TOP INDIE SONGS - WEEK 31

Hello, everyone! How was your weekend?! Did you spend it reading all of the AWESOME, COOL, and RAD content that we published over the last seven days, right down to Vladimir Putin's cover of Radiohead's indie classic “Creep”?! GOOD STUFF! Anyways, now that you're all caught up, I'm afraid that it's time for you to start all over again this week with the latest edition of We Are: The Guard's Top Indie Songs! That's right, as we turn our calendars to August, why not give your Spotify playlists (other streaming services are available!) a much-needed overhaul this Monday morning with the following hand-selected tracks from Muse, Greta Van Fleet, XYLØ, and seven other favorites?!

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KING PRINCESS – HOLY

God is a woman, and her name is King Princess! No, really, if you loved the video for Ariana Grande's “God is a woman” (and, let's face it, who didn't?!), then wait until you get a load of this gilded clip for King Princess' hymn “Holy”, which sees a celestial Mikaela Straus embracing her inner deity: “Honey, on your knees when you look at me/I'm dressed like a fucking queen and you're begging, 'please'/I rule with the velvet tongue/And my dress undone/And I'll get you lost but I'm having fun”.

MINKE – MAYBE 25

Minke announces her arrival on the scene with “Maybe 25”, a gorgeously swelling anthem for the swipe-right generation. Trust me, if you've ever had the (dis?!)pleasure of using Tinder, then you're sure to relate to this stunningly tender piano ballad, which finds the British songstress questioning if it's ever possible to find a real-life connection in the disposable world of online dating.

MUSE – SOMETHING HUMAN

Speaking of real-life connection, Muse are on a mission to find exactly that in this video for their acoustic (!) latest single “Something Human”. Directed by Lance Drake, the retrofuturistic clip sees Matt Bellamy driving through a virtual reality-type world, all the while being chased down by a police car, with the frontman revealing that the visual is intended as a comment on the pressures of touring: “Life on the road can bring out your inner beast, this song and video is about taming that beast, desiring a return to something human”.

THE ESSEX GREEN – SLOANE RANGER

There are precisely two things that have stopped 2018 from completely sucking for me, and they're Phil Elverum and Michelle Williams getting married, and The Essex Green reuniting. The latter's breed of chipper indie rock is EXACTLY the tonic that I needed to help me wade through this American post-apocalypse, so on that note, enjoy this personal highlight from the band's recent comeback album Hardly Electronic, the glorious “Sloane Ranger”.

YOUR SMITH – THE SPOT

I love nothing more than 90s vibes, and Your Smith is bringing them BIG time on her delightful debut single! Listen as the Minneapolis-born, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter taps into her inner Sheryl Crow circa “All I Wanna Do” on “The Spot”, which hears Your Smith delivering a kind of spoken-word stream of consciousness over a carefree countrypolitan groove. “OBSESSED” doesn't cover it!

JUNKS – EVERYBODY'S MOVIN'

“Emerging from the smog strewn, neon-lit streets of eastern Chinese metropolis Hangzhou, JUNKS are a dystopian, synth-driven pop band for a Blade Runner planet”. Okay, so, like that first sentence from their Facebook biography isn't enough to win ANY-FREAKIN'-ONE over to rising quartet JUNKS, then this ultra violet video for their latest single, the 80s-esque “Everybody's Movin'”, surely is?! I truly have nothing else left to say beyond “MORE PLEASE, JUNKS”!

OOI – SHARKS

ooi have never been in the same room together, not that you'd know it listening to the globe-trotting trio's debut single! Using Skype as their only means of communication, Nicolai Zettl, Dodo Dal Bosco, and Flo König have managed to come up with something entirely unique in the form of “Sharks”, a left-field psych pop bop, with alligator-referencing lyrics that resemble a surrealism painting brought to life. Oh, and by the way, it's pronounced “owi”!

GRETA VAN FLEET – WHEN THE CURTAIN FALLS

ROCK 'N' ROLL AIN'T DEAD! Just ask Greta Van Fleet, the Frankenmuth band who're single-handedly resurrecting the spirit of the 70s with “When the Curtain Falls”, a blistering blues rock anthem that hears Josh Kiszka channeling some SERIOUS Robert Plant over a swaggering swell of riffs courtesy of the frontman's brother Jake Kizska!

XYLØ – DON'T PANIC

Remember when I said that I planned on bopping to XYLØ's middle-fingers-in-the-air anthem “Don't Panic” for the remainder of summer?! Well, I wasn't lying! And now that Paige Duddy is back with the song's Gianennio Salucci-directed video, which sees the blonde bombshell turn organ-devouring femme fatale, I officially have no excuse not to feature it all over again!

DAGNY – LANDSLIDE (FLEETWOOD MAC COVER)

I'll be honest. Up until today, I thought that the only humans capable of covering Fleetwood Mac's “Landslide” were Dixie Chicks. Dagny has gone and proved me wrong, however, with this electronic pop reinvention of the 1975 classic, with the Norwegian musician shining an entirely different light on Stevie Nicks' lyrics with her broodingly cinematic voice.

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Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

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.