“A small piece of the colossal, communal whole demanded of us. The imperative to celebrate life and warn of its fragility. To remind everyone of just what we stand to lose should the malevolent forces of this world be allowed to grow.” That’s how we described Anna Tivel‘s new album Animal Poem last month when writing about the lead single and title track. A grand statement perhaps, but anyone familiar with the folk songs penned by Tivel will know she always aims high. With the album forthcoming via Fluff & Gravy Records, latest single ‘White Goose’ is a track described by the artist as ‘a song about the way the natural world shapes our understanding—of life, death, truth and meaning.” The song embodies the spirit of the collection. An attempt to reach beyond the surface of the moment, be it made of petty grievance, mortal dread or chronic suffering, in order to connect to something deeper, richer and more fulfilling.

Watch the accompanying short film, directed Ryland Bouchard and starring Anastasiia Duvallié, below:

Animal Poem will be released on the 29th August via Fluff and Gravy Records and you can pre-order it now from the Anna Tivel Bandcamp page.

Caged Animals – Alligator

“Think JJ Cale scoring a Flannery O’Connor reading,” is how the press release describes ‘Alligator’, the latest single from Vin Cacchione’s Caged Animals. There’s a strong Canadian influence to the release—recorded with Jon Mckie in the Canadian Maritimes with Steven Lambke as a guest and released with You’ve Changed Records—but the song’s Southern Gothic vibe is decidedly American in flavour. A surreal tale of an encounter between two, contrasting Americas that only reinforces disconnection between them, delivered with Cacchione’s playful tones. “Well he was parked there to watch Daytona melt /  He had a pistol hanging off his derriére weighing down The Bible Belt,” as one verse goes. “I told him, ‘love dear is a superpower’ / And he just said, ‘love here gets hungry every hour’.”

The Cindys – Eternal Pharmacy

After a number of years recording complicated, challenging music under the moniker Birth Fury, Bristol’s Jack Ogborne yearned to return to something simpler and more immediate. Enter The Cindys, a brand new band led by Ogborne featuring Naima Bock, Finlay Burrows and members of Belishas which helps scratch this itch, owing more to the retro indie sensibilities of C86 and Flying Nun. With a self-titled mini album coming later in the year via Breakfast Records (UK) and Ruination Record Co. (US), The Cindys have shared debut single ‘Eternal Pharmacy’, a song inspired by Ogborne’s experiences as a touring sound engineer. “‘Eternal Pharmacy was written about the first proper European tour I went on,” he explains. “Seeing places I never would have been able to see otherwise, being spoiled by promoters with 3 course meals and unlimited drink, seemingly living a life of excess while simultaneously being totally broke. The song was an attempt to get a firm grip on the rapid change happening around me.”

Watch the video by Ogborne and Burrows below:

‘Eternal Pharmacy’ is out now, and the debut album from The Cindys will be released later in the year via Breakfast Records (UK) and Ruination Record Co. (US).

Drench Fries – Camera

“The solo project of Brooklyn-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Levi Nattrass, Drench Fries has carved out a niche within a country-inflected indie pop,” we wrote back in 2024, his work “offering equal doses classic western longing and a more coastal sense of brightness and pep.” Now Drench Fries are back and sounding better than ever with ‘Camera’, a song written back in 2019 but not quite coming to life until a full band got their hands on it. Enter Jason Altshuer (pedal steel), Evan House (drums), Alex Heubel (synthesizer), Stephen Vincent Ibanez Jr. (guitar, bass) and Sam Peterson (guitar), all getting behind Nattrass to bring to life the most rock-oriented Drench Fries track to date.

Eydís Evensen – Dimmuborgir

Living up to its title is the mission of Oceanic Mirror, the third full-length from Icelandic pianist and post-classical composer Eydís Evensen, forthcoming this autumn on XXIM Records. An album which looks to reflect the true power of the sea—its power, its depth, its constant movement and mystery—in order to push past the trivialities of contemporary existence and reconnect with the sublime of the natural world. Featuring renowned fellow Icelander Ásgeir singing one of Evensen’s poems, latest single ‘Dimmuborgir’ hints at the scale and beauty of the record, evoking not just the epic expanse of the ocean but also the themes of mortality and renewal it represents. Watch the suitably evocative video filmed by Einar Egils below:

Oceanic Mirror is out on the 10th October via XXIM Records.

FONTINE – Good Buddy

Winnipeg-based songwriter FONTINE is preparing to release new full-length Good Buddy this autumn via Birthday Cake Records and has released the title track as an introduction. Titled after CB radio slang for ‘gay’, the album plays like a series of dispatches from the road, be it touring her own project or as a collaborator with artists Boy Golden, Kris Ulrich, Begonia and Georgie Harmer, and plays with the stereotypes of such imagery. It sits at the intersection of big rig bravado and unashamed sentimentality, using a blend of good time rock and bedroom pop sensibilities to explore ideas of love, friendship and self-actualisation. The title track embodies the style perfectly, and hints at the record’s cathartic promise

In The Pines – Flyin’ Nowhere

Cincinnati psych outfit In The Pines have a slightly different origin story to most bands. The group run the boutique vintage pro audio repair shop Foleytronics, one of the few places in the world able to restore vintage digital effects, tape machines and synthesizers. As you might imagine, such a job accumulates a plethora of musical equipment. In The Pines’ forthcoming album Sunbeam Dream was recorded entirely with such hardware, the instruments and devices once destined for landfill salvaged, lovingly restored, then put back to use. The result is DIY in the purest sense, the band literally building their own sound in real time and working around (or, more aptly, embracing) the inherent limitations. The result bears the fruit of such a degree of control, as typified by lead single ‘Flyin’ Nowhere’ and its heady combination of energy, texture and detail.

Watch the video directed and edited by Adriana Noritz and Michael Shular below:

Sunbeam Dream will be released on the 12th September and you can pre-order it now.

John Calvin Abney – Last Chance

In September, Oklahoma‘s John Calvin Abney will release new record Transparent Towns on his own Tin Canyon Records label, via Well Kept Secret / Secretly Distribution. The folk artist’s seventh studio album, it was conceived during what he calls “a period of introspection and convalescence,” after undergoing vocal cord surgery. Forced to exist in near total silence, Abney used the quiet to delve back into his past, dwelling on the accumulation of small moments of both growth and loss that mark the passage of time. Lead single ‘Last Chance’ illustrates this perfectly, looking back at Abney’s Oklahoma youth and the then-unknown moment when beloved things slipped away. “When you come back to a love, a land, friends, family, or even a bar or a cafe that you spent a brief passage in, you’re never quite sure of the exact moment that marks the end of your chapter there,” he explains. “I try not to be these days, but sometimes I am caught dwelling in the space between now and then, thinking about where I stand today and those final seconds before everything became different.”

LUCKY – Falling Through

“A song full of backward looking despite its forward motion, resulting in a mood at once wistful and affirming.” That’s how we described ‘Traveler‘, the debut single from Bay Area supergroup LUCKY back in April. Consisting of Half Stack‘s Peter Kegler, Andrew St James and Zach Elsasser (Affectionately), the project utilises the experience and ideas of its cohort to bring its folk rock sound to life. Again released by Royal Oakie Records, latest single ‘Falling Through’ builds upon the style, a lesson in the value of intra-band chemistry which imbues its country rock sound with equal parts laidback swagger and earnest emotion. A track earthy and immediate but not without a certain wry self-awareness, especially in the near-spoken sections of the verses.

Lutalo – Cracked Lip

“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.” So we wrote of Lutalo’s full-length album The Academy back in 2024, songs like ‘The Bed‘ and ‘Broken Twin’ highlighting the variation across the release. But the album only scratched the surface of what Lutalo has to say, something indicated by the new deluxe edition of the record which comes complete with four brand new tracks. With the release coming soon via Winspear, Lutalo has unveiled new track ‘Cracked Lip’. A song warm in tone but ambiguous in meaning, highlighting the project’s ability to combine abstract poetry with emotional immediacy. “The walls surround me / I’d like to think that I’m different from you,” as one typically cryptic verse goes. “Oh now you found me / I like to slip that salt in my shoes / And just move.” Watch the video by Noah Lenker below:

The Academy is out on the 19th September via Winspear and you can pre-order it now from the Lutalo Bandcamp page.

Snake Lips – Happy II

In recent weeks we’ve shared a couple of singles from Cat Beach, the new album from Portland, Maine outfit Snake Lips on Repeating Cloud. Both the hectic garage rock number ‘Thumbs Up’ and surf inflected ‘East Coast’ presented a band at the height of their powers, Cody Mitchell and co. burning through a myriad of hang ups and frustrations with good old fashioned rock energy (“There might be no means of fixing this predicament, but the song can remedy one part of it,” as we wrote of ‘East Coast’). With the record now out, Snake Lips have shared the album’s closing track ‘Happy II’ as a new single, and it seems wrestling demons via unapologetically raw indie rock might have therapeutic value after all. Because while the verses are essentially a list of regrets and apologies, the song turns into an expression of gratitude for the small (often four-legged) consolations that help us learn to accept ourselves.

But I’m happy where I’m at
I got the sunset and the dog in the yard
And my two best friends my cats
And I’m finally cool with me
I got the one I love, the dog in the yard
And my friends are hanging out
On cat beach

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A few weeks ago we wrote about Stolen Time, the upcoming album by Abigail Lapell on Outside Music, an album “built on solid 70s folk rock foundations while retaining the freedom to get experimental and expansive.” Ahead of its release, Lapell has unveiled new single ‘Land of Plenty’, a track that explores themes of escape and refuge to evoke both history and the contemporary moment. Lapell’s own family fled the Holocaust to North America, and the song’s mournful clarity plays like a hymn offered to those seeking their own safety and place to belong. Check out the video by Sam Tudor below:

Stolen Time is out via Outside Music on the 22nd April and you can pre-order it now.

