Browsing Tag

Pop Singer Songwriter

Snir Yamin genre bends and transcends boundaries with the alt-pop aesthetic in Aftermath

With an eclectic synthesis of pop influences and an ability to weave them into a stunning pop aesthetic, Snir Yamin refreshed the airwaves with his euphoric take on pop-rock when he released his sophomore single, Aftermath.

The power pop licks tend to the wounds inflicted by a bitter-sweet heartbreak where promises were broken and dreams were left unmanifested while the new wave synths bring the track right up to speed with the contemporary curve before his heartfelt authenticity superlatively surpasses it.

The viscerally tender release is the perfect introduction to the indie singer-songwriter’s determination to stir the souls of anyone who ventures onto one of his expertly crafted sonic landscapes. It’s an earworm that you will never want to let go of.

Aftermath was officially released on September 21; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Linn Willner stood at the vanguard of emotionally intelligent pop with ‘Dancing on Roses’

For her latest single, Dancing on Roses, the indie pop enchantress, Linn Willner, melodically pulled on the parallels between blossoming naturalism and the early days of relationships, where we can’t see the thorns for the petals.

The orchestral strings in the indie chamber pop score carved a cinematically immersive atmosphere that evokes notions of romanticism while spurring the listener to remove their rose-tinted glasses and view the full kaleidoscope of betrayal-laden complexity when exploring love and human connection. Life will always find a way to strip away your naivety; it is better to pull back the layers with piano pop expositions on the highs and lows of relationships, which portray vulnerability as a strength.

The 22-year-old Swedish singer-songwriter became an icon of our enlightened times with Dancing on Roses. Beyond her beguilingly evocative vocal lines and command over minor piano keys, she’s at the vanguard of emotionally intelligent pop.

Dancing on Roses will debut on the 26th of September; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Bree Gregory cut right to the emotional core with her orchestral ballad, See You Soon

The Adelaide singer-songwriter Bree Gregory captured the bitter-sweetness of impassioned goodbyes and the beauty of uninhibited vulnerability with her latest orchestrally arranged piano pop ballad, See You Soon, which strips the sonorous production right back to her vocals, piano keys and a string quartet.

Between the cutting crescendos and the steady strides in her dynamic vocal register that carries the same sense of beguile as Adele, See You Soon cuts you right to the emotional core.

Moving away from her RnB soul sound, which saw her peak at number 4 in the top 10 AMRAP charts with her single, Waiting, was a bold move, but discernibly, her talents lend themselves efficaciously well to more than one genre. We can’t wait to see where this Billboard & Grammy-worthy exposition of viscerally warm raw emotion takes her. Even greater successes are surely in the pipeline.

See You Soon will debut on September 22; stream it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

All isn’t fair in love and war in millar’s indie alt-electro-pop single, hunting ground

By drawing parallels between blood sports and romanticism in her indie alt-electro-pop single, hunting ground, the up-and-coming London-based singer-songwriter, millar, delivered a striking exposition of how nothing is fair in love and war when unsuspecting diehard romantics are forced to play by the rules of mind games.

As the atmospheric space progressively shifts from light to dark in the same vein as The Neighbourhood, Cigarettes After Sex and Perfume Genius around the strikingly angular indie guitar work which bears reminiscences to Slowdive and the driving backbeat that gives the single a punchily vindicating energy, hunting ground, is one of the most stunning UK indie tracks to spill up from the underground in 2023.

We can’t wait to hear where millar’s candour and inexplicable talents in euphonically visualising melancholy take her next.

hunting ground was officially released on September 1st; stream it now on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Spotlight Feature: Emilio Lanza embraced the moody future of pop while looking back in ‘Rearview Mirror’

For his latest single, Rearview Mirror, the Naples-born singer-songwriter Emilio Lanza darkened the doorstep of 90s boyband pop and weathered the torrid storm of heartbroken introspection.

With acoustic percussive fingerpicked guitar motifs scattered amongst the dark and reverberant moody pop sensibilities, Rearview Mirror is a triumph of evocative ingenuity for the way the light melodicism juxtaposes the harsher elements to sonically allude to the rollercoaster you’re forced onto when distance becomes definitive disconnection.

Careful to balance light and shade, Lanza, also instilled resilience into the release that will efficaciously embolden any hopeless romantics searching for hope; it is in Rearview Mirror by the visceral smorgasbord.

With over 2 million streams on Spotify and after receiving plaudits from the likes of Ed Sheeran and James Bay, Emilio Lanza has already conquered the world of pop; be a part of his legacy and delve into his latest elevated production.

Emilio Lanza Said:

“My song, Rearview Mirror, is a metaphor representing our past, nightmares, breakups or scary thoughts; it can be anything, but the message is positive, as reflected by the cover art depicting a sunset ahead and struggles in the rearview mirror. I wrote the song following the end of a six-year love story and other life hardships.”

Rearview Mirror will hit the airwaves on the 25th of August. Stream it on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Isohel added nuance to stoic philosophy by embracing negativity in his latest pop hit, BAD VIBES

Billie Eilish gave us Bad Guy; in another pop universe, the luminary who is well on his way towards the one million steam mark, Isohel, gave us BAD VIBES in his latest viral-worthy hit.

While some see negative emotions as something to be repressed, Isohel proved that when you embrace pain, you will find the lesson within it. Consider it a far more nuanced and realistic view than the stoic belief that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Following an angular guitar prelude that sounds like it was pulled from a Slowdive album, BAD VIBES unravels as one of the most progressively electric pop hits the airwaves have received this year. While the guitar tones remain a constant throughout the mix, dance-pop proclivities start to work their way into the melancholia-laced anthem that defies expectation and genre to establish Isohel as one of the most authentic acts on the scene.

The RnB and moody synth-pop nuances infused into the track with all the hallmarks of a pop earworm is a testament to the talents of the Italian singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist who is making light work of breaking into the international music industry.

Stream BAD VIBES on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

LA’s most harmonic pop-rock pioneer, Johnathan Dax, evoked mindfulness in his latest single, These Are the Days

Johnathan Dax spun the ’60s psych-pop tones through a spacy, future-ready kaleidoscope to orchestrate his odyssey of a single, These Are the Days.

The single efficaciously finds a poignantly compelling way to prove that these times may not be perfect, but on this point on the space-time continuum, they’re all we have, and they were made for living in.

Our era may be choked with a wanton lust for nostalgia, but if any spacey pop-rock sonic universe can bring you back to the present and give you lust for contemporary life, it’s These Are the Days, which picks up momentum through rock licks toward the outro, while emanating the liberating transcendence of an ELO epic.

These Are the Days will be available to stream from the 17th of August; hear it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Amy Corey instilled compassion into country pop with ‘If I Could’

When Amy Corey isn’t writing and recording radio-ready hit singles, she’s giving TEDx talks, being an Ambassador to the HCMC Peace and Development Foundation in Vietnam and being proactive in her role as a mental health motivational speaker.

The Vietnam-born artist, who was adopted to America at six months old, has melodically extended her mental health advocacy in her latest single If I Could, which soulfully shares some of the sonic proclivities with Taylor Swift’s country pop records as Corey strides into her own with her compassionately compelling vocal and lyrical lines, which allude to the immense crushing gravity of loss.

There’s just enough ambiguity in the lyrics to allow the listener to wrap their own meaning around the lyricism, which amasses an emboldening energy through the momentum of the classic pop crescendos. It’s a stunning release from an artist evidently intent in her mission to spread empathy and understanding in a world that can all too often feel devoid of it.

If I Could was officially released on August 8th; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Boston bedroom pop trailblazer Eliora reached the epitome of bitter-sweet twee with ‘butterflies turn into stomach bugs’

The alt-indie-pop singer-songwriter Eliora ripped up trite romantic tropes and scattered them like melodic confetti in her latest lo-fi single, butterflies turn into stomach bugs.

Standing in her own league in a world of Phoebe Bridgers assimilators, the bedroom pop artist who never inhibits her hits always creates quirk-filled soundscapes that capture the messy and idiosyncratic nature of real life instead of normalising the lies that perpetuate through Hollywood and the Billboard charts. Her latest playfully twee single is no exception to her cardinal song crafting rule which was established when she made her debut from her Boston bedroom in March 2020.

butterflies turn into stomach bugs was officially released on August 8th; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Kailey Tenn constructed euphonic comfort with the introspective gold in her latest single, Happier

People who thoughtlessly bound around the word forever may want to think twice about their choice of verbiage after exposing themselves to the glistening-with-introspective-gold debut EP, Forever is Finite, from the Long Island singer-songwriter and producer Kailey Tenn.

The standout single, Happier, takes classic piano pop ballad stylings and reinvents them through intimately subversive poetic lyricality, which bolsters in poignancy to the tune of the rock-infused crescendos and orchestral motifs that elevate the soundscape to the celestial nth degree.

The 23-year-old artist hasn’t failed to establish herself as one to watch by being one of the rare songwriters with the capacity to create resonance through her soul-stirring melodies and narratively beguiling lyrics that construct mirrors for her audience to see themselves within.

Happier is the ultimate testament to her talents for the way it reminds you that the dream of reaching an idealised state of happiness will only set you up for failure; strive to be happier than you were yesterday instead.

Check out Kailey Tenn’s debut EP, Forever is Finite, on all major platforms via this link.

 

Review by Amelia Vandergast