.” Lead single ‘Stranger’ highlights the signature blend of chamber pop and electronic sensibilities of the EP, its gentle, airy style belying the orchestral depth of the sound, and Deitz’s vocals equally notable for their simultaneously hushed and powerful tone.

Yoshika Colwell – There’s Got To Be A Loser Babe

“Pushing the folk sound into ethereal, almost cosmic territory, the song again embraces the satisfying weirdness of dreams, where logic might not adhere to the ordinary laws of such things, yet feels like logic all the same.” So we wrote of Yoshika Colwell‘s ‘Last Night’ back in February, but despite the single’s dreamy aesthetic, its heart was firmly rooted in the physical world. The track features on Colwell’s debut full-length On The Wing, an album coming this summer on Blue Flowers which further mines the more ethereal territories of folk to explore real life experiences. “This album is a bit of a shrine I suppose to all of the pivotal experiences that shaped me during my twenties and it’s also, I feel, a tentative lean towards hopefulness for the future,” Colwell explains. “It is, at its core, an album about acceptance and release, and freedom from old binds […] The process felt quite ritualistic, akin to writing down the things you know you need to let go of on a piece of paper and burning it.” Watch the video for latest single ‘There’s Got To Be A Loser Babe’ by Tilly Wace below:

On The Wing is out on the 25th July via Blue Flowers and you can pre-order it now.

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

The release of Avery Friedman‘s forthcoming album New Thing is fast-approaching on Audio Antihero. Previous singles ‘Flowers Fell’ and ‘Photo Booth’ introduced a sound which, as we put it, “seems to sit in the interstitial space between trauma and growth,” and if these two states exist at opposite ends of a continuum, then latest single and title track sees Friedman dig further back in her personal history towards the difficult end. “I wrote ‘New Thing’ in one sitting after riding the subway home alone at night for the first time since being mugged at knifepoint months prior,” as she explains. “I was shocked and disoriented by the anxiety I experienced doing something so routine—I felt foreign to myself.” But however directly the song confronts this upsetting experience, it also represents the beginning of the path forward, allowing Friedman a method by which to return to her body and start the process of becoming whole again.

Hallelujah The Hills – Fake Flowers at Sunset

Boston indie rock royalty Hallelujah The Hills have never been ones to shy away from a challenge, Ryan H. Walsh and co. have released a plethora of idiosyncratic albums across their near two-decade career. But their latest project DECK pushes the boat out even for them. A joint release between Discrete Pageantry Records and Best Brother Records, DECK is a something of a magnum opus—a quadruple album two-and-a-half years in the making which maps entirely to a deck of cards. That’s four LPs (fittingly titled CLUBS, DIAMONDS, HEARTS and SPADES) and fifty-two songs, all brought to life with an enviable supporting cast which includes Craig Finn (The Hold Steady), Patrick Stickles (Titus Andronicus), Sadie Dupuis (Speedy Ortiz), Tanya Donelly (Belly, Breeders), Clint Conley (Mission of Burma), Ezra Furman and Cassie Berman (Silver Jews). It is Berman who appears on new single ‘Fake Flowers at Sunset’ (that’s three of diamonds within the pack), providing supporting vocals to a song which evokes the push and pull of love in its combination of mournful folk and pressing disco beat.

Honey I’m Home – Wishful Thinking

Dutch outfit Honey I’m Home might have already supported the likes of Goat Girl, The Buoys, Blood Wizard and Hotline TNT, but have only now released their debut single, ‘Wishful Thinking’. Operating at the intersection of shoegaze, indie rock and post-punk, the song introduces the band’s penchant for shadowy textures and visceral energy, tapping into ethereal moods without sacrificing a certain emotional immediacy to achieve a cathartic sound. “‘Wishful Thinking’ explores the longing to reconnect with people no longer in your life, whether it’s a lost love or a departed family member,” as vocalist and guitarist Thom Schotanus explains. “We tried to capture the intensity of that unfulfilled desire with a layered, dreamlike soundscape.”

‘Wishful Thinking’ is out now via streaming services.

Jahnah Camille – what do you do?

Writing last May, we described how Jahnah Camille‘s album i tried to freeze light, but only remember a girl used a number of different styles and genres to “offer a picture of late adolescence in all of its bittersweet nuance, its introspective contemplation matched only by its bold confessional attitude.” The record, released via Winspear, made the list of our favourite releases of 2024, so it is very much welcome news that Camille is returning with a new EP, My sunny oath! As lead single ‘what do you do?’ shows, the six-song release sees a newfound focus on the louder, stormier end of the spectrum, Camille working with producer Alex Farrar (Wednesday, Indigo De Souza, MJ Lenderman) to explore grunge and shoegaze-inflected styles of indie rock. Exploding into life from the off, the song packs a newfound punch without sacrificing the heart which marked previous releases, and emerges with an affirming sense of forward motion.

Watch the video below, directed by Harrison Shook with assistance from Polycarpe Ancelet and Ava Cavasos:

My sunny oath! is out on the 13th June via Winspear and you can pre-order it now.

Ruby Gill – The Flood

We’ve featured a couple of songs from Ruby Gill‘s forthcoming album Some Kind of Control in recent months, with both the title track and ‘Touch Me There‘ highlighting what the artist describes as a “cheekier, looser, gayer and even more raw” style. Both singles explored ideas of agency and control in various guises, from the experience of lockdown to the empowerment found in the queer community, and latest track ‘The Flood’ is no different. A song inspired by Gill’s experience of being trapped in the cyclone which struck eThekwini/Durban in 2023 which questions just who possesses power in a contemporary society facing a worsening environment year upon year. Watch the video directed by Emily Dynes below:

Some Kind of Control is out now and available to purchase.

Sea Lemon – Stay

After the success of 2023 EP Stop At Nothing (an evocative release populated by protagonists, as we put it, which “feel at once fearful and dangerous, some absence at the heart of their existence pushing them toward the darkest of places”) and subsequent singles like ‘Crystals‘ and ‘Sweet Anecdote‘, Natalie Lew’s Sea Lemon is preparing to release debut full-length Diving For A Prize this June via Luminelle Recordings. As the prior singles suggested, the album looks to broaden the dream pop and shoegaze styles which inform the Sea Lemon sound, pushing towards increasingly fantastical directions. And new single ‘Stay’ is no different. Suspended in gauzy textures, the track weaves a warm, enveloping space into which the listener is invited, then reflects the world back to us at odd angles to more fully reveal the strangeness at its core. “‘Stay’ […] is a little vignette of a man I saw in a local thrift store,” Lew explains. “This older guy, probably in his 70s or 80s, was acting as a security guard at this thrift store near my house, but he was basically asleep on the couch the entire time I was there. I couldn’t stop thinking about him after I left, and wrote Stay as a reaction to seeing this guy who I felt deserved to take a break.”

Watch video by Otium with styling by Greta Akopov below:

Diving For A Prize is out on the 13th June via Luminelle Recordings and you can pre-order it now.

So It Was – In a Rose

We first covered Daniel Lobb’s So It Was back in 2023 with the release of full-length Round the Mountain, an album which ranged from the “combination of earnest heart and laidback charm” of singles like ‘Speak Now!‘ and “something altogether more taut and building” in the case of ‘Dance Now!‘, a song which “confront[ed] the uneasy truth of change with as much positivity as it can muster.” Now So It Was has returned with ‘In a Rose’, a new single which combines the ornate detail of acts like Beirut, a Vampire Weekend-style playfulness, and some of the indie rock attitude of The Strokes to take on the modern blight of consumerism. “Aaa-ccumulation / Is such a silly pose,” as Lobb sings. “We countin’ on our fingers / We countin’ on our toes.”

Soot Sprite – Days After Days

Writing back in February, we introduced Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon, the new album from Exeter-based emos Soot Sprite, calling it “a call to arms to fight against the forces that make contemporary life so difficult, and a reminder of the radical potential within empathy and community.” With the release via Specialist Subject Records on the horizon, Soot Sprite have now shared new single, ‘Days After Days’. The album’s opener, the song acts as a mission statement, not only raising awareness of the stakes at hand but also the importance of celebrating every inch of ground won. “It’s about facing the endless horrors of the world and remembering to pay attention to the good,” as lead Elise Cook explains. “People on the ground, activism, and remembering that we shouldn’t be hardened by everything we witness or we can lose empathy. And it feels like without empathy we’ll never be able to achieve class consciousness, and lose our sense of community.”

Uncanny Valet – Almost Island

The recording project of New York-based electronic musician and producer David Queen, Uncanny Valet is a descendant of the likes of Oneohtrix Point Never and Ryuichi Sakamoto, marrying precise production with an unbridled creative vision in effort to push electronic music into uncharted territory. New album Almost Island carries the mission further, taking elements of eighties pop, ambient, dub and even Saturday morning cartoons and recombining them into something new. The result rarely sits still (just listen to the stylistics differences between the sleek sophisti-pop grooves of ‘Cameo Glass’ and melancholic drift of ‘Archway’), not only straddling the nostalgic and the contemporary but mining this juxtaposition for all of its thematic resonance, making for a sound that wouldn’t be out of place in an Adam Curtis documentary. Nowhere is that more obvious than on the closer and title track, a graceful and thickly-textured piece of ambient beauty.

Almost Island is out now and available from the Uncanny Valet Bandcamp page.

