Hello to all who have been listening to Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license” on repeat since its release on Friday. Are you okay? How are you coping? Do you know what the plan is for revenge upon Joshua Bassett yet? Asking for a friend.
Rodrigo has proven herself to be possibly the most promising new musician out there right now. Her new track is incredible, and I understand if you’re not at the point yet where you want to switch to something else. But when that time comes, we’ve got you more than covered.
Related: [Jacobs junior Kieran Brown releases three Christmas songs in time for holidays]
For some songs that will motivate you to tackle this semester, check out the IDS staff’s 2021 playlist. Or, take a listen to these three artists who, like Rodrigo, are on the rise to stardom and have an arsenal of intensely emotional lyrics up their sleeves.
Maude Latour
If your internal response to the sentence, “She sounds like Lorde,” resembles a bunch of exclamation points, you need to check out Maude Latour’s music immediately. She sings about the simplicities of love, such as watching your boyfriend drink orange juice or riding next to him in the passenger seat, as if they were the most glorious, revolutionary concepts — literally.
“You get a little carsick, why are you riding shotgun?” she sings on “Starsick.” “We’ll have our own revolution baby, I could rewrite the constitution baby.”
Best case scenario, her crackling vocals and heavy-handed production will simultaneously energize you and make you feel emotions you forgot about. And at very least, you’ll have new indie pop songs to bop your head to.
Wild Painting
This Boston-based band only has one album available on Spotify, appropriately titled “Emotions,” and it’s from 2017. They also haven’t been active on Instagram since 2019. I’m not sure where they are or what they’re doing, but maybe this column will somehow summon them out of hiding to give us more reverb-drenched ballads to scream to.
The second track on the album, “Distractions,” tastes like smoke and feels like being set on fire. It’s a slow build up to the song’s apex of angstiness, but once it reaches that high point of rage-filled vocals and guitar, it’s all the catharsis you could ever need in a song.
“I wanted you to stay,” lead singer Angelina Botticelli repeats. “But things never change, do they?”
Dori Valentine
Allow Dori Valentine’s soft voice and effortless, breezy soulfulness warm you up. It’s the type of music that doesn’t demand your attention, so you’re free to zone in and out as you please. But when you do focus in on the words she’s singing, her lyrics are quietly moving.
“Love’s all the things you hate about yourself,” she sings on “INC.”
Though “INC.” is both the grooviest and most popular of the singer’s three songs available on Spotify, “Chlorine” might be her best. The swirl of synth, drumset and guitar is mesmerizing. Her use of a sample in this song of some unidentified television or radio host introducing a live Elton John performance is still a mystery to me, but maybe you’ll have some insight into that choice.
“This world can have all of my defects, blood on the gold in my necklace,” she sings on “Chlorine.” “If I had you, it would be worth it.”
