BEST INDIE SONGS - WEEK 25

What's up, kiddos?! Thanks for joining me for the latest edition of We Are: The Guard's Best Indie Songs! One week and 18 hours worth of leaked OK Computer MiniDiscs later (I never want to listen to Radiohead again in my life), it's SO good to be back in your company with all of the hottest 'n' freshest indie tunes! Fasten your seatbelt, then, as it's time to check out the following top indie tracks from Bat for Lashes, COIN, The Chemical Brothers, Sleater-Kinney, BANKS, and five other favorites!

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BAT FOR LASHES – KIDS IN THE DARK

Bat for Lashes is back, babyyy!!! Three years on from the release of The Bride, Natasha Khan returns this 2019 with “Kids in the Dark” – a melancholy, melodramatic synth-pop ballad that makes me want to grab my car keys and take an impromptu late-night drive through the city lights.

ANNA OF THE NORTH – THANK ME LATER

And now for some sugary sweet sounds from Anna of the North. The Norwegian artist returns this Monday with what might be her most infectious pop confection to date, “Thank Me Later,” which lyrically finds Anna flipping the script on old, tired gender stereotypes. “There are so many songs where girls get objectified and controlled by the powerful and rich frontman, made out to be all sexy and cute,” writes Anna. “I'm a frontwoman and this is a chance for me to get my own back.”

COIN – CRASH MY CAR

Did COIN just drop the summer anthem of 2019?! Because I think that COIN just dropped the summer anthem of 2019... “Crash My Car” is nothing short of an EPIC return from Chase Lawrence, Ryan Winnen, and Joe Memmel, with the Nashville indie-pop trio delivering on the kind of chorus that sounds like it was practically invented to be chanted by a sea of festivalgoers.

RICHIE QUAKE – NOTHING IN MY HEAD

Okay, so, I admit that this song is over nine months old now, but better late than never, right?! Richie Quake is sure to send chills through your spine with “Nothing in My Head” – an 80s-esque groover that hears the Brooklyn DJ pairing his nonchalant, R&B-indebted vocals with shattering drums for a track that really manages to bring to life that moment after the after party, when the loneliness finally starts to set in.

THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS – EVE OF DESTRUCTION

Erm, so, apparently I never realized how badly I needed a collaboration between The Chemical Brothers and AURORA until today! The British electronic duo and Bergen singer make for quite the duo on No Geography cut, the gargantuan “Eve of Destruction,” which comes paired with an official video that sees AURORA assuming the role of some kind of dystopian overlord while other heroes and villains dance-battle it out beneath her.

MARIKA HACKMAN – THE ONE

Marika Hackman plunges us into the depths of her post-breakup identity crisis on her latest single “the one.” Listen as the Londoner oscillates between swaggering braggadocio (“They're saying I'm a godsent gift/And all you fuckers want my dick”) and crippling self-doubt (“I thought that I could be unique/Fuck it I am just so weak”) over new-wave guitar licks on the track, which follows on from Marika's previous single “i'm not where you are.”

KING PRINCESS – CHEAP QUEEN

Just two weeks on from the release of “Cheap Queen,” King Princess returns this Monday with the official video. Directed by Symone Ridgell, the clip sees Mikaela Straus channel-surfing from an oversized couch before transforming into a whole variety of television characters – including the “Cheap Queen” after which the song is named – with the visual making for a perfect excuse to feature this queer-pop bop all over again. HAPPY PRIDE MONTH, Y'ALL!

SLEATER-KINNEY – THE FUTURE IS HERE

The world is more connected than ever. Why is it, then, that most of us feel entirely disconnected?! Sleater-Kinney explore this dystopian dichotomy on their latest single, the St. Vincent-produced “The Future Is Here” – a low-slung, slow-burning cut that hears Carrie Brownstein lamenting in the opening verse: “I start my day on a tiny screen/Try to connect the words, they're right in front of me/I walk to work out on the city streets/No one speaks to me, their stony faces beat.”

JOHN ERROL – RUN WILD

Having made his debut on We Are: The Guard last year with the blindsidingly brilliant “Dead Man Walking,” John Errol returns to stop us in our tracks once again this 2019 with “Run Wild.” The song finds the Los Angeles “folkdustrial” artist turning to face the demons that prevented him from being able to write music for 16 months, resulting in an astoundingly ascendant composition that speaks to John's newfound sense of artistic liberation and creative freedom.

BANKS (FEAT. FRANCIS & THE LIGHTS) – LOOK WHAT YOU'RE DOING TO ME

I'm not sure about you, but I want whatever BANKS is having! The Los Angeles songstress sounds nothing short of crazy in love on her bombastic latest single “Look What You're Doing to Me” – a fiery, dizzying, impassioned collaboration with Francis and the Lights that features on her forthcoming album III.

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Photo by rakhmat suwandi 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.