Browsing Tag

Pop Singer Songwriter

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

Matt DeAngelis takes us a ‘Mile Down the Road’ in his crooned spacey piano pop ballad

Posted on 2 March 2022

Southern New Jersey singer-songwriter, Matt DeAngelis, is fresh from the release of his eagerly anticipated EP, World I’m Comin’ for You’. Judging by the standout single, Mile Down the Road, he has already arrived.

By taking influence from David Bowie, Elton John and Billy Joel, the piano-led ballad carries the same style of absorbingly escapist narrative that wraps you up in the theatrically tinged emotion that effortlessly flows from DeAngelis’ timeless crooned pop timbre.

The jazzy instrumental interludes, orchestral strings and intricately clever piano motifs defiantly stand in the way of Mile Down the Road as resonating as just another cheesy show tune. This track is definitely for the audiophiles – as is the whole EP, how could we just stop at one track? The concluding single, Maybe I, makes it almost impossible believe that it was created by a 23-year-old singer-songwriter and released in 2022.

Check out Matt DeAngelis on his official website, Spotify, Facebook and Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Cami Bex owns her lack of impulse control in her matured bubblegum pop earworm. Cut Me Off

Posted on 26 February 2022

There was no forgetting the pop-archetype-smashing artist, Cami Bex, after hearing her debut single, Type, in 2020. In 2022, she is on even more visceral form with the release of her seminal single, Cut Me Off, which is a playfully resonant admission to her lack of control in the face of temptation.

A chorus of, “I’m not strong enough for you, you better cut me off”, was always going to hit hard. But when those bruising words are delivered through Cami Bex’s signature bubble gum pop vocals, they hit twice as hard.

The Sydney Southwest-based artist has been worthy of viral notoriety from the start; we can’t wait to watch more hype garner around the sheer vulnerability in her indie breathy vocals and her hooky melodies.

Cut Me Off will officially release on February 25th, 2022. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Demure dream-pop royalty, speakeazie has released her debut album, Prohibition Hippie

Posted on 25 February 2022

The Minneapolis-based alt dream-pop artist that is never short of mesmeric material, speakeazie, has released her highly anticipated debut album, Prohibition Hippie, featuring the standout single, Disintegrate, which spins an engrossing narrative tale of a young girl losing control. Anyone that has ever felt their mask of sanity slip will undoubtedly want to delve into this compassionately orchestrated single.

Disintegrate shares a tonal palette with Echo and the Bunnymen’s earlier material. But with the instrumentals distorted via the wobbly tape delay effect, the bedroom pop single takes an authentically demure form.

speakeazie’s vocals parallel the evocative power of Florence Welch while keeping in line with the contemporary moody indie-pop vocal trend. By that we mean they are alchemic leagues ahead. Also written into Disintegrate’s mix is speakeazie’s influence of dreamy retro aesthetics and the 1920s. It is inarguably one of the most distinctive releases that we have heard so far this year.

speakeazie’s debut album is now available to stream on Spotify. Or you can check out the video on YouTube. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The UK singer-songwriter, Mea has released her sad-girl-empowering debut single, Sad Girl Vibes

Posted on 25 February 2022

The up-and-coming independent alt-pop artist, Mea’s exceptionally promising debut single, Sad Girl Vibes, is everything that it metaphorically says on the tin, and so much more for the way it puts to shame toxic positivity tropes and empowers through resonance.

The artfully vulnerable release melds the moody beats with lighter textures and sensibilities to make it all too easy to get on the same wavelength as the UK-based singer-songwriter and her trip-hoppy, indie RnB nuanced track. Any fans of Warpaint will want to pay attention.

The bruisingly honest lyrics in the earworm stand as the ultimate testament to the fact that just because someone errs on the side of melancholy, that doesn’t make their psyche synonymous with obnoxious misery. If anyone can tempt people into owning their sad girl vibes, it is Mea.

You can vibe with Mea’s debut single, Sad Girl Vibes, for yourselves by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Lily Slate – The Devil Made Me Do It; prepare your hedonistic pop playlists

Posted on 25 February 2022

‘The Devil Made Me Do It’ is the sinfully sweet dark electro-pop anthem from the born audiophile and luminary artist Lily Slate. The ultimate hedonists’ anthem unravels to ensnaring synths, polyrhythmic guitars, filthy electric guitar licks and swathes of deep sub-bass. While Slate’s sultry vocal magnetism draws you into the track that reminds you how good it feels to surrender to inhibition.

The Californian artist draws inspiration from the obscure and iconic. Bowie, Eno, and Mercury all became a massive part of the artist’s sphere of influence. Yet, when it comes to his sound, the composer, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter notably followed his own lasciviously iniquitous edge.

The Devil Made Me Do It features on Slate’s debut album, ii, which is due for release on 22/02/2022.

The Devil Made Me Do It is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Washington pop singer-songwriter, Marilyn Hucek, advocates for solidarity in her latest single, Girls Girl.

Posted on 25 February 2022
Marilyn Hucek

To celebrate Women’s History Month in 2022, the Washington-based pop singer-songwriter Marilyn Hucek is set to release her emboldening EDM pop track, Girls Girl, which advocates for solidarity between women and forces toxic competitiveness into question.

You only need to look at selfies from popular Instagram accounts to know just how much energy is spent tearing each other apart – energy which could just as easily be used to build each other up. Girls Girl definitively proves how sweet solidarity can be; it was 100% written, performed, recorded and produced by a collective of aurally talented women to deliver a middle finger to the misogyny in the industry and any woman revelling in the downfall of another.

Unlike most of the pop tracks on the airwaves, nothing about Girls Girls feels plasticised. Every ounce of fiery intent in the vocals resonates organically and finds enough synergy with the dark pop instrumentals to make an earworm out of the single. Sonically, it is Peaches meets Gwen Stefani, but Hucek’s personality is vibrant in its matchless autonomy.

Girls Girl is due for official release on February 25th, 2022. Check out Marilyn Hucek via her website, Spotify, SoundCloud and Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

December Fades has released his ornately anticipatory pop single, Waiting

Posted on 11 February 2022

It is always a pleasure to discover an artist that has broken through their fear of expressive vulnerability, and few do it with as much panache as December Fades in his latest single, Waiting. The LA singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist always leaves us guessing what form of pop alchemy will follow the last. Waiting is an ornately passionate score of synths, keys and other ambiently minimal effects that serve as the platform for his effortlessly outreaching vocals.

Lyrically, the single goes so far past the old adage of anything worth having is worth waiting for. Waiting is a stunning reminder that life can’t always be in motion; waiting is just a part of the human experience as another verb.

Waiting will officially release on February 11th. You can check it out for yourselves here.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Kathleen Elle weaves alchemy into the romanticism of her latest soul-pop single, Magic

Posted on 10 February 2022
Kathleen Elle

The award-winning viral singer-songwriter, Kathleen Elle, is set to bring the alchemy in her latest piece of ear candy, Magic. The soul-pop single follows on from her single, Nervous, which saw her go viral in 2021 with her Taylor Swift-reminiscent sound and resounding lyrical intimacy.

Magic contains enough panoramic emotion and sonic panache to make it fitting in a Blockbuster feature soundtrack. Yet, Elle’s indie roots still pull through in the Grammy-worthy production.

What I can’t help but admire about Kathleen Elle is her ability to pour romanticism back into the world which rivals her talents in lyrically cutting close to the bone. She’s also earned a sentimental place on our radar through her mission to see 5-minute pop singles prolific on the airwaves. She certainly made a case for them with the narrative structuring of Magic.

Magic is due for official release on February 10th. You’ll be able to check it out for yourselves via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Nikkita prescribes optimism in her debut EDM pop hit, Looking Up

Posted on 4 February 2022

From the suburbs of Perth, the breaking EDM pop artist, Nikkita delivered her internationally resonant synth-driven debut single, Looking Up. Usually, there is a compromise between evocative power and sonic momentum in the pop genre; Looking Up finds the perfect balance of optimistic vulnerability and sheer perennial pop earworm potential.

Debut releases don’t often come as euphoria-inducing as Looking Up, which uses dizzying crescendos and massive future bass breaks to remind you of the visceral sensation that comes as a consequence of finding the freedom in optimism. Yet, I do not doubt that Nikkita’s vocal timbre would be as enlivening in acapella. She has everything it takes to become the next big pop sensation; with plenty of material in the pipeline, she is one to watch.

Looking Up was officially released on January 28th; you can check it out for yourselves on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast