Small album, big impact
With hundreds of albums dropping every year, it can be hard to keep up with old favorites and new discoveries. Between the pop hits and trending tracks, there also lies an entire universe of artists making statements in the indie genre.
These independent, singer-songwriter, experimental-type artists are in high demand for those seeking inspired arrangements and lyrics with weight. Here are 5 albums from the last year that might have flown under your radar, each carrying an artistry that goes well beyond the first listen.
Face the Wall – Jordana
After her collaboration with sample-savvy group TV Girl and tour with indie rockers Wallows, Jordana attracted a new audience of listeners to her diverse discography. They were met with a handful of bedroom pop collections and self-produced anthems, each a stepping stone to her 2022 album Face the Wall, a display of her inner world, which is constantly under revision. Pressure Point is the opening track and signals the beginning of a breakdown and its mending tendencies; whether these habits are beneficial in the long term or not is not considered yet. However, tracks like Get Up and Go Slow are gentle reminders to herself to do exactly as the titles say in the midst of other unhealthy coping mechanisms. The back-and-forth expressions of her inner workings are a feeling most of us know all too well, and the circular sound of the album’s closer Why represents this feeling with a catchy and honest melody. Her approach to closure leaves some strings untied, to say the least, but that’s not always meant to be a bad thing.
Pre Pleasure – Julia Jacklin
Despite her efforts to partially block her own view on the cover, Julia Jacklin’s third album, Pre Pleasure, casts a spotlight on some of her most intimate moments. Within its 10 tracks, she evaluates the events and relationships of her life thus far; Lydia Wears a Cross grasps at a dwindling connection to religion that lingers in her subconscious, heavily apparent in tracks like the shimmering Ignore Tenderness and organ-led Too In Love to Die. Her dangerously intimate lyrics are closer to your ear than ever, constantly unlearning and rebuilding these heavy concepts alongside her beachy guitar tone and melodic humming. The light at the end of the tunnel shines in the self-affirming Magic, and ever-so-hopeful Be Careful With Yourself, a goal-oriented track for anybody wandering through these dynamic stages of life. This new effort by Jacklin is colorful in presentation and thought-provoking at its core, making it impossible to listen to at a surface level.
And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow – Weyes Blood
The newest addition to Weyes Blood’s discography is a deep dive into the interactions between world and self. Natalie Mering, lead singer and writer, has stated that this album and its precursor Titanic Rising are part of a trilogy of LPs, with this second part being the eye of its storm. While it has been referred to as a “pandemic album” due to its bargaining with society and isolated tendencies, And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow has too many timeless qualities to be only linked to one period. Mering kicks off with a great deal of self-realization in It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody where her confusion finds its strength in numbers. Desperation for the truth coexists with blissful ignorance in Children of the Empire and The Worst Is Done, which are painful yet entirely necessary and accurate inspections of the state of our world. Her 70s-style, ethereal production compliments rich vocals along the album’s nonlinear timeline of fear and faith; the central track, Hearts Aglow, represents these in-between phases in their purest form. Weyes Blood’s quintessential commentaries float all the way to the final track, where she insists on hope and claims love is something not earned from each other but rather A Given Thing.
the third ep – girlhouse
Girlhouse’s 2022 EP makes for a short but sweet exposé of her experiences in life and the entertainment industry (aside from acting and group musical projects, she was also the opening act of Sabrina Carpenter’s emails i can’t send tour). There are only six tracks, but they all breach a line of vulnerability that is up to date with independent music standards. Her raw vocals are very one of a kind in the sense that they blend heartily together with eclectic guitar and heartbreak (see facetime after sex and dontstop). Change, however, is one of the biggest themes that come across, especially as recounted in the opener, pall blart mall cop, where our narrator is alone, angry with the way she has become, and stuck inside of her head. The recording’s hottest track is cool guy, where her story tells about and mocks an airplane-owning, “Great Gatsby” type who isn’t what she actually needs or even wants. The rawness of her writing gifts its listeners with humanity, making this EP easy to identify with anybody.
Honey – Samia
Nearly three years after the permanently youthful The Baby, Samia has released her sophomore album in all its achingly personal nature. Honey is a more mature, often darker collection of tracks featuring her narrative songwriting style and folklore tone that has set her apart from other indie artists. Despite what she describes as being “the least enjoyable song of all time,” Breathing Song is arguably her most astonishing piece to date. It features vocals that have been heavily layered with autotune, which she confirmed to be a commentary on the difficulty of recalling a traumatic event– this song does exactly that. The organ-heavy Kill Her Freak Out carries the same emotionally heavy quality by airing out her inner world and still maintaining relatability despite nearly autobiographical lyrics. Samia begins to forgive herself in tracks like Nanana and Dream Song, highlighting the environment and friendships that have shaped her growth throughout the process of this album. Mad at Me and Amelia mirror each other with a similar poppy and almost tropical production, creating a progression in the album that is nearly whiplash-inducing. This was intentional, Samia admits and reflects the unpredictable nature of our emotions. As a whole, Honey is engaging, calculated, and entirely capable of lingering after the initial listen.
WORDS BY JAYMEE GALLAGHER