Watch: Mariah — Anna Shoemaker

I’ve been a touch obsessed with Anna Shoemaker since she put out the gloriously intimate Change My Mind in December, together with its fabulous video. Now she is back with something a little different, in the form of Mariah.

Where Change My Mind felt like the kind of grimy and grounded indie that Snail Mail and Soccer Mommy might make, Mariah packs a more overtly commercial aesthetic. Warm bass notes gently unfold and bend slightly under the weight of the song as an 8-bit style rhythm clicks and bleeps, guitar adding a steely-eyed determination right before Shoemaker drops her chorus.

And what a chorus it is, for Shoemaker is becoming the queen of deadpan delivery… The emotion held back in the performance itself, and all the more resonant in the words Anna sings. Compared to Change My Mind, Mariah took a little while to sink its teeth into me, but I find myself a little more hooked on Anna’s tale of fire and gaslighting every time I hear it. The song is a haunting, beautiful, cinematic ode to being really fucking done.

Describing the release, Shoemaker says:

“This is a final straw song, the one where you borderline get in trouble for putting it out, so I figured if it sounds sweet, maybe no-one will notice how mad I am.”

Check out Mariah below:

Listen: Sofie — Cayo Coco

Sofie floats on a cloud of fleeting, ephemeral emotion. Muted guitar scratches an itch against ethereal melodies, as a vocal punches through an understated-yet-emotional performance.

As cool as the whole performance is at first, by Sofie’s final third it culminates in a gut-wrenching cry out. An insistent and repeated yelp, “You’re the last one left”, sees us through to a conclusion.

Cayo Coco is the solo project of LA-based multi-instrumentalist Lumen Loraine. With cited influences that include Lord Huron, King Krule and Mac DeMarco, you can get a sense as to the expansive sound Lumen is shooting for.

Describing the song, the artist says:

"This song touches on fear of abandonment, which is something I've experienced most of my life. Sofie represents a specific person, but I know I was writing to myself in certain moments. I feel I was questioning the part of me who abandoned myself every time I connected with someone else."

Check out Sofie below, and look out for the debut album from Cayo Coco on 22 Feb.

Listen: Impressions — Couch Prints

Impressions is the latest release from Couch Prints, an electronic synth-pop trio based in New York made up of Jayanna Roberts, Brandon Ton and Jacob Traux.

The vibe on Impressions is similar to the (now sadly defunct) Chromatics. In the verse in particular, there is a heavy David Lynch vibe — Roberts’ angelic, haunting vocal harmonies shimmer above the song’s instrumentation. With recording and production provided by Jake Aron, who has worked with both Solange and Snail Mail, the overall feeling here is one of understated brilliance.

With a somewhat threatening undertone, Impressions is a song about fear and about love, and the relationship between them. Every so often, the experience of falling in love is one of losing a part of yourself, and of losing a sense of control. Here, Couch Prints depict that experience, coupled with the desire of “wanting to slam the door before it opens”. Check it out below:

Listen: Déjà Vu — Ben Leit

Ben Leit’s Déjà Vu bubbles with a crisp, energetic buoyancy that gives me the urge to dance in public with my headphones on. It has an introspective feeling, but couples that with an extroverted energy — like the joke that no-one hears but you, leading you to laugh out loud in a room of straight faces.

Leit is a 22-year-old musician, a dabbler with a love for the very notion of variety, learning and experience. Ben began his musical journey from the point his father introduced him to Thelonious Monk, one of my all-time favourites, and the rest is history.

The eclectic taste enjoyed by Ben leads us to the kind of music we have here, on Déjà Vu. It is pop, it is soul, it is polished. And yet what it is not, is varnished. Because, yes, there is a difference: one is a deeper layer of abstraction, and Ben is right here, real and human and on the surface of this music, smoothing.

Déjà Vu is a love song, but it’s also a tribute to the feeling that both life and love tend to be cyclical… It can feel new, even whilst we know we have been here before.

Listen: Cold And Grey — Tuff Ghost

Cold And Grey is the new release from Californian native musician Tuff Ghost.

Tuff Ghost, real name Lena Brown, is a DJ, producer and vocalist. When not on tour with her band Foxy Panic, Brown spends time making music in her Echo Park studio.

Intended as a meditative listen and a psychedelic journey, Cold And Grey straddles the line between a downbeat slice of blissed out electronic pop and dark introspective experimental electronica. Brown’s vocals are reflective and earthy, but the distorted synths in the song’s bridge and chorus have an otherworldly, alien feel.

As referenced in the song’s lyrics, Cold And Grey is about that liminal state as we wake up, when you are neither fully awake and of this world, nor asleep. Depending on your prior dream state, that experience can manifest in many experiences and feelings, as Brown describes:

“Waking up from my dreams and discovering that I have a physical form can be anywhere from quite startling, to depressing, to a great relief. This song is for anyone who often feels themselves wavering between these different realities.”

Check out Cold And Grey below: