Browsing Tag

Pop Singer Songwriter

Mike Marnelakis laid bitter-sweet affection intimately bare in his pop hit, I Can’t

Posted on 25 January 2023

Greek singer-songwriter, Mike Marnelakis, released the most superlatively bitter-sweet love song with his latest pop hit, I Can’t – definitively proving that the line of light and dark appears within us all, every emotion, and every phenomenon.

Starting with an acoustically strummed and stripped-back intro, the prelude and first verse laid affection down with intimately bare candour. His loaded with emotion vocals harmonically drift into the chorally polished tones, allowing you to drink in every ounce of apathy that inspired the carresively pensive single.

After the proclamation that there is no truth without pain, the progressively seamless single builds into an 80s jangle pop hit that will swell the hearts of The 1975 fans.

I Can’t is now available to stream on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Luchi shows us the weight of empty promises in his pop track, He Said

Posted on 14 January 2023
https://soundcloud.com/luchi_music/sets/me-tears-aint-strangers-ep/s-N5Bx3saLWtN?utm_source=mobi&utm_campaign=social_sharing&utm_terms=prohackedsounds.uploads_in_line&si=ef7e5578e2524059a7574798ac085d79

The Me + Tears Ain’t Strangers EP from the Glasgow-based Italian up-and-coming pop artist, Luchi is a meditation in mindful melancholy. The opening single, He Said, is the perfect introduction to the artist’s introspective candour that inspires empathy and reactive vulnerability in equal measure.

There’s nothing rawer than relaying all the empty promises when a relationship reaches an ennui-laden end, especially after we walked into the dynamic with hesitancy over vulnerability. When those red flags start to wave away every shallow word, we’re the ones left with the shame when it was never ours to carry. He Said stands as the ultimate affirmation of the disparity within romantic accountability.

Bringing new contemporary flair to the pop ballad, Luchi utilises climactic piano crescendos and tensile vocal progressions to stick to the roots before implanting modernist twists through the RnB nuances and utilisation of atmospheric reverb around the gently muted guitar strings that flow in synergy with the soft synths.

The Me + Tears Ain’t Strangers EP is due for official release on January 13th. Hear it on SoundCloud. Follow Luchi on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Hila reclaimed her autonomy with her trailblazingly moody twist on bubblegum pop, Sorry?

Posted on 3 January 2023

After thriving through 2022 with her extensively playlisted singles, Easy to Lose Control and Thoughts Out Loud, the alt-pop sensation, Hila is delivering vindication hand over inexplicably talented fist in her latest single, Sorry?

The moody pop instrumentals following the staccato guitar prelude contrastingly illuminate the shimmering soul that spills from her dreamily pitch-perfect vocal timbre to the nth degree as the lyrics capture the evocative complexity of relationships that leave you doubting your self-worth before you arrive at the epiphany that people beneath you will always drag you down to their depraved depths.

With both of Hila’s previous 2022 singles reaching the 300k+ stream mark on Spotify alone, if any breakthrough artist is going to make 2023 their own, it’s Hila. The strength of her sonic palettes could carry her alone; with her proclivity to dig deep lyrically to help her growing fanbase grapple with their own anxiety and heartbreak, she’s worth her weight in gold. What Gwen Stefani was to the 90s, Lila is to the 21st century.

Sorry? Officially released on December 27th, it is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Krystal Scarlet attests that fantasies can come true in her euphonious pop hit, Wonderland.

Posted on 28 December 2022

London-based pop breakthrough artist, Krystal Scarlet, dropped in on the airwaves for the first time since her infectiously vindicating 2021 hit, Won’t Forget, with her new 80s-inspired single, Wonderland, on December 16th. The funky indie guitar chops pop around the snappy percussion and colourfully vibrant electronic synthetics create an uplifting earworm that all too easily takes you to the titular destination.

With pitch-perfect euphonious harmonies, Krystal Scarlet carries the Taylor Swift effect before coming into her own via the authentically indie grooves in the track that will leave you humming to the tune of the fantastical euphoria for days on end.

The track that celebrates the kind of love that can abstract you from your own daydream and take you somewhere even sweeter isn’t one that you can passively let pass you by. Obsession is non-optional.

Wonderland is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Gemma Felicity shared her bitter-sweet learning curve in her evocative indie pop single, Better Without You

Posted on 15 December 2022

With a guitar tone as chorally compelling as Slowdive’s in their latest album, the London-based independent singer-songwriter Gemma Felicity rendered us heartbroken by proxy with her sophomore single and official music video, Better Without You.

The steadily ascending pop artist has been refining her performative and songwriting talents since she was nine years old. After taking a hiatus for her undergrad degree and enduring mental and physical illness, she returned to music with the vow to express her deepest emotions.

Stylish, sincere and self-reflective in equal measure, Better Without You transcends the archetypal breakup song to get to the crux of tangibly resonant emotion. Unless your soul is completely defunct, you can’t help but invest in the matured indie pop masterpiece that fills you with compassion for the vulnerable powerful protagonist she portrays.

With her debut EP, Baggage, in the pipeline, we’re stoked to have her on our radar.

Watch the official video for Better Without You on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Chelsea Silva reclaimed power in her vindicatingly catchy electro-pop debut, hades has a daughter

Posted on 30 November 2022

Alt-indie-pop singer-songwriter Chelsea Silva spilt fabled glamour all over the standout single, hades has a daughter, from her spell-binding EP, But What if You Fly?

Using Greek Mythology for her narratively clever exposition on how this mortal world puts kinks in our soul, the Sydney, Australia luminary newcomer proved that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Not even the god of the underworld can match a woman determined to reclaim power and question, “why do the happiest ones leave a trail behind?”.

The catchy, moody electro-pop beats playfully pop around Silva’s sultry theatrical vocal timbre to ensure that everyone who tunes into hades has a daughter gets a shot of vindication through the quirky arrestive sensation of a debut. She shimmers with all of the star power of Marina and the Diamonds while ensuring her own autonomy is the centre of gravity in the infectious hit.

hades has a daughter will be available to stream from November 30th. Catch the earworm on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Spotlight Feature: Pop-Punk’s Fiercest Lyricist, Juliette Irons, Advocated for the Heartbroken in her Latest Anthem, Skydive

Posted on 18 November 2022

After a brush with disorientating heartbreak, the Toronto-born, LA-based artist, producer, and dancer Juliette Irons picked herself up, dusted herself off and released the stormer of a pop-punk anthem, Skydive, as an act of solidarity with anyone feeling the same anxious dejection.

Skydive follows on from her evocative whirlwind, Prisoner of My Mind, which introduced the airwaves to the claustrophobia of anxiety. Still on stellar lyrical form, Skydive ensnaringly traverses the euphoric highs and dark and despondent lows of a situation-ship to prove even if you’re the one broken and bruised, you’re not the loser.

No heartbreak can survive the flood of dopamine that surges from Skydive. The rap verses are the vindicating cherry on the hook-sprinkled pop-punk cake, which tastes like 00s nostalgia, but Juliette Irons always brings her own signature emboldening flavour to the mix.

“Skydive was inspired by the confusion that comes from whirlwind heartbreak. I had just come out of a brief rollercoaster situation-ship that ended abruptly without much explanation. I felt like I had been thrown from a moving plane, woke up on the ground, and I was the only one who jumped.

I had given everything to this person, only to end up a shell of myself as I picked up the pieces during a realisation that everything was over. I hope this song can help other people going through a similar ungrounding shock to the system, and we can be empowered through it together.”

The official music video for Skydive will officially premiere on November 18th. Catch it on YouTube, and stay tuned on Facebook & Instagram, as Skydive is only the first part of the story. The concluding chapter will be told through her follow-up single, The Fear of Flying.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Hana Katana pierced through the veil of plastic pop tropes with her pop-rock anthem, Friends Don’t Make You Cry

Posted on 6 November 2022

California-born, Austin-raised artist Hana Katana tore through the plastic pop cliches with razor-sharp precision to deliver the emboldening indie pop-rock single Friends Don’t Make You Cry. Turns out, wholesome content can sit hand in hand with kickass volition.

The lyric “friends don’t f**k you with their eye” is all proof you need that Hana Katana, who took her adapted adage “the tongue is mightier than the sword” for her moniker is one of the wittiest rising artists on the airwaves.

With touches of Paramore with the sonic glam of Marina and the Diamonds around the gorgeously angular indie guitars, Friends Don’t Make You Cry is a triumph. Kathleen Hanna would be proud. Especially, as the rising artist is doing stunt training while working on her visual album that will feature fight scenes to represent the conflict in each song.

Check out the official music video on YouTube.

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

When too much wasn’t enough, Martin Buster mused the chillingly ethereal pop hit, Drop

Posted on 21 October 2022
Martin Buster

The Danish breakthrough artist Martin Buster laid it all bare in his panache-pierced feat of modernist pop, Drop. Atop the world music rhythms that add vivid colour to monochromatically dark electro-pop soundscape, Buster implants lyricism that encompasses the pain that transpires through giving everything and still not giving enough.

“Hurts with every drop that falls” around the hymnal non-lexical vocals beautifully epitomises how much of yourself you can lose in a relationship that constantly tells you that you’re not enough. Ironically, you just can’t help falling in love with him in this masterfully produced release that shows the true beauty in vulnerability.

Drop will officially release on October 21st. Check it out on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast