Music Videos
SZA Shares “Good Days” Video with “Shirt” Teaser: Watch
SZA scored her first Top 10 hit as a solo artist with “Good Days”, and now the Top Dawg Entertainment singer has released the song’s self-directed music video. The five-minute clip features a preview of her next single, “Shirt”, at the end. In the fairytale-inspired clip, the New Jersey native alternates between performing the song in a field surrounded by mushrooms, a la Alice in Wonderland, and twirling around a stripper pole in a library reminiscent of Beauty and the Beast. Released on Christmas Day 2020, “Good Days” features additional vocals from Jacob Collier. It is expected to appear on SZA’s long-awaited follow-up to 2017’s Ctrl alongside her Ty Dolla $ign collaboration, “Hit Different”. Watch the “Good Days” music video below. Editors’ Picks [embedded content] Rel...
Dirty Honey Announce Debut Album, Share “California Dreamin’”: Stream
Hard rockers Dirty Honey have announced that their self-titled debut album will arrive April 23rd. The L.A. band has also shared the music video for the opening track and lead single, “California Dreamin’”. Not to be confused with the ’60s pop hit of the same name by The Mamas and the Papas, Dirty Honey’s take on the Golden State is a darker portrayal. Vocalist and lyricist Marc LaBelle said the track and its video explain that the Cali dream is just that: a dream. It doesn’t always come true. “Lots of people come out to California, chasing a dream, and sometimes, people just don’t make it,” LaBelle said in a press release. “California isn’t always the ‘land of milk and honey,’ dreams don’t always come true here, and that’s the perspective this song and video take. The video is a dream thr...
Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram, and Jon Randall Announce The Marfa Tapes, Share “In His Arms”: Stream
Country superstar Miranda Lambert has teamed up with songwriters Jack Ingram and Jon Randall for the new album The Marfa Tapes. It drops May 7th, and to preview the release, the group has unveiled the lead single “In His Arms”. Lambert, Ingram, and Randall are hardly strangers; the trio previously collaborated on Lambert’s twice Grammy-nominated single “Tin Man” (2016), as well as the fan favorite “Tequila Does” (2019). Fresh takes on both of those songs will appear on The Marfa Tapes, but the majority of the 15-track effort has never been heard outside of Marfa, Texas. The small town is home to only about 1,800 people, but for five days last November it also hosted three musicians, two microphones, and one acoustic guitar. The stripped-down recording session tried to capture the stark bea...
Fijian Rapper Jesswar Releases Debut EP TROPIXX: Stream
Three years after she set out to write and record her own music, rising Fijian rapper Jesswar has just released her debut EP TROPIXX via Inertia Music/PIAS. Stream it below via Apple Music and Spotify. TROPIXX is a six-track EP meant to introduce listeners to Jesswar’s range of skills. On the previously released singles “Medusa” and “Venom”, she shows off a verbal tenacity and community-driven storytelling that seeks to empower fellow marginalized people, and that remains true for the other tracks on the EP. The way she sees it, holistic independence doesn’t have to mean you’re estranged from kinship or unity. “When I first started writing TROPIXX, I was tired of being overlooked, and I knew I had a lot to say. It was really upsetting to wake up every day and see how women of color are con...
Chance the Rapper Drops New Song “The Heart and the Tongue”: Stream
Chance the Rapper is back with a new single. It’s called “The Heart and the Tongue” and it comes with an introspective music video filmed during quarantine. Stream it below. In his typical slick delivery over a trip-hop beat, “The Heart and the Tongue” sees Chance the Rapper ruminating on truth as a concept. “My heart and tongue are fighting/ My mind is undecided,” he raps. “It’s not like Trump and Biden/ It’s more like something private/ Like when yo’ cousins are fighting/ One of ’em gets excited/ You can’t just jump the gun and pick a side and jump inside it.” It’s funny hearing him bring up the election considering he supported Kanye West in his presidential run only to perform at a post-inauguration performance for Biden six months later. In the song’s accompanying music video, Ch...
Charli XCX Teams with No Rome and The 1975 on New Song “Spinning”: Stream
Charli XCX (photo by Philip Cosores); No Rome and The 1975 (photo via No Rome’s Instagram) Charli XCX has teamed with No Rome and The 1975 for a new song, “Spinning”. Stream it below. London-based Filipino musician No Rome officially announced the collaboration in early February. He revealed the song was already mastered, but the music video was still in the process of being edited. Several weeks later, Charli went a step further, excitedly dubbing the three of them a supergroup. The British singer-songwriter shared her experience of working with No Rome and The 1975 in a tweet. “I think Rome and The 1975 guys are so talented, it’s honestly so cool to have this song with them,” Charli wrote. “I feel like we all speak the same musical language in some way, and that language is stunnin...
Small Black Share New Single “The Bridge”: Stream
Over five years after delivering their last full-length, 2015’s Best Blues, Small Black are set to return next month with a new album called Cheap Dreams. Early singles “Duplex” and “Tampa” arrived over the last few months, and now the chillwave pioneers are back with “The Bridge”. Built off a patiently sanguine piano line, “The Bridge” is an ode to Rockaway Beach, a favorite oasis for New York escapists. For those spending most of their time in the concrete jungle of the boroughs, it’s a magical slice of Atlantic coastline, and the song’s dreamy longing transports listeners right back to those shores. As singer Josh Kolenik explained in a statement, the lyrics are specifically from the point of view of his Uncle Matt, an individual Small Black fans may recognize from the band’s first-ever...
Wesley Joseph Drops Thumping Track “Thrilla”: Stream
23-year-old UK rapper Wesley Joseph has released “Thrilla”, his first new song of 2021. The booming track is co-produced by Jai Paul collaborator Lexxx and Joseph himself. It arrives via a self-directed music video featuring one of the two working DeLoreans in the UK. Stream the clip below. “Thrilla” is propelled by a heavy 808, but the production is also layered with funk-inspired guitar licks and gothic strings. In an interview with BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac, Joseph said he freestyled the song’s lyrics while drunk “off the rum and orange juice.” Accordingly, most of the track features swaggering rhymes, but Joseph also gets introspective at times. “Visions in my dreams, who do you believe / They fear the change,” he raps. “Looking hollow tomorrow, dividing barricades / Thought I saw the fu...
Japanese Breakfast Announces New Album Jubilee, Shares “Be Sweet”: Stream
Michelle Zauner has announced a new Japanese Breakfast album called Jubilee, due out June 4th via Dead Oceans. Today, Zauner is getting the party started with the lead single, “Be Sweet”. The singer-songwriter’s third studio album follows 2016’s Psychopomp and 2017’s Soft Sounds from Another Planet, but it finds her traversing new emotional ground. While her first two albums dealt with the devastation she felt after her mother’s death from cancer, Jubilee is meant to be just that: a celebration marking the passage of time. In a statement, she explained the intention behind the project and its first single “Be Sweet”, saying, “After spending the last five years writing about grief, I wanted our follow up to be about joy. For me, a third record should feel bombastic and so I ...
Maple Glider Unveils New Song “Good Thing”: Stream
Melbourne songwriter Maple Glider has signed to Partisan Records and shared the new single “Good Thing”. The artist born Tori Ziestch joins a stacked Partisan roster that includes Laura Marling, Fela Kuti, IDLES, and Fontaines D.C. She has a sweet, smoky voice which she likes to keep at a whisper — the better to add drama when she unleashes a powerful belt. Her label debut “Good Thing” is a slowed-down guitar track, with stately strumming enlivened by the occasional crisp snap of a drum. Lyrically, the song explores the sadness and confusion of a relationship near its end. “But I guess that’s how we learn,” she sings as the music swells. “By setting fire to things that bring us life/ Before we’ve got to watch them burn.” In a statement, she explained the intention behind the track, w...
Tomahawk (Mike Patton) Unleash New Song “Dog Eat Dog” with Brutal Music Video: Stream
The Mike Patton-fronted alternative metal act Tomahawk has unveiled the second single from its upcoming album Tonic Immobility, due out March 26th. The new song, titled “Dog Eat Dog”, comes with a brutal music video. The track is another crisp slice of heavy melodies, following the sound outlined on the previous single “Business Casual”. The inexhaustible Patton is never one to skimp on his vocal performances, and he delivers another strong outing on “Dog Eat Dog”. Lyrically, the new song offers a humorously pro-canine stance, with Patton stating, “Dogs patiently wait, obediently, for humans to snuff each other out…so they can take over the world. Dogs rule!!!!” The accompanying video, directed by Eric Livingston, takes a more serious look at the inherent competition in our society — ...
Big|Brave Announce New Album Vital, Share Video for “Half Breed”: Stream
Atmospheric metal trio Big|Brave have announced their new album, Vital, will be out April 23rd via Southern Lord. The band has also offered up the video for the epic nine-minute lead single, “Half Breed”. Big|Brave have built a smoldering and majestic post-metal track with the new single, perfecting the meditative tones that perked our ears when we first heard Big|Brave as the support act for Daughters in 2019. The track is highlighted by the powerful vocal performance of Robin Wattie. The music video for “Half Breed” is also striking, depicting a single continuous shot of a prone figure being covered with dirt. As the traffic in the background zooms by, the individual appears to be getting buried alive until the final notes ring out and the protagonist rises. “The action of shoveling dirt...
