10 TOP INDIE SONGS SONGS WE’RE LOVING THIS WEEK

Photo by Joshua Rondeau on Unsplash

Okay, you guys. Be honest. Are we going to have to start a Best of Sea Shanties column? Because this is getting out of hand! As much as we like to regard ourselves as having our fingers on the music industry’s pulse here at We Are: The Guard, we could *never* see this trend coming. Anyways! Monday is finally here, which means it’s time for the latest edition of Top Indie Songs. And while there are no sea shanties to be found in the following playlist, rest assured we’ll bring you the 100 gecs whaling song as soon as we get it. Check out the following selection of indie tracks from Freedom Fry, Claud, Dayglow, and seven other favorites!

all I've listened to for the last week is sea shanties and Phoebe Bridgers

— jamison (@jhermann) January 16, 2021

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FREEDOM FRY – LE POINT ZÉRO

Freedom Fry recently told us they planned to spend 2021 “playing with our second favorite language, French, a bit more,” with the married couple sticking to that promise on “Le Point Zéro.” It’s a Paris-pop banger of the highest order, featuring the grandiose and the pulsating coming together as one beneath Marie Seyrat’s retrodelic vocal sighs.

CLAUD – CUFF YOUR JEANS

The build-up to Claud’s debut album Super Monster – due out next month on Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory – continues with the release of “Cuff Your Jeans.” It’s an aching, stomach-tickling ode to losing touch with friends and growing old, with Claud making use of manipulated vocals to showcase a whole different side to her melancholy.

DAYGLOW – CLOSE TO YOU

Dayglow is bursting on to the scene once again this Monday with the ebullient “Close To You.” “The song itself is about the tension between two people at a party that never said hello,” says Dayglow of the 80s-tinged synth-pop bop, which comes smeared in a John Hughes blend of angst and unrequited love. Valentine’s Day cassette tapes at the ready.

SAMIA & MICHELLE – MINNESOTA (MICHELLE REMIX)

Samia and MICHELLE were among our favorite discoveries of 2020, and this Monday, both acts are coming together as one for a revision of “Minnesota.” Featured on Samia’s remix album The Baby Reimagined, it’s a percussive disco-pop reinterpretation of the “Bennie and the Jets”-style strut that scintillates and scatters like distant roman candles.

PEACHCURLS (FEAT. FREE BLACK!) – PAST THE POINT

This. Goes. Off. Having made his debut on We Are: The Guard last year with the Bone Thugs-n-Harmony-referencing “Born Without You,” Peachcurls returns today with “Past the Point.” Built over a sample of The Rolling Stones’ “Mother's Little Helper,” it’s a plunderphonic masterpiece about the struggle for success that rips like Run the Jewels.

ADAM MELCHOR – LAST TIME

Adam Melchor struggles to say goodbye on his latest single “Last Time.” Originally written about leaving a lover behind at the airport, “Last Time” took on a whole new meaning amid the global pandemic, with Adam coming to terms with the uncertainty of life through a blend of rustic folk guitars and gorgeous, Beatles-style melodic flourishes.

JELANI ARYEH – ANGELS (THE XX COVER)

Having made his breakthrough in 2020 with the joyous viral smash hit “Stella Brown,” Jelani Aryeh is getting 2021 started on a quieter note with this cover of The xx’s “Angels.” Listen as Jelani brings an indie punch to the cut – which is lifted from The xx’s sophomore album Coexist – with chiming guitars backing Jelani’s subdued melancholy.

BLACK HONEY – BELIEVER

Ahead of the release of their sophomore album Written & Directed in March, British outfit Black Honey have shared the almighty “Believer.” It’s a stomping, spiritual barn burner – the kind that can be filed next to The Black Keys and The Dead Weather – with vocalist Izzy B. Phillips singing both of her lungs out over a colossal garage production.

HAICH BER NA – THINK ABOUT IT

Hailing from Britain, Haich Ber Na is putting his experimental tendencies on full display on “Think About It.” “The song is about someone wanting to follow their dreams but being worried it won’t work out,” says Haich of the surrealist bop, which folds genres like pop, R&B, and psychedelia into brand new combinations as if a Pablo Picasso painting.

BUCK MEEK – CANDLE

Buck Meek is plunging us in American nostalgia on his honeyed latest single “Candle.” Written alongside his Big Thief bandmate Adrianne Lenker, it’s a lonesome, lap-steel-guitar-laced voyage through endless roads and abandoned motels, with the whole thing coming topped off by Buck’s sunset country twang. Two Saviors is out now.

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Jess Grant is a frustrated writer hailing from London, England. When she isn't tasked with disentangling her thoughts from her brain and putting them on paper, Jess can generally be found listening to The Beatles, or cooking vegetarian food.