“An introspective view on shame,” was how we described ‘Wave’ from Annie Schultz‘s It Bends Until It Breaks, released via Trailing Twelve Records back in 2023. A song which paired Catholic guilt with a more ecstatic aspect of religious imagery to rise through darkness towards something almost triumphant. Now Schultz is back with ‘MIS’, a similarly evocative track that picks through self-destructive tendencies in something like a lament, swapping guitar for organ to further amplify the sorrowful atmosphere of the Minneapolis-based songwriter’s work. “With ‘MIS,’ I wanted to move away from the guitar-based formula I’m used to,” as Schultz explains. “I filled the song out with Casio organ patches, layered harmonies, and a double bass arrangement, which I later realized was a subconscious influence from songs like ‘Oh Well, OK’ by Elliott Smith.”

‘MIS’ is out now via Trailing Twelve Records and available from the usual places.

Bleary – bug

If Bleary‘s new single ‘bug’ seems to carry a notable sense of depth, then it is with good reason. Featuring on the Nashville group’s full-length Little Brain, coming this May via yk records, the track is part of a larger body of work that was first developed prior to the pandemic. Callan Dwan, Peter Mercer, Taro Yamazaki and Luke Fedorko pushed these songs further in their home studio during lockdowns, before taking them to Joshua Ditty and Mike Purcell to record them in their final, sumptuous form. As ‘bug’ attests, this long gestation period bears real fruit. The Bleary sound packs an emotional punch with its combination of soaring energy and considerable heft. A wall of sound in the truest sense, yet one which boosts the listener up so that they might see further over its height.

Exam Season – Dreaming of a Dog

Ringwood indie pop band Exam Season formed in 2016 and, despite releasing a series of singles and EPs, have never put out a full-length record. That is, until now. The four-piece, Ed Watson (guitar/vocals), Jack Laurilla (guitar), Louis Kneale (bass) and Toby Matthews (drums), have unveiled their first new song in over five years, and with it the promise of a debut record sometime in 2026. You will have to be patient for news on the record, but single ‘Dreaming of a Dog’ should tide you over just fine. It’s a love song, though not exactly a saccharine one. Instead the narrator addresses his significant other and their lives together with all the imperfections left in. “We’re two shards of glass, with a key piece missing,” as he puts it in the final line, “We both feel like dying and that’s what keeps us living.”

The Foot & Leg Clinic – Where did all the fruit go?

Glasgow-based self-described ‘wonk-rockers’ The Foot & Leg Clinic (FKA The Wife Guys of Reddit) are gearing up to release new album Sit Down for Rock and Roll via Bingo Records next month, and the album promises to be something of an inflection point for the band. After a difficult few years of illness, bereavement and general unpleasantness, the quartet (Niamh R MacPhail, Arion Xenos, Angus Fernie and Elise Atkinson) saw the opportunity to re-examine their methods of working and lean into the constraints brought about by change. “We were kind of forced to work at a slower pace, but probably for the better of the final product,” MacPhail explains. And Xenos agrees: “It still feels eclectic, but it’s a little bit more focused. We definitely thought about this as an album project when working on it, as opposed to other things before.” Any fans worried something might be lost in the process need not worry, because lead single ‘Where did all the fruit go?’ finds the band as idiosyncratic as ever. Although the song perhaps represents a newfound sincerity for The Foot & Leg Clinic, some earnest attempt to communicate fighting through the chaotic energy to make itself heard.

GREBE – Insurance

A melting pot of slowcore, shoegaze, alternative and indie rock influences, GREBE‘s 2025 debut EP If You Squint It’s All Soup established the dynamism and versatility of the Atlanta outfit, and now a year later they are ready to let loose full-length Hell Diver to build upon these beginnings and capitalise on the momentum. Coming in April via Indecent Artistry and Rope Bridge, the album sees Kade Whitlark (vocals, rhythm guitar) Logan Neely (guitar) and William Gunnin (drums) match attention to detail with raw energy, practising a tried and tested quiet-loud dynamic to achieve songs of considerable size and cathartic potential. Take ingle ‘Insurance’, a track which simmers with promise before sparking to life periodically, a sound which matches the radical conflagration that’s suggested in the lyrics.

Hell Diver will be released on the 17th April via Indecent Artistry and Rope Bridge.

Hockitay – over/over

Born in Guatemala and now based in Montreal, Hockitay won serious attention with the EP slo mach back in 2025, the release straddling bedroom pop, slowcore, R&B and electronic styles to explore a present moment marked by exhaustion and alienation. Out via Future Gods, latest single ‘over/over’ builds upon these foundations to conjure another very contemporary sound. One where loneliness and restlessness overlap, that curiously digital phenomenon where even an empty room can now be overwhelming. The lyrics dig further into this online world, probing at questions of performance and authenticity (“I haven’t had an opinion / Since high school,” Hockitay sings on one verse. “I wear the jersey / But I’ve never seen them play”), and the result plays like an urgent plea from an otherwise numb persona.

‘over/over’ is out now via Future Gods and available from Bandcamp.

The Montvales – Carolina

Touring in the wake of their successful 2024 album Born Strangers, Knoxville folk duo The Montvales (songwriters Sally Buice and Molly Rochelson) found their journey coincidentally align with the path of a solar eclipse, every stop filled with people gathered for the once-in-a-lifetime event. But that was not the only notable event unfolding at that time—genocide was taking place in Gaza, student protests were being violently quelled in the US, war dragged on in Europe and the cost of living kept on climbing. New album Path of Totality emerged from this period, a picture of an America seized by a variety of spectacles, and haunted by the possibility of a second term Trump. Ahead of release new month via Free Dirt Records, The Montvales have shared single ‘Carolina’, and the single is indicative of the compassionate, unapologetically political brand of songwriting which marks the record. “Written in the wake of Hurricane Helene, ‘Carolina’ explores the creeping feeling that late-stage capitalism has left us with very few places that still feel safe,” Buice explains. “A testament to the folks who forge ahead in beauty.”

Path of Totality will be released on the 20th March via Free Dirt Records and you can pre-order it from Bandcamp.

Nic Panken – Dear Companion

You might know Nic Panken as the lead of Brooklyn folk outfit Spirit Family Reunion, though he has also recorded solo under his own name in recent years, putting out a variety of singles. This spring sees the release of Near Divine or Merely Rhyme, Panken’s debut full-length which makes good on the promise of the initial releases. He enlisted an enviable ensemble of guests to bring the songs to life, with Mat Davidson (Big Thief, Twain), Ken Woodward (Buck Meek, Sam Evian), Austin Vaughn (Cassandra Jenkins, Cass McCombs) and David Christian (Karen O, Curtis Harding) all appearing, alongside others, and the result is every bit as rich as such a line-up suggests. Take the earthy warmth of lead single ‘Dear Companion’, the arrangement wrapping around Panken’s reflective, wistful vocals and elevating the cryptic lyricism into something stirring. “What began as an afterthought became a central part of this record,” Panken explains. “After working through the first batch of songs I brought in, more material was needed, and on a whim I shared an early sketch of an idea with my co-producer Jared Samuel. He grabbed a pair of scissors, directing me to cut out each line, shuffle them all up and piece together something new. In the end we added just a few lines to weave it together, and found a wonderfully mysterious place for it all to land.”

No Spinoza – Airport

The recording project of York-based musician, poet and artist Thomas Pearson, No Spinoza has made a name with an inventive, often conceptual style of music which is more than happy to jump between genres. After Maxim, an album of nursery rhymes recorded together with Drew Worthley, No Spinoza is now preparing to release brand new full-length Jupiter’s Great Hurricane, and lead single ‘Airport’ shows the record is no less ambitious or thought-provoking. “Before leaving for the airport I asked Saint Anthony: how then should I live my life?” Pearson sings in the opening lines over a brooding post-punk/art-rock sound. “He replied: Have no confidence in your own righteousness, your virtue.” The track takes off from this point, continuing its philosophical musings while transporting the listener high above a stark desert landscape via a combination of taut drums, shimmering synths and jazz-adjacent playfulness.

Jupiter’s Great Hurricane will be released soon.

The Same Sky – What’s Left

Based in Montreal and founded by Joseph Simon, The Same Sky is an indie rock outfit which takes elements of shoegaze and post-punk to create what they have labelled ‘outsider pop’. With full-length Haunting in the Mountains coming this April via Casa Joven, The Same Sky have shared new single ‘What’s Left’ to introduce this style. A track where dreamy textures meet an almost mechanical sense of forward motion, and the growing momentum is punctuated by intermittent squalls of noise. Thematically, the single borrows imagery from Greek myth, namely The Odyssey, to explore the experience of a break-up, and the result sits between the real and the fantastical. A voyage forward into the unknown which seems to be both emerging and sailing towards tragedy.

Wendy Eisenberg – Old Myth Dying

Last month we previewed Wendy Eisenberg‘s self-titled album, forthcoming this spring with Joyful Noise Recordings, noting the significance of an experienced, endlessly inventive artist deciding to put their own name as the title of the release, “as though for the first time willing or able to put forward a halfway static vision of themselves within the maelstrom of change.” Indeed, Eisenberg has said the album emerged from a period of self-confrontation, something they liken to “a personal exorcism,” and the result promises to be their most personal and daring record to date. Following the golden classic folk sound of ‘Will You Dare‘ and the Lynch-inspired ‘Meaning Business‘, Eisenberg has now shared new track, ‘Old Myth Dying’. “I wrote ‘Old Myth Dying’ in early 2024 during an insane fever,” they explain. “Although I knew I should have been trying to sleep it off, I wanted to see if I could do this polyrhythmic thing in my right hand and sing over it. Historically, practicing has allowed me to forget that I have a body that feels pain—I disappear into the action, in pursuit of becoming beauty. This time, my lyrics came out straightforward and wary, blunter than usual. They revealed a different pain I was feeling, the pain of actually knowing what you can and can’t control, and what inherited myths have been lies designed to control you all along.”

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With the release of Behind the Shadow Glass fast approaching, Will Orchard has now returned with new single and album opener, ‘In The Shadow of Their Dark’. A rich and fond slice of folk rock which blooms like a slow-dawning epiphany, Orchard’s vocals building in conviction along with the rhythm, as though emerging through long years-worth of accumulated doubts to embrace a preferred state of being. “I wrote ‘In The Shadow of Their Dark’ while feeling deeply anonymous in a new city,” he explains. “When you don’t feel intertwined with a place, you feel like a stranger. This song embraces that feeling of invisibility and loneliness. It made it all the more freeing to leave that place, and helped me to remember that life is impermanent and nothing is certain. There’s a certain magic in that reminder, when it encourages you to be your truest self.”

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Writing of Astra Forward back in 2022, we described how the London-based artist combines “classic folk stylings as well as a timeless ethereal atmosphere channeling a bond between human emotion and the natural world that feels somehow ancient.” New single ‘Ben’s Birds’ again possesses a link to nature, though this time the real focus is memory. Joe Taylor (drums/percussion), Callum McGuinness (production/bass/nylon strung guitar) and Laura Hussey (violin) help create a sound capable of conjuring thoughts of a past friendship in vivid detail, and thus breath new life into something precious. “With writing ‘Ben’s Birds’, I hoped to bring into colour ageing memories that felt like they were fading,” the artist explains. “The song seeks to reflect something of this gentle soul’s beauty and our connection, while expressing broader themes of memory, endurance and grief.”

Bennett Heidelberger – Eater of God/100usd

Having been around the Nashville music scene for a number of years, Bennett Heidelberger finally decided to release some songs of his own in 2024, starting with EP Wood Ducks. That record was a collection of small, tender tracks which centred on loss in various guises, from bereavement to the end of a romantic relationship. Now Heidelberger is back with new double single ‘Eater of God/100usd’, a pair of songs no less heartfelt in their execution yet showing a newfound sense of scale and weight. The former opens in a sincere hush before developing into something bigger and bolder, and ‘100usd’ follows suit with Heidelberger’s weightiest sound to date, the tone slightly more wry but lacking none of the emotion.

boyhood. – looking for you

Back in August we wrote about boyhood., a project which represents “an attempt […] to consider what has been gained and lost through the slow process of self-actualisation,” as we put it. “To save the parts worth saving, and potentially fill in the gaps.” Like previous single ‘wes anderson (your dog)’, new track ‘looking for you’ rises from restrained, downbeat beginnings into something richly affirming, as though the track’s confessional tone coaxes the sound to life. An exploration of love and grief most striking for its authenticity, delivered with the ambience of the moment left intact. “I recorded dozens of ‘clean’ vocal takes between October and now, and ended up just keeping the crude demo and bringing in friends to help me build around it,” boyhood. explains, “keeping the imperfections and clicks and bits of conversation to maintain the emotional space I wrote it in.”

‘looking for you’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Lavender Blue – Wishbone

Based in the mountains of Asheville, NC, Lavender Blue is the recording project of Kayla Zuskin. Following on from 2022 EP Slow Down, Lavender Blue is back with new singles on Ghost Mountain Records. The latest of which, ‘Wishbone’, takes inspiration from the image of a tree split in two yet continuing to grow, something moving in different directions but fundamentally united at the root. “[The song is] about the cognitive dissonance we all can experience when people or places inherently grow apart but alas remain connected,” as Zuskin puts it. Mary Steinbrecher (bass, vocals) and Jack Victor (drums) lend the talents to bring to life a sound that owes as much to emo as it does folk or dream pop, combining sharp and smooth textures to evoke the duality at the track’s heart.

Lofi Legs – Chain

With a new album on the way, San Francisco indie rockers Lofi Legs have returned with the single ‘Chain’. We previously wrote about how they melded “garage rock and bedroom pop with psych and surf sensibilities […] to capture the highs and lows of life,” and the new track builds upon the vibe to gloriously hazy results. Harking back to the buzz bands of the early 00s, ‘Chain’ delivers a brightly carefree spirit within a bundle of scrappy energy and fuzzed-out textures, leading to a sound that is entirely committed despite not taking itself too seriously. Watch the suitably surreal video below:

‘Chain’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Matthew Squires – Song of a Cactus

‘Song of a Cactus’, the latest single from Matthew Squires, was penned during the pandemic, though its sense of lost direction was familiar before the virus, and has persisted to the present day. “I have that annoying songwriter habit of wanting to defer to the work itself rather than my explanation of it,” Squires says, “but I’d say it’s about finding some quiet sense of desperate hope in an apocalypse.” Fans of the Texas songwriter will recognise the idiosyncratic and heartfelt tone, with a newfound use of synths deepening the mood without sacrificing the raw immediacy so key to Squires’s work. The result feels like an urgent dispatch from within an uncertain present. As Squires concludes: “I wanted to make sure I released it before the election as my little quixotic attempt at creating a psychical place of refuge in anticipation of whatever direction the world might lurch.”

Routine Caffeine – Philodendron

We first wrote about Routine Caffeine at the beginning of the year, describing how single ‘In The End Now’ embodied the Louisville outfit’s “penchant for rich, bittersweet soundscapes” and introduced their EP, Weeds Under Concrete Stones. With the full release now out in the world, Routine Caffeine have shared new single and opener ‘Philodendron’. It’s a track which marries a taut central rhythm with a dreamy haze, and hints at a sharp bite too, all highlighting just how much control Katie O’Brien Kelley (vocals, guitar), Madison Elizabeth Case (bass, synth, background vocals) and Emma Treganowan (drums) have over the mood of their work.

Sarah Swire – Tight!

Recording under the moniker Sister Swire, Toronto songwriter and actor Sarah Swire has caught our attention with with a delightfully idiosyncratic brand of art rock, from the nuanced, ominous take on psychosis on ‘I Shot the President’ to the unapologetically malicious fun of ‘Pulleys and Gears‘. Released under her own name, new single ‘Tight!’ is every bit as inventive as its predecessors, and has no less force in its bite. Owing as much to the weird fiction of Joy Williams as it does Captain Beefhart or Nick Cave, the track is a monologue delivered in the manner of a wound spring, twisting tighter and tighter until it unravels in a moment of chaotic release. The video—directed by Swire and shot by Nicole Cecile Holland, with animations and editing by Eric Stephen Martin—only furthers the surreal intensity of the track, Swire’s movements charged and contorted by her words as if not so much speaking or singing as channelling a deeper energy.

‘Tight! is out now and available from the usual places.

