Indie pop
Sylvan Esso Announce New Album Free Love, Share “Ferris Wheel”: Stream
At last, Sylvan Esso have finally announced a new album. The record, titled Ferris Wheel, is due out September 25th via Loma Vista. To celebrate the news, Sylvan Esso have shared the title track as well as a dizzying music video to go with it. This is Sylvan Esso’s third full-length album to date, following 2017’s What Now and their 2014 self-titled debut. Ferris Wheel spans 10 tracks in total, including the new song they shared today as well as the previously released single “What If” — which, according to the tracklist, serves as the album opener, too. “It’s a record about being increasingly terrified of the world around you and looking inward to remember all the times when loving other people seemed so easy, so that you can find your way back to that place,” the band said in a statement...
Shamir Announces New Self-Titled Album, Premieres “I Wonder”: Stream
Despite the pandemic, Shamir is gearing up to release his second album of 2020. Following March’s Cataclysm, the indie artist is readying a self-titled record for October 2nd. According to a statement, Shamir finds the Philly-based musician swapping his R&B and pop palette for something with a little more grit. Shamir specifically looked “toward the post-hardcore ’90s for further inspiration — from Olympia, Washington cult heroes Unwound to bands of the Kill Rock Stars orbit.” The shift in musical direction may be a bit surprising to fans. But for Shamir, it’s a natural evolution and one that places him at his most centered. “I felt like it didn’t need a name [for the album], cuz it’s the record that’s most me,” Shamir says of the LP, which he also considers his most accessib...
The Regrettes Fall Head Over Heels on New Single “I Love Us”: Stream
Two months after dropping the dreamy quarantine hit “What Am I Gonna Do Today?”, The Regrettes are back with a brand new track called “I Love Us”. It’s been paired with an adorable animated music video, as well, which you can watch below.. Whereas the band’s last song felt like a continuation of their 2019 album How Do You Love?, this new single is full of pep and optimism. Perhaps frontwoman Lydia Night spending quarantine with her boyfriend Dylan Minnette has helped her realize not even constant close contact can drive them apart. Still, as chipper as “I Love Us” is, it could be read two ways: A celebration of falling in love with someone and accepting them for who they are around you, or a cautious read on being head over heels for someone who comes with baggage. Either way, it’s c...
Song of the Week: beabadoobee’s “Care” Reminds Us That It’s Actually Summer
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify New Sounds playlist. Let’s play some catchup. 2020 began with all the musical anticipation of a new year and fresh decade. Then, when COVID-19 initially struck the States, music became an afterthought as we watched major albums delayed and highly anticipated tours postponed into oblivion. Then music became a lifeline as we huddled indoors and waited for the world to end. We listened to “quarantine albums,” found comfort in online fireside or bathtub sessions, and began marking Instagram shows on our calendars as if they were actual concerts. Then, the George Floyd murder shook the world, and we needed music to cry to, to scream to, and, most importantl...
Sylvan Esso Return with Mysterious New Song “What If”: Stream
This past spring brought us WITH, a thrilling live album and concert film from Sylvan Esso. Now, the indie pop duo is back with proper new music in the form of “What If”. The group’s first all-new offering in over two years is soft-spoken and sparse, with singer Amelia Meath’s slightly synthesized vocals floating lightly over glitchy piano. Though only a little over 90 seconds long, its message is clear: What if the things we thought we knew weren’t true at all? “What if darkness was light?” Meath asks early on. Hear it for yourself below via a video that shows Meath bobbing around in a body of water Editors’ Picks “What If” doesn’t appear on any streaming services, only on YouTube and over on the group’s social media, some of which has been scrubbed clean. Sylvan Esso haven’t provid...
Cults Announce New Album Host, Share “Trials”: Stream
Beloved indie pop duo Cults have announced their fourth album, Host. The record is due out later this summer on September 18th via Sinderlyn. According to a press statement, the follow-up to 2017’s Offering is said to be about the sinister dynamics of a parasitic relationship, and the catharsis that comes with achieving freedom and self-reliance. For multi-instrumentalist/singer Madeline Follin, in many ways the new album represents a form of liberation, as it’s her first to serve as primary songwriter. “In the past, I’d never brought my own music to the table because I was just too shy,” Follin explains. This time around, Follin did pitch her material, and once her bandmate Brian Oblivion and their producer Shane Stoneback heard what she had written, they were “floored”. Cults’ entire sou...
Glassio Shares the Origins of New Single “One of These Days”: Stream
In our new music feature Origins, we give artists an opportunity to bring listeners closer to the influences behind their latest single. Today, Glassio shares the story behind “One of These Days”. With all that’s going on out there in the world, it seems a lot of nastiness is coming to the forefront. In reality, it’s always been there, it’s just something about the current socio-political atmosphere has pushed it even further out of the shadows. As an Irish-Iranian who immigrated to the US in the thick of post-9/11 unrest, Glassio’s Sam R. knows too well what this rash of hate feels like. But instead of wallowing in the unpleasantness of other people, he’s issuing encouragement to dance through it all on his latest single, “One of These Days”. “I wanted to write a song that could help...
Shamir Basks in Independence on New Song “On My Own”: Stream
Earlier this year, Shamir dropped a mini-album called Cataclysm. Now, he’s back with a poppy new song called “On My Own”. The track is the lead single from an upcoming album that will supposedly be his most accessible since his 2015 debut, Ratchet. After emerging as a glitzy disco and dance-pop artist on XL Recordings, Shamir became disillusioned with mainstream stardom and retreated to making lo-fi, insular indie rock for many years. “On My Own” isn’t a return to the glossy club music of Ratchet, but it is the most outwardly catchy and upbeat song he’s released in a long time. Over peppy drums, a sprightly bassline, and guitar riffs that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Cherry Glazerr LP, the Philly-based songwriter sings defiantly about regaining independence after a breakup. Conven...
10 Matty Healy Lyrics Every 1975 Fan Knows by Heart
The lights go out, but suddenly everyone starts screaming. From the fog, a neon rectangle — or black and white depending on the era — lowers down and illuminates the stage. Screaming is still happening, of course, until you hear the infamous lines: “go down, soft sound.” Over the past seven years, for the hundreds, maybe thousands of shows they’ve played, The 1975 begins each set in the same exhilarating manner. But for longtime fans, the theatrics are no longer just a spectacle: they’re a routine. This is The 1975 live show experience. Whether it be their 2013 teenage angst-ridden debut, their ‘80s pop sophomore LP, or the more recent culture critique within their third album, The 1975’s live shows are essentially exhibitions, or better yet, manifestations of the general motifs and themes...
Gia Woods Is Anything But “Naive” in Her New Song: Stream
Persian indie pop artist Gia Woods is back with a new song called “Naive”. It’s the latest track she’s shared from her new CUT SEASON EP, and it very well may be the next anthem for her LGBTQ+ community. “I can’t wait to perform ‘Naive’ on electric guitar. It sounds insane,” Woods said during her recent Ask Me Anything on Reddit. “It’s my personal most favorite song I’ve ever written and I hope y’all love it just as much as I do!” Lyrically, the song sees Woods reflecting on past relationships and the lessons she’s learned from them, namely to stand by herself, even when she’s made to feel crazy. “I’ve been in two long-term relationships and when they ended, both my exes said, ‘You never felt like my girlfriend.’ At the time, it was jarring to hear,” she said in a statement. “Looking back ...
Faith No More’s Roddy Bottum Debuts Single “Daddy” from His Man on Man Project: Stream
Faith No More keyboardist/guitarist Roddy Bottum and his boyfriend, Joey Holman, have launched a new project called Man on Man, and they’ve just debuted their first single, “Daddy’”. Bottum and Holman describe the project as “gay lovers making gay music” on their Instagram page, and appear in tighty-whities in both the promotional photos and the music video for “Daddy”. Bottum told Rolling Stone, “There’s enough representation in the gay community of young, hairless pretty men. It feels good to represent a faction of our culture that isn’t squeaky and manicured.” He added, “Based on the ageist and homophobic responses posted in the comments section of a straight publication that ran our photo, I’m happy to be those faces on the queer map.” As for the song itself, the music leans more...
The 1975’s Notes on a Conditional Form Marks a Definitive Moment in Time: Review
The Lowdown: The 1975 are undeniably divisive. From the start of their roughly 18 years together, frontman and lyricist Matty Healy has generated mass deliberation on whether or not The 1975 are a “serious” band. But that’s typically the case, right? Once something becomes “mainstream,” critics have to re-evaluate, for whatever reason. Can the cult curtains be pulled back to reveal a more substantiated, dynamic legacy? Are fans unanimously delusional to admire a band that talks a lot about crying, erections, and Internet love. I mean, how many times will “she say” something? Spoiler alert: she says a great deal on their latest record, Notes on a Conditional Form. Matty also still cries a lot, too, so don’t worry about that. But to be fair, the skepticism surrounding the band isn’t unwarran...
