Browsing Tag

indie-pop

Amela is the epitome of individuality while advocating it in her hook-decorated pop hit, Who You Are

Posted on 11 July 2022
https://soundcloud.com/amelamusic/who-you-are/s-3VatgJQOYAa?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

With ample resonance to the structure of Lorde’s hit, Royal, there is no denying that Amela’s latest single, Who You Are, has the earworm factor nestled into the contemporary production.

Beyond the catchy pop vocal hooks, there’s a sticky-sweet celebration of autonomous freedom around the feisty and moody electro instrumentals that give the track enough of an edge to ensure it etches itself into your synapses and demands repeat attention.

There’s nothing more irritating than pop artists that encourage individuality while presenting themselves as fresh from the cookie-cutter stars. With Amela, she leads by infectiously quirky example. The Australian singer-songwriter has blown up across her home continent, but clearly, her sound carries all of the hallmarks of an internationally successful artist. We can’t wait to see her climb the charts.

Who You Are will officially release on July 8th. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud or Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Kasey Butler – Love Like That: No Indie Alt-Pop Artist Has Worn Scorn Better

Posted on 2 July 2022
Kasey Butler

“You’re the darkest daydream in my mind” is one hell of an opening lyric; the poetry doesn’t falter from there on out in Kasey Butler’s latest progressive indie hit, Love Like That.

From a folky, vocally flooring intro into a fiery scorned proclamation of contempt for the people that send our orbits off-kilter to the tune of massive EDM pop beats, Love Like That is a summer stormer that just keeps on raging.

Ingraining even more gravitas, there is also a touch of theatrical piano-pop sewn into the hit around the arrestive orchestral swells. In every conceivable way, Kasey Butler constructed the perfect pop hit. It keeps you guessing; the monolithic shifts in tone and momentum happen as easily as breathing and that voice… That mindfully poised voice wrapping around the earworm choral lyric, “I know you don’t have dimension, broken heart was your intention, forgive me I was naive”. It is safe to say we are hooked.

Love Like That will officially release on June 30th. Get it in your ears via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Get your summer funk-pop fix with Monté’s red-hot bubblegum earworm, Heart2heart

Posted on 1 July 2022

The electro funk-pop trio, Monté, has been feeding the airwaves sticky-sweet euphoria since forming in 2019. They brought out their sharpest arsenal of pop hooks yet with their summer 2022 release, Heart2heart.

Far from your average fawny proclamation of passion, the track was written for those who deserve better. With the vibrant energy in the Disco-Esque crescendos, the seductively smoky horn stabs, and the sheer soul oozing through Leah’s vocals, with Heart2heart on your playlists, you’d be hard-pressed to forget to have self-worth. There’s something subversively genius about the lyrics “you’re a piece of shit” versed through butter wouldn’t melt vocals.

Heart2heart is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ashes to Amber took the evolution of indie one off-kilter step further with HEEBIE JEEBIES

Posted on 24 June 2022
https://soundcloud.com/steedyroyce/heebee-jeebies-1/s-dMU88ZdfQch?in=steedyroyce/sets/heebee-geebees/s-wNN99aj7fTk&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

It isn’t all too long after the prelude that trying to pull out genre or reminiscence from Ashes to Amber’s latest single, HEEBIE JEEBIES starts to feel redundant. The unapologetic indie originator is one of the increasingly rare new names that are willing to expose his soul on the airwaves without hiding behind the style of another.

From gorgeously angular guitars fed through frenetic loops to harsh dancey synthetic textures to hip hop beats to cosmic blisters of dream pop, it’s all fed into the electrifying livewire of a title single to his forthcoming EP. As an anchor for sonic sanctity, Ashes to Amber gave us his sweetest indie-pop vocals, which will undoubtedly be a hit with fans of Peace, Jaws, the 1975, The Maccabees, and Swim Deep.

The HEEBIE JEEBIES EP will officially drop on June 24th. You can hear it for yourselves here.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

reharbour lay his soul bare in the melodic hooks in his debut ‘Without You’

Posted on 14 June 2022

It is one thing to release a heart-wrenchingly honest single as an established artist; doing it for a debut release is quite another. British singer-songwriter reharbour (Thomas Shearwood) was bold enough to lay it all down on the melodic hooks of his first genre-mashing single, Without You.

What starts as a sombrely intimate indie ballad starts to unravel as a massive electro indie-pop production, which will undoubtedly be a hit with the artist’s main influences,  Bon Iver, London Grammar, and The 1975,

All the way through the accordant earworm, there are affirmations of sincerity, but there isn’t a hint of earnestness in the upraisingly bitter-sweet single which takes you through euphoric electronic builds and arresting 80s rock riffs.

With an EP in the pipeline, save a space on your radar.

You can check out reharbour’s debut single via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

London’s Lemonade Sin defied gravity with their elevated dream pop single, Melanie Nods

Posted on 7 June 2022
Melanie Nods by Lemonade Sin

Following the saturated-in-tape-delay indie dream pop intro, Lemonade Sin’s latest single, Melanie Nods, unfolds as a transcendentally playful aural crumble of the definitive UK sounds from the 80s to the 00s. The hazy shoegaze textures, chilling nods to post-punk and the Manic Street Preaches-Esque riffs in the middle eight pull together to form a sonic trajectory that you will want to follow time and time again.

