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| Photo - Lizzie Wilkie |
Anika Louise is learning where the roses end and the thorns begin. On her new single ‘Thorns’ (out yesterday, April 10), she captures that realisation in something both tender and cutting. A painfully raw track shaped by contemplative lyricism and lilting melodies, ‘Thorns’ is a soundtrack to a familiar kind of heartbreak.
Following her 2025 debut release ‘Pearl’, the Boorloo/Perth-based indie-folk singer-songwriter has already seen an array of local support, including performing on national television for Telethon at RAC Arena, earning a WAM Song of the Year nomination in 2019, and opening for the Perth Symphony Orchestra at the Pop'N'Rock Symphony Concert.
Now, on just her second single, ‘Thorns’ opens with softly strummed acoustic guitar, laying a gentle, intimate foundation for Anika Louise’s dulcet voice and confessional lyricism. The first verse introduces the recurring image of thorns and roses, tracing the slow realisation that someone is not who they first seemed. Elaborating on the track, Anika Louise says:
“Thorns is about realising someone you trust isn't who you thought they were and learning to let go of the version of them you believed in. I used roses as a metaphor for that experience, something beautiful on the surface that was hiding thorns underneath.” As the song unfolds, it begins to open out. Warm electric guitar lines come forward, paired with twanging banjo and subtle piano, all anchored by the steady pulse of the drums. The arrangement swells and softens in turns, making ‘Thorns’ a powerful yet vulnerable journey that cries out softly and lingers in the heart.
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| Photo - Kyle Dobie |
After the release of her second album ‘Hold Everything Lightly’, followed by a national tour last year, Australian indie-folk songstress Isabel Rumble returns with ‘Patience Peaceful Breathing Slow’, a delicate and meditative new single out this weekend. The new track arrives ahead of an extensive international run, with Isabel Rumble set to take her album on tour across the UK, Ireland and Europe following a series of Western Australian dates and festival appearances in April.
With this run of shows for her second album, it feels only fitting to share ‘Patience Peaceful Breathing Slow’, a song written and recorded during the same period, shaped by the uncertain space she found herself in as her debut album was released into the world in 2023.
“‘Patience Peaceful Breathing Slow’ was written as I began to make my peace with winter,” Rumble says, describing the uncertainty she experienced after releasing her debut album. But it was when she came across a story in Women Who Run With the Wolves about “sitting with an idea and gently rocking with it until clarity returns” that the meaning of that in-between period began to shift. She continues:
"This song was my permission to tend to the parts of myself I’d neglected in the busyness of releasing my debut album. It feels appropriate to let this one into the world now at the completion of my second album."
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Swansea Singer-Songwriter 'Tom Emlyn' returns with a brand new single on 10th April 2026. 'A Series of Misunderstandings' will be his third single taken from forthcoming new album which is out in summer. One of the oldest songs on the album - I wrote this originally over ten years ago. It's about cycling through personas, exploring the ways in which difficult or disappointing experiences can change who you are as a person. Making the most of all the unfortunate events, misunderstandings and false starts. Making poetry from the humdrum, banal annoyances of the everyday, the average let-downs and miscommunications.
One thing leads to another; before you know it you're a tired old gunslinger, selling stolen jewellery to make ends meet, sorting through memories you'd rather forget. Touring empty open mic nights with cliched phrases, more half-baked than hard-boiled, hoping something sticks. I was thinking of the band Kings of Convenience when I wrote this, as well as Elliott Smith's album XO.
Evan added some lush slide guitar and played banjo with a violin bow. The final solo was played in one take, with a brittle Hank Marvin Stratocaster tone and a gorgeous real spring reverb tank. Described by Adam Walton (BBC Radio Wales) as a "peripatetic musical genius", Tom Emlyn crafts honest, swirling songs. Tall tales laced with dark jokes and words that cut straight to the bone. His current solo work maps an alternative Southwalian landscape, a hallucinated community drawn from psycho geography built on local history. Anthropological observations shaping poetic lyrics and simple 60s-folk influenced melodies that explore what it means to belong toa place.Bitterness, love, and humour peep through the cracks of this multi-layered, ethereal music.
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Edmonton's St.Arnaud, the indie pop project of Ian St.Arnaud, released their third studio album, St.Arnaud, this weekend via Cordova Bay Records, a record that turns grief into groove and cynicism into celebration. The self-titled album represents a significant evolution for St.Arnaud. What began as a solo songwriting outlet following the 2017 passing of close friend and collaborator Luke Jansen has blossomed into a full-band effort brimming with drums, bass, keys, electric guitar, horns, pedal steel, and electric pianos. This is the project's third record, but the first to truly capture the spirit of a live ensemble—where spontaneity and chemistry take the wheel.
"Starting an album for me feels like fumbling around in a dark room, feeling around for anything to grab onto," Ian reflects. "I think at one point I wrote something that resembled bad jazz? Ever so slowly, from an old notebook, something materializes when I struggle hard enough."
Lyrically, St.Arnaud explores "finding movement in times of stillness" and "capturing snapshots of transient times when you have time to reflect on them." The collection toggles between narrators stuck in the undertow of unresolved feelings—tracks like ‘Strange Collection’, ‘Better Than Fine’, and ‘Pretend Like You Do’—and others desperately trying to find contentment in the present, such as ‘How Lucky’, ‘Your House’, and ‘Sunshine’.
"I think looking back at the songs as a group now, it's funny to see two distinct song types appear: a series of narrators talking about unresolved past feelings, or trying to be content in the present," Ian notes. "Maybe there's a third category too: where I'm trying to just crack a joke and lighten the mood. Those songs are usually my favourite in the end. I prefer to sandwich harder emotions between a few lighter topics."
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Singer-songwriter Ava Claire returns with “The Sound,” an upbeat and captivating track that reveals a vibrant, energetic side of her artistry while maintaining the emotional depth that defines her songwriting. “The Sound is essentially about the noise in our minds,” says Ava. “The noise changes as you grow up, age, and have more life adventures.”
Drawing from the lyrical depth of Jason Isbell and Phoebe Bridgers, paired with the melodic instincts of Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, Ava crafts smart, authentic narratives that resonate deeply with listeners. Her talent has earned her three yeses and a trip to Hollywood Week on American Idol, as well as selection as one of only 11 students nationwide for the Songwriter Track at GRAMMY Camp.
Her previous release, “Salt Mine,” has already surpassed 70,000 streams across platforms and earned top-playlist support from Spotify, Apple Music, and more, further building momentum for her growing presence in Nashville.
Now a songwriting student at Belmont University, Ava regularly performs at iconic Nashville venues, including The Bluebird Cafe and The Listening Room. Beyond the stage, she is a passionate advocate for music education, dedicating five years to a Nashville non-profit teaching songwriting and refurbishing instruments for underserved youth, work that was recently featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show. With “The Sound,” Ava Claire continues to expand her artistic range, pairing thoughtful storytelling with an infectious energy that highlights both her growth as a songwriter and the exciting momentum surrounding her next chapter.
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| Photo - Sophie Webster |
PUNCHBAG - I Am Obsessed (EP).
South London sibling duo PUNCHBAG (Clara and Anders Bach) now release their second EP 'I Am Obsessed' via Mute. PUNCHBAG embark on their first UK / European headline tour later this month, culminating in a show at The Lexington in London on 9th May. The new EP is marked by the release of focus single 'Playing God'. Inspired initially by a Hinge date gone awry, the track is a cathartic highlight from the band's renowned live sets.
"Playing this song live so many times over the last year or so, it has taken on a new meaning - one that is deeper and darker than we originally intended," Clara explains. "Thereby we would like to kindly dedicate this song to the many men in power who are wonderfully running this ship aground. When there’s so much power being abused all the time, we don’t want to become numb to that and forget about it.”
Offering further proof of their status as one of London's most compelling emerging pop acts, new EP 'I Am Obsessed' is a volatile, hyper-saturated expansion of their self-described "aggressive hopecore" world - where everyday life is pushed to breaking point.
Driven by pounding percussion, snarling guitars and soaring synths, singer Clara’s instantly recognizable vocal cuts through the chaos; moving between sugar-rush pop hooks and moments of defiant release, she zooms in on the smallest details until they become grotesque and impossible to ignore.
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Manchester-based indie-rock group The Falls are excited to unveil their new single ‘Open Fire’, via Revo Pro. Since their formation in 2023, The Falls have hit the UK music scene with remarkable momentum, rapidly building a reputation both in Manchester and nationwide.
The band have cultivated a strong live presence, playing key venues UK wide, whilst consistently selling out venues in their hometown of Manchester. February 2026 saw The Falls undertake their biggest hometown headline to date, this time stepping it up a notch at the city's iconic Manchester Academy. Their upcoming November hometown headline at Manchester’s Gullivers sold out in under 24 hours, leading them to add a second, more intimate date due to demand, at The Castle Hotel.
Drawing inspiration from classic and contemporary indie influences like The Courteneers, The Kooks and Jake Bugg, their sound combines energetic guitar hooks with sharp lyrical storytelling. Their debut EP ‘Viva La Falls’ was released in September of 2025, already amassing over 100,000 streams and earning early praise from Radio X’s John Kennedy.
Produced, mixed and mastered by Luke Owens (SHADE, Montello, The Sprats), their new single ‘Open Fire’ is a sub-three-minute powder keg of energy from start to finish. The track blends explosive drums, melodic bass lines, frenetic guitars and urgent vocals, musically and lyrically encapsulating a loss of control.
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