The best Indie pop / rock tracks from August 2021. Full playlist at www.birp.fm // Updated monthly, so save your favorites!  Indie, Bedroom Pop, Lofi, Surf Rock, etc.

Indie Playlist • BIRP! August 2021

Sequoia Moon

Campus Blue

Questions

A Crystal Ship

Desastre

making music is cool 🌻

Guitar (Zay) 

Violin (Zay) 

￼￼

something

Fake Roses

Days Like These

Leeds quartet Crake have today announced their debut album, ‘Humans’ Worst Habits’. It arrives via Fika Recordings on April 8th. The band have also shared the album’s lead single, ‘Winter’s Song’. 

Led by enigmatic songwriter Rowan Sandle, Crake is driven by her endless curiosity. Armed with her gently cracking vocal, and inspiration from writers like Shirley Jackson and Nan Shepherd, she sings of crinoids, slime mould and pussy willow. When they supported Buck Meek at Brudenell Social Club, Buck found himself so beguiled by Sandle and her band that he invited them to support Big Thief on their UK and EU tour in 2019. Crake duly obliged and have been building towards their debut full-length ever since. 

Much of the forthcoming album revolves around the death of Sandle’s friend Anna, who died in Syria after being hit by a Turkish air strike. Anna was working for a woman’s liberation group in the war-stricken country when the tragedy took place. ‘Humans’ Worst Habits’ explores the grief that followed and the lessons learnt from dealing with such a significant loss. 

Sandle does, however, find space to explore more themes alongside this grief, such as cruelty and queer nature. On lead single ‘Winter’s Song’ she acknowledges the cruelty and coldness that exists within us all, and questions how we can continue to grow and love whilst remaining true to that. 

Speaking about the track, she said: “Winter’s Song is about the absolute mundane beauty of being fallible. It's a true story, I saw the moon rise but swore it was the sun setting. I think about this line a lot: “keep a little coldness in you, just wear it soft and gentle” Be soft, be kind, be honest. Being unremarkable has its own beauty.” 

Sandle’s love for queer nature is so fervent that it makes the experience of listening to Crake akin to that of stumbling on an entirely new world. Sandle believes that life isn’t as black and white as we’ve been taught, and thinks nature holds the key to revealing the true nature of human experience. The appearances of things like slime mould - single-celled organisms that form a single body when in search of food  - brittle starfish - a type of starfish whose awareness isn’t concentrated in one place - and other such oddities furnish ‘Humans’ Worst Habits’ with a folklore all of its own. 

‘Humans’ Worst Habits’ will send you down multiple rabbit holes and you’ll emerge from each with a newfound appreciation for the complexities of the world. Perhaps even more important than this though is the humanity that lies at the very heart of this debut full-length. Whether it’s in the sensitivity in how she portrays the loss of her friend, the depiction of our most base instincts - namely cruelty, passion and love - or the sincere, pure quality of the songwriting itself, it’s this that makes ‘Humans’ Worst Habits’ essential, and invaluable listening.

Winter's Song

Crake - Winter's Song

I KNOW THAT YOU’RE IN LOVE WITH ME

Out beyond the city's lights
Make a bed of the hillside

Stare at the celestial sky
Enveloping your sight and mind

Could I fall upwards forever?
Past the edge of the heavens?

Little planet spinning round
Why must we fall only down?

Sweet escape above the ground
Lungs might burst but here we only drown

Could I fall upwards forever?
Past the edge of the heavens?

Stars

This started today as a simple Waterboys /REM groove then we  added Floyd, Echo and the Bunny men ,Talking Heads, Psychedelic furs, Julian Cope, and Modern Lovers. Then a bit of Neil Young and psychedelic Stones and Beatles , served with a splash of the Cure and the Fall. We can't  ever hide from our musical influences.

A Crystal Ship

Max Koste

Recent comments

Céline Krizan

Related tracks