Maisie May is catching on in a big way. Her recent 2024 release 2much2give has won multiple editorial features, including placements on Spotify’s career breaking New Music Friday. More than just a flash in the pan, May flexes her prolific muscle with the rapid follow up single Eden.
Innovative production launches her writing to impressive heights, adding a colorful modern cinematic element. She extorts musicality from every glitch convincingly. She blends her electro tendencies in a way that still feels authentically indie pop. The lyrical context is on point too, as Maise assumingly pays tribute to the solace of this unheard musical world. Her oasis. Imaginative in the realm of Mitski or St Vincent while adding a harmonious sensibility akin to Billie Eilish, we think Maise May sits near the top of the artists to watch list.
Hear Eden now on our Best New Indie Playlist.
We found solace in the smooth serenity of No One Again, the new single from Quiet Takes. Soul and the broad indie aesthetic find elegant balance on this convincing release. From the creeping horns to the cut time rhythm Quiet Takes amplifies sensuality while claiming her autonomy within the conflicted narrative. It’s an inviting denial, like how we’re often oddly drawn to someone who mistreats us.
Quiet Takes finds the middle ground between Rhye and Norah Jones, with some of the vintage soul presence known to D’Angelo. Songwriter Sarah Magill offers a new timbre within this vibe, an affect we find intoxicating.
Hear No One Again now on our Best New Indie Playlist.
The melody dances playfully with an imaginative futurist presence at the onset of You Me Free, the new single from Lily Juniper. Gorgeous layers interweave various soft percussive synths convincing, like tickling polyrhythmic pops. The beat adds a hypnotic tantric foundation, landing exotic in how it ascends from the scope of island influence.
Juniper’s voice is the last dagger of elegant contrast to slay your heart smitten, with a haunting ASMR quality that gets under your skin. As if Billie Eilish was produced by Little Dragon.
Hear You Me Free now on our Best New Indie Playlist.
The pulsating pump at the onset of APOLOGIZE draws you in effectively. From there Matt Storm adapts into modes of Neo-Soul like a sly musical fox. Once you’re trapped in his harmonious web you can’t shake loose. It’s an addictive feel picked from an elegant influential tree. Drawn from the legacy of Gayes’ I Want You To Want Me and reimagined with the modern sultry smoothness known to Emily King.
APOLOGIZE is Mixed by Ben Kane who works with another relative neo soul pioneer, D’Angelo. As an inspired soul indie blend it shines in tone and texture. It’s that intention that will lend itself to crossover out of soul music traps and into the broad indie canon where it belongs. Hear for yourself.
APOLOGIZE is featured on our Best New Indie Playlist.
The Wild Is Calling 