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 […]
Pop/Review Rellyo Bambini – Cloned and Upgraded, Insert Soul Here
But what is authenticity anyway anymore, when all things in the world are duplicable, filtered, upgraded, endlessly recombinable? That is the question which, though faintly humming, is never absent in Cloned and Upgraded, Insert Soul Here by Rellyo Bambini. It is never given to the form of a thesis or a concept that you are expected to work out. Instead, […]
Pop/Review Giuseppe Cucé – 21grammi
Not all albums play but breathe, and the 21grammi by Giuseppe Cuce sounds like it has been breathing, as the experience compressed and condensed into sound. Something made by Cuce of Catania sits in that indefinite, unstable place between confession and art, and it investigates the invisible burdens we all have to bear through loss and memory and the silent […]
Pop/Review Jari Salmikivi – Chasing Stars
There are those songs where you get inspired seemingly within a second, as though you have just made a sudden leap into the air, and that is what “Chasing Stars” accomplishes at the very start. Jari Salmikivi has created something that is at the same time intimate and broad expansive as to look up at the night sky and realise […]
Pop/Review Michellar– Truth Over Lies featuring Frankie El
There are songs that come not as entertainment but like a conversation that we are so desperately in need to have but it is done on a channel of melody instead of verbal. Precisely the same is offered in Truth over Lies. The partnership between Michelle Bond, Michael Levine and Matthias Schmidt was the result of a creative retreat held […]
COUNTRY/Review Michellar – We both can fall featuring Gracie Lou
It has a courageous sincerity that runs through Michellar in her song, We Both Can Fall, and instantly identifies it. It is not a refined, idealised view of relationships, it is a crude, harsh view of the reality of struggling to keep love alive with life tugging you in opposite ways. The vulnerability of the vocals is the first thing […]
Pop/Review Eylsia Nicolas– Hot Hot Christmas
Why does Christmas have to have snow and jumpers? Eylsia Nicolas has brought the ideal antidote to the old-time fare with the yuletide season with a brilliantly paced song, Hot Hot Christmas, which redefines the holidays with palm trees and warm skies. This song is exuding contagious energy since the first bars. The energetic use of instruments evokes a cheerful […]
Pop/Review TaniA Kyllikki – I Promise I’ll Wait For You
Something about I Promise I’ll Wait For You, the new single of British singer-songwriter TaniA Kyllikki, is deeply touching. It is not any other love song but a heartfelt statement that reaches directly to the soul, touching on the desire and the beauty of loving someone when you are apart by impossible distances. The first thing that catches your attention […]
Pop/Review Neodym – Insta
It is immediately striking, near disarmingly self-aware, about the new song by Polish electronic artist Neodym, the song titled INSTA. Many dance songs get you lost in the rhythm and forget the world momentarily, though this song does it in a more advanced manner. It gives you a reason to think when your entire body is in motion to do […]
Dream Pop/Review Junifer – Thoughts For The Night
It is rather quiet and breathtaking how the little things that build up until a house becomes a real home occur in small groupings, moments that you never really notice are building your life until you take a moment to look and see. That is what Junifer manages to capture so beautifully in Thoughts For The Night. It is tender […]
Pop/Review San Sebastian – Imaginary Lover
The outcome of the experience of San Sebastian in his Swedish Idol has produced something truly interesting. Imaginary Lover is a bold step by the Stockholm artist as it incorporates a modern contemporary electronic pop and unexpectedly insightful comment upon contemporary relationships, both natural and artificial. What at once impresses you is the voice of Sebastian tuneful and expressive and […]
Pop-Rock/Review Julia Kate – be nice princess
It is one thing to see a person that you had a connection with turn cold and Julia Kate has managed to nail that pain down in the song be nice princess. Here the Los Angeles singer-songwriter has presented something truly refreshing, a pop song, and one that is fun and angry at the same time, a production that knows […]
Pop-Rock/Review Exzenya – Ugly When You Love Me
We do have a kind of beauty in music, which is able to transform coarse rage into something pointed, almost graceful – and that is what Exzenya accomplishes with her Ugly When You Love Me. Yes, it is dark electronic pop, but it also happens to be much more piercing, the type of song that looks right into the face […]
Pop/Review The Quiet North – Southbound
It has this beautiful cosiness in it that Southbound by The Quiet North has that makes one feel like they are getting away into the sunshine after months of greyness. It is a truly cinematic work by Fredrik Kristiansen a piece of indie pop that conveys that particular sense of escaping the cold winter in the Nordic countries and running […]
Dream Pop/Review Ophelia Moon – Avatar: Encryption Code
The brilliantly unsettling nature of Ophelia Moon in Avatar: Encryption Code is what perfectly captures our present day. This smooth, filmic song seems a caution in a beautiful package, a kind of cautionary story concerning artificial intelligence that is conveyed with the help of ethereal vocals that radiate above shimmering arpeggios and this tight cyberpunk beat. It is that type […]
EDM/Review Eylsia Nicolas – Glitter and Glam
Something about Eylsia Nicolas and her song “Glitter and Glam” is a glittering merriment that is almost pure celebration, but the fact that she has surmounted so much to create it makes it all the more luminous. The song is literally glowing with smooth EDM-pop, throbbing bass, and shinning synths that form this beautiful soundscape. It is the scream of […]
R&B/Review Eylsia Nicolas – Wake Up In The Morning
Something about Eylsia Nicolas and her song Wake Up In The Morning is incredibly touching that is more than just soulful R&B vitality. The awareness of the path to it, the wounds, the severe illness, the voice loss that came almost to stop her permanently, imposes this unbelievable burden on every word she utters. This is not just a song […]
Pop/Review Tracygirl – LA State of Mind
The LA State of Mind by Tracygirl has this beautiful aura that oozes out of the speakers. These glittering synths strike you at first, alongside this moving beat that gives you a push in actual motion. The very first bars make it clear that you are presented with something special- it has the hookiness of an instant hit- one that […]
Pop/Review Eylsia Nicolas – You’re My. Baby 2
It has that beautiful retro feel that is exuded by the Eylsia Nicolas in her song, Youre My Baby 2 that leaves you smiling immediately. It combines this clean groove with enthusiastic and emotional vocals that are nostalgic and entirely new at the same time. The fact that Eylsia has been through the international tennis court to finding her voice […]
Pop/Review David Raine – Pollack Splash
There is a pleasantness of David Raine in his Pollack Splash that simply envelops you at first. It has this indie heart beating in its heart, but a brightness is overlaid on it making everything somehow light, and making it feel very introspective and tenderly optimistic at the same time. It is, according to Raine himself, not to face the […]