Why Dogs Why – Clunkers

Los Angeles-based project Why Dogs Why are preparing to release brand new EP Play The Hits this May, and have shared lead single ‘Clunkers’ by way of introduction. Writing back in 2023, we described previous EP Homebody as “full of buoyant energy and wacky lyricism, anchored by an underlying volatility and unease,” and the ‘Clunkers’ is no different. It’s a song which embraces both scrappy indie rock sensibilities and the smooth surf pop of yesteryear to explore themes of idealism and disappointment, the sound filled with brightness and forward motion but again troubled by the possibility of a less than perfect reality. “We’ll book a tour up the coast / And drive right through the bay,” as lead Alex Johnson sings, “When no one comes out to see us / We’ll hit the motel bedbug hay.” But however disheartening real life might prove, Why Dogs Why champion committing to your dreams if only for the romantic hell of it.

Let’s write some clunkers together, baby,
Some songs we’ll sing for fourteen fans.
Let’s write some clunkers together, baby.
Our dads will never understand.

The post Weekly Listening: March 2025 #5 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

[The album is] about facing the endless horrors of the world and remembering to pay attention to the good. People on the ground, activism, and remembering that we shouldn’t be hardened by everything we witness or we can lose empathy. And it feels like without empathy we’ll never be able to achieve class consciousness, and lose our sense of community.

Pulling no punches with its observations, lead single ‘All My Friends Are Depressed’ plays like a dispatch from the trenches of the present. An attempt to shake life into an exhausted population beaten down by work and expectations so that we might act to shape a better world. The song represents “my observation of the mental health crisis we’re in, how widespread it feels and how sociopolitical factors are playing such a huge part,” Cook explains. “It’s also a reminder to myself that I need to stop distracting myself from my issues and try and change something or face things or nothing will happen and I’ll never shake off the episode.”

Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon is out on the 16th May via Specialist Subject Records and you can pre-order it now from the Soot Sprite Bandcamp page.

The post Soot Sprite – All My Friends Are Depressed appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“At some very basic and intuitive level, [Will] Kennedy taps into the stuff that’s really important. Getting lost in the present, side by side with those you love.” That’s how we described ‘Bird Sanctuary’, the first single from 22° Halo‘s new album Lily of the Valley, coming this November on Tiny Library Records. The single introduced the style with experience of the natural world, but new track ‘Virtual You’ shows such feelings are not unique to the great outdoors. As the title suggests, the song delves into cyberspace and the abundant nostalgia it offers. But rather than finding melancholy in those old photographs of cherished moments now past, the song is delivered with something brighter. Wistful, yes, and not immune from a certain sense of longing, but always with an overarching gratitude that such times happened at all.

Chris Acker – Shit Surprise

“The most beautiful and poetic song about stepping in dog shit that has ever been written.” That’s how label Gar Hole Records describe Chris Acker’s ‘Shit Surprise’. The first track from upcoming album Famous Lunch, the song is an ode to the cosmic justice which so often comes attached to vanity. How those walking a little too tall will inevitably get slapped down again. Behind Acker’s trademark absurdity is the essential troubadour tale, where the confused dreamer collides with the banalities of life and comes to feel cursed for his failings. And, most importantly, the tongue-in-cheek style sacrifices none of the track’s emotional weight, positioning Acker alongside the likes of Dean Johnson as one of the most authentic and interesting practitioners of contemporary folk.

Watch the video directed and edited by Cooper Kenward with animation by Anubha Gupta below:

Famous Lunch is out on the 11th October via Gar Hole Records and you can pre-order it now.

Liv Greene – Katie

Described as “a reckoning with reality, a vulnerable snapshot of hard-won self-acceptance,” Deep Feeler is the forthcoming full-length from Nashville songwriter Liv Greene on Free Dirt Records. The product of a decision to finally embrace a truer self within her work, the album sees Greene cease attempts to bury personal truths, reframing songwriting from an escape mechanism to a kind of spotlight. Belonging to a rich lineage of songwriters going back through Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch and others, the album emerges defiant in its unguardedness, finding healing within the act of revealing one’s core. New single ‘Katie’ is a great example of the style. A lesson in how learning to be oneself can lead to objective good. “This came out of a relationship that wasn’t my first queer love experience,” as Greene explains, “but it was my first time allowing it to not be a bad thing. It comes from a place of tenderness—of allowing yourself to feel those romantic feelings and really revel in them.”

Deep Feeler is out on the 18th October via Free Dirt Records and you can pre-order it now.

Lutalo – Oh Well

Last month we featured two new singles from Lutalo‘s upcoming album The Academy, coming soon via Winspear. A hint at the spectrum of moods present on the record, with ‘The Bed’ offering a bright folk sound and ‘Broken Twin’ something altogether darker. Latest track ‘Oh Well’ splits the difference between the two, marbling heavy reverb with an almost transcendent falsetto to evoke Lutalo’s teenage years in Minnesota, a time set against the backdrop of his mother’s mental health challenges. What results is a spectrum of emotions packed tightly together, where confusion and desperation sit alongside fondness, and a crushing weight is always threatening to overtake everything.

