Further Listening:

5. Adelyn Strei Is Really Down On Her Hometown

Based out of Brooklyn, via Eau Clair, Wisconsin, Adelyn Strei is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who previously released music under the Adelyn Rose moniker. Adelyn, returned in July this year with Original Spring, the debut Adelyn Strei single, and a song she described as a response to the final Adelyn Rose song, nearly a decade earlier. Original Spring was the title track of Adelyn’s debut album, which is out in November via Mtn Laurel Recording Co. and which she further previewed this week with the record’s second single, Hometown Blues.

Described by Adeleyn as a song about feeling depleted and defeated, Hometown Blues finds her, “cut down to a fragile version of the self going through the motions in slow motion”. Musically, the track seems to kick against it’s relative minimalism, while for the most part it’s just Adelyn and a guitar, it never feels fragile, the double tracked acoustics matching the foggy, heaviness of Adelyn’s lyrics as she sings of, “beat up tennis shoes and a beat up heart”. Having previously shared stages with the likes of Florist and Skullcrusher, Adelyn Strei now looks ready to hit the same heights those artists have, a songwriter with the Hometown Blues, who is ready to share them with the world.

Original Spring is out November 15th via Mtn Laurel Recording Co. For more information on Adelyn Strei visit https://linktr.ee/adelynstrei.

4. You’ll Have A Smashing Time With Mrs. Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys

Hailing from Baltimore, The Smashing Times have shared their indie-pop stylings across four albums since they first appeared back in 2019 with their debut album, Come Along With Me. For their next move, the band have decided to introduce us to something of an alter-ego, in the mold of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band or The Village Green Preservation Society, it’s time to meet Mrs. Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Band, “your new favourite mod heart throbs”. The album of the same name will arrive next month via K Records, and The Smashing Times marked the announcement by sharing the title track.

Sometimes you want a band to surprise you, yet when you’re listening to a song called Mrs. Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys by a band called The Smashing Times, you just want it to be exactly what you expect, and it doesn’t disappoint. With its fusion of mod, psychedelia, and a little bit of 80s indie, it’s unashamedly retro, and all the better for it. The bass struts, the guitars jangle and the vocals are coated in a thick layer of reverb as they float above it all like a cloud in the bluest of skies. It all just sounds great without sounding like pastiche or a copy or in any way inauthentic. The music style of the times might always be moving onward, but there’s always room for someone completely out of step with it. When a band does it right, does it with love and makes a record that sounds like it’s both from another time and entirely relevant to the here and now, that’s always worth doing and The Smashing Times just did exactly that.

Mrs. Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys is out November 1st via K Records. For more information on The Smashing Times visit https://thesmashingtimes.bandcamp.com/

3. Nap Eyes Are A Real Mystery To Me

Hailing from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, the world last heard from Nap Eyes in 2020 when they released their intriguing fourth album, Snapshot of a Beginner. This year the band have gradually been teasing their next move with a string of singles, leading up to the release of their new long-player, The Neon Gate, the latest of which they shared this week in the shape of the lengthily titled Dark Mystery Enigma Bird, and its suitably enigmatic animated video.

While the track arrives slap bang in the middle of a soggy Autumn, in South Yorkshire at least, listening to Dark Mystery Enigma Bird you could quite easily find yourself taken to the heart of the summer, its shuffling rhythms and burbling bass seemingly ideally pitched for long evenings staring at a murmuration of starlings swooping against the backdrop of a technicolour sunset. Throughout, vocalist Nigel Chapman sounds in absolutely no hurry to get anywhere, his easy going vocal perhaps a reflection on how it was recorded, “in a blanket-draped children’s cardboard castle in his parents’ basement”. It’s one of those songs that I could listen to again and again, yet I couldn’t really tell you what it’s about or why I love it so much, but I do, and if you’re a fan of Ultimate Painting or Lewsberg, you might just love it too.

The Neon Gate is out now via Paradise Of Bachelors. For more information on Nap Eyes visit https://www.napeyes.com/

2. It’s The End Of The World As She Knows It And Kitty Fitz Feels Fine

Signed to the breakout label Sad Club Records, Kitty Fitz is the “vibrant alter ego” of South East London’s Kitty Drummond. Through a series of well-received singles, and her debut EP, last year’s All My Own Stunts, Kitty has carved out a place in the musical landscape, winning fans in everyone from Maisie Peters to Amy Lame. With her second EP, The Man In Me, out at the end of the month, this week Kitty shared the latest single from it, End of the World.

Described by Kitty as, “one of my favourite songs I have written”, End of the World was a real labour of love, Kitty taking her time to decide on the musical direction she wanted to take the track. Lyrically it explores ideas of freedom and openness as she explains it’s the, “part in the story where I finally let go of certain habits and let myself be free and be loved, just be present”. The track opens with an ambling flutter of guitar notes before Kitty’s vocals, reminiscent of the swooping sing-speak of Kate Kirby, enter, “you were a tough act to follow, so I still follow you around”. From there she seems to slide into the song, like butter melting into warm bread, the whole thing serving as a delightful cocoon, the audio equivalent of curling up in front of the fire and shutting the world, and all its messy troubles, outside for something simple and pure, “being alive is expensive, but I’m glad I’m alive at the same time as you”. If the lyrics revel in pleasant escapism, the music too seem to have a slightly other worldly quality, as aqueous electronics and splashes of percussion come and go, without ever threatening to steal the limelight from Kitty’s remarkable voice. This feels like a huge leap forward for Kitty Fitz’s music, the end of the world never sounded so enticing.

The Man In Me is out October 31st via Sad Club Records. For more information on Kitty Fitz visit https://linktr.ee/Kittyfitz.

1. For Their New Single The Wickies Really Tried

The vocalist on one of my favourite tracks of last year, Quinnisa Kinsella-Mulkerin recorded her first song eleven years ago, aged just five, when she joined her parents as a member of the family band, Big Blood. Proving that even if your parents are cool enough to be your bandmates, every teenager eventually wants to their own thing, Quinn recently teamed up with Aiden Arel to form their new duo, The Wickies, inspired by everyone from Stevie Nicks to Alex G. The band quickly signed up with Ba Da Bing Records, for the release of their self-titled debut album, which they marked with the release of their stunning new single, We Tried.

We Tried is a song inspired by the earnest nature of people, as Quinn explains, “People are too serious. We just need to be more free and a little silly. It’s whimsical. Have a good time”. Thankfully throughout, that’s exactly what is sounds like The Wickies are doing, from the jerky junky drum rhythm to the swampy bass and half-sung, half-yelped vocals it has a certain deliriousness. Amid the general good times here the lyrics seem to touch on ideas of giving your all, even when things don’t always go how you imagined, as both Quinn and Aiden repeat the title it seems to become a mantra, a reminder of that sometimes all you can do is try. Youthful, exciting and taking this just as seriously as anyone should do, The Wickies might just be onto something very special.

The Wickies is out now via Ba Da Bing Records. For more information on The Wickies visit https://thewickies.bandcamp.com/.

Header photo is The Wickies