BEST INDIE SONGS - WEEK 50

If your Spotify Wrapped has got you fearing for your own taste in music, don't worry as We Are: The Guard is here to help you fix that with the latest edition of Best Indie Songs. Even fans of the inscrutable pop rap or, worse, Van Halen are sure to find something that they love in this selection of top indie tracks, as filtered from the blogosphere by yours truly. Just slide in your AirPods (Black Friday, amirite?), and get ready to discover a brand new world of sounds by way of the following songs from Tame Impala, POLIÇA, Soccer Mommy, Hinds, Khruangbin & Leon Bridges, and five other favorites!

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LOW CUT HIGH TOPS – WE'RE ALL SHEEP

Low Cut High Tops is waking up the sheeple on his churning latest single “We're All Sheep.” “We're all sheep/yeah, yeah, yeah,” snarls Seattle art-school dropout David Burns over walls of “Lithium”-like guitars on the cut – a gargantuan “fuck you” to the system and all of those who are living under it that deserves pride of place on your red-pill playlists.

TAME IMPALA – POSTHUMOUS FORGIVENESS

The music of Tame Impala has always existed in a kind of emotional vacuum, but Kevin Parker is getting more personal than ever on “Posthumous Forgiveness.” The six-minute opus is written about the frontman's fraught relationship late father, with Kevin speaking directly to his dad over tripped-out grooves before melting into the song's synthetic daze.

POLIÇA – FORGET ME NOW

Having returned with the throbbing, pulsating “Driving” in October, POLIÇA are switching gears this month with the release of “Forget Me Now.” It's a lighters-in-the-air power ballad that showcases Channy Leaneagh's live vocals like never before, with electronics lightly tickling beneath the frontwoman as she sings to the skies with a kind of anthemic defiance.

SASSY 009 (FEAT. CLAIRO) – LARA

Earlier this year, Clairo was propelled into the indie-pop mainstream with Immunity. She's since lent her voice to everyone from Mura Masa to Deaton Chris Anthony, and this month, Claire Cottrill is back on SASSY 009's “Lara” – a dreamy, melancholy club vibe that hears Clairo sing: “Had a childhood crush on Lara Croft/Used to play the game on my Microsoft.”

MXMS – CAROL OF THE BELLS

MXMS are as grand as a Gothic cathedral on this cover of “Carol of the Bells,” presenting the noel like you've never heard it before. We Are: The Guard's Indie Christmas is out now.

SOCCER MOMMY – FEED

Following on from the release of the nine-minute masterpiece “yellow is the color of her eyes” last month, Nashville's Soccer Mommy is back today with the intense “Feed.” Written for the forthcoming adaption of The Turning, it's yet another chugging indie-rock addition to Sophie Allison's oeuvre, with lyrics about “letting a demon feed off your body.” Creepy!

HINDS – RIDING SOLO

Hinds are reminding us that the rock-star lifestyle isn't all that it's cracked up to be on their latest single. “I'm out of conversation/I'm on my private-jet lag/While everyone is sleeping/I still haven't closed my tag,” begins “Riding Solo” – an anthemic, bombastic ode to loneliness and isolation on tour that's replete with girl-gang vocals and garage-rock stomp.

KHRUANGBIN & LEON BRIDGES – TEXAS SUN

Coinciding with the announcement of their collaborative EP Texas Sun, Khruangbin and Leon Bridges have shared the lead single of the same name. It's very much the audio equivalent of a slow-rolling drive through the Texas countryside, with Leon's voice emitting a kind of sunset glow against Khruangbin's twanging slide guitars and dust-riddled drums.

BAUM – DUNNO (MAC MILLER COVER)

BAUM covering Mac Miller? This is everything! “This song means the entire world to me and I've wanted to sing it so badly,” writes the We Are: The Guard favorite of her decision to cover the Swimming cut – which was originally written in tribute to Ariana Grande – with BAUM effortlessly sinking into the wavy, reverb-drenched vibe like it was made for her.

OF MONTREAL – POLYANEURISM

Ahead of the release of UR FUN next month, of Montreal return today with the joyous “Polyaneurism.” It finds frontman Kevin Barnes coming to terms with the struggles of being in an open relationship, with a carousel of synths forming a blur of lights behind Kevin as he coos: “I can't keep up with the girl/She's not mine, though/She's not his either.”

P.S. DOGS!!!

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Photo by Kira auf der Heide 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.