Further Listening HERE

5. This Is Lorelei Is On The Come Back Trail

Based out of New York, This Is Lorelei is the solo moniker of Nate Amos, also known as a founding member of Water From Your Eyes. Although Water From Your Eyes formed back in 2016, balancing his band with This Is Lorelei is a newer experience for Nate, with his debut album Box For Buddy, Box For Star released in 2024, and followed up a year later by Holo Boy, both on the Double Double Whammy imprint. This Is Lorelei recently joined Nate’s other band on Matador Records, and this September will release his third album, The Singer In My Band. Nate has spoken of the record as his first true, “road record”, one that was, “incubated while daydreaming in the car without access to any instruments”.

Ahead of the release, this week Nate shared the first single from the record, Billy Came Back, a song that introduces us to Billy, one of several unreliable narrators scattered across The Singer In My Band. The song was one that, “stewed for months”, as Nate, “kept forgetting about it but it always came back. Finishing the song was the only way to get it to leave me alone”. Listening to the song, it’s easy to see why it wouldn’t leave Nate alone, as the tumbling guitars rush in like the breeze, and the drums tick away, just that little bit quicker than you expect, giving the whole track a certain rushing quality, a perfect contrast to Nate’s vocal drawl. The titular Billy is something of a rock star without ever leaving his how town. He might just be singing Karaoke at his local bar, but he’s still going to wear his cowboy boots and put on a show for anyone who’ll listen. While the locals might still rush to see him sing, there’s a distinct sadness lurking, as Nate recalls, “the last time I saw Billy was in 2022, yeah, the only things he ever did were things I wouldn’t do”. There’s an implication this act is just for the stage, and the real Billy is somewhere else entirely, a little lost in who he really is. While it walks familiar territory, there’s a sense here that This Is Lorelei has gone up a gear; on this evidence, the road-worn wonders of The Singer In My Band might just be Nate’s most compelling chapter yet.

The Singer In My Band is out September 11th via Matador. For more information on This Is Lorelei visit https://thisislorelei.com/

4. Josaleigh Pollett Just Really Likes A River

Appearing on these pages back in May around the release of the sublime The Witness, Josaleigh Pollett is an acclaimed artist and musician hailing from Salt Lake City, with three well received, and very different albums under their belt. While their new album, If I Let It Quiet, was made with regular producer Jordan Watko, it was produced in very different circumstances following Watko’s relocation to Japan. The result of their, “first cross-continent collaboration” arrives in July via Audio Antihero, and this week Josaleigh shared the latest single from it, Like A River.

Inspired by Paul Simon’s protest song Peace Like A River, Like A River is the track that lends If I Let It Quiet it’s title, as Josaleigh asks what happens if we get off the ride of a spiralling mind. The song starts adrift, Josaleigh “all thought out” at the mercy of the current and flow, letting life guide their days rather than the other way around. As the song progresses, they seem to hit a moment of calm clarity, and realise just how terrifyingly alone that can feel, “If I let it quiet, who am I if not my thinking? Bright light, spiral, I think that I am gonna be up for a while”. The track possesses some of the aqueous qualities of its title, yet it also at times feels distinctly rooted, reminiscent of one of those shots in a movie where the lead character stays stock-still, and the world rushes around them in a blur of movement. While Josaleigh remains an anchor, around them we are treated to ever-shifting musical sands; industrial percussion morphs into gentle acoustics, into burbling synths and onward to a squelchy synth-bass breakdown and choir of voices that, in their striking humanity, suck the air from the room. It could so easily be a chaotic mood, yet the production allows these seemingly disparate ideas to make an undeniable sense. Like a river that roars and lulls, full of beauty and murk, danger and freedom, carving a unique path towards whatever thrilling destination Josaeligh’s music is headed to next.

If I Let It Quiet is out July 24th via Audio Antihero. For more information on Josaleigh Pollet visit https://linktr.ee/brosaleigh

3. Lou Terry Pitches For A Younger Market

The creator of Building A Case, one of my favourite records from my fallow year back in 2024, Lou Terry is a South London-based songwriter and self-confessed “genre-mangler”. Since releasing Building A Case, Lou has been touring intensively, sharing stages with the likes of Black Country, New Road, Porridge Radio and Richard Dawson. He also took a holiday in Wales, on which he wrote his new single Kid’s Cartoon, the first taster of his upcoming Divine Schism released album, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Spectacle, out at the end of September.

