The Iowa Pop Vibes playlist features pop music from Iowa including dance, electropop, lounge, R&B, soul, and more. (Cover photo: Billy Lemos.)
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Jim Swim & Avery Moss “Dessert” – Per Avery Moss, “It’s a stomping funky sludge of R&B, filtered breakbeats, group vocals and my best early-Kevin-Parker falsetto yowl. It is an unadulterated internal dialogue about the insecurities and hilarities of being an artist (or anyone who is on the internet lmao) in 2023.”
Keno “HATE ME TOO”
kuna “Filmstar”
Rob Wayne “3.A.M.”
Lewis Knudsen & Charlotte Blu “April Showers”
Jakobe “Aftermath”
Billy Lemos & Tati “Midlife Crisis”
Ted When “Edge Off” – In a 2020 interview with the Fader, Ted When explained,“I felt very isolated when I first moved to Nashville. I had struggled with substance abuse, so that desire to shed off feeling and to be unconscious, the idea of self-sedation, is there in ‘Edge Off’.” He continued, “I wrote the song on a beat-up, garage sale Casio keyboard — I actually had the same one as a little kid — and I ran it through a bunch of filters and solidified the direction. When you juxtapose soft, airy vocals with hard-hitting tones and percussion, that mixture is really cool and under-utilized.”
Manii “ight”
LOVESBLIND “all i need”
Double Jay, Spencer & jdmTwilight “Backflips”
thirtyfourpercent “CRY DIAMOND TEAR$s”
Teri Underhill “MONSTER” – The song, as Teri explains, is a direct response to past experiences of ableist abuse relating to her autism symptoms. Read more about the track here.
Max Jury “Happiness to Myself” – Speaking with Clash Music, Max explained a few of the tracks that helped his album, Avenues, take shape, including “Happiness to Myself.” “‘Is This Love?’, ‘Peace Of Mind’, and ‘Happiness To Myself’, were relatively late additions to the album. All three were written within the same several weeks, and that final burst of creativity helped the album take shape for me. This project is my most self-produced work so far.” I’ve been blessed to work with such talented producers throughout my career, and I had several production collaborators (like Dan Rothman and Stacy Harden) on this album. Still, the lion’s share was up to me this time around.”
Lizzy Poppyseed “Speak Into My Skin”
Keegan Konsor “Seasick”
Renø “Game Over”
End the Wrld “Green Hill Zone”
Zap Tura “Echospace” – Writing for Iowa Public Radio, Bryon Dudley notes how “Echospace” “builds up steam with frenetic drumming, before exploding into a melodic fog that slowly clears and reveals nature sounds via field recordings.” For more on the album, see: Avery Gregurich’s review of Adaptasia for Little Village.
City Gardens “Higher Now Than Ever”
