Samantha Urbani has some great news to share. Following the release of “More Than A Feeling” last month, the former Friends singer has finally detailed the release of her long-awaited debut album, Showing Up. She also unveiled the second single, “One Day At A Time,” of which she stated:

“Ok, ok. I am the tough guy and I am dead serious. I am an advocate, a protector, and an activist. I’m also a total crusher and yolo’er and I take the sweet risks and I justify it all to myself even when I know I myself am being the idiot. This is basically the cutie goofer song about wanting the player and drawing it out. Kissing you FEELS vital to my survival! I know its NOT! It’s just a FEELING! BUT THATS A BIG FEELING! THATS A HUGE LONGING! THATS A LONG ACHING! Urgh, can’t we just ween it off little by little? Once a week act in love? Fuck it up one day at a time? Not fuck it up all at once?”

Since Friends, which disbanded in the early 2010s, Samantha Urbani has only dropped one solo EP (Policies of Power, 2017). So when the cool indie girl returned back in 2019 with her cathartic bop “Made Of Love,” we got pretty excited. Unfortunately, nothing followed. However, Urbani is back today with another single, “More Than A Feeling,” which features Australia-born whistling musician Molly Lewis. And yeah, Lewis is dressed as the Statue of Liberty in the accompanying video, directed by Urbani herself. Is more music coming soon? Only if she feels like it. So what? Just watch the video and get the track via Bandcamp below in the meantime.

Taking any period of time away from music is always a risky business, yet Samantha Urbani justifies her two-year absence to astonishing effect on “Made in Love”, her first release since the 2017 EP Policies of Power. “Made in Love” plays out as the most complete reflection of what Urbani has been grasping at since her days spent in the band Friends. She is always at her best when being utterly true to herself and feeding from her most honest feelings. And that’s exactly what “Made in Love” sounds like.

Brimming with energy, “Made in Love” is delightfully airy and spacious, building on the infectious funk and 90’s R&B vibes that have continuously permeated her sound throughout her career. “Made in Love” is the truest form of her music: it’s the crest of all of her influences perfectly collated and drawn up into a beautiful release which is one of her most plain and honest sounding tracks to date.

The track is reminiscent of a summer’s day spent walking around a crowded city, filled with unmarred joy. It’s utter soul food, proper music for your mind, body and soul. Produced by Nick Weiss, “Made in Love” is expectedly vibrant but delicately balanced as each element is so wonderfully implemented onto the next. It’s not overly complex, not superfluous or gratuitously grandiose, but it has the signature Samantha Urbani confidence and zeal that’s remarkably irresistible.

For a song that was – in part – borne from grief and profound loss after the death of her friend Sam Mehran, the feeling that prevails is one of healing, hope, and love.

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Samantha Urbani recently released her debut solo EP ‘Policies Of Power’ which features her recent singles ‘Go Deeper‘ and ‘Hints and Implications‘. There is now a Daniel J. Algarin-directed video for the latter and it’s a psychedelic anthology of everything you can expect from the 80s. There are flashing lights, lasers, not-that-futuristic effects and Samantha Urbani even looks like Madonna in her ‘Like A Virgin’ era.

About those new visuals, Samantha Urbani detailed:

[su_quote]The concept of the video was originally meant to be a surrealist inescapable nightmare, “A Dream Within a Dream” (my favorite Poe poem) as the songs about an impossible communication block and the ontology of interpersonal truth itself — juxtaposed with the absurdity of mundane life, I kept saying “Twilight Zone x Maya Deren x Clerks” (three of my favorite and most relatable things ever), but as the video started coming together more through the edit than the treatment, it related to the sound of the song more than the concept — New Wave x nu metal.[/su_quote]

Before adding:

[su_quote]We tied it into the amazing EP artwork by Brodie Kaman and held it up to the coloring genius of the video for Lush’s first video for De Luxe & the genius Jean Paul Goude x Grace Jones images…starring my most Edward furlong self, in my mystic pizza hat.[/su_quote]

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Samantha Urbani‘s ‘Policies of Power’ EP is now available via Lucky Number. Watch her new video ‘Hints and Implications’ below and connect with the Brooklyn-based artist via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Every week, Free scours through hundreds of SoundCloud tracks to find the best new gems by artists that are flying under the radar.

Each week our Brussels-based fellow overwhelms you with a variety of songs that make your head go nuts. This week, he offers us a playlist with a summer vibe! Here are a few of his favorites:

TR/ST – Bicep:

As sure you can be the best pop comes from Sweden, that how it’s a certainty the best weird electropop find its origin in Canada. TR/ST is one of my all time favorites and with “Bicep”, he’s going more coldwave than ever. The fast rhythmic baseline, ominous dark synths draped with the shrill-ish voice of Robert Alfons bring enough new and classic TR/ST elements to call it one of his best songs ever.

Kedr Livanskiy – Ariadna / Love & Cigarettes:

Since her marvellous debut EP “January Sun”, Yana Kedrani aka Kedr Livanskiy is one of my new favourite ambient though melodic electronic singers/producers. Not as catchy and straightforward as Kelly Lee Owens but compensating with lots of weirdness and dusty noises – recalling the early Grimes – she sounds very ‘now’, as even the dreampop shoegaze influences are there. “Ariadna” is the melancholic though euphoric sad song of the two, “Love & Cigarettes” the opening song at a dark hipster club.

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mgz – Iphone True Love:

My discovery of this week: YOUNG VIBEZ. A Spanish collective/label mixing latin American uplifting vibes with the new hipster-gabber trend. Not a lot is known about the collective, but I wanna dance on their VIBEZZZZ.

Another week of fresh tracks by breaking artists around the world — brought to you by FREE. Check the full playlist below!

Check on Free‘s playlist every Thursday on HighClouds and follow our curator on Soundcloud.

Samantha Urbani is a multi-talented artist who was also the front member of the band Friends. She has been releasing solo singles, like ‘1 2 3 4’ and ‘U Know I Know’, for some time now and we will be able to get all her previous singles in an upcoming EP. ‘Policies of Power’ will be released on August 18 via Lucky Number/URU.

After the release of ‘Go Deeper‘ last week, Urbani has now shared ‘Hints and Implications’, the opening track of the EP. Listen to it below.

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Tracklist of ‘Policies of Power EP’:

01 “Hints And Implications”
02 “1 2 3 4″
03 “U Know I Know”
04 “Go Deeper”
05 “Time Time Time”

In the wake of her previous dives into 90’s and 80’s pop music with her band Friends, Samantha Urbani takes the whole revival fascination a step further, with a self-directed video alternating blurry auras in the dark with slow-mo wet hair.

Although the track could suffer an over-the-top dedication to nostalgia, it is somehow saved by a chorus with jazzier chord progressions, hinting at sounds like St Germain‘s or Groove Armada‘s. The surprising voice placement and the Twin-Peaksian ending also contribute to making the song more interesting than what appears at first glance, but there is still a long way to go for her to reach the bottom of it all.

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[su_dropcap style=”simple”]S[/su_dropcap]ince her band Friends split off some years ago, American singer-songwriter Samantha Urbani tries to pursue a solo career. Last year, she released the amazing “1 2 3 4” and the promising “U Know I Know”. Now, she opens this new year with “Alien”, a cover of British pop duo Rexy.

If you don”t know them, this is normal. They released only a single album back in 1981. “Running Out Of Time” became a real influence for a lot of alternative artists, including Urbani. She said in a press release:

“I first heard Running Out Of Time a few months after I had formed my own first (and only) band, Friends, and I heard natural similarities to the music I was already creating that made me feel very at home in listening to the album – like a companion that understood me – and enough differences to feel inspired, fascinated, and infatuated… There were songs about feeling alien amongst societally ‘normal’ humans, being suspicious of ‘music industry’ types who come off as vampiric, out of touch, and deceptive, songs about cops being scary righteous idiots, songs about forlorn yet zen-like acceptance of lost love – all things I felt so deeply at the time. And it was sung all in the most natural, un-self-conscious, spunky, sassy, and unaffected young woman’s voice – a record that was something truly punk, truly individualist, in that it was purely itself.”

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By the way, her label U R U (that she just launched) will reissue the LP with Lucky Number on March 18. You can listen to the original version of the track here:

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