LISTEN: SOFT LAD – ‘2 Know U Betta’

A playful musing on what could happen if your crush just spared the time to text you back, multi-instrumentalist SOFT LAD has shared her latest single ‘2 Know U Betta’. Taken from her debut EP MAXIMUM FEELS, which is set for release on 1st April, the track is an earnest reflection on what could have been, underscored by buoyant guitars and smooth vocals.

Sophie Gaplin aka SOFT LAD has spent the past fourteen years playing alongside the likes of Tom Grennan, The Breeders, James Vincent McMorrow, Jessie Ware, SOAK and SELF ESTEEM. Now, she’s stepping into the spotlight to share her brand of honest pop, with her second offering ‘2 Know U Betta’ exploring that all-to-familiar feeling of being ghosted by a crush.

“I had a spark with someone and wanted to get to know them more, in a casual way,” Galpin explains about the track. “I was like, ‘I’m not looking for anything serious and there’s literally no pressure here, but we could be having a really nice, fun time if you ever texted me back!’ I knew there was a vibe there and I thought it would be a shame to let it go, but in the end I had to accept that she had her own thing going on, which is totally fair!” Galpin puts this missed romantic opportunity into context via her conversational lyrics and breezy melodies.

Inspired by the sounds of Years & Years, MUNA and Shura, as well as her own experiences of queer love and relationships, SOFT LAD’s debut EP looks set to be a joyful, tongue-in-cheek listen, with singles ‘Singapore’ and ‘2 Know U Betta’ providing the first dose of her pop-infused wit.

Listen to ‘2 Know U Betta’ below.

Follow SOFT LAD on Spotify, Twitter & Instagram

Photo Credit: Lou Pye

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

Kate CrudgingtonLeave a comment

ALBUM: Brimheim – ‘can’t hate myself into a different shape’

“I am going to be completely honest with you,” confesses Danish-Faroese musician Helena Heinesen Rebensdorff aka Brimheim during the opening line of her exquisitely tender track ‘favorite day of the week’. It’s a simple enough statement, but she delivers it with startling conviction through her crystalline vocals and considered instrumentation. It’s this candid, yet tentative approach that makes listening to her debut album, can’t hate myself into a different shape, such a cathartic, rewarding experience. The follow up to her 2020 EP, Myself Misspelled, her new record is a poignant reflection on love in all its forms; romantic, platonic – and the hardest type to articulate and master – self love.

Brimheim – a name chosen as a homage to her roots in the Faroe Islands, translating as “home of the breaking waves” – worked alongside producer Søren Buhl Lassen to create the sublime sounds on her new record, which she mined from a “deep depression hole” during a global pandemic. Despite the raw and confessional nature of her music, the record is peppered with self-effacing humour and a strong sense of self-awareness, proving that even in the darkest moments of isolation, there’s still room for light and laughter, even if it is occasionally through gritted teeth.

Moving between the boundaries of alt-pop, grunge, shoegaze and electronic music, can’t hate myself into a different shape is an intense, brooding listen. “I have noticed that I am see through” Brimheim observes on the opening track ‘heaven help me i’ve gone crazy’, a frank but gentle expression of what it feels like to “pick at the edges” of yourself when your emotions have been muted by depression. What follows is a beautifully bruising unravelling of vulnerability, with title track ‘can’t hate myself into a different shape’ setting the emotionally resilient tone that permeates the record.

Whether it’s her soft plea for reassurance that she’s not “a burden” on ‘baleen feeder’ (a nod to the filter-feeding system inside the mouths of baleen whales), her disarming reflection on unconditional love for her wife on the atmospheric ‘lonely is beauty’ – “She is all I could need / Everyone else / Makes me feel lonely” – or a nostalgic ode to teenage friendship on ‘hey amanda’, Brimheim is a master at capturing a moment in its purest form. The exquisite, shadowy majesty of ‘poison fizzing on a tongue’ is a superb example of this, and further proof of her skill for transforming self-flagellation – “When I am finished resisting myself / I will be beaten senseless” – into poetic, exhilarating music.

The rawness of her lyrics on ‘straight into traffic’ are punctuated by fluctuating keys, as she resists the urge to give into thoughts of self harm, ending on a note of genuine hope: “Don’t give in, love / You’re more than enough.” On ‘this weeks laundry’ she extrapolates on the painful, yet absurdly relatable need to keep up appearances by “putting on foundation” for a “trip across the street” to disguise the fact you’re barely able to function. Brimheim pulls herself back from the brink each time, and even on the masochistically titled closing track ‘hurting me for fun’ – where she is pulling herself up “by my hair” – her self-effacing tendencies blossom into acute and astoundingly accurate observations of the effects these emotions can have on the human condition.

