Fresh Rotation | 3 new songs we really dig

Each and every week the JME team handpicks the juiciest new tunes from local, regional, national and international artists to add into our tasty, tall-glass-of-a-listening-experience that is our monthly Fresh Squeeze playlist. Each song is chosen with intention. And so we often feel like they are worthy of a broader discussion (or at least a bit of context).

Here are three new songs that the JME team is listening to this week (all of which appear on our March Fresh Squeeze playlist).

“K Hole” by Alex Cameron 

Synth-pop funnyman Alex Cameron is known to play for laughs. And on the woozy, saccharine dream sequence “K Hole,” the high-concept singer-songwriter fits his lowbrow comedy into a tight five (four minutes and 33 seconds, to be exact). The latest single from his new and ingeniously-titled full-length Oxy Music, the silly and sweet “K Hole” features surrealist navel-gazing (“a wet TV left on the street in the rain”) and acerbic social commentary (“I might call the mental health hotline just to ask for a good time”), culminating in a barrage of setups and punchlines in the tune’s singsongy chorus, in which Cameron rhymes “A hole” with “K Hole” and somehow gets away with it. In the video for the song, Cameron sways and cavorts like a hallucinating Rick Astley in what may be the best (and maybe only) performance of a pop song about the therapeutic (recreational?) use of dissociative anesthesia.–Matthew Shaw 

-Stream on Apple Music

-Stream on Tidal

-Stream on Spotify

“Ugly and Vengeful” by Anna von Hausswolff

In the past decade plus, Swedish vocalist-composer-pipe organist Anna von Hausswolff has released a body of work that bends and morphs genres like drone, metal, and dark wave into a truly visceral and personalized approach. The 19-minute “Ugly and Vengeful,” from Live at Montreux Jazz Festival (Southern Lord), is a monolithic exercise in the extremes and possibilities of contemporary jazz/ambient/unclassifiable music: an ensemble of electric and acoustic instrumentalists build and decimate an elastic, humming pool of sound, as Anna and her sister Maria dive into vocalizations that bridge the gap between the ethereality of Elizabeth Fraser and menacing ululations of Diamanda Galas. Listeners who can hang on for the shadowy ride of Hausswolff and band will not be disappointed in the singular emotionality of the performance, and will get a worthy take on why, at age 35, Hausswolff has already collaborated with the likes of Swans and SUNN O))), and been boycotted by the Catholic Church. Huzzah!–Daniel A. Brown

-Stream on Apple Music

-Stream on Tidal

-Stream on Spotify

“Memory” by Lala Lala

After releasing her critically adored full-length, I Want the Door to Open, into an inert, pandemic-seized world, Chicago-based musician Lillie West is finally taking her project Lala Lala, and her singular brand of indie-pop song craft on the road. A new single, “Memory,” opens with a gloomy melancholic soundscape, before West and company –– Abby Black (drums/samples), Reno Cruz (guitar, vocals), and Yasmine Mifdal (keyboard, saxophone)  –– turn up the tempo, garrisoning synths and samples that, along with West’s bowed vocals, jostle with a challenging beat for an engrossing and moody sonic trip, which is sure to delight those who catch Lala Lala on their upcoming US tour.–Matthew Shaw 

-Stream on Apple Music

-Stream on Tidal

-Stream on Spotify

Dig into more of the best new music on our Fresh Squeeze playlist. We update it every month.