Western Kite’s “I LOVE YOU” Ascends Blue Skies
Let’s just get it out of the way: Western Kite is my favorite find of the past year. A solo project of Park Seo-yeon, Western Kite (웨스턴 카잇) is her main project alongside her feature alias of “Kite Park”. Born in 1992, she debuted in 2017, taking off in the Hongdae indie scene in Seoul, […]
Mirabelle Skipworth’s “The Narrator” & Reverberating Voices
You never really know the difference between vanilla ice cream and vanilla bean ice cream till you have it. One is bright, fresh, icy and sharp, while the other creamy, luscious, aromatic. But it’s all kinda made-up: you just know. So how do I describe a voice, a sound, that is vanilla – not plain […]
Colin Parker’s “With the Wind” & Embracing Peace
Colin Parker’s latest single, “With the Wind” makes me nostalgic. Some of the harmonies take me back to my youth, where I was First Aid Kit, Fleet Foxes-obsessed kid, discovering Bon Iver for the first time on La Blogotheque harmonizing in the foyer of a Paris apartment building. In fact: confession. My older sister has […]
Ahn Heesu’s “Always With You” & the Power of Karaoke
South Korean singer-songwriter Ahn Heesu (안희수)’s new single “Always With You” is a soft pop rock ballad of hope for love lasting, and disbelief for having found it in the first place. At the start of the song, he confesses to feeling like he’s in a movie, wondering how love could be real in his […]
Parkland’s “Trainwreck” is the Perfect Amalgamation
Human memory is a funny thing. Every New Year I go in positive. Then every January I remember how horribly cold, dark, and depressing those days can be, and how a task list of a million new ways to change my life is unsustainable. Next year, though? I’ll do it again. You could say this […]
Grace Gardner’s “Scorpions Don’t Live Forever” & Undefinable Hats
Grace Gardner wears many hats. A black belt in Tae Kwon Do, proficient in 10 musical instruments, introspective while also being a bit of a TikTok star – Maybe that’s why I’ve been struggling to find the words to describe her sound. I immediately though SZA – there’s melancholy dripping from every line. Then Aurora, […]
Noele Flowers’ “Portland” is a New Kind of Break-Up Song
Noele Flowers’ “Portland” is a different kind of break-up song. It’s a bit upbeat, a bit fast, and its resentment, pain, and frustration is understated, stretched out – subtle but ever present. See, it’s not a romantic break-up she’s singing about. It’s the more grisly, more gruesome, and horrifying kind. A friendship break-up. How was […]
Bananaclub’s “Hi girl bye bye” Demands You Have a Good Time
The Chinese indie music scene reminds me a bit of Game of Thrones. One of the most cited reasons Game of Thrones took off the way it did is that it subverted expectations; a main character being killed off in the first season was unprecedented, shocking, and ultimately exciting: nobody, and nothing, was safe. That […]
Chanteclaire’s “Ripped Off the Covers” & the SNES
One of my favorite games of all time is Earthbound: Mother 2. The game was made for the SNES, coming out a few years before I was even alive. Fundamentally it’s about a kid leaving home and trying to heal the twisted, zany world around him – and, of course, making friends along the way. […]
Caroline Culver’s “Maggie Told Me You Got a New Girl” is Our New Break-Up Anthem
We’ve all been there: you’ve been doing good for awhile, haven’t thought about them at all! Seriously. What was his name, Jeff? Jason? (You pretend to forget, even as you tap onto his instagram story) Oh, he’s back in town. Tap. Tap. Your heart drops. Surely… No, it can’t be. You stare, eyes close to […]
