Browsing Tag

NYC Pop

Chloe Southern – Naked: Intimately Confessional Neo-Folk-Pop

Posted on 2 December 2022

Taken from her debut EP, Last Man on Earth, Chloe Southern’s indie neo-folk-meets-pop single, Naked, strips emotionally bare. The urgency of the distinctive vocal delivery paired with the intimacy in the confessionalism makes for a powerful listening experience. Anyone that has ever wrestled with entropy to feel viscerally again will be consumed by the conceptual score, which runs through the dim views that get dimmer in the wake of loneliness.

Narrating how she hates coffee because she only makes it for herself and the smell of snow which takes her to places where she finds a lost love’s shadow proves how easily our perceptions of elemental to inane things can change over time and with the absence of the co-creators of our stories before a chapter closes.

Through and through, it is a stunning single from the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter which deserves to complement the next heartbreakingly cinematic Blockbuster.

Naked is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Expectation meets self-preservation in Aleandro Valente’s blissfully tropic indie pop hit, Not O.K.

Posted on 25 October 2022

The up-and-coming NYC-residing pop artist Aleandro Valente tore off his façade in spectacular fashion in his single, Not O.K. to expose the duality of his determination of being what others perceive him to be and staying true to himself.

The angular indie jangle pop guitars around the sun-bleached tropic RnB pop keys create the perfect platform for the high dynamic stretches of Aleandro Valente’s smooth vocal timbre that pulls you right into the battle of self-preservation and will.

It is Ariana Grande meets the 1975 in this vulnerable earworm that will see the Italian artist and his candour go far. It will undoubtedly be resonant for plenty of his listeners that feel the expectation to amplify their true nature to tick boxes that we never agreed to fill in the first place.

Not O.K. is now available to stream along with the debut album it was taken from, Bite on a Lemon, on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Super Love advocate autonomy indie their electromatic pop hit, The Real Me

Posted on 22 July 2022

For the last two years, we’ve followed Super Love’s autonomously expressive career. Their latest single, The Real Me, which was released on July 22nd, is their most unapologetically authentic electro groove-led pop triumph to date.

The effect-laden, almost animatronic vocals fuse into the synthwave production, which keeps the funk rhythms rolling around the angular indie guitars that add to the cold, almost alien atmosphere of the single which acts as a harbingering warning of what it means to lose your sense of self.

We’re all guilty of going into auto-pilot mode from time to time and disassociating from our souls. With The Real Me on your playlist, you’re infinitely less likely to slip into that vacuous rabbit hole.

Check out Super Love’s latest single, The Real Me, via SoundCloud.

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

Elena Louvis gave her latest indie-pop single This One’s on Me, the tender touch.

Posted on 6 May 2022

With the same tender touch as Bill Ryder-Jones, Daughter and Tom Odell, the NYC up-and-coming artist and indie record label owner Elena Louvis’ latest single, This One’s on Me, is a masterfully raw feat of downtempo indie-pop.

With the neo-classic nods, her vulnerably glassy vocal timbre and the immersive yet stripped back and meditative production, the mournfully humble single hits the evocative spot with bruising precision. The confessionally honest lyrics which spill the ink on idiosyncratic regret are so intimate and personal, yet, at the same time, the sentiments are universally recognisable.

This One’s on Me will be available to stream from May 6th. You can check it out for yourselves via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Super Love showed us the light side of ‘The Moon’ in their latest 80s-inspired polyphonic alt-pop single.

Posted on 15 April 2022

Here with another slice of polyphonic 80s alt-pop nostalgia is the indie power couple Super Love; their synergy and chemistry more than translated in ‘The Moon’.

Oscar Wilde may have created the old gutters and stars adage, but why get your interstellar bliss from anyone else but someone already living it? Metaphorically speaking, of course, but you get the gist.

Despite the instrumental minimalism, The Moon is radiant under the polyphonic keys, the low and almost dreamy basslines and vocals that effortlessly exude a Blondie-level of cool while wrestling with sticky-sweet lyricism.

The Moon will officially release on April 15th; you can check it out for yourselves via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Brenna Carroll gives us the best of her emboldening soul in her live single Like I Do

Posted on 28 March 2022

Brenna Carroll oozed NYC soul in her single, Like I Do, which features on her EP, loungey pensive soul-pop EP, Living Room. Straight away, the melancholic poise of the mellifluous single grips you as Carroll harmonically grooves through the lyrics that use stark and jarring imagery to get to the root of spurned affection aftershock.

It’s always a bitter-sweet acknowledgement – that someone will never see your real value and then search for more in someone else – but Carroll added plenty of saccharine soul while keeping the level of emboldening conviction level for the duration.

You can check out the live recording of Like I Do from Brooklyn, NYC by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Bearbot break free in their latest electro-pop single, Loose Leash

Posted on 18 March 2022

The New York electro-pop singer & producer duo, Bearbot is set to unleash their first EP as a reformed outfit. After producing five albums and touring through NYC’s most notorious clubs’ solo, Euna Kho brought onboard Ariana Moline. Based on the standout single from the Canis EP, Loose Leash, her glossy pop vocals were the perfect fit for the cathartic sonic bliss that is curated into arresting hip hop tinted grooving hooks and transcending melodies.

It was a bold and risky move to sample dog barks in with the 80s synthy notes, Thriller-Esque beats and Ariana’s airy yet ardent timbre, but it paid off massively by bringing a new context to this freedom advocating hit.

Loose Leash will officially release on March 18th; you can check it out for yourselves on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Mallaigh Ashton made the alt-90s her own with her latest dreampop single, With a Song

Posted on 4 March 2022

NYC-hailing singer-songwriter, Mallaigh Ashton, made the alt-90s her own in her indie dream-pop release, With a Song. Reminiscences of Mazzy Star are there, but nothing about With a Song feels fractionally assimilative. There’s a real sense that part of the alchemy in this track is from Ashton’s creative passion and unfiltered poetry spilling into a mic.

Her vocals get just enough prominence in the release to give the cutting lyricism on in-love-anxiety a firm hold on your heartstrings but there’s still enough synergy with the soft shoegaze guitars to give With a Song an almost phantasmal mellifluous air as it alludes to just how fragile love can make you.

As a staunch shoegaze fan, it is always daunting discovering new up and coming artists borrowing tones from the alt 90s, but the cynicism soon faded after hitting play on With a Song. Mallaigh Ashton is a matchlessly breath-taking artist.

With a Song is due for official release on March 4th; you can check it out for yourselves via SoundCloud and Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Astroblue Express invite you to let love in through their cinematic dream pop single, Welcome.

Posted on 5 November 2021

We are stoked to see the return of the New York-residing duo Astroblue Express after their trippy ethereal tones in Cotton Candy Dreams gave us a potent dopamine fix earlier this year.

Their latest single, Welcome, is an artfully composed feat of cinematic dream pop that weaves a conceptual narrative of optimism through the pulsating downtempo electronica beats. Welcome is for anyone who has scolded themselves for being naïve in the past and find themselves unable to trust in the present through fear of future pain. In its essence, Welcome is an invitation to let love in again. After being exposed to the gently layered vocals, soft transcendent crescendos and lyrics that pull you into a brighter perspective, how could you possibly refuse?

Welcome is due for release on November 5th. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to Soundcloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast