Brooklyn-based artist Frances Chang is carving out space for vulnerable introspection in an era when artists increasingly confront questions of identity, grief, and the human need for connection, with her latest single No Avatar offering a conversational and serene meditation against little whorls of piano, skittish drum fizz and softly flaring synths.
Her songs are described as hard to pin down, mirroring the single's desire to avoid outward definition, and as working to an internal logic that evokes an uncanny domesticity, with casual piano refrains, rainy percussion, the melty haze of a horizon at dusk, and grooves slinking in at the end of a song like next door's cat making itself at home. The sound is said to share a lot with the modern Copenhagen scene, of which Astrid Sonne is a key fixture, but with more welcoming softness and warmth.
A Platform for Emerging Voices
Chang has recently signed to RVNG Intl, the same label that launched Julia Holter, and supported Cate Le Bon. She released her debut cassette, Support Your Local Nihilist, four years ago, and two years ago her debut album proper, Psychedelic Anxiety. Her new material strips back the noise for a limpid setting that lets her idiosyncratic lyricism shine.
Chang's January single I Can Feel the Waves is described as a six-minute suite that starts out a little edgy, then yields with gorgeous warped piano and disarmingly intimate focus. I Can Feel the Waves is also described as being about remaining unknowable, and cherishing the ever-renewing mysteries of relating to oneself and others.
This Week's New Tracks Confront Life's Fragility
The piece also lists this week's best new tracks, several of which grapple with mortality and loss. Lambchop's Weakened, backed by guitar, choir and Justin Vernon on banjo, is described as one of the most simple and beautiful ballads in Kurt Wagner's 40-odd years of music, as he sings of the threshold between life and death.
Liz Lawrence's Exploded Into Flowers addresses the abundant floral tributes at her sister's funeral after her sister died aged 35 two years ago, rooted in a robust repeating melody and described as a powerful tribute. The track represents an artist processing profound personal grief through creative expression.
Other highlighted releases include Silvana Estrada and PabloPablo's Antes de Ti, with Estrada's elegant music and PabloPablo's lilt around her cuatro's light strings before a liquid, orchestral pivot opens up a cosmic portal; Josh da Costa's Proving Me Right, with the former member of unfairly overlooked duo CMON and former drummer for Drugdealer and MGMT summoning the spirit of Sparks for a new wave anthem with a chorus pitching like a ship in a storm.
Experimental and Ambient Contributions
Martin Brugger's Knees, Hands, Shoulders, Teeth, with the head of the Squama label releasing ambient music that is softly clanking, mournful, with traces of Kentucky post-rock. Bedouine's On My Own features contributions from the Lemon Twigs and classic piano-driven MOR backing offset by affecting vocals.
Resonant Bodies' Failed Hornpipe for Jacken, by Rob Bentall and Zebedee Budworth of Sheffield cabaret-doom-folk ensemble Slug Milk, is described as a refined and hopeful 10-minute blossoming of nyckelharpa and hammered dulcimer that pelts to a heart-stopping finish.
Why This Matters:
This collection of new music reflects how independent artists and smaller labels continue to provide platforms for voices exploring complex emotional terrain that mainstream commercial structures often overlook. Frances Chang's signing to RVNG Intl—a label with a track record of supporting innovative artists like Julia Holter and Cate Le Bon—demonstrates how institutional support can amplify artists working outside conventional pop formulas. The week's releases collectively address themes of mortality, identity, and human connection, with tracks like Liz Lawrence's tribute to her sister showing how art provides necessary space for processing grief and loss. Josh da Costa's trajectory from unfairly overlooked duo CMON highlights ongoing challenges of recognition in music industries that often favor established names over emerging talent. These artists' work underscores the cultural value of supporting diverse creative expression that speaks to universal human experiences of vulnerability, loss, and the search for meaning.