Stream: Nobody But You - Highschool Jacob

Nobody But You comes on softly, dreamlike synths unwinding and shifting beneath musician Highschool Jacob‘s vocal. It isn’t until one-and-a-half-minutes, a third of the way into this song, that we really begin to feel the full drama of this record. Those quiet opening moments give way to a series of big chords and a bolder vocal turn that would feel right at home on a Twin Shadow record.

This is a song that isn’t content to be one thing though, and so it switches between intense drama and hushed intimacy quickly, before shifting back. The key vocal hook - “You’re looking at me like I’m somebody else, I’m looking at you like there’s no-one else” - comes on suddenly, a layered pitch to a drifting loved one, overdubs giving force to Highschool Jacob’s pleas. This is the sound of someone still in love being left - the feeling of disappointment, grief and desperation wrapped up in a sense of not fully understanding what just happened. I thought I was your person, now I’m not sure who I am supposed to be.

It’s a beautiful record. Check it out below.

Written and Performed by Jacob Masters (@highschooljacob) Mixed by Andi Inadomi Mastered by Carl Saff Single Artwork by Jack Herzog

Stream: Cool For You - Julia Knight

Following up on her recently release Like I Used To, Julia Knight is back with another track dealing in the disappointment that can come from relationships.

Describing the track, Knight says:

“Cool For You is about a super brief relationship that looking back on, I had no business being in really. I met someone in the summer and thought everything was working out, only for it to end abruptly a short couple months later. It’s about trying to be so cool and casual as a way to protect yourself. I hated that.”

There can be a hard tug-of-war in the early stages of a relationship, trying to figure out how much to open yourself up... Ultimately things can’t advance and grow without vulnerability, but sometimes that vulnerability can be abused.

Here Julia’s smooth vocal and woozy electronic synths tell a tale of dejection in a restrained way, mirroring her attempt not to make a big deal of things... Playing it cool as a sample of a phone call from a potential partner drifts by in the background.

Maybe real love doesn’t require you to hide what you actually feel, and playing it cool? Maybe it's just a bit, well, cold.

Stream: Blame - Victoria Bigelow

Autumn (or fall, depending on where you are) is a confusing time for me. In some ways it seems like the world is wrapping up and slowing down... Taking stock and calming down. And yet it seems like work gets even more crazy than usual and everyone wants a little more time, plus there are all those gifts to buy, and plans to make.

I’m not totally sold on the whole shorter days and colder weather thing, but I like the falling leaves and that hour of golden sunlight we seem to get at the end of the day just fine.

I digress, and yet the reason I bring this all up is that Victoria Bigelow’s Blame sounds like the perfect song for autumn. It has a sound that I can only describe as golden. It feels a little older and wiser, yet not so old and wise that it isn’t still capable of making a few more mistakes. It is the sound of slowing down and yet it is still so obviously wrapped up in feeling. It is a gentle shuffle, beautiful vocal harmonies and something that I can’t put my finger on that feels deeply Scandinavian.

Blame is taken from Victoria’s forthcoming EP Going Blue, her first release in nine years. Having moved to Nashville to write music at 15, she got her first TV sync at 16 but then a series of events led her to stop pursuing music. A surprise pregnancy at 22, and the subsequent birth of her son Elliot, were the triggers that ultimately brought her back to music at the age of 24:

“It was becoming a mother that forced me to get over my own shortcomings and insecurities and actually relentlessly pursue a career in music again. Having Elliott and being responsible for another person's wellbeing forces me daily to reflect and take stock of the person I currently am, the person I used to be, and the person I would like to grow to be. The way I feel about myself and how hard I work will directly impact Elliott, and he deserves a strong, motivated, confident role model for a mother. If it wasn’t for all the shit I experienced and felt I wouldn’t be the person nor writer I am, so it all works out.”

A negative relationship in Bigelow’s late teens was one of the factors that temporarily derailed her musical ambitions, yet that relationship ultimately helped inspire this new song. It’s a track that touches on infidelity and violence - something that comes through in a heartbreaking line “I’m the one, the reason you’re punching walls again” quickly followed up with “I’m the one, the reason you’re lying in her bed again”. That sense of complicity and blame and resentment all at the same time feel so contradictory and yet somehow vulnerable and true. Explaining how she feels about the song, Bigelow says:

“It’s a reflective piece, understanding now the consequences of my own actions and realizing in retrospect that we both were guilty of the same wrongdoings. I find it way easier to write about intense or painful experiences once I’ve made it out of them and into a clearer head space. 'How could I blame you, I wouldn’t love me at all' is a self-deprecating, slightly sarcastic response to him cheating.”

It isn’t often you hear a song as packed full of feelings as this one. Check out Blame below and look out Going Blue soon.

Stream: Medusa - Love Sick

Huge synths and hooks abound on this new jam from Scottish dark pop duo Love Sick.

The seeds were sewn for Love Sick when Julie divulged her love for singing to now bandmate Shaun at a work Christmas party when they both worked at the same life insurance call centre. A chance encounter at Glasgow station followed a few weeks later, ultimately leading to them coming together to make music.

Following on from their previous single Fever, a song inspired by Michael Jackson, Medusa takes it’s inspiration from the mythic Greek legend. The chorus’ main vocal hook betrays the pain that we all feel at times, vocalist Julie crying out “You cut my head off and ask if I’m okay”.

Describing the song’s origins, the duo explained:

“The song came about after Julie had been reading about the Greek mythological story of Medusa - the goddess cursed to become a monster with hair made of snakes who could turn people to stone for just looking at her. Medusa was essentially an unfortunate cursed victim of circumstance. We became obsessed with her story and wanted to re-imagine it in a modern context - determination against all odds and remaining positive even if life isn’t going the way you planned.”

Check out Medusa below. Love Sick’s No Sleep EP is due out on 16 November via B3SCI Records.

WE ARE LOVE SICK www.facebook.com/thisislovesick www.twitter.com/thisislovesick www.instagram.com/thisislovesick Stream / Buy: LOVESICK.lnk.to/Medusa London / Glasgow Headline Shows: LOVESICK.lnk.to/live

Stream: Know You - SUMif

For those that care, my favourite spreadsheet function is the simple if statement. It’s both remarkably simple, and remarkably powerful. I don’t think there’s a problem in life that can’t be solved by nesting infinite if statements within one another. =if(NOT(this=love),I don’t know what is,tell me what it is).

That’s a freebie, just on me. The sumif formula may lack the pure Swiss Army Knife utility of the lowly if statement, but it sure gets the job done fast, and for that reason it was always my second most favourite spreadsheet tool.

SUMif is musician Steph Wells, who was raised in LA on Sheryl Crow and pop punk. Presumably this means the music of Sheryl Crow, rather than an actual diet dependent on the nutritional value of Crow. Having taken in a music business course in New York City at NYU, and then moving on to Nashville to practice songwriting, Wells is now in SF. And it is from the multifaceted city of SF that she brings us her beautiful, emotional dance pop.

And Know You is beautiful, emotional dance pop about being lost inside someone. In SUMif’s words:

“Know You is about being captivated by another person in a totally new way. It’s the type of attraction where in it you discover new things about yourself that make you feel alive.”

Breathless and excited and lost, SUMif delivers Know You like someone who can’t wait to see where a particular person takes them next. Sometimes love feels like it can make the impossible seem possible. Nothing matters, not even reality, when you make me feel like this. Except formulas obviously. Because without those the spreadsheets wouldn’t work and I’d have to add up all the ways I love you manually.

And how much do I love you? Well let’s just say I’m getting a #DIV/0 error.

Listen to Know You on Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/track/6XVSEzrM4sLuzNzuiTvWnm Facebook: facebook.com/sumifmusic Instagram: instagram.com/sumifmusic Soundcloud: @sumifmusic Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/3o0KTphy4…EXQvWh6kjYQxEFKQ www.sumifmusic.com