A clean electric guitar, simply plucked chords and the sleepy sweetness of Angel Olsen’s gorgeous vocals unfolding in waves around us. These are the pieces that make up ‘Waving, Smiling,’ a delicate track off of Olsen’s new LP. The record is appropriately titled Whole New Mess—it seems to be describing everyone’s current state of existence. Indeed, Olsen’s vulnerability and open-eyed candid songwriting is easy to get lost in as we spend more and more days at home. “All my fears, cried out all of those years,” she sings with grace, “Look out my window, the sun is shining.” She’s right of course, we know she is, the sun has risen again today. We dive into her voice, wrapped in the softest of reverbs as she hits a high note and reaches the peak of the tune. “I’m waving, smiling, [...] alive and dying,” she sings to us. So are we, Angel. So are we. Photo by Kylie Coutts.

Sometimes songs come along that feel so familiar it’s almost as if I wrote them in a past life. When I first heard Joshua Speers’s newest single “Other People,” I listened to it on repeat trying to identify why, “I live in other people’s homes / doing dishes writing other people’s songs / I cover my ears from other people’s moans / but never me” put a lump in my throat each time. It starts with soft reverb-laden guitar and Speers’s sweet and warm voice before building gradually to a soaring second chorus. Speers has a knack for writing songs that feel universal yet personal, which he showcased brilliantly in his first EP, and continues to do so with his newest offering. The production is measured but noticeable—giving the folk-rock track a nice pop polish. It reminded me of a poem I wrote back when I was subletting a friend’s room in an unfamiliar city: 

The window faces a brick wall
I get one beam of sunlight a day
From 10 to 11
Sometimes shorter
I lay on the floor
My eyes in it
Getting my daily recommended 30 minutes
Of vitamin D
Maybe I will go outside
Maybe I will sit amongst my things
Scattered in and around his
I live in a puzzle of
What is mine and what is not
Constantly shifting
Organizing
Tucking in and away
Myself and my things
I am learning to take up space
Make noise
Stop apologizing for just being
Bit by bit I let myself be seen
Heard
Felt
As I sit in the sunlight
Building up energy

In this cover of Willie Nelson's iconic road trip tune, First Aid Kit inject their classic folk forbearance and dual harmonies into their version of "On the Road Again." Paired with a video montage containing footage of different memories and milestones they've experienced on tour, this jubilant and expressive tune about loving the open road is brought to different levels of nostalgic sweetness. In its best moments, this compilation of memories presents a posture of hope. It's as if First Aid Kit and their crew are saying, "We'll be back, doing our favorite things, just wait a little while longer." It's nice to see them smiling, hopping in pools, playing massive festival shows and just enjoying things we used to take for granted. It gives the viewer a sense of expectation that, in weeks and months to come, as the world slowly re-opens its doors, we'll approach every experience with a little more appreciation and reverence. This thought reminds me of this line from On Friendship by Kahlil Gibran:

"When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain."

First Aid Kit have always handled their covers with care (see their incredible rendition of Simon & Garfunkel's "America"). Their version of "On the Road Again" is joyful and beautifully done. Watch their video and let us know what you think!

For their first collaboration, “CUT EM IN” finds genre-bender Anderson .Paak and rap mogul Rick Ross living for luxury. Following the release of his protest song "Lockdown," "CUT EM IN" takes on a more lighthearted approach as .Paak jokes about his accountant giving him a breakdown of his finances: "'The good news is you made a lot...The bad news is you spent more.'" The track grazes new era rapcore with its catchy guitar riff, with .Paak leaning more into hip hop than he did on Ventura, his latest full-length release. Underneath its showmanship, the song asserts the importance of loyalty to your roots and looking out for your friends who looked out for you on the come up. “You know the ones that lend a hand and wanna see you win,” .Paak explains, “When you come up on a lick, make sure you cut ’em in.” And according to Ross, staying grounded also includes looking out for yourself: “Sometimes you need to know your worth…Meditate, hydrate / Protect my energy before engagement.” The song will be featured on the Madden 21 soundtrack, which EA announced will be celebrating "the artists rising up to chase the throne.”

McCall's latest release “Nothing Even Wrong” blooms like a phosphorescent garden surrounded by a dense and shadow-casted forest. The track, which features stiff chords from an electric guitar, rose-toned vocals, and unconventional synth soundbites, has a distinct sound that is pleasantly jarring—time to wake up and smells the flowers!

While the compositional and stylistic elements of this song allow us to classify it as both modern and eclectic, its lyrical sentiments are surprisingly atemporal: emotions are complicated “Nothing Even Wrong,” is a piece that one experiences with all their senses. It is lush, harmonious, and undoubtedly fitting for the end of a long-over-complicated-paradoxical summer. Photo by Keegan Burckhard

One of the mystical aspects of a romance is never knowing exactly where it's going to go. Freak Fingers' newest track exhibits this feeling right off the bat. Marked by the beginning sounds of a dreamy acoustic Spanish guitar, "Romance" suddenly drifts further into an otherworldly state influenced by the sudden appearance of synthesizers. As lead vocalist Joan Sullivan begins singing, she blends the beauty of both Spanish and English—taking you further down a soothing, romantic journey for the next two minutes. Clocking in at nearly five minutes, "Romance" maintains the feeling of a daydream abruptly cut short. An 80s influenced electric guitar comes in right before the song ends, illustrating the exhilarating moments of a brief romance when it has hit its peak.

The track is propelled by its slow-but-captivating moment—proving that beauty can still exist among upheaval. The idea of spending a night driving around with the one you love has become more or less of a fantasy taken for granted in 2020, but Freak Fingers help bring it back, if only for a brief few minutes inside your headphones.