Watch: Car Freshener Aftershave — Pizzagirl

I’ve been somewhat caught up in the magic of Liverpool musician Pizzagirl, real name Liam Brown, ever since first hearing his dreamy sound on the John Hughes-esque Highschool back in 2018. Whilst I haven’t written about it, I also went through an extended period of being utterly obsessed with the song Dennis, which has a feeling that nails the intersection of insatiable sexual frustration and lethargy that is, quite simply, chef’s kiss.

The beauty of Pizzagirl is the way Brown manages to combine a production style that feels purposeful and defined without it feeling like it has been sweated over. The sound feels effortless, yet I’m sure it isn’t. What that brings to the music is a sense of honesty. On Dennis, Brown sounds like he has just rounded the corner after bumping into his ex on the arm of another dude. What follows is a stream-of-consciousness — his raw emotions exposed without the polish that is applied when someone is worried about what an audience thinks. It’s not a single, it’s just his feelings… and yet boy, is it a single.

Car Freshener Aftershave comes alongside the announcement of Pizzagirl’s forthcoming album, Softcore Mourn. Whilst the new album doesn’t arrive until mid-July, this new single does plenty to whet my appetite. The usual lo-fi production aesthetic is in place, but applied to a slightly more upbeat and electronic sound. The sound of Car Freshener Aftershave is not a million miles from the post-Wolfgang sound ploughed by Phoenix — electronic but with an organic feeling finish, obtuse and opaque lyrics and just so much mood.

I just love this. There is a moment at two-minutes-fifty where the bass drops out to expose Brown’s earnest vocal before kicking in with even more energy. I guarantee that one day, when Pizzagirl gets to perform this live, people are going to lose their pretty minds to the moment when the bass drops back in at three-minutes-twenty.

Mr Brown, you are a rock star and I salute you.

Listen: Dating A Drug Dealer — The Sunshine State

The Sunshine State is a musical project from songwriter Skyler Stonestreet. Having created hits for artists that include such luminaries as Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, Due Lipa, The Chainsmokers, and Hailee Steinfeld, Stonestreet has released a number of singles under her own name. With The Sunshine State, she brings her talents to a hazy, indie sound whilst letting the alt-pop melodies shine. It’s infectious without feeling overly polished.

Appropriately, Dating A Drug Dealer positively hums with the promise of Californian sun and busy sidewalks — the feeling of a bike ride as the sun starts to come down, or a lazy skateboard to cap a long day. The song itself feels like a tribute to embracing the moment and wilfully choosing to insulate yourself from a messy reality, as Stonestreet explains:

“Well the song title is pretty self-explanatory... but this song is about a romance that was fleeting and ultimately destructed itself. But for a moment, I was very in the moment with someone who had a lot of secrets that I was ok with him keeping.”

The result is a track that is dripping with atmosphere, making me long for big skies, hopeful dreams and maybe just a dash of danger. Stick on some sunglassed and check out Dating A Drug Dealer below:

The Sunshine State - Dating A Drug Dealer Written by Skyler Stonestreet, Hayley Penner & Nick Monson LYRICS I woke up Swayin' On the ocean Somewhere off the coast I was laughing You were joking The first to go and boast Something expensive Something pretentious Oh Best not to question How did you get that gold The less I know The less I know the better Ever since I met ya The more I wanna let you love me Love me Don’t wanna know Don’t even gotta mention How you got your mansion It’s okay just come and love me Love me I wake up You’re making me breakfast My place fits in this room We in Brentwood or in Venice? I’m getting used to Something expensive Something pretentious Oh Best not to question How do you make that dough

Listen: Don’t Mind The Weather — Sunflower Thieves

I recently had a dream that I attended a trial run of Glastonbury festival. It was a slightly compressed version of the usual event that attempted to test whether it was possible to maintain social distancing at a music festival. Dream-based conclusion? No, quite impossible!

I find COVID-19 has a way of infecting my dreams like this (sorry not sorry) — less in the foreground and more in the context in which I exist. My brain’s way of trying to process the fact that things once taken for granted are now hard to fathom.

Back before the very idea of music festivals felt so alien, I was tasked with being a judge for the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition, and one of the acts I happily put through were Leeds-based duo Sunflower Thieves. Together, Amy and Lily create atmospheric folk-pop, and it has a beautiful otherworldly feel to it.

Conceived in Lily’s home studio, Don’t Mind The Weather was written in partnership with fellow-Leeds artist and friend of the band, Mehalah Ray. Originally, the song was set out as a relatively straightforward acoustic piece, but production work from Lily has created a more ethereal sound. The vocal harmonies and slowly shifting instrumentation give Don’t Mind The Weather a dreamlike feel. Describing the song, the pair explain:

“Don’t Mind The Weather translates as, ‘don’t worry, this is where you’re grounded and safe’, a tale of wanting to make the most of that feeling and stay inside. The message conveyed is that no matter how the seasons and weather may change, the gravitational pull of the moon — the person you feel safe with — will keep you grounded and safe. We based it on the moon’s relationship with the tides, and the idea that it’s easy to get swept away in everything that’s going on, but that there’s beauty in that, and the relationship with this person overcomes it all anyway.”

It’s a notion that, in the context, feels particularly reassuring — the companionships that make you feel grounded and safe will endure.

Buy Don't Mind The Weather on 7" vinyl: https://smarturl.it/CPWMSunflowerThieves/officialstore Listen on Spotify: https://smarturl.it/CPWMSunflowerThieves Follow Sunflower Thieves Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sunflowerthieves Twitter: https://twitter.com/sunthievesmusic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunflowerthieves/

Listen: Hold Your Course — S J Williams

Following on from my recent post covering Kayla Grace’s excellent Bird In A Cage, here is another track that was inspired by our collective COVID-19 experience. S J Williams wrote the lyric to Hold Your Course at the beginning of the lockdowns, seeking to encapsulate a universally supportive message as the world started to look increasingly unhinged.

The sound employed by Williams here clearly draws on some of the more experimental work of Bon Iver, but he also cites the electronics of James Blake as an influence. The heavy use of vocal samples and clashing crisp electronic soundscapes with live instrumentation gives this a beautifully textured feel — harmony emerging from cacophony, like the hand of a friend reaching out to pick you up out of the chaos.

Williams spent six years at college refining his skills as a flute player, but he is now using that classical training to explore more experimental sounds. By combining influences as disparate as folk and jazz, and pop and classical, S J Williams is set to create new musical forms altogether.

hold your course we're going in the same direction steady now steady now hold your nerve there's more to see than what's before you pause somehow drive your plough additional production & saxophones: Tom Gimson Masque Collective 2021

Listen: Nobody Like Me — Confetti

You know you are in slightly left field territory when an artist claims influences that include Kendrick Lamar, John Lennon, 2 Chainz and early William Shakespeare. It says more about me, but I have literally zero concept of the chronology of the bard’s output. I suspect Shakespeare’s influence is somewhat of a wind-up, but I am clearly in no position to argue. There is a certain swagger here, and I appreciate it.

What I _do_ know is that Nobody Like Me is the kind of record that pinballs around the inside of my brain in a way that I’m not entirely in control of, pushing buttons and hitting sensory triggers I didn’t realise were there. I’ve mentioned before that I’m a bit over the prevalence of processed vocals, but here they are applied in a way that works — they add a sense of movement and speed to the performance that emphasises Confetti’s energy. The sound deployed here is the vocal equivalent of the Doppler effect.

When I actually stop to disassemble it in my mind the melody and instrumentation on Nobody Like Me are surprisingly laid back, yet taken as a whole it feels like a dizzying ride in the stream of someone else’s endorphins. It’s the embodiment of one of those moments where you get to enjoy and value yourself in the way that is easy to lose sight of. It’s distilled self-love, and I’m into it.

Confetti are an anonymous duo, claiming to be elephants from the internet who previously made music with humans in LA and Nashville. Who knows, but check out Nobody Like Me below, and look out for their new debut LP The Circus: Act I, out now.