Freshly Squeezed, Vol. 94: Highland, Michael Lane, Sarah Darling & more

Welcome to Freshly Squeezed, a weekly new music playlist: spanning country, pop, EDM and urban, mainstream and other.

Growing up is hard to do. But punkish pop band Highland attempt to make sense of it all. Their appropriately titled “Growing Up,” a volatile elixir of 20-something angst and budding adulthood, floats just above the pressures pressing in on their shoulders. “We’ll learn from our mistakes” rings as an honest vow as it does a blaring alarm, the red lights penetrating everything it touches. The drum kit douses the melody with even more propulsion, and as they careen down the highway, the wind howling and rattling, a new kind of freedom lights them on fire, metaphorically of course. (Existential) anthem of the summer?

Folk duo The Skipping Stones do some hearty front-porch pickin’ on “Lonesome Homesick Blues,” an essential from their new album Patriot Saint. “Oh, listen to that lonesome train / It’s going to carry me back in,” wail Katie Maginel and Jacob Wysoski, their stories tangled together just as much as their unmistakable voices. A blue yonder sweeps out from their fingertips, scraping against acoustic guitars, and the music is utterly heavenly and even takes on flight of its very own high above the cotton candy clouds.

Michael Lane‘s voice is as a siren on the shoreline. It’s sweet yet imposing, as he calls for you to pick up your mantle and just go for it. “Believe,” mixing folk and pop with enrapturing charm, is an angelic ballad in which he seeks to understand and then pass on that knowledge. “If you do what you want, you can sail to your dreams,” he sings on the crystalline chorus. It goes down smooth, but his truths might carry a necessary aftertaste.

The new playlist also includes new cuts from Sarah Darling, Kyle Davis, Catalina, 1000 Beasts, Nina Nesbitt, Matt Scott, Charly Bliss, An American Forrest, ASHRR, Elohim, SG Lewis, Elle Azar, Jamie McDell with Tami Neilson and many others.

In all, we’ve got 30 new tracks to wake up your senses. Get to listening!

Each playlist will be refreshed every Friday morning/afternoon. We reserve the right to update anytime during the week, so make sure you bookmark this page.

Take a spin:

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