Each Friday, Atwood Journal’s workers share what they’ve been listening to that week – a track, an album, an artist – no matter’s been having an influence on them, within the second.

This week’s weekly roundup options music by Zach Bryan & Kacey Musgraves, Luke Beling, Addison Rae, Kenya Grace, ((( O ))), SOFT LAD, Zach Seabaugh, Beck Pete, RAGS AND RICHES, Izzy Heltai, dreamfone, pen pin, Candy Imperfections, CRUZ, & Atka!

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:: “I Keep in mind All the things” – Zach Bryan ft. Kacey Musgraves ::

Lauren Turner, Reno, NV

Oklahoma singer/songwriter Zach Bryan launched his self-titled album on August 25, 2023. The extremely anticipated file was an ideal mix of rock, nation and folks. Together with themes of heartache, loss and love, Bryan didn’t stray away from his uncooked and genuine storytelling that followers have come to know and love him for. Whereas “El Dorado” advised the story of an expensive pal from the U.S. Navy Bryan used to serve with, “Smaller Acts” advised the story of a lady who loves the straightforward issues in life and “Oklahoman Son” is a tribute to his home-state. However there are many storylines to get misplaced in whereas listening to Bryan’s healthful and truthful 54-minute album. And “I Keep in mind All the things” is unquestionably a kind of ones that can have you ever captivated from the primary word.

That includes Kacey Musgraves, “I Keep in mind All the things” is the epitome of a misplaced summer season romance. As a pair reminisces about an ‘88 Ford, a beatdown basement sofa and a pawned ring, feelings of longing and ache rise.

Rot intestine whiskey’s gonna ease my thoughts
Seaside city rests on the “drying” line
Do I remind you of your daddy in his ‘88 Ford?
Labrador hanging out the passenger door
The sand out of your hair is blowing in my eyes
Blame it on the seashore grown males don’t cry

Bryan and Musgraves swap between two factors of view. And with the grit and rasp in Bryan’s voice and the angelic wispy tone of Musgraves, you’re sucked proper into the track’s alluring lyrics, sending chills down your backbone. It captures heartbreak in a approach that’s hauntingly lovely and utterly heart-rending.

You’re consuming every thing to ease your thoughts
When within the hell are you gonna ease mine
You’re like concrete ft in the summertime warmth
It burns like hell when two souls meet
And also you’ll by no means be the person you all the time swore
However I’ll keep in mind your singing in that ’88 Ford

And what an ideal time to launch such a track? When August approaches and reminds you of a summer season’s finish. “I Keep in mind All the things” is at present competing on Billboard’s Scorching 100 for the No. 1 spot. You may hearken to “I Keep in mind All the things” now, in addition to the remainder of Bryan’s album wherever you like your music!

:: “Ache Like a River” – Luke Beling ::

Mitch Mosk, New York

Tright here’s a heavy weight hanging off Luke Beling’s newest single: The sort of ache the singer/songwriter can’t shake, regardless of how exhausting he tries. What will we do with the issues we are able to’t let go of?

We dwell in them. Launched August 25, 2023, “Ache Like a River” is grief manifest in track. The second single taken off Beling’s upcoming debut album is an intimate reckoning with life and demise, loss and longing. Following early August’s enchanting “A Stone within the Mouth of the Ocean,” Beling’s newest observe additionally additional establishes him within the different folks house – a haze space the place indie rock, folks, Americana, nation, and even grunge all collide. Out of this world have come the likes of Sturgill Simpson and Gregory Alan Isakov, and now comes South Africa-born, Hawaii-based Luke Beling: A storyteller with a ardour for the heartfelt, the heated, and the evocative. We actually really feel all this and extra in “Ache Like a River,” a smoldering, cinematic eruption of tender turmoil:

Breathe all of it in
Breathe all of it in my brother
The place your coronary heart’s been in
The exhausting occasions you undergo

Ain’t no approach out
Ain’t no approach out of life’s furnace
Torching bronze brown
Days that burn by nugatory

