Neko Case has a new retrospective compilation out today. Alongside 22 past favorites, Wild Creatures boasts a brand new song called “Oh, Shadowless.” Take a listen below. “Oh, Shadowless” begins as a gentle waltz, with chiming guitars and Case’s sweet vocals swirling together in a genial lullaby. Before long, however, a barrage of feedback and drums break the spell, revealing a sense of foreboding hiding under the surface. It makes sense, then, that Case’s main refrain is “Sandman is coming, but he’s taking too long.” The single comes with a charming stop-motion music video directed by Laura Plansker, and its furry characters can’t seem to get a peaceful night’s sleep, either. Consequence caught up with Case to gain some insight on her new single, and to look back on her 25-year caree...
070 Shake is finally coming back with her sophomore album. YOU CAN’T KILL ME is due out this spring via G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam Recordings, and today, the singer has shared the project’s lead single, “Skin and Bones.” Additionally, 070 Shake has mapped out a run of North American tour dates for Spring 2022. YOU CAN’T KILL ME follows 070 Shake’s 2020 debut album, Modus Vivendi. That LP included the single “Guilty Conscience,” which Consequence named one of the best songs of that year. If “Skin and Bones” is any indication, the Artist of the Month alum isn’t slowing down anytime soon. “Skin and Bones” is simultaneously a banger and a slow jam that incorporates 070 Shake’s signature blend of hip-hop, soul, and danceable pop. The track documents a clandestine love affair that seems to...
Lykke Li is back with “Highway to Your Heart,” the second single from her upcoming audiovisual album EYEYE. Check out the song and its accompanying music video below. Tender but devastating, “Highway to Your Heart” allows Li to mourn a lost love with slow, simmering keys and reverberating harmonies. “Night falls, it rains, I wake up alone,” she chants. At this point, loneliness is a routine: “Get high but it won’t last/ I’m still alone.” The single comes with an equally dramatic video directed by Theo Lindquist, which sees the artist engulfed in a mix of flames and rain following a car accident. While Li previously shared a teaser of EYEYE’s visual component, “Highway to Your Heart” offers listeners the first complete video from the album, which features several clips directed by...
Editors have promoted longtime collaborator Blanck Mass, aka English electronic producer Benjamin John Power, to a full-time band member and ushered in a new era with their first single in three years, “Heart Attack.” Guitarist and lead vocalist Tom Smith describes their latest offering as “a song of obsession, about losing yourself in someone; a love song, a morbid love song.” Though the subject is dour, there’s no denying the passion behind it as Smith unleashes the blistering refrain of “No one will love you more than I do/ I can promise you that.” The cinematic production’s collage of guitar syncopations, sweeping synths, and propulsive drums form a sheen around the band’s sharp-edged sound, and yet it doesn’t come across as an attempt at dulling it but rather a method to see the barbs...
Purity Ring have announced their new EP, Graves, out June 3rd via the band’s own label The Fellowship. As a preview, the duo have shared the title track after it was premiered at a virtual listening party earlier this week. Not much else is available in the way of details, but vocalist and songwriter Megan James revealed in a statement that “graves” was nearly a decade in the making. “This song has been haunting us for eight straight years so we’re very glad to let it be heard,” she said. “We hope it brings you as much joy as it has now brought us. Thank you for listening and please enjoy the beautiful music video about human cells.” Featuring the catchy melodies for which Purity Ring has become known, “graves” builds toward a dark chorus contrasting with James’ sweet vocals. “We’ll w...
Andrew Bird has announced the new album Inside Problems. It’s out June 3rd via Loma Vista Records, and as a preview Bird has shared the new single “Underlands.” Produced by Mike Viola, Inside Problems was recorded by Bird and his four-piece band, with additional vocal overdubbing from Madison Cunningham. Some of the album’s themes were influenced by the great American writer Joan Didion, who inspired the lead single ““Atomized” and whose presence can be felt in other tracks on the album, such as “Lone Didion.” “Underlands” is the LP’s opening statement, beginning with slow-plucked strings before shifting into an upbeat shuffle. “Stars don’t owe you anything,” Bird sings. “Don’t give a damn about your nations/ Feel the slightest obligation. Advertisement R...