Shady Baby – Held In

Released to celebrate a successful year including a performance on the main stage at Y Not Festival and shows with Malice K, Shady Baby‘s new single ‘Held In’ is a fitting way to cap off 2024. With the Brighton outfit leaning further than ever into the bittersweet drama of nineties alt rock, the song finds Sam Leaver and co. pairing weighty crescendos with emotional depth, leading to what might be their most assured, evocative sound to date. A sense of control binds the majority of the track, though the constant simmer of its energies pays off in the soaring conclusion. Watch the video filmed by Meg Sweeney and directed and edited by Leaver below:

‘Held In’ is out now and available from the usual places.

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This sense of reflection is inherent across the album, as is the manner in which it shapes ideas of the future too. As though everything exists as both an opening and aftermath, and every end carries the implicit possibility of undoing itself. Be it in morose build of ‘How Silly’ or warm promise of ‘Satellites’, or indeed the vulnerability of ‘Happy’. The sense of constantly working through something which has happened while never losing hope some new dawn is about to break.

“A slow-burning meditation on leaving a place you have come to love which finds itself caught between melancholic reminiscence, a fear of the unknown and the persistent hope latent within every instance of change,” as we wrote of ‘Little Apartment’ in a preview, which incidentally turns out as a pretty apt description of Gas Station Blue as a whole. “But what really stands out,” we continued, “is Spencer Thomas Smith’s patience amid such a swirl of emotions. A sense of compassion and fondness which outlives any present uncertainty.”

And all I can ever give you
is something you can only see inside
so take your time, the water’s fine
shake the blues off one by one
I’ll be here when you wake up

Gas Station Blue is out now and available from the usual places.

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Just in time for Christmas, Swick has unveiled a cover of Advance Base‘s ‘Christmas in Nightmare City’, a song which fits the DoomFolk StarterKit style of quiet introspection perfectly. Taken from the album Animal Companionship, the song is set on a lonely late-night drive, the protagonist restless as they struggle three months into sobriety, all captured with Owen Ashworth’s distinctively quiet power. “No-one writes Christmas songs like Ashworth,” as we wrote in a review of the record. “His aesthetic and temperament are the perfect medium to capture the strange mix of sad and magical.”

None of this feeling is lost in Swick’s take, the stripped back style and hushed vocals capturing the same sense of seclusion, the balance between inner turmoil and the strange peace of quiet roads, the odd beauty of the twinkling lights of an oil refinery. The sparse arrangement accentuated with subtle touches of bass and pedal steel from Bennett Littlejohn, taking this version into folkier territory than Owen’s, and it really works.

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Based in Nashville, Anne Malin is a poet and songwriter whose work exists at the intersection of country, freak folk and indie rock. New album Summer Angel, coming this June on Dear Life Records, works this space to explore the conflicted themes of love and violence, Malin at its centre both curious about the possibilities of the world and painfully aware of its cruel extremes. Serving as the perfect introduction to the release, lead singles ‘Destroyer’ and ‘Redeemer’ are harrowing in both senses of the word. Vulnerable songs which descend into distress and pain, but also songs sharp and toothed, capable of breaking new ground and imagining the field anew.

Summer Angel releases on 17th June via Dear Life Records. You can pre-order it now from the Anne Malin Bandcamp page.

Chris Bathgate – Don’t Look Back

Next month sees the release of The Significance of Peaches, the latest album from Michigan songwriter Chris Bathgate on Quite Scientific Records. Continuing Bathgate’s distinctively evocative style, new single ‘Don’t Look Back’ evokes the mythic tale of Orpheus and Eurydice to explore a more personal mythology. A love story coloured by both tragedy and defiance, finding compassion in its hard won wisdom. “Ain’t it strange how the things we’ve done,” he sings, “often are the cause of us undone– / that’s love, or something.” Check out the video by Kevin Romeo and Bathgate himself below:

The Significance of Peaches is out on the 13th May via Quite Scientific and you can pre-order it now.

HUSHPUPPY – Nervous

The project of New York‘s Zoë Brecher, HUSHPUPPY makes a cathartic brand of indie rock, as highlighted by latest track, ‘Nervous’. The latest in Hardly Art‘s Singles Series, the track confronts difficulty with defiance, finding empowerment in the knowledge that others suffer too. “As someone who suffers from anxiety and depression, I often struggle to leave the house,” Brecher describes. “This song is about acknowledging I’m not the only one who feels that way.”

Keeps – Over Again

Keeps are an indie rock four-piece from Nashville, Tennessee. Following on from their second album Affectianado released in 2020, they have returned with a brand new single, ‘Over Again’. Written by singer Agustin Escalante and guitar player Robbie Jackson through the lens of pandemic-induced isolation, the song charts the pressures time and distance can put on a relationship, the warm jangle and melancholic vocals combining into a decidedly wistful air.

Kisskadee – Black Hole Era

Next month sees the release of Black Hole Era, the new album by Kisskadee on Anxiety Blanket. The project of LA multi-instrumentalist Kasie Shahbaz, the record combines folk, pop, psych and ambient styles to realise its distinctive sound. Its title track displays just how evocative this blend can be. The various styles knit together into a near cosmic bed of sound which holds Shahbaz’s vocals, the lyrics probing into universal mysteries and possibilities beyond what we understand as reality, a very human line of questioning amid the spacey sound.

Black Hole Era releases on 3rd June via Anxiety Blanket. Pre-order it now from the Kisskadee Bandcamp page.

Metavari – Kings Die Like Other Men (Rediscovery)

Described as “in communion with the decade past,” Soft Continuum sees Nathaniel David Utesch’s Metavari reimagining their 2009 debut full-length, Be One of Us and Hear No Noise. Out this June on Joyful Noise Recordings, the new record functions as both a work by and tribute to founding member Ty Brinneman who passed away in 2020, his recordings expanded into what eventually became the album. With stellar contemporary electronics elevated by a range of styles, from Italian horror movie dramatics to the cosmic experimentation of kosmische and new age music. Lead single ‘Kings Die Like Other Men (Rediscovery)’ drops the listener straight into this style, especially when paired with the video directed by Alex Osmolovsky along with director of photography Vlad Voronin.

Soft Continuum (Studies Vol.2) is out via Joyful Noise Recordings on the 10th June and you can pre-order it now from the Metavari Bandcamp page.

Riches – The Frequency

Riches is described as the “manifestation of an ongoing dialogue” between Catherine McCandless (of Young Galaxy) and the choreographer Wynn Holmes. “A glowing and airy slice of pastoral folk,” was how we described previous track ‘Light of Dawn‘, and though new single ‘The Frequency’ retains some of the lightness, it heads into altogether deeper territory with a full band arrangement that introduces an almost gothic dream pop sound. “The frequency is: being swept up, being in love, longing and belonging, soothing and alive,” the band explain. “It is a calling on the ethereal to take on form, on music to bring touch and connection over the frontiers of physical walls and distances.”

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Buckskin, the debut album by Cherokee Rose was recorded in the early 90s thanks to a connection to a session engineer at Prince’s Paisley Park Studios. But limited to a small cassette run, which was sold to fans at shows in 1993, the album never achieved the widespread success it deserved. Follow-up To All the Wild Horses was better supported, particularly on reservation radio stations and Native cultural festivals, but still Rose’s music was held back from mainstream acclaim. As a result, both albums have existed in a kind of limbo in the years since, that is until they were discovered by Joe Steinhardt of Don Giovanni Records. He set about tracking down Cherokee Rose and approached her about reissuing the records. In celebration of the release, Cherokee Rose has unveiled a video for the title track of To All the Wild Horses, animated by Chicago artist and musician Izzy True. Check it out below:

To all the wild horses, may you run forever free
May you never feel the yoke of man
Upon your windswept mane
May you pound the heartbeat of the earth
Through canyons wild and tame

Buckskin and To All the Wild Horses are out now via Don Giovanni Records. Order them from the Cherokee Rose Bandcamp page.

Crumbsnatchers – Keep Your Honey

Led by frontman ‘Guetts’ Guetterman, Nashville‘s Crumbsnatchers have made their name with a moreish blend of pop, punk and rock, all tied together by Guetterman’s playful vocals. This was challenged on latest single ‘Keep Your Honey’ for Like You Mean It Records, when Guetterman developed vocal nodules on the day of recording. But it was always going to take more than that to stop them. Instead, he merely sang at a conspicuously lower vocal range, deviating from the usual Crumbsnatchers style but losing none of the spirit in its sinuous, sensual sound

‘Keep Your Honey’ is out now via Like You Mean It Records.

The Dead Tongues – Little Lies

April sees the release of Dust, the fifth record from Ryan Gustafson’s The Dead Tongues project, though it could easily have been very different. Disillusioned with the identity he had built as a musician, Gustafson was keen to purge all his old material from his life and even change his name, though a chance flick through an old notebook directed him to parts of his past selves he was not so ready to lose. Dust emerged from this moment, written with a newfound sense of freedom and fun, recorded in just nine days. Latest single ‘Little Lies’ captures both the loneliness of an identity crisis and the affirming momentum granted when leaning into change.

It’s all the same
No matter what you do
It’s all the same
Whether not it’s true
It’s all the same
When you’re talking to
Someone in your mind
The whole night through

Jenny Berkel – Kaleidoscope

“A communication intimate in tone but fully appreciative of the vastness within a person.” That’s how we described ‘You Think You’re Like the Rain’ from Jenny Berkel‘s upcoming album These Are the Sounds Left from Leaving on Outside Music. The latest single from the Canadian poet and songwriter is no less evocative. As the title suggests, ‘Kaleidoscope’ pitches the listener into a disorientating accumulation of information, using a personal instance of manipulation to evoke the wider erosion of truth in the contemporary age.

Jo Schornikow – Lose Yr Love

Australian songwriter Jo Schornikow recently announced a new album, ALTAR on Keeled Scales. It’s her first new music since 2019’s Secret Weapon, a record we described as “something of a prayer, an album of tender words drawn from love and fear and tied in an awareness of time’s passing and the beauty of things,” and promises to continue her characteristically intimate and inventive songwriting.

Schornikow this week unveiled a video for the album’s second single, ‘Lose Yr Love’, a track which suggests the album will offer more than quiet beauty. It’s a lush folk pop song, sparkled with synths and an airy sense of possibility that belies its sombre subject matter. “‘Lose Yr Love’ grew from a real-life nightmare of losing someone,” Schornikow explains. “The song explores the fear before the fall-out, before finality. It’s a quick and awful spiral, but also a natural counterside of love.”

ALTAR will be released on 2nd May via Keeled Scales and you can preorder it now from the Jo Schornikow Bandcamp page.

John Roseboro – The Banquet

Last year, Haitian-American artist John Roseboro released his debut album, Human Nature. It introduced a distinctive style that draws inspiration from folk, bossa nova and jazzy lounge singer-songwriter material. Spirited music crafted from equal parts bright compassion and steadfast belief. Latest single ‘The Banquet’ is again informed by this rich fondness, breathing relief and joy into a fraught moment, emerging with a calm conviction as to what comes next.

You don’t have to live in fear anymore

Lady Dan – Not In Love

“I’d like to write a love song about anyone,” opens the latest single from Texas-based outfit Lady Dan. “The problem is I’m so angry all the time / and I’m not in love.” The song builds upon the mood established on last year’s record I Am a Prophet on Earth Libraries, probing into the complicated tangle of existence not with timid reluctance but fierce determination. The result is both stinging and affirming, seizing the wound in order to close it, or perhaps just to feel the pain.

Mila Webb – Lucky Nights

Ahead of an EP titled Lucky Nights, coming soon on Perpetual Doom, songwriter Mila Webb has unveiled the title track to introduce her lush and reflective brand of folk music. But for all of the warmth of the lap steel and melodies which comprise her classic sound, the music of Mila Webb is shaded by darkness too. “In the demos that became Lucky Nights, I was writing about the sort of restlessness and unfairness of being left wanting more when something dies,” she explains. “It’s everything to do with the passage of time and my attempts to cope with it.” I’m also coping with my feelings about watching the earth lose beauty as it tries to survive human destruction.” The single delves into this darkness, searching for any light within.

The Lucky Nights EP is out via Perpetual Doom later this year.