Constellation Myths – Young Lions (Constantines Cover)

Massachusetts trio Constellation Myths are hard at work on a follow-up to last year’s debut Everything and Time, but found a moment to record a take on the Constantines classic, ‘Young Lions’. The Constellation Myths version strips the taut menace from the original in favour of a half-paced country tone. What was gruff fervour is recast as wistful reflection, though the track is no less emotive as a consequence. Listen to the cover below:

Drench Fries – Out My Window

The recording project of Seattle-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Levi Nattrass, Drench Fries made a splash back in 2019 with EP Ballad Salad, a record which combined retro pop polish with a folk rock twang. Ahead of follow-up Being Silver which arrives later this month, Nattras has unveiled the single ‘Out My Window’, a track which builds upon the previous release to realise its fond examination of friendship and love. Think classic country regret made hazy by the sea mist of the West Coast, with dollops of indie rock fuzz and playful pop synths adding an idiosyncratic charm.

If I need you would you come through, if I called would you pick up?
When the going gets a-rough I’m tired of trying my luck
Six white horses on the hillside, seven ravens in the sky
coming towards me as I turn away and try to insist
on leaving tonight

Emma Geiger – Flock

Ahead of a new EP Haven on Ghost Mountain Records this spring, Durham, North Carolina-based songwriter Emma Geiger has unveiled her latest single, ‘Flock’. Written at dawn amid the aftermath of a relationship and cross country move, the song’s gentle rhythm embraces the strange halfway quality of crepuscular light. The fleeting moment between night and day that carries its own inherent stillness. Geiger’s vocals emerge within this space neither soft or stark, their tone caught somewhere between hesitant and assured in their reflective mood, though always swelling with the promise of change.

Haven is out via Ghost Mountain Records on the 1st April and you can pre-order it from the Emma Geiger Bandcamp page.

Jess Williamson – Texas Blue

Now based in LA, but a Texas native, Jess Williamson‘s latest release is an ode to her home state. A two song cover EP, Texas Blue features a take on Townes van Zandt’s ‘Loretta’ and the ‘Texas River Song’, a traditional song of unknown origin which Townes also made his own. Williamson is joined by Ben Schwab (guitar, bass and organ) and Noah Jeffries (mandolin and fiddle) to flesh out both tracks into timeless folk songs, and in doing so, as the press release puts it “reckons with a state, and state of mind, that feels so close but so far away, and breaks a spell that these songs, and Texas’s big, starry skies, have held over her for so long.”

Mousey – Pudding and Pie

Based in Christchurch, Mousey is the recording project of Sarena Close. Described as “the cold, damaged heart” at the centre of the record, ‘Pudding and Pie’ closes the book on a toxic friendship with all the ups and downs such a process entails. Over six minutes the track shifts from quiet fury to racing energy and back again, the elastic rhythm relaxing outward before snapping to taut attention and eventually rising into a big spacey crescendo. “I think this song is the longest because the torture this person put me through meant there was so much emotional fuel to burn and so much to say,” Close explains. Little could survive such a burning, a wound cauterised in the heat and light.

I won’t be your patsy schmuck
I won’t be your spitting cup
I won’t be your dumping truck
Flags up, don’t push me no more
I’m tired, I’m tired

Steven Lambke – Every Lover Knows

Speaking of Constantines, their very own Steven Lambke has a a brand new solo record Volcano, Volcano coming later this spring on You’ve Changed Records. Described by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson as “an invitation, an exploration of potential, an opportunity for listening and thinking and relating that holds space for otherwise thinking and shared meaning-making,” the album feels like the essence of Lambke’s career distilled into a collection of songs. A record built on trust, community and experimentation, fuelled by those small, fleeting moments of joy amid an otherwise difficult world. Lead single ‘Every Lover Knows’ introduces the style, acknowledging ever-present hardships but bursting with life.

The truth is
every truth is tested
by the world
until it’s busted, twisted, or frayed,
as every lover knows

Young Prisms – Outside Air

Later this month, San Francisco‘s shoegaze outfit Young Prisms return with Drifter, their first record in a decade on Fire Talk Records. Latest single ‘Outside Air’ shows a band transcending the throwback pastiche of the genre and realising a sound fully their own. Described as a song about “about the struggles and difficulties in modern marriage, monogamy, and parenting at a young age,” the track draws on the Californian wildfires that blazed during recording to evoke the suffocating damage resentment can wreak within a relationship. But in reflecting on these truths, the oppressive forces are challenged by a commitment to perseverance and quiet improvement. Check out the video directed by Gio Betteo below:

Drifter is out on the 25th March via Fire Talk Records and you can pre-order it now from the Young Prisms Bandcamp page.

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