Naza SYF is an emerging Nigerian artist, who has released a handful of single over the past 18 months or so. His latest single “Active” feat. Zikyre is a breezy, slickly produced Afrobeats bop that effortlessly manages to be club and lounge friendly.
With the bitter cold temperatures across most of the United States right now, this song is a reminder of the rooftop parties, block parties, cookouts and beach hangouts we’ll be enjoying in a few short months.
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month and the 78th anniversary of Rick James’ birth.
Matt Gorny is an award-winning, New York-based songwriter and producer, best known as Lowly Light. As a songwriter and producer, Gorny’s work has shown continual evolution, ranging from tunes like “Get Over Yourself,” “Prayin,’” “Candy Lied” and “Down the Coast,” which bounce between nu-disco, chilled out grooves and energetic indie pop, while also collaborating with an growing number of dance music artists, including Ultra Naté, Amanda Lepore, Luca Perra and others.
Gorny’s latest Lowly Light single, “Impossible Possibility” feat. Mishell Ivon is a bit of French touch-like house/nu-disco that’s a much-needed hope and joy bomb in our desperate, uneasy moment. We have to hold tightly onto hope because the regime wants us to feel as though all is completely lost.
As the New York-based songwriter and producer explains, “Impossible Possibility” is a song about holding onto hope, bravely diving for the brand new and reaching for what may be the one-in-a-million shot.
Over the course of the past two decades, Aussie singer/songwriter Tom Woodward has crafted a unique brand of baroque folk-rock, cosmic country psychedelia and fuzzed out lo-fi jams through the release of 11 albums and 10 EPs.
During that same period, Woodward has lived a deeply fascinating life, writing songs that document his thoughts and experiences: He cut his teeth and honed his craft in the Canberra and Melbourne music and arts scene in the mid-2000s before touring across Australia, Japan and the States.
2015’s Beautiful Shadows received critical acclaim from international media outlets including For Folk’s Sakes and The Huffington Post, and earned him a Canberra Critics Circle Award. Adding to a growing national and international platform, Woodward has played sets at the National Folk Festival and The Multicultural Fringe Festival, as well as opening slots for Abbe May, The Drones, Mikelangelo & the Black Sea Gentleman, Cash Savage & the Last Drinks, Machine Translations, Steve Poltz and a lengthy list of others.
Back in 2023, Woodward put down his guitar and embarked on a two-month walk up Australia’s east coast, which ended with a hospital stay and a hard-earned respect for the fragility of life. 18 months later, he got deported as an illegal alien from the USA.
Woodward’s 11th album, the recently released Adam Casey-produced Come Come Karma features the previously released “Termination Day” and “If You Wanna Stay Alive,” “Sails In Your Heart,” and the album’s latest single “Phoney Messiah.”
“Phoney Messiah,” is bruising song that seemingly channels Crazy Horse-era Neil Young, anchored a swirling haze of fuzzy power chords and Woodward’s urgent, incantatory delivery as his song’s narrator guides the listener through a world of conmen, carnival barkers, gurus, strongmen and internet demagogues prey on our hunger for meaning and her need for easy answers to deeply complex solutions.
The accompanying video is an uneasy, reeling fever dream featuring a collage of our current hellscape, presented as entertainment and clickbait, which further emphasizes the song’s critique’s of false prophets in the digital age.
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Phil Collins’ 75th birthday.
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Jody Watley’s 67th birthday.
Raised in Northern California and currently based in Los Angeles, Haylie Davis is a rising artist, who has received attention global attention for her passionate reimagining of classic Laurel Canyon folk pop, anchored by her gorgeous, remarkable vocal range and her knack for intricate storytelling.
After collaborating with a series of like-minded artists including Drugdealer, Sylvie, Alex Amen and Sam Burton, Davis steps out into her own path, meshing gorgeous melodies and strikingly original songcraft its a new band of cosmic Americana.
“Young Man” is latest single off the Los Angeles-based artist’s highly-anticipated debut album, which will feature the previously released “Country Boy” and “Golden Age,” and is slated for release later this year through Fire Records. “Young Man” is an introspective lived-in lament on the breakup of a misplaced, perhaps even unearned affection and its aftermath. And as a result, the song’s narrator expresses a mix of relief, exhaustion, despair and bit of “wait, what the fuck was that?” while nursing a bruised heart.
Fittingly, the song features some heartbreakingly gorgeous steel guitar paired with Davis’ timeless, world-weary delivery. It sounds a bit like a 70s country ballad, much like Johnny Cash‘s take on the Kris Kristofferson-penned “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” — with a subtly modern vibe.
“‘Young Man’ was born a few years back in a Texas green room while I was out on tour with Sam Burton,” Davis explains. ““I was fresh off a breakup, emotionally raw, and the song arrived naturally in that in-between space – part exhaustion, part reflection, part release. Later, I brought it to life with Michael Harris at Valentine Recording Studio. Working with Michael was a joy; he creates an atmosphere that’s both encouraging and effortless, making the recording process feel less like work and more like discovery.”
Directed by Magnolia Ellenburg, the accompanying video for “Young Man” is a gorgeously shot fever dream of heartache, despair and pride that should feel familiar to anyone who has had to nurse their bruised heart and investigate themselves in the aftermath of a breakup. Those answers aren’t easy to come by, but you figure out a way to move on and learn from it as best as you can.
Acclaimed JOVM mainstay Thundercat will be releasing his fifth studio album — and first album in over six years — Distracted through Brainfeeder on April 3, 2026. Distracted was created in close collaboration with super producer Greg Kurstin with additional production from Flying Lotus, Kenny Beats and The Lemon Twigs. The new album also features contributions from an all-star cast that includes A$AP Rocky, WILLOW, Tame Impala, Channel Tres, Lil Yachty and a previously unreleased collaboration with Mac Miller.
Thematically, the album vividly captures the uneasy tension between overstimulation and introspection. Thundercat is deeply skeptical of technological “progress,” especially the way it has narrowed our collective imagination instead of expanding it. He jokes about Star Trek and childhood dreams of space travel, then pivots to the horrible anticlimax of reality” drones without lasers, phones that only feature upgraded cameras, innovation reduced to spying and access. The disappointment isn’t about just gadgets; it’s about a vision of the world we were promised versus what we got right now. Sure, some forms of deep space travel may be difficult, if not impossible, but we don’t have flying cars or smart-alecky robots. We barely have high-speed trains or anything else.
While the drawbacks of constant distraction are evident in today’s attention deficit economy, a true idiosyncratic like Thundercat can identity the ways in which it used to one’s advantage. You can’t spell “daydreams,” without dreams. “Sometimes you need to be distracted to focus in a different way,” Thundercat says. What the JOVM mainstay wants listeners to take from the album is remarkably, disarmingly simple: “Just enjoy it and have fun and just know that the struggle is real and changes shape, but just to keep pushing forward.”
Rather than instant and constant commentary, the JOVM mainstay offers something quieter, more radical, and maybe something more empathetic: The permission to be confused, tired and distracted — and yet still make something beautiful and necessary out of the noise.
Anchored around a strutting and ridiculously funky Thundercat bass line, thumping beats and twinkling Rhodes “I Did This To Myself,” feat. Lil Yachty, Distracted‘s lead single features the two acclaimed collaborators trying to holler at very busy baddie, who has no time for either Thundercat or Lil’ Yatchy, despite their desperate pleas to be treated better. They feel like complete fools. And at the core of the song, both artists seem acutely aware that they’ve placed themselves in the song’s ridiculously awkward yet all too human predicament. The song also features additional production from longtime collaborator and friend Flying Lotus.
Marlon Magnée, the co-founder of the acclaimed, French psych outfit and JOVM mainstay act La Femme is stepping out in the spotlight as a solo artist with his debut solo album, the Renaud Letang co-produced Dark Star, which is slated for a March 6, 2026 release through Disque Pointu.
As a member of La Femme, Magnée has earned numerous accolades including Album Révélation of the Year at the Victories de la Musique Awards and multiple RIAA Certified Gold records. He has played sets on some of the world’s biggest and most important stages, including Accor Hotel Arena, Zénith, Glastonbury, Austin City Limits, Lollapalooza and Osheaga.
After 15 years recording, releasing music and touring the world as a member of La Femme, Magnée’s solo debut reportedly sees the La Femme co-founder reconnecting to his earliest passions. The album reflects his long-held taste for unusual blends and singular styles — with lyrics sung in both French and English.
The result is a breakneck, restless, sometimes radical music, conceived “for those with blood in their hearts and the urge to fight back.”
Recorded at Paris‘ legendary Ferber Studios, Dark Star is an oddball, frenzied collision of shadow and light with songs that wrestle with one’s darkest impulses, bad mushroom trips, ayahuasca-fueled revelations, limerence, overwhelming romantic love, family love and self-sabotage. Sonically, the album draws from 60s guitars, an “orgy of synths” from the 80s, pounding drum machines, analog delays and a deliberately raw energy, that sees the La Femme co-founder blending punk rockabilly, punk and coldwave.
Late last year, I wrote about album single “Plus Fort Que Toi.” which featured a J.F. Julian-directed accompanying video that playfully drew from 50s rockabilly and rock tropes shot in sunny California.
Dark Star‘s third and latest single “People Are Afraid” is a broodingly cinematic take on 80s darkwave, anchored around an eerily atmospheric motorik pulse and skittering goth-inspired beats, a scorching guitar solo and Magnèe’s long-held, unerring knack for catchy hooks. According to the La Femme co-founder, “People Are Afraid” was inspired by The Stranglers, although I hear a bit of Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan and Trans Europe Express-era Kraftwerk.
Directed by Magnée and filmed in Tokyo by Sam Quealy, the accompanying video for “People Are Afraid” follows a Dick Tracy/spy-like Magnée strutting down the quiet and lonely late night streets and in a phone booth. But there’s more than meets the eye here. The La Femme co-founder has some secret super powers.
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 58th birthday of Mr. Bungle and Faith No More frontman Mike Patton.
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Anita Baker’s 68th birthday.
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Andrew Ridgeley’s 63rd birthday.
JOVM’s WIlliam Ruben Helms celebrates the 83rd anniversary of the birth of Thom Bell.
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 88th anniversary of the birth of the legendary Etta James.
