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 compilation feature The V List highlights the best in new music, both homegrown and national, over the past month, pulling together the sounds that have soundtracked the website in recent weeks. It’s all the stuff we’re bumping here at Vanyaland HQ, one new bop at a time.
Silvie’s Okay, ‘Butterfly a Moth’
There are hundreds — perhaps thousands — of songs that funnel the agony of a breakup into a hooky slap in the face. But far fewer distill the relief of a split into the caress of a spring breeze, gradually chasing away a stagnant winter. That’s what it feels like to play “Butterfly a Moth,” the new tune from Silvie’s Okay (a.k.a. Western Massachusetts artist Vince Thompson). The country tune’s soft, swaying rhythm finds Thompson returning to a place of health and comfort, expressing earnest gratitude for a breakup that recentered his life. Thompson writes from a place of being palpably renewed, and that sense of content lends “Butterfly a Moth” a warm glow. That’s why it’s no cliche to say that “Butterfly a Moth” is a breath of fresh air — for Thompson himself, and for listeners seeking a nurturing path forward in their own lives.
Oompa and Connie Diiamond, ‘HO3 SH!T’
Oompa doesn’t sparkle alongside Connie Diiamond — she shimmies. And according to the pair’s new tune “HO3 SH!T,” that’s absolutely the natural order of things. The two emcees link up to throw down some dance moves on their new collab, which arrived like a sultry extension of Galentine’s Day. The Rilla Force-produced song is a battle cry for the club, tailored to the bravado of its narrators: Roxbury rapper Oompa, and Diiamond, a rising Bronx artist. “HO3 SH!T” vibrates in time with the duo’s bold bars, although the song’s origins are much more subdued. In an email newsletter, Oompa shared that she reached out to Diiamond while experiencing a quiet moment of grief, gratitude, and reflection surrounding the anniversary of her birth mother’s passing.
“My manager had already tried a few times with no luck, but something in me said, ‘Just try one more time,’” she wrote. “I don’t know why I did it, but I do know my birth mother and mother have been the most fire ancestors from the other side, lining things up for me in ways I can’t even explain. So before I went to bed, I sent that message.” Oompa woke up to a yes from Diiamond — and the rest, as they say, is ass-shaking history.
MyCompiledThoughts, ‘Chasing’
In a switch that no one saw coming, MyCompiledThoughts has pivoted from romance to adrenaline-fueled runs. We could craft a box of Valentines using suave lyrics from the Boston-born artist’s catalog to date, but for his latest release — the new single “Chasing” — the only thing he’s in pursuit of is survival. “This is more than a song — it’s a reckoning,” MyCompiledThoughts writes on Instagram. “A calling. A reminder that only God can save us.” And while “Chasing” doesn’t incur immediate dread, it does one better: Entice listeners with a foundation of slick pop-rock, building an ominous atmosphere worthy of the next A24 horror flick.
Noble Dust, ‘Monkey Gone To Heaven’
What’s “Monkey Gone to Heaven” without a good dose of grime? As Noble Dust can demonstrate, pretty damn good. For their upcoming covers record Both Sides Now, the Boston band has released their take on the Pixies classic, culled from 1989 breakthrough record Doolittle. The cover filters the original’s atmospheric “10 million pounds of sludge” through Noble Dust’s folk-pop, unearthing a heavier sound from the band, while brightening the tune with a trickle of cello. The track joins Noble Dust’s cover of The Shins’ “Sleeping Lessons” as the first puzzle pieces of Both Sides Now, which is due out this September via Bridge & Key.
GHOST GRL, ‘My Dog’
We all know, deep down, that our lives revolve around our pets. Sometimes it just takes a shakeup or two to fully reveal that reality, as GHOST GRL learned when writing her new single “My Dog.” Feeling fraught when coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, grief, and a breakup, the Boston artist (born Gianna Botticelli) previously found a furry anchor in Zir, her French bulldog/Boston terrier mix. The experience would bring forth “My Dog,” Botticelli’s first release since 2020, and the first piece of her upcoming spring EP Fragments.
“There’s someone strangling me / You call it unconditional love / And you ask if I know what that means / But I only love my dog like that,” she sings on the second verse. Another artist might wield the lyrics like a smart-mouthed punk, but Botticelli casts her words against a pensive rock backdrop, calling everything besides her unbreakable pet-person bond into question. “My Dog” is document of resilience, but also simplicity — a reminder that sometimes the most basic sources of love are the ones that are the most unwavering.