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 very best of the indie releases from the past seven days. Flying Lotus returned with a David Lynch-featuring new album, Pronoun delivered their long-awaited debut effort, and Oso Oso avoided the sophomore slump like that meme where the car skids off the highway.
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Flying Lotus — Flamagra
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With his first record in five years, FlyLo didn’t set any sonic boundaries for himself, allowing the creativity to flow and manifest itself in many different ways. Flamagra is a massive, diverse collection of 27(!!) tracks featuring a number of high profile guests with songs that span the whole spectrum from psychedelic to upbeat instrumentals. Forever dependable, Flamagra is an impressive next entry to Flying Lotus’s expansive catalogue that certainly fills the gap left by five years of silence.
The Glow — Am I
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“Am I good?” Mike Caridi wonders in the opening track of his debut solo effort, fittingly titled Am I. Best known for his work in the beloved indie quartet LVL UP (RIP), Caridi is now releasing music under the name The Glow, continuing to perfect his penchant for perfect noisy pop. This is perhaps the most evident on the highlight track “Weight Of The Sun,” where Caridi places emphasis on melodic vocal harmonies in the chorus as he shifts the overarching thematic question to, “Am I alone?”
Pronoun — I’ll Show You Stronger
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Years in the making, Pronoun’s debut full-length effort is well worth the wait. Each single was stronger than the last, with Alyse Vellturo’s bedroom pop sound managing to incorporate massive ear-worm hooks and contemplative lyrics, and the final product is something spectacular. With I’ll Show You Stronger, Vellturo’s Pronoun project has officially made its mark on the indie world with twelve songs that serve as a timeless document of the end of a failed relationship and getting back on your feet. It’s a record that is as searing as it is endearing.
Slingshot Dakota — Heavy Banding
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With years in the indie-punk circuit under their belt, Slingshot Dakota have delivered their best work yet with Heavy Banding. The band’s latest shows the full dynamic songwriting range of the husband-and-wife duo. Backed by her husband, drummer Tom Patterson, keyboardist/vocalist Carly Comando’s simple but biting heavy pop numbers take on the inherent patriarchal structure in the music industry, making for what is one of the most impressive and underrated releases of the year so far.
Mannequin Pussy — “Who You Are”
Mannequin Pussy’s Patience is turning out to be one of the most hotly-anticipated releases of the year. Lead single “Drunk II” set the bar high (that video!!), but the latest single “Who You Are” certainly meets and perhaps exceeds its predecessor. With the Marisa Dabice’s usual guttural screams taking a backseat to a more melodic version of the band, the track focuses on conveying a powerful message instead of serving as an exertion of aggression. “Who You Are” is “an honest depiction of the difficulty of self-acceptance… The call to nitpick on your looks or personality can be strong, but there are people out in the world who love you just as you are,” Chloe Gilke writes for Uproxx.
Oso Oso — “Dig (II)”
Oso Oso’s 2017 release The Yunahon Mixtape became an instant classic in the indie-emo community, with “[frontman Jade] Lilitri’s insistently tuneful songwriting turning listeners into proselytizers on social media,” as Steven Hyden wrote in a feature at the time. Hype is a force to be reckoned with, but Lilitri doesn’t seem phased in the slightest on “Dig (II),” the first single from Oso Oso’s forthcoming Basking In The Glow, which is due August 16th. By the sounds of it, Lilitri has taken time to polish his project’s sound in the studio, creating a lane to outdo himself and prove the staying power of Oso Oso.
Strange Ranger — “Leona”
Sometimes, when you listen to a song, you can just feel the season. Strange Ranger’s “Leona” is one of those songs that somehow sounds like summer. One of the most underrated bands in the indie community, Strange Ranger has been quietly releasing lo-fi dream pop jams for years. “Leona” is the first taste of their forthcoming full-length album Remembering The Rockets. Roll down your car windows and turn this one up.
Baggage — “Horseshoe”
A few years removed from his days in The Swellers, one of the Midwest’s most revered punk acts (damn, I forgot how good this band was), Jonathan Diener has announced the debut album from his new project Baggage. A swinging alternative rock number, “Horseshoe” laments on the realities of a mind-numbing, never-ending life on the road. “You’re in a horseshoe,” Diener sings in falsetto during the song’s chorus. “I’d ask you to move up, but you wouldn’t want to.” If “Horseshoe” is any indication, the rest of Baggages’s as-yet-untitled album is a force to be reckoned with.
Hundredth — “Whatever”
Wait, I thought Hundredth was a hardcore band? Oh, they used to be. Now, the South Carolina band is ready to reveal their new faces as shoegaze dream-poppers with “Whatever.” Taking more influence from The Cure than Code Orange, Hundredth are following in the footsteps of bands like Title Fight and Turnover, turning in the brash guitars and heavy drums for a more ethereal and dreamy sound.
Clairo — “Bags
You hear a lot about the Soundcloud rap world birthing mega stars, but Soundcloud pop artists are fewer and further between. Clairo started to gain traction on the platform, and is ready to cash in on hype with her debut album Immunity which was co-produced by former Vampire Weekend member Rostam Batmanglij. “Bags” is an interesting number that utilizes warped piano tracks to supplement melodic vocal takes to create something that feels immediately familiar, but simultaneously unique.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. .
