Vaca Sagrada on “Border Song,” Cormac MacCarthy, and Their Cinematic Sound
The Western genre runs deep in American musical culture. Countless artists in various g genres have been influenced by classic Western iconography. Vaca Sagrada draws on these traditions to create the evocative images of “border song”. The partnership of David Brooks and Jeff Wiederschall come together to write songs for a Western tragedy. Inspired by […]
Lack the Low on “The Sharpest Knife” and the Yin-ward Lean of Her New Album
Lack the Low, an experimental music project led by Kat Hunter, drenches the world in an iridescent sheen with their new song “The Sharpest Knife.” Lack the Low lives in the deliciously strange in-between, dissolving musical and artistic boundaries with sheer force of will. “The Sharpest Knife” glows in a pulsing membrane between realities: between […]
Corrina Repp on How a Hug Inspired Her Hymnal “The Shore”
“The Shore” is not a gospel song. It’s not a song about worship or devotion to a higher power. The word “God” is not mentioned once. But Corrina Repp, the LA-based singer-songwriter behind “The Shore” and its accompanying album Island, has created a song that uses the tropes of gospel and other worship music to […]
Talker on “Summerlin” and Her Artistic Evolution
Talker’s new single “Summerlin” is an aching victory. It’s three minutes of soaring grunge pop, a track that leads the listener into the small town of an ex-lover. Celeste Tauchar, the Clark Kent of Talker, shows in “Summerlin” how loss and place are hopelessly intertwined. Talker injects loss and longing into the song’s setting descriptions, […]
Stella Emmett on “Beach House,” Frustration, and Poppy Menace
“Beach House,” a new song by the British singer-songwriter Stella Emmett, is theoretically a lark. Emmett’s melodies are breezy and light on their feet, and she has a coolly materialistic attitude that is both very funny and refreshingly no-bullshit. “I’m not in love with you,” she informs her sugar daddy, firmly but without malice. “I’m […]
Katelyn Tarver’s “Shit Happens” Is Soberingly True, Tremendous Songwriting
For a long time, I had this subconscious belief that my life would probably work out like a coming-of-age movie. There’d be a few bumps to build drama (I’d crash my car, maybe get cut from the basketball team, maybe get dumped after prom), but things would fall into place my senior year of high […]
MJ Cabra on “Meadow Hugs” and Accepting That You’re Not OK
“Meadow Hugs” is about trauma, but it doesn’t sound like it at first. A new song by the Atlanta-based singer-songwriter MJ Cabra, “Meadow Hugs” starts right out of the gate with an energetic breakbeat and some lush, lovely synth chords. I’ve always associated this sort of sound with a sort of optimism–vintage video games, joyous […]
Ava Elay on “Rain,” Creativity, and Writing Hooks with Windshield Wipers
Ava Elay is thirteen years old. I understand that harping on an artist’s young age is something of a cliche, but it bears repeating: Ava Elay is thirteen years old. A middle schooler! The fact that she’s making music at all is noteworthy, but make no mistake: this is not a dancing bear situation, and […]
Monica Guardado on “Virginia,” Platonic Friendships, and Crafting Her Sound
By now, autumn has been thoroughly hygge-fied: we’ve come to associate the season with cozy cardigans, pumpkin spice lattes, and blankets of red and orange. It’s easy to forget the lonely, overcast parts of autumn, the parts defined by a steady decline. In autumn, the sun sets earlier and earlier each day; the streets are […]
Sabine Colleen on “Electric Heart,” Vocal Inspirations, and The Power of the Banjo
The title of Sabine Colleen’s new song, “Electric Heart,” almost sounds ironic from the first listen. This is not electric music; it’s acoustic, for one thing, and for another thing it sounds like it was conceived before Edison invented the lightbulb. Over the earthy pluck of a banjo and a raspy, sawing fiddle, Colleen sings […]
