Paco Cathcart - Paige Barnard - Jont - Esther Rose - Ways of Seeing

Paco Cathcart - Invasive Species.

“Invasive Species” is the second advance single from Paco Cathcart’s new album Down on Them (out 2nd May) and it’s streaming everywhere now. 

The song is a snapshot of Paco’s life in NYC working to make rent while sharing the city with fellow invasive species like the Spotted Lantern Fly.

The absolute wrecking crew that Paco put together to record Down on Them is on full display on “Invasive Species.” The band comprises Miriam Elhajli (Guitar, Vocals), Ellie Shannon (Synth, French Horn, Piano, Vocals) and Fantasy of a Broken Heart’s Bailey Wollowitz on drums.

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Paige Barnard - What Else.

Singer-songwriter Paige Barnard has released yet another gut-punch single,  ‘What Else’, gripping the minds of its listeners for four minutes and forty seconds. The track is a preview of her upcoming debut album, 'Find Your Way Back', set for release on June 4. In her second release of 2025, Paige gives it her all in yet another showcase of her talents, showing why she’s earned praise from Triple J Unearthed, Aus Music Scene, Milky, and more, and why she’s received recognition from the Darebin Songwriters Judges Award 2020 and the AIR Women in Music Mentor Program.

Though this single encapsulates her iconic emotive sound and the grandeur of her storytelling, 'What Else' breaks from her usual style with its country twist, through the pedal steel guitar, slow drums and bed of piano the track is laid upon. The heart of the track is the vocal performance of Paige Barnard, adventuring the emotional and literal highs and lows of the track in truly showstopping form. ‘What Else’ is a ballad reminiscent of a song at the emotional peak of a musical, its incredible vocal range paired with immersive storytelling.

This song explores the stage of a relationship where the same arguments repeat, the threads wear thin, and love feels like a cycle of unresolved problems—no matter the effort, both sides are always in the wrong. Paige describes the inspiration as,

"Having the same disagreements play on repeat, feeling guilty for how I react but still trapped in the cycle, like nothing will ever change. This song was me screaming out in desperation to find a way to change the narrative. But at the end of the day, it’s unconditional love, so we always find a way to forgive each other."

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Jont - Fingers Crossed.

Nova Scotia via London, UK singer-songwriter Jont's new single, "Fingers Crossed," is a powerful and emotionally charged anthem that dives deep into the complexities of forgiveness, accountability, and the transformative process of taking control of one's own emotional freedom. The song offers an unflinching exploration of the personal struggle to let go of anger and pain, turning them into liberation rather than allowing them to fester into resentment.

Jont's music has always carried a sense of introspection, and "Fingers Crossed" is no exception. It comes from a place of yearning for release—release from waiting for someone else to acknowledge their wrongdoing. The song highlights how we often find ourselves trapped in the prison of unspoken grievances, waiting for apologies that may never come, all the while neglecting the fact that we have the power to release ourselves from this self-imposed captivity.

Sometimes we need to see the truth, to be shocked by the unrelenting truth of how things are, so that we can make a change. And that change invariably needs to happen in us, not in someone else. "Fingers Crossed" is about that realization. It's about forgiveness, and how it's often not about the person we are waiting to apologize, but about us choosing to forgive and move on. – Jont

The song's music video, directed by Annaka Gale and Dario Lozano-Thornton, is a visual extension of its themes. "We knew we had the opportunity to create something deeply connected to the shadow realms," says Jont. "The moments in the video are shocking but playful, and the intense, graphic re-enactments of toxic relationship dynamics are designed to be visceral, dark, and most importantly, true to the nature of those deeply painful moments that so many experience."

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Photograph by Char Klein

Esther Rose - The Clown.

Esther Rose will release Want on May 2, 2025 via New West Records. The 11-track set was produced by Ross Farbe (of Video Age) and recorded live-to-tape at the Bomb Shelter in Nashville, TN. Want is the anticipated follow up to 2023’s Safe to Run which was met with wide acclaim from The New York Times, Pitchfork, Stereogum, No Depression, and more. The album features appearances by the singer songwriter Dean Johnson as well as members of Video Age, The Deslondes, and Silver Synthetic. 

Following the wide-open serenity of Safe to Run, Rose now leans toward confrontational arrangements full of distortion and full-band spontaneity, never sacrificing a classicist’s gift for melody that makes each song instantly memorable. “For me, these songs felt like revelations,” she explains, comparing the record to a memoir, alive with kinetic storytelling and personal insight. Ranging from stark solo performances to grungy blowouts, the album maintains a steady focus while never staying too long in one place. Vivid and bracing, she has made the most adventurous, hardest-hitting record of her career.
 
Now Rose shared the album standout “The Clown.” Rose says, “This song is about self-acceptance, gender identity, and being turned on. Clothing and how it makes me feel is a huge part of my process. I heard that David Bowie would dress up in the studio when he was making records. The band caught on to my process, and it was fun to surprise them each morning with a lewk. Nothing too wild, but alluding to a vibe that would carry into the music. For ‘The Clown,’ I wore my favorite outfit: a blazer with huge shoulder pads and low-rise leather pants.”

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Ways of Seeing - Idolise.

ork risers Ways Of Seeing share the atmospheric yet buoyant new single ‘Idolise’. Taken from the band's upcoming sophomore album, The Inheritance of Fear the single displays the band’s blend of shoegaze and alt-rock elements.

‘Idolise’ was brought to life with Christian Best (Susan O’Neill, Mick Flannery, O Emperor) at the helm of production, with additional production and mixing by Daniel Fox of Gilla Band (Sprints, Lambrini Girls, Silverbacks). The result is a textured, immersive listening experience that continues to build on the band’s growing reputation.

Highlighting the band's evolution towards a rawer, darker and more foreboding sound, ‘Idolise’ marks a bold departure from their debut album, End Comes To Light. Danceable and driven thanks to the up tempo drums and pulsing bass, the tracks intricate guitar work, which shifts between fuzzy lead lines and the twinkling modulation tinted verses. Topped with commanding, theatrical and expressive vocals throughout, the track is at once haunting and subtly hooky.   

Speaking on the track the band explains: “This song explores the dangers of idolisation in a relationship or any other realm of society for that matter. It has the potential to lead to a loss of identity, a power imbalance and the hindrance of growth. Putting anyone on a pedestal means there is a good chance that you might miss the red flags attached which can lead to an unravelling into chaos and destruction. Sometimes only seeing the good in something or someone can tear you apart more than acknowledging and tackling the messy parts of life.”

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Claire Helm - Moving Into Tucson - Gwenno - Hannah Rose Platt

Claire Helm - Ghost.

Fusing pop and soft rock into hauntingly beautiful but pulsing melodies and lush musicianship, Ghost is a searing track all about the person who comes into your life like a game show host, showing you all of the best parts of themselves, and then when you pull back the curtain to look for the truth and the real person, you discover the smoke and mirrors that lie that behind the facade....and that in reality there is nothing there...like a ghost. Written by Mark Sykes and Claire Helm and produced by Steve Dutton with mastering from the highly respected studios of Carl Rosamond at RSS Music and Media.

This track features a veritable Huddersfield super group of superb, well established local musicians of the highest calibre. With polymath Steve Dutton from the mod legends The Killermeters on drumming, engineering, producing, cinematography and photography duties, local rock god Roger Kinder from one of West Yorkshire’s leading live bands Razorbach on lead guitar, the badass bass from Mark Sykes of Champagne Supernova, and the exceptional singer/songwriter and exemplary musican Nick Ryder on additional guitars and keys.

Ghost also features the stunning acoustic guitar of the late Boo Sutcliffe, and this fact is heartbreakingly significant as it is the last track that Boo was able to play on shortly before brain surgery led to him losing his renowned dexterity in his arm and hand. It was purely incidental that the track was called Ghost, as his playing is very much alive and in glorious technicolour on this powerful track, and will forever be.

Claire Helm · Ghost

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Moving Into Tucson - Are You Ready.

Moving Into Tucson, the indie pop rock band known for their evocative storytelling and unforgettable melodies, returns with Are You Ready, a shimmering Britpop anthem for our times. Infused with the optimism and energy of the genre's golden era, this track is a call to action wrapped in an irresistibly catchy tune.

The song’s lyrics, driven by heartfelt imagery and a universal message, evoke childhood innocence and the urgent need for unity. With lines like, “Are you ready to build up a world of love / To build up a world of peace” the track challenges listeners to step up and create a better future. The nostalgic verses, painted with sunny playground memories and riverside conversations, are a poignant reminder of what’s at stake.

Anchored by the chorus’s soaring harmonies and upbeat rhythm, Are You Ready is not just a song, it’s an anthem of hope. The band’s Britpop influences shine through in every driving chord and uplifting refrain, making it impossible not to sing along.

Are You Ready is more than a rallying cry; it’s a feel-good reminder that change starts with all of us. So, turn up the volume, let the music inspire you, and join Moving Into Tucson in building a world worth dreaming about.

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Photo - Clare Marie Bailey

Gwenno - Dancing On Volcanoes.

Gwenno today announces her new album Utopia due out July 11 via Heavenly Recordings. The album is the follow-up to her hugely acclaimed third album Tresor which was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2022. To accompany the announcement Gwenno has shared lead single “Dancing On Volcanoes” together with a stylish B&W video shot in Las Vegas. Over a backing track that swirls, drives and punches like a motorik-fuelled version of The Smiths, Gwenno looks back on dancefloors that no longer exist, to the act of dancing as catharsis and the magic of losing oneself until 5am in a strange and beautiful new environment. It’s the perfect return of one of the UK's most creative and driven musicians.

Commenting on the track Gwenno says: “Jarvis Cocker dancing alone on stage, surrounded by dry ice, perfectly conveying the loss of our congregational dancing and drinking in small venues with a slight swing of the hip and flick of a hand... dancing 'til 5am at Le Mandela restaurant in Grangetown, Cardiff... the Pet Shop Boys' perfectly aimed observations on modern life... the spirit of Johnny Marr on guitar, his echoes of the Celtic sea passed down through the generations... the need to dance as a cathartic act... it's all here - Dancing on Volcanoes!"

43 years into her life, Gwenno Saunders has been many people. The disaffected Cardiff schoolgirl; the teenage Las Vegas dancer; the singer in indie pop group The Pipettes. There was a turn in a Bollywood film, a nightclub tour, a stint cleaning floors in an East London pub. Long before she would become an acclaimed solo songwriter in both Welsh and Cornish, a winner of the Welsh Music Prize, a nominee for the Mercury, a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedh, there were the days of Nevada, London, Brighton; of Irish dancing, techno clubs, messiness and chaos.

Utopia, Saunders’ fourth solo album, is an extraordinary exploration of all of these selves. If the singer regards her first three solo records — 2014’s Y Dydd Olaf, 2018’s Le Kov and 2022’s Tresor as “childhood records”, rooted in her upbringing, her parents, her formative identity, then Utopia captures a time of self-determination and experimentation. These are songs of discovery, of the years between being someone’s daughter and becoming someone’s wife and someone’s mother. They range from floor-fillers to piano ballads, via contributions from Cate Le Bon and H. Hawkline, and encompass William Blake, a favorite Edrica Huws poem, and the Number 73 bus. It is her finest work to date.

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Hannah Rose Platt - Young Men Need Their Wives.

While staying true to the themes of medicine and misogyny at the heart of her conceptual album, "Young Men Need Their Wives" is drawn from a much more personal well of influence. Ultimately pressured by multiple therapists and medical professionals to stay in an abusive relationship during a particularly challenging chapter of her life, this fierce track channels the chaotic, disorienting emotions she felt during that time.

As Hannah explains: “I wrote "Young Men Need Their Wives" as a fierce declaration that we are all worthy of love that is kind, genuine, and healthy—free from manipulation. Many of the lyrics are drawn directly from the harmful and dangerous advice I was given verbatim by therapists and medical professionals. This song is not just about reclaiming my own voice; it’s also about empowering anyone who has ever felt pressured to stay in toxic situations. It serves as a reminder that we deserve love that lifts us up, and we should never settle for being collateral damage in someone else’s journey of self-discovery.”

With lyrics that cut right to the bone and a score that blends the raw energy of Sonic Youth's distorted guitars with the soulful, catchy, yet vulnerable sound of The Shirelles; "Young Men Need Their Wives" shakes to the core with its rebellious spirit and defiant message.

A standout moment of her next album ‘Fragile Creatures’, this song is an assertion of independence and strength that turns a painful experience into a powerful call for self-worth and self-liberation. The track will feature on the record alongside previous singles ‘Curious Mixtures’ and ‘The Edinburgh Seven’.

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Annie Stokes - Blue Foundation - Sister Sadie - Daphne Blue Underworld

Annie Stokes - Ghostwriter (Album).

After hustling in the Washington, DC music scene for a decade, Annie Stokes arrived at the end of 2023 with a calm clarity: she was ready to write the type of album she’d always dreamed of. She and her husband and songwriting partner, Will Berger, holed themselves up in a cabin by the Shenandoah River for a weekend in December and sketched out the bones of what would become “Ghostwriter.” Built around themes of grief, belonging, and permanence, the album also visits topics of gender dymanics and double standards, the lingering ache for validation from past friends and lovers, reclaiming boundaries in the digital age, and the intense, alchemical friendship young women experience in their twenties.

“Ghostwriter” began to take form under the creative helm of producer and co-writer Austin Bello, who collaborated on 2023’s “Wild Rose” EP. Stokes leaned more on her banjo as a rhythm instrument, while Berger used the bass to push the melodic narrative of the songs. Marty Garfield, who joins Stokes on stage as part of her live line-up, added fiddle, alternating between highland-esque dirges and Appalachian licks. Before recording each song, the players loosely discussed the genre and sound they were attempting to create, while ultimately agreeing that the songs needed to take their own shape. The result is a collection of dark-hued, modern Americana music firmly rooted in folk songwriting tradition.

While recording this album in the spring and summer of 2024, Stokes also independently toured the East Coast, began hosting songwriter showcases in her hometown of Leesburg, VA, and parented her two young daughters. She loves that the grit and fatigue of being a working artist and millennial parent shine through in these songs. Americana and folk music is many things, but it’s ultimately defined by its connection to the earth and the everyday people who inhabit it. With “Ghostwriter”, Stokes hopes to crystallize and honor some of the sacred, ordinary experiences of everyday living.

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Blue Foundation - Ecstacy In Space.

Blue Foundation are proud to announce the release of, ‘Ecstasy in Space’, the third single from their forthcoming new album ‘Close to the Knife’, which is set for release on April 18th. Recorded in 2024 and written by Tobias Wilner, this dreamy, shoegazey track takes listeners on a sonic journey through ethereal soundscapes and pulsating rhythms, capturing the essence of liberation and desire. The track also introduces a new member to the Blue Foundation lineup, Nina Dahlgaard Larsen, who provides vocals on this song.

‘Ecstasy in Space’ is a fuzzy and delicious snowball of pure dream pop that calls you to surrender to the moment. The track tells you to hold on tight and glide with grace and reminds you that true ecstasy comes from the freedom of choice and the strength to surrender. On the single, Tobias Wilner said, "I wanted to capture my feeling of floating high on feelings". His words echo in the refrain, "Wish you were mine".

The music video for "Ecstasy In Space" is a dreamy journey into the energy and emotion of a group of young people in Copenhagen. Shot with an artistic and cinematic aesthetic, the video follows them as they venture into the night on their way to an underground warehouse party. The music video, directed by Hannah Bertram, is a visual poem – hypnotic, raw and nostalgic.

Founded in 2000 by Danish singer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Tobias Wilner, the group was inspired by Mark E. Smith's method of forming a band (The Fall), with Wilner recruiting a rotating lineup of traditional musicians over the years to fuel creativity. Since 2010, the core members of the band have been Tobias Wilner and Bo Rande, working between Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and Copenhagen, Denmark.

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Photo by Allister Ann.

Sister Sadie - Let the Circle Be Broken.

In a mostly male genre still known as much for its reticence about contemporary subjects as for its powerful harmonies and virtuosic picking, bluegrass music’s Sister Sadie have stood out ever since the all-female group’s founding more than a dozen years ago. 

Now, with the release of “Let The Circle Be Broken,” the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) award-winning, GRAMMY-nominated ensemble is breaking new ground with a somber yet uplifting exorcism of the generational trauma of domestic abuse.

“Dani Flowers, Erin Enderlin and myself wrote ‘Let the Circle Be Broken’ right after my Dad passed away,” says the group’s co-founder, fiddler Deanie Richardson. “He was an abusive man who verbally, emotionally and sexually abused me for most of my 18 years living at home with him. When I confronted him as an adult, he said that it had been done to him as a child. This song is about that generational trauma and abuse that keeps getting passed down. The continuing of that trauma and abuse stops with me. It doesn’t go any further.”

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Photo Loren Ipsum

Daphne Blue Underworld - Fake It Make It.

"Fake It Make It" is the newest single from Boston-based alt-pop mad scientist Daphne Blue Underworld (aka. Loren Ipsum).

"Fake It Make It" is the second single from Daphne Blue Underworld's forthcoming album, Memory Palace. Trading the frantic electronic drive of previous single "Kicking and Screaming" for wistful guitar pop a la Camera Obscura or Belle and Sebastian, Daphne Blue Underworld’s "Fake It Make It" may sound gentle, but loses none of the potent lyrical venom of its predecessor.

The song’s chiming guitar chords and plaintive vocal melodies may evoke nostalgia, but serve as a spoonful of sugar for DBU principal Ipsum's bitter ruminations on integrity and authenticity. The music may harken back to a simpler time of homespun indie rock that lived and died by short-run 7” singles and self-Xeroxed zines, but the message is bang up to the minute and all-too-relevant in a world where reality is being obfuscated more than ever before.

The forthcoming Memory Palace is DBU’s forthcoming mid-fi masterpiece—an evocative collection of songs that take the form of aural daydreams bathed in a nostalgic VHS glow. Flipping stylistic channels between the guitar-dominated heyday of MTV’s 120 Minutes and the warm synthesized landscapes of PBS’s Nova, Memory Palace explores themes of personal authenticity, courage in the face of change, and the tenuous escapism of a complex inner life.

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Jæd - Virgins - Course

Photo - Alexis Vokos

Jæd - The Sting.

London based Irish-Puerto Rican musician Jæd (pronounced: jade) yesterday shared a new video for 'The Sting' a highlight from her recently released debut album 'I Loved The Gauntlet And There Was No Other Way' - out now digitally and on 12" heavyweight vinyl via Irish label Delphi.

On its release at the tail end of 2024, Jæd's debut album ‘I Loved The Gauntlet And There Was No Other Way’ received notable support from Mary Anne Hobbs on BBC 6 Music, Paste Magazine, The Forty-Five, The Line of Best Fit, Nialler9, Rough Trade, Hard of Hearing, Hot Press & more, praising the project's freewheeling guitars, jagged drum patterns and spiralling vocal runs, with comparisons to the work of Fiona Apple, Anna Calvi and Nadine Shah.

Once seen live, Jæd is hard to forget. In her hands, the guitar is choked at the neck, tamed and mastered like a wild animal to yield a particular tone, while her voice – an instrument all of its own – is capable of incredible tenderness one moment, before taking on shades of desperation and defiance the next.

Speaking more about her song 'The Sting', Jæd said: "The Sting is about the transformative power of jealousy when worked with for insight into our hidden and sometimes surprising desires. The initial pain of jealousy like a sting, when given space with patience and some meditation, is actually a storehouse of energy and can provide an impetus to initiate change."

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Virgins - blooms.

Following the success of their critically acclaimed debut album ‘Nothing Hurt and Everything Was Beautiful’, Belfast-based shoegaze risers Virgins return with the intoxicating new single 'blooms' (April 3rd via Blowtorch Records). The track sees the band further evolve their sound, pushing into darker, more dynamic territories, whilst retaining the euphoric textures that have defined their rise in the shoegaze scene to date.

Produced by Simon Francis (The Japanese House, Kylie Minogue, Ellie Goulding) and mastered by Slowdive’s Simon Scott, 'blooms' is a cinematic and stylistic swirl of reverb-drenched guitars, tight drums, grounding bass and cascading fuzz, culminating in a cathartic explosion of sound. Shimmering verses burst into swirling choruses as the siren vocals soar above the atmospherics of the instrumentation.

Speaking on the track, songwriter and guitarist Michael describes 'blooms' as: “the band redefining our sound while delving to new emotional depths. A sonic exploration of tension and release, accented by reverse delays and glide guitar. Lyrically, it’s explores themes of reflection and self-confidence..”

Virgins have rapidly become one of Ireland’s most promising alternative acts. Their 2022 EP ‘Transmit a Little Heaven’ sold out its vinyl pressing, and their debut album ‘Nothing Hurt and Everything Was Beautiful’ garnered praise across major press and radio, solidifying the band as ones to watch. The band’s dynamic live performances have cemented their reputation, with sold-out headline shows at GazeFest, appearances at Stendhal Festival and Other Voices Wales, as well as UK and Irish tours supporting artists including Bleach Lab, BDRMM, New Pagans, Sign Crushes Motorist.

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Course - Feeling Alive.

Chicago-based synth/pop group Course has released their new single “Feeling Alive” off their upcoming album Hue Mirror, due out April 25th. Their third full-length offering, Hue Mirror marks their most raw, vulnerable, and poignant collection of songs to date, written by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Jessica Robbins in the wake of a traumatic, life-altering diagnosis. On “Feeling Alive,” she acknowledges the personal challenges ahead, but enjoys the small victories of the present, allowing herself to bask in the relief of a pain-free day. Under The Radar featured the track and raved "Although much of the album explores the thorny and emotionally laden experience of living with chronic illness, 'Feeling Alive' offers a welcome detour into serene folk balladry. Robbins’ vocals settle atop glassy synths and swaying acoustic guitar as her melodies sprawl outwards, stretching dreamily as though she is waking from a restful sleep to greet a new day.”

"I wrote this song a few months after my diagnosis when I had come to terms with everything, for the most part, and was feeling better,” said Robbins. “I started to work out, lift weights, and walk more. I was feeling more like myself. This is probably the most hopeful song on the album. It touches on how it takes time in the morning to feel like myself and bring all the stiffness down in my back, 'can the day awake?' And then when it does, I feel alive again and can forget about this horrible disease for the day."

“Feeling Alive” follows the release of the album’s title track “Hue Mirror,” a song that captures a moment of whirlwind confusion, fear, and shock. Magnet Magazine spoke with Robbins and featured the track along with an early peek at the album, raving “it’s her most sonically expansive, emotionally unfettered set of songs to date.”

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