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Songwriter Blog

Jennifer Jess conjured reclamation in her dark-pop hit, Dark of Night

Posted on 19 October 2023

For her latest single, Dark of Night, the Atlanta, Georgia singer-songwriter Jennifer Jess artfully darkened her pop signature to deliver the ultimate aural reclamation of power. Anyone who has experienced losing themselves in a relationship, which proves that no monster can match the insidiousness of a narcissist, will find fistfuls of resonance within Dark of Night.

The cinematic synthesis of hammering ballad-esque piano keys and the turbulence of the electronic aesthetics, which push Jess’ sound far beyond the contemporary curve, created an arresting platform for her vocals that switch between sultry allure to gravely to strident and back again to deliver an authentically well-rounded hit.

After racking up over 1 million streams on Spotify alone and amassing an engaged audience of 18,000 on Twitch TV with her live pop performances, Jennifer Jess is rightly reigning supreme with her captivating song crafting and vocal range that lingers within the angel-devil dichotomy.

Dark of Night was officially released on October 13; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Keli Woods illuminated the keys with enlightenment in his latest piano composition, Skies

Posted on 18 October 2023

Fans of Tom Odell, James Bay and Birdy won’t fail to be consumed by the latest piano composition, Skies, from the UK multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer, Keli Woods.

If his voice accompanied this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert, I wouldn’t be coloured surprised, and that is only the start of the crossover appeal of this sombrely intimate yet juxtaposing strident release, which seamlessly amasses evocative momentum and flair with every intricately laid progression in the epic 6-minute progressive ballad.

Keli Woods’ experience as a monk lent itself effortlessly well to the powerfully metaphorical introspection within Skies. His ability to conjure vivid pictures in the mind with his deeply affecting lyrical prose is second to none. He may have missed out on West End stardom at the age of 11, but all paths, which included performing jazz band in a decommissioned ambulance in Swansea and living the late-night rock ‘n’ roll life, have led him to this point of proving the transformative force of music.

Listen to the live recording of Skies from Real World Studios via YouTube from October 18.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

djamesk13 lit a beacon to the outliers in the Lynchian post-punk atmosphere of his latest single, The Left-Over Piece of the Puzzle

Posted on 17 October 2023

If djamesk13 wasn’t a solo artist, you’d be forgiven for wondering if Paul Banks had added a new project to his legacy. With echoes of the early Interpol records lingering in the guitar’s reverb entwined with an atmosphere which could only be described as Lynchian, the latest single, The Left-Over Piece of the Puzzle, is an alluring pool of tonal and textural mesmerism.

When you’re not busy being consumed by the artful effects applied to the post-punk nuances, you will find the time to find the melancholic beauty in the release. While some people lament because a piece of them of missing, others are alienated by the unshakable feeling that there’s no place where they can fit in and feel at home.  This one is for anyone who has felt a kinship with Camus.

The Left-Over Piece of the Puzzle was officially released on October 8th; stream it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

TuskHead blurred the boundaries between acoustic pop-punk and folk in ‘Breaking the Man’

Posted on 17 October 2023

The boundaries between Americana, acoustic pop-punk and folk blurred beyond recognition in the rhythmically arresting latest single, Breaking the Man, by the Dutch musician, singer, and songwriter TuskHead.

With the bends of bluegrass weaving around the pull of the percussion, which won’t fail to awaken your rhythmic pulses and the lyrics, which sting with vulnerable volition, Breaking the Man is a hard lyrical pill to swallow, but the upbeat rhythmics take some of the sting from the deeply relatable pensiveness, allowing it to unravel as a cathartic olive branch to anyone unwilling to do the same and make the admission of ‘I’m not alright’.

Asking the time-old question, “how can you love me if I hate myself” and alluding to the fight from within that pills can salve but can’t solve, the heartache with the world is heart-wrenchingly affecting.

Breaking the Man was officially released on October 13th; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

SAIDOU psyched out RnB with his latest exploration of the 5th dimension, INTERDIMENSIONAL LADY

Posted on 17 October 2023

After the success of his 2023 LP, 00ET, RnB’s most experimental entity, SAIDOU, merged wavy elements of RnB with lashings of cosmic psych and funk, drippings of 50s pop, and expressive jazz grooves to alchemise the ultimate aural trip, you might want to strap yourselves in before you experience INTERDIMENSIONAL LADY.

With a love so strong it breathes into the 5th dimension; the amorous track looks far beyond the material dimension to pay an Odyssey-esque ode to the affectionate feelings manifested by a femme fatale with an allure so powerful it makes the soul levitate.

Before crafting his own interstellar soundscapes, the 22-year-old MD-hailing artist Saidou Sosseh absorbed the influence of Al Green, Kanye & Youssou N’Dour and studied music at NYU. During this time, he recorded a handful of songs with the Grammy-winning songwriter Jesse Fink, INTERNATIONAL LADY being one of them.

INTERDIMENSIONAL LADY was officially released on October 6th; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Brighton’s sharpest lyrical narrator, Francesca Morris, lamented deception in her indie-pop hit, Where’d You Go?

Posted on 16 October 2023

Brighton’s sharpest lyricist, Francesca Morris, has unleashed her sophomore single, Where’d You Go, which achieves the impossible by capturing the ephemeral idea of a lothario intent on deceiving his way into the sheets and the hearts he will inevitably break.

The sentiments may be raw, but tonally, the indie pop track couldn’t be sweeter. The synthy new wave-esque instrumental hooks around the magnetism in Morris’ rich vocal register which borders on the realm of the ethereal converge to create a track that you will want to sing from the top of your lungs and carry with you in your darkest moments.

Deception-lamenting tracks may not be new to the airwaves, but with lines as striking as “Did you get me just for the sport, you’re not anything I thought”, it may as well be. Every verse is a revelation, which leaves you desperate for the next installation from the artist who pulls inspiration from Lizzy McAlpine, JP Saxe, Gracie Abrams, and Dodie.

Where’d You Go was officially released on October 6th; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Holly Riva is as stormy as a tsunami in her latest alt-soul single, Drowning.

Posted on 16 October 2023

The hypnotic harmonic effect on her ethereal vocal lines over the crashing waves in the intro was a mesmerising way for Holly Riva to kick off her latest lyrically dark, texturally luminous single, Drowning.

With moody electronica motifs sending shockwaves of reverberance through the stormy as a tsunami release, the horn stabs harbingering doom and the metaphors alluding to the relatable phenomena of losing your power under the weight of toxicity, the Australian singer-songwriter succeeded in visualising universal emotions, which typically leave us out of our depth when we have chased an idea instead of a person.

Artistically and technically, it is a phenomenal release from the evocative enchantress who has already racked up 250,000 streams on Spotify alone since she made her debut with the EP, A Memory. Now that she’s shown a more vulnerable side to her creativity, we can’t wait to hear more of it rush to the surface.

Drowning was officially released on September 29; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Maverick lived up to their moniker with their folksy easy listening debut single, I love coffee culture

Posted on 15 October 2023

The debut single, I love coffee culture, from Maverick is a tongue-in-cheek, bean-in-cup twee triumph. The twinkling piano keys atop the simple yet as delicious as a caramel macchiato easy guitar chords orchestrate the same kind of laidback atmosphere you would want to sink into in your favourite den of caffeine as the vocals prove it is the small things in life, especially if those small things are made by the hands of a barista who can take the mundanity of the corporate world away.

It is somewhat ironic that Maverick is a virtual band composing songs for tangible experiences, but given the sticky-sweet feel-good factor of the folksy easy listening release, we can easily forgive the band spearheaded by the song crafter and vocalist, John Crystal and feel stoked for the singles we have been promised will follow. We already need our next fix.

I love coffee culture was officially released on October 4; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jeff Jepson spoke for the disillusioned masses in his jovially schadenfreude folk single, Here Comes Trouble

Posted on 14 October 2023

The Liverpool-born Isle of Man-residing singer-songwriter Jeff Jepson spoke for the disillusioned masses with the jovially schadenfreude standout single, Here Comes Trouble, from his latest album, Meaning Waves.

If you are nostalgic for the days when you used to hide in bed because you were dysfunctional instead of as a protective measure to shield yourself from the chaos in our climate, you won’t fail to find the melodic magic in this masterpiece of instrumental and lyrical ingenuity.

If you want a song to sing along with as the fabric of society tears under our precarious footing in it, consider making Here Comes Trouble a sanity-saving playlist staple. You’d be hard-pressed to forget the enchantingly alchemic progressions anyway.

Here Comes Trouble will be available to stream with the rest of his hotly anticipated LP, Meaning Waves on October 13; stream it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Peter Beatty unveiled a wanderlust dreamscape with his acoustic indie folk single, Tell Me Where To Go

Posted on 13 October 2023

After picking up the best song award from the Cannes World Film Festival in 2023 and picking up more awards for his music and accompanying music videos from The London Independent Film Awards and The Independent Shorts Awards, the critically acclaimed and endlessly accoladed UK singer-songwriter Peter Beatty has unanchored his nautically meta single, Tell Me Where To Go.

With layered vocal harmonies as magnetically compelling as Jack Johnson’s and Richard Hawley’s atop honeyed and intricate acoustic instrumentation, listening to the organically resolving orchestration will set your imagination alight, awaken even the most dormant of wanderlust proclivities, and unequivocally convince you that in this generation of singer-songwriters, few can infuse their elysian soundscapes with a paralleled shot of alchemy.

I couldn’t think of a more stunning way of attesting to the fact that life is little more than a collection of explorations, whether that’s inwards, towards another, or into territories that will show us pieces of ourselves we never knew existed. Great songs stir emotions; superlative ones have what it takes to reconceptualise your take on existence in a few lyrical lines. Beatty is definitively in the latter camp. Someone exhume and tell Sartre I’ve just found the cure for existentialism.

Tell Me Where To Go hit the airwaves on September 29; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast