#shadowy pop

Here’s some huge news for massive fans of UK indie folk band Daughter like me. Though the trio isn’t back with new music, their ethereal vocalist and guitarist, Elena Tonra, has made her solo debut as Ex:Re with a stunning song named Romance! Part of why I’ve been drawn to the band in the past has been Elena’s beautiful voice, which we get a sumptuous dose of on the lead single from her forthcoming self-titled debut album, which arrives this Friday, November 30th, on Glassnote / 4AD. Like Daughter, Ex:Re’s Romance is an atmospheric sojourn, with a profoundness to its poetic lyrics and gently murmuring electronic soundscape. It’s haunting, in a gossamer and diaphanous sense, with muted beats and much fluttering, shuffling grace. Stream/download Romance, here. 

PARKER, a 21 year old singer songwriter from England, leaves us fully entranced and totally bewitched by her new single Runs & Rides. Its dusky electropop wraps its opaque tendrils around us, while PARKER’s voice entraps us in the muggy haze of the song. Runs & Rides is like Lana Del Rey, gone more syrupy nebulous and gothy dark. It brims with a similar sort of vintage nostalgia. Runs & Rides is a sinuous winding, murky simmering ballad with sultry guitars, and it’s out now via Killing Moon Records.

Our journey with British four piece RITUAL continues as they reveal the latest track and video from their No Escape Out Of Time project. RITUAL just made their live debut at a spellbinding show at The Roundhouse in London, which leaves me hoping it means they might begin to tour the world soon. They deliver another heartrending dose of their aching pop and shadowy cinematics on Better By Now, a breathtaking ballad that adds strength to my conviction that RITUAL can’t put out a single unsatisfying song. Again, I find myself melting to its harmonious but sorrowful vocals, which I’ve fallen even harder for ever since Mononoke joined the band’s ranks. The way RITUAL can tell a story of loss and hearbreak with their music is absolutely gut wrenching, but always incredibly beautiful. RITUAL explains of Better By Now’s lyrics: “... we are just us saying that everyone recovers and deals with things in their own time and way. People often tell you how you are 'supposed to feel' etc but I don't get that. 'Who cares' what you think really.” My excitement for RITUAL’s audio/visual project No Escape Out Of Time continues to grow at an exponential rate with every new release. Better By Now is out as a single on iTunes, here.

Let’s stay a moment in that beautiful country known as Sweden so Alice Boman can break our hearts with a beautifully haunting new song named Dreams. Dreams is a ghostly pop song both feathery light and powerfully lush. Dark yet elegant, stringy and ornate Dreams comes with an austere and gorgeously filmed music video. I have a feeling David Lynch might like this song considering both his love for dreams and their ties to the subconscious as well as gorgeously evocative, poignant stirring music drenched in nostalgia. As he’d say... “Is it past or is it future?” or... “Who is the dreamer?”  Boman says of the video: "Vårhallarna, where this video is shot, is such a special place to me.I have spent so much time there, because my grandmother has a house 2 minutes away, and when I go there I always feel calm and inspired.There are now some unclarity whether my grandmother will keep the house or not.So I wanted Vårhallarna's magic and beauty to be the core of this video - as a homage to the place and to all the memories." Dreams is available digitally and on limited edition 7″ via Control Group, here.