Browsing Tag

Sad Boy Pop

Jonathan Jaynes – Angels & Devils: An Ethereal EDM Dance of Duality

Posted on 7 November 2024

Jonathan Jaynes’ new single, ‘Angels & Devils (Club Version)‘, hits with big beats and a honed-to-the-nines production, enveloping listeners in a vulnerably immersive slice of etherealism. The melancholy embedded within the track is its strongest magnetic pull, drawing you into the 8-bit dreamy textures, while the rhythmic punctuations turn the earworm into an installation of danceable kinetic momentum.

‘Angels & Devils’ is a devilishly arcane invitation to lose yourself within a cinematic sonic sphere, reminding you that you are never alone in the moves you make even when it feels like the ache of disconnection is all-consuming. Even if you don’t subscribe to any particular faith, it is impossible not to find comfort in the lyrical mantras that light up the track, which is one of the most affecting exhibitions of Jaynes’ ‘happysad’ signature sound that lays catchy melodies over melancholic confessions.

This club version of ‘Angels & Devils’, originally a sad self-destructive ballad about leaving a relationship to save oneself from getting hurt, marks a new direction in his career, pursuing an EDM legacy that won’t easily be lost to history.

Stream the Club Version of Angels & Devils on SoundCloud now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jake Marshall allowed the anxiously attached to unite in his retro synth-pop hit, TOO MUCH!

Posted on 14 September 2024

We may be in an era of throwaway pop hits but if any track is worth holding onto it is Jake Marshall’s sad-boy synth pop sophomore release, TOO MUCH! Marshall and his 5-octave range set the bar high with his titularly ironic debut single, Bad Singer, and transcended it with the 80s aesthetics and indie hyper-pop nuances in TOO MUCH.

The candidly riotous track finds an earwormy way to articulate the trials and tribulations of contending with an insecure attachment style and battling with the inner monologue which constantly gnaws with crushing self-reflections of overbearingness. Even if you don’t have bags of childhood trauma attached to your attachment style, we can all relate to some degree to how it feels to feel too much as we try and seek assurance and affection.

Safe to say, Jake Marshall is the queer icon we never knew we needed; his discography is shaping up to be far more than just outpours of pained introspection, it’s a safe space where outliers, the heartbroken and the LGBT+ community can find swathes of consoling resonance.

With his upcoming EP, love(s) of my life, in the pipeline, the future looks iridescently bright for Jake Marshall.

TOO MUCH! Dropped on September 6th; stream the track on SoundCloud now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast