Hello world,
Here’s your latest FP Picks update and we’ve got great new tunes from Nrvs, Avis, Bess Atwell, China Bears & many more. If you like what you hear please follow and share this playlist, it helps us keep doing our thing by getting the algorithms on our side. Also please support the artists featured in any way you can!
Until next week
Helen (Futureproof) x
Better Joy – Dead Plants
Manchester’s Better Joy (aka Bria Keely & band) have shared positive yet melancholic new single Dead Plants, an alternative love song about fading relationships. “Dead Plants explores the complexities of love,” Bria explains. “When relationships are drying out and you don’t have a lot left to water them with. When they’re one-sided; when you’re at the end of your tether but the love is unconditional, so it’s both a nightmare and equally hard to let go; to accepting and understanding that someone won’t or can’t change. Love isn’t lost, it’s reinvented and re-shaped to cater to our own needs and boundaries.” Poignant lyrics and beautiful vocals on this catchy number.
GIRLBAND! – Not Like The Rest
Nottingham trio GIRLBAND! reminisce about small-town life on indie-pop-punk anthem Not Like The Rest. A blast of guitar energy with soaring vocals – what a belter! The band are Georgie, Jada and Kay who came together after making music in other projects and, during the pandemic, they “plugged into the wider community in Nottingham, one that inspired them with 80s culture, vintage fashion and massive dose of 90s nostalgia, Gwen Stefani and R&B groups.” What a rousing track – definitely ones to watch!
Balancing Act – She Plays The Theremin
Alt-rock outfit Balancing Act have shared infectious new single She Plays The Theremin. Guitarist Jackson Couzens states: “We found the best way for us to write is to cut ourselves off from everyone and lock ourselves away, it was just a really inspirational place to go and be creative … The whole song was written in thirty minutes, it was one of those nice ones that just kind of falls out of the sky. With every little idea we tried, from chord changes, to riffs, to melodies, to lyrics – the first idea stuck. We demoed it in the next thirty minutes, and it was done! It was probably our favourite track to come out of those sessions.” Melodic guitars, great songwriting and rousing vocals – love it.
China Bears – Easy Kill
China Bears have shared powerful new single Easy Kill from their upcoming debut album Participation Trophy. “Easy Kill is a song about the initial hesitance that sometimes comes when letting others in, but ultimately celebrating vulnerability and being truly open around the people you care about,” explains vocalist Ivan. “To love and be loved by someone can put you in a terrifyingly defenseless place. Easy Kill challenges that feeling, that it is in fact a beautiful experience when two people feel so connected and close to one another, so much so that they’re both willing to risk enduring the pain that may come with the absence from one another.” A heartfelt, melodic anthem with fantastic songwriting.
Sophie Kilburn – Body On The Inside
Singer-songwriter Sophie Kilburn tackles consent and physical boundaries in the pop world on indie-rock belter Body On The Inside taken from new EP Don’t Make Me Angry. Sophie’s music blends melancholic pop with fiery indie-rock, drawing inspiration from influential artists like Boygenius, The Last Dinner Party, HAIM, and PJ Harvey. This diverse range of influences shapes her dedication to her exceptional storytelling through lyrics. A highly infectious ear worm to go on repeat with beautiful vocals – one to watch!
Avis – Daffodil Girl
Hull based indie band Avis are back with the highly infectious Daffodil Girl – a tale about a jealous character who intends to brutally murder the extremely beautiful but rather narcissistic ‘Daffodil Girl‘. The band state: “It’s our second studio recording and I think we’re getting into our own rhythm (pardon the pun) as a band when it comes to the recording and production of our music.” Key musical influences range from The Smiths, Lovejoy and the Arctic Monkeys through to First of October, Courtney Barnette, Big Thief, Declan McKenna, Bastille and Navier Gene and the band describe themselves as “energetic, emotive, teenage, angsty chaos”. Great to have them back with another belter!
Nrvs – The Sane
Fantastic to have mysterious post-punk outfit Nrvs back with electro-punk gem The Sane taken from their EP I Like You, out today. The Sane incorporates a mix of electro & indie flavours over a hip-hop inspired beat and plays on the dreary world of mechanised dating. Vocalist Ten Pence says of the EP: “As for the idea behind the record, for me… people talk about the apocalypse but it’s already happened. There’s just a delay on it: the bomb’s gone off and we’re experiencing this weird still pause, birdsong and all, between detonation and the shockwave hitting us!” Ideologically they are confrontational, unapologetic, existentially on the edge & uncompromising in their beliefs – all of which is reflected in their creative output and we love ’em!
Julia Holter – Spinning
LA singer-songwriter Julia Holter recently shared new single Spinning, a love song that feels like new love itself, folding infatuation’s dizziness right into its unsteady movements and taken from her new LP Something In The Room She Moves. In a statement, Hotler said she was “trying to create a world that’s fluid-sounding, waterlike, evoking the body’s internal sound world.” This is palpable on Spinning, which is a cascade of transcendent, lush feeling. “It’s about being in the passionate state of making something: being in that moment, and what is that moment?” she explained. About the LP, she added, “There’s a corporeal focus, inspired by the complexity and transformability of our bodies.”
Bess Atwell – Release Myself
Brighton based Bess Atwell has shared heartfelt, poignant new single Release Myself, taken from her forthcoming Light Sleeper album. Atwell states: “There are always a couple of songs on a record that just sort of fall out of you and this was one of them. This was the first time I’ve managed to write about my panic disorder without slipping too far into sorry-for-myself or cheesy, faux-empowering territory. It’s a song that says hey I’m struggling but I’m not a victim.” Stunning vocals & songwriting on this irresistible track portraying the artist’s vulnerabilities.
mary in the junkyard – Ghost
London trio mary in the junkyard have dropped their unique & haunting new single Ghost. Vocalist Clari Freeman-Taylor delivers a delicate performance as her vocals float above a grunge-y instrumentals and the main focus of the track is Clari’s vocal motif of “ooweoo” which follows us throughout the track and adds a sense of playfulness to the song. This builds to the whole band joining in for a collective howl before the final break which is mildly terrifying but sonically satisfying. On the track, Clari says “Ghost is a song about light, and finding a fresh start – it’s our most joyful to play together because of the ooweeoos and the howling and the big breezy key change. It’s about the love in new friendships and the excitement of finding new wisdom.”
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