Listen: How I Do by V!ctoria

Based in New York, singer, songwriter, and musician V!ctoria has just unveiled How I Do, a heartfelt single that rides a wave of gentle instrumentation and emotive vocals.

Having spent the best part of six years making music professionally, V!ctoria recently took a step back to refine her craft and artistic vision. Resisting the urge to be pigeonholed, she has actively embraced a style that spans genres, from R&B to indie and alternative, her sound is fluid and evolving.

On How I Do, this manifests in a stripped back sound that centres on a steely guitar riff, as V!ctoria’s vocals ask for a moment, and for the space to express herself. Written, recorded and produced in her bedroom, How I Do has a disarming depth, taking inspiration from the experience of ‘doing something out of character just to feel close to someone you’ve lost’.

Set atop an upbeat dance-influenced melody, the core of the song remains emotionally resonant. Vocals grasp at fragments that feel like rituals — ‘I grind my teeth on cigarettes, just to taste your lips again’ — partly a way of processing, but also maybe an attempt to shift reality and influence outcomes. The result is vulnerable and honest, and just a little courageous.

Listen: Eyes First by Sad Alex feat. Grayson Foster

Arriving with the kind of upbeat percussion and soft synth pads that quicken my pulse, Eyes First is a song about falling head over heels for someone from the first moment you see them.

Eyes First is the latest single from new artist Sad Alex. Pursuing her art through not just her music, but also through drawing, Sad Alex has taken to producing the artwork for her releases by her own hand. Together with Grayson Foster, Sad Alex has turned in a song that bubbles with the excitement and energy of a kind of irresistible attraction. It is the kind of obsession where the more you get to know someone, the more it feels like they are the perfect match for you.

Embracing a kind of 80s plastic sheen, I can’t help but feel buoyed by Eyes First’s desperate affection, where even the pain it describes only exists because of how wonderful something feels it could be. Together, Foster and Sad Alex have made a pretty great little pop song, and I’m here for it.

Watch: vdm by emilyldn

Arriving in my inbox this week, alongside a notable lack of uppercase letters and a little sass, is this release from London-based emerging talent, emilyldn.

Obliquely titled vdm, the track is a blend of sharp percussion, filtered synths and glitchy melodies. With elements that remind me of the likes of Kieran Hebden, emilyldn has conjured a piece of electronic bass with elements of witch house but comes lands in a much lighter place. We end up with something like electronic jazz, like a freeform string-percussion collaboration.

Emily herself is a bit of an enigma at this stage, simply billing her music as ‘for fans of: having a journal, forgetting your umbrella at home, random tube delays’. So far, so very London. Check out vdm below.

Listen: Silencieux Témoins by Monde Ray

Monde Ray is the musical solo project of French artist Manon Guiol, and here she unveils new single Silencieux Témoins.

Riding on a wave of heavy synths, Silencieux Témoins is a deep slice of electronic R&B, leveraging darkwave and EBM bass tones. Crisp drums punch, soaking the listener in wet reverb, all whilst Guiol’s French vocal creates a cinematic atmosphere that oscillates between a dark paranoia and an ethereal uncertainty. She gives way to the song’s hook, however — her voice silenced to make way for a dark, instrumental chorus.

There is an appropriate sense of aloofness at play on Silencieux Témoins, reflecting the fact the song is concerned with ‘the superficiality of certain relationships, particularly when entering a new environment where no one truly knows you’. This is a song that deliberately keeps you at arms length, mysterious, dark and unwilling to fully let you in, yet capable of captivating the listener all the same.

Having made music since childhood, Guiol learnt classical piano and music theory before shifting towards electronic composition and production. Initially working under the name Manone, focusing on darker electronic sounds, she joined dream pop outfit Tender Tones as composer, keyboardist, and vocalist. In 2023, Manon made a move south from Paris, and at the same time embraced 80s textures and EBM, completing her transition into Monde Ray.

Check out Silencieux Témoins below:

Watch: Shine by The Yum Yum Tree

The Yum Yum Tree are a longstanding Atlanta garage rock outfit who formed after lead singer Andy Gish moved to the city back in the early 2000s. With a couple of album releases under their belt, the group went on something of a hiatus, pursuing other projects, before reforming in 2019.

Following the reunion, the band went through an extended period playing live and working on new material. They are now back with their first full-length album since 2007’s Paint By Numbers, with the forthcoming Turn Down the Noise. Shine is the first single to be lifted from that record and on it, we get to experience a kind of grungy, female-fronted guitar brand that we got lots of in both the 90s and late 00s.

With this new single, the band marinate in a kind of golden wonderment, reflecting on feelings of connection and introspection. Gish’s vocals have a honeyed beauty to them, but she delivers them with a naked vulnerability that resonates with authenticity. Citing Brené Brown as an inspiration, her work has encouraged Andy to embrace discomfort in her writing.

Shine is about wanting someone you can’t have, yet making peace with that experience and finding yourself wanting the best for them. The performance here finds itself pitched right between a sense of yearning and a kind of acceptance — watching someone across the bar, and just being happy you got to experience them.

Check out Shine below, and look out for Turn Down the Noise, which is set for release on 10 April.