Today's Top Tune

You might not realize that singer Jenny Owen Youngs has written a ton of songs for other people, including Panic! At The Disco, Pitbull, and Brett Dennen, to name a few. Her new album Avalanche dropped last week and includes several collaborators including S. Carey, Madi Diaz, and The Antlers’ Peter Silberman, who helped co-write “It’s Later Than You Think,” which warns about lost time scrolling.

Shoegaze legends Slowdive turn up the lights on their just-released new album, everything is alive. Infectious and drenched in reverb, “alife” showcases the beautiful interplay between Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead’s vocal deliveries.

English chanteuse Corinne Bailey Rae made her world wide live radio debut on MBE when we kicked off 2006 with a week’s worth of broadcasts from the BBC in London, and returned to the big show a few months later when she touched down in Southern California before becoming a superstar. While not prolific, Corinne’s albums are a treat from top to bottom. Her newly-minted fourth album Black Rainbows took years to make and is inspired by the artwork and objects collected by Theaster Gates at the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago.

Paris-based Venezuelan singer-songwriter YADAM elegantly blends styles on “Otras Mujeres,” and is an artist to keep an eye on in 2023.

Unstoppable South London native Raye has penned songs for Beyonce and John Legend, opened for Kali Uchis and SZA this summer, and is a part of British Vogue's 'The Vogue 25,” honoring the women defining Britain in 2023. An industry disrupter, Raye’s debut album My 21st Century Blues took a decade to make and is a deeply personal account of her painful experiences in the music industry. “Worth It” is an empowering pop gem.

About 28 years ago, Colombian duo Aterciopelados recorded “Mujer Gala” on the album El Dorado. The song became their first number one hit on national radio and led to their first recording contract. To commemorate the album, they played to a full house in Bogota, joined by Cafe Tacuba’s iconic frontman Rubén Albarrán. Today we share a live version of the song from that night in all its punk glory.

Margaret Glaspy began writing music as a teenager in Northern California and soon began to sculpt songs that were sensitive yet concise. Her third album, Echo The Diamond, strips away at artifice to expose life in real terms instead of looking for a happy ending. We are keen on “Get Back.”

“That song speaks to many things that have accumulated over the last few years for me, including grief and loss and finding myself again through all of it,” says Glaspy. “Playing that song sets me free.”

Based in Tokyo, four-girl progressive poppers ATARASHII GAKKO! represent a new generation of young kids pushing traditional boundaries and expressing their individuality. Known for wearing their classic school girl uniform on stage, their live shows are said to be a masterclass in choreography, weaving their way through an energetic mix of Japanese hip-hop, punk, and pop.

Ever wonder what a pilot does when they are not flying? Michael Gold, former keyboardist for Poolside, makes music as Mirror Tree when he’s not in the cockpit of a 737. Teaming up with his former bandmate Filip Nikolic to develop his stylings and Mirror Tree’s debut LP, the result is a sound in the orbit of Supertramp and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. “Let It Go” is a simple yet provocative song featuring voice, piano, and a simple bass line glued together out of loops of cassette tape.

Hakushi Hasegawa has the distinction of being the first Japanese artist signed to Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label. Based in Tokyo, they create what some may say is cohesive cacophony, a wild sonic ride that follows the label’s ethos to seek out artists that operate outside of the confines of pigeonholed genres.

Hakushi explains the meaning behind new track “Mouth Flash (Kuchinohanabi)”: “What I feel I should do from now on is to disturb the music with my own body, and to expose the chaos, although it is not coherent,” they say. “I believe that this song is the very beginning of that process. (The body is always subject to the forces of history and categorization, but always seems to be situated between individual narratives, songs, and dances at the same time.)”