MXMS – Wave of Mutilation

Self-described ‘funeral pop’ duo MXMS (Me and My Shadow) consists of singer Ariel Levitan and multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Dawson. Having initially operated with minimalist arrangements of piano and vocals, the New York pair gradually expanded their sound to a variety of instruments, though made sure to maintain the haunting spirit which informed their early work. Their most recent single, a cover of Pixies classic ‘Wave of Mutilation’ is a perfect example of this aesthetic. The widescreen sound rings with a clarity only possible in wide open space, as recordings of some other time seep through in the background.

‘Wave of Mutilation’ is out now and you can find out more from the MXMS website.

S. T. Manville – How To Belong

Back in October we wrote about How To Belong, an EP from UK songwriter S. T. Manville, and to book-end this period of his career, he has returned with a new single of the same name. “I’ve always been jealous of people that have a strong sense of heritage and identity,” Manville explains. “An infinity with a place or culture, I’ve never had that.” Unfurling with a melancholic patience, the wrestles with this feeling via the banal details of life on the road, Manville both mourning the home he doesn’t have and making peace with the situation as best he can. “I started writing this song when I woke up in a hotel one morning after playing a show, stupidly hungover and feeling like shit about everything,” he continues. “I realised I felt crappy because I was never in the same place for longer than a few days at a time.”

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Ahead of the release of a brand new EP, Tennessee Mud, Spencer Thomas Smith has unveiled a pair of new singles. With its slow pace and palpable ache, ‘Blue Like Sky’ is a weary ballad for those seeking refuge in love. A late and lazy dancehall number for those exhausted by the complications of life, the heads of the couples long having fallen onto opposing shoulders, pairs holding one another up.

Latest track ‘Wilder’ situates itself further towards country, its nostalgic strum and twang evoking long shadows and dusty roads. Smith’s vocals have a humble tone, crooned gently as though almost to himself, a daydream spoken aloud in a quiet room. The lyrics are suitably centred in such hopes and wishes. Pining for a sense of movement and adventure, as well as the comfort of the past.

I hear the calling of the Western sky
waving me forward to make her mine
stand and compete with the sun outside
see who can shine longer—him or I

Be sure to follow Spencer Thomas Smith on Instagram and Spotify for more on Tennessee Mud.

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The Blvck Hippie line-up has undergone several changes since its inception in 2018, but the current iteration features Casey Rittinger, Celest Farmer and Lynne Weldon alongside Shaw. Together, they craft what is described as Sad Boy Indie Rock—an amalgamation of a Strokes-esque energy and emo melodrama. The title of forthcoming album If You Feel Alone At Parties captures the aesthetic perfectly. The confessions and confusions of those who feel they don’t quite fit for whatever reason. All with the aim, Shaw explains, of showing “Black kids they can be weird too.”

Single ‘Technicolor’ is the perfect introduction to the style. Achieving a balance between moodiness and sincerity, the track is every bit the confessional reveal that Blvck Hippy specialises in. Loneliness meets self-deprecation, and guilt looms over every crutch, the sound mimicking the escalating intensity of inner torment. But in sharing this frame of mind, in putting it into words, Shaw also works toward freeing himself too. Finding catharsis in the act of opening up.

Photo by Mangomaat

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After time spent playing pedal steel and organ for Americana duo The War & Treaty, Bronchtein stepped away in 2019 to focus on his own work. The pandemic hit soon after, and in the absence of touring he got to work on new material in his home studio that will form a new record, to be released in the coming months.

For now, we have new single ‘Middle of the Road’ to suggest the direction of the forthcoming album. Written in collaboration with Caitlin Canty, the song was performed in Nashville by a full band including Cy Winstanley, Sam Howard, Nate Barnes, and Rachel Baiman, with engineering form Sean Sullivan and mixing by Tyler Fortier. The result is as full-bodied as the line-up suggests, a rich and decidedly anthemic song anchored by Bronchtein’s distinctively evocative delivery. A track which finds a steady confidence as it develops, assured in its own pace and frame of mind.

Between two lines In the middle of the road
Can’t pass me by In the middle of the road
Gonna take my time In the middle of the road

Rock in my tire keeping time
Strobing light between the pines
My heartbeat finds the rhythm

All my friends are taking sides
Picking fights drawing lines
I ain’t going with them

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