Indie folk artist Amy Jay continues to impress, carving out delicate landscapes and memories as her story unfolds in front of us all. 2 EPs and an array of singles in, we have grown quite attached to her sound. Jay’s new track “Lucid Dreaming” gives us a taste of what’s to come with her first full-length release, due out next month.
We’ve not been as impressed with a lyricist in a moment and are absolutely thrilled by the specificity that the end of each breathless line brings with it. Jay’s whisper of a voice seems to trace shadows across our skin, while we fall into the comfort of her sweet melody. Lines like “sunscreen and cigarettes/smells like childhood birthdays” give you just a hint of nostalgia attached to the simplicities of early years and seemingly unimportant memories. Explains Jay of the track:
I somehow ended up in the front subway car on the A express train zooming down Manhattan on my way to work, and was mesmerized by the prisms that were forming out of the double-paned window of the train door. As I was in some sort of hypnotic, half asleep, morning commute state, I also picked up the smells of sunscreen and cigarettes, which was probably someone on their way to the beach. But it brought me straight back to a specific, vivid just-like-yesterday memory of a childhood pool party in Miami Lakes where I grew up. Contrasting that past memory with the current state of my mind asking, ‘Am I really an adult?’ and, ‘What is truth, does it even exist?’ is what brought me to write this song. It was a strange train ride.
Sure, the idea of lucid dreaming is a magical concept; having the ability to be aware and make decisions within your dreams can make it feel like two realities exist. Daydreaming, night dreaming, lucid dreaming… what a comforting and strange thing to consider. (And no, we have never identified with a line more than with “nothing’s making sense, nothing’s making sense.”)
Awake Sleeper is out February 11. Keep up with Amy Jay here.
June has been pretty splash-worthy, what with the heatwave enveloping the country and all that jazz. The first shot of Dawson Fuss’ new music video depicts cool, blue waters. The remainder of the video keeps with a majority of cool tones helping to communicate the melancholy nature of the track itself. Splashes of red play in before combining for a full-color effect in limited frames. After all, “Right Person, Wrong Time” is a single we can all relate to in some capacity.
Get drawn in by this attractive track, and its vivid music video accompaniment, below.
The outside world is getting more vivid, as more people get vaccinated and the days get longer, summer quickly approaching. Take this time to get outside, get grounded, and love on yourself a little bit. But in the in-between, feel free to play our May soundtrack in the background of whateverthehell you’re spending your time on and with these days. We promise you’ll find some gems to add to your personal collection, and there might be some fun ones built-in for your next vacation playlist! 🙂
Sharkk Heartt, a moniker born from a period of starting completely anew in life, has released just 3 singles as such. But Lara Ruggles – the mastermind and solo artist behind the project – has seen transformation like no other throughout her music career. We are lucky enough to have the exclusive premiere of the new music video for her single “Work Fires” in advance of its release. And what a ride this particular video is!
Vivid, heart-stopping performance set to the backdrop of bold, gorgeous outdoor mural art made to look like natural landscapes. And all of this, from just the first two frames. Other ecosystems and landscapes are introduced to the fold, as a very literal interpretation of the lyrics can be seen played out by Ruggles and a male cohort in front of a mural, while she performs the song with grandeur to his unaware character.
Featuring talented dancers Kevin Hainline, Na-il Ali Emmert, Andrea Connolly, Emily Truman, Taylor Eason, Terry McCants, Betsy Ganz, Nanette Knight, and Micheila Karringten in differing habitats with the collective choreography stylings of Chezale Rodriguez, this music video enhances the very necessary need for community, especially in this time. Each movement perfectly timed to the danceable rhythm that has been created with Ruggles’ minimalist instrumentation approach and full, energetic vocals.
“Work Fires” was created in a moment where Ruggles realized she might sometimes like to be a work fire for someone. Her personal anecdote? A music manager promised to come to her show and she was excited at the idea of being managed by him professionally. Yet, he ended up changing plans last minute. Explains the artist, “He’d gotten ‘caught up in a work fire. I had this fleeting, petulant thought of ‘I want to be one of your work fires.’ And then that became this catchy phrase that I kept tossing around in my head and started to add onto while I was still on the road.”
Captivating alt duo Phantom Wave released the new music video for their single “Billows” today, and we’ve got the exclusive premiere for your eyes only. Drenched in vivid colors and drastic, psychedelic movement, this visual is a trippy testament to the impact of the audible art that is flooding our consciousness. There is something magical about the way the lyrics dance along the gorgeous, building instrumental composition that – coupled with the abstract visuals – makes this experience feel very personal, and yet somehow universal.
Fierce electronica artist Eivør has released “Only Love” from her new album Segl, which also happens to be accompanied by a stunning visual. Featuring vocals from Ásgeir, “Only Love” is a mystical and entrancing track about how powerful it is to be in the gravitational pull of love. The song’s illustrative lyrics paint a vivid picture of what it looks like to be so deep and in love. It is full of clarity in that the feeling of love is really the only thing that can make you feel both so fragile and so powerful at the same time. The electrifying sonics and strong melodies pull you right into the intensity of not only love, but the track itself. “Only Love” is the perfect combination of haunting production and intriguing lyrics made to enthrall every listener.
