Now Hear This: #003 – Amelie Lucille, Annie Schultz, Celestial North & Doghouse Rose

Now Hear This! Here we go! After another deep dive into Bandcamp, Soundcloud, and Spotify, along with rummaging through beaucoup submissions from artists, labels, and publicists, we have listened, considered, and determined that the following under-the-radar and largely unnoticed new music released in the last six months is worth your time and attention.

We’ll bring you a new post each week, songs from which will regularly be added to our accompanying “Now Hear This” Spotify playlist.

Amelie Lucille – ‘Amelie Lucille’

The best way to describe Amelie Lucille is with the term wunderkind. Fourteen years old, the indie-folk singer-songwriter dropped her self-titled EP on June 15.

Lucille explains, “This album is my growing-up album. It’s the first real thing I’ve ever made. Some of the songs are based on my very first experiences but others came straight from my imagination. Even though most of my songs are about love, I am yet to feel the way I write. I can’t wait to fall in love, even if it is followed by a heartbreak because it would have meant that I felt for someone, and I would love to make another album about that.”

There’s a maturity to her voice and her songwriting that belies her age. Her voice aches with poignant timbres, giving her lyrics longing, moody hues.

“Because of You,” the last track on the EP, stands out because of its folk-rock flavours and low-slung shimmering elegance.

Annie Schultz – “Waiting”

According to Annie Schultz, “‘Waiting’ is the only song I’ve ever intentionally written about a romantic relationship. I started dating somebody that was moving across the country within the next few months, and I wanted to articulate the feeling that comes with knowing exactly how a relationship is going to end and just having to wait for it to happen.”

Making no pretense of stoic resignation, the lyrics slice to the heart like a fingernail cutting through a piece of paper. “Don’t pretend it doesn’t end like this / Don’t’ pretend it doesn’t end / Don’t pretend there’s more to it than there is / Don’t pretend there’s more than this / Just take it for what it’s worth now / There’s not much else left to do / But wait and watch it play out / Watch me disconnect from you.”

Thick with hazy shoegaze textures, raw and edgy, the harmonics underscore the intense, revealing heartache of the vocals.

Celestial North – “Otherworld”

Scottish, Lake District-based artist Celestial North recently released her new single, “Otherworld,” the title track from her forthcoming debut album, slated to drop on July 7.

Referring to her sound as wyrd-pop, Celestial North blends her sylph-like vocals, ethereal, sparkling colours, tribal rhythmic pulses, and deliciously lustrous harmonies into haunting hymn-like compositions.

Celestial North shares that “Otherworld” is “A rabble-rousing pick-me-up on days when life feels a bit much, a reminder that it will all be ok and that we are never truly alone in this world. Providing the beat and movement of life for us all to shake it off together.”

Doghouse Rose – “It Is What It Is”

Made up of Sarah Beth Rose (vocals, guitar), Jefferson Sheppard (bass), Jordan (drums), and Garrick (lead guitar), Toronto-based pop-punk outfit Doghouse Rose’s latest single, “It Is What It Is,” is a humdinger.

Tight, crisp percussion, sneering guitars, and Sarah Beth Rose’s scrummy rasping voice, at once disdainful and impudent, infuses the lyrics with brash audacity – a sonic middle finger to nemeses who believe they are the single emancipated and high-cultured folk on the planet.

“It Is What It Is” is from the band’s second long player, entitled Unlearn, releasing June 30 via Stomp Records.