#MusicMonday Review - June 2023

[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 May's review for more music.

This month our theme revolves around questions. What, how, when, why? Music has the answer, with a word from the artists themselves. 🎧

The Mayhaps – Y.D.K

Yeah it's tough luck kid, it's the end of days
There's no future now, we're digging our own grave
What's the point in this, is it all too late?
Is it over now, we lived another day

Here comes the thunder once again
It feels like summer in the shade
We're getting number by the day
As it gets closer yeah we're all afraid

We welcome this month's first band, from Plymouth, UK, with an Alt Rock track that rightfully asks if the future is now, why are we all like this, and if we're all the same. Tough questions:

"I [band member Jack] wrote the main riff and our frontman Harry wrote the lyrics about the current social and climate crisis."

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Contemporary Adult – The Soft Ones

The killer demagogue
The kitty with the claws

The liar of the land
The immovable man

The obelisk can take a bow
But we'll keep the lights on
We'll dim them a slight tone
And make room for the human now

From Los Angeles, CA, this track combines a true sonic texture with a melancholic atmosphere, while questioning, at the same time, what does it take to be a soft one:

"I was living in New Zealand at the time and thinking about the broader conversation around gender identity and how toxic masculinity hardens anyone it infects and alienates them from their softness. Thinking about extreme people and how emotionally volatile they are - like it’s that inner softness begging to find expression but it comes out in such destructive ways when it’s not embraced."

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Blackbirds – Somebody Else’s World

Need somebody to tell you what to do
A pawn in your court, the rulings overdue

My nature says you're unaware it's tough
Loving but you'll never know its worth

When sunlight splits the clouds I still can't see
The destination where we all should be
For all I've seen and all I think I know
I think it's time that I start letting go

From Glasgow, UK, this Indie Rock band takes their guitar to the max, and makes you ask yourself how does it feel to not have a life of your own by living someone else's:

"The instrumental was written over the course of months and was eventually made up of two separate tracks pieced together. Lyrically it was inspired by disillusion cause by people who never pull their weight, who are all talk as they say ha ha. I was just fed up with a few people in my life at that time😁"

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Blacklight Vice – Midnight Queen

One chance to blow this
One chance take hold of it
There must be more than this

Taking it day by day
You were making it harder to stay
You were just taking it out on me

With massive riffs, this Southampton, UK band takes it to the next level, and wonders about life, chances, and emancipation:

"It's a track all about escaping from a situation. One you're stuck in for a very long time and then one day waking up with a "f this" moment and then the feeling of elation and freedom. Sometimes once you move on from that situation it tries to follow you and you need the strength to tell it to f off and build your life for you and no one else."

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ZEEVA, Samuel Salcedo & xKori – Escuchame

Me cansé de armar expectativas
Me cansé de todas tus mentiras
La verdad es que todo me cansa...
¡Y no entiendo bien por qué!

Así que mírame a los ojos
Y miénteme otra vez
Pero hazlo bien

Escúchame
Yo sé que me engañaste
Escúchame
Yo sé que no esperaste
Ni un mes
Para hablar con él
Para estar con él...

For our last track, let's go to Guadalajara, Mexico for an Emo influenced Pop Punk collaboration where ZEEVA raises the question of how much betrayal hurts:

"I was going through a severe depression, my ex had cheated on me, the university was consuming me, I received negative comments from people around me.

One day I had been invited to a party but the anxiety was eating me alive so I needed to clear my mind. By not going to this party I took my guitar and began to compose, it began to come to life and by the time I finished recording the last voices, my soul rested and since then I began to feel better. I started therapy and my life has been taking a very nice path.

I love music ever since I can remember and pop punk is one of my favorite genres, inspired by Machine Gun Kelly, Yungblud and Travis Barker so I decided to take that genre for the musical production of the song because in Mexico the scene is not very wide in this genre, that's where xKori comes in, who helped me capture the sound I was looking for, after this Samuel Salcedo told me that the song seemed very good to him and that's when I said "If Samuel is one of my best friends, why not put him in the song" because he has always been there for me and has accompanied me in all my personal processes".

Samuel adds:

"Some of the lyrics were inspired by a breakup. I have musical influences in the Urban genre, every day I listen to Trap, Rap, Hip Hop, Reggaeton, and Pop Punk. ZEEVA went through a similar situation one day when he wrote to me and told me that he wrote this song, and he told me 'I want you to ride on it'. This is how both personalities came together in a song."

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Listen to them and much more on the complete Playlist

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See you next month!