Molina – Organs

This October Danish–Chilean composer Molina will release debut full-length When you wake up via Escho, an album which looks to in some way transcend the rush of contemporary living via a committed awareness of life’s small details. Thus emerges a layered brand of dream pop which eschews the nostalgia so common for the genre in favour of a close attention to the present. Latest single ‘Organs’ sees ML Buch lend their talents to push this sound further. A song “very much a fusion of our individual approaches to perceiving melodies, recordings and sound in general,” as Molina explains. “We are both fascinated by the ‘pulse’ in music and how a song can be perceived to move at different paces. We also share a mutual attraction to catchy melodies. ML tends to unfold words with the melody in an elastic manner, while I prefer more on-the-note vocals that introduce unexpected harmonic shifts. ‘Organs’ kind of holds all those elements of fascination and exploration together.”

Sam Weber – Tamarindo Sunsets

In recent months we’ve previewed the Clear + Plain, the new album from Vancouver Island-based singer-songwriter and guitarist Sam Weber, first with the evocative ‘Oregon‘ and later the warm and relaxed ‘Void‘. “But while the languid tone might suggest a track of romance and intimacy,” we wrote of the latter, “the lyrics paint a more ambiguous picture, where mortality flashes into view with an unnerving abruptness.” With the album out now via Sonic Unyon Records, Weber is back with new single, ‘Tamarindo Sunsets’. A song about “staring into the digital abyss and being confronted with greener and greener grass,” as he explains. “Reckoning with what it means to find that beauty, peace, satisfaction in your heart.”

Clear + Plain is out now via Sonic Unyon.

Soot Sprite x Muttering – Burn The Leaves

Hot on the heels of recent single I Went Swimming / Home Among Your Bones, which we described as “a refusal to romanticise difficult relationships, a determination to learn lessons and live more healthily,” Soot Sprite are back with For Joy, a new collaborative EP with London‘s Muttering. Again released via Specialist Subject Records, the three-song release sees Elise Cook and Chaz Bush share songwriting duties, with Bush taking the reins for first single ‘Burn The Leaves’. A weighty and cathartic examination of the past inspired by J. L. Carr’s A Month in the Country, drawing on the novel’s bittersweet retrospection on a time which could not last. “We all have certain anchor points that you look back on,” Bush explains. “Memories that hold significance and in difficult times often hope to rekindle. The thought of what could have been.”

This Lonesome Paradise – These Western Roads

With forthcoming album Luna Nocturna, California psych-folk outfit This Lonesome Paradise conjure a world worthy of their name, drawing the listener into a sonic environment as stark and striking as the American West of Cormac McCarthy’s oeuvre. Lead single ‘These Western Roads’ offers a path into this landscape. A dark and brooding slice of country noir which simmers with equal parts beauty and foreboding. But more than a lesson in cinematic worldbuilding, the album serves as a meditation on the American Dream with all its brutality, broken promises and betrayals. A project doomed from its very inception, destined to always be haunted by the means in which reached for its goals.

Luna Nocturna is out on the 18th October via Bad Vibes Good Friends and you can pre-order it now.

Why Bonnie – Three Big Moons

“Foregoes easy pigeonholing in terms of style, unified instead by the defiant new self-confidence which underpins it.” That’s how we described Wish On The Bone, the new full-length from Why Bonnie coming later this week on Fire Talk Records, in a preview back in June. A style fitting for the new philosophy of lead Blair Howerton, who is looking to escape preconception and expectation to embrace the freedom of constant change. Take latest single ‘Three Big Moons’, where the old Why Bonnie country twang is repurposed to tell an old story in a different way. Themes of loneliness and isolation are keystones of the genre, but here the dusty roads and full moon heartbreak are swapped out for something altogether more extraterrestrial.

I was a heavy weight
Out there in space
Took one for the team
And took a swan dive into nothing
They pinned a note to my collar
It said “we couldn’t save her”
And dropped down the american flag
Like it was a favor
Walked around a few earth hours
Until my feet got sore
Found a nice big crater
24 by 24

Wish On The Bone will be released via Fire Talk Records on 30th August and is available to pre-order via Bandcamp.

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With the release now out, second single ‘Home Among Your Bones’ offers the counterpoint to its predecessor, celebrating those relationships in which the opposite is true. Such a positive and openly earnest tone might seem something of a departure for the band, but the effect is to make the entire release more convincing. A refusal to romanticise difficult relationships, a determination to learn lessons and live more healthily. “Who would wish for turbulence,” as Cook sings in the opening lines, “I’ve got everything I need here.” As she goes on the expand:

This is a song about feeling happy and safe in a relationship. I wanted to capture the joy of feeling love with someone without feeling insecure and sad which is something very new to me. I wrote it not long after moving in with my partner, it was and still is such a happy time, and it felt weird to put that into words to be listened to by the world. Ultimately it’s how I feel, and that’s how I’ve always written. It’s nice to be cringey sometimes!

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Their first release since 2016’s And Then Like Lions, Blind Pilot‘s forthcoming album In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain finds the Oregon outfit having undergone something of a necessary hiatus. “I was struggling with a lot of fear surrounding expectations of who I was supposed to be,” lead Israel Nebeker says, “I’d lost my path with music.” The time away allowed Nebeker to travel to Scandinavia to reconnect with his Sámi heritage, as well as visit places like Mexico City as part of a humanitarian group helping migrants. “I got the idea to write a song that looks at ideas of ownership and othering, and what it does when we tell people, ‘This is our home, not yours’.” he continues. The new record flowed out in less than a month. Lead single ‘Just A Bird’ introduces the new sound, one possessing all the heart which won fans over to Blind Pilot in the first place, but an extra sense of focus for those energies. Watch the visualizer by Lotte Budai below:

In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain is out on the 16th August via ATO Records and you can pre-order it now.

Coolhand Jax – Everything Changes All of the Time

After moving on from surf-psych band Sunshine Brothers Inc., Los Angeles-based songwriter Jake Weissman took to the road across America and started working on new demos. The songs would eventually make up the first Coolhand Jax releases, which came out via Spirit Goth Records, and the project has never looked back. Latest single ‘Everything Changes All of the Time’ shows Weissman’s knack for combining bright rhythms with intimate emotion, following a challenging conversation during a car ride which turns towards themes of loss and death. But far from emerging as something bleak, Coolhand Jax instead wrap these ideas in a rich, wistful sound that highlights the romance of such themes. Finding some comfort in the concept of change, if only to feel a sense of movement.

Cooza – Blonde

In June, UK folk songwriter Cooza released Getting Better At Knowing You, a brand new full-length on Folk Boy Records. Described as an album “written for and about his sister Ellie,” the songs might have emerged from a period of mourning, but their intent is to do more than evoke feelings of grief. Because while loss sits at the heart of Getting Better At Knowing You, the record actively works against the totality so often ascribed to the experience. Ellie might not be here in the way she once was, Cooza seems to be saying, but she is far from lost. Single ‘Blonde’ is our first taste of this affirming album and the tender, incredibly intimate emotions found therein.

Getting Better At Knowing You is out now via Folk Boy Records.

G. Himsel – Sweet William

You might know Geoff Himsel as the songwriter behind Portsmouth, New Hampshire trio Bird Friend, but after finding his groove in recent times and writing an abundance of material, he has decided to begin releasing music under the solo moniker G. Himsel for the first time. With an album on the horizon, Himsel has unveiled single ‘Sweet William’ for a glimpse into the world of his sound. A sonic representation of the New England landscape, where expansiveness meets intricate detail and whispered subtleties, resulting in something patient, delicate, and fully attuned to geographies both physical and emotional.

hey i’m outside – Frontyard

“You’re in an overgrown front yard at sunset. The worldwide vibe is kinda off right now but you gotta try anyway.” That’s how Medford, MA’s outfit hey i’m outside describe the vibe of ‘Frontyard’, the first single from their upcoming album. The tone is heartfelt if a little woozy, as though clinging on as everything we know shifts off-kilter. It finds a person trying to preserve the small joys and points of interest they stumble across, even if the attempt is doomed to fail. “saw you in the front yard / looking at flowers, just about dark,” as the first verse plays. “I lined up my camera, I tried to compose / but a fragment of time can only come close.”

Jacob Furr – Take Care

“I was thinking about an old junkyard/antique collection that I know of and how those objects were all once important to someone’s life,” explains Jacob Furr of new track ‘Take Care’. The Texas-based songwriter uses the energies and meaning inherent within such ephemera as a springboard to explore care in a wider sense. What results is every bit as warm and compassionate as anything Furr has written to date, serving as a reminder of both the power of kindness and the need to cultivate such feelings to stave off the selfishness and cynicism so prevalent in these days. “Take care of the well that’s in your heart,” as he sings, “draw deeply on its waters but don’t let down your guard / Because the darkness comes without / The darkness comes within / and it’ll try to take everything you’ve been given.”

Jae Soto – Standing

The solo moniker of Brooklyn-based songwriter and producer Justina-Maria Soto, Jae Soto creates music which exists at the intersection of the traditional and contemporary, with classic songwriting sensibilities merging and interacting with various electronic styles. Released via Switch Hit Records, new album Leave the Light On demonstrates the inventiveness and potential of such a style, showing how an exploratory sound need not lack a sense of meticulous crafting. Single ‘Standing’ is a good place to jump in, introducing the themes of growth and self-care that run across the record. It’s a song which represents “an earnest reflection of the solitary, empty feeling a person can have after coming out of a long, stressful period where they were operating in survival mode,” Soto explains. “It can sort of feel like you’re living as a ghost since the rest of your life hasn’t caught up to shape around the new person you’ve become. Ultimately, the message is ‘I’m still here!'”

Julie Doiron & Astral Swans – Last Night I Saw My Love

Following on from the successful collaborative EP Split with Chad Vangaalen, Astral Swans are now preparing to release Split 2, a second joint EP this time with Canadian songwriting royalty Julie Doiron. Released via Stoner Bird Records and as a limited edition lathe cut vinyl via Red Spade Records, the EP finds two artists at the height of their abilities, however contrasting their styles. Doiron with her earnest invocations of love, Astral Swans with an altogether more sardonic slacker contemplations. Focus track ‘Last Night I Saw My Love’ captures the full nuance of the style—an ode to a lover delivered over great distances which chugs and croons its fondness with a building momentum.

Luke De-Sciscio – Only A Woman Knows

Most people might take a few months to themselves on entering parenthood, getting to grips with the inevitable life changes, but for prolific songwriter Luke De-Sciscio, the process only served up a deeper source of inspiration. Where previous LP Papa painted a couple on the precipice of their new life, latest album Theo sees them fully immersed within it. A collection of songs written and recorded in snatched moments during his daughter’s first six weeks, the record offers an unusually immediate picture of new fatherhood, something furthered by the live-recorded style. Single ‘Only A Woman Knows’ demonstrates the release’s delicate power, where anxiety and self-doubt bubble on the surface of a new wellspring of love.

Madam Sad – Hope For You

Madam Sad, that’s Hamilton, Ontario-based duo Maddison Schreiber and Evelyn Charlotte Joe, is a project which exists in defiance of poverty and disability, functioning both as a source of healing and a way to spite the challenges life has placed in their way. New single ‘Hope For You’ shows the heart which underpins the Madam Sad sound, as well as its willingness to confront difficult things with a compassionate face. “The song title is a way of holding myself accountable to make sure I am always hoping for the happiness of those who have hurt me,” as Schreiber says. “I also do get to a more genuine place where I feel compassion for an ex-lover’s success, and that’s a nice kind of sad.”

‘Hope For You’ is out now via streaming services.

Marisa Finley – Hallelujah (Movin Through Ya)

Exploring the timeless themes of love, loss and growing up, the work of Canadian singer-songwriter Marisa Finley uses a hazy, reflective sound to further its wistful charms. Her debut single ‘Hallelujah’ sees her team up with friend and collaborator Peter Mol, a musician and producer known for work with the likes of Father John Misty and Quincy Jones, and the result is as richly heartfelt as it is melancholic. An indie pop song bathed in ambient textures and sound recordings, as though Finley’s voice emerges through the cloudy fog of her accumulated past to make itself heard. What she has to say delivered with a heavy heart, charting the experience of falling in love prematurely and the slow process of realisation, though always with an assured fondness that respects the time which has passed.

‘Hallelujah (Movin Through Ya)’ is out now via streaming services.

Soot Sprite – I Went Swimming

Next month sees Exeter trio Soot Sprite return with I Went Swimming / Home Among Your Bones, a brand new 7″ double single on Specialist Subject Records. Through releases like album Poltergeist and single ‘Lazy‘, the band have established a cathartic, often confrontational style, calling out the slights and injustices of modern living in search of a sense of self-worth. ‘I Went Swimming’ applies the style to personal relationships, its thundering momentum and impassioned delivery typifying Soot Sprite’s willingness to stand up to all that is toxic and wrong. The track is about “recognising a red flag in your relationship and emotionally shutting down to that person and cutting things off,” as lead Elise Cook explains. “Some people describe this as getting ‘the ick’ but that feels like a trivial term. Sometimes we have to learn from our mistakes and protect ourselves and that’s exactly what this is about.”

The sky is filling up with red flags
And you can’t take that back
I went swimming in the water
And now I only see black

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Ahead of a summer tour, Soot Sprite are back with a brand new single ‘Lazy’, a track which turns its attention to generational stereotypes and the general awfulness of the contemporary situation. As though having realised the power of self-love and respect, Cook is ready to look outwards and call out the hypocrisy and dishonesty of the discourse. The single “is about the exasperation many of us are feeling about our generation being constantly blamed for not being able to thrive in the current climate,” Cook explains. “We’re constantly in the firing line for buying too many coffees or smashed avocado and that’s why we’re not able to afford our own homes or have any kind of security, instead of the increasing amount of real factors that have piled up.”

The message is delivered with cutting restraint, a tone easily mistaken for uncertainty at first, though soon solidifying into something as steely and assured as anything on Poltergeists. “I should be more motivated / This isn’t how good stories are created,” she sings in the opening, “Maybe I’m lazy / I should be more concentrated / Feel the fire burning to make it.” But of course there is the matter of context, which is always worth pointing out. As she continues “Maybe I’m lazy / Or maybe it’s:”

Three recessions in thirty years
A handheld newscycle full of fear
Maybe I’m just diluted by trauma
From living in an endless apocalyptic drama

29/07 – London, Signature Brew E8
30/07 – Exeter. Phoenix
31/07 – Newport, Le Pub
02/08 – Brighton, Hope & Ruin
03/08 – Oxford, The Library
04/08 – Sheffield, Sidney & Matilda
05/08 – Macclesfield, Mash
06/08 – Leicester, Handmade Festival

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This autumn sees Soot Sprite again team up with Specialist Subject Records for a brand new EP, Poltergeists. With their sound fleshed out with trumpet by Danny Lester and field recordings from Tom Stephens, the release finds the band at their most confident. A mood embodied by the seam of determination and self-belief that runs through the centre of the record. Because while the tracks emerged from a period of doubt and turmoil, Cook used the conditions as a springboard toward a greater sense of self-worth.

“I wrote these songs up until and during lockdown,” she explains. “About turbulent relationships with others, how they affected my relationship with myself, and eventually when they broke down.” But rather than wallow in the aftermath, Soot Sprite seize the opportunity to progress and grow, finding enough comfort in their own company, a newfound joy in life. “Just being able to accept myself,” Cook continues, “move on, and celebrate the accomplishments I’d made in my life regardless of others.”

Serving as something of a thesis for the EP, lead single ‘Alone But Not Lonely’ encapsulates this mood. The exact moment the fog clears after a relationship, when one relearns to position their view of the world according to themselves alone. “This was one of those epiphany moments, where I realised that alone I was not only okay, but I was thriving,” Cook explains. “And it wasn’t down to anyone else except myself. It was that realisation of self-love and owning my accomplishments in life. It came out in this form of pure joy that I needed to put into song.”

SAT 20th NOV – Cavern, EXETER
THU 2nd DEC – Exchange, BRISTOL
FRI 3rd DEC – Rossi Bar, BRIGHTON
SAT 4th DEC – The Victoria, LONDON

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Husbands – Mexico

Husbands are a duo separated by geography, Danny Davis living in Seattle and Wil Norton in Oklahoma City. If the circumstances go some way to explaining their forthcoming album’s lengthy gestation (After the Gold Rush Party had been planned for 2016) then they are not apparent on the songs themselves. There’s something of the late 00s buzz band aesthetic at work, sun-bleached rock unafraid to dip its toe into the dreamy, tropical ends of the genre. However, as single ‘Mexico’ shows, the tracks come complete with undercurrents of something more morose—like shadows and sudden breezes, or the sunset sorrow of summer evenings.

“I spent last summer housesitting with my wife in Costa Rica,” Davis explains. “I spent the summer surfing, writing music and playing poker with the locals. It was the best time of our lives, but it also wrecked us.” Because the trip was something of an eye-opener, not so much in terms of what was in Costa Rica, but rather what was waiting back home. “We came back to Seattle, disillusioned about our days spent looking at code, working in cubes working 9-5s with no end in sight.” ‘Mexico’ is the response, a single based around the type of pipe dream fantasy that we know will never happen, yet lean on nonetheless.

Kelly Hoppenjans – If I Had You

Channeling the spirit of riot grrrl while maintaining a folk sensibility, Nashville’s Kelly Hoppenjans makes music of empowerment, facing up to expectations and staring them down. Her debut full-length, OK, I Feel Better Now, is an album about breaking moulds and realising your true self, encouraging people to fill their own space in the world without apology or embarrassment.

Single ‘If I Had You (Love Letter From A Padded Cell)’ is a case in point. Exaggerating and subverting the bunny boiler ex trope, the song confronts the glorification of obsession and fixation in relationships, asking why creepy and/or violent situations are held up as romantic or honorable. “I’d do anything to keep you, if I had you,” Hoppenjans sings amid the buoyant sound, the unhinged heart of the track dressed in brightness. “The album, as a whole, deals with the experience of being a woman in the world and accessing our power as women,” she explains. “I feel there is so much power in taking control of the narrative around the so-called ‘crazy ex-girlfriend,’ and saying, ‘You think that’s crazy? Oh no, this is crazy’.”

OK, I Feel Better Now is out on the 18th October.

Leah Dunn – Oakland

Based in the Bay Area in California, Leah Dunn is a songwriter with diverse influences, from the folk majesty of Joni Mitchell to the atmosphere and noise of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. Released earlier this summer, her first EP Oakland displays how perfect such a marriage is, combining tenderness with a brooding atmosphere to create authentic and emotional songs driven by Dunn’s insistent vocals.

The title track is a perfect introduction for new listeners. Rising to life from a wistful wash of field recordings and reflective guitar, Dunn’s delivery emerges with the gentle croon of a lullaby. The lyrics themselves are concerned with something lost, an unease that works in juxtaposition to the sound, though soon a defiant refrain is found, repeating itself like mantra and growing in impact with every cycle.

I gave my soul to a lonesome mystery

Gutter Sparrow – Sheridan

Gutter Sparrow is the recording project of John Mosloskie. After previously writing and singing for Holler Wild Rose, Mosloskie set out solo, releasing his debut, The Fear of Forgotteness in 2017. The record was a lesson in patient, melancholic folk music, songs carved out of the intricacies of history and relationships and shaped into sad and striking sounds.

