If you like Lana Del Rey, you will love these singers and music artists who in their own way are similar to Lana Del Rey, or exude a likeminded vibe. From breathy and sultry vocals, to dark tones that can get switched up real quick to a playful vibe, all these women singers and performers need to be added to your regular listening, especially if you like Lana Del Rey. Best of all, the majority of these women in music, run fairly under the radar. Albeit they have huge indie followings, these artists aren’t your every day mainstream radio plays, but their music is truly so beautiful, badass and or empowering. Stream below, 10 music artists that you will love if you like Lana Del Rey.
Please note: This post may contain affiliate links.
Lana Del Rey is edging ever closer to the release of her ninth studio album Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd. She just shared her latest single with the release of the sprawlingly enigmatic “A&W.”
Editorial feature produced by Sandra Burciaga Olinger, written by Steven Ward.
SASAMI
Los Angeles-based SASAMI (Sasami Ashworth) — once the keyboardist for Cherry Glazerr — dropped two of the most compelling albums in the last few years with her self-titled debut and sophomore album Squeeze. And as singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer there’s very little she engages in half-heartedly, producing albums for other artists like Hand Habits and King Tuff. Her first album teeters between anthemic shoegaze and angsty indie-rock that she made alongside her brother and guitar player JooJoo Ashworth. But it is her insertion into nu-metal — a genre typically dominated by white males — on Squeeze that crackles with Sasami’s engrossing idiosyncracies and breakneck tonal shifts. And if you ever have a chance to catch SASAMI live her highly kinetic, emotionally off-the-rails performances are one of the few still imbued with the kind of unbridled energy that leads to ardent crowds losing themselves in her fiery metal sermons.
November Ultra
November Ultra recently released her lush debut album bedroom walls, a collection of intimate ballads that gush with the singer/songwriter’s ethereal vocalizations. One listen-through will have you enraptured with the way she draws together her far-flung influences: from lyrical folk to the Spanish copla her grandfather was obsessed with. The only thing more moving than the stirring instrumentals that fill her songs is the tenderhearted poetics of her lyrics, which she offers up not just in English and Spanish but also French — as on the song “Doux & Tendre” from her Honey Please Be Soft & Tender EP.
Jesse Jo Stark
Los Angeles artist Jesse Jo Stark creates haunting vintage-rock in the vein of bygone rock icons like The Cramps and Mazzy Star. She just released her debut album DOOMED this year, a pinnacle of the gothy punk-rock aesthetic she’s been piecing together since she first started making music. Stark is as much at home within the swirling mania of ecstatic rollickers like “modern love” and the driving Americana on “trippin” as she is on many of the album’s paced but visceral ballads such as “love is a dream.” And as is pretty evident in her music videos and song artwork — Stark’s music is warped with her cinematic eye and ear in mind. Like the haunting cries of a songstress singing within a velvet-lined, glossy-aired club on the Sunset Strip, her music floats in vaporous and cool. The title-track from her Dandelion EP (and every song therein) is filled with her bewitching aura and should be your first second stop after falling in love with her debut.
Stella Rose
Newcomers Stella Rose might only have a handful of singles out but that doesn’t mean she’s not one of the more exciting acts to emerge in recent years. With her band the Dead Language she shared their first single “Muddled Man,” a raucous track in the vein of high-octane bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Kills. The music video alone is enough to grip you with its frantic mix of sensuality and horror. With Rose at the head of the Dead Language they’ve been making waves across New York and more recently Los Angeles, giving explosive sets to their rabidly growing following. Keep an eye out for future music by these fervid rockers and their eventual stellar debut!
Solis
The first thing that enthralls you about Nigerian artist Solis is her dulcet vocals, which emerge soothingly from behind intoxicating clouds of smokey R&B and soul. Her debut EP Stairway To Heaven is a wonderland of radiant atmospherics filled with tracks like the resplendent “Angel” and suave romancer “Without U.” It’s the kind of music you can woozily lose yourself to, wandering the warm halls of her soundscapes, like a daydream you never want to wake up from. Between her illustrious melodies and alluring voice it’s an easy thing to find yourself spellbound by Solis and it’s definitely not the last we’ve heard from this immensely talented singer/songwriter.
Abby Sage
With two EPs under her belt, rising Los Angeles indie-pop artist Abby Sage deserves to be on your radar. Her first arrived with the release of Fears of Yours & Mine last year which was quickly followed by The Florist, but both signaled the arrival of a sonically expansive take on bedroom pop. With her resoundingly buoyant vocals she dips in and out of this beauteous melancholy that’s hard to shake. One that reverberates throughout her cavernous sound, whether that’s through moody eletronica growths like on “Fever Dream” or sublime instrumental meanderings as on “Smoke Break.” But it’s her second EP that’s been stuck on repeat since it arrived this year — which moved her closer to this driving alternative sound that swells alongside her hypnotically cathartic lyricism.
Ethel Cain
Ethel Cain has become a myth all unto herself in the last few years, which culminated in the release of her impossibly fantastic debut album Preacher’s Daughter. One that invokes the religious iconography and myths of a community that vehemently rejected her — not just as a trans woman — but as an individual not willing to acquiesce to the predatory constraints of cultish ignorance. From its first track “Family Tree” to its last “Strangers,” the album is crucial in its revelation of an underbelly of American life. One of religious fanaticism, poverty, domestic abuse, and trauma that unfolds as a Souther Gothic anti-fairy-tale under Cain’s deliriously raw telling. The anthemic and brutal “American Teenager” is a perpetual standout and after you’re finished with her album, you’ll want to devour her two previous EPs Inbred and Golden Age as well.
Marissa Nadler
Another artist to breathe life into Gothic Americana, singer/songwriter Marissa Nadler leans towards folk-tinged narratives that are as haunting as they are quietly thrilling. Her most recent album was last year’s The Path of the Clouds, which opens with the ghostly transmissions of “Bessie, Did You Make It?” and “Couldn’t Have Done the Killing.” Like a far more spooky and eerie Angel Olsen, Nadler’s expansive discography spans ten studio albums to roam within. The further back you go the closer you get to her entirely folk and country roots, with her debut album Ballads of Living and Dying unfolding as a fever dream set in rural countrysides Nadler hails from. If you’re looking for an artist who spans the spectrum of terrifically dire ballads then you really need not look any further than Nadler.
Ella Vos
On the other side of that spectrum is synth-pop meets woodland fairy Ella Vos. The Los Angeles singer/songwriter just released her latest single “Glitter and Tears” not too long ago, a powerfully scintillating ballad about finding rebirth amidst immeasurable pain and loss. Even those with an aversion to the most vibrant of pop — Ella Vos should be a breath of fresh air. With her piercing trill and glowing electro-pop melodies her music is as emotionally exhilerating as it is breathlessly intimate. If you haven’t yet given her a listen her second album Turbulence is a good place to start, filled as it is with such vivacious jams as “Dreaming, Backwards” and “Dancing Underwater.”
The Marías
The Marías have been rising favorites since they released their first single “I Don’t Know You” back in 2017. Led by the indelible and magnetic duo of María Zardoya and Josh Conway, their music blends elements of iconic Mexican-Spanish music with that of soulful, psychedelic rock. Their double EPs Superclean, Vol. I & II remain a mainstay of their nostalgia-laden sound, which relies as much on its heavily on its dreamy instrumentals and production as it does on Zardoya’s mesmerizing vocals. By the time they released their debut album CINEMA — a sonically magical collection of songs that proved the band couldn’t just produce incredibly infectious tunes but also potent atmospheres for them to occupy — they’d become a phenomenon all unto themselves. If their recent collaboration with Bad Bunny wasn’t clue enough, The Marías are reach newer heights with every release and the eventual arrival of their sophomore album is one we couldn’t possibly be more eager to hear.
