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| Photo - Rachel Andes |
Taken from her solo debut album due out on July 31, we have a quote from Nora regarding the latest single. “Red” is the psychic centerpiece of the album, a circular and hypnotic track that begins with the immediate intimacy of voice and guitar alone, patiently adding layers of synths, electric guitars, and flutes as it builds. “Red” is about the comfort Nora finds in the generous nonlinearity of Anne Carson’s work as we hear exactly the ways Nora sees love as an echo of literature’s curious detachment from/demarcation of time, seeking refuge and comfort in Carson’s poetry in the face of romantic loss and healing.
From her work with indie songwriters like Cassandra Jenkins to avant-garde icons such as Fred Frith, Stanley has built a reputation as a versatile and expressive multi-instrumentalist—moving fluidly between woodwinds, synthesizer, voice, and guitar. Drawing inspiration from Anne Carson's writing, the songs on the new album 'Glass' explore reflection and separation—how we see ourselves refracted, held at a distance from the outside world.
Glass is one of those small big words poets most prize. Reflective and transparent, hard and fragile, natural and supernatural, Glass is polymorphic. As a saxophonist, flute player, clarinetist, and synth player, Nora Stanley has accompanied many of our most cherished living songwriters, including Cassandra Jenkins, Beth Orton, and The New Pornographers. She has performed improvised creative music with Benny Bock, Fred Frith, Kenny Wollesen, and Peter Apfelbaum, too. Luckily for us, Glass is not a simple summation of these not-so-disparate paths. The complexity of that giant noun characterizes Nora’s approach to this record’s production as much as it does the variegated career that led to its existence. Glass is a record of subtly devastating songs by a cool headed observer; a mirror and a window.
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Josaleigh Pollett - Bed of Quiet.
"Bed of Quiet is an over-thinker's anthem. A song for the sleepless, and the hours spent playing and replaying scenarios on a loop in your brain where there is no right decision, digging for a yes or a no in a mountain of perhaps. We wanted the production to feel like it belonged in the middle of the night, when you're not quite yet dreaming, but suspended above your body like a projected film of the last few week's events you can't stop watching, playing too loud for sleeping."
"When Chris Walla sent us some instrumental recordings from the early 2010's he'd yet to use, they fit perfectly into the fitful, crumpled sheets of the bed we were making. The post-chorus vocal "a little doubt-" is also the only time Jordan sings on the record, pitch-shifted all to heaven, of course." – Josaleigh Pollett.
Salt Lake City-based singer-songwriter Josaleigh Pollett issues "Bed of Quiet," which features a guest contribution from Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie), and is the final single from their fourth full-length album, ‘If I Let It Quiet. The new record will be released July 24th via Audio Antihero (Frog / Tiberius / Avery Friedman / CIAO MALZ) and Lavender Vinyl on digital and vinyl.
Although the continuation of Pollett and Watko's collaboration was never in question, the new album's creation faced new challenges due to Watko's relocation to Japan. Despite this separation, the pair opted to make their first cross-continent collaboration more ambitious and exploratory than what had come before.
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All we are going to say on Beehive Candy is this.. "This is one unique and incredible baritone voice, with a song that let's it shine above so many others - fabulous." RADEMAN is a South African-born, Sydney-based country-rock artist. His music combines direct storytelling, a mature dark baritone and guitar-driven production built around resilience, consequence and the battles people carry privately.
RADEMAN creates country-rock, outlaw country and southern rock shaped by direct storytelling and emotional weight. Born in South Africa and based in Sydney, RADEMAN writes about resilience, internal conflict, accountability and the decision to stand up again when life has taken something from you.
The music moves between restrained, vulnerable verses and full-band choruses. Guitars, low-end weight and a mature dark baritone carry the songs without losing the human detail inside them. Get Back Up is RADEMAN’s debut single and the opening chapter of The War Inside, a wider body of work about the battles people rarely speak about.
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| Photo - Andrea Zvadova |
Australian, London-based MF Tomlinson today announces new EP 'Heaven Is Other People' and shares its life-affirming, piano-led title track, marking his first new music since the release of his critically acclaimed third album Die To Wake Up From A Dream (2025). Entering a new creative chapter, Tomlinson describes Heaven Is Other People as "a collection of lo-fi gestural pieces on human connection", written following the birth of his first child and recorded during impromptu sessions at his studio in Poplar, London.
Across its five tracks, Tomlinson embraces a looser, more instinctive approach, balancing patient, spacious songwriting with richly layered instrumentation alongside his regular collaborators (the "MFs"): Ed Grimshaw (drums), Ben Manning (bass), Gail Tasker (flute) and Kayvon Nabijou (keys and saxophone).
Carried by buoyant piano, circling woodwinds and radiant orchestral swells, lead single and title track 'Heaven Is Other People' moves Tomlinson's singular songwriting into unexpectedly joyful territory. Growing from intimate reflection into an expansive hymn to human connection, 'Heaven Is Other People' finds transcendence in the ordinary, celebrating the people who shape our lives.
On the new song, Tomlinson said: "Ten months ago I became a father - not long after, fragments of lyrics and chords assembled themselves into this song. This song is a crystallisation of the sun in the morning, three in the bed, three hours sleep-happiness that’s here now. It’s the sound of a little smile, a release after a long time of quietly hoping, a trajectory that brought on a whole new body of work. We recorded this in our studio, inspired by artists like Tom Waits, Mitski & Ron Sexsmith. Hope you dig!"
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New York–based alternative singer-songwriter Lauren Minear returns with “Ellie,” a warm, uplifting, and emotionally resonant new single that explores the complexities of neurodivergence, identity, and self-understanding. Balancing deeply personal subject matter with buoyant, liberating production, the track transforms a moment of recognition into an anthem of compassion for both ourselves and the parts of us we may have spent years trying to understand.
The song was sparked by an unexpected emotional reaction. After listening to a podcast exploring eight different presentations of ADHD in girls, Lauren found herself profoundly affected by one particular profile. Diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, she immediately recognized something familiar in the story.
“I had a very strong emotional reaction to one of the profiles,” she explains. “So I wrote her a song.” Though rooted in a specific experience, “Ellie” ultimately speaks to something much broader: the feeling of growing up without the language to explain who you are.
Rather than leaning into melancholy, Lauren intentionally chose a more uplifting sonic direction. “For some reason, I always heard ‘Ellie’ as a dance track,” she shares. “The first time I listened to it, I was literally dancing in my closet.” Inspired in part by watching artist sombr build his breakout track “back to friends,” Lauren wanted the production to counterbalance the darkness of the song’s themes with a sense of movement and release.
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