LITM Singer-songwriter picks tunes featuring fenca, Forty Elephant Gang, Kate Kristine, Shannon Hudson and 23 Fields!
Fencah – Daydream
"Daydream" by Fencah is precisely what the name suggests, a foggy, floating piece of reverie sheathed in sound. The song drifts along with languid ease, creating an atmosphere akin to falling into a half-sleep on a lazy day. It doesn't intrude on your consciousness with bombastic fireworks; rather, it insinuates itself silently, pushing your mind towards something softer and more strange. Fencah blurs mood over spectacle, creating something more of a state of mind than a song. It's cinematic but never suffocating, intimate without being heavy-handed. Ideal for zoning out, studying, or simply letting your mind drift, "Daydream" works like sonic incense, slow-burning, aromatic, and lingering long after it's finished. It's music that doesn't merely play in the background; it sculpts the space around you. In brief: dreamy, immersive, and softly hypnotic.
2. Forty Elephant Gang – Dark Shadows
"Dark Shadows" is Forty Elephant Gang's lesson in blending grit and grandeur. It's London-accented Americana, rootsy mandolin and pedal steel clashing with electric guitar riffs that sound like they dragged themselves out of a smoky basement. The outcome? A cinematic, wind-whipped song that feels half-campfire tale, half-barroom confession. There is a crudeness to the lo-fi production, a DIY sincerity that grounds things even as the song commits to epic gesture. Informed by literature but rooted in lived feeling, it takes longing and defiance in equal proportions. The vocals are emotive, the harmonies are dense, and instrumental interplay, particularly the mandolin and guitar duos, is some serious virtuosity. "Dark Shadows" doesn't so much play, but instead unfurls, sucking you into misty landscapes and late nights spent brooding. This is British Americana at its most atmospheric: real, poetic, and precariously rough around the edges.
3. Kate Kristine – call me, drunk
Kate Kristine returns with a song that's half-confessional, half-indie-pop therapy session. "Call me, drunk" leans into unpretty vulnerability, the sort most of us would rather sweep under the carpet. Kristine, though, brings it centre stage in sultry vocals and production that is so close-up you get the sense of listening in on her inner thoughts. It's a song about habits we sometimes don't break, urges we sometimes can't resist, and the odd loneliness that connects them all. Following her breakout “Swallow Me Whole,” this single continues her thread of brutally honest storytelling—but with an even bolder edge. It’s not wallowing, though; there’s power in the way she turns private chaos into collective catharsis. Imagine Phoebe Bridgers ducking into a neon-lit dive bar to spill her heart, and you’ll get the vibe. “Call me, drunk” isn’t polished perfection—it’s real, raw, and all the more addictive for it.
4. Shannon Hudson – Air To Your Fire
At times, the most subtle songs do burn hottest, and Shannon Hudson's "Air To Your Fire" is evidence. This song doesn't hurry, doesn't detonate, it smoulders quietly, drawing you in with subtle allure. Hudson's voice drifts without affectation, bearing a soft crunch that renders the entire affair conversational, as if he's reaching across the table to assure you. The production is crisp but never sterile, with melodies and grooves that flow over easily. The thing that makes the song special is that it avoids sensationalism, no overwrought crescendos, just a matter-of-fact unrolling that resonates with the theme of subtle support. "Air To Your Fire" is not about bigger gestures but about presence, about reassurance that requires no patching words. It’s tender, intimate, and disarmingly relatable. If this is where Hudson’s career is headed, he’s someone worth keeping both ears on.
5. 23 Fields – Summer Life
23 Fields knows how to bottle up nostalgia and pour it straight into your headphones. The first single, "Summer Life," the lead-off from their second album To Follow This Year's Fashion, immediately gets things going with tapping percussion and soaring violin lines that immediately conjure sun-kissed skies and afternoons of gold. There's a natural warmth to the arrangement, a rootsy, folk-oriented feel that is both comfortable and rejuvenating. The vocals ring with raspy authenticity, leading you through reminiscences of sun-drenched afternoons as the instrumentation swells and warps like a warm gust in high grass. In contrast with their darker, more sombre songs later on in the album, "Summer Life" is all about lightness, a paean to simplicity, happiness, and that exquisite feeling of timelessness that you only experience when summer lies out ahead of you like an infinite expanse. It's alternative folk in the right way: rich, emotive, and drenched in atmosphere. A soft but bright opener that grabs you from the beginning.
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