Browsing Tag

Indie Britpop

Classic songwriting meets contemporary cultivation in Col Gerrard’s debut, Sun & Sky

Posted on 23 July 2024

The heat of 90s Britpop summers shimmer through the debut single, Sun & Sky, by Col Gerrard, who is already well on his way to becoming synonymous with seraphic soul-imbued sonics.

Nostalgia-filtered warmth radiates through the magnetic melodies which cast away shadows to invite a spectrum of sepia-tinged colour into your senses as the guitar-driven rhythms in Sun & Sky reverberate in the middle ground between Springsteen, Bryan Adams and the Manics.

The scintillatingly lush synths perfectly round out and modernise the euphoric atmosphere of the classically written single which was produced by the GRAMMY-nominated producer and Brit Award winner, Chris Potter, best known for his work with Blur, Kean, U2, The Rolling Stones, and The Verve.

Inspired by the way Bowie affected his fans, Gerrard has imbued the same soul-affirming stardust into his own work. Yet, when the tonal bliss of Sun & Sky washes over you and the tenderly compassionate lyricism that consoles the lost and pensive starts to resonate, there’s no mistaking that the alchemy within the promising debut is originated to its core.

Sun & Sky was officially released on July 12th; stream the single on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Steady Owl melancholically howled into the cosmos with his orchestrally elevated alt-90s hit, MOONDOG

Posted on 13 October 2023

If anyone has what it takes to reignite the mainstream momentum of indie, it is the melodic fire starter Steady Owl with their debut album, They Are All Bastards Except Us, which is due for release on October 20.

As an appetiser, the alt-indie revivalist revealed the single, MOONDOG, which pays a mellifluously fitting ode to the icons of the 90s Britpop era. The orchestrally elevated melodicism echoes the legacies of Mansun and the Manics while the cosmically compelling single drips in Transatlantic magnetism with the striking reminiscences to the more melancholic work of R.E.M.

It feels as though the entire alt-90s aural ecosystem underpins this gravity-defying release, yet at the same time, the superlative song crafter conjured something completely new to render the hearts of all indie rock nostalgists raw. Lyrically, it will throw you right back to when Pearl Jam broke your heart for the first time with their single, Black, while the cosmos is torn through by the stunning angular guitars, which know which evocative impulses to strike with every pitch and pace-perfected progression.

MOONDOG was officially released on September 14; stream it on Soundcloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

KLDD is a vision in kaleidoscopic colour in their indie-psych hit, Little Help (Today)

Posted on 24 March 2023

Cruising in like a psychedelic Cadillac, the Dublin-based dreamers, KLDD paid homage to the Manchester indie greats in their latest single, Little Help (Today). The sounds of The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays shimmer through the scintillatingly sharp melodies, which leave the low timbres to the basslines and the transcendent euphoria to the colourfully kaleidoscopic guitar lines.

The outfit may have banded together through a love of dirty riffs, but the groove-driven décor of this elevated postcard to the Manchester icons, which pushes beyond a transfixion on the past, soars higher than Noel Gallagher and the High Flying Birds.

For a sure-fire fix of serotonin, stream Little Help (Today) from March 24th via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

London indie-rock renegades JW Paris shared their lascivious appetite for destruction with ‘She’

Posted on 14 November 2022

The shimmer of wavering Pavement-esque guitars meets the indie anthemics of Blur in the standout single, She, from the London indie trio JW Paris’ debut EP, Stuck in a Video, which implanted off-kilter killer hooks into the airwaves on October 28th.

Reminiscences aside, the band that has sent distinction ricocheting through the underground since their 2017 debut always bring a potent shot of their own renegade indie-rock flavour to their tracks. The critically acclaimed act has a habit of drawing you right into the swaggering melodicism through the lyrics that will smother anyone who has ever felt the odds stack against them with resonance.

Never ones to toy with cliches, JW Paris found a gritty way to pay ode life’s protagonists who sell sanctuary to us amid our appetite for destruction with She. With “she tried to run me over, she blows my mind” written into the lyricism, JW Paris cut to the marrow of the human proclivity to gravitate to modern-day sirens. If you haven’t been there, in the words of Bukowski, what truly horrible lives you must lead.

Stream JW Paris’ debut EP, Stuck in a Video, in full on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast