Almost Had by NEILÁ
Atlanta-based singer and songwriter NEILÁis one of the most promising independent acts in the R&B space. With a total of six projects in her discography, the South Florida native has continuously stepped up to the plate to blend together elements of electronic, pop, and R&B music. Her latest project Almost Had continues down this road. Centered around the ups and downs of dating, the four track EP featuring production by Brandon Phillips-Taylor, tilde, and Spree Wilson with a guest appearance by fellow songstress DaVionne is her strongest showing to date. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, or Apple Music.
Source: Neila
Leave The Light On by Pillow Queens
In Waiting is Pillow Queens’ debut album, Leave The Light On the result of four years of brotherly love in a sisterly unit. This is a record by queens in waiting and kings in the making. It’s an album about love; self-love, queer love, the anxiety-inducing fault lines of romantic love, and the love for a city and a country that simultaneously has your back and is on your back. It’s an album about the in-between; the transitional period of an adulthood that never seems to arrive, while you wait for that lightbulb moment when everything makes sense, even though part of you knows deep down it will never come. It’s an album about the purgatorial aspect of late-stage capitalism, where the systems conspire to burden and punish; job insecurity, housing crises, income inequality, and social inequity. It’s an album about family; chosen, given, received and earned. It’s an album about spirituality; from the engrained confines of religion, to the expanding borders of spirituality, and the iconography and ritual that populates the emotional interior of anyone who grows up in Ireland. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.
Source: Royal Mountain Records
Second April by Warren Franklin
The first release in 4 years finds Warren Franklin a changed band. Franklin and returning Joie De Vivre members Brandon Lutmer and Stewart Oakes have dropped the cumbersome 'Founding Fathers' moniker- and with it, found a refined touch. Each song itself featured on the four track EP Second Aprilcould be a standalone single, toting catchy hooks and smart arrangements- yet fit together well as one collection. The next era of Warren Franklin is here, and is it ever. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.
Source: Count Your Lucky Stars
The Rise by The Rural Alberta Advantage
The Rise is the first word in a conversation, the first step on a new, unkept trail. It’s the beginning of a new era for The Rural Alberta Advantage and the first of three pieces in a year-long puzzle, which will be constructed over three separate releases. That dichotomy—between what is assumed to be objective, real and tangible, and what is not is explored by Alberta photographer Leroy Schulz’s work that accompanies the EP and lead singles “CANDU” and “AB Bride.” Schulz flew drones over Alberta landscapes and took photos from above, looking down on rows of fir trees, barns, crops, and grass. From this perspective, the settings look unrecognizable, even unreal, like some alien planet. The shapes, shadows, lines, and textures are foreign, yet these are scenes of home. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.
Source: Saddle Creek
Diving Rings by Night Palace
Night Palace is a shocking alchemy: achingly intense nostalgia meets frothy anticipation of what's beyond the garden wall. It's hard to believe Night Palace's debut album Diving Rings is not a soundtrack to a different world. You find yourself picturing it: a moonlit-gilded diorama of frontwoman Avery Draut's dreams and memories. The album was recorded by engineer-producer Drew Vandenberg (Faye Webster, of Montreal), with additional engineering from Andy LeMaster (Better Oblivion Community Center, Azure Ray). The result is a unique brand of atmospheric pop, evoking artists like Broadcast, Alvvays, Vashti Bunyan & Mort Garson. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.
Source: Park The Van
Short-Sighted Security by Shaylee
Elle Archer’s project Shaylee is the result of great persistence and triumph. Trans-excellence to its core – a musical reckoning that nonetheless dips its toe into pools of swirling darkness as it fights to see the light. Short-Sighted Security is most often Archer’s way of hugging her knees to her chest as she processes all the months previous have wrought: COVID isolation; addiction; a lost job; a failed polyamorous relationship and its aftermath; the search for physical connection; aging, trauma, and the dissolution of mental health. “That’s what the record is – just an enormous reaction to traumatic events happening to me in real-time,” says Archer, who recorded and produced the album in its entirety at home, partially as a way to stave off isolation and partially as a way to drown out the sound of her two former girlfriends hooking up upstairs. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.
Source: Kill Rock Stars
10 Seconds Vol. 1 by A-Trak
DJ, turntablist, and record producer, A-Trak, is back with a fresh new EP to turn up the dance floors. 10 Seconds Vol. 1, is a four track EP produced entirely by the producer on his faithful SP1200 drum machine. From the immediate energy of single “Spit” to the timeless sounds of the song “Bee Bop,” this EP keeps it raw and fun. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.
