Tender Forever now

Melanie Valera is not a fragile indie-tronica artist but a one-woman wrecking crew who wants to infiltrate your eardrums and crush your heart. On No Snare, her third LP as Tender Forever, she keeps her lyrics and vocal delivery as straightforward as ever (they really could have come from a letter) but pushes her knob-turning skills as far as they can go. “Like The Snare That’s Gone” is a perfect example of the album’s totally raw but fully realized production, with its multiple layers of percussion and grown-up orchestral touches that would fit perfectly on an epic mainstream rap song. The results are honest and powerful, and it’s not hard to see this release as a hip-hop and indie-informed update of the soul-inspired New Wave of Yazoo.

^ The above paraphrases my review that's in GR65 (on stands now), but a gushy review can only communicate so much. Via the magic of the Internets–and Calvin at K Records and Nathan at Riot Act–now I get to share the song on this site. In fact, this is considered an *official* preview. Nice, especially since I've been a big fan of the Shield around the K since Beat Happening opened for Fugazi at the Country Club. Download “Like the Snare That's Gone” here, and then purchase No Snare (out today) in the format and manner of your choice (perhaps the K shop?).