Like every June, our team hold a very serious – not so serious – committee meeting and pick their favourite tracks of the first semester. That way, you can go on holidays with a cool soundtrack. No need to thank us. You can find these 20 entries in alphabetical order below as well as in our Spotify and Apple Music playlists, which also contain some other great contenders that were released over the last six months.

Anika – “Change”
Bobbie Lovesong – “Organic Orange”
Burial – “Space Cadet”
Cabiria – “Abrigo de Sol”
Cassandra Jenkins – “Hard Drive”
Dawn Richard – “Boomerang”
Erika de Casier – “Polite”
Japanese Breakfast – “Be Sweet”
Jordana + Magdalena Bay – “Push Me Away”
Katy Kirby – “Portals”
Kero Kero Bonito – “Well Rested”
L’Rain – “Two Face”
Mette – “Petrified”
Mia Porter – “Pivot”
Mr Twin Sister – “Expressions”
Nana Yamato – “Do You Wanna”
Rachika Nayar – “The Trembling of Glass”
Slayyyter – “Clouds”
Theodora – “For One Heart”
Tirzah – “Tectonic”

Bobbie Lovesong is a name that sounds more likely to belong to a cowboy than a psych-pop musician. In fact, much of the lore surrounding Bobbie— the alias of producer, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter Madelyn Strutz— could come straight out of a John Wayne film. The Midwesterner made her way to the West Coast by working as a farmer throughout the Pacific Northwest in the early 2010’s. Her latest album– a dizzying feat of creativity entitled On The Wind— was recorded while Lovesong was enduring lockdown in Taos, New Mexico with a hitherto long-distance love. The two lived communally with a group of musicians, an environment where Lovesong was able to write and record her entire album on her own. Lovesong’s story– and her sound– seems to embrace the beautiful parts of the past while existing squarely in the present-day. Ultimately, this old-yet-new quality makes the album into an instant classic.

“Why’d It Gotta Take So Long?” is a standout track on On The Wind. A lazy and lacerating anti-love song, it tells a tale of a romance gone sour. The song begins with plucky strings as Lovesong sings with a layered, crinkly effect, “Time has passed / Now I see / The love we gave / Was incomplete.” She continues, “Why’d it gotta take so long? / To figure out your love’s all wrong / Knowing now you’re not the one / But why’d it gotta take so long.” After a brief banjo interlude, Lovesong hints toward a reason to have hope, “Grateful for the man to show me light / Show me I can love again in life / Moving on I’ve got no fear / I love much better more clear.” Though Lovesong’s instrumentation and production is purposeful, there’s a low-quality sheen that surprisingly sweetens the track. The simplicity and lo-fi nature of “Why’d It Gotta Take So Long” makes it sound like a campfire song penned by Elliott Smith about a lost love. In case it’s unclear, the resulting sound is inventive and insanely listenable.

Though Lovesong and her lover have parted ways and left Taos, the album (and the breathtaking “Why’d It Gotta Take So Long”) remain. Check out the track (and the accompanying video) and buy On The Wind via Bandcamp below.