With “Call You Back,” Barcelona post-punk trio MOURN have crafted an anthem for me and every millennial or Gen Z-er whose fingers shake when we pick up the phone. While short, “Call You Back” is anything but basic; the track is packed with glimmering pop energy balanced with grungy guitar riffs and assertive vocals. Bubbly and bright, the tune offers some catharsis to the all-too-familiar dread of a dial tone, the anxiety of awkward silences and bad angles on video. “I’d rather die,” they shout, and despite the way Zooms have become my norm, I still concur. It’s hard to believe that the song was penned months before the pandemic, but its accompanying split screen cell phone-shot music video is all the more apt as a reflection on the ways that getting to see faces and hear voices has been a saving grace for many of us, the only way to feel connected. And I get it, I really do, even if it’s just my weekly hopping on Discord to play Among Us with some high school friends. But if you FaceTime me unprompted, just know I still won’t answer, no matter how much you think I love you. Photo by Cristian Colomer Cavallari.

MOURN's new album, Self Worth, was released via Captured Tracks on October 30. Listen on Bandcamp or wherever you stream.

Written in the aftermath of a devastating breakup, Angelo De Augustine’s “Kaitlin” is a hushed journal of the stream-of-consciousness thoughts that fill the silence when a gaping hole opens up, revealing that there never really was anything else. Sing-speaking with matter-of-fact phrasing that implies all other words have failed him, he resorts to simply crying her name. De Augustine whispers intimately, in a way that must have been reserved for the eponymous Kaitlin, but, without a muse, is now full of sorrow. The thought of life without her is wholly unfathomable, but even the thought of her causes its own form of pain, evident in the empty space he leaves at the end of a verse to inhale in preparation of uttering that awful, beautiful name. Not enough time has passed to erase the venom that the end brought forth, so he alternates between sweetness and bitterness, regretting that “I lost my friend,” but telling her to “leave your old boyfriend.” At the end of relationship in which each person’s voids made room for the other — one partner had a missing mother, the other a missing father, and both a missing piece that the other could fill — now there’s just twice as much emptiness.

The passionate question on the chorus of "New Mercies" asks both the singer herself and the listeners “Is it too late for me to believe in the morning’s new mercies?” 19-year-old Taylor Janzen’s latest single gives a voice to her skepticism about the things of heaven and earth. "New Mercies" is the Winnipeg singer-songwriter’s first single recorded in a studio with a full band, which captures all the frustrated energy that brought the song to life. The song was written in a moment of disequilibrium between the feelings of Taylor's energetic soul and the faith she was raised to believe in, a discordance she has always felt but was unable to explain until now. Asking about the mercies conceived in the morning to those who believe in the Biblical God, she questions if it is too late to believe and be saved but she answers herself and her cynicism along the song. Taylor is set to perform in several festivals including SXSW and release her new EP in 2019.

Sydney atmospheric-pop duo Micra recently released their second single "Child Grows Old." The duo is made up of Ivana Kay, a Bulgarian vocalist and guitarist and Robbie Cain, an Australian multi-instrumentalist. After being seated together at an Unknown Mortal Orchestra concert last year the two, kept in touch and decided to make music together. The end result is  a sound that is reminiscent of Beach House and Ariel Pink. When it comes to "Child Grows Old" “The song explores a time in life which felt like nothing had changed for too long. Waiting around for something to happen without knowing where to begin. It's an internal conversation about forcing yourself to jump into the next phase of life and facing the obstacles that come out of that,” Cain says. "Child Grows Old" is trippy in nature, but familiar in content and dedicated to finding life in those times that feel more like dead space.

Outside of Montreal, Murray A. Lightburn is predominantly known for fronting chamber-pop band The Dears and for sounding a whole lot like Morrissey. Ghosts of past success and musical icons could haunt a less versatile musician into irrelevance, but in “Bellevue Blues” Lightburn bares his soul and his soulful influences to dispel any doubts in his ability to continue creating. Of his upcoming release, due out in February, he told his label that it is an album with “no guitar solos at all, and very few instrumental passages. It’s just singing on top of songs.” "Bellevue Blues" is a simple song pairing the sound of the soul and motown hits so beloved in his childhood with the most complex subtleties of adulthood. Lightburn refuses to allow the simplicity to detract from the emotional weight, though, as he bursts into a chorus that would make even the toughest member of Snow Patrol well up a little bit. “I need you / To save me from myself,” he sings, though he is perfectly capable of holding his own.

