Category: singer/songwriters

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: London’s Eleanor Moss Shares Gorgeous and Intimate “The Way It Feels”

London-based singer/songwriter Eleanor Moss will be releasing her full-length debut, The Knife, The Needle on August 21, 2026 through Merge Records. The nine-song album concerns itself with the way relationships between people are transformed, complicated and troubled by love. It’s a devastating work and a feat of tight lyrical construction that is simultaneously patient and vulnerable, opulently rendered and keenly felt. But interestingly, The Knife, The Needle emerged from a place of restraint with Moss — staying in a cabin near her parents’ house in the Scottish Highlands after initially recording an entirely different version of the album in New York (“a bit rollicking,” she notes) — feeling the pangs of the album she hadn’t recorded — “quieter, weirder, more English.”

Recording an album with a new ensemble and producer/engineer Pete Miles was a risk, but for Moss, setting aside an already completed effort was worth it. With the quieter, weirder, more English sound, Moss attempts to capture something fleeting, ephemeral and honest about the moments in which love, for better or worse, irrevocably changes someone.

The album will feature the previously released “Sarah Waiting in the Car,” and its latests single, the breathtakingly gorgeous and timeless “The Way It Feels.” Moss’ achingly yearning and expressive vocal is accompanied by birdsong and her strummed acoustic, classical guitar — and the result is an intimate, timeless picture of a universe created in the bond between two people with the unvarnished humility and honesty of a narrator, who says “the more I learn, the less I understand.”

“This was the last song written for the album, and feels to me like it sums up the spirit of the record. The more I learn about love the less I know, the more I know about someone, the more I know I don’t know them,” Moss explains. “It feels like an appropriate last song for an album about paradoxes; love asks us to hold contradiction without giving in to its discomfort. A song about not turning away, but turning towards.” 

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Matthew Thorne, the accompanying video for “The Way It Feels” was shot in the Greek Peloponnese on 16mm film with Director of Photography Tasos Chatzis — and fittingly is as gorgeous and mediative as the song.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: BelaBela’s Posthumously Released “Virgin Mary” Marks Launch of Bella Angel Fund

Bella Isabella Catherine Jhun was a Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter, dancer, visual artist and aspiring producer, best known as the creative mastermind behind the shoegaze project BelaBela. Jhun’s work explored themes of vulnerability, spirituality, heartbreak and […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sophia Bel Shares Atmospheric and World -Weary “Rat Race”

Montréal-based artist Sophia Bel exploded into the local and national scenes with her angsty full-length debut, 2022’s Anxious Avoidant, an effort released to praise from Le Devoir, Le Canal Auditif and EUPHORIA, and landed on the year-end lists of several media outlets, including RANGE Magazine, Exclaim! and CJLO.

Bel stepped away from the rat race to recuperate from tech fatigue and the relentless pressures of social media. After a few years away from the spotlight, the acclaimed Canadian artist will be releasing her highly-anticipated sophomore album, When The Cows Come Home on May 7, 2027 through Bonsound.

Drawn to the spaces between chaos and stillness, the Montréal-based singer/songwriter explores what it means to be human in an increasingly distracted, modern world. Pairing intimate songwriting with dreamy, organic soundscapes, Bel transforms seemingly mundane, everyday moments into quiet reflections on identity, connection and meaning. In a world driven by instant gratification, constant stimulation and productivity, her work is a gentle reminder that stillness, vulnerability and reflection are not indulgences — but are necessary to our humanity.

When The Cows Comes Home‘s first single “Rat Race” is a slow-burning tune that features an atmospheric arrangement of twinkling keys, gently padded drums and a supple bass line beneath Bel’s ethereal and world-weary delivery. And while subtly channeling A Storm in Heaven and No Come Down-era The Verve, “Rat Race” is anchored in an unvarnished honest, vulnerability, expressing a deep-seated exhaustion and a desperate desire to finally slow down.

Directed by Bel, the accompanying video for “Rat Race” follows the Montréal-based artist on top of what appears to be one of those double-decker tourist buses in a shirt, tie and trench coat through the city’s Central Business District –to my eyes, it looks like Boulevard Rene Levesque — with a briefcase and old-fashioned cell phone. But we see her get fed up with it all, throw the cell phone down, take the trench coat off and loosen her tie. Maybe some of us should do the same.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 67th Birthday, Jim Kerr!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Simple Minds frontman Jim Kerr’s 67th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 80th Birthday, Bon Scott!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 80th anniversary of the birth of AC/DC’s first frontman Bon Scott.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Genesis Owusu Returns with Shimmering and Glitchy Surprise Single “HUMAN AGAIN”

Acclaimed multi-ARIA Award-winning Ghanian-born Canberra-based JOVM mainstay Genesis Owusu released his highly anticipated third album REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE earlier this year through OURNESS. 

REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE sees one of Australia’s most celebrated and visionary contemporary artists construct an exposed state-of-the-day record that’s experimental yet cohesive, desolate yet ecstatic, unflinching yet free. Duality is at the core of an album that sees the JOVM mainstay layering musings on an unsettled world with piercing reflections of his, and our own places within the world. Rich in lyricism and earnest in its message, REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE is a resolute effort that confronts a divisive era in which humanity and its institutions seem to be ripping apart at the seams and heeds a desperate need for unity. 

Sonically drawing from and meshing elements funk, neo-soul, Brit rock and alt pop the album’s overall sound feels both sprawling and deliberate. “The world hasn’t ended yet,” Owusu. says. “We’re still moving, we’re still jumping, we’re still living, and so we shall continue. Through rain, shine, exploitation and warfare. We, the people, will always stubbornly persist, and hopefully persist hand in hand.”

Today, the acclaimed JOVM mainstay shares “HUMAN AGAIN,” a surprise stand-alone single and video that comes on the heels of REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE and his Red Star Wu’s Pirate Radio Tour, which electrified crowds in Australia and included sold-out headline shows in London and Paris, and opening dates with IDLES. “HUMAN AGAIN exists in the same mindset as REDSTAR WU — emotionally raw and reflecting deeply on our divisive, mad times. Sonically, the new single features bubbling and warbling synth glitch and skittering beats beneath Owusu alternating between a ferocious, ODB-styled snarl for the song’s punchy verses and his imitable croon. His delivery evokes a man at conflict with himself, seeming propelled forward by the digitized world that surrounds us. And yet, the song’s narrator finds a hopeful resolve, resilience in community, and inspiration in the collective fight to hold on to our humanity.

Owusu says, “I wrote this song when I was thinking about apathy. Living in the digital age of misinformation is genuinely brain-frying sometimes. So much global gaslighting, so much to cry and scream about; it’s easier to just flip the switch off and sink into base hedonism to feel human again. But it’s really important to care. You can party too. Care about the rights and freedoms that let you party. Care about all the people around the world who wanna party just like you. Keep fighting, kicking and screaming so the party doesn’t die.”

Directed by Isaac Brown, the accompanying video is a baroque, Interview with the Vampire-styled fever dream of lust, decadence and violence that collides with modern-day European streets in a way that emphasizes the tensions at the core of the song in a visceral fashion.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Late Again Shares Breezy and Ironic “Crazy and Stupid”

São Paulo-born, Brooklyn-based artist Rafael Melo has had a multi-hyphenate career spanning award-winning films, bestselling indie video games and his solo recording project Late Again. And with Late Again, Melo expands the boundaries of his music beyond sound, in an effort to tell his stories in whatever medium it requires.

Sonically, Late Again sits at the intersection of North American indie pop, Bossa nova references, a hint of dreamlike film soundscapes and 80s Japanese grooves. Since starting the project in 2024, Melo has received coverage from Billboard, JazzTimes, Galore, Grimy Goods, TrebleZine and a long list of others. He also collaborated with Brazilian jazz maestro Arthur Verocai and experimental visual artist Gabriel Rollim, a.k.a Rollinos.

Building upon a growing profile, the São Paulo-born, Brooklyn-based artist’s third EP, I Dreamt I Was Awake is slated for a September 4, 2026 release. The new EP reportedly showcases a newfound confidence as he double downs on his astutely observational writing style. Over the course of six, intricately structured tracks, the EP’s material thematically explores the gap between the life you imagine, the one you’re actually living, and the strange ways people learn to make peace with that distance. Self-aware, sometimes humorous and always subtly critical, the EP’s songs fluctuate between tenderness and irony, minimalism and chaos, and the hyper-personal and universal.

The EP was recorded at Brooklyn’s Studio G and São Paulo’s Evil Twin Studio and features contributions from Kimbra‘s and Duda Beat’s Thiago Dom (drums), Twin Brother’s and John Roseboro’s John Lisi (bass) and was engineered by Nelson Espinal and mixed by Melo’s long-time Brazilian collaborator Heal Mura.

I Dreamt I Was Awake’s first single “Crazy or Stupid” is a languid, summer daydream of a tune, anchored around the sort of breezy yet hook-driven, dream pop textures that channels JOVM mainstays MUNYA, Kainalu and Tame Impala. But juxtaposed against the dreamy feel good vibes of the song are lyrics that casually reference the anxieties and horrors of our contemporary hellscape — potential deportation by ICE/CBP, AI takeovers and the like — while posting out that it feels like everyone has lot their mind. The result is a song that’s unsettling yet disarmingly catchy, and a clear-eyed, ironic look at our absurd, brutal world.

“It’s ultimately a funny ballad that doesn’t take itself too seriously” shares Late Again.

The song is accompanied by a mind-bending. highly computerized visualizer by Gabriel Rollim, a.k.a Rollinos.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 76th Birthday, Huey Lewis!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Huey Lewis and The News frontman Huey Lewis’ 76th birthday.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 88th Birthday, Bill Withers!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 88th anniversary of the birth of Bill Withers.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Liam Kix Shares Swaggering, Trip Hop-Influenced “Slowmo”

Liam Kix is a mysterious and emerging Israeli musician and artist, who over the course of his career has played in a number of different bands and projects. Kix stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with his full-length debut, 2024’s Heartology.

Over the past year, the Israeli artist has released a handful of singles, including his recent single, the swaggering “Slowmo” manages to channel Bristol trip hop — think Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky, et. all — built with dusty boom-bap beats and scorching guitar paired with Kix’s breathy, yearning delivery.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: James Tonic Returns with Atmospheric and Yearning “Who’s Going Down”

James Tonic is a Montréal-born, New York-based dream pop artist, who over the course of seven albums firmly established a sound built on analog synths, live drums and unflinching lyrics. 2024’s Stuck in LA, an album inspired by the West Coast wound up being a breakthrough album for the Canadian-born artist: the album helped hi establish a fanbase, the old-fashioned way while selling out during the tour. 

Last year’s Safety, the first part of a planned dream pop trilogy was a nine-song effort that thematically touched on emotional survival. The second part of the trilogy, Safety II was released earlier this year, and featured a darker, more cinematic take on dream pop paired with sharper, edgier lyricism. Thematically, Safety II covers being wide open, fighting back quietly and spotting clear bits when everything seems hopelessly jumbled. 

Safety II includes “At The Time In New York,” and its latest single “Who’s Going Down.” “Who’s Going Down” is meditative, bit of dream pop that features Tonic’s yearning, achingly tender delivery against an atmospheric and shimmering soundscape that channels Cigarettes After Sex and Thank Your Lucky Stars and Depression Cherry-era Beach House. To me, the song evokes the last hour of party that you don’t want to have end or the waning hours of an amazing trip, full of the bittersweet recognition that you’ll have to return to normal life.