Zola Jesus has released “Desire,” the second single from her upcoming album, Arkhon. Stream it below. Although singer-songwriter Nika Roza Danilova announced her solo project’s first full-length in five years by acknowledging that she had embraced an unfamiliar, collaborative spirit and “needed new blood,” her latest song is a sparse, completely internal quest for closure. “‘Desire’ was written in one sitting at my piano at home. The song was an exorcism for my pain and lack of closure around heartbreak,” she shared in a statement. “Sometimes songs are written simply for the cathartic effect of playing them. This is one of those songs. Performing it feels like the most tangible way to experience that closure for myself.” Advertisement Related Video Danilova’s emotional release is...
Prepare to meet Momma: Today, the Brooklyn indie rock duo have announced their next album Household Name. It’s due for release on July 1st and marks their debut on Polyvinyl. As a preview, co-bandleaders Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten have shared the great single “Speeding 72” and its accompanying music video. Indebted to alt-rock greats like Nirvana, Pavement, Smashing Pumpkins, Veruca Salt, and The Breeders, Momma make fuzzed-out guitar music that feels both warmly familiar and excitingly new. Household Name was also Friedman and Weingarten’s first time recording in a proper studio, giving their heavy riffs the hi-fi clarity they deserve without compromising the band’s ’90s-inspired grit. Pre-orders are ongoing. “Speeding 72” is a tried-and-true summer jam, a breezy song about...
Game, set, match. Trixie Mattel has released her new single “C’mon Loretta” along with its charming tennis-themed music video. Watch it below. “You took the dizzy road to love/ All in, worse or for better/ Here we go again, c’mon Loretta,” Mattel sings on the buzzy ode to country great Loretta Lynn. “Singin’ songs ’bout runnin’ the show/ But your heart’ll never let him go.” Meanwhile, the campy visual finds the drag queen perfecting her serve in a game of tennis loosely inspired by Billie Jean King’s “Battle of the Sexes” match against Bobby Riggs in 1973 — though that famous exhibition didn’t quite end in death by a flaming overhead shot. Advertisement Related Video “I wanted this song to be a fun little ditty, like The Strokes-meets-the story of Loretta Lynn,” Mattel shared in a statemen...
Charli XCX has unveiled the music video for the CRASH album cut “Used to Know Me.” Watch the party-ready visual below. In the clip, the pop provocateur cycles through a plethora of personas while serving nonstop choreography flanked by two of her dancer pals. “You used to know me, now you don’t/ You used to hypnotize me, did it so easy,” Charli coos as she becomes a dominatrix, cheerleader, ’80s-style aerobics instructor, club kid, and more. “I’m finally free from your control/ I don’t need a kiss goodbye/ I’m on my own tonight, oh.” The singer also can’t resist taking a shot at her record label, flashing the camera with the Atlantic Records logo hiding under her cheer skirt while singing about breaking free of unspecified “control.” (She’s made it no secret that CRASH is the fifth and fin...
The latest trend in New York drill has been the liberal use of ’90s and early 2000s R&B samples, as heard in regional hits like B-Lovee’s “My Everything,” which flips Mary J. Blige’s “Everything.” Kay Flock is the latest rapper to hop on board with his new single “Shake It,” bringing fellow Bronx native Cardi B along for the ride. Produced by Elias Beatz, the track samples Akon’s 2005 hit “Bananza (Belly Dancer).” A snippet of the song had already gone viral on TikTok, but anticipation for “Shake It” reached a fever pitch after clips from the video shoot surfaced of Cardi performing her verse while draped out in red — her wig even looks like a red bandana. That unbridled energy is the perfect fit for the sample drill production: “I gotta step up, bitch, I’m a stomper/ All of my opps ge...