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.
Wasia Project, ‘2515’
Nearly two years ago we put out a public call for Wasia Project, the Chinese-British sibling duo of Will Gao and Olivia Hardy, ahead of their live performance in Allston. It felt like the last time they’d play a room of intimate size, and the alt-pop band’s trajectory has since remained skyward. Wasia Project return this month with “2515,” a dizzying spell of electronic-pop propulsion that blurs genre lines and captivates from the jump. It feels inherently 2026 in its icy mood and stark precision, ricocheting subversiveness through an alt-pop house of echoes that stares back deeper and deeper the harder we look with our ears. An expansive sonic backdrop cradles its theme of fragmented connections and strained relationships experienced by the youth of today. “‘2515’ marks a new chapter in our songwriting — it’s colder and darker than anything we’ve done before,” the duo declare. “A song fueled by anger, the sonic mirrors racing thoughts that come with the emotion. With this track, we officially start our journey through night.” It was produced by frequent collaborator St. Francis Hotel (Adele, Little Simz, Arcade Fire), an the visualizer below brings us in.
Leyla Ebrahimi, ‘I’m Sorry Maria’
Leyla Ebrahimi has quickly become one of the most intriguing names in alt-pop, and a spellbinding romp through new single “I’m Sorry Maria” showcases precisely why. The stirring scream-along jam dropped early in the month via Deerfield Records / Interscope Records, and it’s a cathartic twirl of hazy dream-pop and rage-fueled alt-rock that seemingly exists in its own sonic lane where tension and release are as intertwined as our own emotions. The track was co-produced by Alexander 23 and Shane Pielocik, and instantly stands out as one of the year’s best, demanding repeated listens until it’s fully immersed in the soul. “This song is about regret,” says the Persian-American singer-songwriter based in New York City. “Regret, and also confusion and anger and owning the fact that you can be 100 percent convinced that you know what’s right for you in any given situation, and find out later — when it’s too late — that you were totally wrong. It’s also, most of all, about letting that truth out at the top of your lungs.” Make no apology for that. Sing along, scream along, feel along below.
lucky break, ‘Head Down’
Good news for those feeling disillusioned these days — here comes your lucky break. And it’s taking us back to the ’90s with a hazy new alt-rock single for “Head Down.” The latest from the San Francisco via New York City artist, via forthcoming debut record made it!, out May 8 via Fire Records, feels like a time capsule, both visual and aural, as it explores the illusion of innocence that allows one to look the other way and the desire for instant gratification. The visual, directed by co-conspirator Margaret Ell, takes lucky break out around the subway in Los Angeles, soundtracked by a late-night Buzz Bin banshee racket. And it feels like a scene from our favorite indie movie we may or may not have seen on the overnight shift, when fantasies danced freely in our head’s cinematic universe and the world was a lot more pure than it is now. “Walking around and riding public transit in Los Angeles feeling like a fallen angel — I think lot of young women can relate,” says Elle. “A lot of the music video visuals for lucky break come about from us walking around with a camera and hoping something turns out and it just always does. When working with lucky break, I so strongly feel this telepathic connection because our crazy abstract visions align so easily.”
Weird Nightmare, ‘Where I Belong’
Weird Nightmare’s soaring “Where I Belong,” the latest from former METZ dude Alex Edkins’ forthcoming sophomore record Hoopla, out the first of May on Sub Pop, is the sound of walking off 6th Street at SXSW circa 2010 mildly hung over and debating if you wanna get free tacos or go hear that awesome new indie band again for the third or fourth time, only to choose music over eats and find the outdoor, midday party they’re playing actually has free tacos waiting for you while the band rips through the best 25 minutes of your fucking life. Prepare for a proper AOTY coming very soon.
Iona Luke, ‘Existential’
“This song is about identity, overthinking, and wondering if what you do actually matters. It was almost impossible to write… snapped a lot of pencils.” That’s Iona Luke speaking on her new single “Existential,” a rousing twirl of panoramic alt-pop that acts as a reflective portal back into our souls. We’re all feeling increasingly disenfranchised these days, and the emerging British artist has woven a theatrical mood where the only thing louder than the noise suffocating our headspace is the quiet that comes before and after. Luke utilizes the loud/quiet dynamic to great effect here, and awards us a proper soundtrack to confront the spiraling thoughts that come with identity, self-doubt, and creative pressure. “In a madly oversaturated music space, figuring out where you stand and what you have to say is scary stuff,” she adds. “When I had to decide whether I’d be ‘Iona’ or ‘Iona Luke,’ I repeated my name in my head too many times and had the mini existential collapse we all get when a word suddenly looks a bit funny.” Dip into the abyss below.