Rediscovering Her’s: TikTok’s Role in Immortalizing an Indie Duo

New music — in my experience at least — makes its way onto my Spotify account through many avenues. Friends, concerts, nights out and even store speakers have, over the years, added to my playlists. To me however, it is TikTok and its vaunted algorithm that have exposed my fellow Gen Zers and me to more new music than anywhere else lately. The app continually gives airtime to novel and lesser-known artists and breathes new life into artists long out of the popularity cycle (The Cranberries and their ubiquitous 1993 hit “Linger” likely spring to mind). But in my opinion the most telling instance of this phenomena is the posthumous TikTok rise of Her’s and their first album Songs of Her’s. 

In May of 2017 the Liverpool duo behind Her’s, Stephen Fitzpatrick (vocals and guitar) and Audun Laading (bass and backing vocals), released Song of Her’s as a compilation album of their single releases from across 2016 and 2017.

TEST SPINS | Dayglow Brings More Sunshine on Harmony House

Harmony House started as the soundtrack to a fictional sitcom. Sloan Struble, the man behind the music/dayglow, was inspired by the soft rock of the late 70s and early 80s, as well as the old TV show Cheers. From the synths to the lyrics, the whole album is drenched in the welcoming, nostalgic vibe of an old sitcom.

Recognizing “Epic” Mumblecore

The 97-minute, 2016 film Free of Thought ends with John hunched over a sink in a dimly-lit kitchen. Through a doorframe, we see our protagonist doing the dishes and hear him whistling to himself: a quiet, unassuming moment almost all can relate to. What makes this particular, ostensibly-mundane scene so striking are the circumstances that led up to it. The film starts in Melbourne, Australia, where John is in a relationship with Mel. But by the film’s closing moments, John has become a habitual stoner, messily broke up with Mel and migrated to Montreal, Canada.

TEST SPIN | Mitski — Be the Cowboy

It’s been two years since Mitski graced us with Puberty 2, a deep, thoughtful and powerful album that was so mesmerizing words will never do it justice. The Japanese-American artist has grown increasingly louder over the years, and now with her newest album, Be the Cowboy, she is louder than ever, making listeners feel emotions they didn’t know they were capable of. In the past, Mitski has consistently kept a rather slow, mostly acoustic and melancholic sound (save for the few bursts of lyrical and emotional impacts, i.e. the chorus in “Your Best American Girl”). In addition to keeping a consistent sound, Mitski keeps her lyrical style the same: emotional, deeply sad and lonesome lyrics that very often hit home and have listeners in tears just one song into her albums.

Mitski has never been scared to bare it all and be vulnerable, because it’s human. Women are too often told that being powerful and independent means that we have to meet certain superhuman expectations, such as immunity to negative emotions and heartbreak, as well as coldheartedness, all while being sexy.

Spinning Singles: Girlpool, “Picturesong”

There has always been a certain magic to Girlpool. The bond that duo Harmony Tividad and Cleo Tucker share is unlike any other. Girlpool stands out due to their lack of a drummer: Cleo’s guitar chords and picking fit perfectly with Harmony’s bass — or vice versa when they trade off. Their vocal styles also seem to have been made for each other and are instantly identifiable. Their music was perfect already without a drummer.

TEST SPIN: Iron & Wine — Beast Epic

Music critics (often) fall into two traps. The first is comparison. Lacking a way to describe lyrics, songwriting, production and so on, critics get tempted to compare. We write about how a musician conforms to or subverts their genre. We provide a catalog of suggested listening, a list of similar musicians.