These LITM Rock Picks come to you from appetiteapple, Chet Nordy, Exzenya, and more!
1. appetiteapple – Dark Before Dawn
The opening track on appetiteapple’s latest album Gratitudes, Dark Before Dawn sets out with one goal in mind: to create the atmosphere for what’s to come on the rest of the album. As ambient textures swirl around you, they send you into a trance-like state; the hazy, airy, synth-forward sound accentuates all the bright open space that the track works in. It opens slowly, adding new layers gradually, so that the ending has you exactly where it wants you to be; listening to this track feels like experiencing a childhood sense of wonder again. Give it a listen here!
2. Chet Nordy – For You
From its opening moments, Chet Nordy and Josh Paulino’s For You is unmistakably shoegaze rock. Heavy guitar and drum work characterise the track, accompanied by vocals that perform the perfect balancing act between wanting to shout your love from the rooftops and wanting to keep it all to yourself. What really makes the song tick are its lyrics: straightforward and no-nonsense, they emphasise that sometimes, metaphors and flowery language only obscure the feeling of true love. For You doesn’t try to be memorable through experimentation, but through comfortable familiarity that needs no effort to stay in your head. Listen here!
3. Exzenya – B!tch Please
Exzenya has built a reputation for balancing what sounds bright and carefree with a mood that’s disorienting, and B!tch Please carries this reputation forward. From the get-go, things are clashing, they don’t make much sense, and you can never predict what’s going to happen next; this is exactly what makes the song so intriguing. The vocals are distorted, and they work with the instrumental layer underneath to create a feeling that’s both unsettling yet liberating – exactly what the song itself is written about. It dives headfirst into being itself, regardless of what’s “right”, and is overall a great listen!
4. Prem Byrne – Here In America
Just like his previous work, California-based Prem Byrne’s latest single, Here In America, is calm and introspective without being passive. A deceptively gentle song, it strips away the aggression often associated with protest and replaces it with emotional vocals and harmonies, and soft instruments that tug at your heartstrings with their intimate vulnerability, asking you to examine the reason for his protest and reflect on it rather than getting caught up in the fire of it all. An introspective addressing of racism in America, and the way the system puts a “band-aid on the stain” instead of examining the real issue, this track will leave you thinking about it for a while.
5. Tom Minor – What A Little Moonlight Could Do
You can always count on Tom Minor to deliver something unexpected with his releases, and his latest single, What A Little Moonlight Could Do, does not disappoint. Part of why the song works so well is contrast: the instrumentals and vocal delivery are bright and open, almost encouraging you to go out there and dance your struggles away, while the lyrics confront a much darker tale. With lines like “When you’re down on your luck and when you’re down on your knees… It breaks your back, your spirit too / I lost my track on my way home to you,” the song doesn’t dwell on the bad, but focuses on the good that came of it. Listen here!
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