#MusicMonday Review - April 2025

[osornios]

#MusicMonday is the hashtag I've been using for quite a while to share music recommendations from up-and-coming artists. Always fresh, and always different, trying to look for trends before they become one. You can check March's review for more music.

Five genres, five locations, five different topics. That's how music can make you travel to places you didn't even knew you wanted to go. Give them a listen, with a word from the artists themselves.
🎧

Ollykorede – Worry Dem

Ehh If u see my baby,

tell ham she b d one

If u see onome

tell ham na she i want.

Ololufe mi jowo mai lo)

No go far away

Only money matter

fine gal mamie water

Make i dey go fire go anyway

This month's trip begins in Lagos, Nigeria for an Afrobeat track full of rhythm and flow, about seeing you life with no tension, so don't push firmly into doing something:

"A friend of mine inspired me when we both having a conversations about life the way you thought it might go and might not eventually work that way, trying to apply pressure and stay away from grief.

Like I'm coming back to worry Dem in the Music 🎼 industry, like I’ve gone to apply pressure and I'm coming back Stronger. 💪"

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Moon Hound – Summer in the City

I sweat through my jeans

On the way to 6th and Spring

Hands are cracking at the seems

Drinking up the stifling sun

It's 98 degrees

And it's summer in the city

Down the block from my best friend's house feeling shaky

I would call you if I had the time

Would your mom pick up the line

Oh it's summer

And you're not there

Let's travel now to Ridgewood, Queens, NY, for an groovy Indie track about stopping and rearranging the way your heart beats beneath the season's blazing sky:

"It really came from how summer in New York City is and all the yearning that innately comes with it. Something about the heat and the constant movement makes it so tumultuous and joyful."

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Sarah O'Moore – See Ur High

Chase the ones,

That refuse to stay
Wait
Casual mistake,

My feelings, they only get in the way

I never expected much... from you

But I want to see ur high

Another song, another continent. This time, our destination is Berlin, Germany for a jazzy Soul track about not having luck on your side, when it comes to making a connection with that person you like:

"I suppose See Ur High came from a really personal place. It's a raw, introspective look at how easy it is to get caught up in the whirlwind of a messy relationship. I was reflecting on that moment when you're both drawn to someone and yet asking yourself, 'How did I end up here?' It's about the push and pull of attraction and realization.

A lot of the song also touches on escapism. Those moments when you don't want to deal with the heavy emotions, so you find ways to brush it off. For me, that could be through drinking, partying, or just pretending that there was no issue to avoid.

It's an honest look at those conflicting feelings."

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Water Street – Everest

Seasons, patterns

Do you miss me?

Does it matter anymore?

Seatbelts, weathered

Don't check under the hood

Cause the engine's cracked now

I'm a statue anchored in Central Park

Where the kids play ball around taxi cars, you know

You can take a chance on what I've become

Would you take me back if I chose to run?

To keep the vibe going, let's travel to Blairstown, NJ for an Alt Rock track about facing that unsurmountable obstacle that won't budge:

"So this song came together very quickly in one sitting. I had been trying to work on other ideas, but none of them were genuine to what I was feeling at the time.

This song is about futility. It's about sometimes feeling like what you're doing doesn't have a point.

In the verses, I wanted to write about someone who's stuck, cemented in their life right now. Then the choruses are supposed to be this reflection on the singer's own inaction, their choices that keep them where they are. They're not really trapped except by their own mindset that any effort to change things would be pointless. They start to look in the closet, behind the curtain. And when they see the big obstacle that's blocking their way (Everest), they decide that the summit isn't worth the climb.

I wouldn't say that in the moment, it was exactly how I was feeling, but I was going for a song in that darker, broodier style and I could definitely relate to those sorts of feelings of inevitability/impossibility."

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Jessica Dives – Where Are You?

And where are you you now
Cause I'm waiting to be found by you
found by you my love
shouting but I never seem to make a sound
loud enough for you

We end our very long trip around the world in Liverpool, England, for a Singer-Songwriter acoustic track about the lingering sense of wanting to hold someone for four or five minutes more than you could:

"The track is based on the experience of being in a relationship with someone who traveled a lot for work. However, that person would always mentally 'disappear' long before they physically did - the loneliness of being physically near a person yet they're still not 'there' or present.

The song is more loosely about asking for what you need from a person and just simply being ignored in that request. But specifically, the moment of inspiration lies in a couple of the lines in the final verse 'left alone in the silence of a shut front door'.

It's come from the strange silence of solitude in the quiet when someone has just left and you have to re-adjust to being on your own again, whether you like it or not!

The chorus really comes from a question I used to ask that partner 'where are you now?' Because sometimes I literally wouldn't know where they were in the country lol."

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Listen to them and much more on the complete Playlist

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See you next month!