Category: Indie Pop

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Los Angeles’ Night Talks Share an Anthemic and Earnest Bop

Los Angeles-based indie outfit Night Talks — Soraya Sebghati (vocals), Jacob Butler (guitar) and Josh Arteaga (bass) — released their sophomore album Same Time Tomorrow earlier this year.

Recorded between 2019 and 2020, Same Time Tomorrow sees the band firmly establishing a pop rock sound centered around Sebghati’s pop star belter vocals, shimmering guitar lines, propulsive bass, forceful drums and anthemic choruses. The album as the band explains “is a refined rock/pop album with plenty of material to dance, cry and feel to.” When the pandemic forced a change to their release plans, the members of the band took the opportunity to make its roll out special: They used their newfound free time to give each of the album’s songs an accompanying music video. And each video was conceptualized, directed, edited, costumed, set-designed and colored by the band.

“On And On,” Same Time Tomorrow‘s latest single debuted on KROQ’s Locals Only show back in February and since then, it has been in the top five, including eight weeks at #1 — and once you hear it, you’ll see why it’s been topping the charts: Simply put, it’s a big, heart-worn-on-sleeve, pop anthem featuring twinkling synths, glistening guitars, propulsive rhythms, Sebghati’s powerhouse vocals and their penchant for enormous, arena friendly choruses and hooks. The first time I heard it, I could picture a room full of sweaty concertgoers singing along with the song’s chorus — while pointing at a deeper, universal truth within all of our relationships

“The song ‘On And On’ came from my realization that though relationships will come and go throughout your life, they often follow similar paths,” Night Talk’s Soraya Sebghati explains. “The relationships I had with friends and family when I was a kid have changed considerably in my adult life, but they have a lot of the same rhythms. The phrase ‘Same Time Tomorrow’ represents a willingness to show up and put in the work to fix or maintain a relationship, especially when you’re in a rough patch. Things might be difficult, but that doesn’t mean you’re done– it just means that you’ll show up the next day and try again.”

Directed by the band, the accompanying video for “On And On” is a mischievous and playful take on dystopian sci-fi films in a way that seems indebted to the Alien film series, B-movies and Mel Brooks. “We wanted to make a video that was both a little scary and a little funny — a little Mel Brooks, a little bit Alien,” Sebghati explains. “It was a lot of fun to create our characters and to build the little world we inhabited. Our friends at Big Bud Press helped us out with the custom embroidered jumpsuits we were, and our friends Alexis Sones and Emily Thomas created and built the alien/miniature spaceship.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

James Chatburn is a rising, Sydney-born, Berlin-based singer/songwriter and producer. Since relocating to the German capital back in 2015, Chatburn has carved out a reputation for being a highly in-demand singer/songwriter and producer, who has collaborated with acclaimed Aussie hip-hop outfit Hilltop Hoods‘ certified Gold single “Higher,” rum.gold, Jordan Rakei, Noah Slee, Sedric Perry, and a growing list of others. As a solo artist, the Sydney-born, Berlin-based JOVM mainstay has developed and honed a sound that meshes elements of soul, blues, electro pop, neo-soul and psych pop with the release of his full-length debut, 2020’s David Tobias co-produced Faible.

During the lead-up to Fabile‘s release, I managed to write about three of the album’s singles:

  • “In My House,” a warm and vibey, two-step inducing bit of soul, centered around introspective, earnest songwriting, reverb-drenched guitars and thumping beats.
  • “Jewellery and Gold,” one of the album’s more tongue-in-cheek tracks, featuring a narrator looking forward to a future, where he’s flush with cash, and as a result, any of the major issues of his life being settled with that newfound cash — because dollar dollar bill y’all. 
  • “The Hurt,” a ballad that saw the Aussie-born, German-based JOVM mainstay express longing and heartache in a way that reminded me quite a bit of Nick Hakim.

Chatburn’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Late Night Howling is forthcoming. The album’s latest single “Do You Wanna Live Like That,” feat. Noah Slee is an expansive and mind-bending take on neo-soul and pop centered around a unique and woozily dynamic song structure that rapidly shifts in tone, time signature and instrumentation: The song’s introduction begins with twinkling pianos in a Latin jazz like tempo before quickly shifting to tweeter and woofer rattling trap beats and then shifting again to a vibey 70s neo-soul-inspired coda.

Lyrically, the song is intimate and introspective, with its narrator vacillating between self-doubt, analysis, progression and gratefulness. “‘Do You Wanna Live Like That’ is a track I created which ended up kind of being a few different tracks in one, inspired by people like Tyler, The Creator with just these sudden drops and Sault with this vibe – simple not perfect, but just perfectly imperfect,” James Chatburn explains. “Noah Slee and I have been friends basically since we both moved to Berlin, it just took 7 years but we finally got around to releasing a track together.” 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Belgian-born Artist clo Shares Sultry and Self-Assured “Room”

clo is a 20-year-old, emerging, Brussels-born neo-soul/R&B and jazz singer/songwriter, who’s currently splitting her time between New York and Paris, where she’s simultaneously pursuing studies in Neuroscience while modeling, and a professional music career.

The emerging Belgian-born artist can trace the origins of her music career to when she started receiving classical and jazz training in piano when she turned four. Since then, clo has spent much of her formative years creating her own original music, inspired by Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald, Snoh Aalegra, and CELESTE.

clo’s debut single “room” is a slow-burning and vibey ballad centered around the young Belgian-born artist’s sultry vocals paired with a brooding production featuring skittering, tweeter and woofer rattling trap beats, twinkling jazz piano and atmospheric synths. The song reveals an artist, who’s remarkably self-assured beyond her relative youth — while showcasing an artist, with an uncanny knack for mature, lived-in lyricism and a well-placed, razor sharp hook.

The accompanying video follows the young Belgian-born artist on a glorious summer day through beautiful Paris.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Emmrose Shares a Cathartic and Anthemic Ballad

Emma Torrison is a 18 year-old singer/songwriter, pop artist and creative mastermind behind the rising solo pop project Emmrose. Torrison can trace the origins of her professional music career to when she wrote her first song in math class about four years ago. 

Since then, Torrison has been prolific releasing well over a dozen singles, along with her critically applauded debut EP Hopeless Romantics, all of which helped her quickly establish a sound that some have described as a slick mesh of Adele, Florence and the Machine and a bit of classic, minimalist pop and progressive pop. 

The young, rising pop artist is currently attending college here in NYC and working on material for her highly-awaited sophomore EP. This year, Torrison has released two singles:

“Run” a hook-driven and accessible banger centered round skittering and blown out tweeter and woofer rattling beats, sinuous bass lines, glistening synth arpeggios paired with the young pop artist’s remarkably self-assured delivery. But the song is underpinned by an anthemic, encouraging and empathetic message of empowerment to those, who desperately need — or about to leave — a toxic, abusive relationship.

“Brave New World,” a cinematic and politically charged pop song centered around earnest yet deliberate craftsmanship that sonically and thematically brought Sting‘s “Russians” to mind. Loosely drawing from some of the themes of Torrison’s favorite novels, George Orwell’s 1984, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and the famous line from Shakespeare’s The Tempest “O brave new world, that has such people in it!,” the song was written as a response to our current state of affairs — an embattled world of disinformation, conspiracy theories, war, violence, poverty and destruction.

The rising pop artist’s latest single “The Feelings Mutual” is a anthemic yet heartbroken ballad centered around a rousing and cathartic shout-at-the-top-of-young-lungs chorus, Torrison’s pop belter vocals, feedback driven guitars, industrial clang and clatter paired with big hooks.

Thematically, the song tackles a familiar theme for many of us: the bitter ache of a breakup of a friendship. But throughout the song there’s the tacit understanding that the relationship was toxic and dysfunctional and despite the deep connection, it needed to end — right away.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Julien Chang Shares Dreamy and Meditative “Marmalade”

Throughout the course of 2019, I spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering the acclaimed Baltimore-born multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, producer and college student Julien Chang (pronounced Chong). Initially only thought of as “just a trombone player,” the Baltimore-born artist surprised his peers when he quietly began releasing original music saw him playing multiple instruments while meshing psych rock, pop-inspired melodicism and jazz fusion-like experimentation an improvisation with a sophistication and self-assuredness that belied his relative youth. Thematically, Chang’s work sees him tunneling towards deeper truths, while touching upon everyday existentialism, love, life, art — and his own life as a human and artist.

Those early releases caught the attention of Transgressive Records, who signed Chang and released his critically applauded full-length debut, 2019’s Jules, which featured:

  • “Of The Past,” a sleek, early 80s-like synth funk-based track centered around dexterous musicianship and pop melodicisim
  • “Butterflies from Monaco,” a slow-burning Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles-like track
  • “Memory Loss” an 80s synth funk inspired song that continued a remarkable run of self-assured material centered around dazzling musicianship and big hooks.

Chang’s highly-anticipated — and long-awaited — sophomore album The Sale is slated for a November 4, 2022 release through Transgressive Records. Partially recorded in Baltimore and partially in his Princeton dorm room, The Sale is a DIY effort with Chang playing all instruments — with the odd exception of a few notable cameos from some Baltimore locals, classmates and old friends. Thematically, The Sale‘s material sees the rising Baltimore artist exploring the discrepancy between two worlds, a struggle to get comfortable in either one of them, and an artistic fascination with that very struggle.

“Marmalade,” The Sale‘s first single sees the acclaimed Baltimore artist leanings heavily into lo-fi indie pop with the song centered around glistening guitar lines, punchy drums, Chang’s layered, ethereal falsetto and big, infectious hooks. But the song is underpinned by his penchant for expansive, psych pop song structures.

Interestingly, “Marmalade” isn’t as much of a love song, as much as it is about the way one’s memory makes sense of love — and the experience of being in and out of love. “I think the point is that memory runs up against certain limits in sense-making and then has to start relying on fictions,” Chang says.  “I wrote ‘Marmalade’ at a time in which this feeling of passionate regret had just finished transforming into something domesticated, incorporated, and basically mundane — a part of everyday life, something that pops up in the mind from time to time and causes me to scrunch my nose.”

Chang continues, “The verses are the positive struggle of trying to make sense of a past romantic experience; the choruses are the ensuing confrontation with non-sense (“I nearly lost my name!”); and the euphoric outro is the resulting victory of a false memory (“I remember falling in love! I remember falling in love! I remember falling in love!”). 

Directed by Layla Ku of New York-based collective MICHELLE, the mesmerizing and trippy accompanying visual for “Marmalade” features a mix of still photography and video that includes New Wave-inspired split screens as the video follows the rising Baltimore-born artist driving to the beach, at the beach sitting in an office chair while brushing his teeth and staring at a TV — and playing his guitar in an abandoned, graffitied warehouse space.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toronto’s Rapport Shares a Cinematic Visual For Shimmering 80s-Inspired “Can’t Get It To Last”

After a decade of playing in a number of local bands, performing with other artists and stints with Moon King and Born Ruffians, Toronto-born and-based singer/songwriter and musician Maddy Wilde’s long-felt imposter syndrome gave way to a desire to create music that she felt was largely unexplored in the Toronto scene — earnest, heart-worn-on-sleeve pop with her latest band Rapport. Around the same time, her bandmates Kurt Marble and Mike Pereira, who have played in Twist, Ducks, Ltd. and Most People had experienced a similar urge to create earnest pop, despite their professional backgrounds in garage rock, punk rock and glam rock.

With their recently released debut EP Floating Through The Wonderwave, the Toronto-based trio have embarked on an exploration of crafted and breezy pop rooted in Wilde’s intuitive sense of harmony and slick hooks paired with a desire to sincerely capture the essence of sentimentality. But just under the surface, the EP’s material possesses a dark, melancholy quality.

Thematically, the EP touches upon jealous, neuroses and self-doubt while Wilde’s narrators also explore the delicate and uneasy balance between artistic creation and self-promotion. “I had to uninstall social media apps on my phone when I realized they were a major source of anxiety and a hugely addictive waste of time which I could have spent making music,” Wilde says. “My creative practice was suffering as a result. But without these tools, how are artists meant to share their work?”

The recently released EP’s third and latest single “Can’t Get It To Last” is a shimmering bit of 80s inspired pop featuring atmospheric synths, Pereira’s percussive and chugging bass lines, Marble’s 80s rock-like guitar lines and soloing and Wilde’s achingly delicate vocal delivery paired with a soaring hook. While sounding as though it were a seamless mesh of the Stranger Things soundtrack and Brothers in Arms-era Dire Straits, the song on one level could be read as a prototypical broken heart-fueled ballad. But as the band’s Maddie Wilde explains, “On the surface, this probably sounds like your average love song. But it’s really about friendships and growing apart. Close friendships take different shapes- for example, friends who do everything together but have never actually been vulnerable with one another. It’s like maintaining a light and fluffy connection that has never really progressed further than a casual relationship. Friendships like this can go on for ages, and they are valuable, but they don’t seem to last as long.”

“Adrienne McLaren brought to life my vision of creating a music video mood similar to that scene in Grease where Danny walks around the drive-in singing about Sandy,” Wilde adds. “For the drive-in movie, we made an experimental film not unlike one that would be submitted as an art class assignment. To get even more meta, we displayed the drive-in music video itself playing on a small Panasonic TV in various locations around the city. A video within a video within a video.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

PEACH FUZZ is a new indie pop outfit featuring a collection of up-and-coming singer/songwriters including Samia, Raffaella, Sara L’Abriola, and Ryann‘s Victoria Zaro. Their debut EP, the four-song Can Mary Dood the Moon? is slated for a July 22, 2022 release through Psychic Hotline.

Can Mary Dood the Moon?‘s first single, “Hey Dood” is a slickly produced, breezy and flirtatious pop confection centered around a chugging groove and an infectious hook. And at its heart is a universal story — told with a playful, tongue-in-cheek air: the song’s narrator fumbling around and trying to come up with a genuine pick up line to cut through the feeling of being awkward at a party.

You can picture, your even more awkward, shy and goofy teenage self doing the same, and its universality makes the song more true.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Eldorado Shares a Breezy and Summery Bop

Eldorado (born Doriane Gamba) is an emerging and up-and-coming French singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and bedroom producer, who can trace the origins of her music career to when she turned six and started playing drums. Inspired by an eclectic array of artists, who have also abided by the DIY ethos including Mac DeMarco, Men I Trust, Yellow Days, Clairo and a list of others, the French singer/songwriter and bedroom producer’s work is inspired by real life, personal experiences, which helps evoke strong emotions. 

Earlier this year, I wrote about Gamba’s Eldorado debut, the neon and heartache-tinge “3 in the morning.” Featuring Gamba’s achingly plaintive vocals, glistening, reverb-drenched guitars and atmospheric synths paired with a soaring hook, “3 in the morning” manages to recall JOVM mainstays St. Lucia and Washed Out, while drawing from a fairly universal experience: wanting to be with someone, who has no interest in you whatsoever.

The French singer/songwriter, musician and producer’s latest single “Another Day” is a breezy and infectious summertime bop centered around glistening synth arpeggios, 80s pop and funk-inspired guitar lines, a sinuous bass line, thumping backbeats paired with Gamba’s easy-going yet self-assured delivery and her seemingly uncanny and unerring knack for infectious hooks.

Underneath the breezy and infectious nature of the song, is a bittersweet and familiar story of trying to move forward from heartbreak and not quite knowing how to go about it. And then you see your ex, who has clearly moved on when you haven’t. But throughout, there’s the tacit understanding that it’s a day-by-day process in which ghosts do linger from time to time.

Continuing an ongoing collaboration with Ambre Tholance, the accompanying video is a nostalgia-inducing dream of long summer days and nights at the beach or the lake. But it also captures Gamba’s playful yet earnest spirit in a way that’s endearing.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Orlando’s The Lovelines Share Woozy “Steadily”

Orlando-based sibling duo outfit The Lovelines — Tessa D (vocals) and Todd Goings (multi-instrumentalist, songwriting and production) — emerged late last year with their debut single “Strange Kind of Love,” which rose to #1 on SubmitHub’s Popular Charts.

Once you hear “Strange Kind of Love,” you can kind of hear why it took a portion of the blogosphere by storm. “Strange Kind of Love” is a slick synthesis of Amy Winehouse-like blue-eyed soul, jazz standadrs and Dummy-era Portishead-like trip-hop centered around Tessa D’s soulful crooning and a dusty production featuring twinkling Rhodes, wobbly guitars and an infectious, razor sharp hook. 

Their second single “Dark Thoughts About A Pretty Flower” continued in a similar vein as its predecessor: a sultry trip hop-like number with a dusty production featuring twinkling Rhodes, slashing guitars, propulsive polyrhythm paired with Tessa D’s soulful crooning and an infectious hook. “‘Dark Thoughts About A Pretty Flower’ was written to be free for interpretation,” The Lovelines’ Todd Goings explained to me in an email. “Is it a song about love or is it a song about a literal flower? Is it a song about pessimism, or a song about perversion, or is it a song about both?”

The duo have written and recorded their full-length debut and plan to release it single-by-single over the course of 2022-2023. The album will feature the previously released “Dark Thoughts About A Pretty Flower” and their latest single, the woozy “Steadily.” “Steadily” sees the Orlando-based duo firmly cementing their sound, a soulful take on trip hop in which Tessa D’s sultry vocals are paired with Geoff Barrow-like productions — in the case of the new single, strummed acoustic guitar, dusty hip hop-like breakbeats, glistening and twinkling Rhodes, a supple bass line and an infectious hook.

Interestingly, much like its predecessors, the new single feels rooted in lived-in experience: “Steadily is a song about a relationship between an old-fashioned romantic and a modern age lover,” the Orlando-based duo explained to me via email. “The singer knows that the modern age lover doesn’t have the same old fashioned ideals about love as her.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Laufey Shares Cinematic and Dream-like Visual for “Fragile”

22 year-old Laufey Lin is a rapidly rising Reykjavik-born, Los Angeles-based, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known as Laufey. Born to a Chinese-born violinist mother and a Icelandic-born, jazz-loving father, Lin grew up immersed in both classical music and jazz — and unsurprisingly both genres are major influences on the rising artist and her work.

By the time Lin turned 15, she performed with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. But despite her deep and abiding love of the music that has served as her musical foundation, she yearned to express herself by creating music that seamlessly blended her classical and jazz background with much more modern and contemporary influences.

\While attending Berklee College of Music, Lin began collaborating with some of her peers and recorded her debut single “Street By Street,” a blend of jazz melodies with slow-burning R&B grooves. Making the best of the unexpected downtime as a result of the pandemic, Lin decided to release “Street By Street” through social media. The song, along with a collection of covers and originals quickly went viral. Eventually, “Street By Street” hit #1 on the Icelandic charts — and she began to amass a massive following that includes Billie Eilish, Willow Smith, dodie, and others.

Since then, the Icelandic-born, Los Angeles-based artist has been busy: Last year saw the release of her debut EP Typical of Me, which features the aforementioned “Street by Street,” “Best Friend” and “Like the Movies,” which she performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! earlier this year.

Lin’s highly-anticipated full-length debut Everything I Know About Love is slated for an August 26, 2022 release through AWAL Recordings. The 12-song album will reportedly see Laufey effortlessly blending contemporary song structures and sensibilities with the classic and jazz stylings she learned as a violinist, pianist and guitarist. The end result is an album’s worth of material that translates the intimate feelings, thoughts and observations of a young, modern woman into grand, cinematic moments, seemingly inspired by both the jazz age and Hollywood’s golden age.

Everything I Know About Love‘s latest single “Fragile” features samba-inspired arrangement featuring strummed acoustic guitar and rhythms, twinkling piano paired with Lin’s gorgeous and expressive vocals. But much like Lin’s critically applauded work to date, “Fragile” manages to be deceptively old-timey: while indebted to jazz, the song’s swooningly heartsick narrator talks of falling for someone much older, and not knowing what to do or how to act — with the tacit fear of making a complete fool of yourself.

Directed by Erlendur Sveinsson, the accompanying cinematic video for “Fragile” was shot in some stunningly gorgeous and entrancingly dream-like locations including Iceland’s foggy, rocky shore and an ornate seaside home.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Cara Louise is an emerging Nashville-based singer/songwriter. Her David Beeman-produced full-length debut, Wholesome Dread is slated for a September 2022 release through Soul Step Records — and is the follow-up to her debut EP, 2019’s Fragile Heart.

Wholesome Dread reportedly sees the Nashville-based artist making a bold sonic push away from her classic country roots and blurring the lines between indie rock, folk and Americana, while also drawing from the Laurel Canyon folk sound and David Lynch among others.

Wholesome Dread‘s first single, “Empty Me” is a heady mix of classic doo wop, Lynchian eerie vibes and 60s psych pop centered around twinkling keys, atmospheric synths, twangy, reverb-drenched guitar, paired with Cara Louise’s plaintive pop belter-like vocals and an enormous hook. “Empty Me” sonically speaking is the sort of song where you’d sway to yourself or cry into your beer while longing for a past you can’t get back.

But interestingly enough, as the Nashville-based artist explains, the song is rooted in lived-in, universal experience — feeling dissociative and drained from the daily struggles of working to survive and pay bills while maintaining relationships.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montréal’s Naomi Shares Another Sultry, Summertime Banger

Naomi is a Montréal-based multi-disciplinary artist, who first after studying theater made a name for herself when she started landing roles on both the small and big screen when she was 14. Because she has long seen art as a continuous means of expression, she went on to study dance at the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal.

As a dancer, Naomi has appeared in and/or choreographed music videos for Rihanna, Marie-Mai, Coeur de Pirate and others, as well as for local dance performances. While she was establishing herself as an actor and dancer, the Montreal-based artist quietly developed a passion for singing — without fully giving herself permission to explore it fully. Interestingly, Coeur de Pirate’s Beátrice Martin saw star potential in the Montreal based multi-disciplinary artist and took her under her wing.

Encouraged by Couer de Pirate’s mentorship and encouragement, Naomi began to realize that she was never far off from making her own music. All that she needed was a little push.

Signed to Bravo Musique, the Montreal-based artist began to write her own material and has taken a bold leap into a career as a pop singer. Naomi’s first two singles “Tout à nous” and “Zéro stress” have received airplay on WKND, Rouge FM, Arsenal, POP, CVKM and several other regional radio stations across Quebec.

The rising Canadian artist also released the club friendly, Rowan Mercille and Naomi co-written “Semblant,” which I wrote about earlier this year. Centered around glistening synth arpeggios, skittering trap-meets-Carribbean beats paired with her sultry delivery and an infectious hook, “Semblant” is a remarkably self-assured summertime banger, that also reveals a bonafide superstar in the making.

“Pas le temps de jouer,” Naomi’s latest single continues a remarkable run of slickly produced and self-assured bangers centered around shuffling reggaeton-meets-trap beats, glistening synth bursts paired with the rising Canadian artist’s sultry delivery and her seemingly unerring knack for crafting a big, razor sharp hook. Much like its immediate predecessor, “Pas le temps de jouer” is an accessible, radio friendly and club friendly track that’s simultaneously a summertime bop and a platform to launch a bonafide superstar into the stratosphere.

Directed by Clare L’heureux-Garcia, the accompanying video follows Naomi and a diverse collection of dancers through a series of brightly colored set ups — including one, where the collection of dancers, are like paintings in a museum.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Eldorado Shares a Late Night, Shimmering Meditation on Heartache

Eldorado (born Doriane Gamba) is an up-and-coming French singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and bedroom producer, who can trace the origins of her music career to when she turned six and started playing drums. Inspired by an eclectic array of artists, who have also abided by the DIY ethos including Mac DeMarco, Men I Trust, Yellow Days, Clairo and a list of others, the French singer/songwriter and bedroom producer’s work is inspired by real life, personal experiences, which helps evoke strong emotions. 

Eldorado’s debut single, the neon and heartache-tinged “3 in the morning” is centered around glistening, reverb-drenched guitars, the French artist and producer’s achingly plaintive vocals, skittering beats, atmospheric synths and a soaring hook. Sounding as though it were inspired by JOVM mainstays St. Lucia, Washed Out, and 80s synth pop, “3 in the morning” draws from a heartbreaking, fairly universal experience: wanting to be with someone, who has no interest in you whatsoever. It’s the sort of song, I can imagine heartbroken souls singing to themselves at 3am — or at the club, along with their equally heartbroken cohorts.

Directed by Ambre Tholance, the accompanying video begins with our protagonist — Gamba — in her bed, listening to music on an old walkman. She eats puts on a shirt and tie, eats some cereal and walks out of her apartment with her bike. We then follow our protagonist riding her bike through suburban streets at golden hour. She then stops at a diner, where she has a milkshake and an appetizer, and begins writing the lyrics for “3 in the morning.” The video follows Gamba through an amusement park and elsewhere. While nodding at 80s pop videos, the video or “3 in the morning” emphasizes the late night loneliness at the core of its accompanying song.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Blake Morgan Returns with a Yearning Ballad

Blake Morgan is a New York-born and-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and the founder and President of ECR Music Group. In his role as President of ECR Music Group, Morgan’s ideas, opinions and editorials on music and the music business have been regularly published by a number of major media outlets including The New York Times, Billboard Magazine, CNN, Newsweek, Variety, The Hill, NME, The Huffington Post, and The Guardian. 

As a producer, Morgan has collaborated with a who’s who of music from Lenny Kravitz to Lesley Gore, and a lengthy list of others. Since the release of 2013’s Diamonds in the Dark, Morgan has been extremely busy: he has a remarkable six-year run of sold-out shows at Rockwood Music Hall that often feature guest spots from a number of Grammy and Tony Award-winning artists, who join him for unique, on-stage collaborations; 150,000 miles of touring and sold-out shows on both sides of the Atlantic; and production work on over 20 albums by some serious A-list artists. 

Late last year, the New York-born and-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and music biz exec released “Down Below Or Up Above” to praise from the likes of The Aquarian, Post-Punk.com, Culture Catch and my dear friends at Glamglare.

Morgan’s fifth album, Violent Delights was released last week through his ECR Music Group and in the lead-up to the album’s release, I wrote about two of its released singles:

  • “My Love Is Waiting” a rousingly anthemic and brazenly hopeful love song that views love as the important, necessary and powerful force of our world. But underneath its anthemic hooks, the song, which at points nodded at The Police‘s “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” Joe Jackson and JOVM mainstays Palace Winter revealed a penchant for old-timey pop craftsmanship paired with an uncanny knack for a well-placed, razor sharp hook. 
  • “Baby I Would Want You,” a swooning and euphoric guitar pop song that manages continue a remarkable run of brazenly earnest love songs while nodding at Elvis Costello and XTC‘s “Mayor of Simpleton.” While unintentionally referencing — and being fitting for — our current, near apocalyptic moment, the song’s narrator seems to say to his love, “welp, the sink is sinking, the water is rising, and there ain’t much else we can do — but we got each other.”

Violent Delights‘ latest single, album title track “Violent Delights” is a slow-burning, pop ballad featuring angular, reverb-drenched guitar and angular bass lines, and bursts of twinkling keys paired with Morgan’s plaintive delivery and his unerring knack for sharp, rousingly anthemic hooks. Much like its predecessors, “Violent Delights” is a proud, unabashedly earnest love song full of very adult yearning.