Tag: New Audio

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

bells roar is the DIY solo recording project of Albany, NY-based singer/songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Sean Desiree. Originally, the project began with just Desiree’s vocals accompanied by guitar but over the last few years, the project’s sound has taken on elements of hip-hop and electro pop, which has further expanded the project’s sound — all while allowing Desiree to keep her voice ever present.

Desiree first started to receive attention with the release of her self-titled debut, which featured drumming from Kiran Gandhi, who was part of M.I.A.‘s touring band during the Matangi tour. And as a result, Desiree had opened for the likes of MSMR, Mirah, K. Flay, and Chrisette Michele. Her sophomore effort, Second Chances, Vol. 1 was released through Tom Morello‘s Firebrand Records, and the effort, which was largely inspired by the work of renowned poet bell hooks thematically focuses on pushing back against white supremacy and speaking truth to power. Considering the events of the past 18 months and the emergence of the Black Life Matters movement, hearing music that fearlessly discusses the sociopolitical and socioeconomic issues of the day in a thoughtful and serious manner feels desperately necessary — especially since many of those issues are largely being ignored among mainstream radio-friendly artists.

“Slow (remix)” is the first single off Second Chances, Vol. 1, and the single is a slow-burning, atmospheric single comprised of slowly cascading synths, swirling electronics, mournful horns, stuttering and skittering drum programming and shimmering and angular guitar chords paired with Desiree’s piercing and achingly mournful vocals.  In some way, the song sounds as though it were drawing influence from the Cascine Records roster — moody, 80s-inspired synth pop but in this case with a powerful and needed message. And although the song feels incredibly and desperately sad, its tinged with hopefulness at its core — in some way it suggests that things can get better, but that it requires actual work. Maybe we can all learn from that, huh?

You can catch bells roar on tour. Check out the following page for info: http://bellsroar.tumblr.com/shows

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for MS MR, Mirah, K Flay, and Chrisette Michele you can tell that her sophomore EP, due out November 13th, 2015 is going places. bell’s roar has the potential to be the voice of her generation and she refuses to be ignored.

http://bellsroar.tumblr.com/shows

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Led by its founder and primary singer/songwriter Arthur Lee, the Los Angeles-based band Love was one of the first racially diverse American pop/rock bands in a time when it was largely unheard of — the late 1960s-early 1970s. And although they had a sound influenced by rock, garage rock, folk and psych rock, the band had found modest commercial success during the peak of their recording career; however, in the roughly 40 years since the band’s breakup the band has been praised by critics as one of the finest and most important American rock acts of its era, with their third album Forever Changes being regarded as the band’s masterpiece. In fact, Forever Changes has recently been listed on a number of greatest albums lists and the band has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, among some other relatively recent recognitions.

Despite their relative anonymity to most music listeners, the band’s influence has managed to quietly loom larger than perhaps the members of the band could possibly imagine, as bands like Television Personalities, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Damned, The Stone Roses, Primal Scream, The Hellacopters, The Bluetones, Ricky and others have publicity cited the band and Forever Changes as an influence on them, have covered Love songs or had titled an album in tribute.

Over the past couple of years, there’s been a resurgence of interest in Love and as a result, the band has been re-issuing long lost material. Lee and company, along with High Moon Records will be re-issuing a deluxe edition of the last proper Love album, Reel to Reel on CD and digital for the first time ever, and on vinyl for the first time in 41 years. The deluxe re-issue features the official album’s 11 tracks and 12 previously unreleased bonus tracks, including the album’s second single, the previously unreleased single “Graveyard Hop,” which is of course, perfect for Halloween season.

Recorded in one take  “Graveyard Hop” is an impromptu, satirical take on “Jailhouse Rock” that’s absurd, hilariously campy, falling completely off the rails unhinged, menacing and perhaps just as important, raw, primal straight out of the garage rock with Lee howling like a man possessed — or set on fire. And the band manages to sound like Chuck Berry‘s backing band after drinking a fifth of Jack Daniels and smoking PCP as the song clocks in at a 107 seconds. But man, the song kicks ass takes names and leave you panting for more.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Darren Weiss (vocals and drums) and Danny Present (bass), the Los Angeles-based duo of Papa have been playing music in a variety of bands and projects since they were 11.  The duo have spent the past couple building up a national profile as they’ve toured the country’s major festival circuit, and have opened for the likes of Cold War Kids, Of Monsters and Men, Girls, Handsome Furs, and Florence and the Machine, among others and after an incredibly busy schedule, the duo went into the studio and began working on material that reportedly is a change in sonic direction that was largely influenced by the experiences they’ve had over that period , playing half-filled clubs to sold-out amphitheaters, self-releasing material and having major label support and back again.

Weiss and Presant’s latest single “Hold On” is the first original material they’ve released since the release of their 2013 full-length effort, Tender Madness and the single is a funky track with a propulsive rhythm, soaring hooks paired with urgently sung lyrics to craft a song that feels anthemic and club-ready while possessing a direct, intimate emotionality. It’s radio friendly pop that feels and sounds carefully and thoughtfully crafted while possessing an upbeat, swagger.

Weiss and Present will be embarking on a short West Coast tour over the later part of the fall. Check out the tour dates below.
Tour Date: 
Nov 27  – The Echoplex  Los Angeles, CA
Dec 1 – The Chapel  San Francisco, CA
Dec 2 – Don Quixotes  Santa Cruz, CA
Dec 6 – Constellation Room   Santa Ana, CA
Dec 9 – The Casbah    San Diego, CA
Dec 10 –  Crescent Ballroom – Phoenix, AZ
Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now, if you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the past 6-8 weeks, you may have come across a post or two about the Austin, TX-based quartet VIDEO. The band which features members Bad Sports, Wiccans, Radioactivity and The Wax Museums have developed a local and national reputation for being pioneers of a genre that they’ve dubbed “Hate Wave,” which possesses elements of punk rock, hard rock and melodic dissonance. In other words, their sound is loud and absolutely furious.

The band’s latest full-length effort, The Entertainers is slated for an October 30 release through Jack White‘s Third Man Records, and the album’s first single “New Immortals,” was a scorching thrash punk song with a sneering, in-your-face because we don’t give a fuck about anything vibe. The album’s latest single “Shackles” sounds as though its drawing from The Sex Pistols “Pretty Vacant” and Public Image, Ltd. as the song consist of slashing, angular guitar chords, propulsive drumming and shouted call and response vocals paired with the same we don’t give a fuck about anything vibe of the album’s first single, complete with a bitter, snarling irony. And if it doesn’t inspire a sweaty mosh pit in a dark club, there’s something deeply wrong with the world we live in.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Mikkel B. Jakbosen (vocals and guitar), Morten Hansen (drums and vocals), and Steffan Petersen (guitar and bass). the Copenhagen, Denmark-based trio The Foreign Resort have received international attention for a sound that meshes elements of new wave and post-punk in a way that’s dark and moody and yet possesses an upbeat infectiousness. In fact, “Under Bright Neon Stars” the first single off the Danish trio’s soon-to-be released The American Dream EP is a swooningly Romantic and anthemic song consisting of shimmering guitars, a tight motorik groove similar to New Order‘s “Blue Monday” and “5 8 6,” paired with urgent and plaintive vocals that float over the propulsive mix. If you can’t image a club full of concertgoers shouting along to the song’s hook, there’s something wrong with you.

After listening to the song a number of times, the song seems to evoke the swelling hope and crippling fears of newfound love and in a way that should remind even the most jaded listener of their own foolhardy youth with a wistful smile.

The band is embarking on a fall tour. Check out the out dates below.

Tour Dates
10.22 • recordBar (Kansas City, MO)
10.23 • 3 Kings Tavern (Denver, CO)
10.24 • Lot 1 (Los Angeles, CA)
10.25 • Alex’s Bar (Long Beach, CA)
10.26 • The Merrow (San Diego, CA)
10.27 • Fulton 55 (Fresno, CA)
10.28 • Hemlock Tavern (San Francisco, CA)
10.30 • Kelly’s Olympian (Portland, OR)
10.31 • Substation (Seattle, WA)

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Bay Area-based duo Maybe the Moon, comprised of Karmen Kimball (vocals, keyboards) and Alex Lasner (guitar, keyboards) can trace their origins to when the two met at an “End of the World” Party — a party on December 21, 2012, the end of the 13th cycle of the Mayan calendar, and the alleged end of the world as we knew it. While at the party Kimball and Lasner chatted and bonded over a mutual of Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music. As the story goes, during their conversation the duo discovered that at one point, they had attended the same elementary school. Shortly after their meeting, the duo got engaged and they started working on the material that would become the singles that they’ve released over the course of the past year to 18 months or so.

Now, if you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the past 12-18 months, you’d likely come across a couple of posts on the Bay Area-based duo. Their latest single “Washout” continues the duo’s burgeoning reputation for carefully crafted, thoughtful electro pop with lyrical content that possesses a novelist’s attention to their character’s psychology and psychological motivations, and nuanced psychological states; in other words, the song’s characters speak and feel like fully-fleshed out people — like someone you may have known or dealt with at some point. In the case of “Washout,” the song’s narrator regretfully and candidly speaks of a relationship that she sabotaged.  She speaks of that period with a little bit of perspective, and with the recognition that she had someone who lovingly dealt with her until they couldn’t deal with her anymore. Of course, the duo has also maintained elements of the sound that have caught my attention over the past few months — moody and minimalist production composed of slowly cascading synths and sparse yet propulsive beats paired with Kimball’s ethereal and mournful vocals, which evoke a desperate and urgent desire to connect with another, and a fear of the heartache that connection can bring. Thoughtful and detailed pop is sadly relegated to misfit status, and it’s shameful because in the increasingly perilous times we live in, we need music that forces us to think and moves us to feel something.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Guitarist, composer and (occasional) actor Dweezil Zappa, as we all know is the son of the legendary Frank Zappa. As the story goes, when Dweezil was born, his father Frank listed the boy’s religion as “musician” and gave him a Fender Master when young Dweezil had turned 6. Learning directly from guitar heroes, Steve Vai, Eddie Van Halen and others, Dweezil Zappa became a renowned musician himself, releasing his first album, produced by Eddie Van Halen when he was 12. And although Dweezil has a long-held reputation as a musician in his own right as he won a Grammy in 2008, he has spent the better part of the past decade or so carrying on his father’s musical legacy by performing renditions of his father’s material with Napoleon Murphy Brock, Steve Vai, Terry Bozzio and others in Zappa Plays Zappa.

Dweezil Zappa’s forthcoming album, Via Zammata’ slated for a November 27 release marks his return to his own original music — and the album features collaborations with John Malkovich, who reads Plato’s Allegory of the Cave over one of Dweezil’s original composition and a posthumously released song that Dweezil wrote with his late and legendary father. As Dweezil explained in press notes “This whole record is about finding my own voice in the world of music. I decided to collect songs I had written from the past that I felt had strong bones and build new arrangements around them. I also wanted to write new material that would reflect my current musical state of mind. I’ve learned so much in the past 10 years of playing my father’s music. I wanted to be able to express new compositional, arranging and playing skills with my own new musical vocabulary.”

The album’s first single “Dragon Master” is the only song that Frank and Dweezil had a chance to collaborate on. Frank had written the lyrics back in 1988 and he had asked Dweezil to write music to his lyrics. According to Dweezil: “At that time, heavy metal was topping the charts and my dad was lampooning the genre with his lyrics. For this record, I decided to fully embrace the epic metal-osity of his lyrics and create a deadly serious face melting riff to back them up.” The single begins with an oud, blistering heavy metal power chords and Frank’s utterly ridiculous, 80s-inspired metal lyrics about Satan and other subjects sung by Shawn Albro, who was once a member of U.P.O. Yeah, the song’s lyrics are stupid as hell but holy shit the song kicks ass — and it’s a lot of fun.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Imre Kiss is a Slovakian-born, Hungarian-based producer, electronic music artist and designer, who first emerged onto the European electronic music scene with the release of his acclaimed Raw Energy, which was released by London-based label Lobster Theremin Records. (I have to admit that’s a pretty catchy name for a label.)

As the story goes, Kiss’ full-length debut, Midnight Wave, which was released just the other day is essentially a reissue, as the album was initially released as a limited edition cassette tape through Hungarian label Farbwechsel. The cassette was essentially a commercial failure as it was quietly released to little fanfare, but interestingly enough, Lobster Theremin’s label head Jimmy Asquith has a developed a reputation for discovering and signing obscure artists from Bandcamp tapes. Asquith had discovered Imre Kiss’ Midnight Wave sometime after the artist had returned to his hometown just outside of Bratislava, and was impressed by the ambient and atmospheric material, which was heavily influenced by British industrial electronica, Kraftwerk and Chris Carter’s The Spaces Between; in fact, Asquith had made it a personal mission to release the works of an unknown artist, who he felt deserved further attention.

“Gray’s Legend,” the first single off Midnight Wave consists of layers of undulating and cascading synths, skittering percussion, swirling and ambient electronics floating off into the ether, subtle industrial clang and clatter in the distance to create a sound that manages to simultaneously cinematic and intimate while evoking a sense of desperate isolation and loneliness.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Zola Jesus and Dean Hurley Team Up on a Techno Reworking of John Carpenter’s “Night”

John Carpenter is a renowned director, screenwriter, producer, editor and composer most commonly known for working on some of the most beloved and influential, horror and science fiction films of the 70s and 80s, including Dark Star (1974), Assault […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now, if you’ve been frequenting JOVM for some time — especially over the past few months, you may be familiar with the Brooklyn-based sextet Starlight Girls. Over the last five years or so, the band have developed a reputation for a unique brand of  “noir-ish indie pop.” After releasing a well-received, self-produced EP, the band was opening for a diverse array of acts including Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Kate Nash, La Sera, Lucius, Tilly and the Wall, St. Lucia and Crystal Fighters, which expanded their profile nationally. Building on a growing profile, the band followed that up with a 7 inch single “7 x 3” which was produced by Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart. Interestingly, that particular single was something of a sonic left turn, as that single bore a resemblance to Sneaker Pimps and Portishead.

Produced by band members, Christina B and Shaw Walters, Starlight Girls long-awaited full-length debut, Fantasm was released last week. Much like the album’s previous single “Lodestar,” the album’s latest single “Fancy” is a shimmering and dance-floor leaning track consisting of what sounds like a horn sample, angular guitar chords, shimmering synths, four-on-the-floor drums to create a moody and seductive song that sounds as though it draws from Siouxsie and the Banshees and Blondie. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Chet Faker’s Club-Friendly and Sexy Collaboration with Marcus Marr

Up-and-coming, London-based DJ, producer, electronic music artist and multi-instrumentalist Marcus Marr has received international attention over the last couple of years for a number of critically acclaimed singles released through renowned dance music/electro pop label, […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Check Out Rhythm Scholar’s Inventive, Genre-Spanning Remix of Blondie’s “Rapture”

More than enough ink has been spilled about Blondie and their impressive streak of hits during the late 70s and early 80s, including “Rapture,” which is  one of their most familiar, most covered, most sampled […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

If you’ve been frequenting over the past few days or follow me through Twitter or Instagram, the annual CMJ Festival, which presents new and emerging artists to music industry folks — namely, college radio programmers, bloggers, journalists, A&R and others, and the general public at a rather insane number of showcases and concerts across Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. For a music fan and journalist, it manages to simultaneously be the best thing in the entire world and a daunting and exhausting experience.

Last night, I walked out of my apartment at 12:40 to pick up credentials for the festival, saw seven — yes, that’s right, seven — different sets of music across three or four different genres and wound up walking into my door at 5:45 this morning. And I’m about to repeat some of that complete madness today. Fun times.

As you can imagine, as a result I just haven’t had a chance to post as much as I would have preferred over the past couple of days. But I’ll be back to more regular posting as we begin a new week. And yes, you can expect some CMJ-related coverage here shortly; however, in the meantime, let’s get to some necessary business  . . .

If you’ve been frequenting JOVM for a bit, you may be intimately familiar with the Austin, TX-based collective Grupo Fantasma. Since their formation 15 years ago, the collective has developed a reputation as being one of the US’s preeminent, independent Latin bands as the collective has been nominated for multiple Grammies and won a Grammy for their 2011 effort, El Existential, as well as praise from the likes The Wall Street Journal, Billboard and USA Today, who once called the band “Latin funk masters.” Adding to an extensive national profile, the collective has had music placements in a wide array of film and TV shows including AMC‘s Breaking Bad, ABC’s Ugly Betty, NBC‘s Law and Order, Showtime‘s Weeds and the John Sayles‘ film Casa de los Babys.  And the collective has also had a long-held reputation for being one of the best live funk bands in the country, and as a result they’ve backed Prince for The ALMA Awards, The Golden Globes and CBS‘ Super Bowl Bash, Fania All-Stars‘ pianist Larry Harlow, Sheila E., The GZA, Gina Chavez, and renowned indie rock band (and fellow Austinites) Spoon.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Groupo Fantasma. Perhaps because of the finances behind being a large band, the current lineup — now comprised of nine full-time members — has frequently split off into a variety of side projects and other musical concerns, including a Turkish pop-inspired project and the funk and heavy metal project Brownout, which has spent the better part of the past two years touring with a unique concept — Latin funk-based interpretations and reworking of Black Sabbath that the band dubbed Brown Sabbath. (Imagine some of your favorite Black Sabbath tunes with horns, congas and the like. Yeah, seriously. And it’s honestly pretty fucking awesome, as it adds an unexpected nuance and a different interpretation on songs that have long been familiar – without ruining the song’s intent and spirit.)

Grupo Fantasma’s soon-to-released  fifth full-length effort Problemas is slated for an October 30 release through Blue Corn Music and the album marks the first time that the band worked with an outside producer — in this case, Steve Berlin, who’s also a renowned horn player and keyboardist. As bassist Greg González explained in press notes, “We thought a new process would help us find a unique voice and create a story. It would’ve been easier and cheaper to record everything ourselves and reuse the same techniques which successfully garnered us a Grammy and two nominations for successive albums (Sonidos Gold and El Existential) but the desire was to push ourselves in new directions.”

During the writing and recording process, Berlin influenced the members of the band to streamline their music as much as possible so that the band’s songwriting and unique approach would come out to the forefront of their recorded sound — and to give voice to their experiences and influences without falling into being pigeonholed as merely a Latin, Texas or “World Music” album or be dismissed as a calculated attempt at crafting a crossover album. In fact, the album also reportedly draws from a variety of influences including heavy metal, indie rock, funk, hip-hop, jazz, African music, Eastern European music, gypsy music, South American. Cuban, Tex-Mex and others. Now you might have come across the album’s first single “Solo Un Sueno” revealed a stripped down songwriting approach, which naturally forces the listener’s attention to the song’s lyrics. Sonically, the song clearly draws from Latin music, funk and Eastern European music, as it possesses a twisting and turning song structure that’s spacious enough to allow for each section to do their thing.

The album’s latest single “Roto El Corazon” is a bit more of a straightforward-leaning percussive salsa song with elements of atmospheric psych rock towards the song’s coda, that sounds (for the most part) as though it could have been released during the Fania Records days. Obviously in this composition, the incredible horn and percussion sections are the heroes, pulling the heavy weight of the song’s muscle and melody throughout while being roomy enough for the vocalist and his lyrics to effortlessly flow through the mix. But interestingly enough the song manages to have a lot going on — while feeling unfussy and stripped down to nine guys sounding like they were jamming at a club.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

It’s CMJ week yet again and of course, it means that I’m running around trying to catch a number of sets at various showcases across town, as well as connecting with friends, associates and colleagues. Of course, that also means extremely long days and nights of live music, so the amount of posts I’m able to commit to this week will be somewhat sporadic at best, until things slow down later on this weekend/early next week. (Such is the life of a busy blogger, right?)

In any case, let’s get to the immediate business at hand . . .

If you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the past couple of years, you may recall coming across a couple of posts about the Los Angeles-based, indie electro pop duo Pr0files. It’s been some time since I’ve written about them, so some backstory will likely be necessary: Comprised of Lauren Pardini (vocals, keys) and Danny Sternbaum, Pr0files can trace their origins to when Pardini and Sternbaum were bandmates alone with Sonny Moore, best known these days as mega-hit electronic music artist Skrillex in The Boy Traveller. When the project split up, Pardini went on to write for Pardini went on to write for DJ Khalil’s camp and has written tracks for Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and Drake; she also has collaborated with Purity Ring’s Corin Roddick and was briefly a member of The Silver Lake Chorus. Sternbaum on the other hand started his own band Baby Monster, an act that has toured with Klaxons, Miike Snow and Metric; and as a producer and remixer, Sternbaum has remixed tracks by Ellie Goulding, Gorillaz, Foster the Children and Miami Horror.

As Pr0files, the duo of Pardini and Sternbaum won attention across the blogosphere with the release of singles “Call Yourself A Lover,” “Luxury” and others for a slickly produced sound that possesses elements of R&B, electro pop and electronic dance music that for their earliest releases bore an uncanny resemblance to Beacon. However, “I Know You Still Care,” the first single off the duo’s long-awaited full-length debut, Jurassic Technologie, feels and sounds like a decided change in sonic direction, as the song possessed an urgent, insistent sensuality reminiscent of Giorgio Moroder‘s legendary work in the 1970s, as the song consisted of layers of shimmering and cascading synths, skittering percussion paired with Padroni’s seductive cooing to create what may arguably have been the duo’s most sensual and straightforward dance track.

The duo’s latest single “Empty Hands” is slow-burning and anthemic pop song comprised of layers of cascading synth stabs, swirling, atmospheric electronics, propulsive drum programming and Pardini’s earnest, pop belter/torch song vocals to craft a song that sounds as though it owes a debt to 80s synth pop (for some uncanny reason I thought of Howard Jones‘ “It Can Only Get Better“) and more contemporary fare, such as Haerts and St. Lucia.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

San Francisco-born, New Orleans-based singer/songwriter, producer and composer Abby Diamond initially caught the attention of several blogs with her collaboration with Yugen on “Single Cell,” an icily, minimalist, slow-burning track that featured Diamond’s sultry crooning over gently strummed guitar, and off-kilter syncopated beats, which gave the song a glitchy, stuttering feel.

Diamond saw increasingly attention with a subtle yet brilliant reworking of Froyo Ma‘s “I Live All Alone” that rearranges a sample of Bill Murray’s character from Lost in Translation by having it appear within the song twice, and although Diamond’s reworking retains the original’s hypnotic and forcefully propulsive nature, her soulful vocals drifting over the mix gave the song a sinuous and sensual feel. The New Orleans-based pop artist quickly followed that up with the first single off Down, Down, Deep, “I Love To Watch You Leave,” a song that Diamond wrote when she was 19. Initially produced by her then-boyfriend Luke Todd, the track featured her coquettish vocals over a minimalist production. Producers Liam Shy and Alex Cowan assisted Diamond on a rework that managed to give the breezy original a bit of heft, as the song was given a funky, 80s-inspired R&B groove — the sort of groove that bears an uncanny resemblance to the sample on Biggie’s “Juicy” and the radio version of “One More Chance.”

Diamond’s full-length debut, FEMINISTA, which will be co-proudced by Dimaond and Blue Hawaii features collaborations with artists and producers Kyross, weirdinside and others. As Diamond told me via email, the 10 song album will be released in several parts over the course of the next 8 months or so with films, feminist zines to bring about a larger discussion about what feminism means to variety of artists across different media. According to Diamond, “Each music video that I release along with FEMINISTA will be available for download (along with other b-roll film) as well so film makers can make their own films using our footage. The album itself will be free for download online and CDs will be sold inside feminist art zines, which are being created by myself, other female musicians and artists as well as artistic fans who submit work to us. These zines will be reminiscent of Riot Grrrl and other female punk rock zines that helped spread feminist concepts like wildfire in the late 80s and early 90s. The idea is to resurrect this movement within a new context and culture—bringing feminist zines into the pop/electronic scene as a vehicle for all different women who share a similar taste in music to express what it’s like to be a third wave feminist today.” Clearly, the project aims to be bold, brash and enormous. And as Diamond told me, “I see this project as a unique opportunity to look at art through the lens of all different types of feminists.”

The album’s first single “There’s a Light in My Room” is a subtly layered production comprised of wobbling low end, skittering and stuttering beats, ominously swirling electronics, brief bursts of twinkling keys, handclaps and finger snaps that’s spacious enough to allow Diamond’s sultrily soulful vocals to gently drift over the mix. Lyrically, the song reveals a fully-fleshed out and vulnerable narrator, who longs for someone with an urgent, desperate need, and through the length of the song, the narrator walks a tightrope between asserting herself and self-doubt; the sort of self-doubt that comes up whenever anyone puts their heart on the line for another, with the hopes that their affection and desires are reciprocated — while knowing that most of the time, love doesn’t make much sense, and will often be unreciprocated.

With Diamond’s vocals bearing an uncanny resemblance to a young Mariah Carey, the song subtly seems to mesh 90s R&B, soul and pop with incredibly contemporary production in a song that sonically speaking is a marvel, as the song reveals subtle nuance on repeated listens.