Author: velvetnoisemusic

Pretty Sick’s latest release consisted of “Black Tar” and “Human Condition”. In “Black Tar”, the familiar sound of “Where Is My Mind” by the Pixies is hand-rendered by Pretty Sick. This acoustic, airy version of a gripping classic automatically lets you know that this song is where you are meant to be.

“Covered in a thick black layer of tar, I can’t breathe but I feel so warm.” In a nonchalant yet perfectly intentional way, the singer makes you hold onto their words and their feelings, wondering which way you are being pulled.“Black Tar” is the kind of song that doesn’t tell you how you should like it, it lets you decide that for yourself.

With me, the line “I’ll always be whatever you want” resonates. This song is an ode to the knowing when something is bad for you but not being able to leave it behind, either by someone else’s doing or your own. By the time the song cuts out on the word “strip”, you feel stuck in the moment the track has created and you are left to your own devices. Swimming in tar.

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Do you need an angry summer anthem? Do you need a moment of reflection? In typical pop-rock fashion, you can bring these feelings together and dance along to “StuckintheMiddle”, MONOWHALES’ latest song. The words “don’t look back” echo in the background in the chorus while the singer belts “I’m stuck in the middle, I’m chained like an animal”. The chorus is high energy and vibrant, perfect for those late-night summer drives on the highway. The song is reminiscent of classic Paramore songs with an Against the Current kick and if you’re into those kinds of bands, this is bound to be a new favorite.

The upbeat and powerful song has a meaningful story that makes you relisten to the song multiple times, using it both to jam out to and as an escape. The singer of the band, Sally Shaar, shares that the song was written during a personally dark time saying that the song is a culmination of their experience with “intergenerational trauma, self-doubt, and a constant struggle against a male dominated world”. Sally shares this story and makes clear the importance of music for us all, whether artist, fan, or casual listener. MONOWHALES hopes this song will help to set you free.

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“IF I FALL” is one of killfiji’s latest songs. Produced by Bez Dna, the track is a fast-moving, hallucinogenic moment in time. “Oh if I fall, you won’t call but I don’t need you to.” The beat transitions between melodic vocals into enticing drum breakdowns that you can imagine yourself dancing to in a club, the words “if you can pick up the pace” pushing you through sweaty bodies. 

The song falls between hyperpop and classic techno styles, made whole by killfiji’s unique musical energy. The song drifts to an end with siren-like “oohs” as the drums continue at their pulsing rhythm finally crashing into a synth that brings you to the end of the song but right to the start of your new obsession with killfiji.

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“Indirecta” is a song from Latin R&B singer riela’s new EP, llorar y perrear. If you don’t know what “llorar y perrear” means, just turn on this trap-driven song and you will. Do you ever hear the beat of a certain song and your body starts moving? That’s what might happen when you turn on “Indirecta.” The vibras are immaculate in this EP that shows off riela’s signature smooth r&b vocals and her velvety rap style that frequently accents her more upbeat songs. “Indirecta” showcases more of riela’s rap side, and she raps and sings both in Spanish and English. The song starts with its main hook, “Pa’ qué me tiras indirectas?” (“Why are you giving me hints?”) that line sets the theme of the song and begs the question. It continues with “No me enseñaron a leerlo/ Ven, y dímelo á la cara” (They didn’t teach me how to read these, come and tell it to my face)—this song is about not taking hints as an answer. It’s sexy, commanding, and confident. It’s about powerful femininity. Now I’m going to stop giving you indirectas about this song, and tell you to go listen to it instead.

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Written by Lola Works

“She Said” by Starcrawler is mad. “She said she didn’t wanna play, I didn’t want it any other way.” The singer lures you into the song and keeps you there, beckoning “please, please come back to me” with an energetic and rebellious guitar. In one moment the singer sings “All I wanna be is anybody else” and in the next “Don’t wanna be alone and don’t want nobody else”, creating a special lyrical tension in this catchy pop-rock tune.

The song ends in a crashing and spinning manner “red lipstick is always gonna leave a stain”. Starcrawler has a unique superpower of enticement. All of their songs are catchy. “She Said” is continued proof of that packaged in a glitter-wrapped gift that explodes in a final melodic guitar solo, drifting into quiet.

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Blackpolish’s new song “Tears Are Falling” is a throwback to 90s grunge rock with a modern pop feel. Their dreamy voice sings “scary creatures in my brain, twisting features in my face, broken mirrors they create” to a drowsy repition of “in my head”.

Blackpolish sings “I’m falling, tears are falling”. Before descending into a mellow-emotional instrumental breakdown for the last time “I’m falling, tears are falling, and I’m so scared that I could die.”

Released in April, “Tears Are Falling” makes clear the growth that 17 year old Blackpolish has made as an artist since they began making music years ago, and makes us excited for what they’re getting ready to show the world.

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Suckerpunk is back with their new song “winter”. Despite the name sake, the song is a perfect welcome into summer with its soundscape of pop electronic bliss. Produced by glasear, sloppy, and foxy, the track exhibits Suckerpunk’s continual growth as an artist, able to make songs that sound nothing like you’ve ever heard before. The kind of songs you send to everybody saying “you have to check this out”.

“Winter” has a catchy hook buried between synth keys, “you know it’s cold in the winter at night, you know I’ve made some mistakes but I’m still everything he isn’t”.

At the end of “winter”, Suckerpunk belts “everything I went through with just to hold you, just to hold you” before the track changes pace into an upbeat pop rave song that builds into the chorus you won’t be able to erase from your head after the first listen. The song ends with Suckerpunk’s singing “gotta tell myself to breathe when I’m alone with you”. And a distorted voice carries out the song saying “you know it’s cold in the winter”.

We’ve missed you Suckerpunk.

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“Pillowcase” is the last song on Diva Bleach’s latest EP, No Fun. At first listen, “Pillowcase” by Diva Bleach might seem like a breakup song— the narrator clutching the pillow on which their love used to sleep—and this may be so. However, when you look closer at the lyrics of this “sparkly pop rock” ballad, it seems like the song might actually be dedicated to a dead pet. “Your water bowl stays empty on the kitchen tile” is the line in this song that initially suggested this to me. If this isn’t in fact a song about a dearly departed dog or a fondly remembered feline, though, it certainly poses a metaphor about the kind of emptiness that resounds in one’s life when they lose their love; it might feel a lot like the loss of an integral member of one’s family— a pet. The echoing “it feels so wrong to be fine” feels a lot like the initial shock that comes with loss, but even though the meaning of the song is very sad, its sound is that of an absolute banger.

If you like Avril Lavigne, Paramore, and 2000’s pop rock, this is the song for you, with a driving beat, sparky electric guitar, and lively-yet-emo vocals that scream early 2000’s pop-rock girl band. The lead singer Sydney belts, “Now this house that we grew up in, it feels vacant/Every time that I walk through the door, I still look to the couch where you waited” elicits the image of a long-standing presence, now gone forever. In these lines, I can imagine the narrator of the song growing up with the pup or kitten that she had since she was a child, and of course, outliving this friend. Relationships are a lot like pets— we love them, they get old, and then they die.

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Written by Lola Works