Jen Dan: July 24, 2022

I’m playing catch-up with this Top 10 list since I’ve been on hiatus for several months from the music realm. This time around I’ve compiled a music video playlist that highlights some of my more recent fave songs and videos that don’t appear on SoundCloud. Well, except for the SRSQ track. I included it due to its summertime theme and New Wave-‘80s appeal.

Before the rundown, I also wanted to spread the word about some exciting news that was announced in April:

Miki Berenyi (Lush, Piroshka) will be releasing her highly anticipated memoirs, titled Fingers Crossed, on September 29th via Nine Eight Books. The full name of the book is Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success and it runs 352 pages (although I’m not sure if that number is set in stone).
The book will be published as a hardback, as an ebook, and as audio (Yes, with Miki herself narrating!).
More info can be found HERE
and at Bill’s extensive Lush fansite Light From A Dead Star
Fingers Crossed can be ordered from Rough Trade
and Amazon UK

2. Go With Strangers – “Slow Down, Wild One”
I had a wonderful chat with Eugene San in the latest issue of Big Takeover magazine, the multi-talented Malaysian musician behind this alternative rock project. His debut EP for this solo work, Finding Ikigai, was self-released this past February.
This track is dynamically scintillating and sweepingly dreamy; a beautiful, guitar-driven blend of alt-rock and shoegaze music. The visuals are scenes inspired by the French classic novella Let Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Swoon…

3. Tears for Fears – “The Tipping Point”
A fave outfit from the ’80s who maintain their relevance and gravitas amid the passage, and ravages, of time… A deeply poignant song and video from Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith about loss and longing.
The illustrious duo’s 7th album, The Tipping Point, bowed on February 25th via Concord Records.

4. Gentle Sinners – “Landfill”
This is a collaboration between Aidan Moffat (Arab Strap) and James Graham (The Twilight Sad), and their debut album, These Actions Cannot Be Undone, came out in May via Rock Action Records.️

5. Bambara – “Birds”
The Brooklyn-based (by way of Athens, GA) act brood and explode on their latest rock record, mini-album Love On My Mind, which arrived earlier this year via Wharf Cat.
This track sounds like a cross between Interpol (moody music) and Nick Cave (deep and gaunt vocals) and emanates fatalistic, edge-of-NYC-at-night vibes. Dispassionately passionate perfection.

6. Crows – “Slowly Separate”
The London-located post-punk band unleashed their second album, Beware Believers, on April 1st via Fuzz Club imprint Bad Vibrations Records. More passionately dispassionate tracks here, including this noir and grinding slammer.

7. Pinch Points – “Reasons to be Anxious”
I don’t know much about this Melbourne, Australia-originating outfit, except they’re kinda indie punk (self-described as “smile-punk” on Facebook), but with springy melodies, angular instrumentation, and sing-song to shouty vocals, at least on this track that nails pandemic-based isolation frisson down precisely.
Their album Process dropped in March via Exploding In Sound.

8. Belle & Sebastian – “A Bit of Obvious”
The beloved Scottish band is back with A Bit of Previous, their 11th album that released on May 6th via Matador Records. Always introspective; always insightful…

9. Melody’s Echo Chamber – “Personal Message”
Emotional Eternal, the 3rd album from Melody, came out April 29th via Domino Record Co. This is a delightfully wistful, airy, and flowing track from the LP, with lyrics sung in French and English, glistening guitar lines, a lightly marching beat, and some orchestral touches.

10. SRSQ – “Saved For Summer”
Kennedy Ashyln (Them Are Us Too) returns under this moniker with a refreshing and shimmering New Wave-‘80s-inspired tune that wafts by with echoed percussion, winding retro-synth reverberation, sweetly cooing vocals, and bittersweet lyrics where she buoyantly trills bleak phrases, like “wasting time” and “nothing lasts forever” The VHS cassette-styled video is a throwback to the New Wave-‘80s as well, made so popular these days by Stranger Things.
Ashlyn’s upcoming album Ever Crashing will be unveiled on August 19th via Dais.

11. Lisa Gerrard & Marcello Di Francisci – “Until We Meet Again”
The Dead Can Dance legend is back, along with LA-based producer and composer Di Francisci, and will be releasing their collaborative album, Exaudia, on August 26th via Atlantic Curve.
The song is a reflective and romantic ode to love and memories – a melding of classical and electronic instrumentation, earthy to ethereal in mood and vocals, a slow dance that rises to higher heights and expansive plains/planes…