Editor’s Note: Anyone who says there isn’t good music coming out these days — and quite literally, every day — simply isn’t paying attention. Vanyaland’s compilation feature The V List highlights the best in new music, both homegrown and national, over the past month, pulling together the sounds that have soundtracked the website in recent weeks. It’s all the stuff we’re bumping here at Vanyaland HQ, one new bop at a time.
Taleen Kali, ‘Crossed’
October is a time of emotional appraisal, when summer’s indifference has finally faded and the dramatic obligatory pull of the winter holidays has not yet consumed our souls. As we take mental inventory, we note the things we have gained and the things we have lost, and soundtracking the latter is a swirling fit of shoegaze, post-punk, and dark-psych from Taleen Kali called “Crossed.” “The opening lines of the song are ‘Rose is a rose’ which is from my favorite Gertrude Stein poem Sacred Emily,” says Kali. “It’s meant to convey ‘it is what it is,’ or ‘things are what they are.’ I wanted to write about how matter of fact things are in life when the only choice you have is to ride the waves of grief. I lost my grandmother in 2023, the year we released our debut album, and the song ‘Crossed’ is a personal exploration where I’m just trying to make sense of the loss. Missing my favorite person on Earth and wishing I could find a way to commune with the dead. The artwork features an Ethiopian cross that my grandmother always used to wear from her hometown of Addis Ababa, which she passed onto me.” Take it with you this week, and well into the beyond, and open a portal to your senses.
RIVER, ‘I AM CANCER’
The month of haunts has (and had) arrived, and as we learn each and every day, there’s nothing more terrifying than the real-world bullshit we’re forced to confront and deal with on the regular. And over the course of our dealings with the broken world around us, we tend to create a wall of emotional defense mechanisms. Those come into play through RIVER’s aching new single “I AM CANCER,” an intimate portrait of a fractured self from the Swedish alt-pop artist. “‘I AM CANCER’ reflects an infected mind trying to love and receive love through a wall of defense protecting it from vulnerability — and therefore love itself,” says RIVER. “It communicates frustration around the inability to cure or hide an ugly mind stuck in false self-beliefs, believing it’s unworthy of true love.” Confront those demons below.
Kim Petras, ‘I Like Ur Look’
The best month on the calendar is just not complete without our queen Kim Petras. Way back in 2017 — yeah, almost a damn decade ago — we first hyped the alt-pop superstar as part of our V:Music series, and we’ve followed her glittery ascent ever since, from macabre Halloween bops to full-on global stardom. While Petras now dazzles year-round, it’s Spooky Szn where she truly shines, illuminating 2019 horror mixtape and V forever fave TURN OFF THE LIGHT as one of our most essential autumn listens. We brought all that up because a) it’s October, honey; and b) we’re catching the same strobe-lit dance floor vibe off banger new single “I Like Ur Look,” which slings all the razor sharp blog house beats and sultry aughts-era treats without the haunted house setting, instead focusing on the scariest feeling of all: Human attraction. The playful and seductive track should be enough to get us to Hoe-vember, as it finds Petras in tiger mode, luring us in with some sultry lyrical bait: “I wear my patent leather boots / I know that I’ll run into you / I wear my blush ’cause I’m a doll / And then I tease my hair all tall, baby.” What follows is an anthemic chorus that’s got us higher than a rooftop orgy.
away fans, ‘Keeping On’
Break-ups are hard, but true reconciliation is even more difficult. The panic and confusion that comes with a desperate attempt to make amends is usually soundtracked by some lovelorn ballad soaked in solemn emotion and tear-stained reflection. away fans are having none of that shit. The London foursome have reflected the beating heart of internal disorientation with a propulsive and restless new single called “Keeping On.” Buoyed by backing vocals from SEY.MOUR., British indie magnetism, post-punk urgency, and Madchester rhythms combine with hyperactive jungle and drum and bass breaks to craft a head-spinning kind of kinetic indie-rave tension where the walls of hysteria are quickly closing in. Within less than four minutes, “Keeping On” is a cinematic house of mirrors, where self-doubt and inner confidence spiral in lockstep, echoing out loudly and ricocheting across our emotional states as one of the most interesting and engaging tracks we’ve heard in a hot minute. “The song is about that moment post-argument with your partner, when the initial anger has faded and you just wanna sort things out but don’t know how,” says away fans lead vocalist Tom Fisher.
Erin LeCount, ‘MACHINE GHOST’
We’ve all done our fair share of disassociating in 2025, and now Erin LeCount drops a slinky beat to guide our path forward. The London alt-pop singer-songwriter and producer delivers “MACHINE GHOST,” a slow-burner single that balances baroque ballroom grandeur with austere bedroom intimacy, where a dreamlike decay drifts across an inner monologue as its cinematic hypnotism unfolds with a haunting emotion. “’MACHINE GHOST’ is a song about dissociation, the feeling of separation from your body in everyday life, at parties and the most intimate moments,” says LeCount. “It’s about going to extreme lengths to try and evoke some feeling again, no matter what it takes and what risk it involves, seeking cheap thrills and painful pleasure. An observation of my own body, relationships and my take on what it means to be both the ghost, and the machine.” Let LeCount guide the way.