With spring coming to an end soon (hopefully) and summer coming up, I wanted to share some songs I’ve been loving recently! The weather has been pretty touch and go this spring which has thrown some outliers into my usually upbeat folksy records for this season. There have also been some incredible new releases in the past few months that I’ve been obsessing over so i also picked a few of those for my list!
Alien Observer by Grouper (2011)
Out of all the songs on this list, this is without a doubt the song I’ve listened to the most. It’s started to hold a similar place in my listening habits as Blindsided by Bon Iver, a song that I can just turn my brain off and let myself fall into. The looping background is almost hypnotic and it moves perfectly with Liz Harris’ stacked echoey vocals. As much as I love the production and vocals, the lyrics might be my favourite part of this song. It might be hard to hear over all the reverb but it describes the experience of seeing a UFO fly through the night sky and the existential crisis that results from realising that we might be living in a “world that we’re meant to leave behind”. I might be biased because of my love of all things aliens but these lyrics combined with relaxing ambient music just make a perfect song to me.
Crowbar by Waxahatchee (2024)
One of my favourite new releases of the year so far definitely has to be Waxahatchee’s Tigers Blood. I can admit that her voice used to rub me the wrong way but this album sounds so fresh and earthy that I couldn’t imagine it being sung by anyone else. Folk-rock is a difficult genre to make work sometimes as you run the risk of sounding a little too white nationalist/don’t tread on me but Waxahatchee blows it out of the water with this album. This song specifically sounds like the road trip scene in Bolt, a sort of nostalgic head bopping feel good vibe. It definitely stands out from the rest of the album as a favourite for me along with the title track and Ice Cold but I think the album overall is really solid and is definitely worth giving a shot.
Flames shards goo by ML Buch (2023)
ML Buch came on to my Spotify recommended songs after listening to Oklou’s version of Being Harsh by AG Cook. I enjoyed Touching Screens a lot so I decided to listen to her newest release, Suntub and it was so much better than I was expecting. Flames shards goo specifically sounded so shiny and metallic but organic at the same time. The guitar tone sounds bright and smooth and combined with the vocals and lyrics, produce a super clean and inviting song. I also really enjoyed Fleshless hand which has a more bouncy and upbeat energy in comparison. I’m super excited to listen to more of her stuff and get more familiar with this album in particular.
Amelia by Joni Mitchell (1976)
SOUND THE ALARMS SHES BACK. I’m pretty sure it was the same week that Adrianne Lenker’s new album was being released and I had randomly checked twitter to find that Joni’s music was back on Spotify after TWO YEARS. It didn’t affect me a crazy amount since I’d already started collecting her albums on vinyl but I definitely missed having her on my playlists and hearing more of her discography other than Blue and Ladies of the Canyon. Now that she’s finally back, I’ve been able to hear a lot more of her music and, in particular, fall in love with her 1976 release Hejira. When I’d started listening to Joni I’d really only listened to her more folk centered music so hearing the jazz influences in this album was awesome. Out of every track on the album, Amelia really stuck with me. Just the melody of the line “Oh Amelia, it was just a false alarm” has been stuck in my head for months. The backing track is pretty minimal which lets her voice and lyrics really push through. Her feelings on travel and feeling lost along with the references to Amelia Earhart work so well with the whirring guitar behind them.
Sway by Kacey Musgraves (2024)
I’ve been looking forward to Deeper Well since it was teased last year and I was pleasantly surprised when I heard it. Coming off of her last album star-crossed (which I think a lot of people purposefully forget about), I was a bit worried about what this would sound like. Thankfully, she went back to a sound more similar to Golden Hour with a more whimsical feeling to it. It has a similar theme of wellness and reconnecting with oneself as Lorde’s Solar Power does, which was a bit polarizing to fans. Sway encapsulates this perfectly as it describes Kacey surrendering to the wind and applying lest resistance to the changes around her. I don’t think it’s the strongest from the album but it’s still a really beautiful and simple song that gives idea of where her mind was at when creating the album.
Fool by Adrianne Lenker (2024)
Hands down my favourite release of the year so far, Bright Future was a perfect follow up to Adrianne’s pandemic releases songs and instrumentals. While songs feels like sitting alone on the porch watching the sun rise through the trees, Bright Future feels like sitting around a fire with your closest friends, reminiscing on wholesome memories. Fool, the third (and in my opinion strongest) single from the record, captures this perfectly. There’s so much joy in her voice and her talking about where all of her friends are at in their lives makes this song so beautiful. As always, her guitar playing is incredible and adds so much movement to the song. As I learn more songs on guitar, I become even more in awe of her talent because of how complicated a lot of her fingerpicking songs are. She’s truly one of the best guitar players right now and her talent for songwriting puts her at the top of my list of folk musicians.