Now Listening: This Week's Tracks
Roller Derby - “Always on My Mind”
“Always on my Mind” is Hamburg-based Roller Derby’s latest indie-pop single. The lively, guitar-driven song, featuring 80s elements like shimmer and a catchy hook, celebrates togetherness and friendship, near or far. The music video follows Roller Derby’s travels and performances on tour, giving “Always on My Mind” another meaning: one of artist and listener connection. Lead vocalist Philine Meyer delivers a vulnerable bridge which presents a momentary anxiety: “Save me and awake me, don’t break my heart in two.” However, the refrain returns with confidence: “You’re always on my mind, you’re always in my heart, you said you will never let me down.” Roller Derby share the following on their plans for 2023: “[2022 was] full of great new experiences. We are thankful for that. We are looking forward to so much more to come. We are working on new music and plans for 2023.”
Freedom Fry - “If the World Was Mine”
Sometimes things are just better in our dreams and Freedom Fry’s first single of 2023, “If the World Was Mine” encapsulates that longing for an ideal life perfectly. It’s a track about erasing the past and starting anew in a place that’s handmade for you. There’s a feeling of comfort and sweetness that embodies this notion of belonging the song invites which is surprisingly addictive at first listen. The release is accompanied by a somber tone and a light instrumental backdrop. Combined with bittersweet lyrics and a twang of nostalgia for easier days, the song is beautifully unfamiliar and delightfully strange. It's not what you’d expect from an indie-rock ballad about the end of the world, in fact, it’s the total opposite. Where the songwriters could have touched up the mediocrity of remedial tasks, they briefly note their disillusionment at how things have turned out and are quick to conjure up a new path for themselves. Haunting is not the word for it––resonant would be better. Even after disconnecting the headphones and turning off the track, there’s an air of residual fondness that remains. It’s almost an ode to the feel-good nature of the song’s storyline and alluring melodies. Just like in the lyrics, the beginning and end of the release fall on two completely dissimilar sides of the same coin. One is loathsome, and despairing, while the other is cautiously optimistic and unabashedly oblivious. The striking similarity: The existence of this antithesis makes the listening experience a memorable one. Chances are, the track will make its listener contemplate that utopic world, and make them sentimental about a place that was never there in the first place. It resembles the magic that comes from everyday people having larger dreams than they can carry, which is exactly what a great indie song is supposed to do.
