Today, Lola released a refined sophomore album “Written In The Stars” featuring all of the tracks starting off with The Map for Aries season (the first sign of the zodiac) going through the seasons one by one and full circle.

Lola Coca has had awesome successes as an independent artist including a Fifa synch deal, her viral song GQ in China on TikTok and millions of streams for her now two albums worth of brilliantly clever, intellectually stimulating and empowering pop songs.

The one song a month challenge is not easy for any artist, so see an independent artist breaking the glass ceiling in this way and literally reaching for the stars is super empowering.

The tracks are all beautifully produced and harness a different energy for each season, really bringing to life the depth of astrology through a sonic and lyrical medium. It’s outstanding and pioneering work in the conscious and spiritual music space.

A personal favourite from the record is The Age of Aquarius and as an Aquarian deity herself, Lola invites us to collectively manifest the utopian future we deserve.

You can experience the twelve track album in full on all streaming platforms. Artwork by Lefteris Primos.

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First of all, Jared Gelman’s “Never Know What It’s Like” takes on the hyper relevant paradigm of understanding gender dysphoria and expression through a heart felt ballad produced by genius Ray Riech and the lens of a stunning futuristic video (image above) shot in LA directed by Maria Skobeleva – but again a perspective of the city that is rarely shown in media. Jared truly is “an enigma, trapped by the stigma”.

Next up is a debut from Jesse Saint John who I’ve written about here for years since his work with Brooke Candy and evolution to become one of the most sought-after pop writers in the world – penning tracks with Sia, album smashes for Britney and recently for Camila Cabello. Jesse is a conceptual genius by any other name, and his song MOVE is a gym friendly, genre bending banger which does exactly what it says – makes you want to MOVE. Obviously the lyrics are completely brilliant and my personal favourite is the sass imbued “jerking me around but all that jerking can’t be too good for your health.”

Another super intelligent being I have had the honour of working with in the past is Kojey Radical – a multi-disciplinary artist who has evolved to become the face of cleverly constructed poetry as rap. Not sticking to any specific genre, Kojey is a pop/rap/rockstar with a soul and consciousness and this comes through again in If Only – a song about his experience with depression and the culture of sadness.

On the topic of loneliness, the enigmatic entity that is Lola Coca – super empath and London’s answer to pop’s impending new universe of quality and soul intertwined simultaneously has just released “A World Without Love” via Instant Records, celebrating women and the various connections between them. I love the guitar middle 8, it feels like The Beatles at a beach which is actually full of love.

Last but by no means least, M. Tennyson just released his debut single “Easy”, premiered via Out Magazine with the most incredible depth and filled super memorable hooks. I am so happy to see my friends leaving their sonic imprint like this, 4th density art at it’s finest.

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So why YouTube? What exactly is the issue here? This double standard is nothing less than homophobia. Mykki just Tweeted “Our society grants hetero privilege to parade overly sexualized images of women for a cis male gaze yet Queer imagery is policied, demeaned.”

In addition, I am completely in support of Mykki’s vocalisation on the fact that black publications such as VIBE, BET etc. refuse to cover his or most queer POC’s work – another archaic stigma that queer and politically skewed artists of colour have to deal with because they don’t fit into white mainstream media or “traditional” hip hop media’s idea of what works.

Anyway, that said, the video for Loner is a visually enigmatic work of art that pushed cultural and marketing boundaries and every single person involved should be so proud. Let’s hope this YouTube ban is lifted and if anything just generates more press and talking points for Mykki.

In the meantime, watch it on Pornhub (cos new experiences are fun).

Next up my girl Lola Coca has delivered her latest video – this time for E G O EGO – full of progressive sass and intelligently constructed across sonic and visual lines (as with everything she’s released since Bad Girlfriend), Lola is truly a future pop star.

Last but not least, in an intelligently reworked response to the proverbial phrase “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”, Michelle O Faith responds by telling The Line of Best Fit “Every bad situation doesn’t have a saving grace. Things can’t always be turned around. I wanted to write a song about the dark cloud with no silver lining. About being wronged on such a scale that there is no wriggle room for remedy or consolation.”

“I can’t make Lemonade out of this / You’ve left me only pips / I choke.”

With tribal drums and an almost Kate Bush esque vocal tenacity, I have completely fallen in love with Michelle and what she stands for and I think you will too.

The post Visual Tendencies: Mykki Blanco’s Loner, Lola Coca’s Ego and Michelle O Faith’s Lemonade appeared first on KIMU.