Album Reviews

Sorted but spellbinding because of its distinctive arrangement of strings, percussion and brooding vocal harmonies, there’s something all too fetching about Discomfort Underneath’s “No Lonely Days” as it starts to play, and trying to press the stop button ahead of the song’s conclusion is next to impossible. The clandestine pop …

Even tempo and smooth vocal deliveries might sound like enough to make a decent pop track on paper, but when listening to a song like “Small Town U.S.A.” from singer/songwriter Scott Smith, it becomes obvious that making something unforgettable takes so much more than that. Smith is of a special …

Strikingly optimistic in tone but hesitantly swinging against the grain of what will be quite the endearing rhythm later on in the song, “Lights” starts off feeling like a string-born melody of blunt contradictions and startlingly intriguing depth all at once. There’s nothing more than the strumming of a gentle …

There’s no overstating how hard indie players are willing to work just to get back a sliver of the momentum 2020 robbed of the underground, and iHateJulian isn’t wasting any time getting right into the guts of a stacked summer schedule with the release of two new singles in “Come …

Psychedelic rock and hip-hop have a relationship that has always been close, but when listening to the music of an artist like Keary Kase, the aesthetically familial ties between the two styles are all the more obvious to listeners from one verse to the next. Kase’s new single “Remember the …

Rather than giving us everything she’s got in the chorus – and limiting the climax of her communication to this one isolated moment in the track – Tai Mistyque wants to spread the catharsis out as far as it will reach in her single “Toxic” this summer. She isn’t flirting …

Sometimes you hear a song that you struggle to really describe, and you try to find the words but it’s difficult. That’s what I’ve felt trying to talk about the new single from Sarantos, the aptly titled “EyeBANGing” (out on July 1st). If anything, it’s definitely very unique track, both …

In the tradition of self-aware songwriting as pioneered by the likes of Morrissey and Ian Curtis, a new generation of post-punk aesthetics has penetrated the pop sphere like nothing else has in 2021, and it doesn’t take much more than a single sit down with a song like Tim Knapp’s …

New Orleans based singer, songwriter and performer, Louise Cappi, is back with a new single that has a just the right kind of message for her listeners. In a time where so many people are struggling (i.e. the pandemic, financial trouble or just the daily struggles of a life that …

For some pop singers, a simple but fun-inducing beat and a surf-style guitar riff aren’t enough when crafting a millennial-friendly, melodic rock jam, but Jen Fodor isn’t your average pop singer. In her debut single “Front Row,” recorded in collaboration with up and comer Nadia Vaeh, Fodor strips away the …

If there’s a city that feels like the true center of all pop culture and humanity, it’s Tokyo. Unlike any other metropolis in the world, the identity of Japan’s largest city captivates no matter what the setting it’s been placed before, but in the new video for OneTwenty’s single “Tora …

There are a lot of provocative elements giving Lalo the Don’s hot new single “Til the Break of Don” an edge over similarly ambitious hip-hop cuts out this year, but for me personally, I think the beat is where he proves this track’s creative value. Rather than balancing the fluidity …