While the title of Johnny Gates's new song may mislead you, this song has less to do about sports and more to do about memories and the people that inhabit them. "It seems like we all have those people in our lives...sometimes you keep them / sometimes you lose them like I lost you." While taking this person to a Yankee game was a memory he'll hold onto, the present exists without them, creating the wistful emotions heard in this song. Having gained popularity from the TV show The Voice, Johnny Gates has come off of the big stage to deliver us music that is raw and emotional. He intentionally uses baseball to tie into his reality and tell us, "I grew up playing baseball, and I remember hearing pretty quickly from my dad, it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game. And I think life is a lot like that. So when writing this song, I wanted to reference my favorite sport, and some specific examples from my life, where, even if I didn’t come out with a win, I still have some amazing memories to hang on to." When Gates sings, the soft grit in his voice is a notable feature to the beauty of the song. With just a guitar and a universal feeling, "Baseball" is the kind of swoony, stuck-in-your-feelings kind of  song that doesn't get old.

Longtime fans of Girlpool, allow us to reintroduce you to your new favorite indie grunge band. The group’s newest single, “Hire,” is a rock anthem for the millennial age, and a far cry from the softer songs of past records that gave the group its signature sound, like “123” and “Cut Your Bangs.” This sonic maturation comes in the wake of vocalist and guitarist Cleo Tucker’s public transition. Now, Tucker’s vocals are nearly unrecognizable as they sing an octave lower, adding strength and grit to a group that, until now, has veered toward distinctively smooth vocal melodies. Listen closely to “Hire” and you’ll still hear instrumental lines that feel familiar. For example, the song opens with the same muted, messy guitar picking that frequents so much of Girlpool’s discography, and it nicely introduces the drums with a catchy mid-tempo beat. “Hire” not only acts as a representative for organic growth in songwriting, but it proves Girlpool are masters of transcending genre.

Explosive and dramatic, Cautious Clay’s newly released single, “Reasons” breaks out of the box musically and lyrically showing further versatility from the multi-talented artist and producer. Hudson Mohawke lends a hand in the writing along with Tobias Jesso Jr.; Mohawke’s boisterous trademark drops making an appearance and add dimension to the track. Strategically placed choirs of echoing backing vocals and abrupt cut-offs juxtaposed against more calming guitar-driven choruses make this song all the more exciting to listen to. “Did it all for the no good reasons” Clay belts, exploring an undeniably human need to do something — even if it makes life more dramatic, interesting or even complicated — for no good reason.  Though short, there's an innate reliability to the song and the drama it invokes, not unlike the drama Clay sings of.

Los Angeles alt-pop artist Olivia Grace recently released her latest single "Higher Ground." After a toxic relationship ended Grace sings of the new place she's in mentally. “I wrote Higher Ground about putting myself first. At the time, I kept compromising what I wanted and making myself smaller to lift someone else up. Writing Higher Ground was therapeutic when I decided that I needed to keep moving forward in my life," Graces says. As she sings out her realizations above glitchy electro beats and we've given not only a message that we can fully get behind, but a song to dance to. Whether you can see this song being in a girl-power television series or even on your self-empowerment playlist, the overall concept belongs everywhere and anywhere. As Olivia Grace emerges in a saturated indie-pop music scene, we're confident that with songs like "Higher Ground" she'll soon be a standout. 

Jersey native turned Los Angeles migrant, Adam Melchor releases his touching new single "Real Estate" today. With a voice that resembles the renown Ben Gibbard, the there is a softness to his tone and his vocal inflections that translates into a beautiful tranquility in the face of the unknown. Accompanied by a finger-picked acoustic guitar, Melchor's voice ebbs and flows throughout the song and gives way to the lightness of his falsetto. In "Real Estate" we hear someone who's ready to risk it all, but who's aware of what it may cost. Melchor himself says,  "I wrote 'Real Estate' on one of my first drives from New Jersey to California...This song is the personification of moving; moving to a place where you don’t what’s going to happen, and moving from a place where you don’t know how much is going to be there if you come back." A true folk song, "Real Estate" is full of the emotions that come with the uncertainty of saying goodbye, hoping that what's ahead is better and brighter.

With an intro nearly taunting you to start humming Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me,” Okey Dokey’s “When They Get Older” wears its influences proudly. Mixing sounds from the Motown and doo-wop classics of Hitsville, U.S.A. with the hazy leisure of California surfer rock, and finally hitting a little closer to their Nashville home with a hint of Elvis’ Graceland croon in the bridge, they pack a whole country’s worth of rock-and-roll history into only two-and-a-half minutes. Of course, with Rayland Baxter featuring prominently on vocals, the Nashville sound wins out and the whole crew smiles their way through the complexities of growing up. They rattle off a list of the things they look forward to in old age — a home, a family and the calm sort of love that replaces the horribly exciting kind only after years and years together — but then retract their wishes with a shrug when they realize that “creature comforts” and “picket fences” imply the calm sort of everything that replaces the wonderfully exciting adventures of youth. They want to get older, just maybe not so fast.