James Blonde
Steady As She Goes (The Raconteurs cover)
This entire band consists of entirely cool dudes, who can pretty much do any song – with more spirit than the original. The first of a nightly batch of covers starting this week.
Sal Dulu
Antasma
A song of emotive hip-hop and a beautiful instrumental from the Irish producer.
Nikö Blank
Do U
Nikö Blank is one of electronic music’s most buzz-worthy and prodigious young talents. He continues to baffle me how he can make music made with computers but would have this much heart.
Julian Roy
Something Real
Recorded in Los Angeles in a house studio near skid row, this song is about finding home away from home. These facts can’t be denied on this potent and subtle track.
UPSAHL
Kiss Me Now
A bad first date becomes an anthem that should give her the breakthrough she deserves. Street smart, jumpy, bouncy and saucy, she, and this track, has it all to get to the top.
Jeff LeBlanc
Way You Are
LeBlanc graduated from college, earned a history degree and imagined his destiny would likely be as a middle-school teacher. However, LeBlanc’s discovery of songwriting led him down a different path. Maybe teaching will remain a fond memory. For now, he’s made the right decision in spades, formulation of soft-rock MOR that fans of Yacht Rock best to dive in.
Yify Zhang
Come Alive
Vagrant Bird is Yify’s debut EP and I reckon she’s right up with the most promising artists in China. Glorious pop hooks with piano, this would make Adele want her next song.
Fly By Midnight
Just Say It
There are two ways to end a relationship if you’re a musician. Walk away and find someone new, or walk away and write a song about it. Good thing these guys choose the latter. As great of a song they’ve ever penned.
Stevie Wolf
Low
He says clinical depression has weighed on him so much, “that’s what this song is about: realizing that I can’t really escape it, so I might as well lean into it and just be inside it.” He puts his own unique perspective into exactly what artists should be doing more of – revealing themselves, peeling away like an onion until everything is laid out bare. If creating music can get anyone out of a rut, I hope it’s him.
Avant Chase
These Hands
Rebuilding on the idea of a letter and vow to the woman that will become his future wife. It’s a stirring hip hop track that promises a lifelong promise of attention. Daw!
Devin Kennedy
Sold Out
Classically trained at Berklee College of Music, Devin made a turn into Shawn Mendes, Niall Horan, and Charlie Puth territory and created an extraordinary tune full of melody and pop structure.
Savv
winter.
The Drake comparisons will be evoked, but this will keep those fans – and his new ones – under his own spell.
Dirt Train
Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)
Five-piece Americana Rock & Roll offers this intimate take on Stevie’s soulful and funkadelic song. Play it before sleeping, and you’ll be deeper than you’ll ever feel.
