Not a Heroine is a song by Naoko Hiranuma, and it’s a song that catches your attention. It’s not like a soft noise in the background. It invites you to hear the words and the emotions behind them. The song starts softly, almost as if it’s a secret being shared with you. It’s very honest, as if she’s talking about […]
Pop/Review Ana April – Revolution
Revolution is a natural song that grabs attention from the get-go by Ana April. It looks lively, fresh, and vibrant, but not overpowering. It’s quite something that draws you in so fast, and before you know it, you’re loving the song and its easy charm. The song’s focus is her voice. It is expressive and emotional, and each line is […]
Synth-Pop/Review The New Citizen Kane – metalLIC
From the opening bars of the new song metaLLIC, The New Citizen Kane draws you into a late-night vibe. The track has a mysterious quality, but it’s also easy to get into. It’s a song for quiet times, when the rest of the world is still. The bass line is what drives the song. It is consistent and assured in […]
Pop/Review Aurealis – Cursed
Cursed is Aurealis’ new song and it’s truly captivating from start to finish. At the same time, there’s something intriguing and a little bit sinister about it, but that’s what makes it hard to overlook. It’s a song that will stick with you after it ends. One of the biggest elements of the track are the synths. Their rich and […]
ROCK/Review Teanko – We still believe the voice
We Still Believe the Voice was a pleasant surprise from TEANKO. It’s honest from the start, which is something you’ll notice almost immediately. The song doesn’t try too hard to impress. Rather, it gently draws you in and stays with you even after you have stopped listening. The song’s heart is the vocals. TEANKO’s singing is confident, coming from years […]
Pop/Review MrGeorge – Wake up
MrGeorge’s new song Wake Up is a song that makes you feel like you are beginning a new day with a positive feeling. It has energy from the start, it makes you want to get up and enjoy the moment. It is a way to attract attention in a natural manner that still provides a strong direction to the song. […]
Pop/Review Allegra – Waterfall
There are some songs that just sound different when played. “Waterfall” is one of those songs for Allegra. It is played once, and you are back again before you know it. As it flows, there’s something about it. Open and light, lots of space in the music. It gently draws you in and holds your attention. The production is neat […]
Pop/Review Anna Thoresen – GROUNDHOG DAY
Anna Thoresen’s “GROUNDHOG DAY” has you in the middle of the experience of doing the same thing over and over and getting nowhere. It’s not a simple emotion to put to music, but she does it well. All decisions made in the song are well considered and contribute to the feeling of being trapped in the same patterns. The chord […]
Pop/Review SEBASTIAN RYDGREN – night hours
Sebastian Rydgren’s new song “night hours” stays with you after the music has stopped. It’s about loving somebody who doesn’t love you back. That’s evident throughout the entire song. There’s nothing forced or artificial about it. It is straightforward and simple. Much of the feeling in this song is in his voice. He is not trying to sing too much […]
Synth-Pop/Review CARLOS UCEDDA – The DJINN
From the get-go, Carlos Ucedda’s “The DJINN” takes you on a path that leads you far away from the mundane. It has the feeling of being on a late-night dance floor and in a mythical place at the same time. The song has a continuous electronic beat throughout. It gradually penetrates your mind, and you don’t really know what it […]
Pop/Review Milyam – Lost In The Jungle
You hit play and the outside world sort of fades out. It’s the only way I can put it. Lost in the Jungle is a seductive game that lures you in slowly and then takes you to another place altogether. MILYAM’s voice has a rare function. It doesn’t stand on top of the music. It flows through it and around […]
R&B/Review Milyam – Intimacy
Sometimes when you need music that understands you, that’s when you need it. Not loud or busy. That which rests still upon you and is true. Intimacy is exactly that kind of song. It locates you wherever you are. That’s what music like this is all about. It has no demands on you. It simply comes, it takes up residence […]
LATIN POP/Review Yampier Diaz – El salaíto
There are songs that make you smile as soon as you hear them. El Salaíto is one of these. It has this kind of energy that’s contagious, it’s like it’s happening right in the moment, before you can even think about it. The type of track that gets you moving even if you didn’t intend to. This production here is […]
LOFI POP/Review tcr! – On Vancouver Island
When you feel a bit uncomfortable in the right kind of way, there are songs for that. One of those is on Vancouver Island. Establishes a woozy, tense tone from the get-go and never lets up. The opening acoustic guitar part is bluesy in nature and immediately grabs the listener’s attention with a steady, yet plucked sound. Its atmosphere lingers […]
Pop-Rock/Review Sean MacLeod – I Know Not
I Know Not by Sean MacLeod is on the borderline of commercial pop forms and experimental sound decisions, which creates a unified whole and makes his own musical language. The chorus makes clear 1950s doo-wop allusions, and the aspects of the wall of sound approach of Phil Spector are present. Its melody is conspicuous and well developed in the structure […]
Pop/Review Victor Longato – Freaked
On Freaked, the vocal of Victor Longato is placed in that processed room – where it is not smoothed out but it is edited and has weight. It is pushed by the Jersey Club beat, the percussion that will not give in. Reminds me of what Kelela was doing some years ago but with a more pop-facing sound and less […]
Pop/Review Intercontinen7al – Love is Everywhere
Being such a song of swansong, Love is Everywhere, seems to be very appropriate as a song to a group whose whole life is about bonding despite the hardly attainable geographical apartness. This Beatles-esque slice of the glory of INTERCONTINEN7AL, written and performed by Argentina’s Nereo Paulus on the final album of the group titled Volume 7 is a heartrending, […]
Pop/Review Michellar – Game of Love featuring Rad Datsun
Something about Michellar’s Game of Love is incredibly nostalgic and the song seems like a rediscovery of a forgotten summer so tattered it has faded and gone. With the assistance of Minneapolis songwriter Rad Datsun, the San Francisco-based artist has made something that is truly heartfelt to listen to – a duet that affectionately and intelligently examines the playful nature […]
Pop-Rock/Review Ava Valianti – Hot Mess
The manner in which Ava Valianti presents herself in Hot Mess is somehow quiet the part of the impressiveness. Being only sixteen, she does not sound like someone who is trying to figure things out but a person who already knows that the confusion is a part of the deal. The song is lightly self-conscious, playful, a bit cynical, but […]
Pop/Review Exzenya – Till I’m Drunk & Confused
Something tells you, silent like in Till I’m Drunk and Confused. Exzenya does not romanticise heartbreak or even anthropomorphise it, she leaves it floating, a bit erratic like the thoughts re-emerging long after the final word. The song seems to be based on that same sense of late-night dizziness, where the room is half light, you have lost your guard […]
Pop/Review San Sebastian – In My Dreams
In My Dreams has a quality of the soft ache in it, which comes in at the end of the night when the world has finally shut up, and your mind is left making more noise. San Sebastian (who plans to reclaim his birth name Sebastian Rydgren during the coming year) exploits that emotion with a breathtaking level of clarity […]