NEWĀRK’s “Daffodils” is what a period of change sounds like when the person in it has stopped waiting for the big moment. Built on alternative hip-hop with live instruments underneath, the music is the right container for what NEWĀRK is…
Arden Alexa’s “Crush (Remix)” is what happens when a crush gets a film score, and the remix is the song stepping out of the audio and into the apartment where the artist lives with her cat. Arden, who has Hans…
Rosemary is famous’s “Overnight Sensation (Overnight Jerk)” is a breakup song that names the breakup’s specific modern cause: the ex went viral. Sung as a cinematic indie-pop track, written by Rosemary and Lucas Segall, the song is about the precise…
BlueBerry’s “Maybach” treats the luxury car the way a boxer treats the title belt, a piece of hardware you stare at across the ring, and the staring is the work. Sung in French, the hook spells the trade out in…
‘Lost in the Noise’ opens with the static already there. ‘Woke up to static in my head,’ the speaker says, and the chorus is ‘Can you hear me now?’ The city the song was filmed in has been making this…
‘Give Me More’ opens with a question and answers it before the chorus arrives. Softklub is the Edmonton duo of Keenan Gregory and Mark Wojcicki, built from the surprise Gregory handed Wojcicki when he sang over a piano part that…
Snowk’s “Soen” carries the cold of the place it was made. Yutaka Taknami and Fuminori Kagajo are from Japan’s snow country, and the melodic house record they built for the French label Kitsuné Musique pushes the synths to the back…
SAINT MARLOE’s “A MISUNDERSTANDING” is one day in the life of a person who will not recognize it as their own. A covert narcissist, the kind who calls destruction by a polite name, walks ordinary hours while the song watches.…
Conor Miley’s “Peepshow” opens with a father and a sin and ends with a drummer in a pub, and the distance between those two points is where the song lives. Recorded live in studio with a full band, the song…
Kabusa Oriental Choir’s “Folded” presses choral mass into an Afrosoul groove built for low light. The FCT ensemble started with viral covers, Kizz Daniel, DJ Spinal, a Valentine’s song that reached BBC 1Xtra, and moved from there toward original material.…