What have we done in this life to deserve another Maggie Rogers song when she's already given us so much?
Maggie wrote a note on Twitter, she said, "It’s a song about love in all its forms…romantic love, the love I feel for my friends, the love I feel for my band, and the love I’ve shared with all of you. I wanted it to sound like the last days of summer. I wanted it to sound as wild and alive as new love feels."
She ended the note with a special fan shout-out. She writes, “If you’re reading this, thank you for everything you’ve done to support me and my music love the past three years. And thanks for taking care of this song too.”
Mae Deline is back with a deeply personal song that's she's put in a candy coating. "Wedding Cake" is about an affair she had with a married man.
She says, "I did eat the “wedding cake.” It wasn’t forced on me, it was offered. I thought it would be impolite not to take a bite. It tasted of guilt, shame and fear. In the end, the cake made me very sick."
She quotes Bene Brown, "Shame hates it when we reach out and tell our story. It hates having words wrapped around it- it can't survive being shared. Shame loves secrecy. When we bury our story, the shame metastasizes."
This track is about navigating what it means to be strong during times of self doubt. As an artist, it’s easy to feel lost along the way and to feel like you’re making a ton of mistakes. But instead of keeping her head down and letting the doubt seep in, Disco turns “tears into flowers” by channeling those insecurities and turning them into strength. The sentiment of the chorus is "Yeah I got the power. Tears turn into flowers. When it won’t get better, I’ll make it better. Baby I can do it myself". It’s a reminder that if things aren’t going the way you want, you have the power to do something about it.
Miami based synthpop duo Magdalena Bay had just moved to LA when Disco met them through a weekly dance party she helps throw. She had been listening to them for a while, but when they first met she knew they would be good friends. Similar to Disco, the duo prides itself in its DIY approach to pop. Both being indie artists who fully take the reins on their projects. They got into the studio, aka Mag Bays midtown apartment, and wrote Power, a song about feeling displaced and lost but channeling the power to find your way through it. It made for the perfect collaboration. They made the visuals for it shortly after with a diy green screen and an old VHS camera in their apartment.
Harry Styles, our pure gem of glam rock and amazing pants, debuted his song "Watermelon Sugar" on Saturday Night Live and, obviously we loved it. What could Harry ever do wrong?
He told Zane Lowe that he's not sure what the songs about BUT I THINK WE CAN JUST READ THE LYRICS AND FIGURE IT OUT.
He also said, "It’s also like a weird thing to think of about yourself. I guess the thing with like sex, in general, is like, it used to feel so much more taboo for me. Even like when we were in the band, the thought of people thinking that I had sex was like, oh no, that’s crazy. What if they know? But it’s like … you know?”
Indie-pop duo Misty Mtn released their final single of 2019 entitled “Woah, I’m Older”. It deals with looking back on the not-so-distant past and how seriously you took things, and how insignificant they seem now, and how funny that is. A claustrophobic verse opens up into an anthemic sing-along chorus, but the payoff really only comes halfway through as the line “now I’m laughing at my…” is finally completed. It’s a good one to lead us into this end-of-year season that has us encountering relics of our highschool days over Thanksgiving break, planning our New Years’ resolutions and figuring out what kind of people we are going to be in 2020. Nostalgia man…
The latest track from Alt Bloom, “Stay,” spins a slow-burning romance from one of the rarest of phenomena: a rainy day in Los Angeles. “Because rainy days almost never happen here, I wanted to write a song where I’m asking someone to just stay inside and experience that with me,” explains singer/songwriter Ethan Thompson, who wrote much of the tender-hearted track on an upright piano. “It’s asking them to ignore whatever they need to do that day—just shut out the rest of the world so we can enjoy this special thing together.”
Made over the course of a marathon session with producer/engineer Brian Phillips, “Stay” unfolds in soft-toned verses that perfectly channel the feeling of hiding away, with Phillips’s warm guitar work magnifying that dreamy mood. But at the chorus, the song takes on a greater intensity, shifting into a bold statement of infatuation. “A lot of my songs right now are coming from that turning point of going from liking someone to loving them,” says Thompson. “At the beginning of ‘Stay’ it’s a little tentative, where I’m still on the line between like and love—but then by the end, I’m just jumping right in and taking everything to a whole new place.”
Liz Huett really making us take a hard look at our relationships with ourselves today. Her new song "That's What You Get" is an emotional letter to herself.
She says, "It's written as a letter to myself, it's me coming to terms with some really hard truths and taking ownership over some behavior that I wasn't really proud of and the mistake I made that hurt someone I really loved. It was sort-of a turning of the tide for me because it was the first time I took a hard look in the mirror and admit to myself that I wasn't living up to my own standards and making a mistake and hurting someone I love and that I was in a relationship. The song is all about taking that really painful, hard look in the mirror. There was a lot of healing and positive change after I realized how to classify what has been going down and where it was coming from, it was the beginning of a lot of self work I started doing."
Our pop Queen Nina Nesbitt just released a deluxe version of her iconic The Sun Will Come Up, The Seasons Will Change.
The deluxe version has an acoustic version of each song. Stripping back the material to intimate acoustic arrangements highlights the compelling and emotionally revealing song-writing that has become a hallmark of Nina’s sound.
She said, “I’m so pleased to present a deluxe version of my album. It’s a huge thank you to all the fans that have supported this album or been there from the start and patiently waited for new music. The fan reaction and streaming success of The Sun Will Come Up, The Seasons Will Change is was beyond anything I’d ever imagined so a deluxe edition feels like the perfect way to wrap it all up.”
Taylor Janzen just dropped "What I Do..." and we feel like saying we're in love is an understatement since I've just looped this song for like a full day.
She told CLASH, "'What I Do' is a song I wrote about being in a serious relationship and suddenly realising that your issues are affecting someone else for the first time, and not entirely knowing how to change that. Musically, it’s a bit of a departure for me. I wrote it on an acoustic guitar in my bedroom, but when we got around to producing it, it seemed to take on a life of its own."
Visuals...
“‘Still Alive’ punctuates the idea that you’re going to go through these crazy moments in life and these weird times - bad things and good things. The message in that song is even though you go through those things, you don’t have to lose your fight,” says Zachary Charles about the track.
We're in love with HARLOE's latest, "One More Chance." Lyrically, the track finds HARLOE asking for an opportunity to salvage her relationship and prove she can be a better person and partner to the one she loves. While her vocals glisten over keys and a soulful R&B beat, the video for "One More Chance" shines with the glamour of disco's bygone era as it showcases the internal dialogue of the song itself. "I wanted to use lights and movement to tell this story in a clear and simple way. The journey of the video happens all in one place and ends, still, just like how it began, which is what the song feels like to me too,"
“I wrote Your Girl during a snowstorm in Montreal and recorded it under the warm desert sun in Joshua Tree. Someone once told me you can’t sing and cry at the same time but that wasn’t true for me when we were recording this one. There’s joy in finally being free from a painful situation, relief, laughter—even as it feels impossible to ever forget the pain or understand why that storm came through your life the way it did. And so, light on your feet, you dance with the memory instead. If you’re listening to this song and understand what I mean, know that I’m singing with you as we’re dancing in that swirling wind.” The video was directed by Brian Sokolowski and filmed in northern Quebec.
For this music video I wanted to do something that represented me in a grittier, more obscure way, describing what it felt like to go through that experience. I flew to NYC, had an amazing crew of 3, rented a "by the hour" murderous motel in Jersey & filmed all through the night.
When I officially signed my new deal last week, I told my team I wanted to release one more song as an independent artist. "Blast Off" is about going through shit & not letting anyone or anything dictate your life. & the truth is, I wouldn't be where I am & I wouldn't have gotten through it all without YOU, my fans.