Editor’s Note: Anyone who says there isn’t good music coming out these days — and quite literally, every day — simply isn’t paying attention. Vanyaland’s new compilation feature The V List highlights the best in new music over the past month, pulling together the sounds that have soundtracked the website in recent weeks from our wide-ranging series of features. It’s all the stuff we’re bumping here at Vanyaland HQ, one new bop at a time.
James, ‘Is This Love’
Ahead of Valentine’s Day, James have an euphoric cautionary tale to help us navigate the Hallmark holiday. The enduring Manchester band power forward with heavenly ambition and remarkable tenderness on “Is This Love,” a new single that immediately becomes one of the more notable recent entries to James’ extensive 40-year catalog. “Love as a bomb, a tsunami that rolls over our life, as we cling to the wreckage of our peace of mind,” says frontman Tim Booth, furthering his position as one of our generation’s greatest songwriters and lyricists. It’ll be featured on James’ forthcoming 18th studio album (18th!) Yummy, set for release April 12 via Virgin Music.
Katie Pruitt, ‘White Lies, White Jesus And You’
We have a new mantra for 2024: Listen to Katie Pruitt. The Nashville singer-songwriter and her incredible voice and knack for storytelling releases sophomore album Mantras in April, and capturing our attention is the slow-burning indie-folk hymnal called “White Lies, White Jesus And You.” It should sound amazing when Pruitt plays Brighton Music Hall in Allston on May 7. “Writing this record forced me to stop seeking external validation from the rest of the world & turn my focus inward,” Pruitt writes on Insta. “After hitting a low point that caused me to seek extensive therapy I realized that I had a problem with negative self talk. So I started writing down phrases of encouragement & repeating mantras in the mirror. Through this practice I learned to be a kinder friend to myself & therefore a kinder friend to others. I’m so proud of this record & the community of friends I created it with…”
Georgie & Joe, ‘Student’
Over the past few years, real ones knew the brilliance of 0171, the London duo who crafted the type of mindful art-pop that would have resonated far wider and deeper if only the general population had any sense of style and taste. This month, the creative pair behind the project, Joe Bedell-Brill and Georgie Hoare, reintroduced themselves as Georgie & Joe, and with the hello again comes a labyrinth of UK garage-inspired alt-pop called “Student.” This remarkable debut single unfolds in chapters, equal parts overnight warehouse techno party and midday ethereal daydream, sonically expanding and contracting just when the rhythm gets comfortable. “Student” is suggestive and inducive, an expansive journey tightened to a 3:19 runtime, and feels like the type of track set to pop the fuck off after soundtracking a euphoric scene in the latest Netflix drama.
Jane’s Party, ‘Common Guys’
Shortly before Jane’s Party swung by Deep Cuts in Medford earlier this month, the Toronto and Los Angeles band — clearly having put aside any lingering hostilities over the NHL’s 1993 Campbell Conference Finals — lavished us with new single “Common Guys.” The lively track makes us want to relive our aughts-era indie dance party youth all over again. It’s loose, carefree, and fun — just like those days long gone by. “I totally loved the feeling of the beat, and a few weeks later, on a walk in the park with my headphones on, I finished the entire song in a matter of minutes,” says Jane’s Party vocalist and guitarist Tom Ionesu. “Producing the recording required walking a very fine line between polished dance-pop and slacker indie rock.” Fire it up on the closest Friday night.
The Black Crowes, ‘Wanting and Waiting’
The Black Crowes are back, and even though life is twice as hard as it was back in the ’90s, the brothers Robinson are sounding pretty reinvigorated. Just take a listen to lethal new single “Wanting And Waiting,” which sounds like classic Crowes at their bluesy, ballsy best. It’s the first taste of new album Happiness Bastards, the Georgia band’s 10th studio record and first of original music in 15 years. “Happiness Bastards is our love letter to rock n’ roll,” says Chris Robinson. “Rich and I are always writing and creating music; that has never stopped for us, and it is always where we find harmony together. This record represents that.” Adds Rich Robinson: “This album is a continuation of our story as a band. Our years of experience writing and making music and touring the world are represented in this record… I am incredibly proud of what we put together.” We didn’t have a killer new tune from The Black Crowes on our 2024 Bingo card, but here we are. An incredible return.