Exploding
Edition #93 brings you fresh tracks by Dolphin Love, Willow Parlo, Angie McMahon, Stilla Havet, and Löwenzahnhonig.
Exclusive Video Premiere: Marissa Burwell – You're Not Trying Very Hard
Today, we exclusively present Marissa Burwell's new video to her song «You're Not Trying Very Hard».
Moments of reflection lead to the songs that Marissa Burwell's second EP, Either Way. The Canadian singer-songwriter effortlessly unites folk and rock with direct lyrics to a heartfelt, levitating sound.
The EP's namesake song, Either Way, a tender and folky composition, was featured not long ago in our Weekly5. The conclusion: «Either Way, the song and the EP, are the perfect soundtrack to roam in one's heart and soul.»
Today, Negative White presents another of Marissa Burwell's works on Either Way as we celebrate the exclusive video premiere for You're Not Trying Very Hard.
Directed by Emma New, filmed and edited by Andrew Parry, the music video embraces a warm, glowing vintage look. It invites us to a lush, candle-lit birthday party—all seems perfect. Yet, Marissa Burwell's performance is deliberately disconnected from the exuberant joy.
I used to cry on my birthday,
Now I'm crying on yours
You're Not Trying Very Hard is a mind game: What if you enter a relationship you know will not end well? How do you deal with the anxiety that only a sliver of interest might bring you pain? «Every answer is the wrong one,» sings Burwell. And one can physically feel the torn inside.
The song's intimacy and difficult questions create dire despair, counteracted by the hauntingly beautiful music and the video's perfectly staged frames.
Una Noche Más
Edition #92 brings you new tracks by Blanco White, Bombino, Soft Loft, Train Blues Duo, and Sperling.
Either Way
Edition #91 recommends the new songs by Marissa Burwell, kinda fragile, Deeper, Seed to Tree, and Cornelia Murr & Alice Boman.
Seventeen
Edition #90 brings you fresh tracks by Jamila, The Terrys, benzii, Kraków Loves Adana, and Spunsugar.
Introducing Community Essentials
Sharing music with others is one of the main reasons why Negative White exists. Here's how you can be part of it.
A significant portion of the music I hold dear was recommended to me by other people. Sharing music with others is a crucial reason Negative White exists—a platform to share great artists and their work.
However, it currently is a one-way stream. We publish, you consume. It's an old-school, somewhat dusty concept that doesn't hold up in the age of digital communication.
That's why we introduce a new, collaborative format: Community Essentials.
The idea is simple: We provide a topic—for example, a specific decade—and you can share your favourite song that relates to said topic. Your contribution will then be published in a playlist and an accompanying article.
We plan to create a fresh Community Essentials playlist monthly, with the call for songs coming on the first Friday of each month.
Community Essentials #1: The 1990s
With the introduction out of the way, we can get down to business now. In the September edition of Community Essentials, we travel back in time to the age of bad taste: The 1990s.
But are the 90s actually that bad? Musically, the decade brought us Grunge, then the advent of techno, Britpop, fun punk, and last but not least, the rise of rap and hip-hop to global domination.
Which song should without a doubt be in this Community Essentials playlist? Fill out this short form below to enter your contribution. Thank you for participating.
Just Because I Regret It
Edition #89 features new tracks by Odd Beholder, Thumpasaurus, Les Big Byrd, Birdmask, and RABEA.
reLISTEN #15: Rocking Teenager
In this edition, we revisit five classics from the golden era of rock music. Songs I've discovered in my teenage years.
Teenage years will eventually influence the rest of your life—and it's especially true for one's taste in music. Starting around 2004, I began to explore the vast archive of rock's most significant era, discovering the all-time greats.
In this edition of reLISTEN, I will be revisiting five classic songs that I used to listen to repeatedly during my teenage years. I'm curious to explore why these songs, which are now decades old, used to captivate me.
Bob Dylan – Hurricane
Obviously, my first contact with Bob Dylan was Blowin' In The Wind; however, it was Hurricane from the 1976 album Desire that drew me entirely into Dylan's kaleidoscopic universe. The song's urgency and anger—represented by the, for the artist, unusual pace—are fascinating.
As one of his few protest songs in the 1970s, Hurricane examines the racist trial of Afro-American boxer Rubin «Hurricane» Carter while entailing all of Dylan's traits: powerful storytelling, wild rock music, the signature harmonica, accompanied by a whirling violin. Yet, it's a far cry from Dylan's early folk roots.
