Watch: Until I Die — Anna Shoemaker

Anna Shoemaker’s brand of brutally honest, alternative pop has been one of my favourite finds over the past few months. Change My Mind buzzed and shimmered with a dreamy west coast grunge feel, Everything Is Fine popped with anarchic energy, and Mariah exploded, an angry-and-sweary epic pop dynasty. Shoemaker feels like the Venn diagram intersection of Taylor Swift and Soccer Mommy, built to steal my heart.

Today sees Shoemaker unveil her debut album, Everything Is Fine (I’m Only On Fire), and alongside it comes another new song, Until I Die. Characteristically nihilistic, Until I Die sits somewhere between the sound of Change My Mind and Everything Is Fine. Less overtly polished than anything Anna has released recently, it grinds along with a vacant swagger. Toms and a kick drum punch out an assertive, dark backing to a frankly pissed-off sounding vocal, before launching into a disorientated chorus that swallows you up in a fog of guitar and distortion.

The range demonstrated over the releases that have led up to Anna Shoemaker’s debut album is impressive. I can’t wait to hear more.

Listen: Normal Stuff — Tertia

Based between London and Dublin, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer Tertia creates experimental but accessible avant-pop.

With inspiration that includes Boards of Canada, Billie Eilish and LCD Soundsystem, Tertia’s sound experiments eclectically. Here on the self-produced Normal Stuff, we hear a track centred around a playful, repetitive piano refrain. Tertia’s vocal coyly describes the experience of being around someone “distinctly unemotional”. With an eye roll, she notes, “You fell asleep when we were watching Grand Designs. I didn’t even get undressed.”

There is a tense frustration at play on Normal Stuff – breezy on the surface but with a palpable sense of unease beneath the surface. As Tertia questions, “Am I crazy for wanting some more of that stuff… Of that normal stuff?”, you sense a genuine curiosity as to who is at odds in this normal relationship.

Watch: DNT — Roman Around

Based in Fresno, California, Roman Around is an American rock band and outfit for the songs of Roman Rivera. Identifying as non-binary and pansexual, Rivera is a proud supporter of the LGBTQ community.

Of both Mexican and Native American heritage, Rivera grew up surrounded by music and spirituality, initially honing their skills as a drummer before becoming a multi-instrumentalist. In their late teenage years, Rivera began touring as a drummer for a variety of brands, before working on their own music.

With a sound that blends genres and styles, there is a loose and funky feeling to DNT. Tight, clipped percussion and afropop melodies come together to create a muted, dubby and introspective atmosphere. The result has a groove, but also an emotional intensity. The song itself came together through experimentation, but wouldn’t have got to completion with some encouragement, as Rivera describes:

“DNT started as a demo in April of 2021. I was using it as a project to design synth sounds and create random drum loops. It wasn’t intended to go anywhere, but when some friends heard it, they became attached to the creation and encouraged me to finish it.”

The song depicts the depression and abuse, with the song’s central falsetto refrain, “Yeah, I don’t wanna feel this way,” becoming somewhat of a mantra for Rivera as they were living within an abusive relationship. That tension is audible in the song itself, with a drop that shines a tense light on an argument.

Alongside Rivera, who performs vocals and guitar, the group consists of Justin Vogal (bass, keys, and vocals), Chevas Vandel (keys, and vocals) and Luke Schafer (drums). Take a look at the video for DNT below:

Watch: Anyone — Hēir

Hēir’s new single and video, Anyone, basks in a dramatic sense of romance, as the singer, born Patricia Manfield, sings about moving on. Woozy, loved-up bass stabs and vocal samples create a bed for Hēir’s vocals, whose delivery benefits from the degree of space it is afforded in the song’s opening half.

The twisted feel of the production on Anyone gives it a drunk feeling — the edges feel unreliable, shifting upon contact. The effect reflects the song’s subject, a relationship that swallows you up dangerously, forcing you to lose your perspective and sense of direction. Describing the song, Hēir says:

“Anyone is about a toxic love left behind. It's an autobiographical song about falling in love with a narcissist. The kind of love that cancels you, consumes you, kills your self-esteem but always makes you come back because the abuse is familiar. Anyone is the realisation that, in reality, YOU were the added value to your ex, not the other way around. Now he is simply ‘anyone’ while you're finally feel free to love yourself.”

Manfield was born to musician parents in Russia, but moved with them to Italy whilst still young, and followed them around the globe. The influence of her exposure to different cultures and languages comes through in Anyone, and its video:

“Naples as location for the video was a spontaneous choice. I'm writing in English since I was a child living in London. I've always exported my ideas abroad and never the other way around. After years spent abroad, I began to look at Naples with different, enamoured eyes. "Anyone" speaks about a love you want to leave behind, about recovering self-confidence and the awareness of being master of your own destiny. I wanted to translate this awareness by humanising Naples as a real character, as if Naples were telling me ‘do not forget where you come from’.”

Check out Anyone below:

Listen: Laura — Sofi Gev

Laura remains one of Natasha Khan’s most distinctive and iconic songs, and her Bat For Lashes performance of the song is one of the finest moments on one of my absolute favourite albums.

I’d argue it takes either guts, or a lack of self-awareness, to take on this kind of material for a cover. Thankfully, Sofi Gev, real name Hannah Lovelady, demonstrates plenty of the former in her impassioned take on the song.

For some reason, I find myself thinking about something I read years ago, when Def Leppard claimed there are two types of cover version — those that attempt to make a carbon copy, and those that do something entirely new. The former always seemed kind of pointless to me, but Hannah’s version of Laura actually falls somewhere between those two states, with a performance that maintains the atmosphere of the original but changes things just enough to make it a compelling alternative.

The Bat For Lashes original of Laura is a stripped back performance — Khan’s vocal like shattered glass and teardrops falling onto the keys of the heartbreaking piano melody that propels the song forward. In contrast, Sofi Gev sympathetically adds a little additional vocal detail – an additional vocal harmony portraying the familiar piano refrain from the original, and layered overdubs creating a bit more depth. Strings also play a more prominent role in Lovelady’s performance, and generally, it feels a little fuller. It’s not better — but it’s just different, and an interesting alternative to experience.

The thing that struck me about Hannah’s version, however, is the way she hits the central line in the chorus: “Laura, you’re more than a superstar”. Rather than delivering it as Khan does, the word “superstar” initially delivered at one pitch and then dropping slightly, Sofi Gev seems to deliver it differently, descending further. If you aren’t intimately familiar with the original you might totally miss it, but as someone who has listened to Laura a lot, it actually led me to reappraise the intention of the line. Whenever I have heard Bat For Lashes’ version of Laura, I interpreted the line as to mean that the subject of the song is, to the performer, more famous and significant than a superstar. In contrast, Gev’s performance introduces more darkness to the notion of what a superstar even is — like it isn’t enough, that the role of a superstar somehow saps the subject of their humanity. Hannah’s performance feels like it is deliberately derogatory about the notion of stardom, that the word superstar is, in fact, a pejorative. I actually now suspect that is likely what Khan originally meant by that line, but it is only in hearing Gev’s performance (itself no doubt coloured by her own reading) that I felt that.

It’s not often that a cover version actually makes me think more about the original, and for that Sofi Gev deserves credit. It is clear that she approached this cover with the utmost respect, as reflected in Hannah’s description of her approach to the song:

“This cover comes out of my love and respect for one of the greatest female artists of our time, Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes. I wanted to stay true to the original but also put my own personality into it. We used a French Connection analog synth to produce the song's signature piano melody, and added Moog bass, strings and electric guitar to add character and emotion. I could never have improved on the original, but I hope listeners enjoy it and that it leads more people to Natasha's music.”

Check out Sofi Gev’s cover of Laura below:

Sofi Gev · Laura