With the follow-up album, The Waker Dreams, set for release this autumn, Gutter Sparrow has unveiled a brand new single that continues such a style. The intimacy and warmth of ‘Sheridan’ is indicative of Moslokie’s sound, warm and fond and possessing the Kozelekian knack for sounding conversational and poetic in the same breath.

The Waker Dreams is out on the 25th October on Meadowlands Records and you can find more on the Gutter Sparrow website.

Soot Sprite – Bleed

Exeter trio Soot Sprite operate at the intersection of shoegaze and bedroom pop, crafting songs polished with an alternative sheen that lends a real intensity to the emotion. Set for release next month via Specialist Subject Records, their latest EP, Sharp Tongue, develops this aesthetic into something moody and dark but human too, balancing a simmering anger against vulnerability, a willingness to open up.

Lead single ‘Bleed’ is our first taste of the release, a track which finds an insistent rhythm yet is willing to change when needs be, breaking down into a heavy reverberation at the midpoint. Thematically, the song charts the insidious harm of friendship turned sour. ‘Bleed’ is about “toxic friendships and recognising them in your life and in others,” explains lead Elise Cook. “It’s all the niggling signs of someone acting like your friend and confidant whilst casually putting you down and chipping away at your self esteem, and the damage that leaves.”

Fime – Solo/Together

Based in Los Angeles, Beto Brakmo, Chase Cook and Maxine Garcia combine to form Fime, an alt rock band indebted to the genre’s 90s heyday. Recorded and produced by Melina Duterte (AKA Jay Som), Fime’s latest EP is set for release on the 11th October and you can hear the first single now.

‘Solo/Together’ utilises a quiet/loud dynamic to huge effect, crafting a sound that is smoky and sultry one minute then soaring the next. “How do you see without (Absolutely knowing)?” they demand in the cathartic refrain. “How do you feel without (Absolutely knowing)?” The song comes complete with an excellent video directed by Hailey Ruffner, so be sure to check that out below.

Sprawl is set for release on the 11th October and you can find Fime on Bandcamp.

Kate Teague – Sweetheart

“I’m just trying to be as real as possible,” says Oxford, Mississippi songwriter Kate Teague. “My songs are like journal entries. And I rarely filter myself.” Her self-titled debut EP is a product of such an artistic style, a rich tapestry of emotions that nevertheless maintains a near conversational tone. The balance is an interesting one, allowing Teague to delve into a kind of natural poetry, the incidental poetry of daydreams where the various strands of any given moment stitch into a beautiful whole.

The final single from the EP, ‘Sweatheart’ shows all this and more, playing subtlety and directness off against one another, both in terms of the sound and lyrical style. Because, for all of the delicate melodies and rich arrangements, there is a steely centre to the song that refuses to concede an inch to expectations. “Don’t call me sweetheart, I can frown if I want to,” Teague declares, breaking the romantic tropes of the folk genre to reclaim respect and autonomy. “Is the smile on my face that makes you feel you can put me to shame?”

Kate Teague is out on the 20th September and you can pre-order it now.

Sea Caves – Dart

Led by singer Sydney Rohrs and writer Shiloh Halsey, Sea Caves are a band interested in the rhythms of life—how circumstances, feelings and emotions can often be found to exist in recognisable patterns. These shapes might be hidden in the ground-level experience of every day living, but a slight change of vantage or remove from the usual conditions reveals them all the same. Sea Caves operate on such a level, creating music to be experienced rather than analysed, though closer looks will find a considered engagement with (or subversion of) forms and patterns.

As new single ‘Dart’ attests, the ability to recognise such patterns can be a source of optimism, allowing one to move beyond and start afresh. “You get into these rhythms,” Halsey explains, “but when those rhythms start to dissolve, you look to find them and they’re just not there. So you learn to recognize and explore new ones.” Change, however painful and uncertain, can be a force for good.

Beautiful Dudes – Shape I’m In

Led by Tom Bevitori, Nevada City’s Beautiful Dudes make what they describe as “rocking real dude music.” Set for release with the ever-reliable Mama Bird Recording Co., their self-titled debut out this autumn promises to be a return to classic punk rock, foregoing any experimentation or frivolity in favour of a high-energy commitment to the cause.

The album’s first single, ‘Shape I’m In’ explores the reality that lurks behind even our best days. A ‘pink cloud’ is the transient feeling of contentment and joy that come with early sobriety, and the song is positioned in the aftermath of such an experience, where the positivity has fallen away. “It felt so empowering to believe in the concept of freedom,” Bevitori explains, “and to be such a positive force with a mindset for change. But when the cloud went away, I was left with the weight of life, wavering health, and the emotional burdens of society. In the end, all the realness of life is still there, and when the cloud opens up, we are left living with life on life’s terms.”

Radio is to be released via Mama Bird Recording Co on the 28th October and you can pre-order it now.

That’s all for Vol. 28 of Bright Sparks, but be sure to stick around the Reviews and Previews sections for more in-depth writing.

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