Eivør says of the process of creating the track:
I wrote the lyrics with David Hopkins and when this song was written I thought about “love” and all the things it makes us do. I will never get tired of writing about this subject. It’s the most complex and yet the most basic of all things. It has so many shapes and shades and on this life journey it takes us through the whole palette of emotions. It’s both strong and fragile at once. It breaks us and makes us whole.
A darling of charts and critics alike, Bette Smith is back with her wonderfully ferocious new album, The Good, The Bad And The Bette. Intrinsic to the wild rock and soul singer’s music is the connection that she made between the gospel she heard in church and the soul music she heard on the corner growing up in the rough Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Throughout her childhood, Smith was steeped in gospel music. She remembers, “My father was a church choir director. I was singing since I was five years old. I take it to church. I just break out, start speaking in tongues.” She also heard gospel around the house every weekend. “My mother listened to nothing but gospel,” she recalls, citing Mahalia Jackson and Reverend James Cleveland. “Every Sunday morning, she would get up and put on these records while dressing and praising the Lord.” In The Good, The Bad And The Bette, Smith and producers Matt Patton and Bronson Tew explore the power of soul and match it with the edge of rock music, going for a Southern rock soul/Aretha Franklin/”I once was lost but now I’m found” vibe. Sure enough, this album feels very much like rock, but with a blues/gospel attitude, with tracks embodying various feelings of comfort, anger, passion, friendship and even vulnerability in the form of rock-centric bangers, powerful gospel anthems, and even a few tracks that have the taste of a ballad.
But before we can delve into the tracks, we must take a moment to praise Smith’s lustrous vocals. She is gospel, through and through, and you can hear it in the way she sings, but more than that you can feel the years of immersion in gospel and soul that she experienced growing up. Her voice is rough, raw, and absolutely delectable.
But it’s amazing to hear the ways she can apply those vocals to so many different emotions. There’s the groovy comfort in lines like “Don’t be afraid, all is well, I’m here” in “Signs and Wonders” that guides you through the classic blues-rock harmonies, which are revitalized by fresh guitar sounds and colours from the brass. But there’s also the touch of anger that emanates from “Fistful of Dollars” that then diffuses into the passion of the sparkling “Whistle Stop.” Smith sprinkles some sweetness in “Song for a Friend”, complemented by the satisfying backing harmonies in the chorus. But even in the vulnerable, stripped back state of “Don’t Skip Out On Me” she maintains the attitude that can be so central to both rock and soul music, which is quite admirable.
Even in the softer songs, The Good, The Bad And The Bette has this incredible energy to it. This is an album of dance songs, and its magnificence desperately calls out to be heard live (please, COVID…) . Smith herself values the redemptive experience that touring has given her. “It’s amazing, like a dream come true,” she says. “It’s very spiritual and I go into a trance when I’m singing. The fans are like family. I feel very loved. They are very present. I went through all of this so I could sing and now that I can sing I’m finding the love that I’ve been looking for all my life.” Some of the anthems like “Pine Belt Blues” and “Everybody Needs Love” also hold some of the greatest lines that one could belt out with Smith as you watch her on stage. The sultry gospel singing in “Everybody Needs Love”, along with its anthemic harmonies and lines like “Everybody needs love, just like they need the sun and moon and stars above” create a beautiful and totally universal sentiment that would be so powerful in a live setting.
To finish things off, Smith offers “Don’t Skip Out On Me.” The track slows things right down, beginning with just Smith and some acoustic guitar. As more instruments are threaded in, touches of effects create this resonance that makes the space she’s singing in feel so much bigger. Midway through the song, there’s an echoing trumpet solo, which takes individual segments, offsets them and then weaves them together to make beautiful patterns of sound that ring out in their own world before joining the rest of the music once again. It’s this gorgeous interlude that comes as a surprise yet fits in perfectly with the album as a whole that makes the final track on this album the standout. At first the choice to end off with a slow song was surprising, but after listening through, the majesty of this track proved to make perfect sense as an ending.
The Good, The Bad And The Bette is a vivid marriage of rock and soul music that displays Smith’s rich background in the genres and envelopes the listener in a variety of emotions by means of colourful bops and sentimental ballads that are united in their unrelenting attitude and firepower. One can’t help but yearn for the day that these tracks can be heard in their full glory, on stage.
Much like a heart broken in two halves, Norwegian singer Dagny is gearing up to release the second half of her debut album Strangers / Lovers by releasing the first single, “It’s Only A Heartbreak.” Since the A side of the album dropped earlier this May, its two lead singles have received an impressive response; “Come Over” spent 3 weeks at the top of the Norwegian radio-airplay charts, while “Somebody” made its way the top 5, amassing over 14 million streams along the way. The album as a whole tracks the journey of a relationship. The half that has already been released traces the dizzying, butterfly-inducing blooming of a new love, but now it’s time for things to fall apart. Side B of Strangers / Lovers is out on October 2nd via Little Daggers Records, and it examines the fall out of the relationship that blossomed on side A.
