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 Nilüfer Yanya, This Is Lorelei, Wishy, and more.
While we’re at it, sign up for our newsletter to get the best new indie music delivered directly to your inbox, every Monday.
This Is Lorelei – Box For Buddy, Box For Star
What if bluegrass musicians were also into making ‘80s-indebted synth-pop? For Nate Amos, the man behind This Is Lorelei, this fun thought experiment comes to life. From the outset, the NYC musician tactfully switches from twangy folk on opener “Angel’s Eye” to syncopated electro-pop on “Perfect Hand,” setting the stage for the rest of his first “proper” solo album, Box For Buddy, Box For Star. Here, everything comes together, and Amos is the great artistic unifier behind it all.
Nilüfer Yanya – “Method Actor”
On Nilüfer Yanya’s latest single, the quasi-title track of her upcoming album, A Method Actor, the British indie rocker practices emotional distance. Even as grungy, crunchy guitars come spilling into the mix, Yanya disassociates from the central conflict like a seasoned method actor. “But I mean it, and I don’t feel it,” she sings in the chorus, outlining the double-edged difficulties of feigning indifference. Yanya’s music, however, has always said otherwise. Like her other music, “Method Actor” is emotionally riveting, but she’s dialed up the intensity, leading to a song rife with dualities: quiet and loud; near and distant; heartbroken and impassive.
Spirit Of The Beehive – “Let The Virgin Drive”
Spirit Of The Beehive are secretly one of the most influential bands of the 2020s thus far. They mix their outsized, experimental edge with a melodic tunefulness, like if earworms and tapeworms coexisted. “Let The Virgin Drive,” the lead single of You’ll Have To Lose Something, is a microcosm of what the Philly trio do best. Auto-Tuned vocals, gentle acoustic guitars, and soft synths lull you in like a siren song, beautiful and disconcerting all at once. The brief screaming in the background, sampled from a news clip, scans like a warning: Despite the winsome songwriting, there’s menace lurking in the shadows.
Midwife – “Killdozer”
As Midwife, Madeline Johnston makes tender, spellbinding music that she herself has dubbed “heaven metal,” a term that accurately encapsulates her proclivity for murmured vocals, spectral soundscapes, and barely audible guitars. So it might be a surprise to learn that Johnston penned her new single, off the forthcoming No Depression In Heaven, after the infamous Killdozer. In 2004, small-town muffler repair shop owner Marvin Heemeyer went on a murderous spree with a bulldozer shortly before taking his own life, and Johnston uses this true story to explore the parasitic effects of gentrification. It’s a haunting, quiet song that resounds with the volume of industrial metal.
The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die – “Auguries Of Guilt”
Emo bands aren’t known to shy away from grand, sweeping theatricality and earnest ambition. By that metric, The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die might just be the most emo band of all time. Their most recent LP, 2021’s Illusory Walls, closed with a 15-minute song followed by a 20-minute song, and there was still room for nine other tracks preceding them. The six-piece is back with “Auguries Of Guilt,” an epic, colossal return that, as the band’s David Bello puts it in a press release, “tries to smudge historical and present-day conflicts with the emotions of loss and vengeance.” Suffice it to say that TWIABP largely succeeds on this front.
Wishy – “Triple Seven”
There have been a lot of AI-generated music videos lately. Most often, they’re predictably horrible and un-chic at best and a bleak omen for the future at worst. For Wishy, however, the video for “Triple Seven,” the excellent title track of their forthcoming new album, is an AI video parody that’s as excoriating as it is hilarious. Featuring lead vocals from Nina Pitchkites, the Indianapolis band’s summery, Sundays-esque take on indie-pop is another stellar preview of a promising debut.
Anohni And The Johnsons – “Breaking”
Anohni And The Johnsons are back in full swing, and it’s a welcome return. Following last year’s masterpiece My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross, she’s taking her classic backing band on a North American tour for the first time in 15 years. To coincide with that tour is the one-off single, “Breaking.” It’s a sparse song ornamented with nothing save for Anohni’s mesmerizing, commanding vocals, minimalist guitar, and a flute that fades in around the halfway mark.
Toro y Moi – “Tuesday”
Chaz Bear is the king of genre-hopping. From 2019’s clubby Outer Peace to 2022’s psychedelic Mahal, Toro y Moi allows for a kind of genre agnosticism that speaks to larger themes of omnivorous listening habits and the flattening of musical categorizations that become more prominent by the day. Just take a look at the guest list for Hole Erth, Chaz’s new album out Sept. 6. He has recruited Ben Gibbard, Don Toliver, Porches, and Kevin Abstract, amid many others. “Tuesday,” its lead single, is an indie-pop banger with blown-out, trap-influenced drums and fuzzed-out guitars. His vocal tone evokes the radio-ready, mathematical slickness of Rivers Cuomo but without all the schlock. It’s an exciting new song from a perennially exciting artist.
Fax Gang & Parannoul – Scattersun
Parannoul is the master of the 10-minute song, not the 10:01-minute song, nor the 9:59-song; 10 minutes is exactly what the anonymous Seoul-based shoegaze artist aims for. “White Ceiling,” from the mononymous musician’s 2021 debut LP, packed stacked MIDI guitars and alarm clocks into a sprawling opus. “Scattersun,” the title track of Parannoul’s new collaborative record with the alt-hip-hop collective Fax Gang, pulls off something similar. As the penultimate cut on Scattersun, it feels like a summation of everything you’ve previously heard, like a victory lap through all the worlds you’ve visited at the end of a lengthy JRPG. Pulling from digicore, shoegaze, post-rock, and cloud rap, Fax Gang and Parannoul seamlessly merge their disparate sounds.
Enumclaw – “Change”
Even though Enumclaw broke through with their 2022 debut Save The Baby, worked with Toro Y Moi on their 2023 EP, and have now signed with revered Boston label Run For Cover, the Tacoma, Washington group haven’t changed. “Change,” the lead single off their upcoming sophomore album, Home In Another Life, presents the PNW indie rockers in their purest form, with ’90s alt-rock guitars, frontman Aramis Johnson’s laid-back yet emotive vocals, and a towering, infectious chorus. “Would you want me to change,” Johnson asks in the refrain. That’s a no for me: Enumclaw are perfect just the way they are.
