So many singles..so let's save you

and your valuable time - because you only have to listen to these (and maybe a playlist?)

Well, friends, it’s like this. Enough music is being made in this single year that you cannot listen to it all just once over the next 365 days. Ironically, we call them “singles” still - for too often they are the tracks that merit repeated plays and act as the proverbial front door that keeps us returning to the album of origination.

If you would like to keep up, join us at our subreddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/NewMusicReport/

Hey, that is not to say some worthwhile albums will not also show up here. Oh, they will. However, we may be entering a new age for the supremacy of the single - given how we are defined by what we listen to and share with others. (Gimme that AUX!)

REMI WOLF - Pitiful (from “Big Ideas”) [LP/CD/CS](Island)

This album has been gaining steam all week. The smoldering “Motorcycle,” and the ribald but sparkling Eighties production feast that is “Toro” only hint at how far the double-tracked vocals of Remi Wolf are about to take her. In the “Brat Girl Summer” where Charli XCX still rules, the overstuffed, ebullient glory of celebrating one’s self with Wolf makes a great complement.

BEEN STELLAR - “Pumpkin” (from “Scream From New York, NY”)[LP/CD](Dirty Hit)

Shoegaze is back. Dream Pop is back. Slowcore is back. However, too many artists in these subgenres get lost in the “categorization” game. New York’s Been Stellar would be the biggest new band - if this was 1992. Their Smashing Pumpkins swirl with the 2000s New York style indie groove is hard to lose - once you let it settle in. Months of stellar (hee hee) singles take away from the initial couple of trips through the album (a new problem that has surfaced to go with the “trailer effect.” So, listen to the moodier ones we say. “Pumpkin” stretches its groove into midtempo territory and carries a “1979”-ish sense of longing. The album is not afraid to blow up (“All For One”) and cool back down (“Takedown,”) “Pumpkin” presents the perfect halfway point and a chorus that zings your heartstrings.

WORLDS GREATEST DAD - “Twenty Deer” from the upcoming “Better Luck Next Time” [LP/CD](SideOneDummy)

Before you go looking at the label thinking this is New Punk. It’s not. Atlanta’s Worlds Greatest Dad are yet another Southern band that taps into the ennui of living in places where culture divides and loses people. Like Wednesday, “Twenty Deer” is about the systematic heartbreak of feeling ill-fitted into the world both at home and on the road. This is a ballad that will crush you. Maddie Duncan’s delivery and the band’s locked-in place as the gathering storm of her emotions is still thrilling after multiple listens.

BRIJEAN - “Euphoric Avenue” (from “Macro) [LP/CD](Ghostly International)

Who are you Brijean? The bio mentions you play for Mitski, Poolside, and Toro Y Moi, while you are billed as purveyors of “psychedelic Dance music.” “Euphoric Avenue” is a rainbow-colored Pop with flutes, sizzling ride cymbals, and a bouncy rhythm that keeps you lovingly adrift. Brijean’s vocals, on the other hand, are classic Astrid Gilberto/French chanteuse “sexy indifference.” Like the summer complement to Eyedress/Marias track “There’s a Room Up In The Sky,” “Euphoric Avenue” is a “late-in-the-day-see-the-broiling-world-cool-down-before-your-very-eyes” dream. We like having this dream over and over again.

RAVEENA (feat. JPEGMAFIA) - “Junebug” (from “Lucid”) [LP/CD](Moonstone/EMPIRE/AMPED)

If there is a theme developing here, it is that a good single is both to be admired for its structure individually and as the sum of its parts. Raveena has lovingly created an album that borrows from Seventies Soul, but never quite sounds like it. “Junebug” is a beautiful New Soul ode to summer love and even smart enough to introduce that she knows it is highly temporary. The commitment here is to the groove. Deep bass lines and the hypnotic beat draw you in completely - until you are lost in her voice. Then, like so many songs out there, a feature. However, JPEG lays down his case with enough logic and verve that you might think the beach just turned into a court of law. Raveena deserves some solid promotion and this one really should be a hit.

CHRIS COHEN - “Night or Day” (from “Paint A Room”)[LP/CD](Hardly Art/SubPop/AMPED)

WORLD NEWS - “Red” (Pie & Mash)

PRIVATE JEST - “Private Jest” (from “The Gold, the Rush, the Rot, the Rust)[LP/CD](Rain Again)

Our big finish is three singles with understated and unique guitar parts that thrill.

Chris Cohen of The Curtains has a beautiful new album (that we need more time to dive into.) “Night or Day” is a stunning Indie Rock single that combines Eighties Prefab Sprout with Nineties Eric Matthews/The Grays sensibilities. The way that the chords change the colors of the song - but never “feel” like chord changes is almost outdone by the emotionally quiet guitar solo where he bends the notes like he does not want the neighbors to hear.

London’s World News starts at the same Eighties jangle as Cohen, but opts for a pre-C86 Smiths-ian croon. The chiming guitars and driving tacet melody are more beautiful than the verses. But, that guitar solo and all the stops must be a thrill to see live.

Portland, OR’s Lesser Halves say they are “washed up” in their Bandcamp bio, but professionalism is their middle name. On their excellent new album, they regularly sculpt songs that stay in the Pop realm, but find the most sophisticated ways to underpin the music they are making. “Private Jest” could be another Shoegaze/Indie thing. However, they bring in chords and a beautiful Joe Jackson-esque chord change that is so subtle - it still catches us by surprise. Not to sound repetitive…but that guitar solo and the way they allow it to slope upward and build around their dramatic (but not overly mixed changes) riffs.

Well, that was not too bad was it? A little more informal - but hopefully - just as informative. Be sure to glimpse at those numbers of views. Not into using YouTube for the showcasing of these exemplary new songs - but it will help.

More coming your way. Cannot thank you enough. As always, we love hearing from you. Share with your friends and neighbors.