Indie music has grown to include so much. It’s not just music that is released on independent labels, but speaks to an aesthetic that deviates from the norm and follows its own weirdo heart. It can come in the form of rock music, pop, or folk. In a sense, it says as much about the people that are drawn to it as it does about the people that make it.
Every week, Uproxx is rounding up the best new indie music from the past seven days. This week, we got new music from Clairo, Been Stellar, DIIV, and more.
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Youth Lagoon – “Lucy Takes A Picture”
Heaven Is A Junkyard was one of the best albums released last year, and Trevor Powers, who records spectral, gossamer indie rock as Youth Lagoon, has (ever so softly) kept his foot on the pedal. Back in January, he shared the excellent one-off single, “Football,” and now he’s back with another excellent one-off single, “Lucy Takes A Picture.” Inspired by a random note Powers found stashed between the bars of a metal bench at a bus stop, the Idaho musician took its message to heart: “This is the tale of my resurrection. I died so I could live again.” With its echoing percussion and gentle piano motif, “Lucy Takes A Picture” contains all the beautiful mystique of its epistolary muse.
DIIV – Frog In Boiling Water
With the contemporary resurgence of shoegaze, DIIV seems serendipitously primed to win over some new fans. Frog In Boiling Water, the follow-up to 2019’s Deceiver, is as great an entry point as any. It astutely captures what makes the New York four-piece such an incredible band, from the foreboding harmonics on “Everyone Out” to the enveloping, ethereal soundscape on “Somber The Drums.”
Horse Jumper Of Love – “Wink”
Slowcore is a quiet subgenre hinged on diaphanous arrangements, glacial BPMs, and barely audible drums. Boston trio Horse Jumper Of Love are a slowcore band, but they approach it differently: They’re not afraid to actually get loud. “Wink,” their new single, is proof of concept. While band members Dimitri Giannopoulos, John Margaris, and Jamie Vadala-Doran relish in, of course, slow tempos, their mezzo-forte dynamics are a key differentiating factor. As simple as it sounds, its effect is palpable. It’s like the three-piece, alongside Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman, is slowly scaling a mountain, making progress toward its peak step by step.
Personal Trainer – “Round”
Willem Smit, the Dutch mastermind behind art-pop project Personal Trainer, uses various subgenres like a textile artist uses fabrics. As the leader of his seven-piece band, Smit stitches ’00s indie rock, ’70s funk, and Dadaist dance music into a woozily woven, delightfully absurd tapestry. On “Round,” Smit once again distills his oddball tendencies into a song that’s impossible to ignore, not that you would ever want to.
Clairo – “Sexy To Someone”
With each album, Clairo has taken something of an auteurist’s approach by enlisting the faculties of a single producer. Rostam Batmanglij helmed her infectious debut, 2019’s alt-pop opus Immunity; the omnipresent Jack Antonoff was behind the boards for its follow-up, 2021’s hushed, toned-down Sling. Her forthcoming third album, Charm, sees her working with Leon Michels. Lead single “Sexy To Someone” strikes the middle point between Clairo’s previous two releases, not completely stripped down nor completely blown out, but serving as the connection tissue, conjoining those two ends. It’s a reminder that, even with Clairo selecting a producer for each of her records, she is at the center of it all, the true auteur herself.
Sinai Vessel – “Best Witness”
“I’m my best witness,” Caleb Cordes sings in the main hook of “Best Witness.” As the lead single for his fourth album as Sinai Vessel, it’s a fitting thesis. On I SING, out July 26, the Asheville, North Carolina musician issues a proud declaration of selfhood. He holds up introspection as a pillar for living a more meaningful life, a vessel for his art that equally evokes fellow indie rockers like Wild Pink, Hovvdy, and Youth Lagoon. Built on a palette of muted percussion, melodic guitars, and Cordes’ quiet vocal tone, “Best Witness” is a stunning rumination on what it means to truly understand yourself.
Young Jesus – The Fool
In John Rossiter’s music as Young Jesus, his gentle, affecting songs about heartbreak, youth, and companionship take on lives of their own. Rossiter’s carefully rendered worlds are Springsteenian in sentiment yet intimate in scope. The Fool, the seventh Young Jesus album, tactfully blends Rossiter’s predilections for grand narrative and lived-in warmth. It’s a difficult balance to manage, but on songs like “Gods Plan,” “MOTY,” and “Brenda & Diane,” he pulls it off effortlessly.
Been Stellar – “Pumpkin”
Next month, the NYC post-punk five-piece Been Stellar will share their debut album, Scream From New York, NY. And they’ve given us another preview of it, “Pumpkin,” which gradually picks up steam from its muted, subdued palette; the volume steadily increases, and just as a moment of catharsis seems like it’s about to hit, everything withers away, exhibiting Been Stellar’s canny self-restraint, indulging in only what they deem fit.
Fashion Club – “Rotten Mind”
Pascal Stevenson has worked with countless indie artists. Her resume includes names like Sasami, Girlpool, and Cherry Glazerr, just to name a few. But she also makes wonderful music of her own as Fashion Club. “Rotten Mind,” featuring the Buffalo songwriter Julie Byrne, belies its tender instrumentation with an excoriating critique of bigoted hypocrisy. “It’s not love / It’s just a filthy habit you can’t wish away,” she sings toward the song’s end, her voice rising ever so subtly with each word.
Marina Allen – “Deep Fake”
You’d expect an artist with a song like “Deep Fake” would largely be concerned with the burgeoning dystopian milieu we all live in, interrogating technological malfeasance and the surveillance state embodied by modern life. But Marina Allen doesn’t go full doom-and-gloom on Eight Pointed Star, her forthcoming album out June 7. “Deep Fake,” rather, is a paean to self-love and how that inner compassion can be realized through confronting our nefarious, societal mechanisms, like the song’s namesake. “Deep Fake” is urgent, but it conveys that urgency with a reminder to grant yourself some kindness.