“‘Ache Like a River’ is in regards to the tragedy and miracle of life,” Beling tells Atwood Journal. “We will hardly consider ourselves as human with out both one. I wrote ‘Ache Like a River’ after listening to in regards to the surprising demise of a pal’s son. I keep in mind feeling so hopeless and heavy for the household, imagining the impossible-to-describe issue of taking a breath or getting off the bed, strangled by life-shattering ache and a weight of nihilism. There are seasons on this life the place we expertise both the brilliant gentle of day or dim darkish of night time. ‘Ache Like a River’ is a track about embracing the tragedies and miracles, but with out shedding hope.”

Ache like a river
Waters chilly and bitter
Dive somewhat deeper
At the hours of darkness to hint the silver

Grief like a mountain
Reaching to the clouds then
Climb her rocky floor ’til
Her filth’s your golden fountain

Loss is intimately intertwined within the human expertise – it’s as pure as start, and an inevitable conclusion to all our tales – and but, we should every be taught within the exhausting approach, and we’ll be taught it greater than as soon as earlier than our days are performed. “Ache Like a River” captures the depth and the magnitude of grief on a soul. Nothing compares to vacancy inside; nothing compares to the absence of a presence, and Beling brings these horrible, terribly human feelings and experiences to life with grace and deft nuance in his newest track. Breathtaking in the perfect of the way, “Ache Like a River” is hauntingly lovely.

Take a tough look
Take a tough look down the valley
The place your soul put
Its yoke on you to hold

Together with your eyes dim
Eyes dim just like the shadows
The place your thoughts’s been
The place the anguish leads tomorrow

:: AR – Addison Rae ::

Julia Dzurillay, New Jersey

Whether you hear mockingly or not, Addison’s Rae newest EP is pure pop perfection. The social media sensation befriended artists like Girl Gaga and Charli XCX, formally cementing her “cool lady” popularity with a celebration at Hamburger Mary’s in West Hollywood.

For longtime followers and unapologetic leak sharers of the TikTok star, track “Obsessed” and “I acquired it unhealthy” aren’t new. This EP, nonetheless, consists of surprises just like the Charli XCX characteristic and Rae’s re-imagining of “Nothing On (However the Radio).”

The AR tracks aren’t notably insightful, sans-“Take off every bit of me till there’s solely pores and skin on my physique” lyric, however that’s not the purpose of Addison Rae’s music. It’s catch-y and TikTok dance-able. It’s one of the simplest ways to shut out summer season 2023.

“Removed from dwelling, gettin’ shut,” Rae sings within the “2 Die 4” first verse. “And the music takes us additional out into the unknown / At the hours of darkness, within the zone / I simply texted you my tackle, save my identify in your cellphone.”

:: “Strangers” – Kenya Grace ::

Jada Moore, Virginia

And it goes like this
We’ll get in your automobile and also you’ll lean to kiss me
We’ll discuss for hours and lie on the backseat
Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh
Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh
After which one random night time when every thing adjustments
You received’t reply and we’ll return to strangers
Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh

A trending audio discovered for weeks now throughout all of our Instagram and TikTok feeds, has lastly been launched. First teased by singer and songwriter Kenya Grace again in July, followers and social media audiences alike have since been obsessive about “Strangers”! Identified for her mash of digital and really feel good beats in songs like “Meteor,” “Afterparty Lover,” and “Oranges,” “Strangers” brings a refreshing new sound to the artist’s ever rising discography. With an increase in appreciation for the dreamy, bed room pop blended with digital dance beats sort of style, it’s positively certain to be much more of a success on and off social media!

If this track is any indication of what’s extra to return from the artist, then Kenya Grace absolutely has some tips up her sleeve!

:: “TRAVELIN’” – ((( O ))) ::

Sophie Severs, Boston, MA

Immerse your senses within the transcendental sonic world of ((( O ))).

Assuming the function of an alien protagonist, ((( O ))) makes use of this mission to discover numerous common queries. Hoping to push others and herself towards internal concord, her tunes problem listeners to look past bodily presence and ascend into the astral airplane. ((( O )))’s tune “TRAVELIN’” pulled from her newest LP ((( 4 ))) maybe greatest captures her alluringly hypnotic nature.

Fusing glowy r&b with wisps of ambient noise, ((( O ))) fortunately welcomes listeners into an area to floor themselves. “TRAVELIN’ is a meditative journey that introspects between gentle and darkish, revealing the deep ideas I’m caught with more often than not,” the musician shares. “Alongside the best way, I’ll introduce you to my invisible mates, the sunshine beings who information me by the connections that bind us all.”

So, be part of ((( O ))) in melting away the previous and future; this pensive-yet-airy growth of human consciousness is really a journey to not be missed.

:: “The Human Situation” – SOFT LAD ::

Mitch Mosk, New York

As a author I usually discover myself speaking about how sure particular songs faucet into that factor all of us prefer to name “the human situation,” and so proper off the bat, I appreciated what on the floor felt like a daring transfer: Naming your track “The Human Situation” is not any small, innocuous choice, and but with lyrics as susceptible and candid as they’re purely visceral, SOFT LAD’s newest single deserves its identify. Launched August 10 by way of Incantation Information, SOFT LAD’s first single of the 12 months aches as Sophie Galpin, a multi-instrumentalist for SELF ESTEEM and SOAK, amongst many others, brings her personal internal reckoning to life by a glistening indie pop revelry:

I messed it up in two seconds flat
How did I handle that?
I’m asking myself the identical factor
All I can do is apologise
However I see in your eyes
That I did you improper

But it surely’s like this
I’m tryna stay my life so righteous
However the moments that ain’t my most interesting are those I can’t overlook
And I do know that point is a healer nevertheless it feels so horrifying
I want I may’ve performed the best factor as a substitute of coping with remorse

Hovering melodies and a stirring vocal supply hit exhausting and go away an enduring mark. “I wrote this observe the primary week of January 2021 after a very heavy New Yr’s Eve,” Galpin shares. “This observe is actually about proudly owning your errors and studying from them, and the way friendships can deepen and develop once you method your inevitable fuck ups with accountability. We generally tend to let down the individuals which are closest to us, and it’s essential to keep in mind that no person is ideal and we’re all simply doing our greatest!”

What’s extra human than acknowledging and proudly owning your imperfection? Props to SOFT LAD for shining a lightweight on a subject we must be extra open and accepting about – that we’re all, all the time, evolving, rising, enhancing. There’s nothing improper with the human situation; it’s, in spite of everything, what makes us who we’re – and, if I could also be so daring, it’s a part of the key sauce that makes life price residing.

However regardless of all of it you like me by the damage
It’s a blessing and a curse, those you like probably the most bear the worst
And I put you thru the ache you don’t deserve
Gained’t be the final and it ain’t the primary essential lesson that I’ve realized

:: “I Miss Who You Had been” – Zach Seabaugh ::

Julius Robinson, California

Indie pop singer/songwriter Zach Seabaugh concocts a dreamy unhappy portrait of eager for a misplaced love. With delicate, swirling soundscapes and a heat, ethereal tone, “I Miss Who You Had been” envelops us in a lush melancholy. The observe outlines pining over a previous companion that has departed however nonetheless guidelines his feelings. Haunted by their as soon as deep connection, Seabaugh floats his vocal over a sorrowful electrical guitar. He wistfully sings, “I guess you wouldn’t even acknowledge my face. If you happen to move me strolling down the road. I may name you nevertheless it’s actually not my place. I been hoping you’d attain out to me.” These strains specific a common feeling of affection in limbo.

The 24-year-old Nashville based mostly Georgia born artist grew up with influences similar to Jack Johnson and John Mayer. He captures that very same soulful air and stirring lyricism.  Fusing components of pop, rock and folks, Seabaugh’s lovely mix makes for extremely charming songs. “I Miss Who You Had been” is a young piece that’s equally as highly effective and attractive.

:: “BITE DOWN”- Beck Pete ::

Chloe Robinson, California

Los Angeles based mostly singer-songwriter Beck Pete crafts a radiant launch “BITE DOWN,” overflowing with uncooked, natural soul. With a singular mix of pop, rock, gospel and indie influences, her observe showcases an enthralling sonic that instantly pulls listeners in. Pete’s expressive vocals over a clean, funk-fused environment makes for a penetrating piece that cuts you to the core. All in regards to the extremism of human nature, she finds herself at battle with internal polarity. Traces like, “perhaps I may drift between somewhat little bit of sane and loopy, been each currently, adjustments each day” seamlessly articulate our fixed battle with conflicting feelings.

Pete is a singular artist with the power to meld genres and ship a extremely significant message. Her fearless method to music holds nothing again. Illustrating a mess of highly effective emotions, she speaks to all features of the shared human expertise.  This newest single possesses that profound relatability.

:: “Discuss to you” – dreamfone ::

Julia Dzurillay, New Jersey

They’re right here to crash your social gathering. dreamfone seems like an amalgamation of Richie Arthur’s previous bands and solo initiatives — mixed together with his real love for music. Partnered with Reece Alan’s guitar, this duo seems like a TikTok pattern ready to occur (in a great way).

And even when dreamfone holds a sure “Boys Like Ladies” pop-rock high quality (and Fickle Mates-esque instrumental tracks), Richie Arthur’s voice stays distinctive in my thoughts. It’s catchy and pungent, capturing moments of his life in every lyric. Sure, in fact, I caught that New Jersey shoutout in “speaking to myself.”

“Discuss to you” is a private favourite, with intelligent manufacturing components and a self-explanatory message.

“I do know we’re not something we was once,” Arthur sings. “However I don’t get why we’re mendacity to one another like we’re higher off / And I’m wondering in the event you consider me when you possibly can’t sleep / For me it’s all the time three a.m. / As soon as once more.”

dreamfone has not but launched an album or toured their already-released singles. Till then, I’m genuinely rooting for these musicians and excited to see what comes subsequent.

:: “Misbehave” – RAGS AND RICHES ::

Joe Beer, Surrey, UK

RAGS AND RICHES are the high-energy alt-pop duo made up of brothers Tanner and Peyton Whitt. Bringing onboard their shut pal DeMarko Murphy, collectively they’ve created their new whirlwind anthem, “Misbehave.” Letting their colourful imaginations go wild, the observe is a playful homage to the 90’s and 2000’s, with their lyrics referencing popular culture icons together with Shrek and Barbie.

“Misbehave” is a scrumptious musical cocktail of vibrant synths and charming rhythms. The addition of an edgy guitar solo, leads to a dynamic and irresistible atmosphere, as they ship one thing which is equal components humorous, attractive and intoxicating. Behind the uplifting, feel-good melodies, “Misbehave” truly tells a extra severe story a few struggling relationship, with the brothers sharing, “We had the identify “Misbehave” in thoughts for the track and the idea was simply this couple that has seen their relationship go stale and they’re looking for some methods to seek out that spark once more.”

:: “Dangerous Time” – Izzy Heltai ::

Mitch Mosk, New York

Izzy Heltai’s third single of the 12 months is a candid confessional stripped to the bone: The sort of intimate unveiling that aches from the within out, and inevitably leads us down our personal introspective rabbit holes within the course of. Launched August 25, “Dangerous Time” aches with unfiltered, susceptible feeling. “I used to be stunned after I felt like myself once more. Been a couple of months since I awakened and felt like this,” the Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter sings, coronary heart on his sleeve and soul in his throat. “Then the day handed, I acquired stoned off my ass once more. Feeling like shit I assumed perhaps it’s time that I referred to as you again…“

“I’ve all the time stated songwriting for me, is the best way I course of and indulge my most dramatic tendencies,” Heltai explains. “‘Dangerous Time’ on the floor, is a track about how individuals present you once you’re their precedence. The way you shouldn’t should beg for somebody’s time, and in the event you’re seen as an inconvenience it most likely simply means they’re not that into you. Extra holistically, “Dangerous Time” is about how once you don’t have that a lot happening, even little issues damage in an enormous approach.”

I don’t suppose that you just like me
All that a lot
If you happen to did
I don’t suppose that you just’d thoughts
Once I name at a foul time
Your work lifes a multitude
And mines
Bought nothing happening

Delicate and soul-stirring, “Dangerous Time” is a welcome, if not totally shiver-inducing return from Heltai, and the lead single taken off his forthcoming EP, principally myself once more (out October 20). If getting misplaced in waves of unrelenting uncooked emotion is your factor, then this track will surely lower you to the bone.

:: “Fringe”- Pen Pin ::

Chloe Robinson, California

Do you ever discover that after a breakup, as a lot as you wish to hate your ex, you can not assist however keep in mind the little occasions of pleasure? Whether or not it was staying up till 2am speaking on the cellphone or the flowers they acquired you to cheer you up, these reminiscences will perpetually be ingrained in your head. Pen Pin’s serene single “Fringe” particulars a relationship’s second of pure paradise. The observe highlights heat, delicate vocals atop mesmerizing, misty landscapes. The piece opens with the lyrics, “I need one other night time, driving by the neighborhood, with our arms held excessive, rattling the little issues really feel good.” These strains emphasize the immense bliss felt from small moments together with your companion. The video retains that dream-like ecstasy going. By means of graining movie imagery that features blowing bubbles and big scissors, viewers are drawn to the sunny whimsy.

Pen Pin is a wistful, indie pop mission from songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jeni Magana and Emily Moore. The LP Pony Up, set for launch spring 2024, focuses on themes of friendship, happiness and a sense of inspiration. Followers respect their unflinching optimism, a high quality that resonates all through “Fringe.”

::  “Ignorance Is Violence” – Candy Imperfections ::

Joe Beer, Surrey, UK

Singer/songwriter Bri Schillings is right here to ship an essential message by her musical mission, Candy Imperfections. Unveiling the thought-provoking and highly effective “Ignorance Is Violence,” Schillings speaks in regards to the devastation people are bringing to our planet and that by merely selecting to be blind to it’s dangerously damaging. Hoping this track could elevate consciousness to the local weather disaster we’re all experiencing, “Ignorance Is Violence” urges you to concentrate and take motion.

The observe is somewhat haunting, with echoing vocals of a kids’s choir and snippets from a Greta Thunberg speech imprinting themselves into your thoughts. Schillings sings, “It’s time we get up and notice we are able to create a world for everybody.” The track was written shortly after the songwriter witnessed the tragedy of the wildfires in California in 2021, she confides, “On prime of experiencing first hand the most well liked summer season recorded, respiratory smoke from the fires, we felt a weight of frustration and acknowledged our duty to take a stand.”

:: “Take Off The Strain” – CRUZ ::

Mitch Mosk, New York

From the feverish churning of drums and the searing electrical guitar overdrive to Sam Thatcher’s emotionally charged vocal efficiency, “Take Off the Strain” – funnily sufficient – places on fairly a little bit of stress. CRUZ’s fifth profession single (their first of the 12 months) is a passionate indie rock explosion harking back to ’00s bands like Arctic Monkeys and Interpol, with a sonic heft that hits exhausting and quick. For these new to this band – and that’s most of us, contemplating CRUZ launched their debut single in June of final 12 months – “Take Off the Strain” is a convincing and deserving introduction.

He’s fast at each flip
this mastermind won’t ever be taught
he doesn’t know that he has way more time
whoa let the hearth burn
everybody should wait their flip
he doesn’t know that it’s his time to shine

“‘Take off the Strain’ is our first single we’ve got launched this 12 months, and offers a powerful assertion about who we’re as a band,” the the Sheffield four-piece share. “We’ve cherished the response from enjoying the track stay and needed to copy the identical power and mayhem on the recording. It will give individuals an excellent indication of how the remainder of the EP sounds, and what to anticipate at our gigs.”

