Chris Farren has dropped ‘First Place’, the latest cut from his forthcoming album Doom Singer. Following earlier offerings ‘Cosmic Leash’ and ‘Bluish’, the single is accompanied by a video directed by comedian, actress, and writer Mitra Jouhari (Big Mouth). Watch and listen below.
“‘First Place’ used to be very different and I hated it, but Melina (Jay Som) said it was too good to not put on the record, so I figured out everything I hated about it (the old lyrics, mostly) and we changed it to the beautiful single you hear today,” Farren explained in a statemetnt. “My friend Jeff Rosenstock plays saxophone on it.”
“Chris went full method,” Jouhari commented. “It was really scary at first but ultimately so inspiring to see him dive so deep into his character (a singer named Chris Farren).”
Jessy Lanza has shared a video for ‘Limbo’, the latest offering from her upcoming record Love Hallucination. Following previous cuts ‘Don’t Leave Me Now’ and ‘Midnight Ontario’, the track comes paired with a video, which you can check out below.
“The video stars our neighbor Conrad who moonlights as a web-cammer for a living,” Lanza explained in a statement. “He revealed that he sometimes uses an inversion table in his webcam sessions and it seemed like the perfect visualization of the themes in the song.”
Love Hallucination will be out September 28 via Hyperdub.
“‘French Fries’ is a story song about the evolution of a friendship,” Reid explained in a statement. “I wanted it to feel like a movie where you are at once sitting with your friend in a diner laughing over cold french fries and dumb stuff, but at the same time there is an undercurrent of reality between you two; splintering paths, bad boyfriends, frustration, love and loss. In terms of production, A. G. had the brilliant vision of making the beginning feel like the start to one of my shows: super intimate, just guitar and vocals.”
‘The Scull of Lucia’ is the latest single from the posthumous Sparklehorse album Bird Machine. Jason Lytle of Grandaddy contributed harmonies to the track, which follows lead single ‘Evening Star Supercharger’. Listen to it below.
“From the very first seconds of ‘The Scull of Lucia’, I was transported to a different time,” said producer Joel Hamilton, who mixed Bird Machine. “The recipe is unmistakably Sparklehorse: The pace, the sounds, the overall texture of the voice. Every sound seems to support the voice and the lyric, which was always at the core of Mark’s genius. The weight of the world, floated on a rickety raft, across a sea of melancholy”
Bird Machine is set to arrive on September 8 via ANTI-. It also includes the previously released single ‘It Will Never Stop’.
British electronic producer Forest Swords has returned with his first new music in five years. ‘Butterfly Effect’, which is built on a previously unheard vocal sample by Neneh Cherry, arrives alongside a video directed by Sam Wiehl. Its B-side, ‘Tar’, is also out today. Take a listen below.
“The track swirled around as a pure instrumental for a while, a beat I made in the cold factory space in Liverpool I was recording in, some kind of attempt to cope with the psychedelic amounts of pain I was in from a leg injury,” Forest Swords explained of ‘Butterfly Effect’. “Neneh’s unreleased archive vocal turned out to be a perfect fit, like they were meant to be together somehow. As a fan that has always idolized her, it’s a true honor and life highlight to have her blessing to use the vocal on this track.”
Forest Swords’ most recent album was 2017’s Compassion.
Jamila Woods has announced a new album, Water Made Us, which will be released October 13 via Jagjaguwar. Leading the follow-up to 2019’s Legacy! Legacy! is ‘Tiny Garden’, which features duendita and was produced with Wynne Bennet. Check out a video it below, and scroll down for the album’s cover artwork and tracklist.
“Water Made Us feels like the most personal and vulnerable piece of art I’ve ever made. I love creating from source material, diving deep into a subject and extrapolating from what I discover,” Woods said in a statement. “We sat in the house for 2 years and I became my own source material. Shout out to the therapists, the astrologers, the family members and friends who listened, who helped me process and transform my journaled thoughts and questions into this body of work. I hope it feels like a playlist that carries you through the life cycle of a relationship, whatever stage of the journey your heart may be in.”
“’Tiny Garden’ is a song about the way my heart works, the slow and steady way I love,” Woods explained. “In my directorial debut I wanted to create a visual representation of how I often feel in relationships, like I’m having huge feelings that I end up expressing in small specific ways.”
Water Made Us Cover Artwork:
Water Made Us Tracklist:
1. Bugs
2. Tiny Garden [feat. duendita]
3. Practice [feat. Saba]
4. Let the Cards Fall
5. Send a Dove
6. Wreckage Room
7. Thermostat [feat. Peter CottonTale]
8. Out of the Doldrums
9. Wolfsheep
10. I Miss All My Exes
11. Backburner
12. Libra Intuition
13. Boomerang
14. Still
15. The Best Thing
16. Good News
17. Headfirst
“There’s no real great lyrical upside to this song,” vocalist Pat Flynn explained in a statement. “I wanted to write a song that could capture the stuck-ness that comes with deep depression. Ultimately, this is a song about tuning out and looking away from the brokenness in one’s life on earth in favor of quick comfort. It is kind of a conversation between two people or two minds. The so-called ‘Sleepyhead’ is a woeful person depressed by the way of the world who chooses to deal with the sadness of it all with excessive sleep. Somewhere in there, however, is a voice of reason that offers perspective – but, to no avail, as the two voices come together in resignation to the weight of the hold that a thick ‘bout of deep depression’ can lay on someone. I see the song as essential to the arc of the record, which ultimately turned out to be a climb out of such a sad state. So, perhaps that’s the upside?”
SPELLLING, the moniker of Chrystia Cabral, has announced SPELLLING & the Mystery School, a collection of reworked versions of songs from throughout her discography. It’s due for release on August 25 via Sacred Bones. To accompany the announcement, she’s shared two singles from it, ‘Cherry’ and ‘Under the Sun’, which reimagine ‘Choke Cherry Horse’ from 2017’s Pantheon of Me and the Mazy Fly track ‘Under the Sun’, respectively. Check them out below.
“With this album, I wanted to capture the ways that these songs have morphed,” Cabral said of the project. “They’re like my children all grown up in a different stage of their lives, and I want to celebrate that. I’m proud to say it’s my favorite thing I have created so far, and working on it has really opened up new exciting visions for the future of the SPELLLING sound.”
SPELLLING & the Mystery School features Del Sol Quartet and Divya Farias on strings, Jaren Feeley on piano, Patrick Shelley on percussion, Giulio Xavier Cetto on bass, Wyatt Overson on electric guitar, and Toya Willock and Dharma Moon-Hunter on background vocals. “We’ve picked up little nuances from feeding back and riffing off the audience,” Cabral explained. “Understanding what excites them and/or what makes people wanna dance more — we just become aware of those little things and make slight adjustments.”
“I want people to feel like there’s alchemy happening and to be aware of the magical parts of sound,” she added. “Like, this really did come out of thin air.”
1. Walk Up To Your House
2. Under the Sun
3. They start the Dance
4. Cherry
5. Haunted Water
6. Hard to Please (Reprise)
7. Phantom Farewell
8. Boys at School
9. Always
10. Revolution
11. Sweet Talk
Shamir has unveiled a new single, ‘Our Song’. It’s the second offering from his forthcoming album, Homo Anxietatem, following lead cut ‘Oversized Sweater’. Check it out via the accompanying video below.
“It took about three months to write this song, which is the longest it’s ever taken me to write a song,” Shamir explained in a press release. “The music video is a love letter to my band. Grant Pavol and Rhea Freed are the only reason I still play live. I wanted the video to focus on the three of us as a band.”
Homo Anxietatem, Shamir’s ninth album and first for Kill Rock Stars, arrives on August 18.
Maple Glider, the project of Naarm/Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Tori Zietsch, has announced her sophomore album, I Get Into Trouble. The follow-up to 2021’s To Enjoy Is the Only Thing is due out October 13 2023 via Pieater in Australia and Partisan in the rest of world. Today’s announcement comes with the release of the lead single ‘Dinah’, alongside a music video made with Zietsch’s collaborator and live bandmate Bridgette Winten. Check it out and find the album cover and tracklist below.
“For me, ‘Dinah’ is the scariest thing I’ve ever put out. It’s probably the most pop feeling song I’ve released, but it’s really quite an angry song,” Zietsch said in a statement. “I have felt incredibly disturbed and frustrated and sad in the process of writing and putting it together. I wanted the video to be fast paced, colourful, and full of energy, the same kind of riled up energy I had when I wrote the song. But it also had to be silly, because I can’t help that.”
“This album feels more like an opening up because there are things I wasn’t feeling ready to publicly share through songs, but now I finally feel ready,” she added. The record, which includes recent single ‘Don’t Kiss Me’, finds Zietsch once again working with producer Tom Iansek and Jim Rindfleish on drums.
1. Do You
2. Dinah
3. Two Years
4. FOMO
5. Don’t Kiss Me
6. You At The Top Of The Driveway
7. You’re Gonna Be A Daddy
8. For You And All The Songs We Loved
9. Surprises
10. Scream
