New Music Friday is here again and here we have our international top picks of the week. As we roll into the weekend there is something for everyone to enjoy.
1. Lenci Unveils Gorgeous New Single “Wildflower”
With her songs often about the trials of love and life she has given her music a unique title; “My music reflects who I am internally and externally, even the parts I try to hide or the mistakes I tried to bury. It’s fluid, sometimes playful, mostly about romance and all of its ups and down, but always true; that’s why I call it “whimsical soul”.
2. Matt Maeson release ‘Nelsonwood Lane’
Matt Maeson releases emotional new fan track “Nelsonwood Lane” today, one of his most personal songs to date. Listen HERE. The powerful, piano-driven track is joined by an official music video starring Maeson and streaming now HERE.
“Nelsonwood Lane is a street I used to live on in a small town called Gloucester, VA when I was about 10,” says Maeson. “When I started writing the tune, my intention was to write about a specific occurrence that happened in my life when I lived there, but what happened is, it started to turn into some kind of time-lapse of many different experiences that, for the first time in my life, I realized we’re connected in a lot of ways. It felt like I was babbling to a therapist about traumatic memories and the lyrics just kept coming. Whenever that happens, I know it’s going to be something very important to me and hopefully becomes something very important to someone else.”
Currently hard at work on the hugely anticipated follow-up to his 2019 breakthrough debut album, Bank On The Funeral, Maeson recently unveiled his new project, USERx, an extraordinary musical partnership with his longtime collaborator, producer/designer Rozwell.
3.
Two Year Vacation is the band that originates from its own contrast. Founded in Gothenburg, Sweden’s second city, a seaport known for its rain, headwind and grayness, the quintet makes rhythmic radio-friendly indie pop. Or as it’s been labeled by Swedish press “Tropical kraut-pop”.
Two Year Vacation is about driving out all stale senses of the mundane. With their new EP “Getting Into Real Estate”, scheduled for an October release this year, Two Year Vacation have been letting themselves dive deep into a common existential crisis where they’ve realized they are no big shareholders, they don’t own any luxurious houses or way too fast cars – Nothing of all that which is being portrayed through all our screens on a daily basis as the dream life. But with this EP they’ve let themselves get into the real estate to see how fun it could be, living the life being idolized for so many of us all. All in their own way though.
“We went into the studio during some, to Gothenburg, rare extreme hot summer days in 2020 and blended all the sounds that inspired us mid-pandemic. We came out with four songs about dreaming of music with a cocktail in our hands. We’re Two Year Vacation and we’re getting into the real estate.” – says the band.
4. Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real’s – Throwin’ Away Your Love,
Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real’s new song, Throwin’ Away Your Love, is out now. Listen/share HERE.
The track is the third unveiled from the band’s highly anticipated new album, A Few Stars Apart, which will be released next Friday, June 11 on Fantasy Records and is now available for pre-order. Already one of Rolling Stone’s “54 Most Anticipated Albums of 2021,” A Few Stars Apart is a testament to finding a human connection: between close family and friends, as well as one’s own heart. Produced by Grammy Award winning producer Dave Cobb, the album was inspired by the stillness Nelson found while riding out the beginning of the pandemic with his family in Texas and was recorded live on eight-track tape over three weeks at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A.
Across the album’s eleven new songs, including previously released tracks Leave ‘Em Behind and Perennial Bloom (Back To You), the band reveals what it means to come home again, to be still, and to find community—and yourself. Released to critical acclaim, Rolling Stone praised Perennial Bloom, asserting, “the track explodes into a euphoric prediction of better days on the horizon…a tight, radio-ready single,” while American Songwriter declared, “Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real instil hope for a reconnected future.”
“I’m from what one might say is the ultimate road family—I’ve been on the road my entire life,” shares Nelson. “I’ve never been anywhere longer than three months, and suddenly here we are, the four of us together. And thank god we were together. I can’t remember the last time we had that much time together as a family. We had a lot of really important bonding that happened during that time. And I have to say, as terrible as the pandemic has been in so many ways, for my inner peace, I was able to take a lot of good from this time. I was able to pause and reflect.”
He continues, “It took me a really long time to come back to the home in my heart. In a physical sense, that’s Texas and Hawaii. But in a spiritual sense as well—I think I finally decided not to run from who I am and who I am destined to be. First and foremost, that’s a songwriter. That’s what this record means to me. There’s a story being told through the whole record. A story about connection and coming home.”
5. Chet Faker shaers new single ‘Feel Good’
Melbourne-raised, New York-based producer, songwriter and artist, Nick Murphy unveils the latest single from his Chet Faker project; ‘Feel Good’ taken from the forthcoming album, Hotel Surrender, out July 16 via Detail Records/BMG.
Released alongside the single is a stunning music video, an unbroken single shot with Murphy rollerblading in the golden Californian desert sunset. Produced by globally acclaimed production company FREENJOY (Previous works include The Weeknd, Ariana Grande/Doja Cat, Travis Scott et al), the video unearths Murphy’s relatively unknown passion for rollerblading, a hobby that nearly derailed the entire production on the first take. Murphy explains: “I broke my hand filming this last week and I don’t regret one bit of it.”
“Feel Good” appears on Hotel Surrender, a 10-track LP written, recorded and produced by Murphy and mixed by Dave Fridmann that reintroduces the swaggering bass lines and electrifying melodies that made fans fall in love with Chet Faker across the world.
