The Best Songs of 2023 (that You Probably Missed)
This is a tad late, I know. We’re a few weeks into the new year, enough time to make it feel like 2023 was a different time during which you were a different person. You went to the gym less and spent more time on social media back then. You meditate now, and take ice […]
Noele Flowers’ Triptych Singles Are a Sight to Behold
Noele Flowers has time and time again proven her unique ability to write stirring and frustratingly relatable heartbreak songs, not about a lover but instead: friendship. And in her most recent trio of singles—”Spider’s Silk,” “Red Sweater,” and “Let You Down”—she walks us through a friendship of 10 years—how it slowly degrades, and is lost. […]
Foy Vance and Ed Sheeran’s Heartbreaking “Blue”
You want to give the guy a hug. Okay, so we know about his great high tenor voice – a really good range. It doesn’t really matter what he sings, you just want to listen to him sing it. But he also has this sensitive soul. Ed Sheeran lives in his feelings. He takes the […]
JUNGWOO’s “Cumulus” is Blissfully Liminal
I heard JUNGWOO for the first time in 2019 when she popped up in my new releases with a Kim Sawol feature, one of my favorite singer-songwriters of all time. I made the grave mistake of not further exploring her music or clicking onto the album from which the song joined my playlists. Unfortunately, this […]
Casey Dubie’s “Older Colder” Sings with Indelible Warmth
As I write this review, a thick fog blanches the sky, and a gelid storm smatters the roof. My walks recently have developed a new phase of routine: the frigid refusal stage, where I stare out the window and think about how I should finally bust out my winter coat. Then I don’t, going out […]
Dermot Kennedy’s “Sunday” Took Me To Church
There’s a clock ticking in my living room, and right now it’s all I hear, as I sit and let Dermot Kennedy’s song “Sunday” sink into my heart and my mind. The lingering piano chords move over my soul like dry snow swirling in gusts over pavement on a cold winter’s day. As I listen, […]
Katy Kirby Celebrates Something Sparkly on “Cubic Zirconia”
A cubic zirconia is an artificially created diamond. A competitor to the real thing, it’s close enough for the average person not to be able to tell the difference. It’s also the title of Katy Kirby’s new song. The song is charming. But it’s also arranged to surprise you. For whilst it contains sounds and […]
The National offer hope on ‘Send For Me’
The National seem to have slowly and purposefully shuffled towards legendary status over the years. Collaborating with superstars and boasting a rabid fanbase, they create wild bursts of rock about random moments of social interaction or elegiac laments about abandoned clothing or emotions with extraordinarily colourful and inscrutable lyrical content. Less regularly, as with the […]
J Lind’s “Don’t Let Them Steal Your Joy” is Pure Joy
It’s fine…It’s not fine…Don’t let them steal the backbeat in the rhythm in your voice. J Lind’s “Don’t Let Them Steal Your Joy” is a joyful song in the face of criticism, skepticism, and even prejudice. It doesn’t matter what you do, there will be those who doubt, those who oppose. As often as not, […]
Is “Wherever You Are” Neil Finn’s most romantic song?
In 1996, a TV advert ran with the tagline, “you know more Crowded House songs than you think you do.” It was clever, but also true. The inherent catchiness in Neil Finn’s songwriting paired with lyrics that sit on a knife’s edge between reality and dreams ensure that his songs, once in your brain, are […]
