Are you adventuring, or wanting to venture, into refreshing your playlists or creating new ones? Just use these 9 new tracks to spice things up.
Jody Lynn – Undertow
‘Undertow’ is a heavy female-led rock track with strong percussion and bass instrumental lead, a dynamic percussive mix, and vocals that pack a punch. That being said, it has a lot of catchy melody. It does well at using electronic sounds that build into a rock sound which blends inspiration old and new. Lyrically, this track tackles the idea of judgment and how quickly people jump to it societally. But it also is based on the title and the undertow that everyone has which pulls them down and drives struggle.
Kevin O’Donnell – The Book of Kells
‘The Book of Kells’ has beautiful and soft acoustic sounds in its instrumentation. However, the vocals have a smooth flow but a vague underlying growl. Overall, it’s mainly a folk sound but the way the vocals hit gives it a slight punk inspiration. The production style makes things sound raw, and the vocals do well at taking the foreground without pulling from the instrumentation. The lyrics use vivid imagery of things that should have been done but were never achieved. It stands out as a confessional of opportunities missed.
Chill Wizard – Left Hanging
‘Left Hanging’ is, well, chill like the wizard himself. It has a synthy indie sound in its guitar but has a lot of soul and R&B influences in its vocals. The vocals work well with higher and lower tones but have an overarching breathiness. They’re produced to fit the background, but they aren’t overproduced. This helps them stand out in the beauty they bring to the overall piece. Lyrically, this track comes off as a song of yearning. It depicts an image of loving someone and being away from them but having a strong pull toward that person. It is basically about wanting a person in the moment due to deep love and not wanting to wait for it.
Hailey Rae – Seasons Change
‘Seasons Change’ has a soft and sweet piano-ballad sound. Overall, the instrumentation is simple, but that’s the beauty of it. There’s something about the way it builds into deep emotion. On top of that, the vocals also have a softness that builds into that emotional resonance. There’s something so somber about this single, and it has one of those chill-inducing sounds. On top of that, the vocal harmonies are well done, as they’re implemented scattered about at the right moments. The lyrics capture the poeticism of nature well as they use the changing of the seasons to describe how others change. It comes from the eyes of someone who loves someone else, but the other changes just as the seasons do.
Janet Noh – One Breath
‘One Breath’ has soul-filled vocals with percussive-like sounds and lifelike instrumentation. It has a little bit of piano, synths, and trap-influenced drums. One thing that makes the electric and acoustic sounds work well together is that the softer moments work mostly with the acoustic sounds, and more energetic moments are more electronic. The vocals riff around well and they also have strong and soft moments. It comes from a voice that seems like it’s trying to comfort another in the lyrics. The voice is asking the other to take a breath, expressing that they should be softer on themself, and saying to just take “one deep breath.”
Perspective. – Take Them All Down
One of the first things that stands out about ‘Take Them All Down’ is the funky bass: then the guitar comes in with a sound that hits similarly, and the vocals follow suit. Additionally, the drums are so lifelike and weave around the instrumentation well. Though it works with a pop basis, the funk influences stand out, and there are times when the vocals hit a bit of a rock growl. The rock influences also come out in a thrashy guitar bridge near the end of the track. Overall, this track builds into a genre-fusion that makes it interesting and unique. It stands out as a self-confidence song lyrically that gets into disbelief from others. It seems to come from the eyes of someone in a relationship and states, “We’re going to take them all down” as a hook.
Hetty Clark Ft. Sighlok – Weekend
‘Weekend’ is a futuristic-sounding electronic pop track with lo-fi influences. The instrumentation is light and laid back, and it works with buzzy and smooth sounds in its synths. The way the mix uses stereo panning gives an atmospheric vibe with some ominous undertones. That’s what’s interesting about this track; it’s extremely chilled and laid back with that ominous undertone. On top of that, the vocals are smooth and beautiful, and it has a nice breathiness overall. The lyrics are poetic and come off as extremely interpretive. It’s meant to be a song about shame and self-doubt based on distorted memories from a night that went wrong.
Evan Kreutz – Dandelion
‘Dandelion’ is a rock-indie pop jam with a nice bounce in the instrumentation and a full indie band sound. The resounding synths mesh well with the bright guitar, but the bass brings in this nice growl to round things out. Additionally, the vocals work well with higher tones and a more baritone range, and they bend around well with dynamic production. The verses have a bit of a buzzy sound from the way they are produced, but it makes them hit even harder. This track is about a dandelion gone with the wind, but it’s a simile comparing the dandelion to a lover. There’s a lot of creativity in the way that it captures the back-and-forth of love.
Connor Bettencourt – The Wounds Will Mend
‘The Wounds Will Mend’ is an acoustic track with a raw production style and a lot of emotion. There’s something about how the production hits. It’s low-fidelity, but the buzz of the guitar sounds nice, and the piano fills out the lower range well. Later on, an electric guitar sound is added, and it works well with the acoustic guitar. The vocals play in a lower range, and their baritone sounds are packed with the earlier stated emotion. They also have a really nice rasp to them. This track is about hurt and broken hearts. It explores lost love and the idea that things will get better. But it also expresses that later love won’t truly fix things even though it feels like it might.
Written by Sage Plapp
