Recommended: Kiah Victoria, Bishop Nehru, Julia Biel, Blushes, Hollie Cook

In Rec­om­mend­ed today: Kiah Vic­to­ria push­es against cor­rup­tion with catchy pop resilience, hip hop artist Bish­op Nehru takes flight, Julia Biel is on top form on a song burst­ing with bright inti­ma­cy, Blush­es have got a sweet tooth, and reg­gae songstress Hol­lie Cook is here to help us all stay alive.

*** Lis­ten to even more new music on The Fresh List playlist ***

‘Remedy’ by Kiah Victoria

Kiah Vic­to­ria (pic­tured) has returned in spec­tac­u­lar style. ‘Rem­e­dy’ is a stir­ring, bril­liant new song about the cor­rup­tion and divi­sion in the USA today. This isn’t a preachy mono­logue or a meek cry for atten­tion: it’s an assertive dis­play of resilience that man­ages bal­ance social­ly aware vers­es with catchy pop hooks. Sparse per­cus­sion, lin­ger­ing piano knocks and soft­ly spo­ken truths from the LA-based singer-songwriter.

Con­trast­ing with ref­er­ences to water short­ages and cor­rup­tion is hope as Vic­to­ria sam­ples a stir­ring speech by Michelle Oba­ma and anoth­er catchy hook from Vic­to­ria her­self. We real­ly couldn’t be more excit­ed to hear more from this uplift­ing artist.

Vic­to­ria is join­ing Jessie Ware for her upcom­ing UK spring tour, which includes Glas­gow (Mar 20), New­cas­tle (Mar 21), Man­ches­ter (Mar 23), Lon­don (Mar 28), Sheffield (Mar 31), and Bournemouth (April 1).

‘Up, Up & Away (feat. Lion Babe)’ by Bishop Nehru

Touch­ing down with some seri­ous fire straight from a phoenix’s tail feath­ers is this new col­lab­o­ra­tion between Bish­op Nehru and Lion Babe. If you’ve come across any of Bishop’s music since his 2013 mix­tapes cat­a­pult­ed the then-teenag­er into the music busi­ness, you’ll know that he’s some­thing of a prodi­gy. On this sub­lime track, pro­duced by Kay­trana­da, Bish­op and Lion Babe have giv­en us a bold sound­track to growth.

‘Up, Up & Away’ is tak­en from Bishop’s forth­com­ing album, Ele­va­tors, which is due to be released inde­pen­dent­ly on March 16. The 10-track album has been pro­duced by Kay­trana­da and MF Doom. Bish­op has described the album as being his “attempt at a ‘rap’ Pet Sounds”. If you’re par­tial Tyler, The Cre­ator, Earl Sweat­shirt, Loyle Carn­er, or the leg­endary Doom, do your­self a favour and give Bish­op a listen.

‘Say It Out Loud’ by Julia Biel

We’ve got so much ado­ra­tion for this stu­pen­dous song by Lon­don singer-song­writer, Julia Biel. Biel is thor­ough­ly mag­net­ic on ‘Say It out Loud’, a song about that instance when some­one you know won’t say how they real­ly feel. Imag­ine a trio of enchant­ed musi­cal instru­ments – rhythm gui­tar, bass and drums –  spark­ing into life, Dis­ney-style, to pro­vide inti­mate, arrest­ing back­ing to the singer and her hon­eyed vocals. This a lean-in expe­ri­ence that will be a fast favourite for fans of Corinne Bai­ley Rae and Mar­ti­na Topley-Bird.

Julia Biel, the self-titled third album, by Julia Biel is out now on Rokit Records.

‘Honey’ by Blushes

Brood­ing synths and gnash­ing basslines are the jux­ta­po­si­tion to Blush­es ode to falling for a sweet thang that you just know is nev­er going to last. Aid­ed by pro­duc­er Ian Fly­nn, the Ayles­bury four-piece’s lat­est exper­i­ment in funk-rock will get under your skin like thick treacle.

‘Stay Alive’ by Hollie Cook

Lon­don-based reg­gae songstress Hol­lie Cook returned with her third album, Ves­sel of Love, in Jan­u­ary. Pro­duced by Mar­tin ‘Youth’ Glover, the whole album is a rhyth­mic revi­tal­i­sa­tion that moves the hips and nour­ish­es the spir­it. ‘Stay Alive’ – which is about what else but get­ting through this mad expe­ri­ence we know as “life” – does that with its neck-high waves of a dub and the echoes of Cook’s vocals that coast gen­tle over them.

*** Lis­ten to even more new music on The Fresh List playlist ***

Image: Max Knight