“Red Flags” by Blonde Diamond

One of my most anticipated albums for next year is the debut full length from Vancouver’s Blonde Diamond, and their latest single is just reinforcing that excitement. “Red Flags” features the band’s rich sounds and singer Alexis Young’s killer vocals, and was written to help break the silence that so many people feel about speaking up about abusive relationships.

Young says: "Post the breakup of a very long relationship and at a particularly vulnerable moment in my life, through a chance encounter I found myself in a relationship that was—on its surface—everything that I was looking for. "he romance, the infatuation, the lust. It was the type of affair that you only read about in books and see in films. However, the red flags had presented themselves from the get-go and I initially ignored them. I wanted to see the good in this person, and believe that I could be a strong and positive force in their life. When it finally got to the point that I allowed myself to accept that it was abusive and emotionally manipulative, I felt stupid and ashamed that I could be so naïve and easily coerced into such a spiral of entrapment and darkness. I wanted to write this song not just as a form of healing for my own experience, but also as a message to others that you CAN walk away. That you're not alone. And that it's easy to get swept up and lose perspective when you're in the eye of the storm."

Kirk

“Hang in Pieces” by Riches

In the wake of Young Galaxy, singer Catherine McCandless has been hard at work with her new project, Riches, a collaboration between her and choreographer Wynn Holmes. After releasing their debut album just over a year ago, they’re already teasing their next with the first single “Hang in Pieces”.

The ethereal, shoegaze-y song “articulates the altered, psychedelic, and beautiful web of intersecting ideas, senses, and feelings within the creative process.”

Hit play below, then close your eyes and float away.

Kirk

“Eclipse” by Raine Hamilton

The latest song from Raine Hamilton (no relation… as far as I know) came out at the perfect time. “Eclipse” was released on Friday, mere hours before the longest partial lunar eclipse in six centuries.

Timing aside, Raine’s delicate voiced dances beautifully with the violin, for a song that was written after she witnessed a full lunar eclipse in the mid winter, saying ”it was profound. The loss of the reassuring light of the moon is a lot to handle, especially when we are already in our darkest moments of the winter. I learned a lot by sitting with the dark through that experience. There was something about enduring, moving through, and accepting that darkness that made me more able to trust my own ability to endure, move through, and accept. That winter eclipse taught me that I can make it through my own darkness, too."

“Eclipse” is from Raine's upcoming album, Brave Land, which drops on January 21st of next year, and check out the cool shadow puppet video below!

Kirk