Last week, Keeled Scales announced they will be releasing These Days, the excellent debut album from Nashville-based songwriter Emily Hines, later this summer—a record we have previously described “as warm and soft as a blanket to wrap around yourself in the cold winter months, but with a sharp pang of something else too, a bittersweet bite more potent than the frost at the window.” To coincide with the news, Hines has unveiled opening track ‘My Own Way’, a hushed but nonetheless defiant folk song about walking one’s own path. “This is the last song I wrote for the record,” Hines describes, “I wrote it on my porch in Nashville. I felt stuck in place and needed to sing myself out of it.” It’s the perfect introduction to a collection of songs that unfold with grace and ring with real emotion, recorded mostly live to cassette for that warm and intimate texture.

Jacquelyn Roy – Shoot Your Arrow

On May Day, Ipswich, Massachusetts artist Jacquelyn Roy released Museum of Time, an album of wonderfully restrained and finely-wrought folk songs. Built on softly tumbling acoustic guitar, unembellished vocals and opaque imagery, these are folk songs in the gothic tradition, equal parts beautiful and darkly spectral. Perhaps the best introduction is ‘Shoot Your Arrow’, the record’s midpoint and an encapsulation of everything Jacquelyn Roy does so well. Roy describes it as a song “about love and loss,” and this is true in a very direct sense. It opens in the springtime, fluttering with the sense of contentment and new beginnings, but eventually slows into doleful resignation as Roy sings “So I’m setting you free / so you can shoot your arrow away from me.”

Jess Kerber – Never Again

“Beginning as a reflective croon and slowly ramping up in emotional intensity, as though ascending through the slightly ethereal haze of the opening towards a newfound clarity.” So we wrote of Jess Kerber‘s ‘Next to You’ last month, praising the combination of traditional Americana and contemporary electronics. With full-length From Way Down Here coming this June on Felte Records, Kerber is back with ‘Never Again’, the album’s opening track which not only further introduces this style but digs into the themes of loss and belonging which it brings to life. “I miss it sometimes / But never for long,” as she sings in the chorus. “I’ll Know it forever / But never again.”

Watch the video edited by Kerber herself below:

From Way Down Here will be released on the 20th June via Felte Records and you can pre-order it now.

Johnny Falloon – Circumcision

“Takes its seriousness unseriously and its unseriousness with reverence.” So reads the bio of self-described absurdist no-wave rock and rollers Johnny Falloon, with forthcoming full-length Tell Hell I’m Not Coming seeing the Athens, Georgia outfit take on the information overload that is the twenty-first century with a suitably raw and chaotic style. Latest single ‘Circumcision’ indicates the kind of intensity you should expect from the record, racing forwards with an almost dangerous momentum, as though at any minute threatening to go veering of the tracks and end in a fiery wreck. John Edmondson’s fervid vocals only escalates the manic energy, the wry humour which often shadows the lyrics doing nothing to dispel their deliver’s rabid preacher tone. The result is furious, searing, sometimes funny, and undeniably odd, the perfect cocktail of moods to describe our current moment.

linoleumville – to see you and talk

What they describe as “a conceptual project comprising a concept album & a literary zine,” linoleumville is the new venture of Alex Blake and Ben Dodd which brings together folk songwriting with electronic compositions. What the band call a song “about the first and final days of a relationship,” lead single ‘to see you and talk’ introduces the album’s melancholy atmosphere, combining sparse electronics and gentle vocals with minimal samples and shadowy negative space. Sheffield dream pop act Prima Hera joins to provide guest vocals, and these harmonies work to smooth the edges of the otherwise downbeat atmosphere.

pearly drops – Mermaid (ft. Cub Sport)

Recording under the moniker pearly drops, Finnish duo of Sandra Tervonen and Juuso Malin make a brand of pop that occupies the full spectrum of the word otherworldly. Lush and ethereal but also strangely alien, originating somewhere other than this world, be it dreams or outer space. New single ‘Mermaid’ invites Aussie rock outfit Cub Sport to lift the song further, bringing to life a track full of shimmer and melancholy which exudes a kind of fallen splendour. “In this song, among other things, the glamorous Hollywood scenarios have already been turned upside down,” the duo explain. “The decline has begun and, for example, a persona as a mermaid in the sewers of Sunset Boulevard seems like a more attractive sidequest.”

‘Mermaid’ is out now via Music Website and available from Bandcamp.

Sid Hillman – Even Things

For going on thirty years, songwriter Sid Hillman has been releasing evocative, often melancholic Western music, both solo and as part of the Sid Hillman Quartet, and latest album Oxygen feels every inch the product of this hard won experience and expertise. Take single ‘Even Things’, a slow, almost minimalist folk rock song as wise as it is poignant, rising above the rush of the everyday to share its meditative message. “This is a song about letting go,” as Hillman explains, “not trying so hard to control things, manage things, and seeing that there’s a beauty in taking a step back to allow things to move of their own accord.” Fans of the likes of Low and Red House Painters are sure to find much to appreciate within Hillman’s work, but comparisons are not always helpful with songs like this, as you leave the track with the sense of having experienced something far more personal.

Oxygen is out now via Rare Bird Recordings and you can find more on his website.

Special World – Big Apple, 3am

Back in 2024 we introduced Special World, the personal project of Philadelphia-based songwriter and musician Andy Molholt, with a self-titled release crafting “a place often strange and always colourful,” as we put it, “where the light bends in odd shapes and everything takes on the loaded, abstract logic of dreams.” With a June US tour on the horizon, Molholt has returned with a brand new single ‘Big Apple, 3am’, available as a specialty lathe cut 7″ via PIAPTK Records, which in reality isn’t a new song at all. Rather, the track is built from a demo Molholt wrote all the way back in 2009, with Izzy True (bass guitar) and Eric Slick (drums) joining to bring it to life. The result lives up to the above description in its woozy, cryptic tones, offering all the nocturnal colour suggested by its title and possessing that off-kilter glide unique to the forbidden hours of the night.

Watch the video by Grant Bouvier below:

‘Big Apple, 3am’ is out now and available from Bandcamp. The 7″ is available from PIAPTK.

Teethe – Magic Of The Sale

Texas outfit Teethe have had plenty on their plates since the release of their celebrated self-titled debut album back in 2020, putting out a number of well-received singles and support slots alongside the likes of American Football, Ethel Cain and Horse Jumper of Love. But it is only now they are turning their attention to a new full-length. Coming via Winspear this August, Magic Of The Sale continues to develop what the band call ‘Southern slowcore’, the addition of strings and and slide guitar allowing for a newfound cinematic depth. The lead single and title track embodies the layered style, where a melancholic weight is shot through with something brighter, and small beams of hope manage to penetrate the dark.

Watch the video by Ben Turok below:

Magic Of The Sale is out on the 8th August via Winspear and you can get it via Bandcamp.

Walker Rider – Free

“You took me to the RV show, listed off every engine you thought I’d know,” sings Minneapolis songwriter Walker Rider on ‘Free’. The everyman, perhaps unlikely, setting for a love song captures something of the atmosphere of Fair, Rider’s new record of rough ‘n ready heartbroken lo-fi country. The track is quiet and unpretentious and devastatingly intimate, Rider’s vocals (plus subtle accompaniment from Advance Base‘s Owen Ashworth) bleary-eyed and earnest as a 3am soul-bearing voicemail. A song tender in every sense of the word, aching with fondness yet sore to the touch, and unsure quite what to do with a love which hurts as much as it helps. “I am fine most of the time,” he sings in the refrain. “The other half, you were on my mind.”

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Back in May we wrote about Turn Around For Me / See You Soon, the new double single from Glasgow‘s Constant Follower ahead of their anticipated second album The Smile You Send Out Returns To You, coming early next year via Last Night From Glasgow. “[Stephen] McAll and co. breathe extra life into the arrangement,” we wrote of ‘Turn Around For Me’, “and the song swells with an affirming rhythm which tips it towards indie rock territory.” The follow-up ‘See You Soon’ is no different. A continuation of the band’s exploration of memory which draws on the concept of saudade—the nostalgic longing for some absent person or thing—the song captures a picture of everyday life as haunted by a missing piece. Something which can never be resolved, a wound which will go on hurting.

Jordan Whitlock, Memory Spells – Heaven and Here

Back in February, we wrote about the collaboration between songwriter/producer Jordan Whitlock and Matt Bauer‘s Memory Spells, describing single ‘Take My Hand’ as “Suffused with the lush, shadowy grandeur of Lynch at his most romantic.” Now the duo have returned with a brand new single ‘ Heaven and Here’, another impressively atmospheric piece of cinematic pop music. Combining ambient and classical elements with Whitlock’s piercingly poignant vocals, it has all the drama and aching emotion of a tragedy. Sombre strings ache and sway over glitchy atmospherics and the muted thump of percussion as Whitlock delivers lyrics that possess a spare and opaque poetry.

Wildflowers bloom
Bend toward the sun
I follow you out through the waves
Nothing between
Heaven and here
Only the words I couldn’t say

‘Heaven and Here’ is out now via streaming services.

Lutalo – Ocean Swallows Him Whole

Following on from 2023’s AGAIN, a record which explored the various forms of oppression woven through our societies, Lutalo is returning this September with debut full-length The Academy on Winspear. Described as a time capsule of lessons learnt in their first chapter of life, the album sees the Vermont-based singer-songwriter delve into their past and invite the audience along for the ride. Single ‘Ocean Swallows Him Whole’ uses the doomed figure of Icarus to capture the peaks and troughs of this journey, drawing an energizing momentum from adrenaline rush, even if it comes from a fall.

Watch the video by director, cinematographer and editor Rich Smith below:

The Academy is out on the 20th September via Winspear and you can pre-order it now.

 Melanie MacLaren – Heaven Is

A song she says is “about a lot of the myths and imagery we’re fed about the afterlife,” ‘Heaven Is’ is the latest single from Nashville singer songwriter Melanie MacLaren. Delivered in an easy country-pop style and with equal helpings of bittersweet feeling and wry humour, it combines existential musings with observations altogether more terrestrial. So heaven becomes both “a place up in the air” filled with lost loved ones and something in the here and now, like “sipping beer in folding chairs,” or “eating fruit straight off the vine.” “[‘Heaven Is’] is about the experience of how deconstructing those myths leads to reality check that we really have no idea what happens,” MacLaren describes, “besides that we leave, and everyone else does too.”

Heaven is the place where the dead girls go
Heaven is the place up in the air
Heaven is a place i don’t think about much
But I’ll have to one day I’m aware

‘Heaven Is’ is out now via streaming services.

Miserable chillers – Great American Turn Off

Miserable chillers has made a name with an idiosyncratic, constantly inventive sound, following a myriad of creative directions from Kate Bush-esque art pop to SNES soundtracks and field recordings. A mixtape featuring recordings made between 2018 and 2024, Great American Turn Off not only personifies the spirit of Miguel Gallego’s work, but serves as the ideal introduction for those looking to dive in for the first time. The release functions best as a full entity, rewarding those who take forty minutes to lose themselves in its easy rhythms, but we recommended single ‘The Shaft’ for anyone who needs a quicker dose.

Great American Turn Off is out now and available to hear in full here.

