New York
Recommended if you like Cameron Winter, Adrianne Lenker, Alex G
Up next My Piledriver Heart album out now; UK tour beginning 4 November

Making coming-of-age music as a young person can feel strange after a pandemic. So here are a few more curveballs. Imagine the breezy, youthful indie you post online in your early teens gets you a record deal. Covid happens. You move to New York, change your artist name, and then Julian Casablancas eyes you at an open mic and invites you to open for the Strokes in Colorado, aged 18, solo.

This pinball game of life is the music career of Superfan, AKA Kali Flanagan, who is now 21 and whose latest album, My Piledriver Heart, offers up a codex of miniature bildungsromans worth the buzz.

Flanagan's primary tools are some of the simplest: drop-tuned, condensed acoustic guitars (which he calls "acousticellos") and quietly strong vocals reminiscent of Elliott Smith or Alex G. Roomy drums and distortion on tracks such as In the Gold Room or Keeping Your Smile add a welcome noisy edge.

The album's true power is Flanagan's ability to hand-spin emotion out of simple melodies, phrases or builds, thanks in part to deft cello work by Omeed Almassi (who has also played with Bar Italia): take the way the strings mimic an unfurling guitar line at the climax of Miss W Jones, or the bassy Nick Drakeian outro to Ode to Hum (I Want It to Rise). Even so, when you think Flanagan lands on something concrete, he doesn't: this is music that conjures up new feelings on every listen. Isn't that what growing up is all about?

This week's best new tracks

@​ – Love in the Dark
The Philadelphia duo, who in a previous generation might have been dubbed freak-folk, release their album Autosmile today, and it's one of the year's very best. This particular track has a riveting blend of innocence and experience, with hymnal yet careworn vocals.

An utterly stunning, minimalist R&B ballad with shades of Maxwell to its chorus and mk.gee to its guitar, as Aalegra lacerates herself over the way she betrayed a lover.

Though Johnny Marr wrote it and plays the big, simple riff, the lead single to the New York legends' first album in nine years is all about Debbie Harry, rhythmically chattering through the chorus with a rough, time-worn grade to her voice.

Carissa's Wierd – I Don't Feel Like I Feel Right
In the 25 years since their last album, the US indie duo have amassed a huge audience on streaming who will no doubt flock to this new single, a romantic tussle whose tension is kept taut even as the epic drums kick in.

Marla Kether – Libera (ft Margaridas)
Her day job is being Little Simz's bassist, but Kether's own music is well worth seeking out: Libera is a propulsive Latin-house track with delicate, chirrupping vocals by Margaridas – and, predictably, a killer melodic bassline.

Teri Rini – Behind Every Mirror
You can reliably smash "buy now" on anything Melbourne label Efficient Space puts out, spanning contemporary artists and crate-digging comps. This, a spellbinding 1981 song from an overlooked US jazz singer, is from an upcoming example of the latter, entitled Nothing Ever Was.

Post Common – Check Atomiser
Guitars are rarely as gorgeously distorted as they are here, with tones like a wind-assaulted microphone shifting through the Brighton trio's otherwise melodic post-hardcore.

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