6. Matt Lang Shares New Radio Single ‘In A Bar’
Almost exactly one year ago, on June 5th 2020, Québec-born artist Matt Lang released his second English language country album More, a few weeks after his appearance at C2C Festival in Berlin. Incorporating more traditional influences than his debut EP, while maintaining the pop-rock elements in his sound, the songs have accumulated nearly 10 million streams around the world, charting #1 in Quebec, #3 in sales across Canada and #1 on the iTunes all-genres chart.
Already an established artist in Canada, and the winner of the 2019 SiriusXM Canada & CCMA Top of the Country contest, Lang’s first radio single ‘Water Down the Whiskey’ was the #1 most added track on Canadian country radio when it was released in August 2019. The follow up, ‘Getcha’, peaked #5 on the Canadian country radio charts and Top 10 on the Billboard Emerging Canadian Artist Chart. Late last year, he shared the ballad ‘Only a Woman’ (watch the video here), which also ranked in the Billboard Top 10 and #11 on country radio stations nationwide.
Co-written by fellow Canadians Tebey and Danick Dupelle in Nashville, the latest single ‘In a Bar’ couldn’t come at a better time, as friends everywhere start to look forward to getting together for drinks over the summer after a year of isolation.
7. Havoc & Lawn have unveiled their new single ‘Girls Come By’
Continuing with their prolific run of first-rate studio output, ‘Girls Come By’ sees the Reggio Emilia-based twosome combine bouncing rhythms, shimmering synths and hypnotic male vocals – delivering an emotive and energetic deep house weapon just in time for summer.
It marks their debut release on Selected, an esteemed imprint that has racked up over 1.8 billion YouTube plays across its sprawling back catalogue. The label’s main focus is artist development and the establishment of Selected artists as powerful players in the global music scene.
Two of the most exciting young producers in European dance music, Riccardo Mamoli and Simone Prati burst onto the scene back in 2015 with the birth of their house project Havoc & Lawn. The hotly-tipped duo have since enjoyed a slew of critically acclaimed releases, on tastemaker Defected, Nervous, Ultra and Mother Recordings.
Brimming with sunkissed dancefloor energy, ‘Girls Come By’ is primed to become one of the dance tracks of summer 2021.
8. Corbu share title track Lost & Found single from EP
Brooklyn dream-psych duo Corbu have shared their new EP, Lost & Found, out today on Trash Casual and 3 Beat. The six song EP features the song “Lost & Found” reimagined in different ways, bringing a unique vibe to the track throughout each version. The highlight comes from the single version, worked on with one of the band’s heroes, Doves frontman Jimi Goodwin. The track is an upbeat, danceable slice of electronic indie pop, produced by Goodwin as a dubbed-out, reggae-tinged trip to the sun. On the “Lost & Found (Seaside Version)”, Corbu gives the song a post-rock makeover, while for track three Brooklyn DJ JKriv hops on to remix the song into a more club-ready vibe. You can check out the Lost & Found EP on streaming services here now.
Corbu is the music and visual art made by a grown-up choirboy-turned-psychonaut, and a hairstylist/lyricist who had never touched an instrument until she was playing on a Jumbotron at Austin City Limits. Jonathan Graves and Amanda create dirty, electronic dream-pop as a kind of medicine, trying to lure their audience deeper into their own subconscious while giving them something to sing along to.
9. Breagh Isabel releases new track ‘Girlfriends’
Breagh Isabel – the Halifax-based and Cape Breton Island-born recording artist, songwriter and producer – has released her debut single today, “Girlfriends,” along with the official video. The song helps usher in her new recording contract with Warner Music Canada.
“Girlfriends” is a pop-leaning, coming-of-age story about a very specific type of heartbreak; the kind that comes from being a lovesick teenager in less welcoming times. The song emerged from a session with one of her Canadian songwriting crushes, Simon Wilcox (Nick Jonas, Selena Gomez, Lennon Stella). Isabel offered up the lyrics, “maybe we were homophobic” and like an astute therapist, Wilcox instantly started peeling back the layers, unravelling a closely kept story that needed to be told, and thus “Girlfriends” was born.
“I had no firm intention of delving into a solo artist project when I wrote ‘Girlfriends,’ but the song easily became the most honest thing I had ever written. I started to feel like I had something to say that might resonate,” says Isabel. “The song is about little – and sometimes big – moments and thoughts I didn’t know what to do with at the time, but now realize were just expressions of me figuring out who I am.”
10. The Marías release new track ‘Un Millón’
Acclaimed alternative-pop band The Marías have announced today’s premiere of their captivating new single – “Un Millón” (listen HERE). A thrilling new leap for the band, the track finds The Marías expanding their sonic palette and drawing influence from the potent rhythms of reggaetón. One of several songs in Spanish on CINEMA, “Un Millón” unfolds in swaying beats, spellbinding melodies, and lyrics expressing a tender affection for lead singer María Zardoya’s beloved birthplace of Puerto Rico. Today’s release arrives alongside an official visualizer.
“I wanted to pay homage to the island and its music and people,” she says, “so in the song, I’m calling out some of the places I used to go visit with my family when I was little.”
“Un Millón” heralds the upcoming release of The Marías’ eagerly awaited full-length album, CINEMA, arriving via Nice Life Recording Company/Atlantic Records on Friday, June 25th; pre-orders are available now HERE.