“I felt like I’d been in this black muddy place, not able to see anything and kind of drowning,” Brimheim revealed to us in an interview about creating the songs that formed can’t hate myself into a different shape. Carving her own path out of a deeply vulnerable state, she has managed to craft a stirring, intricately observed collection of life-affirming songs that chime with relatable melancholy, and that will undoubtedly provide comfort for listeners who may be living through a similar experience.

Brimheim’s debut album can’t hate myself into a different shape is released via W.A.S. Entertainment on 28th January. Pre-order your copy here

Follow Brimheim on bandcamp, Spotify, Instagram & Facebook

Photo Credit: Hey Jack

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

Kate CrudgingtonLeave a comment

Track Of The Day: Hatchie – ‘Quicksand’

Upon announcing the release of her new album coming up in April, Australian dream-pop artist, Harriette Pilbeam – aka Hatchie – has now shared lead single, ‘Quicksand’.

As Giving The World Away serves as Hatchie’s second full-length album, ‘Quicksand’ highlights an enrichment in Hatchie’s already catchy and infectious writing. Diving in head first, it deals with the realisation that, as people, we may never be satisfied. Lyrically, Hatchie catches herself in a cycle of ungratefulness and guilt surrounding elements of her life that are on paper, seemingly going quite well. As her realisations begin to pile up, it is natural to relate to the quickness of dissatisfaction as it discolours other areas of our minds with a broad paint brush. Of the track, Pilbeam explains:

“I was feeling guilty and ungrateful for not being happy about a few different things in my life that were technically going well. I had to work through some tough learned thought processes and emotions that had been working away for years to try to understand how to be happy with my present, and stop fixating on my past and future. The video digs deeper into showing this juxtaposition of such sadness and anger despite being surrounded by glamour and grandeur.”

Creating a soundscape that is bold yet tasteful, luscious synth pads and electronic drums pack a punch with a silkily smooth allure, while ‘Quicksand’ flows at just the right speed. Fusing together the inward emotions of classic shoegaze with the sparkling sophistication of modern dream-pop, ‘Quicksand’ feels crystal clear both lyrically and sonically, whilst bathing the ears in a sea of Hatchie’s smooth vocals and reverberated instruments.

All that Hatchie touches becomes utterly euphoric and ‘Quicksand’ is no exception.

Written with GRAMMY-nominated Olivia Rodrigo collaborator Dan Nigro, ‘Quicksand’ is out now. Watch the visuals shimmer to the blissful sounds in the glamorous Nathan Castiel-directed new video here:

Giving The World Away, the upcoming new album from Hatchie, is set for release on 22nd April via Secretly Canadian. Pre-order here.

Jill Goyeau
@jillybxxn

jilliangoyeauLeave a comment

LISTEN: Fe Salomon – ‘Super Human’ and ‘Wired On Caffeine’

A rousing alt-pop tune that shimmers with self-belief, songwriter Fe Salomon has shared her latest single ‘Super Human’. Co-written with composer and long-term collaborator Johnny Parry, the track embraces the binary opposites of the human condition via playful beats, jazzy arrangements and Salomon’s smooth vocals.

Taken form her debut album Living Rooms, which is set for release later this year, Salomon has channelled her love of performing and her eclectic range of influences into her new records, which aims to tell the stories of “multiple lives lived and lost in the city, of friendships that meant everything and the characters you’ll never meet again, of transience and loneliness, and of getting by and moving on.”

‘Super Human’ is the first offering from her new material, and it’s an exploration of the power of the alter ego. “‘Super Human’ originated with dancing around with some upper body shimmy moves,” Salomon explains, “then a chunky brass section, dirty synth and disjunctive rhythms, all inspired by a number 70’s and 80’s movie soundtracks.” Accompanied by a cinematic video directed by Fraser Taylor, the visuals show Salomon performing the shimmy shakes that inspired the track’s conception.

The single is also accompanied by a bonus track ‘Wired On Caffeine‘ which showcases Salomon’s shadowy alt-pop side. Stepping into the shoes of an artist sacked from a job before it even began, Salomon remarks: “The chaos became very still and the seed of a new journey popped out its first green shoots of hope. Finding yourself is sometimes just a question of optics. ‘Wired on Caffeine’ is what happened when I looked through that lens.”

Watch the video for ‘Super Human’ below and listen to ‘Wired On Caffeine’ here.

 

Follow Fe Salomon on bandcamp, Spotify, Facebook & Instagram

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment