These LITM Rock Picks come to you from all ends of the rock spectrum – featuring Hey Look Listen, Lost Velvet, Ambrosius, and more!
1. Hey Look Listen – Life Not Lived
Life Not Lived is the kind of song that surprises you at every turn – the moment you think you can predict where it’s going next, it does something completely unexpected, leaving you hanging and wanting more. Hey Look Listen gives the song a serenity with the acoustic beginning that carries through the song, upon which are layered ethereal vocals, a steady rhythm, and a piano that anchors the song delicately. It’s warm and hopeful in a way that makes it the perfect song to have on in the background as you gaze at a sunset – contemplating, introspective, and content.
2. Lost Velvet – Make It Alright
Lost Velvet’s Make It Alright is unhurried, taking its time to build up to its peak. It invites you in with its gentle, brooding guitar, layered with reverberating vocals that make the whole thing feel sinister in its calmness: it has you constantly on edge, waiting to be pushed off the ledge, so to speak. It’s clear that Lost Velvet is an expert in restraint, understanding that some of the most powerful work comes from holding back and letting go at just the right moments, and Make It Alright is the perfect example – it’s mature, cohesive, and produced to perfection. Listen here!
3. Ambrosius – Heartspace
The opener to Ambrosius’ album Qualia, Heartspace is an upbeat track that puts energy at the centre of it all. Heartspace is contagiously optimistic and bright – it’s the kind of track that’ll brighten your day in an instant, no matter what. Ambrosius has injected every second of the track with vibrancy; there isn’t a dull second in its whole runtime of a little under three and a half minutes, never a second where it allows you to shift your attention away. It’s not shy in experimenting, but despite it all, it never goes into abstraction, keeping it easy and breezy yet interesting the whole time!
4. Bevin – You Don’t Decide
You Don’t Decide is powerful in every way possible – from Bevin’s vocals to the central theme, the song stands its ground with confidence. It explores women’s rights to bodily autonomy, questioning the patriarchal narratives that seek control over women’s bodies with a blunt straightforwardness that’ll make you sit up and pay attention to it. Driven by a relentless rhythm section and Bevin’s rich voice, You Don’t Decide is the anthem for strong women everywhere who know no man – or anyone, for that matter – can decide what they can and can’t do. It goes up and down in intensity with mastery, leaving you pumped up long after it ends.
5. The Shrubs – Fall Behind
Fall Behind is charming, channelling classic indie-rock energy with what feels like total effortlessness. It starts off ethereal and hazy, like it’s coming to you through mist, and then the drums pick up, propelling the song (and you along with it!) forward. It epitomises surf rock – sending you into a zone where life feels slower and you have all the time in the world. It lives in contradiction, with upbeat guitar and drums cleverly placed right over lyrics that grapple with breakups and loneliness. The Shrubs use a deliberate retro sound on the track, dipping it into nostalgic territory before whirling you right back to the present.
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