Nilüfer Yanya has announced the Feeling Lucky? EP. It drops December 11th, and the British artist is celebrating with the new single “Crash”. This is the follow-up to Miss Universe, her debut album and one of our favorite records of 2019. Unsurprisingly for a young songwriter whose first full-length effort blew up, Yanya has been thinking about luck — both consciously and subconsciously. As she noted in a statement, it wasn’t until she’d been working on the EP for a while that she realized the connecting theme. She said, “One of the songs had the theme of luck in it as a concept but then I realized they all do. That got me thinking about luck in general; good and bad. Things out of our control and things in control of us, how often we put acts and happenings down to the fortune o...
20-year-old British singer Arlo Parks has announced her debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams. It arrives January 29th, 2021, and to herald its release, she’s shared the new single “Green Eyes”, featuring vocals from Clairo. Parks has developed a reputation as your favorite songwriter’s favorite songwriter, with co-signs from Billie Eilish, Phoebe Bridgers, and Florence Welsh. Her breathy voice and sensitive lyrics create an atmosphere of vulnerability. To listen to her songs is to be transported to a specific place and time: listening to a friend’s problems over Taco Bell, or trying to get a depressed person out of their bedroom. That immediacy is why her first album-length statement has developed such a buzz. In a statement, Parks explained the goals for Collapsed in Sunbeams,...
In 2014, Swedish electronic duo The Knife wrote the theme song to the anti-nationalist cabaret Europa Europa, which toured the world for the next two years. “För alla namn vi inte får använda” was previously only available in Sweden and on YouTube. But as far right political groups have continued to gain power, The Knife have decided to give the track an official release. “För alla namn vi inte får använda” roughly translates to “For all the names we cannot use.” Via Google Translate and r/Svenska, the lyrics are from the perspective of “illegal immigrants,” though as the song points out, “We can never be illegal.” In a statement, The Knife’s Karin and Olof Dreijer explained why they wrote the song and how it’s meaning has changed over time. They said, “In 2014 we made music for an anti-na...
Pop superstar Justin Bieber has unveiled new single “Lonely”, produced by Benny Blanco (Rihanna, J Balvin, Sia) and FINNEAS. Watch its corresponding music video below. In the clip, a young boy played by actor Jacob Tremblay (Room) is seated by himself at a backstage styling mirror with a bouquet of roses. It’s assumed the kid is a young 13-year-old Bieber, fresh from signing on with Scooter Braun’s record label, and catching his first glimpses of the superstardom. He eventually makes his way through the venue’s backstage and onto the stage — only to find his future self as the lone audience member. “benny and Finneas are both extraordinary writers, and it’s been amazing collaborating with them on ‘Lonely,’” Bieber said in a statement. “To be honest, the finished song is tough for me t...
King Princess has returned with her first new song of 2020, “Only Time Makes It Human”. The title is a reference to the healing power of time; the track finds KP in the doldrums of unrequited love. Between earworm “Whoo la las,” she sings with painful self-awareness. It’s not just that it “sucks that I think about her/ ‘Cause thinking ’bout her leaves me lonely;” it’s that King Princess know she’ll turn this pain into a song, but somehow that doesn’t make it better. She croons, “Whoo, and I’ll keep selling all my problems/ And she’ll be the one who buys them/ Whoo, all of her love became an album/ And I’m still the one who’s crying.” Check out “Only Time Makes It Human” below. Our 2019 Rookie of the Year blew up on the strength of her debut album Cheap Queen, and earlier this year she rele...
Local Natives will return next week with a new EP titled Sour Lemon. Out through Loma Vista Recordings, it’s being teased today with the almost-title track “Lemon”, a collaboration with Sharon Van Etten. The upcoming EP comes a little over a year after Local Natives’ 2019 album, Violet Street. In a statement, the California indie rockers talked about how the effort’s four tracks materialized in their own time, and separate from a proper album cycle. “There’s something freeing about writing without the goal of an album in mind. It feels like waking up for class only to realize that it’s Saturday and you can sleep in as long as you want,” they remarked. “The songs on Sour Lemon each have their own long histories but they all finally decided to arrive at the same time. Rather than waitin...
After a decade of guesting on high-profile albums, founding member of yMusic CARM (CJ Camerieri) will drop his star-studded solo debut CARM next year. His latest single is “Land”, which reunites him with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. yMusic is a contemporary classical ensemble, and over the last few years they’ve become one of the most in-demand backing bands in the world. Led by trumpeter Camerieri and violinist Rob Moose, they’ve appeared on recent Bruce Hornsby efforts Non-Secure Connection and Absolute Zero, Paul Simon’s In the Blue Light, and Ben Folds’ So There, to name a few. Camerieri has also won two Grammy awards as a member of Bon Iver, and he comes highly recommended by that group’s lead singer. As Vernon said in a statement, “CJ and I have worked together ...
This past July, Cloud Nothings dropped a surprise album titled The Black Hole Understands, written entirely during quarantine. They’re back today with the announcement of yet another full-length record: The Shadow I Remember is due out February 26th via Carpark Records. The band is also prepping a reissue of their debut LP, Turning On, in honor of its 10th anniversary. The Shadow I Remember sees the indie rockers reuniting with Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio studios in Chicago. The veteran producer previously worked on Cloud Nothings’ acclaimed Attack on Memory, one of our favorite rock albums of the 2010s. According to a statement, frontman Dylan Baldi came up with nearly 30 demos before finally whittling down the new album to 11 tracks. And instead of leaning into hi...
Australian songwriter Julia Jacklin has unveiled a pair of new songs: “to Perth, before the border closes” and “CRY”. Both cuts are available as a 7-inch as part of the Sub Pop Singles Club, Vol. 5. As you probably guessed from the titles, these tracks were written in quarantine. This past March, Jacklin was nearly finished with a year-long world tour in support of her excellent sophomore album Crushing, when the Australian government issued a series of lockdown orders. After half-a-decade of nearly nonstop touring, Jacklin was forced to pick a spot and stay there. She chose Perth, and “to Perth, before the border closes” was written in that moment of turmoil. She sings, “I loved it there/ That city held me/ Don’t you know that everything changes?” In a statement, Jacklin explained wh...