At Songlens, we often pause to trace the invisible thread between songs that arrive from different corners of the world but feel as though they belong in the same conversation. This week, three releases caught our ear — each exploring longing, renewal, and the quiet revelations of everyday life.
Dexter in the Newsagent – “Special”
London-based artist Charmaine Ayoku, known as Dexter in the Newsagent, delivers a song that feels like sunlight breaking through blinds on a late summer morning. “Special” is all fluttering guitars, delicate beats, and a sense of ease that recalls Frank Ocean or PinkPantheress but carries its own unmistakable intimacy. Produced with Kurisu and SAIONTHEBEAT, the track unfolds like a daydream — simple, effortless, yet profoundly affecting. When Ayoku sings “I can love you like you want me to”, it is less a confession than a certainty, an unshakable truth carried on the breeze of her melodies.
Nourished by Time – “9 2 5”
Baltimore’s Marcus Brown, under his moniker Nourished by Time, transforms the monotony of working life into a shimmering reflection on persistence. “9 2 5”, from the forthcoming album The Passionate Ones, leans on bright piano loops and submerged Baltimore club rhythms to capture the weight of routine while hinting at escape. Brown’s gravelly baritone delivers both fatigue and resolve, as if whispering encouragement to himself and, in turn, to all of us trapped in cycles of labor and longing. It is a song of stasis that somehow carries forward momentum — a reminder that better days wait just beyond the dancefloor strobes.
Alex G – “Afterlife”
With “Afterlife”, Philadelphia’s Alex G opens a new chapter ahead of his tenth album Headlights. Known for crafting music that feels both familiar and uncanny, here he draws from his work in film and collaborations to deliver a track poised between earthly detail and surreal light. A twinkling mandolin, organ-like synths, and a pinched falsetto create a glow that is at once artificial and tender. Alex sings of signals between heaven and television, of longing for places just out of reach. Like much of his catalogue, “Afterlife” is less about arriving at answers and more about inhabiting the mystery.
Closing Notes
Together, these three songs — Ayoku’s breezy romance, Brown’s weary optimism, and Alex G’s spectral searching — form a small constellation. Each orbits questions of connection, work, and the possibility of transcendence, inviting us to listen closer to the hidden rhythms of our own lives.
