Category: lyric video

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Norway’s Beharie Shares Bouyant and Flirty “Desire”

Rising Norwegian singer/songwriter and pop artist Beharie has been busy over the past handful of years. Since 2019, he has released three EPs:

Each of those efforts have seen the rising Norwegian artist constantly expanding upon his sound, artistry and message, while refining his focus towards what’s to come.

Beharie’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, the 12-song Are You There Boy? is slated for an October 20, 2023 release. The album reportedly meets the artist where he is right now and invites listeners into a carefully curated sonic world that features vibrant melodies and delicate, smooth vocals. Thematically, the album sees the rising Norwegian exploring theme so love, self-doubt, desire, longing and pain with his heart worn proudly on his sleeve — and with a remarkable sense of nuance. The album follows a multi-faceted, fully-fleshed out character, who seeks meaningful connections, follows his curiosity where it takes him and ultimately discovers himself. As a result, the album sees its creator and its main narrator exploring the ever-changing, versatile aspects of his own humanity and identity, showcasing his growth, insecurities, passions and complexities.

“This album has given me the opportunity to delve into various aspects of my own identity, and in the process, I have explored the complexity inherent in my personality and expression,” Beharie explains. “We have nurtured different characters and played with their distinct expressions. These characters have been assigned unique names: Washed-out jeans boy, float in space boy, constant fear boy, make believe boy, and lost in thought boy.” Fittingly, each of those characters represents fragments of Beharie’s soul, personality and essence — all in search of a sense of belonging.

The album also features collaborations with two rising singer/songwriters — Dublin‘s Uly and The Netherlands’ Judy Blank.

Are You There Boy?‘s latest single, the flirty and playful “Desire” is built around a buoyant melodic groove, skittering boom bap serving as an ethereal and silky bed for Beharie’s tender and yearning delivery. The song’s narrator sweetly wants to prove to a prospective love interest, that he’s the right one for them — and for the rest of their lives. Behave explains that “Desire” is a confident love song about “insisting on being the right one for someone you like and telling them without any doubt, and being willing to do anything to make it happen.” 

Ultimately, “Desire” to me reveals a songwriter, who is able to effortlessly craft a catchy pop tune rooted in earnest, heartfelt lyricism while eschewing cliches and formulas.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Jenn Champion Shares Meditative “Famous”

Born Jennifer Hays, the Tucson, AZ-born, Seattle, WA-based multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter and producer Jenn Champion can trace the origins of her music career to when she met her then-future Carissa’s Wierd bandmates Ben Bridwell and Mat Brooke at the local pizza shop, where they all worked at the time. In 1997, the trio moved to Olympia, WA for about a year, before settling in Seattle, where the trio formed Carissa’s Wierd.

The trio released three albums before splitting up in 2003 — but interestingly, the trio cultivated a rabid cult following, which has resulted in the release of three compilation albums of their work, including 2010’s They’ll Only Miss You When You’re Gone: Songs 1996-2003, which was released through Hardly Art Records.

Since Carissa’s Wierd’s breakup, Champion has moved forward with several acclaimed solo projects including the guitar and vocal-based pop project S, with which she has released four albums, including 2010’s I’m Not As Good At It As You and 2014’s Chris Walla-produced Cool Choices. While critics and fans have raved over her open-hearted and willingness to eschew conventions while crating sad songs meant to be cried to and with.

The last half of Champion’s last S album found her moving towards an electronic-based sound with album track “No One”  being a complete embrace of electronics. “I feel like a door got opened in my mind with electronic and digital music. There was a room I hadn’t explored before and I stepped in,” Champion said at the time. And although she intended to follow up Cool Choices with “a rock record — guitar, a lot of pedals, heavy riffs,” her plans had changed. “I couldn’t pull myself away from the synthesizers and I realized the record I really wanted to make was more of a cross between Drake and Billy Joel than Blue Oyster Cult.”

After the release of “No One,” Champion’s music publisher partnered her with Brian Fennell, an electronic music artist, songwriter and producer best known as  SYML and the pair co-wrote “Leave Like That,” which was featured on SYML‘s Hurt For Me EP.

Champion and Fennell hit it off so well that after Champion had written the demos for 2018’s Silent Rider, she enlisted Fennell as a producer. Fennell agreed and then they spent the next five months working on and refining the album’s material. “In the studio with Brian, I was more open than I had ever been,” Champion recalls, and as a result the material evolved into a slickly produced collection of dance floor friendly anthems. But the album saw Champion maintaining the earnestness and vulnerable that has won her critical praise — all while imploring the listener to dance, dance, dance, dance, dance their heartache, outrage and disappointments away for a little bit.

