Hello and happy Friday from London. This is my favorite city on earth I think? Someone pointed out that it’s maybe only because I find the accents adorable and think that it’s a town full of dry, witty men constantly drinking tea and calling each other Simon and while I admit I do sort of secretly think that, I ask you - is it ILLEGAL to look around and find delight? In fairness, it’s not only that - I also have a deep admiration for Greggs and the endless parks and biking everywhere. Prawn cocktail as a flavor. Hampstead Heath. A robust and enduring appreciation for guitar rock music. Brown sauce!
I’ll send out a more thorough recap of this trip and all the brown sauce I consumed after I return next week but in the meantime here are five new(ish) songs I’m really liking right now:
lifepath99 - “Misfortune”
I wonder what it’s like to live my dream (American girl who has relocated to London and taken on a new identity in pursuit of artistic greatness)? lifepath99 is the nom de plume of Asheville, NC native Bex Vines (an already incredible name tbh) and it seems she has one single song out and it’s this one and it bangs. It’s sort of pop girl TAGABOW? She told Line of Best Fit: “‘Misfortune’ was born of a narrow path I had to walk down every day, and the fear that someone would be lurking there," Vines says of the song. "The broader reality is that many people carry this awareness with them every day, especially in the political climate today. Writing this song became a way to process this fear and take some of that power back; while I can’t change people’s behavior, I can decide how much psychological power I let their presence have over me.” Amen.
Truman Beck - “Baby Blue”
This song came out in 2025 and I honestly could not tell you how it came across my desk but I find it so beautiful, there’s something devastating about the guitar, the vocals are so quiet and the guitar is loud, it’s all perfect. It gives me the sense that I’m hearing something I’m not supposed to? Like I’m sitting on a creaky wooden floor and the music is coming from the apartment below. I’m charmed by the way it just sort of abruptly ends with him saying in his normal speaking voice “oh yeah okay.” I can’t find shit about Truman Beck on the internet besides his IG, the three songs he has up on Spotify, and his Soundcloud where this other beautiful song called “I don’t wanna die” from last year lives.