ICYMI is a series featuring new and notable releases you (and we) may have missed
“Downhill Lullaby” – Sky Ferreira
If you grew up in the tumblr era and try to tell me you were not directly or indirectly influenced by Sky Ferreira you’re a liar. In another universe, Sky never shed the shiny, bubblegum pop persona major labels wanted to exquisitely craft for her. In this one, her reemergence after a six year hiatus due to said label turmoil isn’t sickly sweet, but haunting, dark, and pretty fucked up. Strings lead us in to what could be a mystical dream, but they swiftly turn dissonant and ominous. The first words she shares with us are, “You leave me open when you hit me”. Her voice is deep and biting. This doesn’t seem like a poetic device, but a truly dark story of someone who spent years feeling eaten alive in the city they were in. While the version of Sky that emerged in 2010 never would have been afforded the opportunity to share this raw vulnerability, 2019 Sky owns her pain with power.
“Waste” – Twen
At long last we have music from Twen. Cutting their teeth on the road with the likes of Ron Gallo, The Nude Party, Naked Giants, and upcoming dates with White Reaper, you’ve probably been hearing great things about them for the past year (or have been lucky enough to catch their dreamy live show). With all that hype, their debut single is no disappointment. I wish all my self-doubts were shrouded in the same it-sounds-like-I’m-at-the-bottom-of-a-well-but-in-a-good-way, fuzzed out veil as Twen’s “Waste” is. Not because I enjoy having self-doubts and internal conflict, but at least making them sound moody, beautiful, and almost temptingly self-destructive makes them slightly more appealing.
“Patience” – Tame Impala
I feel like Kevin Parker is playing this song at Alex Turner’s Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino’s first music festival: it’s a summertime, disco, space odyssey. A loosely defined coming of age song, perhaps the title is a nod to what Parker wishes fans had more of in the multi-year stint between releases. Even with it’s dreamy, drippy, oil-slick quality, it’s rooted it a pop sensibility that makes it an infectious first release.
“Reciprocation” – A.Swayze & The Ghosts
To offset the influx of psychedelia coming from down under, Tasmanian garage-punks A.Swayze and the Ghosts have released an epic 10 minute B-side to their debut 7″ with Rough Trade Records. It’s almost like an internal monologue set on fire and put onstage and no one knows whether to pour water or liquor on it. Hyper-focus comes and goes, thoughts meander, energy sky-rockets and plummets, sanity wavers. It’s an explosive and raw ode to collapsing relationships.