CMJ 2015: FRANKIE COSMOS

After earning her degree in biomedicine at just eighteen, the Iraqi-Syrian-Australian musician made a drastic shift, turning out intensely powerful and intimate songs that touch on personal relationships and geopolitical traumas, including her brand-new single “Pick Me.”

Mixing genres, influences, and languages, the first-generation Mexican-American musician channels heartbreak and charts a new path through his avid curiosity and constant search for new inspiration.

The rising Los Angeles singer-songwriter tears away the façade of social-media perfection to forge an intimate connection with her listeners, offering an opening to self-doubt, introspection, and personal reflection.

After quitting his day job to focus on his music, Joshua Karpeh makes himself known with his smooth songs which belie a sharp social and political perspective.

The moody Latinx musician combines his Mexican heritage with of-the-moment atmospherics on his début album, Para Mí.

On his début album Hypersonic Missiles, the English rocker tackles the zeitgeist and the issues of the day from working-class alienation to white privilege on his blistering tracks.

On his new EP Black Moses, the Los Angeles-based musician continues his journey unpacking his personal struggles with his infectious tracks and invigorating live performances.

After her second self-released single “Only You” started racking up millions of streams, the young musician went from working at McDonald’s to releasing her début EP Junk, combining massive pop hooks with an unerring sense of optimism about the power of staying true to yourself.

Raised between Colombia and Virginia, the musician mixes genres and styles in her lush songs, pulling from her own experience to offer a response to contemporary life.

On his self-titled début album, the English singer-songwriter offers a collection of jangly, catchy indie pop tunes touched with a hint of melancholy as he seeks to connect with his listeners.

On her bilingual, genre-spanning debut EP LuvHz, the ukulele player pushes the boundaries of pop and electronic music, pulling from a diverse range of influences to fulfill her wildly creative curiosity.

With influences ranging from jazz and indie rock to classical music, the London-born-and-bred guitarist and songwriter is creating a new sound through a synthesis of raw emotions and sparse melodies.

With the release of her début album Keepsake, the Australian dream pop prodigy establishes herself as a major player in the new wave of female-fronted, guitar-focused bands with her ethereal, haunting shoegaze classics.

The celestial highs and lows well known to festivalgoers reached new extremes at the nineteenth edition of Barcelona’s famous weekend-long celebration by the sea.

On her new album LEGACY! LEGACY!, the Chicago-based singer, songwriter, poet, and teacher looks back at the predecessors like Zora Neale Hurston, Octavia Butler, and Eartha Kitt who have shaped her while leading the way forward for the next generation.

The Compton rapper’s latest album Harlan & Alondra takes its name and inspiration from the cross streets where he grew up, offering a distinctive vision of an artist finding his way in a complex world without forgetting his past.

After writing, recording, and producing all of his tracks in his own bedroom, the sixteen-year-old “indie R&B” multi-instrumentalist is ready to take on the world—without forgetting where he came from.

Two years after his last EP, the Pittsburgh-born soul musician offers up a début album of wistful, brooding tracks that speak to universal aches and personal emotions in our complicated, unguarded, tempestuous age.