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 Samia, the dance-ready new album from Jessy Lanza, and a pair of charming b-sides from Andy Shauf.
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Jessy Lanza — All The Time
We’ve been awaiting Jessy Lanza’s new album since she released “Face” back in April. The single set the stage well for the full-length, a collection of numbers that will surely get you up out of your chair to dance along. With the world on fire around us, All The Time gives us 38 minutes of reprieve to let loose.
Katie Dey — mydata
Katie Dey’s latest LP is experimental as ever, but also follows a narrative thread. mydata explores a long-distance relationship and the ways that communication is both fostered and fettered by the accessibility of the internet. It’s glitchy, but cinematic, making for one of the most interesting listens in recent memory.
Skullcrusher — Skullcrusher
After forcing her way onto our radar with a series of singles, Skullcrusher’s debut self-titled release for Secretly Canadian lives up to the promise. Delivered with restraint, the four tracks expand upon the world that welcomed us into the singles, one that you won’t be eager to retreat from.
Taking Meds — The Meds You Deserve
If you’re looking for something a bit heavier, let me introduce you to Taking Meds. The Brooklyn-based band shares members with post-hardcore group Such Gold, and you can hear it in the heavily down-tuned guitars that comprise the new EP The Meds You Deserve. But where Such Gold’s songs take on a more aggressive vocal approach, Taking Meds put more of an emphasis on big rock hooks and melodies. Case in point: the vocal melody of opening track “Sucks To Be Me” is almost reminiscent of “Kids In America,” at points.
Andy Shauf — “Judy/Jeremy’s Wedding”
Andy Shauf has said that he initially wrote 50 songs for his most recent effort The Neon Skyline, which was released earlier this year and details one crazy night at a local dive bar. That 50 was eventually whittled down to merely 11, but now Shauf has started rolling out some of the cuts that didn’t make the album. “Judy” and “Jeremy’s Wedding” both “emanate Shauf’s soft-rock sound,” writes Carolyn Droke for Uproxx, but he decided that they didn’t flow well with the remainder of the narrative of The Neon Skyline and ultimately decided to exclude them from the album.
The Avalanches — “Wherever You Go”
Since The Avalanches took a 16-year break between their first and second albums, they have been very productive in the way of new music. We’ve already received a handful of songs so far in 2020, including collaborations with Blood Orange, Rivers Cuomo, and more. “Wherever You Go” is another collaboration, this time featuring Jamie xx, Neneh Cherry, and Calypso, and showcases the staying power of the Australian duo’s renewed creative power.
Sylvan Esso — “Ferris Wheel”
Sylvan Esso’s first album in three years, Free Love, is set for release in September, and “Ferris Wheel” is a promising first taste of what’s to come. The minimalist electronic number is about “discovering your power and awkwardly figuring out how to wield it,” the band wrote in a statement.
Fenne Lily — “Berlin”
With the release of her new album, Breach, coming up quick, Fenne Lily has shared a second preview with “Berlin.” The single is what Derrick Rossignol calls for Uproxx “a mid-tempo, shoegaze-borrowing track that comes from a withdrawn place,” and certainly sets the stage nicely for what can be expected from the remainder of Breach.
Samia — “Big Wheel”
Samia is prepping her debut album The Baby after spending 2019 workshopping new music with indie artists like Hippo Campus. “Big Wheel” is the latest in a long line of singles, a floating number with mellotron lines that’s “about avoiding conflict at any cost,” Samia wrote in a statement. “It’s a passive confession of harbored resentments buried in a laundry list of gratitude.”
Elvis Perkins — “The Half Life”
“The Half Life” heralds Elvis Perkins’ new album Creation Myths with a country twang and intimate lyrical storytelling. Perhaps this knack for storytelling is informed by Perkins’ work as a film composer, though his solo work takes on an additional dimension by adding an imaginative visual component. It’s a cool exercise, one that Perkins welcomes you to conduct through his music.
Joe Wong — “Day After Day”
Another film composer, Joe Wong’s new track “Day After Day” was inspired by Marianne Faithful and features cinematic instrumentation beneath Wong’s entrancing baritone vocal. Wong’s new album Nite Creatures is set for release in September and features collabroations with the likes of Ex Hex’s Mary Timony, The War On Drugs’ Jon Natchez, The Flaming Lips’ Steven Drozd, and more.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. .
