RACHEL CHINOURIRI – ‘RIBS’
On her lively new single the alternative indie-pop artist captures the lovesick feeling of when physical pain meets the emotional. Written when the singer was battling a chest infection and had a big crush on someone, ‘Ribs’ is as melodically soothing as it is lyrically aching. “You got underneath my ribs / Now I dance in delusion,” Chinouriri sings as the verse builds to a spinning sing-song refrain.
KESHA – ‘FINE LINE’
“Without the darkness there is no light. I finally let my darkness have the light,” Kesha candidly wrote upon announcing her new album ‘Gag Order’, a record which is set to reveal a whole new vulnerability to the typically upbeat pop singer. ‘Fine Line’, released alongside ‘Eat The Acid’, plays like a series of diaristic revelations — stripped back, acerbic lyrics recited with bare-all honestly which tell of her disillusionment and existential battle to keep going: “Spent my whole life tryin’ to changе what they’re sayin’ about me / Sick of walkin’ that fine line.”
PJ HARVEY – ‘A CHILD’S QUESTION, AUGUST’
The lead single from the English singer-songwriter’s first new album in seven years, ‘I Inside The Old Year Dying’ – which is set to explore “searching, looking – the intensity of first love, and seeking meaning” – flows with gentle, soothing earnestness yet remains opaquely melancholy. “Love me tender/Tender love,” she sings as an imposing beat booms behind her taut drawl, leaving space in the ambiguity to find flickers of your own meaning.
CREAMS – ‘ALMIGHTY’
Dark, dystopian, and deeply menacing, the new single from the Tbilisi-born, Berlin-based artist is as vivid as it is mysterious. A commentary on survival and standing your ground, the singer’s sharp lyrics cut to the core with visceral, sensory impact. “And If I call them lions / Roaring glazes are so deafening I can’t fight / And If I call them worms / Crawling up my spine, I feel them ice-cold,” she sings atop an intensifying, looming soundscape.
SPIDER – ‘WHY WOULD I BOTHER’
The rowdy, raucous track from the Irish artist’s new EP ‘HELL OR HIGH WATER’ channels “a lot of unresolved, unspoken feelings” about the singer’s relationship with her parents. Splicing scuzzy riffs, bulky basslines and cutting percussive beats, the track boldly tackles the “grey area between anger and love” as her shrill vocals tread the line between flippant sarcasm and brutal honesty.
