We do feel like humans in a glass world lately. Outside there are dangerous things still doing bad to the whole world. But there is also that sense of opportunity for what is coming. And we are still here, inside our houses, looking outside. We are still here thinking of what will be when we’ll finally be able to be ourselves fully again; we walk the dog, we do our chords; clean our houses, keep the doctor away. We talk to each other without much more to inspire us but what we see from within our homes. We all agree this is like an alternative reality where dreams are formulated but have to be kept as dreams. Waiting for the opportunity. Waiting for the perfect humanitarian timing. Once again, music helps. Music is (almost) everything. And these are some of the tracks that sung our dreams the most out loud this week.
Cool Company – Who Knows
“I was reflecting and trying to make sense of different relationships I’ve had both past and present, intimate and platonic. I was caught up between appreciating them for what they were, and just sort of being down about the fact that all relationships come to an end one way or another…I’d call it an upbeat lullaby that puts uncertainty to rest; while leaning into and embracing the fact that sometimes, all you know is that you don’t know.“
We’ve gone for the whole paragraph because there is a common constancy in our lives. We can’t control everything, and we don’t need to know everything that will happen. And we don’t need to know it to take steps forward neither. As we also don’t need to be afraid of revisiting the past and thinking about past relationships. It’s just a matter of finding positiveness in our will. Who Knows by Cool Company, is not only the perfect company of a track to find that positivity. It is also a superb groove that mixes elements of hip hop, rap, pop, soul, and bits of je ne sais quoi. We can relate to it both in what Robin Thicke did at the beginning of his career, but also with the super groovy Frank Ocean and Childish Gabino vibes. And it’s a feel-good track that gets us grooving every, single, time.
lùisa – Come Around
lúisa is one of those cases where every single song released sounds a no-brainer for us. The reason, we think, is simple: her capacity for singing has both a distinct rhythm and tone! Somewhere between pop (Florence and the Machine anyone?) and Americana (we hear so much of War on Drugs sonority in this that feels unreal), but with a distinctiveness that is felt throughout all her tracks, and that ties us every time as listeners. Come Around, her latest track is another one that bites our dust! And more than our dust too. It actually a case of a track where it feels that by grooving along we are free of our dust. Catchy, filled with melodic hooks, and always ALWAYS with the vocals shining on top of everything else and along with everything else.
We just love this. Feels impossible to be indifferent! And the fact that the track is about “coming out of your shell, after a long time of isolation and pain” just makes everything even more identifying and relatable.
Melissa Mary Ahern – Stone be Stone
The intensity in Melissa Mary Ahern’s compositions and singing is just surreal. Evidently melancholic (and most of the times almost dark), she reminds us of Cohen’s lyricism but with a very feminine delicacy. Stone be Stone is illustrated by a video-clip where she is singing in the middle of the snow, looking straight to the camera, to us, to our soul. While she lullabies us dramatically, she also manages to make us sing along, proving that enchantment and hypnotizing are two very close concepts. Oh, and the electric guitar vibes provide everything with a Winter-ish feeling and a cold but electrifying melody. The whole recording is live, with minor elements like the bass, the drums, and the organ being minimalist but essential in the haunting experience that is listening to it.
saint-love – Cold Humans
“Since he’s into music, saint-love loves mixing acoustic and electronic vibes whether it’s about his personal music tastes or the way he produces his songs” reads on saint-love press release. Too many of us relate to this feeling. The capacity o reinventing tracks flows, or melodies, using your own hands is somewhat between the overwhelming and the joyful.
Cold Humans, saint-love latest track is one of those electronic tracks we feel we can listen to forever. With a particular cadence that feels easy to accompany and hard to let go and not move along, the track feels everything but cold. It feels like a gentle breeze when is just too soon in the day but we know for some reason that is going to be a great day. It sounds like positiveness and hope have been incorporated into a fully instrumental electronic track. When that speaks so much without using any words.
8LIS5 – Faded Wisdom
Starting with an almost The Police / Sting vibe (Russians anyone?), the project entitled 8LIS5 (reads “bliss”) debuts with a distinct and overwhelming trip entitled Faded Wisdom. Working perfectly together (and also enriched) by its video, there are so many positives and novel elements in this band’s sonority that we can’t but state the obvious: it gets us super excited for what’s next. We had to find deep in our brains another sonority to compare with it. We find that there is some experimentalism of production and composition that we can relate with our personal favorite Gotye (and a track like Hearts a Mess) and Tom York’s sonority.
The fact that this band was formed on the brink of a Pandemic crisis (February last year) and is composed of 5 members living between Ukraine, France, and Switzerland: Louis Franck, Petro Cherniavski, Iurii Khustochka, Andrii Nadolskyi, Illia Galushko; just makes everything even more genius. Oh and the highlight that is the way that disruptive electric guitar that grows and grows until it completely surprises (we won’t say when so we don’t spoil it for new listeners), is the icing on the top of this beautiful and unusual cake.
Communions – Cupid
This week was filled with great indie-rock releases (listen here, and here), and another one that totally filled our spirit was the latest track by the Copenhagen-based Communions. Entitled Cupid, this single is part of the band’s sophomore album Pure Fabrication (coming out April 9th), and focuses on change, instability but also freedom and love. The power is immense and leaves us head over hills, and we can only but imagine the amount of power these “Paaa paaa” bits and wows will leave on a live show. Really makes us want for COVID to disappear forever.
Of course, indie-rock is probably the easiest way of making us forget about sad things, it’s also one of most concurred genres on the indie world market, and being able to stand out like these guys, with the music speaking louder than any words we right, is by itself an immense achievement: music always speaks louder doesn’t it?
Kai Straw – My Name Is Your Language
And if you felt the previous vibes, we take you into another genre change: you know us, we all about eclecticism! In a mix of Bossa Nova, with Funk and RnB, Kai Straw has been releasing track after track for the last year (we count at least 7). The latest is My Name is Your Language and is evidently (you just have to listen to it for a couple of seconds) one to add to “that” playlist. In both a gentle, romantic, swinging, and super melodic way that is impossible not to feel the calling. The vocals go from soft to coming-from-the-inside-heartfelt, like a proper calling that moves both body and soul, and the kind of circular structure also works in a hypnotizing and danceable way.
Citizen – Life In Your Glass World (New Album)
From Ohio to the world we throw ourselves with arms wide open to Citizen and their unique rhythms. Life In Your Glass World is a protest of well saying where, from Death Dance Approximately to Edge of The World we reached, side-by-side with Mat Kerekes, Nick Hamm, and Eric Hamm, the top of the Earth.
The hallucinatory rhythms were all created in the band’s hometown of Toledo, in a makeshift studio in the singer’s garage Mat Kerekes. Nick Hamm, in the band’s official press release, explains that this power over the production of the record helped the band in its growth: “I don’t have a lot of regrets but there have definitely been times when we felt powerless during the band’s existence. This time we really owned every part of the process. It’s easy to feel like you’re on autopilot when you’re in a band, but that’s not a good place to be this far into our existence. We consciously knew we wanted to break free”. And it is proved: it is an ideal record for those who like this punk-rock genre.