TOP INDIE SONGS - WEEK 16

Coachella (or as we're hereby dubbing it, #ASSCHELLA) may be over for another year, but don't be too sad because festival season is only just getting started, baby! Six straight months of live music and good times? BRING IT ON! Before we get too ahead of ourselves and start throwing out all of our clothes and replacing them with buttless chaps and bucket hats, however, we're backstreet back this Monday morning with the latest edition of We Are: The Guard's Top Indie Songs. Just slide in your AirPods, as it's time to start dreaming of summer days to come with help from the following tracks from Beck, HEALTH, Injury Reserve, TR/ST, Cage the Elephant, and more.

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BECK – SAW LIGHTNING

Coinciding with the announcement of his brand new album Hyperspace – due out later this year – Beck has shared “Saw Lightning.” Written and produced alongside Pharrell Williams (no, really), “Saw Lightning” is quite the genre-bender, with digitally processed beats meeting “Loser”-esque slide guitar for a floor-filler with a twist.

HEALTH (FEAT. GHOSTEMANE) – JUDGEMENT NIGHT

HEALTH follow up the JPEGMAFIA-featuring “HATE YOU” with another punishing duet this Monday morning. “JUDGEMENT NIGHT” hears the Los Angeles noise outfit collaborating with Ghostemane, with the SoundCloud rapper's brutal delivery standing in direct contrast to HEALTH frontman Jake Duzsik's almost disembodied vocal presence.

GRACE IVES – ANYTHING

Having made her breakthrough with “Mirror,” Grave Ives continues to mesmerize with her latest single “Anything.” The song hears Grace contrasting a beat produced with IDM-esque precision with a deep, deep, deep vocal line that ricochets right through to the chest, resulting in a dazzling DIY chant that'll have you hitting that repeat button.

NEIKED (FEAT. LEO LEOSON) – GUNILLA

Falling in love is one of the most thrilling feelings in the whole entire world, and NEIKED is bottling it up for us all to enjoy on “Gunilla.” The latest single to be unveiled from Best of Hard Drive is the kind of song that lights up the dopamine circuits, with euphoric beats cascading behind Leo Leoson as he declares in the chorus: “Gunilla, won't you love me?”

INJURY RESERVE – KORUNA & LIME

“It's weird how different people sleep, I sleep on my side, my girlfriend sleeps on her stomach, and everyone else sleeps on Injury Reserve.” – Distant Twisty. WHERE IS THE LIE? With just under one month to go until they drop their eponymous debut album, now is the time to wake up to this groundbreaking rap trio with the huge “Koruna & Lime.”

TIPHANIE DOUCET (FEAT. SEAN DAVID CUNNINGHAM) – BACK TO BLACK (AMY WINEHOUSE COVER)

French songbird Tiphanie Doucet returns to our column with her exquisitely European take on Amy Winehouse's “Back to Black.” With its simple, classic blend of strings and acoustics, this cover is comparable to a late-night stroll along the Seine, with Tiphanie's irresistibly accented coo holding our hand every step of the way.

TR/ST – CONTROL ME

TR/ST is showcasing a more vulnerable side to his sound on “Control Me.” Featured on his recent album The Destroyer – 1, “Control Me” musically hints at the increasingly mainstream ambitions of Robert Alfons, with his wide-screen pop sensibilities coming to the forefront as he emotively sings of surrendering and giving himself over to love.

OFENBACH – ROCK IT

Why is it that everything that the French do is so effortlessly chic? Case in point: “Rock It” by Ofenbach. The Parisian duo are blending the soul of rock and roll with the energy of dance music with style and flair on the two-and-a-half-minute groover, which will transform your Monday morning commute into your very own Fashion Week catwalk.

MORGAN SAINT – GOD BLESS OUR SOULS

Morgan Saint is delivering on the stormy dramatics on her latest single “god bless our souls.” “Am I enough? Is it in my head?/Did we fuck this up? Will I end up dead?/God bless our souls,” sings the New York artist on the song, a dark pop ode to a fraught, volatile love affair that hears Morgan giving it her all over a cinematic tempest of sound.

CAGE THE ELEPHANT – LOVE'S THE ONLY WAY

Cage the Elephant continue to mature as artists on “Love's the Only Way.” The string-laden centerpiece from Social Cues emerges from the horizon like a warm sunrise, with Matt Shultz, in particular, showcasing his growth as a human being following on from his recent divorce as he sings in the chorus: “There's gotta be a place/Love's the only way.”

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Photo by Mishal Ibrahim 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.