Kassi Valazza – Your Heart’s A Tin Box

The warm hazy country shimmer in Kassi’s music certainly caught my attention in 2023 with her wonderful ‘Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing’ album and she has pushed on further up and further in with this years ‘From Newman Street’ LP. That same analogue tone remains but do I detect a little more bite and punch this time? That jumps out of this song with an opening lyric that seems to pull its own limbs out in frustration at the state of the music business now. Honestly, if I won the lottery I would make sure artists like Valazza are worrying a lot less about making ends meet and just focusing on their craft as they should be. You hear too much these days about artists playing sell out shows and still running at a loss and I guess this song is evidence that Kassi endures similar battles. What we fail to understand is that the real artists are in it because their craft is a calling, they do not see it as a ticket to wealth and luxury. They just have to make their music. We should be glad that Kassi Valazza is doing just that, this is the authentic sound of country in 2025 and it is pretty damn marvellous…

My Morning Jacket – Half A Lifetime

Jim James and his rootsy rocking band are reliably dependable when it comes to new music. There may not be reinventing the Southern rock templates they perpetually swim around in but their music is full of crunching melodic groove and to this day, every time they put out a new record (as they have here with ‘Is’) you can be sure there will be at least a handful of classic sounding pop/rock hooks to stimulate the senses of the listener…

Greentea Peng – Raw

Here is another artist who I have raved about in the past, in this case around the time of her stunning ‘Man Made’ debut LP back in 2021. Well, Greentea Peng has now released ‘Tell Dem It’s Sunny’ and in addition to reporting on it being a sharp, confident and attention grabbing step back into the ring, it is also thrilling to observe how her sound is evolving. Where before I would say the dominant vibe was a dub heavy throbbing rumble, in 2025 there is a real soul in the voice breaking out of these tracks and the music itself, as heard on this undeniable live clip, is a tasty mix of trip-hop and jazzy motions. Dig into this right away…

Father John Misty – I Guess Time Just Makes Fools Of Us All

Not exactly a new one as it appeared on the Father John Misty album released late last year, ‘Mahashmashana’, but it is new to me and jumped out of the radio speakers the other day demanding some attention and love. The Misty baroque chamber pop aesthetic remains, as you would expect, but it is just such a head turner when an artist can occupy this space with songs that sound so simultaneously fresh but also like they have been around forever (well since 1971 or thereabout anyway). Sometimes it happens that a songwriter stumbles on a bit of low hanging fruit, a title that surely has to have been used before but it is available and they then tack a brilliantly crafted new song to it, which seems to be what has occurred here…

St Vincent – Violent Times

While the Fresh Juice weekly offerings were away for a time on this site, I guess I missed quite a few releases and tracks I would have loved to have featured. So, here is another recent live performance by an artist whose 2024 album ‘All Born Screaming’ has subsequently won Grammy awards but even more significantly, remains a worthy inclusion in this weeks Fresh Juice half dozen. I personally do not believe St Vincent to have fallen short with any releases for more than fifteen years, which basically covers the whole of their career. Annie’s execution of art-rock presentation alongside beautiful, sometimes abrasive, occasionally challenging but always worth listening to music makes her one of the definitive artists of the early 21st century period in music. Digitally witness her in action on late night TV here…

Wet Leg – Catch These Fists

Finally for this week another selection from the recent highlights of music on TV file. Wet Leg have reawakened and sound like they will not be among those who suffer from underwhelming second album syndrome. Their debut record was three years ago but from what I can see here, the time has been well spent pushing their sound into far rockier, a lot edgier and even a possibly more violent realm? Obviously if you perform on TV with an angry zombie sitting at the back of the stage then you are consciously not presenting something too cute but the jagged edges on display with this one suggest that new Wet Leg album could well be worth waiting for…