An affecting folk single from Glenn Kye, “Uncle Kenny’s for Lunch” compels in its scenic storytelling and serenely melodic acoustic-driven flow. The Brooklyn-based artist sets a personal scene right away. “We only went to his house that once,” he sings, referencing Uncle Kenny. “He played the guitar, and my momma cried,” he continues, reflecting on the year his grandfather passed, and how it resulted in family get-togethers that don’t normally occur, even with the likes of Uncle Kenny, later blocked by the family on social media.

References to “strange memories” signal the start of an escalated passion, the “took ten years before she could look at his pictures without getting misty” capturing the state of grieving in artful form — where the only crime is “loving endlessly.” The latter word’s refrain is especially heartrending, evolving into soaring, multi-layered vocal enthrallment. “Uncle Kenny’s for Lunch” is a touching folk success from Glenn Kye.

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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.

The post Glenn Kye – “Uncle Kenny’s for Lunch” appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.

Fusing contemplative folk and electronic bedroom-pop elements, “A Bird Lives in My Chest” is an affecting new track from Wail Pigg, the project of Chicago-based artist Mike Ryan.

A title-touting proclamation opens, the vocals depicting the bird as having “weary wings” and needing rest. The animal choices within, specifically a bird and wolf, play like an internal presence in oneself — from the bird’s loneliness and ensuing attachment, to “a wolf” that “lives in my bones” and reflects insatiable hunger and desire. Lush, trickling acoustics and playful, brisk rhythms interplay with enjoyable immersion, with buzzy synth elements weaving in subtly.

A final “a boy lives in my head” continues a sense of vulnerability, baring one’s soul in a heartrending final line: “Yes, you’re all there is for him.” Isolation, dependence, and internal habits are explored with artful precision on this dynamic folk success from Wail Pigg.

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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.

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Montreal-based artist Matthew Spreen delights on new track “Cheer Up!” — exemplary of his warming, expansive folk sound. “So cheer up,” his vocals beckon amidst a lovely array of steady acoustic strums, glimmering keys, and brassy flourishes. “You can’t afford to not cheer up,” he continues into a lovely proclamation, that it’s “the best thing you can do” as the delectably woozy assortment of orchestral flourishes meld with a more traditional folk undercurrent. The production envelops in its mixture of infectious moments — especially the “won’t happen to them” refrain — and blissful, dreamy atmospherics.

The standout track comes via Spreen’s upcoming album Particles, a tour-de-force of memorable songwriting that spans from prog-folk to dream-pop. Nearly everything heard was built from the living room up: a two-channel Tascam, a 20-year-old acoustic guitar, and hundreds of samples manually placed, pitched, stretched, reversed, automated, distorted, and EQ’d to fill the frequencies and create the necessary movement. Particles releases on May 27th; pre-save it here.

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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.

The post Matthew Spreen – “Cheer Up!” appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.

A memorable track out today from Wesley David, “Stop Sign” captivates in its expanding folk/rock synergy and thematic weight, exploring the drag of mundane routines and personal stagnation. This Philadelphia-based artist, originally from New Jersey, skillfully transforms quiet, solitary reflections into an expansive climax of dreamy piano and soaring, emotional vocals.

Serene acoustics open the track with a layered warmness, as a stirring vocal presence emerges with a sense of hopeful anticipation: “I was wasted and waiting for hope / At 3:30 on a Thursday alone.” The solemn scene-setting and palpably introspective pull showing in the lush guitar work and vulnerable lyricism, relatable in its “work, eat, more sleep, repeat the cycle” perspectives of days that linger on aimlessly, especially as friends move into their own separate worlds.

Lovely piano adornments enter as the midpoint approaches, melding with a moving vocal immersion and into an affecting “I sped past the stop sign” admission, then asking “did you look twice?” — a moment that’s especially resonant as added textures bolster past the three-minute turn. Glimmering, ghostly tones envelop as the track comes to a satisfying close. “Stop Sign” is a consuming piece of excellent songwriting from Wesley David.

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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.

The post Wesley David – “Stop Sign” appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.

A gorgeous track from Levi Taschuk, “Benefit of the Doubt” moves seamlessly from eerily enthralling vocal work to moody brass and piano orchestration, maintaining a strong atmospheric hold that stretches from late-night introspection to more ominous chilliness. The title-bearing refrain renders a haunting, ghostly soundscape as riveting saxophone and melancholic strings coexist with a stunning vocal presence. The woozy, dynamic sound bears a lovely likeness to Plush’s Fed era, Wild Beasts, and Patrick Watson, embracing a darkly impactful atmosphere and heartfelt vocal performance within arrangements that alternate between spine-tingling piano work and orchestral mystique.

The track is described as exploring “a sense of doubt about the projections and facsimiles that people put forth, especially by those who one is closest with like family.” The release comes via Taschuk’s forthcoming, debut LP, which I’m thoroughly anticipating. “Benefit of the Doubt” is a striking success from Levi Taschuk, who is based in Salmon Arm, BC. “This lead single conveys a sense of doubt about the projections and facsimiles that people put forth, especially by those who one is closest with like family,” Levi says. “Its themes are universal – parents and growing up.”

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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.

The post Levi Taschuk – “Benefit of the Doubt” appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.

“Put It Behind Me” is a resonating folk track from Jacksonville-based artist Kevin Driscoll, who explores with honest intensity the difficult departure from a significant relationship. This track showcases his ability to craft meaningful and poignant lyricism, capturing a raw emotional transition through layered acoustics, strings, and piano with a deeply personal resonance.

Trickling acoustic guitars pair with Driscoll’s solemnly introspective vocal presence, tonally subdued while still emitting a strong emotive power. The sporadic additions of strings lend a caressing, warming quality, emerging intermittently throughout, as do lovely touches of piano. Lyrically, Driscoll traces the journey of letting go, particularly in regard to a relationship with someone you still care about. Strings enter gently in the title-touting hopefulness, followed by an “it’s been years since I left, and I can’t help but reminisce” retrospection.

“Looking back I also see, all the stress and the arguments,” Driscoll’s vocals continue with more clarity, coming to terms that “what we once had is gone.” The lyricism captivates in progressing like a reflection of grieving the demise of something previously great — initially recalling just the fond memories, and then moving forward into the somber moments as well, culminating in a larger picture that bolsters the original decision to depart. “As the fog begins to clear,” the concluding section begins, representing that cathartic self-discovery when one moves on, without bitterness or regret. “Put It Behind Me” is an affecting success from Kevin Driscoll.

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The track is also featured in the genre-based, best-of Spotify compilation Emerging Indie Folk.

We discovered this release via MusoSoup.

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“Here Lies Kathy” combines heartfelt mourning with a vibrant psych-folk allure, making for a magnetic success from Kansas-based artist Prince Brendan, who describes it as “a song about losing someone you love.”

The third single from his forthcoming debut album, Love Songs for Sickly Girls, “Here Lies Kathy” melds twangy guitars and colorful organs amidst solemn lyrical sentiments. “Kathy got so thin I couldn’t believe it,” the vocals let out, following the established winter setting. Organs, keys, and warming guitars accompany the “I prayed she wouldn’t die, but here lies Kathy” hooky chorus, followed by relatable laments — of how “evil old men are doing fine” and “Kissinger topped ninety-nine.”

A subsequent reminder that “you’ll join her in time” is complemented by lovely guitar work, twanging along and reminding fondly of Foyxgen and Geese in its tonal character. “Here Lies Kathy” is an affecting, melodic success from Prince Brendan.

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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.

The post Prince Brendan – “Here Lies Kathy” appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.

“The Shape She Takes” is a stellar piece of songwriting from Dutch artist Carel Brouwers, blending themes of mythological transformation with vintage-inspired indie rock — venturing with darkly atmospheric appeal. This atmospheric track utilizes inventive rhythms and ghostly vocals whilst evoking Aphrodite’s shifting presence. Brouwers crafts a cinematic, layered narrative of emotional tension.

The track opens with a palpable sense of haunting mystique. Lush, eerie guitar trickling melds with an interesting rhythmic effect, resembling the click-clacking of a typewriter. Brouwers’ vocals emerge with chilly, quivering enthrallment thereafter. Moody guitar twangs assemble seamlessly amidst the now expanded rhythm section, maintaining the mechanical-like sounds amidst a bouncy bass pulsation. References to footsteps on a “concrete ground” feel representative of emotional tension, with the resulting “why do you haunt me so?” ensuing, heart-aching questioning resembling a pleading ghost in the night.

Lyrical descriptions of the hair turning into a golden flame, and eyes transforming into an unsettling difference, stir around midpoint as the darkly impactful rock procession continues. The vocal layers excel in their mixture of impassioned observations and brooding, ghostly backing maneuvers. By the conclusion, they overlap with melodic, spine-tingling allure — the reference to “church bells” suggesting the finality of transformation and the dawning of a new day. “The Shape She Takes” is an affecting standout from Carel Brouwers.

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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.

We discovered this release via MusoSoup.

The post Carel Brouwers – “The Shape She Takes” appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.

“Time” is an affecting new track from Wes Kirkpatrick, another standout from the Colorado-based artist, who weaves insightful lyricism with a gorgeous array of twinkling piano, somber strings, and harmonious vocal allure. First catching our ears last year with the track/EP “That Kind of Love,” Kirkpatrick succeeds again here with “Time.”

“Every day is a song we sing,” Kirkpatrick lets out during one of many impactful verses, the comparisons of music to the life experience — “try to make the chorus last” and groove-laden dreaming — resonating into sturdy pulses of strings and a magnetic “money never buys you time” introspection. Perspectives of time’s fleeting nature, and how a life focused on monetary accumulation is a wasted one when “all we have is time,” stir within a beautiful chamber-folk production on “Time.”

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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.

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A mellow array of twinkling keys and twangy guitars adorn “In The Morning,” a lovely new single from Dan Strauss. Written on a May afternoon, while Strauss sat in the courtyard of his building in Queens, NY, “In The Morning” compels in its depictions of disappointment — and also the reminder of an ensuing new dawn.” It’s gonna rain today and through the night, until it breaks in the morning,” Strauss sings, then moving to a particularly beautiful section as wordless vocal harmonies, tender guitars, and twinkling piano intertwine.

“I love songs that start off as stories about people doing regular things in every day places. The idea of someone going into a restaurant to meet someone who doesn’t show up felt both like a scene from a movie and like real life,” Strauss says, referencing the track’s beginning. Further emphasizing the track’s overall theme and message, he says: “This happens to people all the time. What we do from there can shape us. Whoever this person is in this song remembers that they are more than this moment, they have ‘another name.'”

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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.

The post Dan Strauss – “In The Morning” appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.