Featured Music of the Week: 04.11.2022
Check out our featured picks for the week!
“Invisible Love,” by Susie Suh: This singer-songwriter sought out answers outside of the modern world, and showcases her own Searching for answers outside the modern world, singer-songwriter Susie Suh began to look within. A traveler and a seeker, she embarked on an outward and inner journey of self-exploration. These epiphanic experiences would influence the LA-based artist’s latest album, Invisible Love, which includes a special vinyl release.
As the title track of the album, this song showcases the perfect introduction to this artist, paired with an intricately beautiful music video. This is the ethereal and uplifting title track of her latest album, which will receive a special vinyl release on May 27th, an anthem of self-love and empowerment.
“This album chronicles an inner journey that I’ve been on—a pilgrimage of sorts—to find healing from within. Music is a powerful tool, and songs can help one get in touch with their own emotions and truth. I wanted to incorporate into my music some more alternative and intentional elements that have helped me on my journey.”
~ Susie Suh
“Rise Again,” by LITO: Also known as Marlon Bertzbach, this artist grew up on a farm. Although he had no trouble making friends, he never felt like he was in the right place. Through a turmoil of trial and error throughout his life, everything was interesting, but nothing really fit until he kept trying to seek out his passions, and began in his music journey. Under the stage name FINN, he has played countless small and large concerts over the last eight years, gaining experience and fans. He has released two albums in German and separated from his musical team after eight years. At the end of this turbulent period of his life, it was still not clear to him who he is, what he wants and how to achieve it.
Between scene-tastic soundscapes and catchy melodies, this single was curated together with producer Stefan Heinrich (Klan) to reach the final product. Its international and modern sound blends indie with mainstream as his voice takes center stage. Released with a video – unique visuals meet intricate animation to bring the single further to life.
“Mess Boy,” by Elliot Lee: This Brooklyn based artist has invented their own style- blending dark pop with electronic and rock soundscapes, their sound is even more unpredictable as their sweet vocals shine through. Dark lyrics compliment the melodies that all in all act as a voice for the voiceless. We last chatted with them about “Rubies” and “Drama Queen” over a Zoom Interview. Here we are able to see what they have to offer next in their next single.
This track showcases a true story… written from an uncomfortable and inappropriate interaction from a colleague who harassed the, for the way they looked. As attempts were made to make them feel inferior, Elliot brilliantly describes being bullied by someone trying to use their power to control, paired with a video with a made-by-hand feel where a woman is being followed and harassed on the subway.
“Boxes,” by GRAE: Dissecting her past to envision her future, this artist instills a sense of nostalgia in her new wave pop music that at the same time breaks boundaries through concept. The Toronto-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist crafts a hazy pop world filled with spacious vocals, buoyant production, and deeply personal lyrics. With over 11 million streams to her name, she is one of the fastest-rising names in alt-pop.
On the single, this artist reflects on her ability to take a step back and let go of things, acknowledging her yearn for growth and welcoming the process of finding her own skin to fit in. The track chronicles the transitional stage of adolescence to early adulthood, and the choices and chances that are often presented. Accompanied by a music video directed by Gemma Warren, the lively visual clip places GRAE and her friends in a photo booth laughing and dancing, relishing their youthful enthusiasm.
“being single,” by ÊMIA: This singer, songwriter, and producer admits their enjoyment in making a big deal out of the little things. Sensitive, chaotic, and observant, she (real name, Anh Le ) is hand-crafting a ‘tell-all’ brand of pop music. Taking her influences from electronic music, R&B, film scores and musical theatre, her sonic universe sounds like your favorite young adult novel and it is as binge-worthy as a late-night soap opera. Powered by seltzer water, sour gummies, and overly-detailed journal entries, she is in the process of creating her next project, a full length album.
This single depicts an instability and chaos that comes from feeling loneliness, and learning how to reach out and date in the modern world.
Last year, I was exhausted and annoyed by the pressure of needing to put myself out there. All I wanted was to find a love that could compare to the one I lost. My collaborator, Charlie Kurata, and I have had many phone calls about disastrous first dates, hookups and situationships – and those conversations turned into “Being Single.”
~ ÊMIA
“I’m hungry,” by ANDRÆ: This artist is an independent one-man band in his own world of music. While shamelessly facing the darkness, his electronic sounds experiment in other organic ones, topped with a soul-filled, abstract, yet relatable vocal performance. He is currently based in London, and shares his talents in the arts as an escape, both visually and sonically, from a world that can never feel quite right.
