Browsing Tag

60s Pop

Electro-chanson meets 00s Britpop in Laptop Singers’ single, Le Love featuring Judy St. Clarke

Posted on 11 October 2022

Here to perpetuate the myth that there’s something in Sweden’s waters that breeds pop legends is Gothenburg’s brother duo, Laptop Singers, with their latest single, Le Love, featuring the Nashville singer Judy St. Clarke.

Before Le Love swings you back to Paris in the 60s, it makes a brief pitstop in charted by Garbage and The Cardigans 90s Britpop territory, leaving ample room for modernity to reflect in the lyricism that makes no bones about getting to grips with the tantamount of the tribulation.

The era-mashing yet juxtaposingly timeless single comes with more than just a pinch of electro-pop panache. The endlessly inviting demure soul from Judy St. Clarke against the electrically reverberating keys, high-energy guitars, and absurdity-embracing lyrics makes the chaos of 2022 worth enduring.

Here’s what Laptop Singers had to say about their sticky-sweet escapist release:

“This song is inspired by listening to lots of French music, both old classics from the 60´s, like Francoise Hardy, and new French indie pop like Bon Entendeur and L’Impératrice. It´s an uptempo, guitar-based song about youthful energy, love, and confusion right in the middle of 2022!”

Le Love is now available to stream on Spotify.

Follow Laptop Singers on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

60s garage rock rides surf rock waves in The MindRide’s latest single, Delta Alpha

Posted on 24 August 2022
The MindRide

Even at half the length of your average pop track, the nostalgia-driven duo, The MindRide created the ultimate LA proto punk bop with their latest single, Delta Alpha, which grooves with nuances of skate punk and surf-rock and comes together as the ultimate genre-fluid earworm.

With The Walkmen-Esque percussion falling slightly below the warm and crunchy overdriven guitar tones and the relentless momentum in the vocals, getting caught up in the punky euphoria of Delta Alpha is non-optional. Especially for fans of The Kinks, The Strokes, and The Sonics. With their 5th album in the pipeline, The MindRide deserve a spot on your radar.

Check out The MindRide on their official website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

BREGN set the bar with his plateau-transporting ethereal indie-folk single, Summertime

Posted on 17 June 2022

Here to make me eat my words about the banality and predictability of summer singles is the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, BREGN, with his latest otherworldly feat of melodious indie-folk, Summertime.

With little more than strings and choral vocals to drive and structure the single, immersing yourself within the all-consuming mellifluous accordance comes with an immediate payoff.

Beyond the production that stands as a testament to BREGN’s creative originality, Summertime refuses to lyrically scratch at the surface. If Dylan Thomas himself rose from the grave and speculated on the season in relation to nature, freedom, past, future and present, I’m not all too sure that he’d be able to implant as much poetry.

Hear it for yourselves on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Gian Majidi explores the amorous side of ‘The Moon’ in his latest single

Posted on 27 April 2022

Before releasing his self-titled 2022 pop album, the uniquely inspired multilingual Helsinki-based singer-songwriter and composer Gian Majidi has given us a taste of what is to come by giving us a sneak peek of his single, The Moon.

Through his love of 60s pop and 70s rock, he’s orchestrated a nostalgic yet passionately refreshing take on music from decades past. The Moon comes with artfully supple vocal harmonies, intricately picked Spanish guitars and butterfly-evoking progressions that won’t fail to pull you into the colourfully rich release that will undoubtedly put Gian Majidi on the map.

You can check out Gian Majidi for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Spotlight Feature: Psych Soul Food is Back on the Menu with Denim Dan’s Return to the Airwaves

Posted on 25 January 2022

The NYC psychedelically blessed folk-pop-rock powerhouse, Denim Dan, serenaded us with their seminal spacey album, No Guarantee, ahead of the release of their upcoming album, 3AM.

Each of the singles on the 2020 album, No Guarantee, provides the opportunity to shift the ennui and existentialism out of your worldview. To complement the psychedelic tones, the enlightened lyricism that was penned to hit the evocative spot by uplifting just as much as the transcending instrumental timbres.

After forming in the 90s, Denim Dan’s fusion of 60s pop and 70s rock has remained just as sweet in the 21st century. Instead of modernising their sound that carries reminiscences to The Beatles, Steely Dan, Bowie and Tom Petty, they’ve stayed true to cathartically resonant form.

Along with the release of their upcoming album, the nostalgia-inducing outfit are also set to release their tribute to Bob Dylan to coincide with the opening of the Bob Dylan Museum in Tulsa, OK. They are well worth a spot on your radar.

Denim Dan’s 2020 album, No Guarantee, is available to stream in full via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Christopher Kremer has released his elegantly poetic allusion to languor ‘Electron’

Posted on 7 January 2022

If you still hold a candle for the melancholia of Elliott Smith, consider the new EP from folk singer-songwriter Christopher Kremer as an unmissable release. Major/Minor carries just enough reminiscences to tease nostalgia as the Chicago-based artist leaves you enamoured by his down-but-not-out authenticity.

The soul-fizzingly sweet lead single, Electron, is equally as instrumentally melodious as the most cathartic singles from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The vocals and lyrics lace the soundscape with an all too relatable languor, but even with the poetic allusions to entropy, the hazy choral textures ensure that Electron resonates as a transcendently uplifting release.

Major/Minor is now available to stream in full via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Slip back to the 60s with Free Whenever’s ambient psych-pop single, Echo, featuring filo sofia.

Posted on 3 October 2021

Brooklyn-based duo Free Whenever’s latest single, Echo, is a tranquil feat of psych-tinged ambience that pulls you through the blossoming improvised progressions while the featuring artist, filo sofia, brings plenty of dream-pop-noir style to the hypnotically sublime soundscape.

If you fed an Angel Olsen single a few Ambien, the sonic palette wouldn’t be far from the amalgamation of soul, pop, jazz and 60s psych on offer here. You’d be seriously hard-pressed to find mellower vibes than those soulfully extended in Echo. It’s a nostalgia hit like no other. For my sanity’s sake, Echo will be left on repeat.

Echo officially released on October 1st; you can delve into the hazy accordance for yourselves by heading over to Soundcloud. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Rope Store take us to the pinnacle of 60s pop-rock with Get Me Out

Posted on 6 September 2021
Rope Store

Norfolk, UK indie duo Rope Store is set to make their comeback and hit us with swathes of 60s pop-rock nostalgia once more after a 2-year absence from the studio. Before their radio silence, their music featured on an Ivy Park Kids X Adidas advert, and they found themselves a fixture on Amazing Radio’s A-list alongside Goat and Frank Carter.

For any fans of the Velvet Revolver, the Beatles, Syd Barrett or the Stones will find plenty to love about the clean vintage tones, grooves that were made to disco dance to and harmonised male and female vocals in their seminal release, Get Me Out, that adds a touch of antagonism to the otherwise kaleidoscopically colourful track that is all too efficacious at pulling you from the confines of the 21st century and placing you into the soul of the 60s.

Stream Get Me Out on Spotify, support the band on Bandcamp or connect with them via Facebook.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Rob Quo leads the conversation with his vintage psych-pop single, ‘Talkin’ Bout the Truth’.

Posted on 8 July 2021

London-based Singer-songwriter and emissary of soul, Rob Quo, has released his EP, Let It Spin, which captures his vintage-inclined style at its most accordant and psychedelic.

If you can imagine what it would sound like if the Zombies covered ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’, you’ll get an idea of the hazily sticky-sweet vibe Rob Quo orchestrated with the lead single; Talkin’ Bout the Truth.

The EP marks the singer-songwriter’s transition away from folk and blues and into the realm of experimental aural eclecticism. With an LP in the works, due for release in 2022, the old school crooner is well worth a spot on your radar.

Talkin’ Bout the Truth is now available to stream via SoundCloud.

Follow Rob Quo via Facebook.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Violette – Eos: Ukulele-led Retro Americana Pop

Posted on 1 January 2021

The very talented Violette Remington – daughter of a musical family from Orange County, California – is a 19-year-old singer-songwriter with a penchant for vintage dresses, rockabilly stylings, ukulele, and guitar. With ‘Eos’, her third single, she delivers a cute little slice of retro Americana set to ukulele, but the star of the show here truly is Violette’s voice; lilting, soaring, and sing-song, with maturity and timbre far belying her tender years, Violette’s delivery is clearly honed by her years performing in musical theatre and performing for friends and family.

Listing influences as diverse as Linda Ronstadt, Debbie Harry, and Aretha Franklin, and taking inspiration from the 1950’s rock ‘n’ roll scene and the 1960’s musical revolution, ‘Eos’ is an absolute delight, a touch of the unique and genuine in a world of carbon-copy dance-pop and manufactured X-Factor bands.

Check out ‘Eos’ on Spotify, and follow Violette on Facebook.

Review by Alex Holmes