Back in May we introduced Part Of The Problem, Baby, the new full-length from Fortitude Valley coming this August on Specialist Subject Records, with single ‘Sunshine State‘. “A track which finds [lead Laura] Kovac addressing her younger self,” we described, “delving into the person she was before and during her move from Brisbane to the UK, and how the competing desires for home and escape never really go away.” With the album’s release edging closer, Fortitude Valley are back with new track ‘Video (Right There With You)’. “The song is about trying to get inside the head of someone you love, and how hard it can be surviving together in what feels like an increasingly hostile and scary world,” Kovic explains. “It also plays into the central theme of the album, which is about feeling distant from people you care about, both literally and figuratively.”

Watch the video directed by Stuart Laws below, shot as the band performed at the Machynlleth Comedy Fest and starring comedian Celya AB.

Part Of The Problem, Baby is out 1st August on Specialist Subject Records and you can pre-order it now from the Fortitude Valley Bandcamp page.

 French for Rabbits – Gold and Blue

Ahead of the Matariki holiday and an upcoming winter tour around Aotearoa, Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington-based outfit French for Rabbits have returned with brand new standalone single, ‘Gold and Blue’. Written by lead Brooke Singer in a prolific period before the birth of her son, the track meditates on the future and the mysterious ways in which it realises itself, be it through chance, fate or an intuitive reaching forward. The song comes complete with a video by director Martin Sagadin and cinematographer Bill Bycroft. “For the video, we wanted to throw the listener through time and space,” Singer explains, “feel a gasp for breath as they tumble them through the present and past to moments of change, connection, and fluctuation.”

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

Glenn Echo – Give + Take

The project of Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist Matt Gaydar, Glenn Echo is an outlet for patient and introspective folk music. Gaydar has just released a new Glenn Echo EP, No Believer, a collection of five songs recorded with help from Will Stratton that showcase this style perfectly. Second track ‘Give + Take is perhaps the standout, opening with the warm country croon of guitar before settling into a slow, contemplative momentum. “Been driving away, over the county line,” Gaydar sings in the opening line which immediately captures the song’s sense of night-time hush, “past the firehouse, all through the night, blind driving, silent.”

Jess Kerber – Tropical Storm

We’ve written about a number of singles from Jess Kerber‘s debut album From Way Down Here in recent months, describing how the Nashville-based songwriter melds traditional folk and contemporary electronic sensibilities to bring her emotive style to life. ‘Next to You’ rose from a dreamy haze to clarity, while ‘Never Again’ introduced the themes of loss and belonging so central to the record. With the album now out via Felte Records, Kerber has released latest single ‘Tropical Storm’. Another poignant, wistful slice of nostalgic longing, rooted in the specific imagery of memories as imprinted on the young mind. Watch the video edited by Kerber herself below:

From Way Down Here is out now via Felte Records and available from the Jess Kerber Bandcamp page.

Jeffrey Martin – Edge of Lost

With albums like One Go Around and Thank God We Left The Garden, Portland, Oregon songwriter Jeffrey Martin has developed an evocative brand of folk concerned with both the personal and the societal, centring the classic Americana style within the unique circumstances of the present (“The climate is collapsing, diseases rising, robots striving to take over the globe, and still there’s not enough money for the people who actually need it,” as we wrote of the latter album, “still the future holds a distant promise, the past haunts with its glory and regret”). Out via Fluff and Gravy Records, new single ‘Edge of Lost’ is every bit as heartfelt and urgent. Inspired by Davey Schaupp’s No Place to Grow Old, a documentary interviewing people experiencing homelessness or the threat of it across Portland, the song explores the strange contradictions of such a life. Where existence is at once heavier than it should be yet also translucently thin, the eyes of society sliding past as you though barely exist at all. “I tried to capture the chasm between the housed and unhoused,” Martin explains, “and how the psychological burden of that divide is a very difficult thing to hold as people try to navigate their way out of homelessness.”

Jillian Lake – Tactile

“There’s a city in my head,” sings Jillian Lake on latest single ‘Tactile’, a line repeated across the track in what might be warning or explanation. Based in Vancouver, the singer-songwriter has made a name with intimate, personal folk songs, though has increasingly pushed her sound into richer, more urgent territory without sacrificing any of the heartfelt charm. The new single is a lesson in how effective such a combination can be. Indeed, the refrain can be held as a key to the song’s spirit, presenting an exploration of grief in all of its complexity, an emotional landscape as bustling, nuanced and contradictory as any urban space. ‘Tactile’ is about how grief is this invisible and intangible thing that is so hard to navigate,” Lake explains. “A scraped knee, a black eye, a broken arm—is so much easier to make sense of than something you can’t pinpoint. Something you can’t bandage or brace.”

