Browsing Tag

Summer Pop

Kat Caroline’s funk-disco-pop amalgam, Sugar Lips, is the perfect sonic summer cocktail

Posted on 31 July 2023

If you haven’t had the honey from Kat Caroline’s sophomore single, Sugar Lips, oozing from your speakers yet, you can’t say you’ve heard the hottest pop hit of the summer.

With creatively modernised vintage disco grooves oscillating through the funk-bolstered hit and the sensuously sweet energy that emanates from the lyrics, vocals and sun-soaked melodies, Kat Caroline is the ultimate alt-pop siren in Sugar Lips, which is more than reflected by the attention the single has garnered since its official debut in May 2023.

The Nile Rodgers-esque guitar chops against the retro pop beats and Kat’s ethereally glassy vocal lines that easily command all of the conceivable senses fused together to create the perfect sonic summer cocktail.

Stream Sugar Lips on Spotify & YouTube and keep up to date with the latest earworms from the US-based one-woman pop powerhouse.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Get Your Romantic Flashback Fix with Oliver Sullivan’s Latest Summery Slice of Dance Pop, High Above, ft Jetason

Posted on 31 July 2023

Oliver Sullivan transcended high-vibe dance pop with this latest single, High Above, featuring Jetason, which was inexplicably crafted to place you on a plateau of pure sonic bliss.

With retro synthwave spliced into the progressive EDM pop hit, there’s an aural glimmering of nostalgia, allowing the single to whisk you back through the decades for a panoramic romantic flashback that will take the gloss off your old Polaroids.

High Above is the 6th single penned and released by the Swiss-born artist, who has perceptibly honed his craft to a Grammy-worthy degree. Ahead of the release, Sullivan had clocked up over 200,000 listeners on Spotify. Something tells us that with Jetason on his side, who flew from Nashville to Zurich to work on the mix, plenty more listeners are going to be tuning into his warm melodicism.

If Jetason’s soul-permeable harmonies sound familiar, that will be due to his previous work with other icons, including Armin van Buuren and Martin Garrix. Together, they’re the epitome of a collaborative power duo.

High Above will be officially released on July 28th; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

It is ‘All About You’ in Cristina Movileanu’s summer folk-pop serenade

Posted on 4 July 2023

If you noticed it got a little hotter on the 16th of June, that may have been due to the scorching hot summer folk-pop single, All About You, from the vibrantly vivacious singer-songwriter Cristina Movileanu.

Each year, artists compete against each other to orchestrate the hit that will become their audience’s upbeat soundtrack to the summer. Never one to make pedestrian or predictable moves, the Emerald Isle-haling originator created a gateway to a parallel world brimmed with positive energy and joyful moments.

The jangly upbeat indie folk guitar melodies will be your main mode of transport, while Movileanu’s soulful vocal timbre will take you the rest of the way. There really is no overstating how captivating All About You is. For your own sake, don’t hang around in delving into the carresive Elysian chemistry in All About You.

Check out the official music video for All About You on YouTube, or add the sun-bleached hit to your Spotify playlists.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The sandman chewed bubblegum (pop) in Delila’s third single, Sex Dreams

Posted on 29 June 2023

Not many pop hits can rival Marina and the Diamonds’ Primadonna and Icona Pop’s I Love It, but the NY-hailing pop icon-in-the-making Delila effortlessly matched the sticky-sweet floor-filling energy with her third single, Sex Dreams.

Sex Dreams, which hit the airwaves on June 28th, is a drastic change in tone from Delila’s previous releases, Mad World and Killerkiller; it is safe to say she’s come into her own with the sugar rush of a single, which was created in collaboration with the production team, Supperclub.

In stark contrast to the title, Sex Dreams is a romantically rapturous release which celebrates the strength of a connection that goes beyond the conscious and spills into the subconscious to litter dreams with wanton lust.

Building an infectiously electrifying pop hit around real emotion is more than what artists with decades of experience in the industry can achieve. The sincerity resonates through the vibrantly honeyed euphoria in Sex Dreams while the production gives Taylor Swift’s discography a run for its money.

Delila said:

“Sex Dreams is about an off-and-on long-distance relationship, which left us mostly communicating over the phone. After a long period of not speaking, I received a text asking me if I was manifesting them because they couldn’t stop thinking about me, and I was in all their dreams. I wrote the song to say, listen to yourself and be with me.”

Stream Sex Dreams on Spotify now.

Follow Delila on Instagram and TikTok.

Karan Karma has unveiled his scorcher of a sophomore disco-funk RnB pop hit, Dangerous

Posted on 18 June 2023

The Essex, UK singer-songwriter, Karan Karma, turned up the heat enough to trigger another heatwave with his disco & funk-infused RnB pop sophomore single, Dangerous.

His infectiously salacious soprano vocal lines will make him an instant hit with any fans of the King of Pop, The Weeknd, Bruno Mars and Charlie Puth; he comes into his innovative own through the disco grooves, which are as slick and stylish as the ones found in Red Rum Club’s chart-topping hits.

Reminiscences aside, Karan Karma established himself as one to watch through the precision in the balance between commercial appeal and creative autonomy. Using his own voice instead of assimilating another’s, he’s easily one of the most authentic artists in the UK pop circuit. For more slices of soul, slap him on your radar.

