On This Track: Midweek Listening #8
Five new discoveries moving between post-punk, chamber pop, dark alt-pop, electronic indie and melodic punk.
Some songs arrive with a lot going on around them. A new album, a story, a video, a whole world of references. This week's On This Track Midweek Listening 8 five picks all have that, but the songs themselves are what kept pulling me back. American Motors look at a world that feels increasingly out of date, Loren Berí turns the idea of being in the background into something unexpectedly comforting and Mel Denisse sits somewhere between desire and fear. redolent take a much simpler route: an ice cream sandwich, a sunset and a really good moment. And the new split from Fire Sale and The Corps closes things out with four fast, melodic punk songs about everything from mental health to impossible love.
American Motors - “No Horses”
American Motors' “No Horses” feels like it belongs somewhere between the past and whatever comes next. The Lancaster, Pennsylvania duo wrote the song around Route 60 outside St. Albans, West Virginia, a place that also appeared on their first album. There is something fitting about that repetition. The band are looking back, but not in a nostalgic way. The song is the first taste of their upcoming album "Functional Music", following 2024's "Content". This time, American Motors are less interested in the idea of a world falling apart and more interested in the people who are still living inside it. The music video makes that idea particularly striking. Dustin White shot it on 16mm film inside the Large Scale Systems Museum, using old computer terminals and mainframes as the setting. The equipment is real, including a Data General “Dasher” terminal, a VAX-11/780 and an IBM System/390. The whole thing has the feel of an office from another decade, helped by the grain of the expired film and all those grey filing cabinets and suits. It could easily feel like a gimmick, but it fits the song. “No Horses” has that same sense of something familiar becoming slightly strange when you look at it for long enough. "Functional Music" is out November 6 via Expert Work, The Ghost Is Clear and Vina Records.
🎧 Stream “No Horses” by American Motors on Apple Music
Loren Berí - “Stagehand”
There is something quite funny about the idea behind Loren Berí's “Stagehand”, even though the feeling underneath it is much more serious. The song imagines a person who thinks he's a character in a play, only to realize that he's actually the person moving the furniture around backstage while everyone else waits for him to leave. That image becomes a way of talking about identity. Berí describes “Stagehand” as the opposite of the larger-than-life character at the center of his previous album "Alby's Ghost". Here, there is no big persona to hide behind. The stagehand is basically just himself, stripped of the exaggerated versions he had been writing into his songs. Musically, the track gives that idea a surprisingly warm setting. Lush chamber textures and catchy indie songwriting keep it from becoming overly heavy. I like that contradiction. The song is about shrinking yourself to fit somewhere you aren't sure you belong, but it doesn't treat that feeling as entirely negative. There is relief in not having to perform all the time. "Stagehand" will also be the title of Berí's sophomore album, which will be accompanied by a book of poems.
🎧 Stream “Stagehand” by Loren Berí on Apple Music
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Mel Denisse - “Hunted”
Mel Denisse's “Hunted” sits in that uncomfortable space where attraction and danger start to look a little too similar. The Nashville-based artist builds the track around dark romance, but the interesting part is that there isn't a clean line between wanting something and being afraid of it. The song moves through driving alt-pop and rock, with delicate vocals set against distorted, dissonant production. That contrast gives “Hunted” its tension. The vocals can feel almost intimate while the music underneath them keeps pushing forward. It makes sense that Denisse describes the song as a psychological game between obsession, fear and desire. What I like most about the track is that it doesn't try to resolve those feelings. Someone can be something you fight against one day and move toward the next. “Hunted” stays in that uncertainty instead of turning the story into a simple dark-love fantasy. Denisse has already picked up support from BBC Radio 1's Alternative Show and Spotify's All New Rock, but this feels like a track that stands well on its own.
🎧 Stream “Hunted” by Mel Denisse on Apple Music
redolent - “funner”
“funner” might be the easiest song on this week's list to understand emotionally. Sometimes you are just having a really good day. No major revelation, no dramatic turning point. You are sitting on a car in Texas with an ice cream sandwich, watching the sunset and for once everything feels okay. That is basically where Edinburgh group redolent started with this song. They describe the moment as the opposite of a panic attack and “funner” carries that feeling into the music. It is warm, upbeat and electronic, with a much lighter touch than their previous comeback single “ok wow”. The video follows the same idea. Robin Herbert dances and sings through a Scottish field while Alice Hancock plays an SP-404 beside him. It looks deliberately low-key and a little goofy, which suits the song. redolent themselves call it a kind of break from the darker material around it. And honestly, I think that is part of why it works. Not every song needs to carry the weight of the world. Sometimes an ice cream sandwich and a sunset are enough.
🎧 Stream “funner” by redolent on Apple Music
Fire Sale / The Corps – "Split Decision"
“Split Decision” brings together Los Angeles' Fire Sale and Vancouver's The Corps for four songs of fast, melodic punk. Both bands work with familiar punk ingredients - speed, big hooks and plenty of momentum, but the subjects underneath the songs are more personal than the energy might suggest. Fire Sale open with “Kill the Noise”, where vocalist Pedro Aida writes about trying to quiet an increasingly relentless inner monologue. “Dies Irae” follows with a more direct response to the current political and social climate, driven by Matt Riddle's bass line and a call to stand up for other people. The Corps then turn inward with “Imposter Syndrome”, about playing alongside bands you admire while wondering whether you actually belong there. Their second track, “Another World”, slows things down for a love song about someone who can only ever be yours in another universe. I like the way the split moves between those subjects without losing its identity. Mental health, politics, insecurity and impossible love are all pretty heavy themes, but neither band seems interested in making the songs feel weighed down by them. "Split Decision" is out now digitally via Negative Progression Records, with a 7-inch vinyl release and merch also available.
🎧 Stream “Split Decision” by Fire Sale / The Corps on Apple Music
Five tracks can take you in five very different directions, and that is exactly what I like about these midweek selections. There is no single sound connecting them, but there is a shared willingness to make something personal out of the material around them - whether that means an outdated computer terminal, a backstage role, a complicated attraction, an ice cream sandwich at sunset or four punk songs about things that are difficult to say out loud.
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