Further Listening – HERE

5. Quick! Listen To Tasha Before It’s Too Late

Two years have passed since Tasha released the acclaimed All This And So Much More, not that she hasn’t been busy since. There was the small matter of moving her world from Chicago to New York and a Broadway debut in the Tony-nominated Sufjan Stevens movie, Illinoise. There were also writing retreats, the odd live show and regular hints that new music was on the way. That was confirmed with the recent news of her new album, You Are The Spring, produced in LA with Gregory Ulhman, and out at the end of June via Bayonet. This week Tasha shared the latest snippet of the record, Quick!

Written, “on a warm day last June“, Quick! is a reflection on seasonal memories, how, “summer time always reminds me of every summer I’ve ever had”, and how, “every moment is precious, but preciousness is abundant and never ending”. The track enters on a delightfully choppy guitar, possessing a heaviness in an otherwise still atmosphere despite the slowness of the guitar strokes. Into this world of contrasts, Tasha’s voice enters, pleading with us to see the wonder in the world, “Quick! See how this beauty rushes by? Let’s watch the horses running. What’s a better use of all this time? My heart’s bare and humming”. From there, the track is one subtle ebb and flow, as first percussion and then a synthy waver join the party, swelling the track in a way fans of Squirrel Flower or Tenci are bound to adore. Amid an increasingly chaotic musical swirl, Tasha seems to drift away into a memory, “suddenly I’m young and spry and small, elated and screaming”. Just as the music builds to an unbearably tense crescendo, it breaks like a sunrise; a lone acoustic is born into its place, pastoral, verdant and really rather lovely, “little girl asleep, tell me what you dream, I’m a mocking bird, repeating all I’ve heard, I’m a falling star, landing where you are”. It’s fitting Tasha ends with talk of avian mimicry, as she’s that wonderful musical rareity, an artist who seems to be able to dip their toe into every style and somehow make it their own, like a Lyrebird, masterful, beautiful and very hard to pin down.

You Are The Spring is out June 26th via Bayonet. For more information on Tasha visit https://www.wowtashawow.com/.

4. Wishy’s New Single Is Sick (In A Good Way)

A four-piece from Indianapolis, Wishy first formed around the duo of high-school friends Kevin Krauter and Nina Pitchkites. After various other projects, they came together under the Wishy moniker and embarked on something of a creative explosion, releasing two EPs and a critically lauded debut album, Triple Seven, in just three years. Those records were largely conceived before the band had really got their foot in the door, so their upcoming second album, Nature’s Pill, out in October via Winspear, arrives with both new possibilities and perhaps new pressure. The blessing/curse of writing music when, “life feels unpredictable and overwhelming, yet full of possibility”. Ahead of the release, this week the band shared their latest single, Lovesick.

Discussing the inspiration behind the track, Nina is quick to point out its familiarity: “there’s not much more that needs to be said about yearning in 2026, but here it is anyway”. It is, however, distinctly honest, the band leaning into their personalities and influences as, “stupidly romantic people who like twee pop“. The song less starts and more winds up, with a swirl of electronics reminiscent of one of those old air-raid sirens you have to crank into gear, before the familiar tick of drumsticks provides a wordless count-in, and a slash of reverb-laced guitar slashes into place. From there it has the feel of a lost indie-pop classic, something that could fit anywhere into the back catalogue of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart or Velocity Girl. Lyrically it’s as promised, a hazy flourish of young romance, all mixtapes, car drives and open hearts breaking in full bloom, “vindicated and looking for the truth, you cut your teeth on the currency of youth. Flip right through the pages of your life, would you do it differently this time? Do it right”. In something of an unusual structural curve ball, they throw in the chorus only at the end, but what a send-off it is, Kevin and Nina trading lines atop clattering drums and a wonderfully propulsive bass-line, as they repeatedly lay it all on the tape, “love sick, baby, you know you’ve got me”. It’s the sort of single that transports you back to your own youthful lusting, where every text message or fleeting glance felt like the end of the world. Frankly, it’s just a shame Indietracks isn’t around anymore; Wishy would have been the perfect headliners.

Nature’s Pill is out October 2nd via Winspear. For more information on Wishy visit https://bio.to/wishyband

3. Margaret Glaspy New Single Is Really Great (Lake State)

Remarkably, it’s been a decade since Margaret Glaspy’s breakout debut album, Emotions and Math. There’s been no shortage of material since, with two albums and a string of EPs cementing her place as a musician in it for the long haul, with all the extra requirements that come with that. Along the way, Margaret felt like something was getting lost, and so she approached the sessions for her upcoming fourth album, I Am Both, with, “a goal of getting my practice back – to walk the walk in terms of how I envision myself as a songwriter”. She came off social media and worked her way back to, “original thought”. While the album won’t arrive until August, this week Margaret shared the first single from it, Michigan.

Although it’s title, and inspiration, is the American Midwest, it’s very much from the view point of a New York resident, as Margaret explains, “New Yorkers sometimes fantasize about the countryside as a retreat from the intensity of the city…it turned into a song about someone going through a bad breakup, and then deciding to just leave the city behind“. The resultant song seems to find Margaret living her new life, (“I’m a city girl but it’s a different world out here in the middle I’m on solid ground with the friends I’ve found, nobody makes me feel little”) when an unwanted spectre from the past turns up at the feast and gets what coming to them, “watching your heart break I could relate because you broke mine and now I’m in Michigan and I’m doing just fine”. There’s a wonderful confidence not just in how Margaret obliterates her previous squeeze, but in the music too. The whole thing is brilliantly stripped back, Margaret’s wonderfully fluid guitar work adorned with upright bass, absent-minded organ meanders and barely there percussion, everything perfectly judged to shine the spotlight on the quality of the songwriting. Margaret Glaspy didn’t need a fresh start; she was already at the head of the field of modern songwriters, so perhaps this is just a recalibration, a reminder that all a musician really needs to focus on is making great music, and the rest, well, that’ll take care of itself.

I Am Both is out August 7th via ATO. For more information on Margaret Glaspy visit https://margaretglaspy.com/

2. Warning – Keep Your Favourite Plants Away From Shearwater At All Times

Throughout the nearly three decades of Shearwater’s existence, Jonathan Meiburg has quietly carved out a place entirely of his own. You might know him from the brilliant Loma, something of a fixture on this blog, or as the author of the brilliant nature book, A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World’s Smartest Birds of Prey, which made me more than a little bit obsessed with Caracaras, even though I’ve never actually seen one. Throughout, though, he’s always come back to Shearwater, a cast of ever changing members doing nothing to dampen his distinctive musical vision. Next month will see the release of The New World, their new album and first since 2022’s The Great Awakening; ahead of the release this week, they shared a new single, Slugs In The Marigold.

Discussing Jonathan notes that it was an instant band favourite, “we liked how its loose, sunny feeling plays against the lyric – and we loved how Doug (Wieselman)’s sax slithers up beside you”. This certainly feels like something of a departure from Shearwater’s more straight-talking indie rock roots; it fades in like a drone camera zooming into some remote shack to find a crack team of musicians in perfect musical flow. The loose rhythm serves a perfect foil for musical experimentation. Throughout the song, instrumental ideas come and go, from the gastropod-like slither of the saxophone to the velvety cocoon of the baritone guitar and perfectly placed piano chords. Throughout the song, Jonathan touches on ideas of withdrawing from society and the struggle to remain present, from the early comparison of his brain to “chicken wire carrying a thought like contraband”, through to the unappealing rock-and-a-hard-place decision, “you can get yourself drunk on anything, or sober up and settle down, shuffle through the day trying to live with people”. While the song might seem to zoom in on a person with seemingly little freedom, Shearwater feel contrastingly untethered, label-free and living their best, most creative and most authentic lives, and sounding, if you’ll forgive the hyperbole, better than ever.

The New World is out July 31st via Polyborus. For more information on Shearwater visit https://shearwatermusic.com/

1.Well I Never – Real Numbers Are Back Again

Although he’s been releasing music as Real Numbers since around 2010, the world hasn’t heard much from Eli Hansen in a while. The last Real Numbers music, the five-track EP, Brighter Then, was five and a half years ago. Their last long player, their remarkable Slumberland debut Wordless Wonder, is rapidly approaching its tenth birthday. What’s he been doing? Well, the everyday business of living, I presume, the sort of stuff all our favourite indie-popsters do when the tour is over, the day job calls, and you start plotting in a time to make your next move. That all actually started a while ago for Real Numbers, with a mostly new lineup brought together and recording sessions started as long ago as the Summer of 2024. After plenty of time polishing and refining, the result of that labour is thankfully on its way, with a new record, Was It Always This Way, out in August, and a new single Never Never Again out into the world now, to the sound of much rejoicing.

From the moment it slides in your ears, Never Never Again is a song that whisks you away. It harkens back to the turn of the 90s British indie-scene, those jangly guitars and half whispered vocals that were a quiet revolution away from the mainstream, and frankly most people’s musical gaze. It doesn’t really step out of that perfect pocket throughout, a little oasis of retro-tinged calm in the choppy waters of 2026. Even the lyrics here seem intent on looking back, wondering if your golden age has passed or is still around the corner, “the future and the past, expecting one to last, never never again”. It couldn’t be a more fitting return really. Real Numbers might always have one foot in the past, but that doesn’t mean they can’t thrive in the present; more than ever, they walk tall alongside their influences, pushing their sound onwards to greater heights than ever before.

Was It Always This Way is out August 14th via Slumberland Records. For more information on Real Numbers visit https://linktr.ee/real.numbers

Header photo is Real Numbers by Adam Schaburg