From New York
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Recommended if you like Cameron Winter, Adrianne Lenker, Alex G
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Up next My Piledriver Heart album out now; UK tour beginning 4 November<\/p>\n
Making coming-of-age music as a young person can feel strange after a pandemic. So here are a few more curveballs. Imagine the breezy, youthful indie you post online in your early teens gets you a record deal. Covid happens. You move to New York, change your artist name, and then Julian Casablancas eyes you at an open mic and invites you to open for the Strokes in Colorado, aged 18, solo.<\/p>\n
This pinball game of life is the music career of Superfan, AKA Kali Flanagan, who is now 21 and whose latest album, My Piledriver Heart, offers up a codex of miniature bildungsromans worth the buzz.<\/p>\n
Flanagan\u2019s primary tools are some of the simplest: drop-tuned, condensed acoustic guitars (which he calls \u201cacousticellos\u201d) and quietly strong vocals reminiscent of Elliott Smith or Alex G. Roomy drums and distortion on tracks such as In the Gold Room<\/a> or Keeping Your Smile add a welcome noisy edge.<\/p>\n The album\u2019s true power is Flanagan\u2019s ability to hand-spin emotion out of simple melodies, phrases or builds, thanks in part to deft cello work by Omeed Almassi (who has also played with Bar Italia): take the way the strings mimic an unfurling guitar line at the climax of Miss W Jones<\/a>, or the bassy Nick Drakeian outro to Ode to Hum (I Want It to Rise)<\/a>. Even so, when you think Flanagan lands on something concrete, he doesn\u2019t: this is music that conjures up new feelings on every listen. Isn\u2019t that what growing up is all about? Archie Forde<\/p>\n This week\u2019s best new tracks@\u2019s Victoria Rose and Stone Filipczak. Photograph: Ingmar Chen<\/p>\n @\u200b \u2013 Love in the Dark Snoh Aalegra \u2013 Karma \u200bBlondie \u2013 Spectral Eyes Carissa\u2019s Wierd \u2013 I Don\u2019t Feel Like I Feel Right Marla Kether \u2013 Libera (ft Margaridas) Teri Rini \u2013 Behind Every Mirror Post Common \u2013 Check Atomiser Subscribe to the Guardian\u2019s rolling Add to Playlist selections on Spotify \u2013 or transfer it to Apple<\/a>, Tidal<\/a> or other services<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From New York Recommended if you like Cameron Winter, Adrianne Lenker, Alex G Up next My Piledriver Heart…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-632427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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The Philadelphia duo<\/a>, who in a previous generation might have been dubbed freak-folk, release their album Autosmile today, and it\u2019s one of the year\u2019s very best. This particular track has a riveting blend of innocence and experience, with hymnal yet careworn vocals.<\/p>\n
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An utterly stunning, minimalist R&B ballad with shades of Maxwell to its chorus and mk.gee to its guitar, as Aalegra lacerates herself over the way she betrayed a lover.<\/p>\n
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Though Johnny Marr wrote it and plays the big, simple riff, the lead single to the New York legends\u2019 first album in nine years is all about Debbie Harry, rhythmically chattering through the chorus with a rough, time-worn grade to her voice.<\/p>\n
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In the 25 years since their last album, the US indie duo have amassed a huge audience on streaming who will no doubt flock to this new single, a romantic tussle whose tension is kept taut even as the epic drums kick in.<\/p>\n
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Her day job is being Little Simz\u2019s bassist, but Kether\u2019s own music is well worth seeking out: Libera is a propulsive Latin-house track with delicate, chirrupping vocals by Margaridas \u2013 and, predictably, a killer melodic bassline.<\/p>\n
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You can reliably smash \u201cbuy now\u201d on anything Melbourne label Efficient Space puts out, spanning contemporary artists and crate-digging comps. This, a spellbinding 1981 song from an overlooked US jazz singer, is from an upcoming example of the latter, entitled Nothing Ever Was.<\/p>\n
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Guitars are rarely as gorgeously distorted as they are here, with tones like a wind-assaulted microphone shifting through the Brighton trio\u2019s otherwise melodic post-hardcore.<\/p>\n