Tag: Spotify Global Viral Chart

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Last year, I wrote a bit about the rapidly rising Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, electronic music artist and electronic music producer, Luna Shadows.  The Los Angeles-based pop artist began her career as a touring member of the acclaimed New Zealand-based synth pop act The Naked and Famous— but Shadows went solo, because she felt she had a voice that demanded to be heard on its own terms.

Since leaving The Naked and famous, Luna Shadows has developed a reputation for a staunchly DIY approach frequently writing, performing, producing, engineering and editing every single note of her work — and for crafting sultry, melancholy pop that Billboard has called “. . . refreshingly soulful and haunting .  .  . ,” and compared by some critics as Lana Del Rey taking Lorde to the beach. Adding to a growing national profile, the Los Angeles-based artist’s work  has amassed well over 35 million Spotify streams with tracks landing on tastemaker playlists like New Music Friday, Indie Pop, Weekend Beats and Weekly Buzz and landing as high as #7 on the US Charts and #18 on the Global Viral Charts.  She’s also received airplay on a number of radio stations  globally including KROQ, BBC Radio 1 and Beats 1 — all without the support of a label.

Last year saw Luna Shadow begin an ongoing collaboration with Now Now‘s Brad Hale and The Naked and Famous‘ Thom Powers to help shoulder the production and editing load — and she signed to +1 Records, who released three attention grabbing attention: “lowercase,” a track imbued with the bitterness, heartache and confusion of a dysfunctional relationship full of power plays, recriminations and accusations paired with a sleek and hyper-modern, trap-leaning production, “god.drugs.u” which continued in a similar vein as “lowercase” while possessing a plaintive and unfulfilled yearning and lastly. “practice,” a rumination on love and loss featuring Stevie Nicks‘ “Stand Back“-like synth arpeggios and Shadow’s plaintive vocals.

Shadows begins 2020 building up to the release of her highly-anticipated sophomore album with the release of her latest single “millennia,” which was cowritten with Chelsea Jade and continues her ongoing collaboration with Brady Hale and Thomas Powers. Centered around a pulsating and thumping beats, shimmering synth arpeggios and the Los Angeles-based JOVM mainstays achingly plaintive vocals, the track seethes with an irritable frustration, as it captures a narrator who’s worn out by the passive aggression and mixed messages of a love interest. She’s tired of being left in the dark and being confused as to what’s going on, and as a result the song captures a particular sensation that’s familiar to all of us: being left in the dark by someone we care about.

Shadows elaborates, “”millennia’ is essentially about different styles of dispute and communication. There are some people who prefer to confront things right away and talk until resolution is reached; conversely, there are others who run in the opposite direction and avoid confrontation all together. I personally find that the silent treatment tends to be more painful than confrontation.”

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstays NVDES Returns with a Breezy and Hook-Driven New Single

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past year or so, you’ve likely been made familiar with the Los Angeles-based collective and JOVM mainstays NVDES, and as you may recall the collective, fronted by founding member and primary songwriter Josh Ocean with the release of 2016’s Life’s  With Lobsters received over 10 million streams across all digital platforms, landed on Spotify’s Global Viral Chart, and as a result of rapidly growing buzz, the project’s debut saw praise from The Fader, Nylon and others for glitchy, breezy and anthemic pop.

Building upon the buzz of their full-length debut, the act released the  La NVDITÉ EP earlier this year and from the EP’s first three singles, the breakneck Sound of Silver-era LCD Soundsystem-like “Turning Heads,” the breezy, yet anthemic “Dancer From New York, and the glitchy and angular “Sugar,” Ocean and company have continued to further cement their reputation for crafting off-kitller, genre-defying pop that will remind some listeners of Damon Albarn and Gorillaz.   

“May and June”  La NVDITÉ EP’s fourth and latest single continues in the same vein of its predecessors with the single revealing a carefully crafted, slickly produced and hook-driven song that finds the act drawing from thumping, contemporary pop, funk, Tropicalia and 60s French pop in a mischievously seamless fashion — but underneath the seemingly post-modern irony and scuzzy pop vibes is a swooning and earnest Romanticism. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: NVDES Returns With Another Off-Kilter and Anthemic Dance Punk-Inspired Track

Earlier this week, I wrote about the Los Angeles-based collective NVDES, an act that I’ve written a bit about over the past 12-18 months or so. And if you may recall, with the release of 2016’s Life With Lobsters, an album consisting of glitchy, summery indie dance pop, the collective fronted by founding member and primary songwriter Josh Ocean received over 10 million streams across all digital platforms, landed on Spotify’s Global Viral Chart, and as a result of rapidly growing buzz, the project’s 2016 effort received praise from The Fader, Nylon and others.

You’ll also remember that I’ve written about the first two singles off NVDES’ recently released La NVDITÉ EP, the breakneck Sound of Silver-era LCD Soundsystem-like “Turning Heads” and the breezy, yet anthemic “Dancer From New York,” and of course, as a blogger, who has run this site for the past seven years, I can tell you that the blogosphere forces artists to strike while the iron is red hot and while the buzz surrounding them is at its apex. And to celebrate the release of the EP, Ocean and company released  La NVDITÉ EP’s latest single, the glitchy and angular “Sugar,” a track that continues along the lines of its predecessors thanks to a breezy yet anthemic vibe but interestingly enough, through the batch of singles they’ve released off the EP, the act have revealed themselves to specialize in off-kilter, global-spanning and genre-smashing yet danceable pop reminiscent of Gorillaz. 
Directed by Jenna Josepher and Guilia Marisco, the recently released for “Sugar” manages to smash the two artists’ unique and varying aesthetics in a way that’s mischievous and disturbing. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: NVDES Returns with a Breezy Tropicalia and Dance Punk-Inspired New Single

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past 12-18 months or so, you may have come across a couple of posts featuring the Los Angeles-based collective NVDES. With the release of 2016’s Life With Lobsters, an album consisting of glitchy, summery indie dance pop, the collective fronted by founding member and primary songwriter Josh Ocean received over 10 million streams across all digital platforms, landed on Spotify’s Global Viral Chart, and as a result of rapidly growing buzz, the project’s 2016 effort received praise from The Fader, Nylon and others.  

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about “Turning Heads” off their forthcoming La NVDITÉ EP, a breakneck dance punk track along the lines of  Sound of Silver-era LCD Soundsystem, Radio 4 and others, complete with angular guitar chords, a propulsive bass line, boom-bap beats and a rousingly anthemic hook. And building upon the buzz that single received, the act recently released their latest single “Dancer From New Yorker,” a track that will (naturally) further cement their growing reputation for crafting glitchy and breezy pop with anthemic hooks, and while its as dance floor-friendly as its predecessor, the track manages to subtly nod at tropicalia and bossa nova. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Scuzzy and Rousingly Anthemic, Dance Punk of NVDES’ Latest Single “Turning Heads”

With the release of 2016’s Life With Lobsters, an album consisting of glitchy, summery indie dance pop, the Los Angeles-based collective NVDES fronted by founding member and primary songwriter Josh Ocean received over 10 million streams across all digital platforms, landed on Spotify’s Global Viral Chart — and as a result, also received phrase from The Fader, Nylon and others. Building on a growing profile, the project’s latest single “Turning Heads” off their forthcoming La NVDITÉ EP will further cement Ocean’s reputation for crafting scuzzy, breakneck dance punk along the lines of Sound of Silver-era LCD Soundsystem, Radio 4 and others, complete with angular guitar chords, a propulsive bass line, boom-bap beats and a rousingly anthemic hook. And while clearly being summery, the track also manages to be incredibly dance floor friendly.