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 […]
COUNTRY/Review Ulrich Jannert – Wander Still
Something very comforting about “Wander Still” – almost as though you have found a compass exactly when you thought you are going in circles. Being the title song on the new album of Ulrich Jannert, it eschews precisely what he does so well, in turning the most existential questions of life into a song that is like the most beloved […]
ROCK/Review Tom Minor – Bring Back the Good Ol’ Boys
Tom Minor has given us something wonderfully subversive with bring back the good ol boys – a song which actually dances and at the same time hits us upside down with its spot-on critique of our collective amnesia in the face of darker patterns in history. Protest music camouflaged as a singalong, and the better it is disguised the better. […]
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 […]
ROCK/Review ESTRADA Music Project – I don’t need to hide anymore
It is deeply touching to see an artist create out of pure authenticity, such as when one has been carrying a heavy load, but you can see the moment they put the heavy burden down and you can see the relief on their face. The song of I Don’t Need to Hide Anymore by ESTRADA Music Project is a perfect […]
ROCK/Review CAR287 – Opening Song
It is especially difficult to make a good opening statement–it is like being backstage and having your heart beat out of you, and knowing that the moment you step in the light, everything will be different. On Opening Song by CAR287, they have taken that challenge with a lot of grace and the song really deserved to be where it […]
Pop-Rock/Review Naomi Neva – This Is Over
Something truly strong about music created out of the actual suffering is that it has real power, and this is precisely what Naomi Neva conveys in her song This Is Over, with incredible authenticity. It is a breakup song which does not succumb to sentimentality, instead directing female anger and helplessness elsewhere to create something actually cathartic. The performance of […]
ROCK/Review Matt DeAngelis – Livin’ It
Matt DeAngelis has created something truly valuable in the form of the song that turns anxiety during the pandemic era into a spiritual exercise on faith, patience, and contentment despite the underlying uncertainty. It is music that will not answer simply and provide the real spiritual nourishment. The instrumentation is instantly attractive due to its advanced eclecticism. Rapid piano tonings […]
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 […]
ROCK/Review Fiona Amaka – Wingman
It is something really unique about “Wingman,” because it is able to be both a classic and a modern track. Fiona Amaka has given the love song its due, and there is no cliché and trappings of the genre, the song has emotional and sonic appeal. The singing is directly arresting. The delivery of the song has a lot of […]
COUNTRY/Review Courtney Jean – Cloudberry
Music has a silent type of wonder that makes it seem like the music is talking to you in a one-on-one way and yet it somehow relates to something much larger, and that wonder is executed with such an easy grace in Courtney Jean- Cloudberry. The song does not simply start, but slowly comes like a person opening a door […]
Metal/Review Awaiting Abigail – Left Out
It is somehow devastatingly quiet when a song does not conceal how it is feeling. Left Out by Awaiting Abigail is precisely such a work, a burdensome, almost suffocating experience of invisibility and alienation, but with the feeling of true conviction. It does not attract you with theatrics, but with sincerity. The twin guitars catch the eye of the listener […]
ROCK/Review Lode Star – Angel of Darkness (feat. Jonell Elliot)
A cover that comes to a person wrapped in such an enticing context a remastered favorite game, a cult film recreated, etc. there is real danger of disappointment. But Lode Star have created something beyond nostalgia, something that turned a 2003 song into a truly resonant modern rock, that stands on its own magnificently. What first comes to mind is […]
Hip-Hop/Review KDAS Fool – Radar
Something really likeable about the Radar by KDAS Fool is that it gets in your head at the first beat. The song provides this powerful, nodding groove that has a strong and steady rhythm that simply drags you in and like an adhesive does not releases you. It is the type of hip-hop that makes you strain forward and listen […]
Hip-Hop/Review Malak Shalom aka Shavirus – Belly Jelly
This is the kind of infectious and swaggering nature of belly Jelly by Malak Shalom, which makes you hooked by the first bar. The song wins you immediately with this head-nodding groove that is completely killer- the one that makes you go back to the replay button before it is played. The vocal performance is confident and southern-infused, and it […]
Hip-Hop/Review CBF Hollywood – Money 2 Get
The unrefined adrenaline of CBF Hollywood in Money 2 Get just catches hold of you. The Tarpon Springs native provides a hustlers anthem with that kind of believability that only comes with actually being one- twenty years of grinding in the studio, stacking tracks, loss and frustration all given to this catchy trap banger that just refuses to give up. […]
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 […]
ROCK/Review The Shrubs – Fall Behind
I must say that Fall behind came as a great surprise to me. The Shrubs of Houston have made it feel like you have found a rare jewel in a dusty record store–you know it at once but you are very much surprised. It is something extraordinary that Miguel, Josh, and Sophie have done. Decades old, this song is older […]
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 […]