Each month, we’re rounding up the latest local music that’s been on repeat. Follow our Spotify playlist to keep up with new music releases from Minnesota.
“I Am For You” by Har-Di-Har
After taking a hiatus to grow their family, Andrew and Julie Thoreen of Har-Di-Har have returned with a genuinely delicious new song in “I Am For You.” The song has almost 12K plays in just under two weeks, and shows the evolution of their songwriting. It carries layers and layers of melodies over at times dense instrumentals and at other times crunchy guitar riffs. It’s a song of extraordinary invention, an innovation of ideas, with a delicate chorus nestled on top; “I Am For You” is a case of making a song that is more than the sum of its parts.
“Halfway” by Ber
Ber is quickly making a name for herself before Minnesota can claim her for its own. Her new album gives you everything: dance tunes, pop influences, and ballads all wrapped into one space. “Halfway” spotlights her melodic vocals over sparse instrumentals. The song was written in a New York hotel room over Zoom after telling her friends that she had finally accepted a break up. Ber bathes you in her pain, yet the song is unnervingly warm and cozy. She takes a gentle folk music approach and skewers it with shards of pop, holding you softly, albeit with a worryingly strong grip.
“Midwestern Daughter” by Haley E Rydell
Haley E Rydell is celebrating her first single “Midwestern Daughter” off her upcoming album of the same name, recently fully funded on Kickstarter. The record is ten years in the making and chronicles love, loss, and coming to terms with being gay in a small town. Rydell shared, “I ignored those feelings and settled down into the life I thought I was supposed to be living. Until I couldn’t anymore.” The title track is vulnerable and immensely wistful. When you listen, you hear Rydell’s lost dreams kicking up in the dirt as she bravely drives away from a past life.
“Kick in the Teeth” by Hippo Campus
Hippo Campus is back with a brilliantly charming pop song about love and loneliness. The band mixes pop, rock, country with some trumpets as they sing: “So when you go home, could you think about me?/I’m about as lonely as a cowboy can be/And a night without you is a kick in the teeth/So when you go home, could you think about me?” Hippo Campus knows how to craft songs with cunning aplomb, along with a signature chorus that carries it for miles.
“Perfect and Pretend” by SYM1
Sleek and smooth, the sounds coming from SYM1 bring you to a nightclub set bathed with dark, throbbing lights. Their latest single “Perfect and Pretend” is a brilliant, bouncing, kaleidoscopic jab of pop, filled to the brim with pulsating drum loops, and contains melodies that will create an earworm late into the night. SYM1 is ear-deep in algorithms, and moves and bends as layer after layer of heavy, enticing sound pile on top of one another.
“Lee Scratch Perry” by Moise
If you’re in the mood to get out of the winter blues with a wavy, day dream-worthy tune released by local singer and songwriter Moise, do we have the song for you. Moise’s groovy sound waves have been hitting the local music scene since 2017 with the release of his first single “Wildflower,” and since, he’s been found jumping around local stages with indie boy band, DNM, and collaborating on recent music videos with local creative Effy Kawira.
“It’s So Stupid to Be That Maniacal” by Brotherkenzie
The Twin Cities’ favorite indie boy-band, Hippo Campus, has proven their ability to redefine their sound as a group or as separate artists time and time again. Think Jake Lupen’s “Lupen,” Zach Sutton’s “Boundary,” and DeCarlo Jackson’s new indie trio, DNM. Low and behold—the group’s guitarist extraordinaire, Nathan Stalker, has released his new album Bloodsucker under his independent music identity, Brotherkenzie. Lots of piano, lots of lyrical play, and lots of experimentation. Need we say more?
“Special” by Lizzo feat. SZA
We support friends supporting friends, and this new remix of Lizzo’s self-empowerment anthem by her bestie SZA will have you feeling pretty darn special too.
“Lose You” by Bully feat. Soccer Mommy
Time to get lost: The Rosemount native Alicia Bognanno, better known by her moniker Bully, is back with a scorching garage-rock song, aided by fellow Nashville songwriter Sophia Allison.