The Bug Club – Picture This! I don’t think anyone in The Bug Club has read the music streaming instruction manual. They can’t even have glanced at it. Keep them short and pile them high. That’s the way to go if you want to succeed. Try to get as many listens as possible. Listens get the algorithms to push you to the front of the bustling crowds. Listens get you a tiny bit of that very small pot of money. So why would you release a single that is actually a mini-album? It makes no sense, not in this on-demand cultural scene… According to the logic of streaming, that is not very sensible. This is the opposite of spreading yourself thin. A tour-de-force of segueing louderthanwar

Freak Slug – 27 Club hail from Manchester and seem to epitomize the sort of perfectly obtuse originality that comes from their town in comparison to their cross-country cousins of Liverpool, whose bands tend to gravitate, at least to some degree, towards the safety net of a Fab Four sound… 27 Club presents a bizarre but strangely true account of the allure of ‘troubled talent’ as it bounces through an anomalous juxtaposition of Spanish tonto-pop and 90s jangly indie/twee-pop. The track is built upon twanging riffs that should be so very perverse to the cutesy that surrounds it, but somehow works on every melodic and cool level possible janglepophub

Blur – The Narcissist a rumination on the passing of time, the distorting impact of fame, and the way those early pressures bonded Blur into what they are now. It feels wholly natural… an unforced return rooted in one of Damon Albarn’s most plaintive vocals clashmusic

Bar Italia – Missus Morality Some might initially find bar italia a bit simplistic or even self-indulgent, with tracks that amble and stumble too much to hold your attention. It’s worth persisting, because when all those constituent pieces do fall into place, bar italia rise above the hype. The rawness and ambivalence is essential to manage intricate emotions, creating insightful lyrics that seep deep into the skin godisinthetvzine

Low Hummer – Connected masters at telling the stories of the way we all live… A perfect song to summarise the modern world wrapped up in easy listening music, what more could you ask for thepentatonic

Jessie Ware – That! Feels Good! feels like a rebirth of the classic disco-funk sound. Throughout this quivering ode to sexual freedom, Ware never tries to deconstruct or recontextualize the sound for a modern audience; instead, she lets it speak for itself, conjuring the soundtrack of the ’70s to instruct her listeners in their passionate endeavor billboard

Say She She – C’est Si Bon Written in classic hot summer 70s disco, funk and soul vibe, complete with cheeky tinkly bell, a tribute to that era’s club culture with a flavours of Paris, London and New York’s Chic by the Brooklyn female-led band song-bar

RVG – Nothing Really Changes There may never be a better moment in the past few years to be a band anchored in the drama and darkness of a certain strain of ‘80s and early ‘90s pop music. Those suddenly swooning over Kate Bush’s catalog would do well to point their ears towards Aussie exports RVG. The band’s been ably turning the turbulence, decadence, and darkness of Bush, Echo and The Bunnymen, Psychedelic Furs, and PJ Harvey into an album and a half’s worth of insistent and immediate pop hits… The song feels wounded, feral. Despite its pleas against conflict, the song makes it quite clear that not an inch will be given to its intended target. ravensingstheblue

Wireheads – Hook Echo We only write about music we like on this blog, but inevitably some songs and albums have a greater wow factor for our ears than others. One such group is Adelaide’s Wireheads, whose new single “Hook Echo” is one of our favorite songs in 2023 to date. One listen and we all agreed that this is the kind of stuff that keeps us devoting time to write add free features about new music. Damn — it is so good! whenyoumotoraway

Life Strike – Downwinders I have no idea how you write about something some harmful and make it seem so beautiful and fun. The band have based their latest single on those exposed to areas of nuclear testing, yet somehow they manage to make it seem like something we all want to cheer. Now, I’m not trying to diminish those horrors, but there’s just something about this track that screams for high volume and fist pumping austintownhall

Joanna Sternberg – I’ve Got Me The lyrics are heart-wrenching, of course, but like any Sternberg song, that devastation balances out with a blissful melody. “Why is it so hard to be kind and gentle to myself?” they sing. “Take the box of self-deprecation/Lock it and put it on the shelf” rolloingstone

Sarah Mary Chadwick – Shitty Town a howling barroom anthem for nihilists and unrepentant fuck-ups, delivered by a weather-beaten singer attuned to life at its most depressive. Over piano and flute … Chadwick sings about a toxic breakup with her usual mix of poetry and profanity pitchfork

Special Friend – Selkie inspired by the Scottish folk-legend of Selkies, seals who swim ashore, shed their skin and temporarily become beautiful, and often rather provocative, humans. The track reflects on the crueller side of the legend, the humans who would destroy the selkie’s sealskin to trap them in their temporary form, as the band put it, the track is about, “celebrating and respecting the poetry of different beings, and accepting the fact that we should never try to master them” fortherabbits

Lande Hekt – Pottery Class Hekt is building quite the catalogue of deep introspection negotiating the idea of self-acceptance… this A-side attempts to be upbeat musically but finds her in a slough of isolated despond brought on by an extended period of separation amid the housing crisis sweepingthenation

Teenage Fanclub – Foreign Land The first sound you hear is a sustained feedback note that hangs in the air with the grace of a dragonfly before an acoustic riff spirals out of it, soaring upwards. It’s blissful and sun-soaked, like a late summer haze blurring out all the details on the horizon. When voices join the music, they arrive perfectly locked together, honed in on a single melody. “It’s time to move along / and leave the past behind me…” The message is simple. Don’t look back, only forward thefirenote

U.S. Highball – Big, Strange, Beautiful Hammer an inimitable blend of fluffy, melodic, jangly indie-pop that has never really strayed from a sense of fun and playfulness over the course of the three brilliant albums they have released since 2019 janglepophub

Cut Worms – Ballad of the Texas King The theme of the tune seems to be things are uncertain, things change, and road bumps appear, but the only thing to do is to keep on going. What really connects us to this song is the too cool for school vibe and easy swinging melody whenyoumotoraway

Muriel – Seaside Painter an exploration of vulnerability, and the anxiety that can come with that, as Zak explains, “I get a lot of anxiety about sharing vulnerable things, but I don’t want to share anything that’s not honest or vulnerable, so this is kind of about winning the battle of grappling with that duality of going all in or not at all”…. classical guitars collide with stop-start drums and a sound-bed of wavering atmospheric noise. Atop it, Zak seems to seek to become transparent, although it’s not clear if that’s a desire to be open and honest with the listener or fade from view as he repeats the refrain, “I’ve got to be see-through, I need to”. fortherabbits

Fort Not – Love Will Find You Cool sounds and references to listening to the Beatles and someone putting their arms around you — sounds like a good way to start the weekend whenyoumotoraway

Melenas – Bang a song that celebrates the liberation of saying no, as Melenas sing, “será mejor seguir andando, el tiempo es nuestro y no te doy ni un rato” (it will be better to keep walking, time is ours and I won’t give you a moment). That communal celebration manifests in a song that sounds not just defiant but utterly joyous. It is a song that seems to just induce movement, a tapping foot at your work desk, a flailing explosion of arms on a dancefloor, driving rhythms topped with twitching synths, tapping into some primal kinetic urge to trip the light fantastic fortherabbits

The Japanese House – Boyhood an ode to transformation, full of texture and character in every beat… she dresses her dance-friendly, funk-inflected instrumentation in a more naturalistic hue, rooting “Boyhood” in a quick acoustic guitar arpeggio and adding the occasional flourish of strings… she finds herself caught between the need to change and the paralyzing weight of that need, worrying that she’s going to “grow and get so old” before she lands on the request, “Will you hold me like you always do?” By the end of “Boyhood,” you feel like she’s already in your arms consequence

The Churchill Garden – Keep The Faith Nodding to the renowned ’70s Wigan Casino Northern soul all-nighter, “Keep The Faith” taps into the endless ethereal flow of the spirit realm to help others do more than just survive by believing in themselves, despite life’s downtrodden experience.

…blend lively pulsing bass lines with hard-hitting drum beats, rattling metallics, fluttering orchestrations, and sparkling, obsessive guitar melodies to create warm, vibrant immersive textures around evocative and comforting vocal layers, delivering inspirational insight into an emotional outpouring of hopeful visions.

Yo La Tengo – Aselestine Yo La Tengo have captured the saccharine unbearability of being in love for the past 33 years, and they show no sign of stopping now. “Aselestine” is a resurrection spell that doesn’t quite work, a half-hearted go at CPR as the relationship goes cold. Georgia Hubley sings sweetly and resignedly of the love she’s losing, as though she knows not to believe that anything will change for the better. “The clock won’t tick / I can’t predict / I can’t sell your books / though you ask me to,” Hubley almost whispers over her own liquidy harmonies and soft, somber guitars. An ethereal synth adds a certain magicality to the song, that impalpable otherworldliness that makes Yo La Tengo one of the great indie rock bands of the past half-century pastemagazine

The Reds, Pinks and Purples – Unloveable Losers As we would expect, the melodies and hooks are excellent and well-adorned with fuzz and haze to complement Glenn Donaldson’s affecting vocals whenyoumotoraway

Bridge Dog – Blue Flags Its easy-going, out of focus guitar-led arrangement brings warmth to the song, as the vocals’ crystal clarity take the listener on a devastatingly insightful journey through the embers of a dying relationship. Who knew heartache could be so beautiful analgouetrash

Lost Ships – Brittle Heart Foundation jangled riffs and a lyrical dexterity that makes relevant stories out life’s minutiae. janglepophub

The Hannah Barberas – When You Were My Boyfriend long-time fans of the South East London foursome The Hannah Barberas may face their first real test of the strength of their adulation. It is not that ‘the Hannahs’ have completely shifted their musical stance, for Lucy Formoli’s made-for-jangly twee-pop vocals will always keep them somewhere around that sort of musical arena. However, their signature sound has been fleshed out in terms of intensity and vigor resulting in additional energy manifested in a new but just as delightful, indie-pop, lukewarm raucousness… Slightly more expansive, slightly different, slightly more raucous…Fantastic Tales of the Sea is still so very perfectly The Hannah Barberas. janglepophub

Your Heart Breaks feat. Kimya Dawson & David Christian – These Old Haunts – the project of Seattle-based renowned animator Clyde Petersen, has been operating since 1998… regular contributor Kimya Dawson… duets after a fashion here with Comet Gain’s cussed sole survivor David Christian… The track is a typically literate summery shuffle inspired by touring life travelogues, the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland and, er, “the perfect place to take a poo” sweepingthenation

The Popguns – Caesar features the band’s timeless indiepop sound recordsilike

Tough Age – Paradise By Another Name Sometimes an album hits our sweet spot as if it was created only for us. Of course, we are way too jaded to entertain that conceit for more than a moment. But the satisfaction with Waiting Here, the new album by Vancouver’s Tough Age, remains long after we remind ourselves of our relative unimportance in the music world… There is a certain indie pop perfection to hitting the bullseye with simultaneously projecting sincerity but not appearing to be straining too hard. whenyoumotoraway

Jenny Lewis – Giddy Up a dark, wispy slow jam that reminds me of trip-hop and old-school pop-country at the same time. Marked by rich bass chords, an eerie screaming synth line, and even some Auto-Tune. It’s unlike any Jenny Lewis song I’ve ever heard before stereogum

Lael Neale – White T-Shirt An atmospheric strum, sewn with Neale’s haunting vocal, invested with gleaming poetic couplets that capture memories with vivid clarity. It’s wonderful godisinthetvzine

Susanne Sundfør – Fare Thee Well The romance and life force of 1970s singer-songwriters such as Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro and Carole King – as well as their burned-fingers wisdom – are embodied here by Sundfør, one of Norway’s most successful singers who continues to evolve her craft upwards from her earlier synthwave and pop-folk…the songwriting here is often very good, even timelessly classic. Fare Thee Well is a waltzing breakup song that is a model of ending things well: Sundfør takes stock of her relationship with firmness (“I won’t come back”) and grace, expressed in a melody that is certain but gentle theguardian

Water From Your Eyes -14 they initially greet the listener with an unnerving instrumental full of plucked strings and electronic buzz, sounding like the soundtrack to a particularly arty dystopian film. When Rachel arrives, it’s like a welcome wash of humanity, their voice cracking just enough to let you know it’s real. What Water From Your Eyes do so well, is they confront the heaviness not with a defiant scream but with a mirror, they ask the darkness to look at itself, see all its flaws and its absurdist chaos. This is a band who are going to dance at your apocalypse, laugh at your ludicrous fatalism and carry on thriving in the face of the unease that threatens to engulf all creative endeavours, shed no tears, Water From Your Eyes make the world, however briefly, seem like a place that’s worth hanging onto fortherabbits

Withered Hand – How To Love perhaps the most heartbreaking and darkest song on the album, a reflection on temptation and suffering, a man afraid of dying not knowing how to love godisinthetvzine

Swansea Sound – Keep Your Head On Rob (guitarist and songwriter) says “Keep Your Head On” is about the rising tide of authoritarian populism. But it’s an upbeat duet at the same time. It’s a bit like an indiepop version of ‘You’re The One That I Want’, but with less dancing and kissing.”

Martin Frawley – Heart in Hand Since his previous band, the much loved Twerps, disbanded in 2018 Martin Frawley has focused on a solo career, as well as finding love and a hobby (wine making)… An uptempo slice of bright pop, it gets the blood racing. whenyoumotoraway

Diners – The Power a timeless tune buoyed by a charming and unforgettable earworm chorus. “It ain’t too late to understand, too late to try / Too late to recognize the power that’s inside,” pastemagazine

Mo Troper – For You To Sing an exquisite amalgam of Magical Mystery Tour-era harmonies and Guided By Voices guitar licks. “There’s something I’ve been working on / Can’t wait to show you when I’m done / My heart breaks / When you’re away / Singing songs he wrote for you to sing,” Troper professes over jangling chords and a mythical bassline. It’s a searing, two-minute power pop track that embellishes his storytelling prowess even further after 2022’s MTV, and his world-building techniques are bold, beautiful and worth listening to on repeat

Connections – Slow Ride Resolutely lo-fi, this band plow through riff and hook with an enthusiasm that makes a listener always feel the sort of thrill that takes one back to the heyday of American indie… marry the familiar GBV-y vibe that this lot have been cultivating for a decade or more, while adding a directness that elevates the material janglepophub

Guided By Voices – Slowly On The Wheel Since making their second comeback in 2017, Guided By Voices have continued to record at a vicious lick while maintaining standards of quality control that seem frankly unreal. La La Land is their 14th album since the band’s return, and they’re all good… six minutes of GBV brings mondo hyperactivity, with the song starting from a minimalist single-chord solo and ending in a blaze of stadium rock thunder. In between comes jangle, heavy metal and eastern chord progressions uncut

Starrducc – Tempat Ternyaman

Grrrl Gang – Spunky! Indonesia indie-pop trio… In the video, an introverted girl attends a party, hoping to break out of her shyness. While watching Grrrl Gang perform, she imagines herself as the band’s lead, Angee Sentana, the suave, confident opposite of her introverted self nme

Echo Ladies – Dirty Dancing A trio melding dreamy soundscapes with powerful and dynamic shoegaze, Echo Ladies are due for discovery by a broader music audience. And Stockholm’s Rama Lama Records, who have an keen eye for talent, have signed up their fellow Swedes. Feel the power, feel the dark shading whenyoumotoraway