Gnash's "Dear Insecurity" featuring Ben Abraham is adorable. A short and sweet ode to self-acceptance led by a loosely poignant storyline that's raw, pure, and just simply free, "Dear Insecurity" is perfect in its ease.
As always, Gnash has created something wholly listenable - in the best way - and just catchy enough to get stuck in your head for a long time, so check it out below and follow those links for more to get hooked on.
Kodaline delivers yet another beautiful - and uplifting in a realistic sort of way - video with their latest "Head Held High" off the forthcoming album Politics Of Living.
There's a pureness to the track that glows as if it's not afraid to go forth and be heard: a simple mirror of the sweet message it's hoping to spread.
It's lovely, and you should give it a listen or two. In a gentle turn from their previous work, these new tracks seem to breathe with actual life, an energy that sparks with those raw moments of the present, leaving behind the tragedy of the what-ifs and finding solid ground among the real and true of the now. Politics Of Living could be their best to date.
Watch the video below, follow those sites, and pre-order your copy of Politics Of Living, to be released September 28.
Photo Credit Maisie Cousins
Anna Calvi shares two new videos - a film for her current single "Hunter" and a performance video for a brand new track, "As A Man" - both taken from her much anticipated album, Hunter, due for release today, August 31st, 2018, via Domino. Both were directed by the Berlin-based filmmaker and photographer, Matt Lambert, much of whose work explores queer love and intimacy.
In the track "Hunter", Calvi celebrates the transcendent aspects of pleasure and finding a community and home in queer spaces. According to Calvi, it is about "exploring a more subversive sexuality, which goes further than what is expected of a woman in our patriarchal heteronormative society." The film for "Hunter", which was premiered via Dazed, was a chance to follow an ongoing theme of creating honest and authentic portrayals of intimacy. Lambert said the following: "The ritual of self-love and body-exploration for many queer individuals is the first step toward feeling confident intimate moments with others".
About the track "As A Man", Calvi said the following: "If a woman wants to be powerful she's expected to exhibit 'male' traits. The woman in the song is trying to understand a man by imagining becoming him, but as it progresses she asks the man to become more like her instead. There's been a lot of encouragement for women to become more like men if they want to get their voices heard, or be powerful. But there hasn't been enough effort to get men to become more like women. Men are brought up believing that to be feminine is to be weak. If there is to be equality, both sexes need to be able to move to the middle of the spectrum. This song is about finding freedom in the non-binary world."
Produced by Nick Launay (Nick Cave, Grinderman) at Konk Studios in London with some further production in LA, Hunter was recorded with Anna's band - Mally Harpaz on various instruments and Alex Thomas on drums - with the addition of Adrian Utley from Portishead on keys and Martyn Casey from The Bad Seeds on bass. It has a new rawness, a primal energy into which Calvi pushes the limits of her guitar and voice beyond anything she's recorded before.
