There it is. In comes the cold snap. Right after the storm comes the chill. It’s beginning to look a lot like……winter.
Never fear, here are some choice choons to warm the heart of the cockles of your heart. Probably only a few of these left before we do Chrimbo and End of Year. Stick these in your earmuffs.
Laura Fell – Earthworm
Why we love it: because there’s nothing we need more at the moment than another piece of Laura Fell soothing our stresses and strains with her ethereal, angelic voice, this time with added Mike Lindsay adding textures and his production flourishes to her liquid arpeggio acoustic guitar. It has a poignant intro and outro of a mother and child going through spelling cards, enunciation and diction.
Laura says this is “a song about shame – how cruel and convincing our inner critic can be, and how to unlearn the lies about ourselves it tells us“.
This is the first track to come from her new EP due next year that will also have Mike Lindsay stamped all over it, she is continuing her hot streak after her second EP Talk It All Apart was released earlier this year. (Jim Auton)
The Silver Reserve – Elsie
Why we love it: because the return of The Silver Reserve is something to behold. In truth, Matthew Sturgess – the man who is The Silver Reserve – has never been away, regularly playing shows in his West Yorkshire locale as well as securing a coveted support slot at Halifax Minster with the Irish indie-folk band Villagers. He is just someone who isn’t in any particular hurry when it comes down to recorded music.
Following last year’s superb ‘Slow TV’ – Video of the Week in April 2024 – The Silver Reserve has now released ‘Elsie,’ a song about swimming in the freezing sea off the East Yorkshire coast a couple of years ago with his eldest daughter.
There is a gorgeous, fluid spontaneity to the music that embraces a tangible tension between the icy cold waters and a father’s unconditional love for his daughter. (Simon Godley)
AS Fanning – Today Is for Forgetting
Why we love it: On this, the second single from his forthcoming album, Irish songwriter and dark side of the street ponderer AS Fanning gives us disco-bleak reality. In our world riddled with uncertainty and insecurity and anxiety, ‘Today is For Forgetting’ Fanning expands on these themes diving into the non-linear and illogical nature of time and reality.
Cold War synths and a baritone from rumble deep underground, the stress builds and builds until the deadpan conclusion ‘trying to seem normal’.
“This song is about the psychedelic experience, and the feeling of entering some kind of no-man’s-land between this life and the next—or another dimension of existence, not black or white, but grey,” he explains.
Central to the song is what Fanning calls “an explosion of instants”—a vision of time not as a straight line but as fragments swirling simultaneously around a bewildered observer. “There’s no consecutive sequence in the way time runs. There’s just a central character with various moments and timelines swirling all around him, and it somehow falls upon him to make things make sense.”
The video which you can enjoy below, features brutalist architecture with its bare brick mid-century minimalism, the historical beauty and glamour of Marilyn Monroe, and cold chill of Lee Harvey Oswald back to his old assassination tricks on a park bench. Gulp.
‘Today is for Forgetting’ is from AS Fanning’s fourth studio album Take Me Back To Nowhere released in 6 February via K&F Records. (Cath Holland)
Deadbeat Girl – Soft
Why we love it: Deadbeat Girl (Val Olson) shakes off judgment on their new single ‘Soft’. Gritty guitars fuzz and purr, underpinned by drum kicks: Olson’s vocals pour forth light on the dark, vividly depicting the weight of a partner’s assumption and dated expectations. Flowering into a hooky chorus, that’s a self-empowered cry that throws off negative stereotypes, reverberating with a restatement of who you are not who you are with, wants you to be.
Sharing more, they explained: ‘I was once in a relationship where my partner at the time made me feel like I was too soft or not masculine enough. They felt I was “not aggressive enough” or “too emotional”. I feel like a common experience for masculine presenting non-men is the expectation to act within the negative stereotypes of a cis-man in society. Sometimes we are expected to be emotionless, angry, aggressive, and big/strong but that is not what should be expected of anyone. People should be able to be who they are without feeling sorry or explaining themselves.
Be who you are and don’t let fuckin anyone tell you otherwise! Crying is cool, I promise.’
Co-written with Brooklyn-Born riser Chloe Lilac and produced by longtime collaborators Chris Petrosino and Rob McCurdy of Noiseclub, finds Deadbeat Girl stepping out with unapologetic authenticity, Deadbeat Girl is unafraid to share their genuine queer self with the world, a quality that has not gone unnoticed.
Growing up in South Florida fueled Deadbeat Girl to become the representation they needed when they were younger. Promoting a fearless and defiant message of unconditional acceptance through their music, DBG’s fans are satiated by the honesty that radiates from their live show and leave feeling a connection. (Bill Cummings)
Small Miracles – Cherry Pill
Why we love it: Cardiff band Small Miracles released their debut album A Human Connection, on the 7th of November. The previous single Cherry Pill, is a more subtle number that’s gentle yearning and dreamy melodies wave over dexterous guitars and is bathed in glistening production, tip-toeing percussion and lilting backing vocals, It follows the singles You Know and Bisexual Panic, and shows a more vulnerable side to the band’s cinematic sound. Yet it’s no less effective, sumptuous and hooky, glam pop is dipped in melancholia; it waltzs through your head, lost in dreams that will never happen and unrequited love for someone you have never met.
Guitarist S. Kenward says: “Nostalgic grunge-pop. Missing a person you’ve never met. Longing for a place you won’t visit. Cherry Pill is caught up in the dream that it might happen.”
The album explores love, queerness, and human connection through a mix of alternative pop, new wave, and glam rock – featuring collaborations with Minas, Aisha Kigs, and Freyja Elsy.
The band are also set to play a headline album launch show at Porter’s Cardiff on Thursday 27th November -free entry. (Bill Cummings)
Ni Maxine – Not For Me
Why we love it: Ni Maxine releases her latest single, ‘Not For Me’, out today via Ripe Records, alongside the announcement of her debut EP Mother’s Arms, out 4th March 2026. Listen [HERE]
‘Not For Me’ is a rich soul-drenched reflection that moves through chaos. Grounded by double-bass and an elastic and glistening soulful groove, Maxine’s vocals ache and soar, elegantly as she contemplates her own boundaries and strength in the drunken glow of an afterparty and the hazy, sometimes messy, reality of coming back to earth. ‘Not For Me’ is a striking and gorgeously drawn meditation on self-discovery and liberation. She introduces herself as a rich voice with self-aware emotional depths and a wealth of promise.
“Not For Me captures that moment when the party fades and clarity cuts through the noise,” Maxine explains. “It’s about listening to yourself, honouring your boundaries, and knowing that letting go can be an act of self-love.”
Singing has been central to Maxine’s life from a young age. After discovering her voice in church choirs and Soho dive bars, Maxine didn’t know a life in music was possible for her. Ni Maxine’s debut EP ‘Mother’s Arms’, released March 4th next year, is an intimate journey that battles with identity, generational trauma, and the healing power of family and home. Drawing on jazz, soul, and highlife, Maxine crafts songs for anyone searching for belonging.
This EP maps the emotions of hardship from introspection to ‘Freedom‘, as Maxine mothers her younger self and mends the fractures in her relationship with her own mother. What began as a search for The Mother Land became a deeper understanding that identity lives in people, not places. (Bill Cummings)
Vanishing Sound – Over the Edge
Why we love it: Canberra-based Vanishing Sound released their second single, ‘Over the Edge‘, on 14 November through spitting.img records,
Fusing together elements of chiming electronic pop and dream pop. Laced with the hazy vocals of Steph Cox who delivers a siren call, pulling the listener in amongst the hazy swirl of synth beds, jangling guitar layers. It reminds one of early My Bloody Valentine with echoes of Cocteau Twins and the glory of their early records. Cathartic and soaring, introspective yet cinematic, it’s a fascinating anthem laden with a bittersweet heart and is possessed of a bedroom production charm, that’s smudged heart is gleaming in the rough. The single was self-produced by the band with synth player Lachlan Thomas stepping forward as producer, and mastered by David Forcier.
They say “‘Over the Edge‘ interrogates the strange intimacies and dependencies people have started to form with AI. The song explores how attention-hungry platforms and AI-driven systems can begin as companions and evolve into something darker and more consuming. As technology changes and intimacy is rapidly redefined, the song asks what is gained and what is lost when we surrender pieces of ourselves to algorithms. Are we on the threshold of transcendence, or on the edge of an abyss?” (Bill Cummings)
