This week’s edition has weather. A lush shower of optimism, a tidal wave of grief, a heartbreak heatwave, and a final thunderstorm of rage. Five songs, five forecasts. Pack accordingly.
Nabihah Iqbal – Heaven Can Wait
A lush shower of optimism. London-based Nabihah Iqbal sets a life-affirming poem to playfully melancholic music reminiscent of The Cure. “Friends are a feeling, Joy is a place, That’s where we’re going, So heaven can wait.” Plenty of bland feel-good songs exist, but Heaven Can Wait is the quiet voice in our heads we should listen to.
Trentemøller – Your Love Walks Alone
The droning wall of sound washes over you like a tidal wave. Thick layers of darkened electronica, conjured by Danish Trentemøller, nearly swallow the indie-pop happy-go-lucky melody underneath. The tension between the textures in Your Love Walks Alone creates an unsettling atmosphere of a dying love: „The flowers died two days ago, Your loving words way too slow.“
Mattiel – Heartbreak Heatwave
Handcrafted joy, steeped in tradition. Mattiel, from Atlanta, Georgia, feels right at home between Americana, country, and rock grooves. Heartbreak Heatwave could be a cheap, nostalgic knock-off, but instead it carves out a monument of its own. The instrumental textures build in ever-denser layers, and her self-assured voice frames break-ups as moments of self-realisation.
World News – Frog
Here, a band lets it all loose, and it’s brilliant. Frog, the opener on the World News debut album In Purgatory, is an almost instrumental frenzy. The vocals enter late, but remain understated throughout, blending into yet another timbre within the colourful Britpop tapestry. The production has a wonderful Stone Roses feel, as if it’s been coated in cotton wool. And yet, the urge for larger-than-life opulence oozes from every pore.
Interlay – fIREHOSE
The sonic brutality mirrors the themes. fIREHOSE „explores sexual assault and female rage,“ as bandleader Alexandria Ortgiesen reveals. Chicago’s Interlay roam between post-punk and noise rock—loud and raw, brimming with anger and despair, with fiery cues from metal. This song sounds astonishingly like the punkish child of early black metal.