With vocal reminiscences to Joy Division’s Atmosphere and the Human League’s Mirror Man happening simultaneously, Lemonade Sin is for every 80s fan out there looking for artists innovative enough to pull new aesthetics out of the synths, unmistakable percussion, and vocal layering.

Melanie Nods is now available to stream and purchase on Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Manchester’s Dakota Avenue cry out for sanctity in their indie anthem, Slap Me Silly

Posted on 3 June 2022

No feeling can compare to hearing a sentiment that you’ve only ever heard reverberating around the most private corners of your mind versed through compassionately honeyed vocals. And that is exactly what the Manchester-based outfit, Dakota Avenue, delivers through their latest single, Slap Me Silly. Far from a masochistic howl into the void, Slap Me Silly claws into the soul-biting issue of needing someone that knows you enough to offer a firm guiding hand to pull you back into a state of sanctity.

It is about time Manchester’s music scene stopped being defined by nostalgia and started to revolve around the contemporary crafted resonance delivered by acts as energizingly profound as Dakota Avenue. Their indie jangle-pop melodies, cataclysmic crescendos and 80s-inspired synths are a hotbed of evocatively charged stylised alchemy.

But Dakota Avenue certainly hasn’t failed to gain traction; they’ve garnered radio play from Amazing Radio and XS Manchester, performed live sessions for BBC Introducing and played to thousands at festivals, and garnered critical acclaim from across the board. As a fellow Mancunian, I wouldn’t hesitate to sell Dakota Avenue as one of the hottest acts this side of the Mersey.

Slap Me Silly is due for official release on June 3rd; check it out for yourselves here.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Scott the Pisces welcomes us to Summer ’22 in his latest pop stormer featuring BINX

Posted on 27 May 2022
https://soundcloud.com/scottthepisces/summer-22-feat-binxwip-private-link/s-mK1ApBZFXoC

Pop artists may have had their work cut out over the past two summers trying to feed sonic euphoria; now that summer anthems have ceased souring moods by reminding us of what we’re missing out on, Scott the Pisces is here with his viral worthy-track, Summer ’22, featuring BINX. It hits the contemporary curve while throwing right back to the originators of the ultimate summer hits (the Beach Boys, obviously).

Summer ’22 starts with the sun-bleached crunching electric guitar tones that will instantly hook in any indie rock aficionados. By the time the blissfully enlivening production has reached the driving momentum in the chorus, you’ll be wrapped up in the strident celebration of the season. Getting psyched by this blissfully hook-filled track by the up and coming UK artist is practically non-optional.

Summer ’22 is due for official release on May 27th; you can check it out via Spotify and SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Spotlight Feature: Grace Coletta planted the seeds for the ultimate indie-pop-touch-grass anthem, Daisies

Posted on 10 May 2022

One million streams down, the Chicago-hailing indie-pop luminary Grace Coletta is here with yet another viral-worthy single, Daisies. What starts as a lo-fi indie trippy feat of pop quickly blossoms into an ardent proclamation of nature-entwined poppy EDM that reminds you to unplug and touch some grass.

Instead of lyrically fawning about their flavour of the month, which most pop acts tend to do when the weather gets a little warmer, the singer-songwriter chose to advocate for mental health in an infectiously emboldening style that could give Vogue a run for its money.

Grace Coletta has exactly what it takes to become this generation’s indie-pop supreme. Even if she falls short, she’s well worth a spot on your radar – for your sanity’s sake. She created a brand-new plateau to set the bar with Daisies. Swoon-worthy vocal harmonies and razor-sharp hooks rarely come hand in hand, but that is just one of the signifiers of her natural alchemy.

Here’s what she had to say on her latest release:

“Daisies is about escaping. It is about getting the heck out of town when shit is just too much and that temporary joy you get when you run away from your problems because a little distance makes everything a little easier to handle.”

Daisies will officially release on May 10th. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to Spotify.

Follow Grace Coletta on Instagram and TikTok.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

 

Jake Inzerra has unleashed his seductive 80s glam indie-pop earworm, Elevator

Posted on 6 May 2022
https://youtu.be/mDdGKdlY1QU

There was no forgetting Jake Inzerra after his punchy indie-pop hit, No Lips; the singer-songwriter and producer is back on glam form in his latest single, Elevator.

Believe it or not, Inzerra’s Elevator is just as seductive as Aerosmith’s Love in an Elevator, which may have a fair amount to do with the raucous bite in his vocal timbre that sinks its teeth just as deep as Adam Levine’s.

I’ve long held the theory that all of the best artists carry androgyny into their music; Inzerra affirmed it with his infectiously hook-filled hit that soaks into your soul as much as your synapses.

Jake Inzerra’s latest single, Elevator, is due for official release on May 6th. You can check it out for yourselves via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast