WRBB Selects #1

Check out some of the top tracks of the week hand-selected by WRBB's General Manager Billy!

An Embroidery – Clarissa Connelly

Avant-Folk and Art Pop artist Clarissa Connelly announced her new album, and first for Warp Records, World of Work last week, and along with it came this new single.The track starts subtly, with Connelly’s baroque-influenced vocals flowing along with a guitar motif and a bell chiming. As the song builds, the bell becomes louder, signifying some sort of impending doom that eventually reveals itself. Squealing guitars and Connelly’s screeching vocals at the climax grow into a moment of cathartic release. Along with November’s Wee Rosebud, An Embroidery is nothing if not a reason to keep an eye out for more from Clarissa Connelly.

go! - BbyMutha

Fun fact about Chattanooga, TN hip-hop artist BbyMutha: She is in fact a mother, a mother of 4 children! As a result, she has no time for your BS, which comes across clearly in her music and in her new single for her album sleep paralysis, which is out in April on True Panther. BbyMutha’s hard-hitting southern hip-hop bars bounce one after the other over a stellar trap beat from producer Rock Floyd. Stand-out lines include “Meet me at the church, pistol to my head I just might leave her in a hearse,” and “I can’t allow you to step on my heart, not when I bought the shoes.”

Milly Max - Lip Critic

New York City electronic punk band Lip Critic create pumping and danceable tunes for a modern age of punk fans. Cynical and aggressive lyrics about dying for your sins are driven by heavy synth lines and pounding drums on their new single Milky Max. The song makes you want to dance and jump around, then even start moshing when the chorus comes in. Some synth and dance-infused punk band comparisons would be fellow NYC band Model/Actriz, Hattiesburg, and MS band MSPAINT. Milky Max, along with the previously released singles It’s the Magic and The Heart (both of which go just as hard), will be featured on the band’s debut album Hex Dealer, which is out May 17th on Partisan Records.

Life is - Jessica Pratt

With her first new music in 5 years, Jessica Pratt returned with a psychedelic and ethereal singer-songwriter banger last week. Life is kicks off with a marching drum beat that keeps a steady pace through the track. Pratt enters with her distinctive nostalgic vocals, singing of insecurity around the trajectory of her life. As the song progresses, Pratt finds comfort in the unknowing and the passage of time, all while her life marches on just like the drumbeat. The song closes with a chant of “time is time and time and time again,” as the drums fade out. Pratt’s new album Here in the Pitch is out May 3rd on Mexican Summer.

The Invisible Mean - Maruja

English Post-Rock/Art Rock band Maruja exploded onto the scene last year with their critically acclaimed EP Knocknarea, and they finished up the year with two more new singles. Their first new music of 2024 might just be their greatest effort yet, as the 6-minute epic The Invisible Man is filled with what makes the band so great. Dramatic and crushing melodies pave the way for poetic lyrics about a man suffering from trauma and depression. Band member Joe Carrol’s alto saxophone, something that makes Maruja stand out among their contemporaries, sounds as on point as ever, especially during an especially emotional sequence in the beginning over the course of a gradual crescendo and tempo increase. The rest of the band slowly joins in until a dramatic and cathartic release in which vocalist Harry Wilkinson repeats “The truth! It hides!” over and over. Maruja’s sect of technical and apocalyptic rock never fails to impress, and if the band’s output for the rest of the year is anything like this, they are definitely a band to look out for.