“Feels like that of musician looking to embrace all the disparate influences which came to shape his sound, be it the genres he has moved between or the places in which he has worked on them.” So we wrote of Keep in Touch, the new EP from New York-born, Lisbon-based artist M. Vaughan in a preview back in April. A fitting sound for an artist who has lived in a transitionary state over the past few years, the move from the US to Portugal coming not only with all the associated joys and difficulties inherent within any new culture, but also triggering a wider contemplation of his creative wo ..read more

Back in March we described how Jordan Reynolds of Rose Hotel draws on a whole host of stylistic influences across new album A Pawn Surrender in an effort to better capture the emotional intricacies of relationships. The Atlanta artist described the decision as a “gamble,” risking a record which fell between categories, but the result proves such concerns were unheeded. “With her distinctive vocals as the anchoring thread,” we wrote, “the result feels less like a jumble of genres as an artist selecting specific tools for each occasion. Each style can do something others cannot, and Rose Ho ..read more

“If I wasn’t addicted to the idea of god, tree, friend, mother, and good person I could let myself love and be loved all the way through.” So sings Camille Schmidt on ‘Bumblebee Drinks Lavender’, the lead single from her debut EP Good Person. Not only does the song provide the title for the EP, it also introduces the thematic concerns of the release, with Schmidt exploring the idea of performance in everyday life. The way we wear masks of different shapes and forms according to what we feel is expected of us in any given situation, and how this habit comes to hold its own addictive pull. But w ..read more

“Pastoral sees Hearsing push beyond personal experience into a more allegorical and creative style of lyricism, and it is fitting the sound comes to feel like an environment you might step inside.” That’s what we wrote when previewing the forthcoming EP of multi-instrumentalists Avery Murphy and Jordan Taylor, with single ‘Montauk’ offering a taste of the expansive, nostalgic style Hearsing have made their own. Pastoral is set to be released later this month, and now Hearsing have returned with new single ‘Silicon Prairie’. Engineered and mixed by Henry Chadwick and featuring drums and product ..read more

“Nick Delffs is not a protest singer,” read the opening lines of his profile by label Mama Bird Recording Co. “He’s not a gospel singer. Still, subversiveness and spirituality permeate Transitional Phase, his long-awaited second solo album.” Perhaps this is the logical outcome for record written amid a global pandemic, the loss of friends, not to mention his first experience of fatherhood. A collection of songs by an artist forced to face up to the inevitability of change whether he liked it or not. Lead single ‘Power and Position’ introduced both the style and themes of the album, wrestling w ..read more

Cursive – Up and Away Over the past thirty years, Cursive have established themselves as one of the most consistent and inventive indie rock/emo bands, providing a series of albums which delve into dark, challenging themes with a searing energy. And they show no signs of letting up, with new album Devourer coming later this year on new label Run For Cover. Every bit as intense as anything in their back catalogue, the record explores ideas of consumption in its various guises and how this inevitably slides towards imperialistic exploitation of power. Lead single ‘Up and Away’ introduces the the ..read more

Next month, Corey Leiter is releasing White Heat, a follow-up to his 2022 album Fire Season which sees the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter collect a couple of forgotten songs alongside a Buddhist mantra and a Joni Mitchell cover to form a tight, thematically resonant EP. Together with bandmates Raymond Joseph, Spencer Hoffman, Doron Zounes and Aristotle Galanopoulos, Leiter took to the Altamira Sound studio in Alhambra, California to work on the four tracks. The band recorded live to tape with minimal overdubs to not only better capture their spontaneous magic of making music, but more imp ..read more

“Wild Yaks have made a name with an affirming and often riotous brand of rock music,” we wrote when introducing their forthcoming album Monumental Deeds back in May, “filling the gap between hopes and realities with a carefree embrace of the present.” The new record, coming later this month on Ernest Jenning Record Co., “feels like both a continuation of this spirit,” as we continued, “and the culminative product of twenty years spent pining and singing and howling at the moon.” A collection of songs written mostly during the worst of the COVID era where the sudden kick of mortality had lead R ..read more

Open Door Policy, the forthcoming album from Alexei Shishkin, is a record long in the making. Shishkin penned the majority of the tracks back in 2020, and by the spring of 2021 had recorded them at the Big Nice Studio in Lincoln, Rhode Island with Bradford Krieger. Further recording sessions the following year produced a few more songs, then in 2023 Shishkin and Krieger again returned to the studio to polish and add final flourishes. This month will eventually see the album released via Candlepin Records, more or less four years since its initial inception, and its final form suggests the slow ..read more

 Cassandra Jenkins – Petco After the critical success of 2021’s An Overview on Phenomenal Nature—a collection of songs we described as “shaped by [a] careful but fleeting hand, like sculptures allowed to dissipate as soon as they have formed. Moments captured, meaning what they will”—Cassandra Jenkins is returning this summer with a brand new album, My Light, My Destroyer. Again released via Dead Oceans, the record promises to push Jenkins’s sound to new heights, building upon indie rock foundations with sophistipop, jazz and new age sensibilities. Latest single ‘Petco’ gives a hint at ex ..read more