Molly Murphy – Seabird

Specializing in what she calls “lo-fi folk tunes summoned from the Blue Ridge and set loose in New York City,” Molly Murphy makes bright and emotionally resonant folk music. Her latest single is a cover of  The Alessi Brothers 1976 song ‘Seabird’. Complete with vocal harmonies, subtle mandolin and slide guitar, it’s a lush and laidback take on the original. Murphy’s vocals take centre stage, confidently but vulnerably delivering lyrics that use the imagery of the titular bird covering vast distances of remote ocean as a metaphor for distances altogether more human. “Like a lonely seabird,” Murphy sings, “you’ve been away from land too long / Oh, too long.”

Old Amica – Tiden far

Described as a release about time, Old Amica‘s ‘Tiden far’ sees the Swedish project turn their attention memory, looking to invoke how we experience the past, where the amorphous drift comes to form strange patterns and meanings. As such, the single is suitably hazy and slow-moving, its drama arising from a concealed hand as though always masked by something. Familiar sights and sensations as experienced through a gauze curtain. Old voices coming through a crackling radio, messages moving through the accumulated years with something to offer us yet.

Shady Baby – Feel It

Following a couple of singles in 2023, Brighton garage rockers Shady Baby are back with a brand new single, ‘Feel It’. Comprising of Sam Leaver (vocals, guitar), Nick Varnava (bass) and Tom Jackson (drums), Shady Baby draw on late 90s and early 00s alternative rock, and ‘Feel It’ is no different. A rich,  enveloping wall of sound is punctured by energizing electric guitar and crisp percussion, with enough hooks to appeal to the radio and festival circuit and enough grunge to bring in the rock-heads. All this raw energy is used to explore feelings of agitation and doubt. “‘Feel It’ started off as a song about grappling with impatience,” says Leaver, “but along the way it evolved into exploring the uncertainties of new relationships.”

‘Feel It’ is out now on streaming services.

Special World – Cloak in the Attic

This month saw Special World, that’s the solo recording project of Philly‘s Andy Molholt (who you might know from Speedy Ortiz), released their debut physical release with a self-titled collection. Described as ‘early’ songs, the cassette provides a peek into the inventive and often idiosyncratic style of the Special World sound, something demonstrated by the single and opener ‘Cloak in the Attic’. Starting with a glass smash but progressing with a lethargic rhythm, the song slowly crawls over the listener and absorbs them into its peculiar world. A place often strange and always colourful, where the light bends in odd shapes and everything takes on the loaded, abstract logic of dreams.

the cloak in the attic is hidden
obscured by a flowering gem
where is the proof?
no fumes left to reduce
cannot refuse a bargain which i cannot lose

night after night we misconstrue

Stelth Ulvang and the Tigernips – Dissolve

Described as “a visceral journey through the late-night mental crumblings of summer, capturing the essence of spontaneity and sincerity,” ‘Dissolve’ is the first single from Stelth Ulvang’s upcoming self-titled album, Stelth Ulvang and the Tigernips. Ulvang might be best known as the pianist for folk sensation The Lumineers, but has long pursued a variety of creative outlets, and the new album is something of an antidote to radio-friendly anthemic polish which has come to mark The Lumineers sound. ‘Dissolve’ is our first glimpse of a collection of songs which instead leans into the vulnerable and raw side of things, allowing Ulvang to show a slightly stranger but altogether more authentic side to his work.

YULLOLA – Silk Nightdress

At the end of last month, Maine songwriter and producer YULLOLA released Zen Maiden, a brand new record that exists in an unreal world of its own. Direct, pop-inflected indie rock songs sit next to cinematic spiritual jazz segues and dreamy spoken word sections. All of which makes sense when you understand where the album came from. “This year I truly was considering becoming a nun whilst getting obsessed with vocal inflections of kulning and female Bulgarian choirs,” YULLOLA describes, “spending hours in the forests of Maine just making sounds.” Opener ‘Silk Nightdress’ is the perfect introduction, a spoken word track with all the shimmering unreality and dark cinematic romance of Twin Peaks at its most melodramatic.

Zen Maiden is out now and available via the YULLOLA Bandcamp page.

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