LITM Singer-songwriter brings you some really great tunes brought to you by Hand Gestures, Danny Vuckovic and Saline Eyes!
1. Hand Gestures – Label the Labelmaker
Even the most unlikely of ideas sometimes have the most profound outcomes. For Brooklyn singer-songwriter Brian Russ, the notion was naming a label-maker, something he remembered clearly from his school days that germinated into "Label the Labelmaker," the first single for his new band, Hand Gestures.
The song is a gentle, country-folk reflection on how humans tend to hold on to labelling and compartmentalising their world—only to find that life doesn't always fit. It's fun, certainly, but also sensitive, bearing wisdom for Russ's toddler daughter and anyone clunking through the quest for meaning. Townes Van Zandt fans will recognise the vibe here: earthy, languid, and aglow with sincerity.
The lyric video enhances this beauty. Directed by Russ over Badlands, Yellowstone, and Acadia National Park, the sweeping shots reflect the music's feeling of openness and awe. It's a soul road trip, where you can be asked to slow down and take a breath. With a debut album being released October 31 through Campers' Rule Records, Hand Gestures doesn't feel like a new band, but rather a new chapter in American songwriting.
2. Danny Vuckovic – If I Get to Heaven
There is honesty, and then there is the sort of raw honesty that Danny Vuckovic presents in "If I Get to Heaven." Composed, sung, and recorded by the Gillingham-born artist alone, this track is more of an introspective confessional than a highly produced studio track. It is intimate, raw, and human.
The song grapples with dirty truths: toxic relationships, the desire to break free from poisonous cycles, and the glow of hope that there's something better on the other side of the wreckage. Vuckovic's vocals pendulums between vulnerability and toughness, and every note is laced with hard-won experience. When he belts into higher registers, the vulnerability is palpable—not made-up, not smoothed over, just authentic.
Production-wise, the flaws are the goal. Recorded at home using a DAW, the acoustic guitar was tracked in one take, no drop-ins, no sheen, providing the song with a heartbeat that's human and vulnerable. It's music that refuses to be perfect because life isn't perfect.
"If I Get to Heaven" would be something you'd find stumbling about at midnight, only to discover fragments of yourself amidst its battered lyrics. It's exorcistic. It's devotional. And it shows that sometimes, truth rings louder than grooming.
3. Saline Eyes – Alone
Saline Eyes, the audio vision of James Hackett, come back into view with "Alone," a guitar-breeze single that glides into a finer territory than his past indie-rock adventures. Whereas earlier songs like "No You and I" glimmered with edgy brightness, this one chooses subtlety: rich guitar timbres, soft voice, and just sufficient instrumentation to provide the song with its ghostly weight.
But don't confuse simplicity with predictability. "Alone" constructs a rich tapestry of textures, drums that throb like faraway thunder, strings that quiver under the melody, piano flashes glinting like sunlight through blinds. There's even a calculated messiness here, a collision of sound that feels nearly accidental, echoing the lyrical subject of broken connections and emotional disarray.
Hackett's capacity for blurring beauty and anarchy is what makes this single so interesting. It's a song about solitude, yes, but not the quiet type. This is the sound of a head attempting to sift through the residue of a person who has passed. Melancholy but also hypnotic, "Alone" reaffirms why Saline Eyes still gets industry attention.
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