Kevin Bronson on June 29th, 2022

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Quick reads on songs you really oughta hear: New singles from Zella Day, Oscar Lang & Wallice, POP ETC and PHONY …

ZELLA DAY, “Radio Silence”

Zella Day’s “Radio Silence” is powerful stuff, and by that we mean intensely personal and delivered with a soaring urgency reminiscent of the late Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries. And considering the Supreme Court’s gutting of Roe vs. Wade last week, it’s topical, too. The backstory: “I had life-threatening complications with a pregnancy three years ago, and I can’t even imagine what it would have been like had I not been given the freedom to make my own choices for myself and my body at that time,” Day says. “As Simone de Beauvoir wrote, ‘The body is not a thing, it’s a situation.’ It’s as if the world has turned its back on us at our most vulnerable, when we are faced with a decision that will change our lives forever.” Co-written with Alex Casnoff (Jonathan Wilson, Harriet) and featuring backing vocals from Miya Folick, the song is the follow-up to Day’s 2021 singles “Dance for Love,” “Golden” and “Girls.” We also direct your attention to the lyrics on the YouTube post.

OSCAR LANG & WALLICE, “I’ve Never Been to L.A.”

London-based songwriter-producer Oscar Lang (see his album “Chewing the Scenery”) teams up Wallice Watanabe (aka Wallice, she of the “90s American Superstar” EP) on the sunny bop “I’ve Never Been to L.A.” It sounds like somebody did MGMT edibles and washed them with the SoCal Kool-Aid. “‘I’ve Never Been To L.A.’ is an anthem for all those people that have only ever seen sunny Los Angeles through the eyes of Hollywood. An imaginary world where you get to hold your hands in the air while cruising down the freeway soaking up American hyper-consumerism.” He asked labelmate Wallice to be on the track; she, in turn, urged him to come visit. “When I first heard the demo that Oscar sent, I was driving down the freeway headed home during a beautiful orange L.A. sunset and I loved the song,” Wallice says. “I think that’s the ideal time and activity to be doing while listening to this song. I was born and raised in L.A. and Oscar had never been here, but when I met up with him last year in London he said he wanted to come out and visit.”

POP ETC, “Heart Attack”

The follow-up to “Slips Away,” released in April, POP ETC takes a more somber note on “Heart Attack.” The hymn-like tone is understandable. “Recently, I had a pretty crazy near-death experience from complications to an autoimmune disease I have,” frontman Chris Chu says. “I woke up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water and I guess somewhere along the way I passed out. Luckily, my partner heard me fall and was able to get me up and to the hospital. I have pretty much no memory of the whole thing. All I can remember is being trapped in this groggy purgatory watery state where I felt constantly half-asleep and half-awake. The day I got home, I wrote this song. It’s a song about choosing to live. To keep on trying even in the face of all the crazy shit life throws at us.”

PHONY, “Kaleidoscope” (feat. Petey)

Singer-songwriter and Joyce Manor touring guitarist Neil Berthier enlists his old college roommate Petey to sing on the new PHONY single, “Kaleidoscope,” a heart-rending track that Berthier penned amid the grief of the passing of his father. He had introduced the new PHONY album, “At Some Point You Stop” (out July 29) with the beefy rocker “Summer’s Cold.” This is not that. “This song is about gaining perspective and the importance of looking at things from every angle,” Berthier says. “I’ve never had a song that was just piano but it was the first thing that came to mind. Petey and I … [had] never played with each other on a record. I called him up one day and said, ‘You wanna sing on this piano song of mine?’ and he said of course. I had everything written already, so we just got bagels then hung at the house for an hour and it was done.”