Take off the stress
It’s solely me and also you
Take off the stress
And see what we are able to do
Nicely We will save your soul
as you begin to stroll away
or we are able to save your soul and
we may help you are taking all of it away

Purely as a music fan, I completely adore it when a band or artist captures their stay power on file. It’s very exhausting to do – particularly contemplating most recording conditions occur in small rooms with little to no ornament and no viewers to feed off of – however when performed proper, a track can really feel bigger than life – and that’s the case right here for CRUZ. “Take Off the Strain” lets out steam on one finish, whereas constructing momentum on the opposite for a band we are able to’t wait to listen to way more from within the coming months.

She sparks her lighter up
Was all the time advised to not surrender
However does she know what’s in retailer for tonight?
Who longs to be alone?
She doesn’t even use her cellphone
However does she know she’s such a delight

Take off the stress
It’s solely me and also you
Take off the stress
And see what we are able to do
Nicely We will save your soul
as you begin to stroll away
or we are able to save your soul and
we may help you are taking all of it away

:: “Wanting Machines” – ATKA ::

Mitch Mosk, New York

Pressure builds for 5 lovely minutes as Atka delivers an totally breathtaking, shiver-inducing introduction. Achingly intimate and hauntingly lovely, “Wanting Machines” is a visceral eruption from the artist’s innermost depths: A reckoning with identification and emotion, who we’re to ourselves and who others understand us to be.It’s the sort of track that breaks us aside solely to construct us again up once more, stronger than we had been firstly.

However most significantly, it’s the beginning of one thing very, very particular. The mission of London and Berlin-based singer, songwriter, and producer Sarah Neumann, Atka defies style. You may name her indie folks in a single breath and dream pop within the subsequent, however what’s indeniable is that her songwriting is a direct reflection of her personal unfiltered humanity.

There was a woven youngster
Spinning threads throughout the room
Getting tangled within the nets
Of laughter after which doom

It’s my fault, I’m only a husk
They’ve acquired my physique, let me go
It’s my fault, I’m only a husk
They’ve acquired my physique, let me go
And I wanna scream ‘til my disgrace offers in
The woven youngster taken by wanting machines

“‘Wanting Machines’ is a transparent reference to the philosophers Deleuze and Guattari’s books Anti Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus, and explores how one’s personal physique is skilled as an object underneath the (male) gaze,” Neumann tells Atwood Journal. “Right here Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the rhizome is explored musically with a soundscape that grows and grows just like the root-system that the 2 philosophers describe. A rhizome doesn’t begin from anyplace or finish anyplace; it grows from in every single place and is similar at any level. As such, a rhizome has no heart, which makes it troublesome to uproot or destroy.”

They are saying he’s indignant ‘trigger he cares
Our bodies bruised, inform me is that an act of affection
In Hyde Park the swans are floating
And in the present day my greatest pal almost drowned

It’s not my fault, I’m not a husk
They’ve acquired my physique, let me go
It’s not my fault, I’m not a husk
They’ve acquired my physique, let me go

And I wanna scream ‘til my lungs give in
Now void of organs, wanting machines

Sonically and emotionally charged, “Wanting Machines” aches in all instructions without delay. From darkish depths, Atka emerges – a fully-formed pressure not like something we’ve heard all 12 months, able to devour our ears, engulf our hearts, and devour our souls. This track is her reckoning and her redemption multi function: A cathartic launch of seismic proportions. As Neumann sings an enchantingly heartfelt confessional, the drums round her rise slowly and steadily to thunderous ranges, ultimately overwhelming us and becoming a member of the encircling synths to create a cinematic wall of sound.

We will’t assist really feel the burden of Atka’s phrases in our intestine: “And I wanna scream ‘til my lungs give in, now void of organs, wanting machines…“

I run barefoot within the area
My limbs fickle in an empty rush
I’m your puppet, squeezed and crumbled
However he says be grateful finally

Now I wanna sing ‘til my lungs give in
Not void of organs, wanting machines
Wanting machines

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