An Electronic Gem: Soft Landing

The UK-based artist Polly Mackay aka Art School Girlfriend, comes from guitar-heavy music, but for her current project, she turned to electronics to gain complete control of her art.

Her second album Soft Landing is a meticulously produced and beautifully unpretentious record. The songs are distinct and catchy, but the album also works as a unit and lets the music wash over you like a pleasant memory on a summer evening.

I like how Polly uses electronics deliberately and minimally without the bells and whistles that young producers love so much. Yes, I adore gugusar for her creative production style, but my heart belongs to classic beauty á la Art School Girlfriend.

Listen on our album page or below on Spotify:

Song Pick of the Day

Listen to/watch all seven songs on YouTube. Follow our daily updated playlists on YouTube and Spotify for the 50 latest Song Picks of the Day. Thank you for following us and sharing the excitement.

London singer/songwriter Eden Rain just released her debut EP, but she has more music to share: “Terry and Julie” takes characters from The Kinks’ hit “Waterloo Sunset” and reimagines them in a new love story.

Christopher Reyne is a singer/songwriter from Los Angeles, and his new song “More Than This” aligns with the classics of Al Steward or Death Cab for Cutie, albeit with a very current topic: finding yourself in times of information overflow.

Unplugging is what New York artist Addie Warncke aka Computerwife, also had in mind when she wanted to take a “Vacation.” The beautifully relaxed song came to her  in Coney Island, New York City’s quirky beach resort. “I thought the ecosystem was really beautiful and people seemed really relaxed together. I really needed that kind of environment to clear my head for a while and it was very inspiring,” she says.

Similarly relaxed is Brooklyn via California musician Emmet Kai in his new song “Slow Dancing on Pavement,” even though the story about a mystery woman does not end well for him. As a rule, we don’t advertise violent videos, but you can easily find this one if that is your thing.

The next song is called “Flower Power,” and UK artist Izzy Bizu means it. It is about when a new adventure goes right, about “trying things for the first time, feeling liberated, feeling the energy of others and trusting in them.”

In “Only Human,” the New York-based singer/songwriter Cade Hoppe sings about “what it means to find someone who truly understands you, especially when you feel misunderstood by everyone else.” The emotional, empathetic song is classic pop to sway along.

Gabrielle Neeley closes this week’s playlist with “take a number,” a song about putting your own growth over a relationship. “Maybe it’s not a prize, to love somebody in compromise when it’s your own inhibitions up for trial,” she sings.

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Also Happening

Suzanne Ciani has been making electronic music since the 70s. Sam Valenti has an interview with her on his Substack, which includes a clip from 1980 when she appeared on the Letterman Show.

Pitchfork crunched the numbers and turned them into really pretty diagrams that show ticket prices of top shows. I don’t need to mention who leads the pack, but I want to point out that tickets for a Warpaint show are (only) $35 plus fees.

Business Insider declares hobbies for dead as they are turned into side hustles these days. There are some cautionary tales in the article when the opportunity to make money sucks all the fun out of a hobby.

9 Summer Sunday Photos from the Archives

We’re re-organizing our photo storage and decided to share these 2001 and 2002 shots with you.