Back with his first single of 2022, the artist talks about the overconsumption state that follows a lot of break ups and losses. He describes a hunger that cannot be satisfied. Hungry for food, substances, physical or emotional contact, nothing seems to help. The music video features the artist eating a whole lot of different types of food. The overconsumption represents that hunger that never seems to stop when you’re feeling empty from within.
“Risk,” by Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys: This artist’s music sends her listeners into a journey of reflection as she showcases her wide range of creativity in her own world. She explores many themes in her music including the centrality of women in Kruger’s lyrics, as listeners, and in her own life.
There is more pressure on a woman to figure herself out in private and then step out with a formed identity. It’s suffocating. How are we supposed to discover who we are if we are not allowed to make a mess? To leak, spill, sweat, spit, shriek. Sometimes playing involves getting scratched or wounded. Laughing. Weeping. It also involves glorious thrill and the chance to surrender. I’m looking for that.
~ Lucy Kruger
This single was the first track written for her next upcoming project. Seeming like a collection of love songs at first, when diving deeper, Teen Tapes (for performing your own stunts) embraces the full chaos and process and embrace of the experience and exploration of love in its full manifestation. And this track is no exception to that. Beginning with a blare of electric guitar, her vocals contrast the sound beautifully as her sound sends chills through the spine.
“In Cologne,” by Lucas Laufen: This classically influenced singer and folk guitarist left everything behind in his coastal town Port Lincoln for a dream life on the European road. A competent pianist at the age of 8, a trumpet player at 10, in his teens Laufen discovered the acoustic guitar and began writing own songs. After school, he began studying and working, however exhausting 60-hour weeks kept him from his goals, and the desire for self-realization grew. He then decided to go on the road and to pursue a love for music in writing and performing all around the world. Finding his feet in the German capital of Berlin, Lucas put down roots and used the city as a base to release his debut EP “Goodbye”. The EP was toured through 11 different countries, performed in clubs, living rooms and concert halls. After two years of writing while on the road, Lucas travelled to Christchurch New Zealand to wrap his experience into an album. Recorded without the help of software instruments, Lucas features his trumpet throughout the album as well as a wide selection of brass, woodwind, strings and percussion.
Following a string of melancholy, heartwarming, and more in a successful string of releases, he recently launched his latest single, the fifth toward his upcoming album. Created a few days after the first lockdown, the artist wrote the song in Germany shortly after his world on the road performing shut down. Lucas Laufen manages to capture the mood of this uncertain, exceptional situation with the single without losing optimism for a good outcome.
I was on tour at the time and was able to play one last show in Cologne before regular life collapsed. The song describes the feeling I had in the city as I roamed around Cologne in the early evening before the show. I managed to get into the cathedral, and there was no one there, just a huge empty church, a cemetery, bars. When I arrived at the venue, the staff received calls from artists and promoters to cancel my show. In the end, we all sat down, had a drink and welcomed the uncertainty… I experimented with this song. We double-recorded tons of stuff, ran piano parts through guitar amps, Gidon played some lo-fi drums live, and I found a spot for my trumpet. Lots of noises, set pieces and dynamics.
~ Lucas Laufen
“Dark Room,” by Foreign Figures, EJ Michels: Utah natives, four-piece Foreign Figures interesting take on alternative pop stems from their unique creative dynamic: each of them are lead singers and frontmen in the band. In 2018 they released a six track EP “Overzealous”, which quickly achieved millions of streams. This early success also brought their charismatic live performance all around Utah, sharing the stage with the likes of X Ambassadors, Lukas Graham, Kesha, and American Authors. This year is set to experience the biggest amount of releases for the band than ever before.
They join forces with EJ Michels, the “over-feeler” for this single. A blend of acoustic and electronic, heavy beats contrast the soundscape as soft vocals are showcased in the foreground. Together, the collaboration signifies a beautiful mesh of texture and sound.
Stream all the songs in full on our exclusive playlist:
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[…] This is the second release in a series of post-breakup coping mechanisms. Fronted with heavily electronic vocals to set the tone, the beat drops before the artist’s own voice shifts the scene into a uniquely textured experience that continues to ramp up anticipations and intensify the soundscape. Pushing his peculiar genre even further, he creates a soulful hyperpop and experimental electronic song, as the second chapter of the story he started with his previous release, “I’m hungry.” […]