Listen: A New Life — Amy Stroup

With a gently plucked guitar and a shimmering vocal, Amy Stroup’s cover of Jim James’ A New Life glitters with the kind of pearlescent beauty that evokes thoughts of the Double R in my mind… Sweeping romance, an earnest sense of desire, and just a dash of magic and, dare I say it, doom.

For the unfamiliar, Jim James leads country-psyche outfit My Morning Jacket, a band whose music I have always admired from afar, despite never reaching a personal heavy-rotation status. His original of A New Life is a bluesy-country piece that gradually builds, a dash of rockabilly giving it a sense of movement. Stroup’s take is itself more aligned with James’ own Alt Version — stripped back, his vocal bruised, yearning and just a bit desperate.

Both James and Stroup just about bleed out the line, “Hey, let’s get one thing clear… There’s a bit more stardust when you’re near”. But it is Stroup’s version that feels like it floats amongst the stars. Her spectral vocal and the surrounding instrumentation seems to float in the air, unmoored from gravity, as she lays out her unvarnished desires for her audience. Her stomach is in her throat and heart in her hands, just waiting for some sort of response from the one she loves so completely.

The experience of giving oneself up to love is both terrifying, and yet completely fulfilling… The need to hide who you are or what you feel can vanish in an instant, and suddenly, it doesn’t seem like anything else matters. Of his song, Jim James told Rolling Stone,

“It’s about making a conscious choice to open a new door for oneself. To step forward out of safe stagnation or fear and into beauty or peace or whatever you would like to call truth in your heart in order to begin a new life in and of love.”

Based in Nashville, A New Life is Amy Stroup’s first song since her 2018 solo release, Helen of Memphis, and the first from her new album Since Frank. Following encouragement from friends, Stroup engaged with producer Chad Copelin (LANY, Broncho, Ben Rector). “You have to work with him, you guys would love each other,” said her friends, and yes, she did – she loved working with him. Amy claims A New Life as one of her all-time favourite songs, and it shows. This is a performance that hits me right in the gut – honest, raw and beautiful.

Listen: Get Away — Ayelle

Gently glittering with a naked vulnerability, Ayelle’s new single Get Away puts the Swedish-Iranian songwriter’s vocals front and centre. With a delicately picked guitar, soft bass tones and subtle percussion, Ayelle’s chorus gets all the space it needs to create an emotional impact.

Get Away is the result of Ayelle struggling with the ability to define boundaries and avoid a repeating pattern of over-investment to the point of burnout. Ayelle explains:

“I wrote 'Get Away' from a place of frustration about the repeating patterns in my life and how I can't ever seem to stay in one place. It actually started out as a letter to the music industry and the way I'd been pouring myself into my work yet feeling like it was never enough. Then those feelings merged with that of a recent break up, and I realised that I sometimes feel similarly about my romantic relationships as I have with the music industry. (It’s) like I'm pouring all of my energy into something or someone until I reach a breaking point and have to step away from it all, or continue forward in a new direction, in search of replenishing my energy and restoring balance to my life.”

Having grown up in Sweden and Spain, Ayelle moved to London to pursue her passion for music, gaining support from a list that reads like a who’s who of music media and cultural commentary — Billboard, Pitchfork, 1Xtra, NYLON and Highsnobiety. Created with Swedish producer Pontus Persson, Get Away is taken from Ayelle’s upcoming project shadowselfluv, which is described as “a space for merging shadow work with self love”. She has previously appeared on BlackPlastic.co.uk with the beautiful Regrets.

Listen: Staying Tuned With — Le Jank

Staying Tuned With is a new pop-meets-surf-rock song by Le Jank. Featuring former members of legendary reggae outfit The Maytals Band, an group known for their work with many musical legends, the song was recorded in the historic Abbey Road studio in London.

Drawing together a restrained and yet generous approach to production, Le Jank’s song floats with a sense of inner-peace. This reflects the overall description the North American duo apply to the song:

“Staying Tuned With is a song to help people quiet their mind and align with their internal direction.”

On first listening, I found Staying Tuned With a little simplistic – it arrives at and locks into a groove quickly, and then stays there. Yet, I quickly realised this is far from a derivative take on reggae — the way it inhabits that groove is purposeful. Indeed, the song’s second half is instrumental, the lyrics backing off to give the musicians space.

The instrumentation, conjured by the ex-Maytals members and Le Jank, joyfully plays around in the space afforded within the structure. Steely guitars slip and slide, reverb and echo, creating a sense of depth. A Hammond organ shines in the song’s final minute, rescuing the song at just the point where it feels like it is on the verge of disintegration. Staying Tuned With is clearly such a deliberately created performance that the song’s structure is really only the ground upon which it is built… It’s the playing that really matters.

The feeling Staying Tuned With evokes is stabilising, giving a sense of presence and pulling me into the moment. I only wish there was more — that I could stay tuned in, longer, because it is truly a stabilising place to be.

Watch: Afloat — Jewel Owusu

Afloat is the latest song from Australian musician Jewel Owusu. Originally hailing from Perth/Boorloo, but now living in Melbourne/Naarm, Jewel has previously had success with previous single American Honey. That song picked up coverage from Apple and Spotify’s editorial playlists, and also got coverage on Triple J.

With a crystalline melody and deep, woozy bass, Afloat has a soft, introspect feel… Ambient aquatic sounds and effects surround Owusu’s vocal, creating the effect of existing in her head as she soaks within a bathtub. Big, crunchy rhythms combine with the bass to create a sound that feels full and enveloping.

Production comes courtesy of Melbourne producer Swimgood, who creates the perfect bed for Jewel’s emotionally vulnerable lyrics.

Whilst the sounds may be aquatic in feel, the buoyancy at the heart of Afloat strives for something a little more heavenly. Reflecting the experience of managing anxiety and attachment within a relationship, Owusu’s vocal ask, “Space and time won’t hold us both, will you love me when I don't stay afloat?”

Describing the song, Jewel says, “Afloat is all about the part of relationships where the idealized version that your partner has created of you in their heads fades away. It’s about loving someone through their flaws, mistakes, and changes.”

Check our Afloat below.

Listen: Lost At Sea — Christen Morrell

Lost At Sea is a gentle folky number with the kind of thoughtful production I can’t resist. Guitar creates a textured feeling, buoyant bass gives the whole melody a sense of nautical movement, and atop it all a vocal floats atop the surface, sun-kissed and breathless. It is a kind of musical coherence that resonates for me, with Christen Morrell’s metaphor transcending both lyrics and melody to infuse even the production of her music.

Hailing from Annapolis, Maryland, Christen Morrell is a singer-songwriter and producer with a passion for making music out of electronic elements, smart lyrics, and emotional authenticity. Having released her eponymously titled debut EP in 2018, Morrell studied part-time at Boston, MA’s Berkeley College of Music, whilst living in Valencia, in Spain.

Having worked with other musicians, Morrell became more interested in the technical elements of music making, teaching herself production, so she could control her overall sound. Over time, Christen has established a network of female music producers with whom she can collaborate — something that was borne out of her membership of She Knows Tech, an international women-in-music-production programme and network. Morrell was initially frustrated by how often she found she was the only woman in the studio. Her experience of finding female collaborative partners through She Knows Tech enabled her to build confidence, refine her craft and grow her passion for electronic music performance and production.

Following on from her recent EP, To the Water!, Christen’s new single Lost At Sea is centred on the true story of two sailors getting caught in a storm together, out at sea on a first date. The song is a deliberate metaphor for the experience of falling in love, where it can sometimes feel like you and your loved one are the only people in the world.