Category: Indie Pop

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sarah Walk Releases a Cinematic and Feverish Visual for Her Cover of “Nothing Compares 2 U”

Sarah Walk is a rising Minneapolis-born singer/songwriter and keyboardist who currently splits her time between Los Angeles and London. Walk’s full-length debut, 2017’s Steve Brown-produced Little Black Book found the Minneapolis-born singer/songwriter and keyboardist crafting piano-based ballads.

Last year’s Leo Abrahams-produced sophomore album, Another Me was a radical change in sonic direction for the Minneapolis-born singer/songwriter and keyboardist with the album’s material finding Walk going towards shimmering and contemplative synth pop centered around percussive arrangements and soaring melodies. Another Me was inspired by a period of immense challenge and transformation, and thematically, the album touched upon marginalization, survival, death, misogyny, vulnerability, reclamation of oneself, learning how to be bold and take up space and the unique challenges of being a queer woman.

The Minneapolis-born singer/songwriter and keyboardist follows up the release of Another Me with a slow-burning and spectral cover of Prince‘s “Nothing Compares 2 U” centered around atmospheric synths, twinkling keys, brief and subtle bursts of strummed guitar, Walk’s achingly tender vocals and supple and soulful bass lines. Featuring guest spots from Abe Rounds and the acclaimed singer/songwriter and bassist Meshell Ndegeocello, Walk’s cover deconstructs the song’s melody but in doing so, pulls out the song’s bitter loneliness, yearning, confusion but imbuing the proceedings with a complete detail and inability to move forward.

Walk has wanted to cover Prince for some time — partially because she’s a Minneapolis native; but also because Rounds and Ndegeocello played at the Purple One’s Paisley Park studio in the past. “Truthfully, it had been a really long time since I heard ‘Nothing Compares 2 U,’” Walk says in press notes,” and I thought that may work in my favour — I didn’t want to get too inside the other versions that already existed because I wanted to make sure I approached it my own way.

“I recorded the main wurly piano part first and sort of just improvised that ending build up – I liked the idea of repeating the title over and over, almost trance-like, with these ominous chords and angry guitar sounds building up behind it. I kept seeing this visual of me singing that repetitive lyric on stage, almost trying to convince myself I was okay… while the curtain opened up behind me without me knowing it, exposing all of the memories and anger and heartbreak I was really feeling but not able to accept or admit yet.”

“Sometimes I think Prince would want everyone to play his music and sometimes I think he’d want it to never be played again, but I knew Sarah was the kind of spirit who would make it her own and she does,” Meshell Ndgeocello adds.

Directed and edited by Daniel Smith Coleman, the recently released video for Walk’s cover of “Nothing Compares 2 U” is a slow-burning and cinematic fever dream of loneliness, regret and loss — all while nodding a bit at Memento with some of the video’s occurring in reverse.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Los Angeles’ Bass Race Releases a Space-Age Take on Neo-Soul

Los Angeles-based indie pop act Bass Race — Steven Mertens and Laura Benack — features a highly accomplished duo: Mertens formed his first band Satan’s Rats when he was 13 with elementary school friends. That project led to two decades of tours and collaborations. After studying Studio Composition at SUNY Purchase, Mertens joined The Moldy Peaches in 2001 — and he eventually went on to direct videos for an eclectic array of artists including Regina Spektor, Lil Peep, Benee and Sheryl Crow. He has also collaborated with Blood Orange and Here We Go Magic. Benack, who started playing piano when she turned four comes from a deeply musical family: her grandfather was a bandleader, her mom is a vocalist and her father and brother are jazz musicians.

Mertens and Benack met in New York back in 2010. They started dating and immediately started a musical partnership, centered around their love of their craft — and of course, each other. With the help of friends and Benack’s brother on trumpet, they made a bunch of music videos, including for “Clowns Everywhere.” Determined to use every bit of their collective talents, they began combining their music with Mertens’ visual art in 2019 with Bass Race’s Instagram page, which fans have described as “magical” and “super amazing mega fantabulous.”

While the duo cites yacht rock, synth pop, jazz, funk and soul as influencing their sound and aesthetic, their latest single “Chasing the Sun” is a warm and easygoing retro-futuristic, neo-soul number featuring an infectious two-step inducing groove featuring twinkling Rhodes, shimming rhythm guitar, stuttering boom bap-like drumming, a sinuous bass line. Adding to the easy-going yet retro-futuristic vibes, Benack soulfully and suggestively sings lyrics full of playful space age double entendres and references.

“We were in Pittsburgh a couple years ago over Christmas to see my family and we visited our good friend Pete Mudge (Nice Rec) in his studio along with our friends Laura Herrmann and Blane Britt (GrandEar),” the duo recalls in press notes.”There was a snow storm, and it was freezing. Once we were inside, we started to warm up and Pete played us some beats he had been working on. When we heard the track that would soon become ‘Chasing the Sun,’ we all started smiling right away. The creativity started flowing and within a couple hours, I had recorded all the vocals and Steven laid down some guitars. The gray weather definitely inspired the song title, but the song lyrics detail the arduous process of overcoming writer’s block and chasing creative inspiration.”

The duo created a space-age visualizer that follows Benack and an amorphous, cosmic being traveling through space and time in a spaceship — and there’s the sense that our space traveling duo is grooving through the cosmos, as you might be while playing the song.

The duo’s latest album Tender Vittles is slated for a March 19, 2021 release.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Montreal’s Ormiston Releases a Breezy and Funky Daft Punk-like Single

Nicola Ormiston is a Montreal-based singer/songwriter and producer, who steps out into the limelight as a solo artist with his recording project Ormiston. Ormiston’s debut single “Rebel” is a shimmering disco-tinged track centered around Nile Rodgers-like guitar, a strutting bass line, glistening synths and an infectious hook. And while the Montreal-based artist cites Toro Y Moi and MGMT as influences on his sound and work, “Rebel” to my ears at least, brings Random Access Memories-era Daft Punk to mind — in particular, the equally infectious and summery “Get Lucky.”

Ironically, the song’s breezy and infectious nature, “Rebel” possesses subtle yet very dark undertones. As Ormiston explains in press notes. “‘Rebel’ is a song about a turbulent relationship between two lovers,” the sort of passionate relationship that brings out the best and worst out of the people within it.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Sarah Walk is a rising Minneapolis-born singer/songwriter and keyboardist who currently splits her time between Los Angeles and London. Walk’s full-length debut, 2017’s Steve Brown-produced Little Black Book found the Minneapolis-born singer/songwriter and keyboardist crafting piano-based ballads.

Last year’s Leo Abrahams-produced sophomore album, Another Me was a radical change in sonic direction for the Minneapolis-born singer/songwriter and keyboardist with the album’s material finding Walk going towards shimmering and contemplative synth pop centered around percussive arrangements and soaring melodies. Another Me was inspired by a period of immense challenge and transformation, and thematically, the album touched upon marginalization, survival, death, misogyny, vulnerability, reclamation of oneself, learning how to be bold and take up space and the unique challenges of being a queer woman.

The Minneapolis-born singer/songwriter and keyboardist follows up the release of Another Me with a slow-burning and spectral cover of Prince‘s “Nothing Compares 2 U” centered around atmospheric synths, twinkling keys, brief and subtle bursts of strummed guitar, Walk’s achingly tender vocals and supple and soulful bass lines. Featuring guest spots from Abe Rounds and the acclaimed singer/songwriter and bassist Meshell Ndegeocello, Walk’s cover deconstructs the song’s melody but in doing so, pulls out the song’s bitter loneliness, yearning, confusion but imbuing the proceedings with a complete detail and inability to move forward.

Walk has wanted to cover Prince for some time — partially because she’s a Minneapolis native; but also because Rounds and Ndegeocello played at the Purple One’s Paisley Park studio in the past. “Truthfully, it had been a really long time since I heard ‘Nothing Compares 2 U,’” Walk says in press notes,” and I thought that may work in my favour — I didn’t want to get too inside the other versions that already existed because I wanted to make sure I approached it my own way. 
 
“I recorded the main wurly piano part first and sort of just improvised that ending build up – I liked the idea of repeating the title over and over, almost trance-like, with these ominous chords and angry guitar sounds building up behind it. I kept seeing this visual of me singing that repetitive lyric on stage, almost trying to convince myself I was okay… while the curtain opened up behind me without me knowing it, exposing all of the memories and anger and heartbreak I was really feeling but not able to accept or admit yet.”
 
“Sometimes I think Prince would want everyone to play his music and sometimes I think he’d want it to never be played again, but I knew Sarah was the kind of spirit who would make it her own and she does,” Meshell Ndgeocello adds.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Athens-born, Barcelona-based singer/songwriter, classically trained pianist and visual artist Evripdis Sabatis is the creative mastermind behind the solo recording project Evripidis and His Tragedies. The project, which finds the Athens-born, Barcelona-based multimedia artist crafting devastatingly confessional, self-deprecating and often darkly humorous pop songs centered around a queer sensibility can trace its origins back to 2004. When Sabatis relocated to Barcelona, the Greek-born multimedia artist started playing solo sets, accompanying himself on piano in small local bars before becoming a fixture in the local underground scene as a performer, DJ and independent promoter.

Since 2004, Sabatis has been rather busy. He has released four albums 2007’s self-titled debut, 2011’s A Healthy Dose of Pain, 2016’s Futile Games in Space and Time, 2019’s Mia Triti stin Cantina and an EP . . . And It Was Good While It Lasted Baby while also writing scores for short films. Those releases were primarily melancholy, piano-driven indie pop with a joyous beat, unconventional song structures, lush chord progressions and vocal harmonies that found Sabatis collaborating with an eclectic and diverse array of local and international artists, including Sarah P., The Magnetic Fields‘ LD Beghtol, and fellow Greek artist Nalyssa Green.

Sabatis has opened for internationally acclaimed artists like John Grant, Jens Lekman, Peter Bjorn and John and Arab Strap. Adding to a growing profile, he has toured internationally, playing shows in Spain, the UK, Germany, France, the US, Portugal, The Netherlands and his native Greece. The Greek multimedia artist has also made the rounds of the international festival circuit making stops at Primavera Sound Festival, FIB Festival, Indietracks, Eurosonic Nooderslag and Synch Festival.

The Athens-born, Barcelona-based multimedia artist’s fifth album Neos Kosmos reportedly finds Sabatis crating material that goes in a much more decidedly straightforward and sparse synth-driven direction with lyrics written and sung in English, Spanish and Greek while still displaying his immense love of Doo Pop, 60s girls groups, New Wave, indie pop and bedroom pop. The album’s latest single “Bitter,” which features guest vocals from The Ballet‘s Greg is a decidedly 80s inspired synth pop confection featuring shimmering synth arpeggios, a propulsive motorik groove, and a razor sharp yet infectious hook. Interestingly, “Bitter” reveals a songwriter, who has an uncanny ability to write a song that’s centered around complex and contradictory emotions: through heartfelt and earnest songwriting dripping with a bit of campy sarcasm, the song points out the fact that that love — and the search for love — can be fleeting, capricious, embittering and exhausting. And yet, love is so necessary that you can’t quite give up on it either.

“I wanted to convey a little bit of the feeling that The Smiths‘ songs gave me when I was younger — this mixture of romanticism, cynicism, and humor that is kind of camp, but also deeply heartfelt.,” Sabatis explains in press notes. “I am, after all, bitter and hopeful, grumpy and funny, all together at the same time, and I wanted to connect with those who feel these strong contradictions. I invited Greg to sing with me because I imagined an encounter of two like-minded souls who never give up on love. “

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Nana Adjoa Performs on NPR’s “World Cafe”

Born to a Ghanian father and a Dutch mother, the rising Amsterdam-born and-based Ghanian-Dutch singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Nana Adjoa joined her first band when she was a teenager. She choose bass because “every other instrument had been claimed,” she recalled with a laugh. Perhaps it may have been a lucky twist of fate. Unbeknownst to Adjoa, her mother had once played bass in a Ghanian Highlife band and still happened to have her guitar.

Later, the JOVM mainstay went on to attend the prestigious Amsterdam Conservatory, where she studied jazz — electric bass and double bass; however, she began to realize that her musical passions lay elsewhere. She joined a variety of local bands, began writing her own music and in 2014 entered herself in the Grote Prijs van Nederland — the longest-running and biggest pop music competition in her homeland. Adjoa made it to the finals, but most importantly, she gained a band, a manager and the confidence to launch a solo career.

Interestingly, since the release of Down at the Root, Part 1 and its follow-up, Down at the Root, Part 2, Adjoa has developed a reputation for being restlessly creative, crafting material centered around an adventurous yet accessible sense of musicianship and deft poeticism. Building upon a growing international profile, the Ghanian-Dutch artist released her critically applauded Wannes Salomé-produced Big Dreaming Ants, late last year.

Continuing upon the momentum of last year, Adjoa begins her year with a live, three-song set for NPR World Cafe filmed in Amsterdam. The live session featured live version of the the following album tracks:

“She’s Stronger,” a slinky yet expansive New Wave-like number with a rousingly anthemic hook that describes the deep, inner reserve of strength and resiliency that women routinely pull from through their daily existence. It’s arguably one of the harder rocking songs of Adjoa’s eclectic and growing catalog.
“No Room,” a song that’s slick and seamless synthesis of Afro pop and indie rock, centered around a shimmering and looping guitar line, looped vocal samples and Adjoa’s achingly tender vocals. The song seems to evoke a narrator, who’s stifled and restricted, and desperately trying to break free.
“National Song” a slow-burning and gorgeous lullaby sort of song that on one level warns of the dangers of nationalism and on another level, details a narrator, struggling with her own identity and place when she generally doesn’t fit into one particular box, one particular race or even one particular nationality.

Each of these songs are probing, nuanced portraits centered around deeply personal observations and thoughts, delivered with an unflinching honesty and self-assuredness. And it shouldn’t be surprising that the Dutch JOVM mainstay was also named an NPR Slingshot Artist to Watch for 2021.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Dayglow Performs “Can I Call You Tonight” on “Late Show with Stephen Colbert”

20-something Aledo, TX-born, Austin, TX-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Sloan Struble is the creative mastermind behind the rising, critically applauded indie rock/indie pop project Dayglow. The project aesthetically is centered around a hard-fought, hard-won yet palpably sincere optimism — and can trace some of its origins to Struble’s adolescence, growing up in a Fort Worth suburb that he has referred to as a “small football-crazed town,” where he felt irrevocably out of place.

Like countless other out of place young people across the world, Struble turned to music as an escape from his surroundings. “I didn’t really feel connected to what everyone else in my school was into, so making music became an obsession for me, and sort of like therapy in a way,” Struble said in press notes. “I’d dream about it all day in class, and then come home and for on songs instead of doing homework. After a while I realized I’d made an album.”

Working completely on his own with a minuscule collection of gear that included his guitar, his computer and some secondhand keyboards he picked up at Goodwill, Struble worked on transforming his privately kept outpouring into a batch of songs — often grandiose in scale. “Usually artists will have demos they’ll bounce off other people to get some feedback, but nobody except for my parents down the hall really heard much of the album until I put it out,” Struble recalled. With the self-release of 2018’s Fuzzybrain, the Aledo-born, Austin-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer received widespread attention and an ardent online following — with countess listeners praising the material’s overwhelming positivity.

In 2019, Struble re-released a fully realized version of Fuzzybrain that featured Can I Call You Tonight,” a track that wound up being a smash-hit lat year, as well as two previously unreleased singles “Nicknames” and “Listerine.” With the two new singles, the album further establishes Struble’s reputation for illuminating emotional pain in a way that not only deeply resonates with listeners but while managing to make that emotional pain feel lighter.

Continuing upon that momentum, Struble kicked off 2021 with the infectious and sugary pop confection “Close to You,” a track indebted to 80s synth-led soul — in particular Patti Labelle and Michael McDonald‘s “On My Own” Cherelle’s and Alexander O’Neal‘s “Saturday Love” and other duets, but imbued with an aching melancholy and uncertainty.

Recently, Struble and his backing band made their national late night TV debut on Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where they performed his attention grabbing single “Can I Call You Tonight.” Interestingly, the single reveals a young artist, who is self-assured beyond his years and can craft an infectious, pop hook paired with earnest, heart-on-sleeve lyricism and shimmering instrumentation. Interestingly, the live footage features a similar aesthetic to the “Close To You” video –including a soft, dreamy pastel color schemes.

Struble is currently working on his highly-anticipated Dayglow sophomore album, which is slated for release this year. Be on the lookout.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Pierre Grech is a Toulon, France-based singer/songwriter, composer, producer and guitarist, who has long been influenced by folk, indie rock, hip hop, jazz, contemporary classical and electronica. Grech began writing songs as a child but he can trace the origins of his music career to the early 2000s: He was the frontman of experimental electronica act SLiDD — and around the same time, he co-wrote and arranged material on three Jen H. Ka albums.

As a solo artist and bandleader, Grech has played shows across Paris and Southern France with re-arranged and re-imagined renditions of his material in several different iterations including electro rock, acoustic, cello-guitar duo, rock trio and more. But over the past few years, the French singer/songwriter, guitarist, composer, arranger and producer has been refining and honing his songwriting and compositional approach, as well as his guitar playing. The en result is Grech’s latest project _telemaque_, which finds the Toulon-based artist drawing from his long-held influences while crafting energetic and sensitive pop.

Grech’s _telemaque_ debut, June EP was released last Wednesday and the EP’s latest single, EP title track “June” is a gorgeous and deliberately crafted track featuring shimmering acoustic guitar, Grech’s plaintive falsetto, propulsive drumming and a soaring hook. And while sonically bringing OK Computer-era Radiohead and JOVM mainstays Husky to mind, the song is centered around earnest lyricism and accessible, pop-leaning songwriting.

Beyond the recording of the album, a collaboration with New York artist Dani Choi is underway to illustrate each track on the album.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: HAERTS Performs “For The Sky” on “Late Show with Stephen Colbert”

Throughout the course of this site’s decade-plus history, I’ve spilled copious amounts of virtual ink covering JOVM mainstays HAERTS. Tracing their origins back to a budding high school romance in Munich, the acclaimed indie pop act have evolved as its founding (and core) duo — Nini Fabi (vocals) and Benny Gebert (keys, guitar) — have evolved: HAERTS was formed when the duo met their now-former bandmates while studying at Berklee College of Music. Upon graduation, the quintet relocated to Brooklyn, where they quickly built up a profile and released their major label, self-titled, Jean-Philip Grobler-produced. full-length debut.

After a series of lineup changes in which the band’s founding duo has remained, Fabi and Gebert relocated to the woods of Upstate New York, where they worked on and released their sophomore album, 2018’s New Compassion. Since the release of New Compassion, Fabi and Gebert have embraced their early international roots by splitting their time between Berlin and New York — and during that same period, they have been fueled by a renewed spirit of collaboration with musicians and visual artists they’ve long admired including Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste and Julian Klincewicz, who they worked with on POWER/LAND.

As you may recall, the duo’s third album Dream Nationis slated for a March 12, 2021 release, and the album’s material is reportedly marked by a sense of urgent intensity: Fabi and Gebert wrote the album over the course of about a month — and as soon as they finished, they recorded most of the album with their touring band during a week-long, live recording session in New York. Then they went to Los Angeles, where they put the finishing touches on the album and collaborated with Ed Droste on the album’s first single “For the Sky.” (I’ll be getting to that one in a little bit.)

Sonically, Dream Nation will continue to draw their long-held comparisons to Fleetwood Mac and First Aid Kit, but with subtle nods at Portishead and Lamb. “We went into the studio without setting limits or parameters other than that we wanted to make a record that moves you emotionally and physically,” Fabi and Gebert explain. “We wanted it to feel like an invitation into the strange and fantastical night time world, like the songs they play just before the lights come on, when the party is almost over, and the polish is gone.”

Recently Fabi and Gebert were on Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where they performed a gorgeous, acoustic version of Dream Nation’s first single “For the Sky,” a song that as Nini Fabi explained in press notes “came from a dream I had when I first found out that I was pregnant, which was the catalyst and beginning of writing new music.” Naturally, the acoustic version finds HAERTS stripping the layers of the studio version to leave the studs and beams — Fabi’s soaring vocals and the song’s heartfelt, lived-in lyricism.

The live footage was shot in a paradisal backyard and features HAERTS’ core duo with their gurgling, new baby. And admittedly while the live version of the song is just gorgeous, there are few things that I find myself drawn to:

This family is so adorable. They radiate love and happiness.
The kid is absolutely in love with mom’s voice.
Imagine this child being told that they inspired an album and its first single before they were even here; that mom shot a video for that same song, pregnant with you; and when you were finally here, they performed the song on Colbert with you in her lap.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Chiara Foschiani is a Paris-born-and-based singer/songwriter and pianist. Although she’s just 17, the Paris-born artist can trace the origins of her music career to learning the piano when she turned eight. Foschiani started signing when she was 13, joining local bands and performing on small stages and local music festivals before she started writing her own original material.

Since 2018, the emerging French singer/songwriter has been posting demos and covers on Soundcloud — with her material amassing over 49,000 streams. When Foschiani turned 16, she left school to fully dedicate herself to music, spending her time with literature, film, concerts, festivals and listening to new music and meeting artists. But generally speaking, she cites Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Lana del Rey and others as influences on her work.

Foschiani’s second and latest single is the slow-burning ballad “My Glass of Wine.” Centered around thumping beats, shimmering and atmospheric synths and the French singer/songwriter’s self-assured and soulful vocals, “My Glass of Wine” manages to bring Dummy-era Portishead to mind, complete with a brooding, cinematic quality.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Palace Winter’s Tennis Court Session–“1996”

The Copenhagen, Denmark-based pop duo and JOVM mainstays Palace Winter — Australian-born, Copenhagen-based singer/songwriter Carl Coleman and Danish-born, Copenhagen-based producer and classically trained pianist Caspar Hesselager — built upon a rapidly growing profile regionally and internationally, with the release of their sophomore album 2018’s Nowadays.

Nowadays found the Danish pop duo firmly cementing their sound — carefully crafted, melodic and hook-driven, 70s AM radio rock-inspired pop paired with deep thematic concerns. Thematically, the Danish act’s sophomore album touched upon the loss of innocence and adulthood; the freedom and power that comes as one takes control of their life and destiny; and the the sobering life lessons that come about as one gets older.

Palace Winter’s third album . . . Keep Dreaming Buddy was released earlier this year through the band’s longtime label home Tambourhinoceros Records. Unlike their previously released material, the album was written through a long distance correspondence, as the band’s Carl Coleman was residing in an empty, retro hotel in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. Coleman’s lyrics were inspired by Tenerife’s unique landscape while drawing metaphorical parallels between Mt. Teide, a dormant volcano, which is also one of Spain’s tallest peaks, and the looming fear of a relationship about to disintegrate.

“I was walking around this weird volcano island. The retro hotel was like a forgotten paradise resort. The whole thing felt like a Lynchian alternate reality,” Palace Winter’s Carl Coleman recalls. “Caspar was sending me these synth hooks and drum loops from Denmark, so I started coming up with melodies and lyrical ideas to record into my phone.” And as a result, the album is figuratively and literally a tale of two cities and two completely different — yet oddly related — emotional states.

Over the past handful of months, I’ve written about four of the album’s released singles:

Top of the Hill,” was a great example of the album’s overall tale of two cities and two completely different emotional states. Featuring shimmering and icy synths, thumping beats and an enormous, arena rock friendly hook paired with Coleman’s volcanic imagery-based lyrics, the song captures the bubbling dissatisfaction, boredom, frustration and distrust of a relationship about to boil over and explode.
“Won’t Be Long,” . . . .Keep Dreaming Buddy‘s second single was an expansive song that featured elements of arena rock, glam rock and synth pop, complete with a rousingly anthemic hook, a crunchy power chord-driven riff, shimmering synth arpeggios and strummed guitar. But interestingly enough, the song is actually deceptively and ironically upbeat as it tackles the anxiety of anticipatory grief, as it focuses on a narrator, who is preparing for the inevitable loss of a dear, loved one. Loss and despair are always around the corner, indeed.
“Deeper End,” the album’s third single was a decidedly genre-defying affair that found the duo pushing their sound in a new direction without changing the essentially elements of the sound that has won them attention internationally. Featuring an infectious hook, shimmering synth arpeggios and strummed guitar, the breezy song is one part synth pop. one part 70s AM rock, one part country — but while centered around an unusual juxtaposition: the song as the band’s Carl Coleman explains is “a story about a bad trip at a weird house party I went to with my sister.” Granddaddy’s Jason Lytle contributes a guest verse to the song, a verse in which his character dispenses harsh yet very trippy truths to the song’s hallucinating and anxious narrator.
“Richard (Says Yes),” a playful, thematic left turn that finds the duo writing a big, upbeat party them — but while pushing their sound in a new direction. Centered around their unerring knack for crafting an anthemic hook, “Richard (Says Yes)” is a remarkably proggy take on their sound.

Earlier this year, the duo, along with their backing band filmed a live session from the tennis court of Copenhagen hotel, practically abandoned as a result of the pandemic. So in some way, the live session finds the band returning to the sort of surrealistic hotel scenes, which informed the album’s material. The sessions included live versions of two of my favorite songs off the album — the aforementioned “Won’t Be Long” and “Top of the Hill.”

The last Tennis Session features . . . Keep Dreaming Buddy’s latest single , the slow-burning “1996.” Featuring a shimmering synth arpeggios, stuttering drumming, strummed acoustic guitar and a bluesy electric guitar solo paired with Coleman’s plaintive vocals, “1996” describes a romantic relationship at a major crossroads in which both parties don’t quite know if it’s worth fighting for or not. Sonically, the song — to my ears at least — manages to bring The Cars “Drive” to mind, as it possesses a similar longing to get it right one way or the other.

Unlike the previous videos, this particular session eventually pans into the empty hotel. which gives the entire proceedings a dream-like feel.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rising British Pop Artist Gracey Releases an Infectious and Self-Assured Banger

With the release of her debut mini-album The Art of Closure earlier this year, the rising 22 year-old, English pop artist GRACEY quickly established herself as one of the scene’s most successful and highly buzzed about artists. The seven track effort features her first Top 10 UK Chart hit , as well as her latest single, mini-album opening track “99%”

Centered around a slick, super modern production featuring finger snaps, tweeter and woofer rocking beats, shimmering synth arpeggios, a enormous, attention-grabbing hook and the young English artist’s sultry vocals, “99%” is a sugary sweet pop confection that reveals an artist, who is self-assured beyond her relative youth — and about to take over the world as we know it. The song itself finds its narrator asserting complete control of a sitautionship that’s on the verge of becoming a blossoming relationship — all while capturing the excitement, longing and desire of a new thing.

The recently released video for 99% was shot in one extremely long take and follows the rising pop artist in a seemingly effortless choreographed sequence that evokes the swooning pangs of new love.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rising NYC-based Pop Act Eighty Ninety Releases a Shimmering Pop Confection

The New York-based pop duo Eighty Ninety — brothers Abner James (vocals, production) and Harper James (guitar, production) — quickly exploded into the national and international scenes with the viral hit, “Three Thirty,” which rose to #2 on Spotify’s Global Viral Charts. Building upon a rapidly growing profile and the buzz surrounding them, followed up the success of “Three Thirty” with their debut EP Elizabeth.

Their debut EP found the duo further cementing their sound and approach: minimalist pop productions featuring a slick mix of electronic sounds and organic instrumentation paired with infectious hooks and sticky melodies, which they’ve dubbed “808s and Telecasters” — a joking shorthand for their sound and their anything goes mentality to their creative process. “We let the emotional arc of the song, rather than any set of genre conventions, lead us to instruments and sounds,” the brothers say of their process.

Since the release of their Elizabeth EP, the duo’s material have amassed over 26 million streams and have been featured on a numerous Spotify playlists, including New Music Friday, Pop Rising, Indie Pop, Chill Vibes, Viral Hits — and was selected by Taylor Swift on her Songs Taylor Loves playlist.

The duo closes out 2020 with their latest single, “Better as Friends.” Centered around a lush arrangement of glistening synth arpeggios, shimmering and reverb-drenched guitars, thumping beats paired with Abner James’ yearning, ethereal falsetto and an infectious hook, “Better as Friends” is a radio friendly pop confection that brings JOVM mainstays like Washed Out, Summer Heart and Cones to mind. But despite the breezy pop vibes, the song is underpinned by the bitter recognition that both platonic and romantic relationships can be confusing and uncertain.

“Better as Friends” is the second official single off the New York-based duo’s Gian Stone-produced, sophomore EP slated for release next year. In the meantime, the duo released a cinematic and decidedly minimalist video for their new single that’s split between intimately shot performance footage of the band in their studio and the act’s frontman on a rooftop during golden hour in New York. Interestingly, the video manages to capture the brooding and heartache at the core of its accompanying song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Paris-born, New York-based Artist Lizzy Young Releases a Trippy Visual for “CooCoo Banana”

Originally from the Parisian suburbs, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Lizzy Young spent a few years in Barcelona before eventually relocating to New York, where she’s currently based. The Paris-born, New York-based artist’s work draws from her own personal experiences while being influenced by Leonard Cohen, Louis Malle, Bette Davis, and Molly Nilsson.

Young’s full-length debut, the 10 song CooCoo Banana finds the Paris-born, New York-based artist crafting a refreshingly unique take on modern pop: sardonic humor-laced lyrics paired with lo-fi, bedroom recording — i.e, Casio keyboards and driving, dance floor friendly beats. Thematically, Coocoo Banana finds Young boldly diving into the beauty and ugliness of life. So far, Young has had her music played by BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 6 personalities Janice Long, Tom Ravenscroft, Jack Saunders, Cerys Matthews, and Steve Lamacq. Additionally, Tom Ravenscroft named her a Spotlight Artist and invited her to play a Selector Spotlight showcase.

CooCoo Banana’s latest single, album title track “CooCoo Banana” may remind some listeners of a narcoleptic take on Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl;” handclap-driven beats are paired with shimmering and tinny Casio synth arpeggios and Young’s self-deprecating vocals delivered with an ironic detachment. And while being a decidedly artsy take on pop, the song manages to accurately capture the mindset of a modern woman with all of her strengths and flews with a novelist’s attention to psychological realism.

Produced by GFY, the recently released video for “CooCoo Banana” is centered around a trippy and lo-fi concept: we see Young’s disembodied lips singing the song’s opening lines. We pull out of a lysergic, neon pink haze to see Young from the neck up singing the song in front of an equally neon pink background. As the song progresses, Young rubs a lotion that turns her entire face and hair into a fuzzy, electric rainbow before fading out. It’s trippy as hell.