A song Lou explains Kid’s Cartoon is, “about fumbling your way through life, and the forces outside your control that guide it“. On returning to London, Kid’s Cartoon came together quickly, recorded in a day with drummer Cole O’Neil and featuring backing vocals from Goat Girl’s Lottie Pendlebury. Musically, the track is Lou at his typically hard-to-pin-down best. It begins with a choppy acoustic, mirrored in lyrics that seem to bounce around like half-finished thoughts. From there it goes through various guises, as slacker-rock guitar lines, military-style drums and explosions of grungy intensity take their moments in the lime light. Just as Lou seems lost in his thoughts, he’s snapped back into reality by a phrase that’s woken many a drifting mind, “tickets and railcards please”, and we’re back at the acoustic guitar, back blinking into the lights of reality once more. A thrilling introduction to where Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Spectacle might take us, Lou Terry’s return is something definitely worth celebrating.

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Spectacle is out September 22nd via Divine Schism. For more information on Lou Terry visit https://linktr.ee/LouTerry

2. You Can Always Rely On Tugboat Captain

Already well documented on these pages, the story of London’s DIY masters Tugboat Captain has been one of many turns. The early acclaim found for the brilliant Everybody Seems To Think That I’m A Raincloud, the recording sessions at Abbey Road, the return to their own studio and subsequent retirement from playing live. Through all that music, all those sonic twists, has remained a thread of navigating modern life in a city that is both cruel and beautiful, alive with possibilities that sometimes feel entirely out of reach. While vocalist Sox has often given us relatable snapshots, with upcoming album All At Once, and in particular new single Reliance, he seems to instead be looking inward for inspiration.

A seven-minute outpouring of saga-like proportions, Sox explains Reliance, “traces the full collapse of a relationship, blow by blow and verse by verse”, into a song that, “carries the weight of the record”, as it explores, “pain, loss and dependence”. Reliance is probably the most striking aside in Tugboat Captain’s catalogue to date. We’re greeted by a bouncing analogue synth and crashing processed rhythms, reminiscent of Digital Ash-era Bright Eyes or Postal Service at their most inwardly crushing. As listeners, we enter at the moment of collapse, or perhaps a memory of it, “to blunder through the biggest conversation, I’ll get over it”. The second half of the sentence feeling like a plea as much as a statement of fact. From there we go through moments of trying to move on, punctuated by a glance at a phone screen, joyless nights out trying to fill the void, and painful realisations, “to feel someone so perfectly, then suddenly to feel alone”. Even as a listener, you can feel the burn, as the sparse backing allows the voice so much space. Then a choir of backing cocoons it, like friends rallying around you at your lowest ebb, creating a bubble for you to work through it, supporting you on a journey that only you can take. Tugboat Captain have never written a song like this, have never felt so personal, so important, or so wonderfully honest; it’s high praise, but All At Once might just be their best record yet.

All At Once is out July 17th. For more information on Tugboat Captain visit https://linktr.ee/tugboatcaptain

1. Have A Heart – Adopt A Klitten

Having appeared on these pages way back in 2021, the debut album from Amsterdam’s The Klittens has certainly been a long time coming, with a series of EPs whetting appetites along the way. A collective of like minded misfits, The Klittens have long drawn admiring glances for their blending of an unashamed love of pop music, spun through with a deliciously dark wit and a DIY Punk ethos, which has become, “a life mission” for the band’s five members. This week came news that the wait for their debut album is nearly over, with Have A Heart arriving in September, and previewed this week by the brilliant title track.

As Winnie from the band recalls, Have A Heart, “was an easy song to start and a tougher one to finish“. The song that started as, “an indie song that ripples along with a rock ’n roll sort of strut“, however, railing against the ease Winnie started, “my campaign for an unstructured noise part“. With that decision, a song, “about using apathy as a form of self-defence”, became a considerably more bumpy, and ultimately enjoyable ride. The song enters with a tumble of drums before instantly hitting a subtly surf-influenced groove reminiscent of The Drink or fellow Dutch-wonders Amber Arcades. Just as you think you feel you’re on familiar ground with the chiming 60s Girl-Group influenced vocals singing “why are we never on time? We’re never on time”, the whole begins to sink. Like a castle built on treacle, it slowly gets dragged down into the noisy gloop, before with a shrug it clicks back into focus and we’re swinging and swaying once more. The result is a track that leaves you puzzled and pleased in equal measure, but always wanting another hit. Even with repeat listens, it still remains something of a mystery, which in the age of oversharing and over explaining is often quite thrilling. Putting together the pieces of The Klittens’ debut album might just be one of the year’s most thrilling tasks, a puzzle well worth your time.

Have A Heart is out September 25th via Cargo Records. For more information on The Klittens visit https://theklittens-epk.hotglue.me/

Header photo is The Klittens by Jade Sastropawiro