Raissa is an up-and-coming musician who is currently based in London, but by the sound of her single “COLD FEET” from her new album HERO GIRL, you’d think she was from outer space. From the very first cosmically captivating notes, the listener blasts off into the galaxy of Raissa.
“COLD FEET” is all about disguising one’s true emotions in all things “bright and glitzy.” At first glance, it’s a highly danceable, pop & trap-infused jam, but when you listen to the lyrics, you get the full picture: it’s a personal confession about dissatisfaction and heartbreak in a toxic relationship. Raissa curates a symbolic duality in her music— it’s danceable, yet deep; it’s the profound prevailing over the pretend. If you’re “feeling lonely and lowly” or just want to hear some “music, party, baby”, this song is for you. With its trap beat, subtly 80’s synth instrumentals, laid back vocals, and catchy lyrics, Raissa’s HERO GIRL will save you with this single.
“Brooklyn bridge lullaby” envelops you in an atmosphere of cloudy nostalgia for listeners of artists like Lil Peep. Sick g*rl’s lyricism and artistic vision transports the listener into that feeling of being in your bedroom with the lights off – dreaming of kissing stars.
“It’s crazy how the sun don’t set till you go ahead and kiss my neck.” Sick g*rl makes the song sound like a lullaby itself with their soft manner of singing over trap drums and water droplets. Their words come in and out of hazy focus – adding to the effect as you hold onto some of their words and fill in the others.
“Brooklyn bridge lullaby” is a perfect addition to that sad, chill playlist you have. But, once you listen to the song as much as I have, it will quickly become one of your favorites.
Ambar Lucid’s single “Lolita” is a heartfelt tribute to the singer’s mother, and an emotional indie crossover that speaks to the listener in two languages— English and Spanish. Lucid alternates between the two throughout this sweet, sincere song, creating what feels like a shoulder to cry on in the form of sound.
“Pasa la gente indiferente/Nunca se me olvida de quererte” (The people pass by indifferently/Never will I forget to love you) presents an image of selfless and deep love for a person who other people don’t always appreciate. This imagery is carried throughout the song, illustrating how the love of one person means more than the indifference of others, because love is that strong. Ambar Lucid’s soft and powerful lyrics provoke the listener to love in the way that she sings about in “Lolita”. After you hear this song, you’ll want to give your loved ones a big hug and tell them that everything is going to be okay. Or maybe, you’ll want someone to do the same for you, but keep your head high— “No te olvides de tu color”, y ¡no te olvides de escuchar esta canción bella de Ambar Lucid!
“SMOKE” by THE BLOSSOM featuring Matt Champion is a smooth pop thriller. THE BLOSSOM energizes this soundscape through their musical invention – demonstrating that the extent of their creativity is limitless. “SMOKE” is a new song to fall in love with and THE BLOSSOM is an artist that’ll leave you feeling electric.
At first, “SMOKE” features trap drums and THE BLOSSOM rapping. In the chorus, THE BLOSSOM slows the track into a pop medley singing “it takes a lot, I want all the smoke to clear, I want the smoke to disappear.” Matt Champion’s voice comes in smoothly after the first chorus in a back and forth with THE BLOSSOM – the difference in the texture of their voices creating an amazing effect. They sing “hang my head out the window and let my teeth glisten,” before once again putting the song in drive and switching directions.
The last part of the song is almost a remix of how the song began. It kicks into an EDM break with the artist’s voice coming in and out in a spinning motion. This song has many parts and each is insaneeeee. THE BLOSSOM creates a garden of rhythmic fantasy in this track; their creative genius manifesting in this song and across their new EP, 97 BLOSSOM.
Mia Carucci’s “Kinky Love” is a sensual love song beyond time – it awakens your softest senses and rocks you into imagination. The music itself is smooth with remnants of disco and soul. Mia Carucci sings in Spanish and English – their angelic poetry dancing over chimes and electric guitars.
“I know I should be sleeping, but how can I close my eyes? When you know I understand you’re a man and you’ve got to have your kinky love.” This song feels like it belongs in a movie set in the 1970s. I imagine a scene shot in a Las Vegas bar in the late night or early morning, where the lights have taken on a golden glow and every hotel room is enveloped in white new morning haze and a new story etched in the bed frame.
“Take me outside and let the honey slide, I need your kinky love.”
Bemata’s “New Level / / SUPERWATER” is a transcendental dance track that begins with a warm yet cool feeling as Bemata’s voice enters slowly like melting ice. Bemata sings “mirror on the wall tell me what’s waiting? Am I right on the edge of something new?” before the song descends into a spiritually cleansing drop that is light and airy like opening your eyes in Heaven.
“Stay cool with it”. Bemata describes this song to be about “unlocking new levels inside of yourself”. “New Level / / SUPERWATER” paints the soundtrack of the personal transformations we have been experiencing for the past year – the ups, downs (the sweetness and the sour). It is the kind of song you play dancing around in a forest or when you’re coming up for air in a cold pool in summer or when you’re closing your eyes as the room spins you into sleep. Regardless of how you listen, the song reminds you of your inner strength within every moment – and how every day you are closer to reaching that “new level” within yourself.
Lavalove reflects on– and laments love, relationships, and heartache on the effortlessly smooth and sweet “Luck in Love”. The mellow indie rock track comes off their EP Beluga Moon. The Los Angeles based band pulls you into a dreamscape with the “stream of consciousness” lyrics that highlight some all too familiar thoughts. “I’m starting to see stars, I’ve never fallen this hard, I’m on my own for what seems like the millionth time this month” sings lead singer TealaRose Coy. The vocals are reminiscent of María Zardoya (lead singer of indie rock band The Marías.) Melodic and entrancing. The warm, crisp guitar and steady drums complete the dreamy surf rock lullaby.
Luck in Love tackles how you grow from relationships and feeling like you tend to get the short end of the stick. “Every broken heart does set you back to the beginning but you learn something new every time. It shapes you into a better person, the person you were meant to be” Lavalove says of the track’s meaning. The EP tackles a lot of diverse topics from mental health to abusive relationships. All handled with care and honesty. It is an artfully arranged, thoughtful, and groovy body of work, perfect for deep thinking and late nights.
Currently, Beluga Moon is their only project out, but the equally dreamy music video for “Luck in Love” dropped just last week. The Beluga Moon EP is available on all platforms. Looking forward to hearing more from LavaLove!
Bianca Ocampo, a.k.a. Urbanation stirs the listener with dreamy melodies and sad shoegaze vibes in her two-movement track, “skin/recover”. The artist, who produces her own music, creates a place in her songs where listeners can come and listen to emotion.
Some people just know how to write amazing melodies, and Bianca Ocampo is one of those people. She effortlessly creates beautiful and memorable ones in “skin/recover”. In an interview with issuu.com, she described herself as a “play-by-ear type of girl”, stating that she doesn’t use music theory to compose her songs. This is one of the coolest things about music: one doesn’t need to be able to explain even a tiny bit of the science behind it to create amazing songs— one can make music by taking the sounds they hear on the inside and making them a part of the outside world.
This song sounds like a rare environment from the deepest depths of nostalgia. It’s raining a little, and there is an orange gloom to the sky. There’s this feeling that nothing and everything will happen at once, and probably because both already are. As Ocampo puts it, “It’s 7am and it doesn’t make sense”.
Music really does live inside of us. It takes the work of artists like Urbanation to set those feelings free. That is what music is— feeling in the form of sound.
If you have ever found yourself wanting to be transported to a magical world (preferably by fairies), “Herald” by Odette is the song for you. It is from the Australian electronic artist’s new album of the same title, released just this year in February. New sounds like that of “Herald” are so exciting to hear at the beginning of the year as indie music goes through its yearly metamorphosis— these artists contribute to the future of its sound through their own voices and perspectives. Now that is artistry.
Odette guides us through the magical fairyland that is “Herald” with a progressively building sound. New instruments come in as the melody ascends into these magical heavens, effortlessly creating the kind of tension that enchants the listener smoothly and spellbindingly. “Herald our divine” is just that— with mystical harp and a drum beat that sounds like footsteps through an ancient forest.
The magic of this song is not only in the instrumentation itself, but it also rules the kingdom of lyrical imagery. “But I lay to the standstill tempo of your heartbeat. You were curled over like a leaf about to fall free,” presents a beautiful image of nature and a parallel image to a love that is about to end. In Odette’s own words, Herald was “about my realisation of interpersonal toxicity and a yearning for something more”. The lyrics stay true to this message, exploring it both explicitly and abstractly, casting a fairy circle around its listener.
The thing about fairy circles is, once you enter one, you can never leave. The same is true with “Herald” by Odette— once you’ve heard it, you’ll never listen to music the same way.
Beach Bunny is sick and tired on the punchy indie-pop anthem “Good Girls (Don’t Get Used)”. The Chicago band is known for their breezy, carefree instrumentals and diary entry esque tracks, that feature painfully relatable lyrics about situations we can all, unfortunately, say we’ve experienced. They explore themes from body image issues and insecurity to growing pains and heartache. However, this track takes a more forceful approach to call out a toxic person and dives into one of the more troublesome situations: a toxic relationship. The punchy lyrics follow one’s frustrations in a relationship where the other person is immature, lacks accountability, and generally makes you feel crazy.
The track pulls you in from the start with fast tempo drums and bass, then dives right into the story with lead singer Lily Trifilos’s passionate vocals taking you on the journey of the trials and tribulations of this relationship. The vocals and instrumental build-up to accompany the increasing severity of the toxic behavior mentioned in the lyrics. While detailing these, the person’s inadequate excuses are revealed. “I started letting go, You let me know, That you were just confused” But Trifilo quickly shuts these down right before the chorus, punctuating her grievances by saying “And I still think that you’re cute, But I need you to remember that Good girls don’t get used”.The titular phrase serves as perfectly sassy retaliation as if to say “Oh well, Sorry. Too bad.”
Although the track tackles the increasingly tiresome and toxic incidents (Going from the more irritating and trivial incidents to the more treacherous, like bordering cheating) it’s not a pity party. It’s about knowing your worth and that better than what you’re being put through. It’s a fun cathartic track. An anthem for everyone fed up with people wasting their time and playing with their emotions. Rather than pure anger, it approaches quite a frustrating situation in a playfully dismissive way. The instrumentals tied with the emotions of the track make you feel ready to scream along and let out your frustrations. If you happen to be as sick and tired as Beach Bunny give “Good Girls (Don’t Get Used)” a listen. It’s currently available on all platforms, and comes ahead of their next EP “Blame Game”.
Velvet Noise 