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| Photo - Meg Henderson |
Edinburgh-raised, London-based indie-pop duo Quiet Houses have released their debut album we're all in love via AWAL, alongside new single 'made for love'. The album arrives after six years as a band and a decade-long relationship between members Jamie Stewart and Hannah Elliott. Written over the past three years, we're all in love is an ambitious and endearing indie-pop debut centred on romance, friendship, community and connection, drawing on the experiences of two people who have spent much of their lives growing up alongside one another.
New single 'made for love' sits at the heart of the album. Built around chiming guitars, bright synths and one of the most direct choruses on the track list, the song reflects on the frustrations of modern dating and the search for genuine connection, as the band explain:
“A lot of our friends are struggling to find romance. They’re looking for community and connection, but finding dull hinge dates and poor communication. Endless choice and fragmented society in cities can leave people feeling isolated and blaming themselves. When writing 'made for love' we wanted to show that if everyone feels like they can’t find love, it’s probably the fault of tech companies and a rise in the sales of DJ equipment. If all else fails, come to a Quiet Houses show, you will meet the love of your life, possibly.”
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| Photo - Charles Moss |
Phoebe Green just announced her second album Premature Nostalgia, out 2nd October via The Green Dream Machine / Absolute, and shares the visceral lead single 'There's Always Someone Kicking The Seat'. Written and produced alongside her sister Lucy Green (aka Elucyve) - a producer of contemporary classical and electronic music in her own right Premature Nostalgia was created between the flat the pair share in Manchester and their parents' home in Lytham St Annes.
Speaking about the album, Phoebe explains: "The album mostly explores my tendency to be extremely sentimental and attach value to every little thing - feeling nostalgic before a moment is even over and trying to control the grieving process by going through the motions prematurely in order to prepare myself."
Lead single 'There's Always Someone Kicking The Seat' begins with spoken-word reflections ("a supercut of when things were good / comes flooding back to me") before collapsing into a swirl of melancholic, glitching electronics, ghostly layered harmonies and overwhelming emotional static. Across the new single and forthcoming album, Phoebe and Lucy draw inspiration from artists such as Imogen Heap, Oklou, Jockstrap, James Blake, FKA twigs and Sega Bodega - embracing warped electronics, fragmented structures and more experimental forms of pop songwriting.
Speaking on the new single release, Phoebe shared: "We wanted this song to feel extremely visceral, as though the listener is experiencing the story firsthand; it was written in a similar way to ‘Reinvent’ lyrically where I just wanted to get an experience off my chest and melodically nothing fit, so I ended up just talking. It’s maybe my only proper break-up song, and Lucy really beautifully encapsulated the chaotic emotional journey sonically. It felt really fitting for the verses to feel quite matter of fact, recounting events, then melancholic choruses followed by a cathartic outro."
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Following the critically acclaimed release of ‘Asphodels’ in 2025, The Veils quickly return with a bold and invigorated new album titled ‘Fragile World’, out today on V2 Records. Arriving just over a year after their last release, ‘Fragile World’ marks a striking shift in tone and energy for the band. Recorded live to tape in New Zealand by Paddy Hill, with production by Tom Healy (Tiny Ruins, The Chills, Folk Bitch Trio), ‘Fragile World' captures The Veils in an urgent and instinctive mode.
Front man Finn Andrews says: “I make each album, generally, as a kind of atonement for the last. Asphodels was so quiet and introspective, I think I just wanted to make something strident and full of life for a goddamn change." This can be heard on the first single “Lungs” which has a yearning drive as Andrews sings: "I wish there was somewhere we could go / Somewhere my heart will not succumb / I want to hear it in my voice / I want to feel it in my lungs".
The opening track “Aurora”, with its very tasteful video, was written as it was being recorded, inspired by a huge geomagnetic storm that raged over New Zealand that day, while a song like “Little White Bird (Fragile World)” outlines the overall theme of the album as if Nina Simone and Arthur Russell are having a little dance. Focus track “My Foolish Heart” contradicts that with a piano-based almost Country/Folk style. From lonely, fragile ballads via uplifting tracks to the first ever cover to appear on a Veils album (Sinéad O'Connor – “In This Heart”), 'Fragile World' is Finn Andrews most diverse work yet.
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Jenny Reynolds has released the new album “Willow & Stone” (June 19, 2026). Recorded at Cedar Creek Studio in Austin, TX, the record was produced by Mark Hallman (Ani diFranco, Elyza Gilkyson) and engineered by André Moran. “Willow & Stone” features 11 original songs on surviving life. The album explores Americana and the jazz side of Folk, and includes a co-write with Texas songwriter and producer Gabriel Rhodes. Multi instrumentalists Michael Ramos (John Mellencamp, Bodeans) and BettySoo (James McMurtry, Chris Smither) are featured. Guitar driven songs help “Willow & Stone” dovetail nicely with Reynolds’ critically acclaimed release “Any Kind of Angel” (2020).
A 1999 Boston Music Award nominee, Jenny Reynolds first gained recognition in the Northeast music scene before bringing her craft to Texas in 2003. She was a Kerrville New Folk Finalist in the same year. The Austin-based singer-songwriter and guitarist has continued to evolve with a deeper sense of place and perspective. She was named “Best New Local Act” in the Austin Chronicle’s 2005 Critics Poll, and was an Official Showcase Artist at SXSW in 2008 and 2018.
Jenny says of the album: First thing: The collection of musicians on this record (BettySoo, Noëlle Hampton, Barabara Nesbitt, Brian Standefer), as well as working again with Mark Hallman (producer) and André Moran (engineer) makes me feel very lucky. Great players, great people. The title of the record comes from a lyric in If I Hadn’t Waited So Long. It refers to the irony of strength coming from flexibility, like a willow tree branch, instead of the rigidity of a stone. During the time these songs were written and recorded, with all the changes in life, beautiful and difficult, I had to learn to be flexible.
This album is the result of going from living alone with an adult lab mix, to getting married and moving in with my wife, another adult dog, and a 13 yo kiddo. Needless to say, quiet and privacy are uncommon now, but there’s a lot of happy change in everyday life.
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Alex Henry Foster, the Montreal-based artist and former frontman of the post-rock band Your Favorite Enemies, has released “Springtime,” the first glimpse of new projects on the horizon. ‘2 out October 23rd, is the first of five albums in a broader series, written and recorded in Virginia, Morocco and Canada. The releases represent Foster’s metamorphosis from one life to another, honouring the communities, relationships, and experiences that have helped shape him.
“Springtime,” the first single from ‘The Fragile Beauty (of New Morning Hopes)’, calls upon Foster’s personal tribulations: particularly the moment he died on the table during emergency heart surgery. The minor, dissonant chords set to a surging pulse ignite a sense of urgency that underscores Foster’s lyrics: “Springtime, Springtime / Your grief rises afar.”
Written in a state of reflection at Foster’s home away from home, Tangier, Morocco, the single describes the feeling of being disconnected from the physical body and searching for life among death. The accompanying video was shot in Morocco and features the late Moroccan artist, Najoua El Hitmi, a friend of Foster’s. “The song echoes the late Palestinian poet and writer Mahmoud Darwish’s references about the metaphoric nature of spring as the juxtaposing struggle between our personal faith in the profound longing for intangible evolution and the collective desire to experience a palpable long-awaited rebirth,” explains Foster.
Foster’s global influences carry through to the song’s production, which incorporates African instruments and Arabic percussion, merging sitar, hammered dulcimer, bongos and congos with fuzzy electric guitars and pounding drums.
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Following a breakout year that saw her earn Spotify Editorial support and recognition as a rising voice in indie pop, Montreal singer-songwriter Libby Ember returns with “Gravity,” an energetic yet emotionally reflective single that transforms heartbreak into quiet acceptance. Blending melancholic lyricism with upbeat indie pop production, the track explores the strange realization that sadness itself can feel deeply natural; something inevitable, human, and survivable.
Written during a breakup while travelling through Norway, “Gravity” emerged from a moment where emotional and physical exhaustion began to blur together. Hiking mountains day after day while processing the end of a relationship, Libby found herself reflecting on the heaviness she was carrying and how impossible it felt to escape.
That experience ultimately inspired the song’s defining lyric: “Going down is just gravity.” What began as a passing thought quickly became the emotional centre of the track. “When you feel down, it’s only natural, the same way that the Earth’s gravitational pull is,” Libby explains. “It’s something that we can live with as long as we accept it and keep moving on.”
Rather than leaning fully into softness or restraint, “Gravity” takes a more immediate and energetic sonic direction than some of Libby’s earlier work. Built around more active drums, brighter instrumentation, and a stronger rhythmic pulse, the production reflects the song’s emotional duality: sadness that still pushes forward. “For this song, we took a more pop-like direction,” Libby says. “The song felt like it needed a stronger beat to it more than any of my other songs so far.”
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