Listen: Coast To Coast by Wish Queen

Opening with the kind of vocal melodies and heart racing drums that would sit at home in the opening of Twin Peaks, Wish Queen’s Coast To Coast has the kind of otherworldly, dreamlike quality I can’t resist.

Wish Queen is the musical pseudonym of Cleveland-based musician Grace Sullivan, and Coast To Coast is taken from her recent debut album, Saturnalia. Sullivan takes inspiration from a range of creative, bold and artistic predecessors, including Billie Holiday, Joni Mitchell, Fiona Apple, and Lana Del Rey. I also hear some Bat For Lashes here too, even if it is just as a result of a shared set of forebears, and her sound has been compared to Stevie Nicks meets Beach House.

All of which is a recipe to make me swoon. Grace’s glass-like vocals shimmer, like weightless crystals refracting the light to create a glistening beauty. In the song’s middle, the vocal is left almost in isolation, a hushed guitar strummed as the sole accompaniment. It is a beautiful moment of internal reflection that only serves to underline the heartfelt drama as the instrumentation returns.

Coast To Coast is positioned as the narrative climax of Wish Queen’s debut album, an album about ‘breaking patterns and self actualization, through the lens of the astrological "Saturn Return”’. Self-released, Saturnalia is an impressive accomplishment, which points to an even more impressive potential.

Watch: Silent Night vs Santa Claus Is Coming To Town by Trickster

I’ve been sitting on this one for a little while, as anything Christmas related before December is literally too much Christmas. Yet still, Trickster has created something so vibe on this mash-up of Silent Night and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town that I was compelled to sneak it into my Christmas stocking for later.

Trickster is an Austrian-born, England-resident musician whose life story has taken in entanglement with the law, a prison sentence related to ‘financial missteps’, a period as a pilot and soldier, and charity work. Now he turns his focus to music and here, in particular, to the Christmas season.

This new video brings together a combination of tracks that were recorded in London at the legendary studios Angel and RAK, before being mixed at (even more legendary) Abbey Road. The joyous video that accompanies the song was recorded at Pinewood Studios, home of James Bond (you picking up the vibe here now?). It features a combination of musicians and dancers taking inspiration from the aesthetic of a New Orleans Christmas party.

What stood out for me on this track, aside from just the amount of fun everyone is having in the video, is how Trickster embodies these two holiday standards with a level of sheer class. There is enough that is different here to transcend the formula — Trickster is not simply channeling Bing Crosby, as has become common place. Instead, the Big Band foundations here are embellished with extra touches of swing, brass crescendos and a string section that introduces a melodic counterpoint to the principal instrumentation. At the same time, Trickster keeps things conventional enough to make this universally appealing, with a sound that could convincingly date back to the 50s, albeit with impeccable production.

Speaking of production, duties here were handled by Richard Flack, who has worked with both Joe Strummer and Florence and the Machine, and Trickster himself. Look out for a full-length debut album from Trickster in 2024.

Listen: Yeah by Alex Bloom

Alex Bloom’s Yeah shimmers with a timeless, hazy, dream-like feeling. It clearly echoes and evokes the easy-going rock of the 60s, including The Beatles and The Byrds, and more modern iterations of a similar style, including The Shins.

At the same time, Bloom’s music has more diverse influences beneath the surface. For example, on his 2021 single, Bleary, Bloom set out to create a J Dilla like beat, lending his music a lilting, off-tempo funkiness.

Back on Yeah, we have a warm, sun-kissed feel as Bloom deliberately looked to recreate a simpler sound, describing it as ‘music that just feels really great to play and sing’. Written and produced in the summer of 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic raging, Yeah comes from a period that saw Alex mostly confined to the studio in his Echo Park apartment, following a move back home to Los Angeles. Describing the song, Bloom notes the fact that the move hadn’t quite lived up to his expectations:

‘Yeah is about living in a pretty comfy malaise, until one day you wake up and realize how deeply unhappy you are and how many big life choices you've made have been mistakes. And at the same time, everything kinda seems to be fine, though you know deep down it's not at all how you hoped life would be by this point. The music mirrors this sentiment, steady, comfortable, aesthetically pleasing on the surface. Hints of deep yearning pop up until they really boil over in the choruses.’

The way Yeah gently bubbles away, creating an earnest moment of raw reflection in the chorus, shows a wonderful sense of authenticity. Check it out, below:

Listen: Contact Lens by Head Ballet

Made up of duo Kiera Court and Danny Casio, Head Ballet are a self-produced act the pair formed whilst living together in Manchester during the COVID-19 lockdowns. With an experimental sound that blends together soft, dream-like melodies and warm distortion, Court and Casio bonded over a shared love of musical heroes that include Grimes, Arcade Fire, and Nine Inch Nails.

Featuring guitar work from Yungblud guitarist Adam Warrington, Contact Lens was created in Head Ballet’s London studio. With a sound that the pair liken to Venn diagram overlap of White Lies and Caroline Polachek, Contact Lens definitely has the emotive indie-pop charm of Polachek’s work within Chairlift. Hazy melodies combine with snappy-yet-muted drums as Kiera’s vocal picks out a fragile melody, later joined by Danny’s vocal harmonies.

Contact Lens itself a song about the experience of romance. The titular contact lens is representative of the sad conclusion that, just as a contact lens can fall out and be lost, beauty can slip from the eye of the beholder, the new perspective gained “just as dizzying”.

I love the soft-focused indie-pop aesthetic here — a dash of Sofia Coppola meets some good old romantic yearning for what was lost. Check it out below:

Listen: Jupiter by Jules

Jupiter is the new single from Toronto-based musician Jules, and on it, she brings forth a beautiful, baggy form of folk pop.

With an understated, glassy vocal style that evokes the wonderful sound of Clairo, Jules’ style is both restrained, and yet emotive. Whilst her Great-Grandmother sang professionally in World War II, both Jules and her siblings grew up as closeted singers, a fact that potentially explains the restraint she demonstrates here, now she is singing in the open.

In her performance, Jules demonstrates a marked vulnerability, as she sings about the struggles of maintaining mental wellbeing amidst the demands of modern life. There is a desperate sense of distance and removal in Jules’ tender vocals, as she sings “Feels like I’m on Jupiter, not Earth” in the song’s chorus.

Describing the song, Jules says:

‘I wrote the song at a time when I was feeling a bit stuck or stagnant in where I was in my life, maybe a little lost or unsure. This was causing me to look back and wonder about if I’d taken a different path in life. I was starting to feel like I wasn’t sure I was in a place that I was able to grow if I stayed where I was.

’There are also strong themes tied into the song about mental health. I was trying to capture this feeling that I’ve felt a lot in my life — I guess which was feeling like I just couldn’t keep up and everyone around me always seemed to have it so together — I’ve felt this way many times in my life.’