Like the whole album, “It’s Only A Heartbreak” is personal, so Dagny uses conversational lyrics to reflect on her post-breakup emotions and to give herself a sort of pep talk in the aftermath. The song was partially inspired by Humphery Bogart’s famous quote from the 1942 classic Casablanca: “Here’s looking at you, kid.” Dagny explains, “Like the movie, the song is about knowing that you will never get someone back, but you can secretly still look at, and admire, that certain someone. The song carries a nonchalant expression, but the undertone makes it pretty obvious that you’re not over that person yet.”
And indeed, from all sonic appearances, “It’s Only A Heartbreak” is an energetic, striking bop. Its infectious melody lines and vibrant array of jittering electronic sounds create a vivid soundscape that could be mistaken for a dance track– unless you listen to the lyrics. Dagny sings “Most days I wake up I’m okay / I’m doing my own thing, I don’t have a moment to think about you / Most days I’m up on a high wave, And I’m just like urgh, It’s only a heartbreak, I got to get through you,” and suddenly the brilliance and complexity of the sounds surrounding her seem to reflect the intense and complicated emotions that come with heartbreak. So whether you’re feeling heavy-hearted yourself and just want to feel seen, you just want to dance, or you’re a fan of intriguing musical settings and skilled production, “It’s Only A Heartbreak” is definitely for you.
Welcome to Nevada City. The small town is infused with musical talent across several genres, and it’s all showcased on The Nevada City Album, a compilation put out by Dowd Records in celebration of the Nevada City Film Festival. As we come across each artist featured on the album, we can trace a progression of genre from mood music to courageous hard rock.
Our first stop is Brett Shady, a folk singer who describes his music on twitter as easy listening. His track “Dear Life” is a swaying waltz that endears all who it flutters by with Shady’s uncomplicated voice and some whimsical sax playing. Things get a little psychedelic with Aaron Ross farther along the album, with his own personal brand of freak folk in his song “Painted Sky.” Its endless and dreamy guitar riff, bejeweled synth melodies and odd backing vocals certainly paint an interesting sky– one that Lucy and Sgt. Pepper could gaze upon together. These indie tracks are echoed by “Peaks and Passes”, a fleeting gem on the album gifted to us by The Moore Brothers. A blues guitar riff and harmonies reminiscent of doo-wop or even gospel music make for an eclectic sound that shows how extensive the influences are around Nevada City. But we have only scratched the surface of the cavernous pool of genres on this compilation.
“Coming Down” by Jessica Lynn and Broken Spoke and “Heart on Fire” by Farrow and the Peach Leaves both rock a country/americana sound, with classic country vocals and roots-oriented guitar. “Heart on Fire” has a hint of happy-go-lucky energy to it, while “Coming Down” layers in some twangy guitar for a more western sound. Soon enough, however, the clouds roll in and that western sound darkens for Tiera May’s “Ballad of the Damned.” Her moody psych rock comes from rumbling guitars, atmospheric cymbal rolls and May’s apparition-like vocals that writhe through the air like the wails of a ghost. Less spectral but just as moody, the alt-rock track “400 Degrees” by Casual Fog uses slow, gloomy guitars and a rising bassline to create a perpetual, inevitable demeanour that carries you along with it.
Speaking of rock music, this compilation is an ecosystem of the genre, with diverse species that work together to cultivate an interesting and fruitful environment. First we travel back in time to the 80’s with “Hungry for the Dark,” by TLA, another alternative rock tune with lots of influence from punk and new wave. Its drum machine, prominent synth bassline and embellishments and the robotic lead vocals make you nostalgic for the post-punk era, no matter what year you were born in. Dipping into some electronica, “Lrn2love” by The Fit transports us to another planet entirely, with its glitching, cybernetic music and computerized vocals. The celestial rock bop “In Gratitude” by Shapes Freely, on the other hand, exists suspended in space. Its gentle vocals, orbiting synths and strings paint a vivid soundscape from outer space complete with stars, planets, rocket ships, and even extraterrestrial beings. On our way back down again, we meet “The Bad One” by Mount Whateverest, or, ‘the highest band on earth.’ This track is a product of what the band calls “solar powered fuzz and roll,” complete with slow, disjunct, infectious beats and a variety of vocals with different effects. Mount Whateverest utilizes whatever they can from saccharine pop melodies to big classic rock riffs to reach new heights with their music.
Finally, we reach the antipode of the easy, calm sound of “Dear Life” with the hard rock tracks “Killed Alive” by Cherry Rats and “Beverly Hills” by Beautiful Dudes. The former’s crashing drums and vigorous distorted guitar provide you with a taste of 2020 style classic rock. The Dudes are known for their cathartic hard rock sound and catchy hooks, and “Beverly Hills” certainly delivers, sounding grungy but upbeat in a vaguely Weezer-like way.
The Nevada City Album sought a varied and gifted assortment of artists in the area, scooped them up and unified them in a multifaceted compilation that has something for everyone. It’s well worth listening to, for when you find yourself drawn to some of the musicians, you know exactly where to look for live shows!