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

Jouska – Flower Moon

Jouska is the recording project of  Norwegian songwriter and producer Marit Othilie Thorvik. Originally a duo, the project started out making pop-orientated electronic music, but now that it’s Thorvik alone, the atmosphere has evolved into something more intimate and introspective. New single ‘Flower Moon’, Jouska’s first since 2023 record Suddenly My Mind Is Blank, leans into dream pop dimension of the project to invoke a sense of detachment, the vocals drifting through a wash of ethereal tones as though untethered yet longing for solid ground. “I was anxious,” as Thorvik explains, “distracted by things at home. Physically in one place, emotionally somewhere else, missing out on both.”

múm – Mild At Heart

Icelandic experimental royalty múm have established themselves as one of the most interesting and atmospheric projects since their inception in the nineties, each of the six previous albums building upon the last while always exploring new territory. Their first full-length in over ten years, History of Silence finds the band as ambitious as ever. An album “recorded, deconstructed, put back together again, refined and finished over the course of two years,” the release blends electronic and analogue sounds to explore ideas of distance in our fast-changing world, the songs rejecting linear progress to instead embrace tangents and digressions. Take the way lead single ‘Mild at Heart’ shifts and drifts across its length, a controlled, ever-curious track that shows the power of understatement while also reaching towards new ground.

Watch the video filmed & edited by Sigurlaug Gísladóttir below:

History of Silence will be released via Morr Music on 15th September. Pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

The Noisy – Twos

Back in 2024 Philly dream pop outfit The Noisy released The Secret Ingredient is More Meat, an album written for and funded by the queer community which served as a celebration of their kinship, performance, joyous excesses and plurity. Now The Noisy are preparing to release a deluxe version of the record via Audio Antihero, appropriately titled The Secret Ingredient is Even More Meat, offering reimagined versions of the songs. Single ‘Twos’ and its gloriously cinematic video by Sam Cush indicates the new direction they take. “I wrote this song like a pop song but wanted the production to bend towards Mannequin Pussy with sludgy guitars and twinkly keys,” frontperson Sara Mae Henke explains. “The music video literalizes the too much-ness of the story, Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Grey Gardens meets two dates to the prom.”

‘Twos’ is out now via Audio Antihero and available from Bandcamp.

Tyler Bradley Walker – Because of the Many

We introduced The Sun The Moon The Earth and Me, the debut solo album from Tyler Bradley Walker, back in May, describing how the artist best known as one half of electronic rock duo Gone to Color was every bit as ambitious and adventurous in his solo work. ” Single ‘Moon Broke Quiet’ offered “a spacious, evocative soundscape which seems to sit at an angle to reality,” we wrote, “everything a little stark and surreal and strange […] occup[ying] that nocturnal liminal space between waking life and dreams.” With the album now out, TBW has shared opening track ‘Because of the Many’ as a new single, an experimental pop protest song that takes aim at modern day USA. The track’s idiosyncrasy and slow-burn intensity is intensified with a video every bit as odd.

Out gunned, not done
The fucking light is green
No one eats their eggs that way
Wise man funny man
Write your own story
Very large worlds untouched untouched

Watch the video directed by Andrew Petersson and produced By Carson Cox (Mod Visual) below:

The Sun The Moon The Earth and Me is out now and available to purchase from the Tyler Bradley Walker Bandcamp page.

Will Orchard – Something’s Gotta Go

If you’ve been reading VSF over the last few months, you may know that Nashville-via-New England songwriter Will Orchard has a new record, Behind the Shadow Glass, coming out later this year. The initial two singles ‘Down’ and ‘Nothing Fog’ gave a pretty good idea of what to expect, and now we have a third cut to further whet appetites. Titled ‘Something’s Gotta Go’, the song finds Orchard with his sleeves rolled up as he digs through the dirt. Crunchy Americana meets Neil Young folk rock which sees him picks through internal knots and tangles that have been tripping him up over the years. “[The song] is a cathartic release, and an acknowledgement of self-inflicted pain.” Orchard describes. “It’s about getting into the pattern of never being satisfied with yourself. Calling the song finished was somewhat of a challenge because of how raw and in some ways, non-poetic it felt. But that’s the spirit of the song, just putting it all out there and letting go of your will to try so hard.”

Wombo – Neon Bog

“Feeling every inch the product of a band nearing ten years together, [Danger in Fives] finds the Wombo sound realised in its purest form,” we wrote of the Louisville trio’s new album coming later this summer on Fire Talk Records, “combining the experimentation and risk-taking which marked their earlier releases with the growing confidence so evident on Fairy Rust. That is, the sound of project which has come to understand its spirit and ambitions and is now committing to them with total conviction.” Latest single ‘Neon Bog’ shows just how deep such conviction runs, the band embracing happenstance and happy accidents during the recording process to create something as atmospheric as it is idiosyncratic.

The song comes complete with a video directed by Cameron Lowe along with assistant director Scotty “Sleepy” Anderson. The film leans further into the haunting tones of the song, using practical effects a la Michel Gondry. “I’ve been watching a lot of the TV show Ghost Adventures and have been somewhat haunted by the implications of the paranormal,” as Lowe explains. “I thought the video was a good outlet for expressing that in an abstract way.”

Danger in Fives is out on the 8th August via Fire Talk and you can pre-order it now from the Wombo Bandcamp page.

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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.”

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