Judging by the volume and velocity of email I’ve been getting this week, spring has officially sprung in the music business. In fact, it’s busy enough that I decided to cobble together this mid-week edition of the Beacon, instead of waiting for Friday. Get it while the getting is good:
Lights | Clingy
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Lights’ new single and video Clingy is the latest preview of her upcoming album A6, and follows on the heels of singles Alive Again, Damage and her dual release of the sugary-sweet pop anthem White Paper Palm Trees and its brooding dark-wave companion Surface Tension. Clingy is inspired by the uncomfortable feeling of suddenly finding yourself getting clingy with someone. “You could be the most confident person when that feeling creeps up out of nowhere,” says Lights. “It’s a tongue in cheek anthem for the clingy people out there who aren’t usually clingy.” She expands on the feelings conveyed in the song, “As a feeling it is a lot to unpack — about insecurity and communication and challenging ideas of ownership in a relationship — but in a fun bassy banger. I think there is a layer of sexiness to this song, in allowing yourself to admit feelings that are typically associated with weakness. Since the song is about the duality of feeling confident but also feeling clingy sometimes, I wanted the production to follow suit. Half the song is a guitar forward, spacious banger, the other half feels like a heavy and intimate dance break.”
Debby Friday | All I Wanna Do Is Party
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Debby Friday just announced that she will release The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life, her kaleidoscopic new album, on Aug. 1. In ancient Babylonia, stargazers looked up at the cloudless night sky and saw a blazing ball of light. Burning brilliantly, the celestial body appeared to be a luminous sign from the great beyond. They were looking at what we now call Vega, the fifth-brightest star visible from Earth.Friday was learning about these heavenly bodies in between nonstop touring across Europe, following the otherworldly success of her thunderous debut album Good Luck, which dominated dance floors upon its release in 2023. She learned about Vega and the way its placement in a birth chart lends the gifts of creativity, acclaim and bravery — as long as its recipient is humble enough to receive them. On The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life, Friday defines success on her own terms. “I want to be a starrr, I can’t hide that desire,” she says. “But what I don’t want is to live someone else’s dream or to follow a preset path.”
Dan Mangan | Diminishing Returns
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dan Mangan shares his new single and video Diminishing Returns, a tender reckoning with the end of the world as we once knew it. Against the din of #Univershttps://youtu.be/JXKWJC8AvD8?si=JwzUBth5i2cPujsaalDoom, Mangan finds refuge in something quieter: love in the early light. In Mangan’s own words, at the higher registers of his emotional range: ‘I have seen your body bending with the morning light ascending / And I will die defending our diminishing returns’. Groovy and pensive, on Diminishing Returns — the latest single from his upcoming album Natural Light (June 6) — Dan’s sardonic wit holds tight to the notion of love in contempt of our troubled times. Mangan continues: “Inflation of panic, inflation of outrage. Every comment or like is worth less and less. The disaster looming feels real, but not quite as real as the afternoon light reflecting from the skin of my naked wife.”
Jolie Laide | Cheyenne
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Jolie Laide just released their new album Creatures. Comprised of revered American indie singer-songwriter Nina Nastasia (who has amassed a stunning and acclaimed discography of unique, darkly melodic albums), Jeff MacLeod, Clinton St. John and Morgan Greenwood, Jolie Laide planted their roots two decades ago through a mutual connection. On Creatures’ opener Cheyenne, Nastasia’s voice swims in a swirl of delay trails, enveloped by a storm of overdubbed toms, and St. John’s instantly evocative voice provides the perfect foil. A desert dirge, a spaghetti western backdrop, Cheyenne is a song in two distinct parts with two unique voices. Nastasia’s disarmingly sweet and laser-sharp voice swims in a swirl of delay trails, enveloped by a storm of chaotic percussion. In the first half, she laments about troubled relationships with metaphors around ending up in a body of water or on a sinking boat, fighting constantly to keep from drowning. Eventually the struggle becomes so familiar, almost comfortable, that the idea of swimming to dry land seems just too difficult. ‘It’s better to hate what we have here and go down with the ship.’ ”
Sourwood | On The Road
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Sourwood, the progressive bluegrass and folk collective based between Waterloo, Chicago, and Los Angeles, just shared their debut single On The Road, a driving and introspective anthem that reckons with the myth of the open road and the dreams of freedom that defined an entire generation. “On The Road is my way of finding closure with that ‘beatnik’ mythology — the Kerouac, Easy Rider, even Into the Wild kind of dream — that so deeply influenced my growing up,” explains lead singer and songwriter Lucas Last. “It’s coming to terms with the fact that what was sold to us as an aspirational way of life was, in many ways, a fantasy in a world that has gotten so small. It really stems from growing up in Virginia during that adolescent phase where you just know you need to be somewhere else. A lot of the art I was consuming then just poured gas on that fire. It kicked off a decades-long journey searching for a place to belong,” Last reflects. “On The Road is almost a caricature of that journey, hitting the key emotional beats of leaving and searching.”
Matias Roden | Please
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Vancouver pop artist Matías Roden shares his most unapologetically queer and club-ready track yet with Please — a synth-pop earworm rooted in heartbreak, self-discovery, and the euphoria of London’s gay nightlife. Featuring a propulsive horn hook, frenetic dancefloor energy, and intimate lyrical detail, Please is a bold new chapter from an artist whose sound is as global as it is personal. Inspired by a month spent immersed in London’s vibrant queer club scene, Roden wrote Please after soaking in the sounds of ’80s British pop icons like Pet Shop Boys, Bronski Beat and Human League. That sonic palette of Hi-NRG, jazz house, and vintage synth-pop courses through every second of the track, which balances emotional vulnerability with dancefloor-ready momentum. Lyrically, Please wrestles with the lingering ache of heartbreak, while teasing out the complexity of pleasure and pain. It’s a milestone moment for Roden as his first release with explicitly queer lyrics.”
