Category: women who kick ass

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Erykah Badu and The Alchemist Team Up on Woozy and Mind-Bending “Witch Doctor”

In the 11 years since her last release and 16 since her last studio album, Erykah Badu has been busy, gathering not conclusions but rather, a series of existential insights through whirlwind touring, teaching, motherhood, doula work and the sort of deep reflection informed by living and raising children in a rapidly changing, increasingly dystopian world. During that same period, her cultural influence has only expanded: The five-time Grammy Award-winner with 20 nominations appeared on the cover of Vogue back in 2023. received the CDFA Fashion Icon Award in 2024 and Billboard‘s Icon Award last year. And she has done this while continuing to collaboration across generations with the like software Janelle Monáe, Tyler, the Creator, Flying Lotus, Robert Glasper, Teyana Taylor, Rapsody, and a lengthy list o others.

The Alchemist has firmly established a reputation for being one of hip-hop’s most prolific producers, releasing multiple efforts a year including, last year’s Alfredo 2 with Freddie Gibbs, the sequel to their Grammy Award 2020 album Alfredo; last year’s Life Is Beautiful with Larry June and 2 Chainz; this year’s Spiral Staircases with Larry June and Curren$y and LIQUID FORM. Continuing a remarkably prolific and productive period, The Alchemist and Erykah Badu teamed up for Before the World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment.

Abi is Badu. Alan is The Alchemist. Released today through Control Freaq Records /YOUNG, the acclaimed duo’s collaboration finds Badu contemplating which parts of ourselves and our stories — love, innocence, dreams, memories, womanhood — are worth protecting before the world breaks apart and fragments. Meditative and fluid, the album’s material unfolds across four movements, charting the progression of the self through the prisms of of love, art and identity while inviting the listener to sit with difficult and complex feelings. Throughout the album’s runtime, passion blurs with desire, hope with grief — with each song revealing another facet of Badu’s universe. Or shall we call it the Baduverse?

The collaboration between the two acclaimed artist can trace its origins back to roughly 2023: Badu told her longtime creative partner Cold Cris that she always wanted to rap over Mobb Deep’s “The Realest,” a gritty, thumping yet soulful Alchemist production. The Alchemist — who had quietly been hoping to work with Badu for years — was introduced soon after, and their conversations grew into a full-fledged collaborative effort. The duo’s first studio session together in Los Angeles yielded the previously released “Next to You.” which laid the foundation for what would become an entirely new sonic language. Later, The Alchemist sent Baud a collection of instrumental beats, which she deconstructed and sculpted into tracks that felt uniquely hers, embellishing his warm, punchy samples with kalimba, immersive chord structures and drums. The’s album material sonically moves fluidly and effortlessly between soul, blues, funk, jazz and underground hip-hop and yet somehow belongs entirely to none of them.

Between 2024-2025, Badu and The Alchemist road-tested the album’s material live, performing in intimate, phone-free settings with Badu’s digital collective The Cannabinoids and The Alchemist on the MPC, fine tuning tracks along the way. The result is quite possibly the most forward-thinking batch of material of either artist’s career, an album that’s meant to live and evolve with you through space and time while inviting the lister to continually explore themselves, to have one more kiss, one more hit, one more dance, one more joke, all before the world blows.

“Witch Doctor,” Before the World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment‘s latest single is a woozy and strutting blend of neo soul, soul jazz, hip-hop, voodoo and experimental pop within an expansive, endlessly mothering, kaleidoscopic production branch Badu’s imitable, jazz-like croon. Throughout the song Badu referencing witches having a deeper, more mystical connection with both their universe and their surroundings — unlike those cornball TV witches.

Directed by and starring Erykah Badu with a brief cameo by The Alchemist, with cinematography by Ayinde Anderson, the accompanying video for “Watch Doctor” is both a companion piece and a sort of continuing of the Dallas-born artists 2010 short film “Window Seat.” 16 years later, Badu returns to the same Dallas neighborhood with a new perspective, exploring what remains after the world as taken everything it can from an artist, and pointing towards the one thing it can never manufacture, characterize or possess: the very source itself.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Black Doldrums Return with Joy Division-like “Repetition”

London-based post punk trio Black Doldrums founding duo Sophie Landers (vocals, drums) and Kevin Gibbard (vocals, guitar) with newest member Matt Holt (bass) — will be releasing their third studio album Repetition Compulsion on November 13, 2026 through Fuzz Club. Deriving its title from a psychological concept first explored and named by Freud, the recently announced album is the final part of the London-based band’s State of Mind Trilogy, a three-album exploration of the psychological forces that shape identity, memory and human connection which began with their debut, 2022’s Dead Awake and 2024’s In Limerence. At the heart of all of their work is the creative and personal relationship between the band’s founding duo of Gibbard and Landers, whose relationship forms the emotional foundation for the forthcoming album — and the lens through which its themes are explored. As Gibbard explains, “These songs are either about Sophie, for Sophie, or inspired by her.”

Thematically, the 11-song album reportedly sees the London-based trio exploring how repetitive patterns and behaviors shape intimate relationships, collective memory, politics and wellbeing in a way that’s both deeply personal and quietly universal. Through evocative songwriting and cinematic production, Gibbard says “the album invites listeners to confront the echoes of the past while questioning whether those patterns can ever truly be broken.”

Inspired by 80s gothic post punk, synth pop, darkwave and the film scores of John Carpenter and Vangelis, Black Doldrums build on the emotional and sonic foundations of these influences to create something cinematic, modern and completely their own. Each of Repetition Compulsion‘s 11-songs has been crafted with intention, with the band balancing darkness with beauty to create a sod that’s melodic, broodingly atmospheric and with emotional depth. Listeners should expect to hear layers of analog synths, chorus pedal-soaked guitar and driving rhythms paired with an expansive production that gives each arrangement a sense of massive, cinematic scale. Rather than relying on nostalgia, the album presents post-punk as a living, ever-evolving form, with the band embracing atmosphere without sacrificing melody, introspection without loss of momentum and darkness without abandoning hope.

Repetition Compulsion will feature the previously released “Repetition” its second single, “Compulsion.” is a brooding and hook-driven, Joy Division-like song featuring angular guitars and a motorik pulse beneath Kevin Gibbard’s yearning Ian Curtis-like delivery.

“I wrote ‘Compulsion’ as the second part of our first single, ‘Repetition’. It originally started life as one piece of work, but naturally split into two separate songs,” Kevin Gibbard explains. “That gave us the opportunity to directly reference ‘Repetition; while continuing the central themes of the album and reinforcing the idea that all of the songs are connected in some way. The opening line, “Here we are again, repetition once more”, immediately brings the two songs together. Where ‘Repetition’ has a more dirge-like feel that literally reflects the idea of repetition, ‘Compulsion; has a greater sense of forward motion, building in intensity as it develops. We’re really proud of how the track fits within the wider concept of the album. We wanted to take a considered, interconnected approach, and I think ‘Compulsion’ really captures that idea. It feels like a natural progression from ‘Repetition’, while also taking the story and the sound somewhere new.”

Directed by the band’s Sophie Landers, the accompanying video for “Repetition” references the video for its immediate predecessor as it features the band performing the video in an abandoned factory with the imagery previous video’s imagery projected behind them. And another set of characters watching the video for “Compulsion” in a darkened room.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Sassy 009 Shares Club Banging Jam City Remix of “Tell Me” feat. Blood Orange

Oslo-based producer and singer/songwriter Sunniva Lingård is the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed, shape-shifting electronic music project Sassy 009. The Norwegian artist found early acclaim with 2017’s Do You Mind EP? and 2021’s sultry, bass-driven Heart Ego Mixtape. Adding to a growing profile, Lingård has collaborated with Clairo on 2018’s “Lara” while remixing tracks by Empress Of, Lolo Zouaï, MØ, Agar Agar, and a lengthy list of others.

Released earlier this year, Dreamer+ is Lingård’s true Sassy 009 debut — a concept album pieced together from nearly four years of studio work and an ambitious attempt to take complete control of her art. Built with distorted vocals beneath a soundscape with elements of grunge, shoegaze, 90s beatronica and gauzy hyper pop, the album is a grim fairytale in which dreams and emotions are processed through a landscape of shapeshifting characters, dark forces and moral responsibilities. Thematically, the album touches upon identity, memory and the shifting boundaries of the self, in which the dreamer is the only witness/the only one who remembers.

The album features guest spots from Blood Orange, yunè pinku, and BEA1991.

The past year has been a whirlwind for the Sassay 009 creative mastermind: She appeared on the over of NME. She played a sold-out show at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and while in the UK, recorded and then released Live at BBC Maida Vale, a live session that features a cover of Limp Bizkit‘s “My Way,” along with “Tell Me and Someone.”

The acclaimed and rising Oslo-based artist will be releasing the Dreamer+ Deluxe album on October 16, 2026 through HEAVEN-SENT/[PIAS]. The deluxe edition of Dreamer+ will feature some of Lingård’s closest friends and musical collaborations — and few surprises for fans. Dreamer + Deluxe‘s latest single sees Jam City giving album track “Tell Me” feat. Blood Orange the remix treatment. “Tell Me” feat. Blood Orange is a brooding and atmospheric, trip-hop meets-grunge-tune that features the Norwegian artist’s smokey delivery over thumping boom bap-like drums, gauzy electronics and shoegazer-like textures. The Jam City remix pushes the tempo up, turning the song into a woozily euphoric, footwork-like banger anchored around skittering triplets, glistening synths and chopped up vocal samples.

women who kick ass by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 89th Birthday, Alice Coltrane!

JOVM’s WIlliam Ruben Helms celebrates the 89th anniversary of the birth of Alice Coltrane.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Nouvelle Vague’s Breezy Take on Depeche Mode’s “Only When I Lose Myself” feat. Mélanie Pain

Founded by Marc Collins and the late Olivier Libaux back in 2003, Nouvelle Vague was initially conceived as a one-off tribute to post-punk songwriting in a Bossa nova style. 2004’s self-titled debut, which saw them establish their unique fusion of melancholy post-punk, Bossa nova and French re-interpretational approach, unexpectedly achieved global acclaim. Since then, Nouveau Vague has become a global phenomenon.

Their 10th album, A Date with Depeche Mode is slated for an October 30, 2026 release through Kwaidan Records/[PIAS] Recordings. And as you can probably tell, the album sees the French outfit tackling the work of pioneering British electronic outfit Depeche Mode.

A Date with Depeche Mode will include the previously released “Never Let Me Down Again” feat. Brazilian artist Flavia Coehlo, and the album’s latest single, “Only When I Lose Myself” feat. Mélanie Pain. Originally released on 1998’s compilation The Singles 86>98 “Only When I Lose Myself” is a brooding song full of desperate, aching longing. The Nouvelle Vague rendition, which features one of the act’s long-time collaborators retains the longing at the heart of the song but now paired with a breezy Quincy Jones and Herb Alpert-like arrangement featuring Bossa nova rhythms, strummed guitar and soulful brass. The result is a take that gives the song a sultriness rooted in desperate need and a little bit of lust while being incredibly cinematic.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tokyo Tea Room Returns with Breezy “Hypnotised”

Last year’s full-length debut, No Rush saw the rising Margate, UK-based outfit Tokyo Tea Room — Daniel James Elliot, Beth Dunn, Ben Marshall, Sam Teather and Sam Ewens — quickly establishing a sound and approach that takes listeners on a journey within a tender, comfortable bubble. Their music is inspired by lived-in, human emotions while thematically exploring longing and the ephemeral nature of existence. The album eventually led to millions of monthly listeners across the DSPs and a sold-out North American tour, helping the band amass a rapidly growing global audience.

The Margate-based quintet’s highly anticipated sophomore album, the Daniel James Elliot and Kristofer Harris co-produced Feel Forever is slated for a September 18, 2026 release through Nice Guys. The album, which marks the first time Elliot has worked with a producer, reportedly sees the rising taking a bold step forward with their sound. And while being a decided evolution, the material remains rooted in the emotional depth that they’ve begun to be known for. “We took a yacht rock approach to the recording, taking our time to smooth all the edges and make something that felt more polished than the last record,” Elliot says of Feel Forever‘s recording process. “Both of us spent hours obsessing over the smallest detail, which felt very apt for this album. The result is something that we are all very proud of, it’s a different kind of Tokyo Tea Room that has come out the other side of it, but it feels right and I hope people enjoy listening.”

Feel Forever will include the previously released “Eyes Off You” “Always In The Sun” and album’s fourth and latest single “Hypnotised.” Featuring glistening synth stabs, a sinuous and strutting disco groove beneath Beth Dunn’s yearning, ethereal delivery, “Hypnotised” is a hook-driven and breezy tune that’s seemingly one-part yacht rock, one-part Yumi Zouma — and wholly escapist fantasy of eloping to balmier climates with a lover or love interest. But beneath the laid-back two-step including groove and beach club-meets-lounge vibes, “Hypnotised” captures the woozy and euphoric glee of madly obsessive love.

“‘Hypnotised’ is about that feeling of being completely drawn in, when everything else around you seems to blur,” says the band’s Daniel James Elliot. “It’s the uncertainty and fantasy that contribute to the excitement of something new, and I wanted to reflect that in this song, kinda like a soundtrack to your mind wandering into a daydream.”

Directed and animated by CC Mulligan, the accompanying video for “Hypnotised,” features some mind-bending, brightly colored and downright trippy imagery.

The rising British act will return to North America for a fall tour, supporting their new material. The tour includes two NYC area dates — October 13, 2026 at Music Hall of Williamsburg and October 14, 2026 at Bowery Ballroom. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Yeisy Rojas Returns with Hopeful “¿Dónde está el amor?”

JOVM mainstay Yeisy Rojas is a Grammy Award-nominated and Latin Grammy Award-nominated Cuban-born, Oslo-based, classically trained, jazz violinist, singer/songwriter and composer.

Her recently released album Inmigrante features the previously released “LATINO” and the album’s latest single “¿Dónde está el amor?” “¿Dónde está el amor?” begins with a cinematic jazz pop introduction in which the JOVM mainstay’s excessive vocal is accompanied with piano and subtly Latin percussion before morphing to a decidedly upbeat soul and gospel-influenced — with the song moving from heartbreak to joy and hope.

“The song grew out of a question that kept coming back to me as I looked at the world around us: Why do we treat each other this way? Where is the love?” The Oslo-based artist says. ” I wrote it sitting at the piano, moved by the sadness and helplessness I felt watching a world becoming increasingly divided—shaped by conflict, persecution, raids, hatred, and a growing lack of empathy. But I didn’t want to write a song rooted in hopelessness. I wanted to turn those feelings into something that could remind us of what still connects us. Musically, “¿Dónde está el amor?” begins as an intimate, vulnerable ballad, gradually weaving in Afro-Cuban rhythms through the tumbadoras. It continues to build until it opens into a powerful gospel choir, where gospel and Afro-Cuban rhythms come together in a call for unity, hope, and love. What begins as a deeply personal question ultimately becomes a collective voice—an invitation to rediscover our empathy and remember the humanity we share, especially in times of profound division. Rather than trying to provide an answer, I hope the song leaves one question lingering long after the music ends: amid everything that separates us today, where is the love?”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 60th Birthday, Shirley Manson!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Garbage frontperson Shirley Manson’s 60th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 80th Birthday, Valerie Simpson!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Valerie Simpson’s 80th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: R.I.P. Dolly Parton!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the life and music of the iconic Dolly Parton.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Julia Jacklin Returns with Anthemic “The Hardest Thing”

Acclaimed Melbourne-based singer/songwriter and musician Julia Jacklin will be releasing her highly-anticipated fourth album, the Robert Muiños and Jacklin co-produced, 10-song album  The Gem through 4AD Records digitally and on CD, cassette and vinyl on September 25, 2026. Exclusive color vinyl editions with retailers will include turquoise, green opal, ruby and rose quartz. Pre-order information can be found here.

The album will include the previously released “Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You),” the album’s closing track ” “I Wish” feat, Aussie folk sibling duo The Maes, and the album’s third single, “The Hardest Thing.” is a proudly heart-worn-on-sleeve anthemic ballad featuring a narrator, whose relationship on the brink, detailing a relationship at a crossroads — or about to peter out to an inevitable conclusion. Lyrically, the song is rooted in small, lived-in details that give the song a personal yet deeply universal touch.

Directed by Danny Cohen, the accompanying video was shot in one lengthy take and filmed from a helicopter winding through Melbourne’s skyline, gradually showcasing the acclaimed artist performing the song on top of skyscraper.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: E. Lundquist Teams Up with JOVM Mainstay Kendra Morris on Upbeat “Wishing”

Los Angeles-based producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Eric Borders is the creative mastermind behind E. Lundquist, a project that derives its name from a loving nod to his family lineage, bringing the focus back to his own story. With E. Lundquist, Borders specializes in a warmly cinematic sound rooted in Rhodes-driven soul jazz, funk, R&B, library records and live band groove and analog synth textures, reflecting a shift to an intimate, reflective and composer-led approach.

Borders’ forthcoming album Chasing My Reflections will touch upon themes of identity, resilience and self-reflection while featuring collaborations with Michael Damani, India Blue, Michael Edwards and JOVM mainstay Kendra Morris.

Chasing My Reflections‘ latest single “Wishing” features the Florida-born, New York-based JOVM mainstay’s effortlessly soulful croon over the sort of warm, buoyant, two-step-inducing neo-soul-like arrangement that would make the Soulquarians proud while being being a defiantly optimistic tune focused on the need to get back on your feet and get on with it, no matter how shitty everything seems.

“This song’s music had an overall upbeat, warm feel to it, so in writing it, I felt hopeful. . . .,” Kendra Morris says. “I’ve written plenty of sad songs, and it’s nice to just flip that sometimes. When Eric mentioned his inspiration behind the album and his working title at the time, ‘Reflections’, that got me thinking about my own perspective on life and struggling and how it’s great pushing forward and looking up rather than wallowing behind.”

Filmed and edited by Tony Delerme, the accompanying video for “Wishing” follows the JOVM mainstay walking down a brownstone-lined block rocking out to music on headphones, stopping to people watch before stopping at local bodega for snacks and hitting the subway. The video captures summertime in New York in a way that will bring a smile to New Yorkers faces.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 67th Birthday, Belinda Carlisle!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Belinda Carlisle’s 67th birthday.