Listen: Yes! — Willah

With a warm electronic bed and bouncy beats, Willah’s debut single Yes! wiggles with a gentle excitement. Vocals have an authenticity that gives the song a grounded feeling—slightly nerdy in a Metronomy and Hot Chip way, but all the more accessible as the result.

It is the chorus of Yes! that really delivers… Willah’s vocal little more than a sassy, “Uh hu, yeah yeah” refrain that loops over and over in my brain, whilst sounds ping pong around like synaptic fireworks.

Yes! is a song about the kind of romance where even the participants know won’t last. The energy on display is reflective of those bubbling emotions as eyes meeting, and words go unspoken, upshot with a cooling slice of melancholy. I am excited to hear more. Check it out:

Watch: Forget About It — Antoine Chambe

Antoine Chambe has just come in with what feels like the perfect compliment to my last post. Where It Got Away From Me floated on a current of reflective melancholy, Forget About It is the upswing that is coming out the other side.

The electronic production of French musician Antoine Chambe gives Forget About It a bouncy, playful feeling the captures the sensation of jumping into your favourite trainers. Whilst the filtered, French indie house sound is very familiar, Chambe pulls in the vocals of Swedish duo Tomode in a way that gives this a fresh feeling. Tomode’s vocal give the song a big shot of humanity. If Chambe’s production is box fresh pair of sneakers, the vocals are the excitement of a journey to see a certain someone you just can’t wait to be around.

Having historically produced for other artists and labels, Antoine has gradually been building his reputation under his own name. His 2017 track Dream Of Me charted on Soundcloud’s top of the world deep house and has almost 10 million plays, whilst his 2019 track Easy Come scored radio play and success in China, racking up over 250 million streams. Forget About It is taken from Chambe’s forthcoming debut album, Riverside, due in June 2022.

Watch: It Got Away From Me — I Can’t Speak French

I’m generally not a fan of processed vocals — as I have said before, they can feel like a crutch, used without considering the importance of the fit between a song’s story and its sound. It Got Away From Me has a crisp and clean feeling, the sound perfectly reflected in the song’s video visualiser of someone floating in a seemingly giant body of water, untroubled by waves or other people. Within that context, I really love the vocal effect employed by I Can’t Speak French here, which reminds me of the sound Bon Iver used back on his Blood Bank EP.

The reason this sound works for me is a combination of the song’s minimalism, and its vulnerability. It Got Away From Me is the embodiment of the notion that less is more — guitars, a simple drum rhythm, some light synths and then crucially that vocal. The role here of that vocal is much one of instrumentation, a compliment to the guitars and synths, as story-telling.

The story-telling is still important, though, and the veneer over the vocals feels like a safety net, particularly as the song delivers the killer line, “I’m not scared of dying — I’m scared of dying alone”. There is a blissful floating sensation with It Got Away From Me, and it feels like floating in a softly emotional state, sitting with the observed importance of human connection.

I Can’t Speak French is the new project created by members of Masonair, Movement and breathe. As someone who was a bit obsessed with the potential of Movement, in particular, that is a little thrilling. The name for this new project is a reference to the influence that Air’s debut, Moon Safari, has on them. Yet, the band also liken their sound to “a(n unexpected) cross between Cigarettes After Sex and Kavinsky” — a weird description but also one that is totally on the money. The clean lines of the latter meet the downtrodden melodic melancholy of the former in what I can only describe as hungover bliss. One of those hangovers that doesn’t hurt, and instead leaves you introspective, yearning and more emotional.

Check out It Got Away From Me below. I Can’t Speak French just made themselves one to watch.

Listen: My Adeline — Isla Rose

Originally hailing from the US but now based in London, Isla Rose represents a new voice for alternative pop. Having grown up in Mississippi, it was whilst studying music production in London that Rose first began songwriting. She is now about to release her debut EP, due in May, and My Adeline represents her debut song release.

As a song, My Adeline moves with a deep, hypnotic feeling that evokes the artistic take on pop music pursued by the likes of Kate Bush and Stevie Nicks. Which is to say, there is a folksy otherworldliness and an earthy feel to Rose’s sound. The production has a crisp electronic edge to it, but depicts a melody that feels more organic than those electronics would typically provide.

It is on the chorus of My Adeline that the song really comes to life — the repeated melodic refrain infectious and instantly recognisable… The song takes on an earworm-like quality that keeps me coming back for more. Check it out below:

Isla Rose · My Adeline

Premiere: Cursed — Cloud Pham

Hailing from Canada, Cloud Pham is focused on creating mood-driven melancholic music that blends together indie pop and rock elements. Liking themselves to something akin to what Linkin Park would have sounded like if they started as a sad indie band, Cloud Pham’s sound has an intelligence combined with an emotional intensity.

Whilst Cursed maintains the indie sound of Cloud Pham’s earlier work, it also leverages electronic production techniques and broken soul, but applied soulfully and with a delicate touch. The result has a touch of dubstep to it — the vocals all the more lonely as a result of the application of space in the production.

The result is a hypnotic trip into a moment of depression and anxiety. The vocal refrain of, “Baby help me, I am cursed, everything I do just makes things worse” could be melodramatic, yet hits with an earnestness that gives it recognisable humanity. I think many of us have been there — needing someone to reach out and take our hand, so we can emerge for a dark moment. Occasionally, it can be all too easy to dislike oneself, and the only thing that will help is compassion, both from ourselves and from others.

The feeling of guilt persists through Cursed, and is something the artist references in the inspiration for the song:

“Cursed is a song about redemption and forgiveness that is not achievable, no matter how hard you try. It's about holding on to a guilt that never goes away.”

In creating the song, Cloud Pham hopes to learn from past mistakes and to make peace. Listen below: