WATCH: Francis of Delirium - 'Real Love'

Hello again! Two posts in two days? Who is she?? Short answer: I'm SO obsessed with this beautiful new video from Francis of Delirium that I instantly needed to share it. I've loved the project for years, and loved this track when it came out back in July. The new video, co-written and co-directed by Jana herself along with Rares Matei, is a gorgeous representation of a young blossoming relationship. Too pure. 

Talking about the track, Jana shares: "'Real Love' at its heart is a simple song about being in love with your best friend. For years, timing got in the way. I got in my own way, and then finally, it worked out. Coming out of a two-month-long tour in the US and heading into summer back at home, it felt like my world was opening up. I wanted to write a song that reflected the feeling of leaning into vulnerability, a song that embraces telling the people you love what they mean to you and truly meaning it. Spending every night watching The Districts on tour really impacted me. There was this hopefulness I heard in their music that I really connected to. After writing our last EP ‘The Funhouse’ which was all about darkness and the feeling of being engulfed by the chaos of the world, I just couldn’t write anything super dark and heavy at the time, it just wouldn’t come out. My body and brain were just guiding me to writing lighter, more open music."

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EP NEWS: lilo - 'I Don't Like My Chances On The Outside'

Folk duo and lifelong pals lilo (London based Christie Gardner and Helen Dixon who met at school in Winchester aged 11) have announced a new EP - big yes!! I Don't Like My Chances On The Outside arrives via Dalliance on April 14th, and features recent singles Settled and Just A Thought, as well as brand new track I Don't Love You Anymore. Very much enjoying these tracks and this news! 

Speaking about the new track, the duo share: "I Don't Love You Anymore is about telling someone who loves you very much that you want to break up with them. It opens with the clocks changing over on New Year's Eve, as I realised that I knew how I felt, but didn't want to admit it, even to myself. The song moves through the horrible moment that you say the thing you never thought you would, and into the feeling of relief, as you get it out of your system and wriggle free from your secret. 

Despite the song being quite liberating in a way, it lingers on how you've made the other person feel, and the guilt that sticks to you long afterwards. When we all went through simultaneous break ups last Summer, we would take it in turns to cry to this song in rehearsals. It's a lilo right of passage." 

LILO · I Don't Love You Anymore

With a couple of festival performances coming up, lilo have just announced a headline show at London's St Pancras Old Church - tickets here. 

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LISTEN: Connie Constance - 'Hurt You'

Agh, I love Connie Constance. Her debut album Miss Power arrives in a few weeks via Play It Again Sam and she's just shared another brilliant cut from it. You know that an artist is brilliant when each new track becomes an immediate favourite, and this is certainly the case with Connie's music - I fell in love with James on first listen a couple of years back, and have gone through obsessions with Electric Girl, Prim & Propa, Miss Power and Mood Hoover since then. I might have a new obsession now.

On the track, Connie explains: "My revenge song, this is a song for all the villains that are just a product of their environment. This is for the Joker and Harley Quinn. In this realm the villain is the peoples champion and anarchy reins. As an artist people think you just get lucky, one song blows up and that's it you're a success over night. 

No one sees the years before that, they don't hear the years of music that didn't make it out the hard drives or the note pads. This song is about the lowest time in my life and in my career when Connie Constance the artist was dead and buried and it's about how I climbed out that grave and didn't let anyone take my love of writing and my hunger to share my music away from me. 

If I wasn't mad before I'm definitely a bit crazy now. But I feel bulletproof cause I had to fight to get my powers back. Nobody should ever have to feel stuck or unworthy. I hope this song reaches anyone who feels trapped, scared or squashed and I hope they listen to it before and after tell their oppressor to get fucked."

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EP NEWS: Connie Constance - 'Prim & Propa'

I'm confused to find that past me didn't write about either of Connie Constance's previous singles (James and Electric Girl, both of which are excellent.) I'm remedying my past mistakes in keeping her music a secret from you all with this post... exciting news: she's just launched new track Prim & Propa and announced an EP of the same name. An artist to be reckoned with, last year saw her finding inspiration from her upbringing, melding Nigerian folk and rock music with the British guitar-driven music she grew up with. She announced her own label Jump The Fence and released the The Butterfly Club EP too. She describes her new EP as "a safe space to feel good, to be pissed off, to harness the future and to be - or not to be - Prim and Propa." 

On the single, Connie shares: "This song is about owning community culture, family and friendship. It's about looking at that big white house and the perfect grass and saying 'Yeah, nah, not for me, mate - not without my people enjoying it with me.' It's an anthem for everyone that feels betrayed and let down by this country. It's for the single parents, the people that work their arses off every single day and can barely get their head above water. It's a reminder that we've got what's important right here with us: 'When you want more then look around, if you've got love you know you're good / cause when the grass is greener, the people are meaner.'" 

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LISTEN: bb sway - 'Baby Wants Out of The City'

If the idea of a new track from bb sway doesn't already excite you (I mean, honestly?!) then get a load of the catchy whistling on this one. I love me a whistle-along and I adore this tune. Baby Wants Out of the City is the latest tune from the Hong-Kong born and London-based artist, the first on the label 7476. I first heard her through Habits and I Found Out When the Day Had Come last year and I've been keeping an ear out for new music. I think that lots of people will find the thoughts behind the lyrics are highly relatable at the moment, of wishing to escape the city and to find peace within nature. It's a beautiful sentiment reflected in a track that exudes that same beauty in a kind of shimmery and carefree sound.

On the track, bb sway shares: "This song was particularly inspired by Hong Kong, where high-rise buildings are surrounded by big mountains covered with luscious tropical vegetation, and gnarly roots seep into every concrete crack in the city. Having grown up on an island, I was also always surrounded by the sea, and it wasn't until after I moved away that I realised how closely I felt connected to it." 

bb sway · Baby Wants Out of the City

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LISTEN: bb sway - 'habits'

I first heard bb sway back in September with her single I Found Out When the Day Had Come (and the particularly joyous music video that came with it, dancing with cows included) but never got round to sharing it here. Attempting to rectify that with her new single habits, which I'm channelling towards your speakers & hearts now... in her trademark style, using bedroom pop to deliver relatable and heartfelt tunes, it's catchy but meaningful. Love this! 

On the track, she shares "I wrote habits to help me with my mental health. When depression hits (at the time, it was SAD in particular), I think it's important to stay active, and be proactive in doing things that keep the mind and body stimulated. Writing 'habits' (and listening to it) helped me stay positive and remember that sad periods don't last forever, and there are things I can do to help myself!" 

bb sway · habits

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WATCH: Rhys Lewis - 'When Was The Last Time?'

"I can't sleep at night, knowing you're by my side, but so far away." 

If you're ever in need of a sad song, Rhys Lewis is usually a pretty safe pair of hands. He's just released his first track of the year, and it's yet another heartbreaker - tissues at the ready. In When Was The Last Time? Rhys' trademark vocals are on show as the track opens with piano chords, building throughout, adding different sounds to the fabric of the track, reflecting the content of the lyrics, with rising tension. The track charts the period directly before a break-up, as Rhys explains "you know, when she's leaving kisses off her texts or not saying goodnight when she goes to bed. Slowly you start to put those things together, and evidence arrives of a fatal prognosis." The track arrives with a video directed by Mike Baldwin (Anna Calvi, Frank Turner) which follows four couples in this scenario. Like his music, the video is heartwarming but heart-wrenching.

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