Champion’s long-awaited third album The Last Night of Sadness is slated for an October 13, 2023 release through Gay Forever. The self-produced and self-recorded The Last Night of Sadness will remind the listener of her technical skill as a musician, but more important, it places her production process front and center. “I’ve always been able to be vulnerable in my music but with these songs and what I was feeling I wanted to keep this album pure. I was afraid that if I let it go outside of me, I’d dilute it,” Champion explains. “Sadness is in the title but this is the most confident record I’ve ever made. I took away all the places I could hide.”

When asked what it was she wanted to express with the album as a whole, Champion says “Suffering. And what a miracle it is to be heavy.” So yes, the album is heavy. But it’s also open and vulnerable the way you can only be when grieving. The album’s material sees the Seattle-based artist grappling with morality — of others, of herself and of the world in general. And yet it isn’t hopeless or joyless. There are moments of reprieve, in which you’re reminded that life is ultimately about the small joys and small victories.

The Last Night of Sadness‘ first single “Famous” is an 80s synth pop-inspired mid-tempo ballad built around glistening synth arpeggios, a poppy drum machine-driven groove paired with an incredibly catchy hook and Champion’s earnest, heartbroken delivery. At its core, is a wizened, self-aware narrator, who is coming to terms with their life — and they do so with an unvarnished, vulnerable honesty as she reflects on a rebellious youth and the gradual compromises and adjustments of adulthood. But the song is rooted in an existential dread and uncertainty that comes as you get older.

“I wanted to make a song about coming to terms with fame versus success and what it feels like to realize I have what I want,” the Seattle-based artist says. She continues, “As an artist sometimes it feels like fame and success are used interchangeably and over the course of my career in music I’ve seen how fame can bring with it all this money and opportunity but is also a gilded cage. This song is one that just came to me on a run one morning as I looked out over the city and I had to pull out my phone and start writing. I’ve gone through a reset of my priorities in the last few years and this song and this album are about the journey through existential dread that has me where I am now.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: SANDS Shares Buoyant and Energetic “Transmission”

Andrew Sands is a London-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and creative mastermind behind rising shoegaze project SANDS. Influenced by Neil Young, David Bowie, The Smiths, David Lynch, Talk Talk, Echo and the Bunnymen and a long list of others, Sands’ own music sees him seamlessly blending rock, psych rock and elements of pop.

Since starting the project back in 2017, the London-based artist has released a handful of EPs and singles, including 2017’s S/T EP and “Let’s Run”/”Echoes,” 2018’s Waves Calling EP and “Tomorrow’s Gone”/”Burning Man” and 2019’s Nothing Can Go Wrong EP.

Sands’ highly-anticipated full-length debut, The World’s So Cruel is slated for an October 13, 2023. The album’s first single “Transmission” was written and produced at several London studio locations, including Hackney, South Bermondsey and his apartment. Built around glistening synths, buzzing guitar riffs, a relentlessly propulsive rhythm, a rousingly anthemic series of hooks and choruses paired with Sands’ plaintive delivery, the high energy “Transmission” manages to bring The Stone Roses and the Madchester sound to mind — but with a subtly modern take.

“Transmission” is inspired by the busy and eclectic Northeast London neighborhood that Sands once lived in. The lyrics capture the restless energy and activity of the neighborhood in a way that feels very familiar to me as a native New Yorker. And it does so in a way that feels a bit like a contented sigh of being home, and of awe of everything going on around you.

The lyric video is shot at a Northeast London market and captures some of that thrumming activity from a seemingly endless array of people coming and going, of money and goods changing hands.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: The Library is on Fire Teams Up with Mike Watt on a Tense and Uneasy Ripper

Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and musician Steve Five took his name from a poem by French wartime poet René Char, while working at Strand Bookstore. He also had weekly meetings over coffee with Television‘s Tom Verlaine. Five started The Library is on Fire back in 2007, and the band quickly established a sound that combined the melodies of Guided by Voices and the wall of sound guitar riffage of Dinosaur, Jr. and others.

The Library is on Fire quickly became a NYC scene mainstay and developed a reputation for playing chaotic live shows at Glasslands and Death by Audio. After several releases including 2010’s Magic Windows, Magic Nights, the band went on hiatus on 2014 with members going on to play in a number of other notable projects including Oberhofer, Public Access TV and more.

After a nearly lengthy hiatus, the members of The Library is on Fire have released new material, which will appear on their first album in almost a decade. The album will feature “Back Pocket,” a a sludgy, shoegazer-like ripper that brought A Place to Bury Strangers and others to mind.

The album’s second and latest single “Hotel Jugoslavija” features the legendary Mike Watt on a track built around relentless military styled drumming paired with sludgy angular bursts of guitar and lyrics that use a spy games metaphor to describe a relationship full of love, loss, deceit and heartbreak. The result is a song that possesses a math rock-meets-prog rock vibe while being tense and uneasy.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: The Library is on Fire Shares a Sludgy Ripper

Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and musician Steve Five took his name from a poem by French wartime poet René Char, while working at Strand Bookstore. He also had weekly meetings over coffee with Television‘s Tom Verlaine. Five started The Library is on Fire back in 2007, and the band quickly established a sound that combined the melodies of Guided by Voices and the wall of sound guitar riffage of Dinosaur, Jr. and others.

The Library is on Fire quickly became a NYC scene mainstay and developed a reputation for playing chaotic live shows at Glasslands and Death by Audio. After several releases including 2010’s Magic Windows, Magic Nights, the band went on hiatus on 2014 with members going on to play in a number of other notable projects including Oberhofer, Public Access TV and more.

Released earlier this year, “Back Pocket” is the first single from the Brooklyn-based outfit in over nine years. Built around distortion-pedaled power chords, thunderous and propulsive drumming, dreamy melodies and enormous hooks and choruses, “Back Pocket” is a sludgy, shoegazer-like ripper that brings A Place to Bury Strangers and others to mind.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: JOVM Mainstay Mariaa Siga Teams up with FissBassBeats on a Banger

Over the past couple of years, I’ve spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering Senegalese-born and-based singer/songwriter, musician and JOVM mainstay Mariaa Siga.

So far this year, she has released two singles which I’ve written about:

  • “Le murmure des anges,” a track that saw her collaborating with Artikal Band, who contribute a shuffling and buoyant reggae riddim paired with a slow-burning and soulful guitar solo and the Senegalese-born and-based artist’s expressive delivery. “Le murmure des angels” is a song that does two things — give thanks to the enteral while reminding listeners that they should listen to the little voice inside of us, which arms us with much-needed confidence; that voice that frequently says “You know, you got this. You know you’re dope.” 

  • “Ni Mama,” which in her native Diola means “I’m Leaving” sees the JOVM mainstay continuing her ongoing collaboration with Artikal Band, who contribute a shuffling and breezily upbeat reggae riddim paired with wah wah pedalled guitar, shimmering keys serving as a supple bed for the Senegalese artist’s effortlessly soulful and earnest vocal. “Ni Mama” features lyrics in both her native Diola and in French that discuss a familiar sensation for many of us — the need to escape things when daily pressure and stress becomes overwhelming.

The JOVM mainstay’s latest single “Daaray Dunya,” was produced by FissBassBeats and sees the Senegalese artist singing and rhyming about the difficulties young people, who struggle to get by in a mad, mad, mad world, and yet continue to believe that they have a bright future. FissBassBeats contributes a tweeter and woofer rattling drill production featuring looped guitar, skittering beats and deep low end. While “Daaray Dunya” is a bit of a sonic departure from her previously released singles, it continues the Senegalese artist’s unique meshing of the ancient and the modern.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Jake Merritt Shares Soulful “Don’t Go Too Far”

Jake Merritt is an Atlanta-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His sophomore album, Old Soul was released earlier this year, and the album features material that draws from elements of R&B, soul, rock, folk, country and the blues while displaying an artist, who has grown more comfortable as a singer/songwriter deeply versed and rooted in the genres that sprouted out from the Delta blues. Thematically, the album touches upon almost every aspect of the human experience with lyrics written in an honest and direct manner.

Album single “Don’t Go Too Far” is a slow-burning bit of singer/songwriter soul built around shimmering, reverb-soaked guitar, a steady backbeat paired with Merritt’s achingly tender delivery and a series of a remarkably catchy hooks. Sonically, “Don’t Go Too Far” seems a bit like a synthesis of The Black Keys and the Colemine Records catalog.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: New York’s Rebel Kicks Share Anthemic “Electrophoria”

New York-based indie electro pop outfit Rebel Kicks — sibling duo Anthony and Steven Babino — grew up in a musical home: their father was a professional jazz musician, and the siblings, who were also lifelong musicians, had played and sang with their father. It took the Babino Brothers some time to find their own music and voice: For a while Anthony had a weekly residency performing mostly covers while Steven hadn’t even figured out which instrument best suited him. But they often played weddings, corporate and private events, Eventually, the Babino Brothers began performing and recording together as sidemen, working on original music together. While working as hired guns in St. Petersburg, FL, the duo had an epiphany about the sort of music they wanted to make, and it opened to the door to Rebel Kicks.

Rebel Kicks formed in 2018 and can trace their origins to when Anthony Babino walked into his younger brother’s room and said “Here is a bass and here is a setlist. We have a gig Friday.” Since then, the duo have released their full-length debut, 2020’s A Portrait of a Man, Part 1, a handful of EPs, including Whiskey and Sinatra, a live EP and a string of singles, which have been featured on shows aired on MTV and Showtime.

“We grew up listening to so many genres—jazz, classic rock, Motown, R&B—and with Rebel Kicks we have finally found a project where we can explore our full range,” Rebel Kicks’ Anthony Babino says. “It may sound cliché to say this, but life is a journey, and we finally hit upon a sound that reflects our journey,” the band’s Steven Babino adds. Sonically, the duo specialize in anthemic alt pop/indie electro rock built around bold electronic soundscapes, melodic bass lines, arena rock friendly riffs, big hooks, the siblings uncanny harmonies and emotive lead vocals singing lyrics that are full of social commentary and introspective, deeply personal revelation.

With both Anthony and Steven Babino being multi-instrumentalists, the pair employ a DIY ethos to their work — with the duo writing, recording, producing and playing each instrumental part of their material. But they do welcome collaboration and have worked with a number of producers and songwriters including Abe Dertner, Jeff Blue, Jason Pennock, Russ DeSalvo, Jimmy Greco, Jackson Hoffman and Ryder Stuart among others. For the New York-based sibling duo, Rebel Kicks represents an opportunity for them to do what they love together. “We are a very close family, and it’s been amazing for us to share in making the music that has always lived in us,” Anthony Babino says. Steven Babino adds: “We are best friends, and it’s not lost on me how lucky we are to make a living writing and performing together.”

Live the band expands into a quartet with longtime touring bandmates Daniel Bradley (drums) and Dorian Lake (keys, vocals). And building upon a rapidly growing national profile, the New York-based outfit has shared bills with acts like Foo Fighters, Blink-182, Mac Miller, Iggy Azalea, Incubus and a lengthy list of others.

This year will see the duo releasing a batch of singles, including their latest single “Electrophoria.” Built around glistening synths, tweeter and woofer rattling beats, a relentless motorik-like groove, slashing power chord-driven riffs paired with their penchant for enormous hooks and arena rock bombast, “Electrophoria” manages to sound as though it were a slick and darkly seductive synthesis of Muse and Echoes-era The Rapture.

“Electrophoria,” was originally commissioned for an independent film that never came to fruition. But as the duo explain the song is an examination of the relationship between humanity and artificial intelligence. “It’s a song about the decision to accept or deny the inevitable, feeling like you’re trapped in a situation that you can’t get out of, while slowing realizing that you may never want to actually leave,” the duo explain.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Indonesia’s Rinni Wulandari Shares a Fun and Infectious Banger

Rinni Wulandari is a Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia-born R&B and pop artist. Wulandari grew up in a musical family: her mother was a vocalist and her father was a bassist and her two older sisters and brother are also in the music industry. So for the Indonesian pop artist, it was natural — and maybe perhaps fated — for her to be involved in music.

As a child, Wulandari used to sing for any kind of school events, including talent shoes and singing contests. As a high schooler, she was the frontperson of a band with a cousin, who was a dummer. She also auditioned for Indonesian Idol back in 2007, when she had turned 17, and became the youngest participant to ever win at the time.

In 2014, Wulandari came up with a new image for herself and transformed from pop singer to R&B singer. Since then she’s released four successful albums in her native Indonesia — 2014’s Independent Part 1, 2017’s I Am Independent and Independent Part 2, 2021’s Skins.

The Indonesian R&B and pop artist’s latest single “switch,” is the first bit of new material from Wulandari since the release of 2021’s critically applauded Skins. The song’s origins can be traced back to Wulandari struggling with insomnia during her pregnancy. Her spouse, producer and DJ Jevin Julian quickly recognized that her insomnia made her unproductive, and encouraged her to transform her sleepless nights to an opportunity to create new music.

“switch” pairs the Indonesian artist’s sultry delivery with a sleek house music-inspired production featuring glistening synth arpeggios and skittering tweeter and woofer rattling beats paired with euphoric hooks. Wulandari explains that “switch” delivers a powerful message to today’s youth, urging them to cherish their carefree moments, a time when responsibilities are minimal and freedom is abundant — and life is unburdened by responsibilities, obligations and commitments. The song was inspired by Wulandari’s nostalgia for own her youth, hanging out with friends and not stressed out over everything. But underlying all of that is a song that’s just a fun, night out at the club kind of banger.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Fresno’s Trash n’ Privilege Share a Furious Ripper

Fresno, CA-based punk outfit Trash n’ Privilege — Steve Shepard (vocals, guitar), Charles McClelland (vocals, guitar), Joe Triester (bass) and Jim Chaffin (drums) — specialize in a brusing punk rock, built around driving beats, big guitar riffs and raw vocals, influenced by the 80s California and DC hardcore scenes, where the band’s members grew up and cut their teeth. Lyrically, the band’s material frequently focuses on criticism of Big Tech, hypocrite culture, everyday life experiences and the 24 hour news cycle, among other things.

Trash n’ Privilege’s latest single “Fresh Idea” is a bruising ripper built around enormous power chords, thunderous drumming and Shepard’s Henry Rollins-like delivery paired with enormous, mosh pit friendly hooks. Lyrically and thematically, “Fresh Idea” is a fiery indictment on hypocrisy.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: NISEFF Shares Summery Bop “La Nota”

With the release of her debut EP, Mami Spicy, the emerging and rapidly rising Puerto Rican artist Niseff quickly established a sound that that blends elements of reggaeton and contemporary pop and pairs it with her sultry delivery and empowering lyrics.

Earlier this year, I wrote about “Ta To Cool,” a song built around skittering reggaeton beats and glistening synth arpeggios paired with a series of razor sharp, infectious and well-placed hooks and Niseff’s sultry-self assured delivery.

The Puerto Rican artist’s latest single “La Nota” is a slick synthesis of skittering reggaton beats and cumbia paired with Niseff’s sultry delivery. “La Nota” continues a remarkable run of dance floor friendly bangers – – but while arguably being the most summery she has released to date.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: JOVM Mainstay Mariaa Siga Shares Breezy Ni Mama”

Over the past couple of years, I’ve spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering Senegalese-born and-based singer/songwriter, musician and JOVM mainstay Mariaa Siga. As you might remember, Siga started off 2023 with “Le murmure des anges,” a track that saw her collaborating with Artikal Band, who contribute a shuffling and buoyant reggae riddim paired with a slow-burning and soulful guitar solo and the Senegalese-born and-based artist’s expressive delivery. “Le murmure des angels” is a song that does two things — give thanks to the enteral while reminding listeners that they should listen to the little voice inside of us, which arms us with much-needed confidence; that voice that frequently says “You know, you got this. You know you’re dope.” 

Siga’s latest single “Ni Mama,” which in her native Diola means “I’m Leaving” sees the JOVM mainstay continuing her ongoing collaboration with Artikal Band, who contribute a shuffling and breezily upbeat reggae riddim paired with wah wah pedalled guitar, shimmering keys serving as a supple bed for the Senegalese artist’s effortlessly soulful and earnest vocal. “Ni Mama” features lyrics in both her native Diola and in French that discuss a familiar sensation for many of us — the need to escape things when daily pressure and stress becomes overwhelming.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: FACS Share Brooding “Slogan”

Back in 2013, Chicago-based post-punk act Disappears — founding member Brian Case (vocals, guitar) along with  Noah Leger (drums), Jonathan van Herirk (guitar) and Damon Carruesco (bass) — released two related yet very different efforts that are among some of my favorite albums — the atmospheric and tempestuous Kone EP and the tense, raging Era.  

In 2017, Carruesco left the band. The remaining members — Case, Lager and van Herrik — eventually decided to continue onward, but under a new name, and new sonic direction and songwriting approach as FACS. With 2018’s full-length debut, Negative Houses, the trio quickly established themselves as a heavy band, although they don’t necessarily feel like one.

Since Negative Houses, the Chicago-based outfit has released three more albums, including 2021’s Present Tense. Each of those albums have seen the members of FACS perfercting their unique brand of intense, catharsis-inducing art rock/post-punk, while pushing their sound and approach in new directions.

The Chicago-based outfit’s fifth album, Still Life In Decay was recorded by Sanford Parker at Electrical Audio Recording and is slated for an April 7, 2023 release through Trouble In Mind Records. Bassist Alianna Kalaba, who took over for founding member Jonathan van Herik after the release of Negative Houses makes her amicable last stand with the group. Alongside Leger, the band’s rhythm section dance and twist around each other like double helix in which collectively they approach rhythm from outside the groove, rather than inside it, creating a lattice in which Case can weave his guitar lines in an around, like creeping vines. 

Reportedly, Still Life in Decay is a decidedly focused effort that sees the band at their most solidified. The apocalyptic chaos of that defined their previous album is pushed away in favor of examination with a remarkable clarity — while being a sort of addendum to Present Tense. 

Last month, I wrote about Still Life in Decay‘s first single, the uneasy “When You Say.” Built around the propulsive lockstep rhythm between Leger and Kalaba, and Case’s reverb-drenched, guitar slashes, the song sees Case shouting repeated phrases with a desperate agency, as though desperately trying to hold on to something — anything, really. The song’s freeform lyrics touch upon themes of resignation, cynicism, classism and search for identity and meaning in a crumbling society. The song is a primal, forceful meditation on the exposed ugliness, divides and inequities within our world — both pre-pandemic and post pandemic.

“Slogan,” Still Life in Decay‘s second and latest single is a brooding track rooted in shimmering and meditative guitar, a forceful rhythm section paired with Case’s reverb-drenched vocal and a soulful yet buzzing guitar solo. The song narrators meditates on identity and memory — repeating one phrase “I had it in the palm of my hand,” much like a slogan.

Directed by the band’s Brian Case, the lyric video for “Slogan” features the song’s lyrics floating on top of a geometric field.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: dayaway Shares Breezy and Hook-Driven “hot blue summer”

Acclaimed duo Brooklyn-based indie CLAVVS — Amber Renee and Graham Marsh — can trace their origins back to a chance meeting after they both separately decided at the last minute to attend a random house party.

Renee’s background is in Americana. Marsh cut his teeth working on Grammy-winning hits by Bruno Mars and Gnarls Barkley. But with CLAVVS the pair weave together the organic and synthetic in a way that brings comparisons to Sylvan Esso and Maggie Rogers — but with a glossier, mainstream sheen. And as a result, the pair has landed placements on MTV, PBS, a number of tastemaking playlists and played in stores like Urban Outfitters.

The duo are also behind the rising indie pop project dayaway. Renee is a water sign — and naturally she has an obsession with the ocean. Fittingly, the project was conceived over countless summer afternoons at Rockaway Beach. The songs she writes for dayaway frequently tell stories about love and loss, detailing heartbreak in summertime snapshots paired with hazy dream pop/New Wave-inspired soundscapes.

Last year’s self-titled dayaway debut EP was released to critical applause from the likes of Under the Radar and Earmilk. EP single “cool water” amassed millions of streams across the digital streaming platforms while landing on Spotify’s New Music Friday, Good Vibes and Golden Hour playlists among others. Follow up singles “beach 90th” and “desert island” landed on Apple Music’s New in Indie and Spotify’s Surf Rock Sunshine playlist. Material from the EP were also featured on Netflix’s Hello, Goodbye and Everything in Between, and ABC’s A Million Little Things.

The duo’s latest single “hot blue summer” is a breezy and summery bop rooted in Renee’s achingly tender and ethereal delivery paired with buzzing and reverb-drenched guitars, bubbling electronics, twinkling keys and a razor sharp hook. The song evokes the blissful buzz of summer afternoons at the beach — but the uptempo poppiness of the song is a bit deceptive: The song actually acknowledges that despite the hopes and playfulness of summer and summer love, heartbreak is always around the corner.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Eyes of Argus Share Sludgy Dirge “From The Dark”

Currently split between Providence and Salem, MA, emerging doom metal duo Eyes Of Argus — Guitar Hero and Rock Band co-creator and member of Megasus, Ryan Lesser (guitar) and Sam (vocals) — can trace their origins back to the bleakest days of the pandemic when Lesser began crafting tracks rooted in the concept of ugly/pretty: Lesser specifically plays fuzzy, down-tuned sludgy power chords while Sam contributes ethereal vocals and magical lyrics.