ALBUM NEWS: Divorce - 'Drive to Goldenhammer'

Sitting pretty at the top of my latest playlist update alongside tracks from Leif Vollebekk, Laura Marling and Matilda Mann - something altogether brilliant....! Nottingham quartet Divorce have just shared All My Freaks, the first single from their upcoming debut album Drive to Goldenhammer, due via Gravity / Capitol on 7th March 2025. I've been loving this group for a couple of years now, through a string of brilliant singles launching themselves onto the scene, and the marvellous Heady Metal EP. I'm all sorts of excited that they've got an album on the way, and I can't wait to hear more. 

Talking about the record, the band says: "We’re very proud of Drive to Goldenhammer. We got to make an album the way we wanted to, kept the weird parts in, followed the warmth and didn’t overthink it. This album pays homage to seeking place and home; one of the great human levellers. Much of life feels at odds with this particular need. And to Goldenhammer; you are a reason to keep driving. We will find you again and again!"

On the new track All My Freaks the band add: "Being a musician can be brutal. I feel like you hear more and more songs coming from artists purely about the trials and tribulations of being a musician, feeling like you aren’t getting enough, or feeling like you’ve got too much and you don’t deserve it. It’s gotten a bit meta if you think about it. All My Freaks is about that too, written from the perspective of a humorous/tragic caricature of an up-and-coming artist, this song is laughing at our own egos and yet acknowledging the power that they wield. Putting this out as the first offering from our debut album felt fitting, as we are hypothetically straddling our jet skis and crossing the ocean of delusion to hopefully reach the isle of public approval."

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WATCH: Mumble Tide - 'Hotel Life'

Mumble Tide are back - everybody cheer / clap / rejoice! Or all of the above. The best news. Hotel Life is their first new track of the year, releasing on Nothing Fancy Records. They were one of my fave new artists of 2021 (I think?) who have spent the past couple of years recording and touring with a bunch of brill artists (Divorce, Liz Lawrence, Personal Trainer... ooft). 

Working with co-producer Ellie Mason (of Voka Gentle) this latest batch of songs saw the duo living a nomad lifestyle, uprooting their lives (and their recording set-up) every couple of months as they moved between boats, Airbnbs, spare rooms and warehouses. If the results are all as good as this first taster, I'm excited for more. 

On the new track, vocalist Gina Leonard shares: "'Hotel Life' is a song about relinquishing control. We wrote it after Ryan's dad had a 'funny turn' whilst on a work trip in Reading and we rushed to pick him up from hospital and ended up staying the night in a weird corporate business hotel on the outskirts of the city. I think hotels can be quite confusing spaces... I like running away in my head to a kind of 'hotel life' where I can escape everyone and be completely in control of who I am. Ultimately though, that's not healthy or possible. The song is overall positive and uplifting (I hope) - it's about not giving up." 

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WATCH: Art Moore - 'Muscle Memory'

Hot off the press album news time, folks. (Hey - am I the press?!) Art Moore have just announced their self-titled debut album, due for release via ANTI-Records on 5th August. The announcement arrives alongside their second track, Muscle Memory, although the members of the band are all long-familiar faces on the scene - they're a trio made up of Taylor Vick (AKA Boy Scouts) and Ezra Furman collaborators Sam Durkes and Trevor Brooks. 

Having worked on soundtracks with Ezra previously, Sam and Trevor originally joined forces with Taylor with the intention of writing for movies and art projects - "it was like [...] let's think of a movie scene or a photograph or still image and see if we can write some shit around it to see if we can pitch it", says Durkes. "Four songs in, I think, after the first recording session, we realized it was going well, and it was pretty efficient" adds Brooks. "Making music with both Sam and Taylor has always been so easy. I record other artists, and it's pretty rare to be so quickly on the same page with people. We don't have to say much - we kind of get where each other is coming from. It happens way too easily." 

The pandemic saw the trio sending recordings to one another over email, adding a digital aspect to the project. Taylor explains "I think [the pandemic] also probably contributed to the whole idea of life, 'Well, we might as well just make an album, 'cause it's July and things aren't any different'. We were still at home, so we thought we might as well keep using this time." I'm glad they did - because the new track is a delight - listen below!

On the new single, Taylor shares "Muscle Memory was inspired by the many phases of life we go through and the friendships that exist within them that inevitably transform as we continue through life. I wanted to write about this experience from a neutral perspective, one with the belief that it's neither a good or bad thing but simply a given in life. It's a more fictionalized version of my personal experience which was the kind of writing I gravitated towards most in this band." 

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WATCH: Tomberlin - 'sunstruck'

So you've just watched all of Heartstopper on Netflix too, yeah? As well as it being reaaaaally cute, the soundtrack is basically cool music and things set to a TV show. Baby Queen, Maggie Rogers, Matilda Mann, Smoothboi Ezra, Noah & The Whale... jeeeeeez. So good. As well as those, it features a track by Tomberlin - perfect timing, as she's got a new record (i don't know who needs to hear this...) on the way this week via Saddle Creek. Recent single sunstruck is lush - check it out below!

About the track, Sarah shares: "This is an aerial view love song that is also not a love song. It is more a love song to forced distance, time alone with yourself, letting go, searching for yourself and the healing that takes place when you make those things an active focus in your life. These things are choices, they don't just happen on their own. You can choose to practice them or you can choose stagnancy. This is a love song to the growth that often can take place if you choose to tend to your own life's garden." 

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WATCH: Deanna Petcoff - ‘Devastatingly Mediocre’

I'm digging this one, and loving the video too.... the track is Devastatingly Mediocre (brilliant name, but it is anything but...) from Deanna Petcoff. The Toronto-based artist is releasing her debut album To Hell With You, I Love You via Royal Mountain Records on 8th April and the lead track is brilliant, right?

Deanna explains: "I wrote this song when my friend was dating the most boring guy alive. He really was so normal, met the bare minimum of being a decent person, and yet she was so infatuated with him. At first I wrote this as a joke because I always called him devastatingly mediocre just to tease her, but when I showed it to my band they loved it and we decided to make it something real. I think it actually holds a lot of meaning for a lot of people - it's so easy to fall in love with someone just because you want to be in love, regardless of whether or not it really works."  

The video was directed by Michael Pugacewicz and Paige Foskett, who shared: "we wanted to capture the essence of repeating a vicious cycle with dating - how easy and relatable it is to keep dating the same person over and over until you learn whatever lesson you're supposed to learn. We felt like this song really begged us to lean into the campy early 2000s Avril Lavigne skater boy visuals, including the use of a handy cam to elevate the timelessness of this type of love interest, especially since we are seeing a comeback of this era. It was fun for us to put Deanna on a pedestal and give her the power in this video."

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WATCH: Ada Lea - 'damn'

"it's an album about magic, montreal, parties, friends, memories, phone calls, bedrooms, city-life, ferrante, the great mystery of memory and the passage of time; forgetting, and maybe stumbling into remembrance..." 

I enjoyed previous single Hurt, but Ada Lea's Damn really stopped me in my tracks last week. (Seriously - damn.) The track is taken from Ada's (AKA Montreal's Alexandra Levy) sophomore album one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden, due September 24th on Saddle Creek. Following the four seasons, the record opens a window on the city of Montreal, and the people and stories that exist within it - whether they be personal to Ada ("why would I try to write a story that's not my own?") or more universal. 

The record was written and demoed during an artist residency in Banff, Alberta, before joining producer and engineer Marshall Vore (Phoebe Bridgers) to record it in his studio in Los Angeles. "Marshall's expertise and experience with drumming and songwriting was the perfect blend for what the songs needed. He was able to support me in a harmonic, lyrical, and rhythmic sense." Also working on the record were drummer Tasy Hudson, guitarist Harrison Whitford and mixing engineer Burke Reid.  

Pre-order Ada's new record one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden here.

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ALBUM NEWS: Merpire - 'Simulation Ride'

"Sometimes it still wavers but I've worked hard on building my confidence, telling myself over and over through this song that it really does take a village to love someone." 

I absolutely adored Dinosaur, the recent single form Melbourne's Merpire, so I'm delighted that she's back with Village, and news of her debut album. Simulation Ride is due on 23rd July via Warner's ADA. Continuing in a lyrical theme, the new track tackles deceptively simple themes of self-doubt and comparing yourself to others, reflecting Rhiannon's own battles with anxiety and self-confidence. The single arrives with a video directed by Nick Mckk, which is below...

On the track, Merpire shares: "I used to have a day job punting people around the lake on a boat in the Royal Botanic Gardens in South Yarra, giving them a guided tour of the lake. There's one island we pass on the route we nickname 'Bell Bird Island' because the bell birds pretty much own it, very territorial. They're basically farming an insect called a psyllid and protecting it from other birds eating it. They have a symbiotic relationship. The psyllid produces a sugary coating like a cocoon and the bellbirds lick this sweet treat, not eating the whole insect so that the psyllids keep producing the sugar." 

"This loosely inspired the idea of it taking a village to nurture someone. Sometimes I would get so caught up in self doubt, seeing qualities in people that I didn't think I had, that I forgot to see what qualities I had that they might love me for. I constantly put pressure on myself to be happier, more energetic, more sociable. I didn't see myself as an interesting person without that or without my music and when I was feeling tired or withdrawn I'd beat myself up about it, not feeling worthy of company and thinking I was just a boring person who happened to be a musician (and punt people around on a boat in the gardens apparently?!) This affected my relationship. I didn't believe someone could be in love with me when there seemed to be way more interesting people out there."

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WATCH: Merpire - ‘Dinosaur’

This was one of my favourite discoveries in my inbox last week and a track that I couldn't wait to share here. Seriously, it's so so good. The track is Dinosaur from Merpire, AKA emerging Melbour-based indie-pop artist Rhiannon Atkinson-Howatt. Somehow, this is my first introduction to Merpire but I am very quickly falling in love via this track, and especially with the creativity at play in the video. Originally written on a ukulele, the track's themes of social anxiety and self-esteem (and lack of it) are reflected in the darker rearrangement of the track helped along by producer James Seymour. The build up and slight musical cacophony reflecting the overspill of emotion when you've been keeping those anxieties at bay. 

The music video for the track was filmed under a trampoline in Merpire's front yard. (Seriously!) And it's brilliant. Bringing in the decor of her early 2000s teen bedroom and all of the props that come with that... right down to the gel stickers, it's a nostalgic ride, that's for sure. Merpire conceptualised the idea herself like a movie script and it was brought to life by long-time collaborator Nick Mckk, with additional set design by Grace Goodwin. 

Talking about the track, she shares that "'Dinosaur' is inspired by a line in the first Jurassic Park movie when Sam Neill's character says "If you stay still, they' can't see you." Whether it's a fact about the T-Rex or not, I always wished this could be the case with humans - if you don't feel like seeing anyone or you want to smoke bomb from a social interaction you can just freeze and become invisible. Oh no, it's just the opposite." 

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WATCH: Valley Maker - 'Instrument'

Just a couple of weeks until the treat that is a brand new Valley Maker record arrives in our lives. Announced a few weeks ago, When the Day Leaves is due via Frenchkiss Records on 19th February. Stunning new track Instrument joins recent singles No One Is Missing and Mockingbird in creating some firm (and exciting) foundations for a beautiful record. The video for the track follows on from that for Mockingbird and is again filmed and directed by Joseph Kolean and Zach Gutierrez, featuring footage that Austin himself captured on a Super 8 camera in the North Carolina mountains. 

There's something so special about these nature-led music videos, showing the wildlife of far-flung areas to my own, that I'm loving so much at the moment. That sense of escape and discovery. Here, there's power and worry too, with the track and video touching on climate change and natural disasters, and the effects that we have on the planet. Austin comments that "through mixing mediums and blending human and natural worlds, we wanted the 'Instrument' video to visually be in conversation with what we created for 'Mockingbird', and with the landscape of the album cover." 

"I wrote 'Instrument' as a meditation on the challenges of persevering, of loving the world and other people, and of maintaining a hopeful vision for the future in these times we're living through. The uncertain future of our planet, with climate change and related natural disasters, always feels very present for me in these considerations. So the song and video reflect both upon anxieties and affections for our world; they explore what it means to remain a part of it all, to carry on amidst human and elemental uncertainty."

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ALBUM NEWS: Valley Maker - 'When The Day Leaves'

First *proper* post of the year alert....! This one comes courtesy of the first release of the year that made me want to tap away at the keyboard, with some really exciting album news from US artist Valley Maker (AKA Austin Crane). When The Day Leaves arrives via Frenchkiss Records on 19th February, and first single No One Is Missing is live now. Video below! 

Talking about the track and video Austin shares "The video for 'No One Is Missing' was filmed on Edisto Island in South Carolina's low country by dustoftheground. It's a lush, isolated place. The beach where we filmed is only accessible at low tide and is full of dead trees. I felt like that tidal flow, combined with the generally surreal and outside-of-time quality of the landscape, provided a spatial and visual connection with where 'No One Is Missing' is coming from as a song." 

"I wrote the track as a way of grappling with the partiality and temporality of how we connect with one another, I guess as an attempt to collect and reflect on recent experiences of loss, love, leaving, returning, missing, etc. On that theme, while recent months of social distancing have often felt isolating, I'm continually grateful for how music and the natural world can remind us we're not alone." 

The record came about is pretty much exactly the way you might imagine after listening to this track, in a studio in the woods. After working out arrangements and harmonies in Portland and Seattle, Austin stayed in the loft of producer Trevor Spencer's Way Out Studio, creating the record together over three-weeks in the woods outside of Woodinville, near Seattle. The resulting 46-minute record offers a reflective look at our world through the eyes of uncertainty, anxiety, hope and fear, a mixture of feelings that so many of us are used to living through. I can't wait to hear & share more!

Pre-order/pre-save the new record here.

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LISTEN: Chloe Foy - 'Without You'

As she's a new name to me, let me introduce you to singer-songwriter Chloe Foy. Without You is hauntingly beautiful, with a string section half way through that really pulled me in, but it's Chloe's vocals themselves here that are most sublime here. With influences including Lucy Rose and Laura Marling, she has amassed over 10 million streams for her previous singles and was named one of BBC Introducing's 'Ones To Watch' for 2019. Things seem to be going pretty well!

Talking about the new single, Chloe explains that it is "a song about grief and the loss of someone close to depression. So it talks of the struggles of the person who passes away and then couples with that the exploration of grieving and how it changes from being the worst thing in the world one minute, to possibly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in the end, and how grief changes with the seasons."

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