If you've been enjoying the very good album that underscores released on Friday, please allow me to direct your attention to Quiet Light. The Austin musician Riya Mahesh specializes in a blissed-out, shimmering version of bedroom pop. I've seen people describe her as ambient, but I don't hear it like that. For me, it's got more in common with the baby-voice fantasias of early Grimes. Quiet Light will release her new self-produced mixtape Blue Angel Sparkling Silver 2 next month, and lead single "Berlin" made our list of the weeks' best songs. Today, she shares two more.
"Postinternetfame," one of Quiet Light's new songs, is a soft, jittery swoon about the fantasy of a future with someone who has other things on their mind. In a press release, Mahesh says, "'Postinternetfame' is about loving someone so much that you would do anything to make them stay. Ultimately, however, you know this is out of your control. My muse for this song was someone who really wanted to be famous and would do whatever it took to be famous. My favorite part in the song is when I talk about Jeff Buckley. He was so beautiful and passed so young." Anna Pollack directed the song's dreamy video.
"Self Tape," Quiet Light's other new track, has some deep-voiced singing and a gothy new wave bassline. It sounds a bit like an Interpol song, if Interpol came up during the era of gauzy hyperpop. Quiet Light says, "There was this really great hill in my neighborhood in Dallas where I grew up. This hill was right next to my house. I would ride my bike up and down this hill. Riding my bike up the hill was a bitch — but riding downhill, well, that was just like heaven. It would be too hot to ride my bike during the day in the Texas summer heat, but at sunset, it was the perfect temperature. This song feels like that. It feels like my first kiss with someone I really wanted. It feels like pure bliss.” Check out both songs below.
Blue Angel Sparkling Silver 2 is out on 4/24 on True Panther.
