Must Be That Time Of The Year

Tomora “Ring the Alarm”

Tomora is a collaboration between the Norwegian indie pop singer Aurora and Tom Rowlands of The Chemical Brothers. It’s an interesting combination that pushes both artists to unexpected extremes, mostly resulting in harsher and more abrasive music than either typically creates. “Ring the Alarm” is particularly bold, a clanging ultra-urgent banger that dials up the intensity on Rowlands’ usual Chemical Brothers tricks and nudges Aurora fully out of her ethereal comfort zone and into wilder Slits/Siouxsie-ish post-punk territory.

Buy it from Tomora.

Jeane “Emotional Baby”

This song is self-deprecating, but only up to a point. Jazz Johnston sings about being emotional and irrational and being a feeler with real big feelings, but it’s all delivered in a cool, calm, and collected tone. As the song glides along on a lightly bouncing alt-rock groove it becomes increasingly clear that she’s lightly taunting the listener and questioning their assumptions about how she lives. And by the end, she’s openly confronting and judging anyone who feels threatened by her feelings: “ain’t it so sad that you can’t contain someone so emotional?” She flips the supposed weakness into a strength, or even a sort of superpower.

Buy it from Amazon.