Dangerous is now available to stream on Spotify and YouTube via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Groove away heartbreak with the hot-to-handle afrobeat hit, Shakara Love, from Mr Yomi.

Posted on 11 June 2023

Waves of euphoria crashed in with the latest single from the heir to the UK afrobeat scene, Mr Yomi; Shakara Love is the perfect introduction to one of London’s hottest rising artists.

At tonal value, Shakara Love is your archetypal vibe-steady summer earworm, but lock into the captivating soundtrack and explore the depths of unrequited love, narrated by Yomi’s luxe with animated soul vocal lines which effervesce around the steamily ascending Afrobeat melodies that will leave you yearning to hit the dancehall floor.

It is one thing to create a high-vibe anthem from a track that gravitates around a bright lyrical theme. It is another entirely to hit the rhythmic ground running with a sunny-side-up sensibility while versing on raw emotion.

Shakara Love hit all major streaming platforms on May 26; hear it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Harri Larkin mainlined affectionate adrenaline into their pop-punk-hooked summer anthem, Dopamine

Posted on 26 May 2023

After discovering the immense talent that lingers in the larynx (it is a powerhouse in itself) of Harri Larkin through her Christmas collaboration with Sam Scherdel, we couldn’t wait to get stuck into her three-piece band’s latest single, Dopamine.

Drunk on affection-derived highs and vexed by the subsequent aftermath of anxious uncertainty, Sheffield’s hottest DIY alternative outfit pierced the funk-grooved rhythms with catchy enough to be cosmic pop-punk hooks. The summer staple that achieves elevated status through the infusion of indie guitars and demurely jazzy vocal lines that sultrily lead you into the choruses would be paralysing if they weren’t so galvanising.

After John Kennedy (Radio X) chose Harri Larkin out of 1578 other applicants to headline the BBC Introducing Library Stage at Tramlines, recording their single, Bonfire Toffee, for BBC Introducing Live in 2022 and the track was included in BBC Introducing Sheffield’s Top 50 Tracks of the Year countdown, there is no doubt in our minds that Harri Larkin will be moving on to even greater things.

Stream Dopamine, which hit the airwaves on May 26 on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Class Vee’s urban pop hit, House Party, is an invitation you won’t want to ignore.

Posted on 16 May 2023

Inspired by the 1990 film House Party, starring Kid N Play, the urban pop artist Class Vee paid homage to it in her infectiously galvanising hit of the same title.

The aesthetics in the official video and the old-school grooves will throw you right back to the 90s while you remain firmly in 2023 through the modernist production and Class Vee’s vocal lines, which go beyond contemporary stylings to create a brand-new trajectory to the evolution of pop hip hop.

House parties won’t solve all your problems, but House Party on your playlists will give you all the serotonin you need to get through the summer. There’s no understating the euphoric energy that Class Vee brings to the airwaves with her pitch-perfected harmonies; she’s more than an icon in the making; she’s already arrived.

The official music video for House Party premiered on May 6; catch it on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Rap went pop in Don Drago’s single, Paradise ft. Bezz Believe & Nawlage 2k5

Posted on 28 April 2023

Prime your summer playlists with the hotter than Satan’s house cat pop-rap hit, Paradise, from the Tampa-based rapper Don Drago.

To turn up the good vibe heat to the nth degree, Bezz Believe and Nawlage 2K5 collaborated on the track, which boasts nuances of dancehall around the razor-sharp pop hooks that will embed in your mind from the first hit of this flavoursome feel-good seminal track, which proves that there are few things in life sweeter than partaking in sun-soaked hedonism.

Paradise is always painted as an intangible phenomenon; Don Drago proved that when the sea meets the sand under warm rays, paradise can be on any shore if you’re in the right company.

Paradise will hit the airwaves on April 28; check it out on SoundCloud. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

AŸA is anything but pedestrian in her jazzy RnB pop single, Sidewalk

Posted on 22 April 2023

Singer-songwriter, producer, and artist AŸA has beguiled the Berlin scene and beyond with her latest RnB pop rendezvous, Sidewalk, which is anything but pedestrian for the way it breaks the monocultural mould by pulling on her Moroccan and Yemeni Roots while keeping the production refreshingly contemporary.

If I’m being honest, I dread the run-up to summer for the swathes of superficial sun-soaked singles that land on my metaphorical desk, but AŸA couldn’t be trite if she tried. The revolutionary soul in the ethereally warm vocal lines melding with the dominant percussion is a lesson in Summer pop alchemy. If the sax lines and the lyrics that narrate a story of romantic stagnation don’t leave you wanting to dive into realms of fulfilment, you may as well hibernate through summer too.

“The lyrics of the song are a metaphor for an ongoing relationship that is actually not going anywhere. Instead of riding into the sunlight with the one you love, you find yourself taking dark paths and compromises for the one you love even though it feels so wrong.”

Sidewalk was written, composed, and produced by AŸA, with help from Kurtis Wells, Johnny Kulo, and Gavriel. Executive production and mixing were taken care of by the #1 Billboard music producer, Ido Poleg, and the single was mastered by the award-winning engineer, Manon Grandjean.

Stream the official music video for Sidewalk on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast