Finnish power pop veterans The Bablers and Big Stir Records can now announce the album release their fans have been waiting for: the new and definitive edition of the band's Like The First Time, long out of print and previously only available in Japan and Finland. Featuring a new track sequence and freshly remixed and rearranged tracks never before heard anywhere – and no fewer than six hit indie singles from the past three years – the album sees release on CD and streaming worldwide today April 25.
The story of The Bablers has become much more widely known outside their native Finland in recent years for good reason. It's been over forty years since the band came together as teenagers in the late '70s and took Finland's nascent power pop scene by storm with their debut album What's All About and its hit title track. For decades afterward, they remained a cult favorite among power pop aficionados worldwide until the surprise release of their acclaimed 2021 reunion album Psychadilly Circus won the band – in their longest-lived and definitive lineup of leader, singer-songwriter and guitarist Arto Tamminen, drummer Janne Haavisto, bassist Pekka Gröhn and guitarist Hannu Pikkarainen – a much broader and long-deserved audience of fans in the indie pop world. Those bookend releases tell a remarkable tale in themselves, but what keen-eared listeners have been slowly discovering since then is that the amazing story of The Bablers has a secret middle chapter... one that is about to be revealed at last.
The clues have been all over the indie airwaves since 2022, shortly after Psychadilly Circus bowed to near-universal acclaim, as a series of new singles from the band began to emerge and captivate the ears of the band's new fans. The indie hits began with “You Are The One For Me” (chosen by Stevie Van Zandt as The Coolest Song in the World This Week on SiriusXM's Underground Garage) and “Holding Me Tight Tonight”, followed in 2023 by “Mr. King” and “Thinking Of You”. Each found its way onto Top 10 charts on terrestrial and online radio in the US, UK and EU, paving the way for this year's “Together Forever” and the wonderful surprise of the beautiful and brand new “Where The Wind Blows Free”. Between them, they've revealed the band's unique versatility, varying in style from muscular pure power pop to highly sophisticated, groovy and infectiously catchy pop. Along the way, the press releases and social media posts from the band have teased the album from which these tunes originate: Like The First Time, a lost treasure hidden in plain sight for those curious enough to check Discogs, but never released on a global scale until now.
Originally issued only in Japan in 1998 by EMI, the album's first hit single “You Are The One For Me” received substantial airplay on Japanese national radio. Songs from the album were featured in TV commercials for the insurance company Nippon Life, Ford Motor Company and the Foreign Ministry of Japan. The next hit single “You Are The One For Me” became a karaoke favorite and is still widely heard in karaoke bars in Tokyo and elsewhere today. The album Like The First Time would go on to enjoy a Finnish release in 2000, and its songs would soar to greater glory still in the band's homeland: “Together Forever” was the winner of the Finnish Grammy Award (Emma) for Song of the Year in its Finnish language version, and two Finnish megastars, Samuli Edelmann and Vesa-Matti Loiri, recorded versions of the unforgettable ballad “Where The Wind Blows Free” under the title “Palava Pää”. But the forthcoming reissue of Like The First Time is the “first time” the album will be available to a global audience, making it a debut release to most of the indie pop, pop rock, power pop and classic rock fans in the world.
============================================================================
The first album of songs from Effingham, IL husband/wife duo LoveSeat is called “Our Way” and is released today April 25th, 2025. The album is composed of eight songs written or co-written by Bill and JJ Passalacqua, plus one throwback song written by Kirsty MacColl and Peter Glenister. The album was produced and engineered by Ezra Idlet in his Fayetteville, AR Trout Studios.
‘The Old Me’ is the standard bearer of the album, a classic country, waltz duet. It’s at once poignant, funny and sentimental. If songs can be judged by the number of requests, this one wins by a substantial margin.
The songwriting developed organically between a very experienced songwriter husband and a novice songwriter wife. The skill and experience of Bill combined with the excitement and drive of JJ to net some very real, personal songs for the “Our Way” album. Two songs came down a different path; Time Stand Still was written by JJ about the bittersweet feeling of watching one’s children grow up, Clock and Speedometer is a twenty year old song written for country radio by Bill.
The songs feature a playful interplay between husband and wife, featuring love peppered with a lot of laughs. While the language is ‘clean’ throughout, some of the lyrics are a bit spicy, with a few references to sex and drug and alcohol use.
The album crosses a lot of genres from folk to rock and roll, touching on country and bluegrass at times. Some of the songs are stripped down, while others include full band instrumentation, truly something for everyone interested in roots/Americana styles.
============================================================================
Today, prolific Boston indie rock ensemble Hallelujah The Hills unveil their latest single, “Crush All Night,” a feverish anthem that surges with raw energy and searing hooks. This track offers another glimpse into their forthcoming magnum opus, DECK, set for release on June 13th, 2025, via Discrete Pageantry Records and Best Brother Records.
Featuring a dynamic guest vocal from Speedy Ortiz’s Sadie Dupuis (SAD13), “Crush All Night” embodies what frontman Ryan H. Walsh describes as “Dirtbag Rock.” Walsh elaborates: “In our band, we have a genre of song that we sometimes like to mess around with that we’ve titled Dirtbag Rock. ‘Crush All Night’ is a great example of a Dirtbag Rock song. I wanted this track to sound like running red lights and smoking cigarettes inside a church. But also, the lyrics try to rise above all that; the adventure might take in an old Camaro, but the stakes are mythical. And then the great Sadie Dupuis comes in on vocals and it just takes it to a whole ‘nother level. We hope this single, coming on the heels of ‘Fake Flowers at Sunset,’ will give listeners a hint at just how many different sounds we’ve packed inside the DECK.”
Clocking in at a tight three minutes, the track barrels forward with gritty guitar riffs, lo-fi drum machines, and warped vocal layers that capture the chaotic euphoria of late-night escapades. Dupuis’ haunting vocals intertwine with Walsh’s, elevating the song’s intensity and adding an otherworldly shimmer to the beautifully unhinged composition.
“Crush All Night” follows the release of “Fake Flowers at Sunset,” a folk song with a disco beat that features a haunting guest vocal from Cassie Berman (Silver Jews). This track subverts the notion that nature serves as an apt metaphor for human relationships, examining love’s intensity with both longing and hesitation.
============================================================================
Victoria Akua from Copenhagen Denmark, describes her music as a genre mix of indie pop, folky singer-songwriter and meditative music. The new single The River drops today April 25, 2025 via Greywood Records.
Her new single: "The River is a celebration of friendship and connection. Friendships that keep growing and evolving, like a stream of water running freely, softly and wildly. I began writing The River, in 2018, and in the meantime it’s also been called “The Friendship Song” in my nearest circle. What makes me smile about this recording, is that three of my closest friends are singing along with me."
Victoria's music is based on her own journey, which began at a young age, searching for more balance and a deeper peace and understanding within herself. In a hectic world where it is so easy to be pulled in many directions, she wants to find ways to stay centered with an open heart in the hope that her music can support others on their own paths. The intention of the music is to have a nourishing, calming and healing effect.
Music that comes from the heart and that reflects and creates inner peace, trust and self-love - and connects us. Her music is inspired by the rhythms and cycles of nature, healthy and nurturing connections between people and creating spaces for expression, creativity and loving energy. Through the simplicity of the music, the listener is invited directly into a calm cocoon where breathing becomes deeper and the mind can rest.
============================================================================
Imogen Clark has a new album Choking on Fuel due May 30, 2025. It’s reimagined versions of songs from her album The Art of Getting Through (2024) that have been stripped down to their singer/songwriter roots and includes a cover of Sheryl Crowe’s “If It Makes You Happy.”
Imogen Clark calls Nashville home, but earned her stripes as a high-schooler playing bars in her native Western Sydney. Touring with Shania Twain, Steve Poltz and Bowen * Young, collaborating with Colin Hay and Jim Lauderdale and many more, Imogen has earned the respect of her heroes and peers through her deeply personal storytelling, roof-raising voice and leave it all out on the field live energy. Her witty, melodic songwriting crosses generations and genres, with influences from Joni Mitchell to Jason Isbell, Led Zeppelin to Taylor Swift.
After a breakneck year in 2024 of non-stop touring, Imogen’s new album Choking on Fuel sees her returning to her roots. Armed with an acoustic guitar, Imogen is rolling out a record that captures the intensity, vulnerability, musical dexterity and vocal power that characterizes her compelling live performances. “I spent last year on the road around the world, playing headline shows but also touring with Robyn Hitchcock, Steve Poltz, Bowen * Young and Andrew Farriss”, Imogen explains. “So many people have messaged me or commented on my social media to say that they would love to have an album that captured the spirit of what I do live, and that’s what this is”.
The album puts Imogen’s rich, devastating vocals front and center, foregrounding her deft, cutting lyrics and affecting melodies. A mix of co-writes and purely self-penned songs, the record runs the emotional gamut from the wry, incendiary All Hard Feelings (with 70s style backing vocals from co-writers Sinead Burgess and Blake O’Connor, who also tears up a blistering slide guitar solo) to the raw, powerful anthem The Last of Me (with My Morning Jacket’s Bo Koster on propulsive piano), the road not taken nightmare of Squinters (a co-write with Steve Poltz powered by Bryan Sutton’s nuanced acoustic guitar)to the delicate, timeless wisdom of If Your Heart Never Breaks (featuring gorgeous harmonies from co-writer Jim Lauderdale and a dexterous and beautiful guitar from the iconic Tommy Emmanuel).
============================================================================
