Listen: Miracle by Judah & the Lion

Describing their new single, Judah & the Lion band member Judah Akers says Miracle embodies the concept that ‘life doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you’. With a vocal that streaks across the skies of my mind like some kind of rainbow-coloured revelation, there is a staggering humanity and warmth to what Akers and bandmate Brian Macdonald have created here.

With inspiration found in the everyday wonder of being alive, the duo created a song that reflected the experience of growing older, and finding little moments of beauty. Describing the song, Macdonald says:

‘I think Miracle is just a beautiful representation of the stage of life that both of us are in right now. Especially with me having kids, miraculous is truly one of the only ways you can describe that feeling.’

Akers adds:

‘Some people think that a miracle has to be some big, dramatic event. But it's like, what if a miracle is waking up in the morning? What if the miracle is a cardinal showing up in your yard after your grandpa died? What if a miracle is the flowers growing? What if a miracle is being there for a buddy? It’s these types of small things. Especially with how negative the world is, let's think about the things that are beautiful.’

Listening to Miracle gives me goosebumps, heavenly vocals riding a wave of reverb, whilst tightly wound guitar rhythms hum with an overwhelming excitement. Together, Akers and Macdonald have created a track that pulses as synths soar, it feels like a post-rock interpretation of U2’s collaborating with Panda Bear, determined to make their most epic sounding record yet.

Miracle is taken from the Nashville duo’s forthcoming album, I am a Prism, due out 14 August via Dualtone Records. Check out the single below.

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Listen: Cold Warm Green Blue by Olive Wreath

Opening with layered instrumentation, Cold Warm Green Blue unfolds like a collage. Percussion and guitars are roughly assembled with overlapping edges. From this textured picture emerges Olive Wreath’s gently processed vocal. Like a forgotten photograph fluttering out of a well thumbed paperback, it lands in our laps. It feels like a memory we had forgotten, yet one that instantly puts us back in a previously forgotten emotional state.

Based in London, Olive Wreath creates pop music through a combination of folk instrumentation and electronic production. Here on Cold Warm Green Blue, she depicts the experience of growing up against a background of shifting relationship dynamics and an emerging identity, as she describes:

‘I made my debut single cold warm green blue to express feelings of getting older and relationships changing in the context of an LGBT identity — like you're wandering through woods at night and a concert's fading through a mile away.’

The result is a song that quivers with a kind of nervous emotion — it is fragile and vulnerable, and yet wearing a layer of abstraction as a form of protection. The result is beautiful and intimate, a series of Polaroid-like snapshots of someone growing up, scattered across a bedspread, raising as many questions as they answer.

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Watch: Lover, You Should’ve Come Over by Penny

UK artist Penny blends indie influences and alt pop to create a distinctive and emotional sound. Originally from Huddersfield, she released her debut EP, My Secret Powers, in 2022, introducing her bedroom pop aesthetic.

With her new EP, entitled Prom? and released today, Penny has looked to deliver the most fully realised version of her vision. Regularly collaborating with Michael Lovett, of Metronomy and NZCA Lines, and Ash Workman (who has worked with Christine and the Queens, Metronomy and the Klaxons), there is a wonderfully distinctive and wonky edge to Penny’s sound. This is something you can hear on the thick fuzz of bass on the EP’s song Dirty, and the way the whole thing slows to a stop like someone just yanked the turntable’s power out of the wall.

With the release of Prom?, we get to hear Penny’s bold cover of Jeff Buckley’s classic, Lover, You Should’ve Come Over. Covers of such established and influential artists’ work should be treated with caution, and you can hear Penny deliberately lean into that risk on what turns out to be a staggering performance. The result is a track that feels like a gymnast attempting their biggest routine — part of the thrill is in the risk that she falls. Her vocal is warm, syrupy, and yet sounds a little terrified as she retraces Buckley’s footsteps.

What really sets this cover apart is the instrumentation and production. Doing away with the folksy warmth of the original, Penny is instead wrapped in layers of synths, arpeggios and thick bass swirling around her performance with all the drama of stage lights. The result reminds me of the hard left turn that was True Affection on Father John Misty’s I Love You, Honeybear… Both sit somewhere in the intersection of American folk and experimental widescreen electronica. With this cover, we witness Penny take a massive swing for the fences — and we get to hear her nail it.

Check out Lover, You Should’ve Come Over below, and hear the full EP, Prom?, on your streaming platform of choice here.

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Watch: Jaguar by Blumi

Entering with the kind of bass line that threatens to chin you, Jaguar is Blumi’s first release for Capitane Records, and provides a preview into her forthcoming debut LP, Steady Heart.

The tension at Jaguar’s core is concerned with the dichotomy between the individual and society — our need for space and solitude, combined with the desire for connection. That cool bass line is complimented by a percussion section that feels like a pan about to boil over. Together, they underpin the verse, which forms the portion of Blumi’s song concerned with herself — time alone, contemplating, reflecting. It evokes a kind of rhythm and blues that suddenly shifts gear into a psychedelic Day-Glo kaleidoscope of a chorus. Blumi declares, ‘People make me happy… People make me happier!’, a series of bright chords underlining her sense of connection.

Blumi’s song code switches between these collective and individualistic moments throughout the song, much as we do in our day-to-day lives. As someone right in the middle, with equal preference for introversion and extroversion, I recognise this back-and-forth. Time alone creates a yearning for connection, which initially provides and then depletes energy, requiring time alone to recharge.

As someone who seeks salvation in her time alone, Blumi created Jaguar as a tribute to the beauty and chaos that comes from connection — here depicted as the large speckled cat, something we run from but, in the case of friendship and connection, for no real reason. Describing her inspiration, Blumi says:

‘I used to think, with great drama and hand-on-forehead-flapping, that what I needed the most was solitude. If only everyone would leave me be — leave me tranquil, as we say in French.’

Blumi is the musical project of French-British singer, songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist Emma Broughton. Having left her position as a political sociology researcher, she established Blumi, creating a musical universe shaped by everything from folk, to jazz, and classical music. Since then, she has collaborated with artists that include Bon Iver, Feist, and The National. Here on Jaguar, we experience a kind of avant-pop, as she performs a video imbued with an Art Nouveau aesthetic. The drama here flows all the way through to Jaguar’s fantastically type-faced closing credits. The result is artful, yet accessible.

Check out Jaguar below, and look out for the album Steady Heart in early 2027.

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Listen: Truth by Frau

Coming from Nashville-born, Brooklyn-based alt pop newcomer Frau, Truth is the second single taken from her forthcoming debut album, Flutter.

Anchored around a dream-like vocal, Truth leverages glitchy vocal techniques to accentuate Frau’s extended overdubbed harmonies, her vocal pulsing as they mutate into additional layers of instrumentation. Synth pads surround those vocals, splashes of cool blue and warm yellow atop Frau’s clean robotic soundscape. The overall effect invokes the surprisingly human electronic experimentation of both Caroline Polachek and Imogen Heap.

Produced by Michael Deano (SZA and Remi Wolf) and brand0, Truth reflects an urge to be a light for someone, drawing them in, and embracing that vulnerability. As Frau sings on the track, ‘I’m okay with losing and that’s the truth’. Describing the track, Frau says:

‘I don’t usually write about my relationship, but the words came before the thought. I remember tracking vocals next to the soft beat of a moth colliding with our kitchen lamp and that became the premise of the song. The desire to always be close to light.

Check out Truth below, and look out for Flutter, which is due out on 4 September 2026.

In addition to listening in the post, you can find almost all the music BlackPlastic covers on the music player of your choice. Add the dedicated playlist below:

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