#MusicMonday Review - January 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 December's review for more music.

Welcome to a new year. We begin a new journey around the world, looking and listening for new sonic horizons in this universal language we call music. Give all a listen, with a word from the artists themselves.
🎧

Griseo – Norte

Cuando llueve el frío en los pies
Me provoca buscarte otra vez
Tantos besos que hay que recordar
¿Dónde está tu norte?

Y a pesar que estés
A cientos de kilómetros de mi
Te buscaré
Hasta que mi cuerpo no dé, de sí

Welcome to the New Year from San Luis Potosí, Mexico, with a Latin Ballad that turns up the intensity at the end of the track. Even if someone is miles away, a loved one will look for you until the North becomes South:

"It is difficult to say if Norte was inspired by a single thing, the lyrics speak in a literal way the experiences of a long-distance relationship, but the main inspiration was this feeling of mourning about the loss of a loved one, or the death of this reality without this person, and from the latter goes Norte and all the remaining singles to come out, about the stages of mourning."

spotify:track:6TCh8HaVZHw2enT9BUGGfw:small

Pretty Inside – Life Inside A Jelly Bean

Never really thought you’d be so proud

that I could never see you cry
Tainted picture of you face inside a box,

a million candle lights

Cause there’s nothing left do do
What’s inside a jelly bean ?
Drown inside some jelly-o
We’ll be done before the sun

Next stop, Bordeaux, France, for an Emotive Rock track about understanding love, from the stuff hidden away, to the things chosen to be shared again:

"At that time, I needed to write and record as fast as I could. I wanted to capture the first impression of each song. This is the way the whole I Care About You album was conceived.

It came out in an afternoon, not really thinking about what I was doing. As for the lyrics, I just let the stream of consciousness flow behind the microphone which led to this bizarre jelly bean thing.

Later, as I was mixing the song, I figured out what came out was totally connected to what I was going through: questioning the the absurdity of the ideal romantic love. I mean, human beings can easily get trapped into this thing they called love, but actually not love, just an idealized romantic dream. Sweet and meaningless, like a jelly bean. I guess this what the whole song is about."

spotify:track:1NweGgsYAEKU5bLRUxjJu6:small 

Small Black Arrows – The British Museum

Tone's not always truth

But it sounds so much better from fools
We all drink their blues
And we sign right on the line

Like Robin in reverse
What we don't know always seems worse
So we smile and complain
But then we do it all again

We cross the English Channel all the way up to Manchester, England to listen to an eclectic Alt Indie duo that can't keep schtum about walking in museums, and seeing everything they don't own:

"We really were trying to give the impression of a journey.

A journey through life and holding different opinions and maybe changing how you feel over time and over your life as you see different aspects of life.

So after that realization, it all made sense and we were confident it was the right way to go for the song and album as a whole. Gradually realizing what we think and how it evolves. 🙏🏼"

spotify:track:2Q0igIof38zvr9q7SPDPoB:small  

The Silver Spurs – OUTLAW

Don't you wish you knew

what it is like to be me

A life of crime,

living freely can't you see

You know I saved your life and
what do I get in return
but a broken body

and nothing to show for it

Next flight, destination Brisbane, Australia for an Indie Rock track with a touch of the Wild West about a guy who knows what he wants to be: someone you'd be lucky to be breathing if you cross paths with him:

"Outlaw was really just us imagining the band in a western about cowboys. I wrote it as a sort of champion for not fitting into one box as a musician, but a few different ones.

Nothing too deep, just us trying to keep pushing the genre of indie rock to incorporate a westernized sound."

spotify:track:77c3G4f0cUH9rRgKDsJnvM:small 

Gold Stars For Everyone – Parallax

We got lost
In the wilderness
For so long
We forgot how to act

There’s a part of us
That never came back
No, it never came back

Parallax

Our last stop in this first journey of the year is Brooklyn, NY for a guitar driven Indie track about living with the ones we can vibe with, wondering if we're still young enough to love:

"Parallax was borne from the sense of fractured reality we felt in the Pandemic when time seemed to move both fast and slow.

There was a real feeling of shared loss as we sat helplessly withdrawn in our tiny groups watching the world fall apart. We discovered new selves while removed from the context of our everyday lives and reemerged forever changed.

Even years later, the threat feels prescient. We feel the dangers of slipping into a routine that could be ripped away in an instant, and the question remains: can we ever come back... and do we really want to?"

spotify:track:4ttWouKrWyN0zj65AZGmXi:small 

#MusicMonday 2024

We say goodbye to 2024 with this year's compilation. 100 titles from original artists covering all types of genres, representing the multiple trends independent artists are proud to establish. Have a listen:

spotify:playlist:4G0vJenpLLHO8fv4vwX5Hu

Get into 2025, and much more, on the complete Playlist

spotify:playlist:2IYRLjcwf2X9vC0QrI0b0P

See you next month!