Weightless guitar tangents and lush, aquatic soundscapes are a vital part of what embodies “Swim Team”, her debut EP that serves a powerful introduction to Bofale’s budding artistry. Somewhere between influences like Joni Mitchell and Alex G, Bofale has found a sweet spot for her sound that lives between both harsh and gentle terrain, achieving a relaxing, yet rugged tonality.Each track pictured on Swim Team is brushed vividly with colors that illuminate the fear of being honest and doing that much needed personal work. Bofale’s earnest and bravery is a snapshot of black mental health and the nuance it carries. Being real isn’t easy, but it’s crucial in cultivating spaces for healthy discussion and giving other black women like Bofale a platform to do the same.
With her debut EP Swim Team, Congolese American songwriter Christelle Bofale relishes the ebb and flow of love, while also exposing its underbelly. On songs like “Love Lived Here Once” and “U Ouchea,” against a lush guitar backdrop, Bofale’s lyrics land like crashing waves, transforming her innermost revelations of fear and complacency into resonant and prophetic incantations. At times reminiscent of Lianne La Havas’s sophomore effort Blood,Swim Team also pays homage to singer/songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Bill Withers who deeply explored the rich spectrum of love—unearthing its ache, its murkiness, and its confusion. This EP is one piece of stellar work by this amazing singer/songwriter.
Caracara has always had ambitions past Philadelphia. They could have stemmed from the proj- ect’s genesis: the implosion of former bands, the impact of long-distance communication and travel in relationships, the inevitability of experimentation and expansion. Styles and symbols seem to shift throughout their debut LP Summer Megalith, alternating from shimmering indie to whispers of neo-folk before relishing in the cathartic push of post-rock. This fluidity introduces a band with no point of origin, built from the mysterious clamor of noise as much as they are inspired by it.
Caracara’s EP serves as a showcase for its title track. “Better” is the sort of six-minute song that more than justifies its runtime, a bleary build-up and a scorching breakdown that enlists fellow Philadelphian Mannequin Pussy’s Marisa Dabice on vocals. “I think that there’s always been an intersection between post-rock and hardcore, but what I’m not seeing as much as I want to see is that type of music but with a greater attention paid to sung vocals and lyrics,” the band’s Will Lindsay said in an interview earlier this year, and Better finds Caracara toeing that line, both ends leading to a massive oblivion.
Brighton post-punk act Thyla has dropped the music video for “Lenox Hill” where we see frontwoman Millie Duthie hit various spots across the city in funky outfits. The video looks like Millie is the only earthling existing and she’s having a grand time cavorting cements to grass. It’s chic and feels like every hermit’s dream come true:
“The urge to put ‘Lenox Hill’ to video was too strong to ignore so we decided to try and shoot something essentially for free. We bought a gimbal stabiliser off amazon and used Danny’s iPhone to shoot the whole thing, turns out all you need is some outfits, a willingness to look a bit silly to passers by and a whole load of patience for editing in iMovie and you’ve got yourself a music video! We had a lot of fun making it and we hope it sheds some light on the song and how it makes us feel,” shared Millie.
This Brighton dream-pop outfit released their second EP, “Everything At Once. Everything At Once” follows their 2019 debut EP What’s On Your Mind, which landed on our list of best EPs of last year. Everything At Once includes three previously released singles, “Two Sense,” “Lenox Hill” and “December,” plus a brand new track, “Everything.”
The four-track EP is full of invigorating, crisp rock songs, all cloaked in glorious guitar mist. Lead singer Millie Duthie’s voice is positively sublime—she’s just as proficient in exalted rock anthems as graceful pop introspections. Their newest song, “Everything,” has the kind of rich climax that requires closed eyes and an unlimited imagination—once that cutting guitar kicks in and Duthie’s stirring, layered vocals begin to surface, you’re fully dialled in.
“Lenox Hill” is from Thyla’s sophomore EP Everything at Once, which will be out on February 7th.
Philadelphia punks Mannequin Pussy are on a roll. Both their 2014 debut GP and 2016’s Romantic clocked in at less than 20 minutes but brought a spirited thrust of punk that didn’t put them on a pedestal or skimp on bursts of melodic pop bliss. Their third album Patience doesn’t ditch the snappy punk that makes them so vehement, but it does find the band wielding hooks and more traditional song structures to an extent they haven’t before. Their new album has a whopping 26-minute run time, and lead singer Marisa Dabice has a lot to say—whether it’s fighting against self-hatred, coming to terms with the reality of an abusive relationship or resisting the urge to compare herself to others. With producer/engineer Will Yip (Quicksand, The Menzingers) on board, Mannequin Pussy attempt to balance their vigorous, zippy punk spurts with peppy moments of pop/rock immediacy, and they do it to a T.
In an era when rage and frustration are status quo, it’s a pleasant surprise to hear Philadelphia punks Mannequin Pussy traverse new territory on Patience. While singer/guitarist Marisa Dabice confronts some of life’s darkest demons—abuse, greed, and heartbreak—the band’s usual storm of dense, guitar-driven rock retains its shimmer. Slashing riffs are offset by the appearance of dreamy, atmospheric guitars, and Dabice’s voice swings from furious roar (“Cream”) to something softer and almost romantic (“High Horse”). It’s a complex journey—an album rooted in recovery instead of anger, and a reminder that even the deepest cut can eventually heal.
“Drunk II” by Mannequin Pussy from the album ‘Patience,’ available June 21st
Ever since we first heard the lush Cranberries-esque guitar strums that opened last year’s Sugar and Spice, Hatchie’s debut EP, we’ve been desperately waiting for a full album from the Australian dream pop artist. One of our best new artists of 2018 delivers a home run on her debut, “Keepsake”, one that’s more polished and Sky Ferreira-esque than last year’s EP, fully capitalizing on the promise of those first handful of songs. Every track here is a knockout, each equally life affirming and capable of soundtracking nearly any indie film. Keepsake is a gorgeous listen front to back. Get ready to believe the hype.
In interviews promoting her breakout EP Sugar & Spice, Harriette Pilbeam expressed reticence about the pop format, saying that her song “Sleep” was “the most pop” she would ever go. But Hatchie giving up pop songs would be like Éric Ripert trading cooking for baseball. Why quit doing something you have such a gift for? Over the course of Keepsake—which delivers on the promise of Sugar & Spice and then some—Hatchie swirls irresistible hooks in cotton-candy guitars and caramel-colored synths, imagining what might happen if The Cocteau Twins reunited to collaborate with Carly Rae Jepsen. But amidst the giant, billowing clouds of sound lay deceptively searching lyrics. On the sterling album standout “Her Own Heart,” over guitars that wax and wane like the tide, she offers, “No more smiling from the sidelines / No longer the girl with the cynical view / Think it’s high time now she was her own muse.” On Keepsake, Hatchie steps in from the sidelines herself, crafting an elegant, intoxicating pop record that sinks deeper and deeper into the skin until it becomes the sugar in your bloodstream, waking you up and making you smile.
‘Without A Blush’ is taken from Hatchie’s debut album ‘Keepsake’ which came out June 21st on Double Double Whammy, Heavenly Recordings and Ivy League,
Did Sleater-Kinney have an identity crisis, or did we? On their ninth record, Sleater-Kinney remain resolutely misunderstood, though they’ve always sounded different from record-to-record. While Sleater-Kinney are a rock band, The Center Won’t Hold isn’t really rock music—the epic scope and industrial aspects of this words-and-mostly-guitarless offering—courtesy, some might say of producer Annie Clark (though who really knows)—have far more in common with stylized art pop than anything in their back catalog. But its aims are grander, as well, and Sleater-Kinney still bring a vibrating desperation and undimmed punk anger to their music in a way that suits our new era of fraying nerves and grinding anxiety. Carrie Brownstein throws off the Hollywood sparks these days, but it’s true believer Corin Tucker whose full heart promises protection from the oncoming terror. “Tell me if you feel like you are lost and alone / I am your friend / You can cover me / Just come over here and give me everything” she sings on “The Future is Here.” Her vocals brim with tenderness and compassion, a motherly bookend to the Tucker of 20 years past, who furiously wailed, “Not what you want? It’s everything!” And everything it remains.
Sleater-Kinney newest album, The Center Won’t Hold, released on August 16th via Mom + Pop Records. The song from it, “Can I Go On,” via a lyric video. It comes accompanied by the band’s press photo as a duo (Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker) in the wake of drummer Janet Weiss unexpectedly announcing at the start of the month that she was leaving Sleater-Kinney only a month and a half before their new album is to be released.
Brownstein had this to say about “Can I Go On” in a press release: “In this song, a woman’s desire is used against her, so she turns it into a sinister infectiousness. The narrator finds herself on the brink of self-annihilation, grappling with the paradox of an internal darkness at odds with the pressure to outwardly perform modes of joy, relatability, and likability.”
In a previous press release Brownstein also had this to say about recording the album: “Instead of just going into the studio to document what we’d done, we were going in to explore and to find the essence of something. To dig in deeper. It felt like a really crucial part of the process itself, not just the end game.”
The Center Won’t Hold finds the band experimenting with a slightly more polished sound, thanks to producer St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark), and on a new label in Mom + Pop. Prior to the announcement of The Center Won’t Hold, Sleater-Kinney shared the album’s first single “Hurry On Home” via a Miranda July-directed lyric video for the track . When the album was announced they shared its second single, “The Future Is Here,” Then they stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to perform “Hurry On Home,” in what might be Weiss‘ last public performance with the band. Then they shared the album’s title track, “The Center Won’t Hold”.
At long last, “Night of the Worm Moon”, the highly-anticipated new album from La Luz singer/guitarist Shana Cleveland is out on LP, CD, digital, and cassette. Critics are already calling the album a “miniature masterpiece” (Uncut) and “a triumph entirely of its own kind. It’s like a garden of quiet yet cosmic folk delights with chasers of old west sounds” (The Big Takeover) that “silently explodes and blossoms out like a magical cosmic flower, arriving just in time for the Spring Equinox” (SLUG Magazine). LP copies on “Face of the Sun Yellow” at Shana’s merch table on her upcoming North American tour while supplies last.
Night of the Worm Moon, the new solo album from Shana Cleveland, the singer/guitarist of acclaimed surf rock band La Luz, watch Shana’s music video for album standout “Face of the Sun” . Cleveland directed this homage to ’70s-era anti-drug PSAs herself. Night of the Worm Moon sees Cleveland expanding her sonic palette, incorporating psychedelic folk sounds with out-there subject matter and inspiration including Afro futurism and alternate dimensions.
An idyllic day takes a turn for the surreal in this music video for “Face of the Sun,” from Night of the Worm Moon, the solo album by La Luz’s Shana Cleveland, Also check out the psychedelic music video for Shana Cleveland’s“Don’t Let Me Sleep,” off the solo album from the La Luz singer/guitarist, The video, from director Ryan Daniel Browne, stars Cleveland as an extraterrestrial exploring a woodland environment under a full moon as the landscape transforms around her.
Shana Cleveland is in the middle of a nightmare when Night of the Worm Moon begins, scrambling over a fence with an unnamed threat in pursuit. “They’ll catch me alive / Don’t let me sleep too late,” she begs on the chorus. The half-dreamt plea sets a spooky opening scene for an album of eerie acoustic lullabies that take place in subconscious worlds—ones full of menace, but equally full of love. Accompanied by only the sparest of instrumentation, Cleveland uses the meditative quality of fingerpicked guitar to create moments of heightened perception and thrumming reverie. She isn’t quite a futurist—the alternate dimensions she explores in her music exist alongside our own—but where Cleveland lights up entire galaxies with her rock band, La Luz, the intimate universe she spins as a solo act can fit in the palm of your hand. Full of flickering baroque details and gorgeously arranged melodic passages,
“Don’t Let Me Sleep” is the second single from Night of the Worm Moon.
Night of the Worm Moon was recorded during the 2017 solar eclipse and was inspired by Afrofuturism, science fiction, and the surreality of daily life in Los Angeles.
Corey Cunningham has studied his forebears—The Smiths, Cocteau Twins, Pale Saints—so well that he could ghostwrite for them. The Magic Bullets and Terry Malts alum returns to his newest solo moniker, Business of Dreams, to pen a collection of could’ve-been singles primed for Britain’s ‘80s synth-pop boom. Ripe for Anarchy amplifies the era’s perennial pop sigh into full-blown existentialism, resulting in songs like “My Old Town” and “N.R.E.A.M,” which spiral outward beautifully under the sheen of glittering synth hooks and breezy acoustic guitar.
With his new album “Ripe For Anarchy,” Cunningham has honed the songwriting with an eye towards regret, existence, and perseverance. “When I’m gone you won’t cry for me, focus on the moment, be free,” he sings on “Chasing That Feeling.” And that’s the mantra here: it’s time to let go. “The album is about living in the moment, shedding neurosis, and the desire to discard the general societal malaise we’ve been roped into.”
This album is a major contestant for heavy release of the “year and should win all the awards.” – Anna Rose
Just making the cut-off with a 28th June release date, the second album from Melbourne alt-rock force The Beautiful Monument, I’m The Reaper, explores grief, redemption, growth and being, with vocalist Lizi Blanco developing tenfold as a songwriter while the band’s music goes from strength to strength.
After playing at Download Festival earlier this year, they signed to Greyscale Records for its release. Reviewer Anna Rose labelled the record “raw, clever, concise, distinctive”, while also calling it “the album of the year”. Enough said.
Very rarely does one come across a band that hits as heavy and magnificently as the Beautiful Monument. Boasting an arsenal of genuinely memorable songs and strong, energetic stage presence,
Band Members
Lizi – Vocals, Andy – Guitar. Alex – Guitar, Amy – Bass, Adam – Drums
New year, new Sløtface album—the political Norwegian punks are slated to dish out their second LP, “Sorry for the Late Reply”, at the end of January, which touches on everything from climate change to frontwoman Haley Shea’s expatriatism from her native U.S.
Today, the four-piece is sharing the fifth single from the album, an exhausted acknowledgement of the need for meaningless New Year’s resolutions. “Keep hoarding books I’ll never read, keep making plans I’ll never keep,” sighs Shea in a matter-of-fact tone recalling Sadie Dupuis, over a grungy take on pop-punk that would sound right at home on a Speedy Ortiz record.
“This one is about all the promises we keep to ourselves, and all the good advice we give but never take,” she shares of the track. “I’m a master of thinking I can always be better, work harder, sleep less, do more, but maybe that’s not always possible. It’s about working on taking care of yourself and taking advice you would give to someone else.”
