Though modern life has always had its flaws, to my mind these days it feels more rotten than ever. There are plenty of ways in which society is crumbling, plenty of equally valid directions to point the blame, but one of the most frustrating plagues poisoning our culture is the sudden tidal wave of AI slop. I can’t type anything into Google without having to scroll past some completely inaccurate AI summary. Every time I walk down the street I see a dozen businesses being promoted with the most garish and hideous AI posters. It’s all so infuriatingly mindless; no care for truth or beauty. I am at least heartened to find kindred spirits in my favourite funk pop outfit Similar Kind, as their savvy new single ‘The Curtain’ offers a shrewd and scathing takedown of the whole affair. Though the deliciously groovy arrangement of deep synths and snazzy sax is everything I’ve come to expect from the band, their lyricism is on another level here. Not only do the band astutely dissect the inane key-jingling nature of AI itself (“don’t waste your time on reality, you’ll find I’m everything you need“), but also take aim at the ulterior motives of the tech giants pulling the strings (“please pay no attention to the man behind the curtain“).
Top Tracks: Cristina Hart – Love You To Death
Our favourite independent pop powerhouse Cristina Hart has been going from strength to strength lately, with this latest track proving to be her biggest single release to date. After months of teasers and steadily growing buzz, ‘Love You To Death’ really lives up to expectations. Capturing how obsessive and all-consuming love can feel when you find that right person, it’s a perfectly pitched slice of alt pop. Moreover it’s arrived at just the right time to act as the ideal companion piece to the new Olivia Rodrigo record – exploring the same themes found on Pretty Sad of a love so potent it distorts who we are as a person, while incorporating all the pop punk edge and venom of earlier records. Keeping pace with with one of the biggest names in pop is no mean feat, and if she keeps up this quality and moment it’s only a matter of time until Cristina has her own name up in lights.
Top Tracks: Alba Marin – Memory
We all need a little escape now and then. I don’t think I’m alone in having my own little dream world to disappear into to each night. When your head hits the pillow and you drift off to another world your mind has curated, one where all your hopes and desires have come to fruition. ‘Memory’ finds Swiss artist Alba Marin revelling in her own idyllic dream of a romance just out of reach. It’s an endearing earworm all about escaping from a world of missed connections, and “right person, wrong time”, to a happy ending playing on repeat in your dreams. One that you know deep down is only a few unspoken words from becoming reality. Alba imbues this latest single with all the shimmering joyful energy one would expect to feel rushing through you when daydreaming of the perfect life. Its funky synthpop arrangement perfect for dancing the night away, the killer sax solo bursting out of nowhere to provide an eruption of euphoria, and Alba’s gorgeous vocals every bit as entrancing as the promise of a dream come true.
Album Review: Olivia Rodrigo – You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love
Olivia Rodrigo – You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love
Pop
93%
Top Tracks: Kitty Perrin – Stood Up
We’re all a product of both nature and nurture. Part of what makes us who we are is set in stone when we’re born, written right through the very core of our being like a stick of rock. However, much of our identity is determined by the world around us. The when and where, the wants, expectations and attitudes of the time and place we happen to inhabit. It’s curious to think how fundamentally changed we’d be as people, had we been born under different circumstances. That’s the alternate reality that singer/songwriter Kitty Perrin ponders on her new single ‘Stood Up’.
Inspired by reading about the life of queer icon Audre Lorde and the hardships she faced, the song reflects on what it would have been like to live life in her shoes. ‘Stood Up’ sees Kitty reflect on whether she’d have the strength and resilience to be open and vocal about her identity in such an unaccepting time. Have the courage to love freely or be forced to hide away. Thinking on how much of her true self would remain without the loving, supporting community she’s been lucky enough to have around her to lift her up. Though society has made plenty of progress since Lorde’s day, there’s sadly still a long way to go, and Kitty Perrin’s wonderfully frank songwriting, celebrating her own queer identity, is very much a step on the same journey, supporting the same cause as the brave women that came before.
Top Tracks: Gretta Ray – Swimming, Crying
Things have been a bit quiet here on the blog as of late. I’ve been having a bit of a health scare – heart problems – which has demanded most of my energy and attention. Though I’ve hopefully started on the slow road to recovery, I’ve been struggling to get back into writing again. Struggling to get into the right mindset, get my creativity flowing again after everything that’s been happening. All that was needed was the right song, and fate sent me ‘Swimming, Crying’. It’s Australian artist Gretta Ray’s comeback single after several years away from the spotlight due to her own health scare. The release of her last album Positive Spin was followed shortly thereafter with a downward spiral that led her to being hospitalised with heart complications. Understandably, this latest track steps away from her usual effervescent synth pop in favour of something more quiet and introspective. Positively aglow with bittersweet tenderness, Gretta is able to express so much within ‘Swimming, Crying’. A feeling of grief for time lost, frustration at the winding path which healing takes, the struggle of returning to normal and finding your sense of self again. Looking at your life with a newfound sense of perspective, and taking a tentatively hopeful step towards a new beginning.
Top Tracks: Sunraker – Mad
I love a song that practices what it preaches; where sound and theme are aligned in perfect harmony – and that’s precisely the experience offered by Danish quartet Sunraker’s latest single. ‘Mad’, taken from the band’s eponymous EP out 29th May, delves into the dark side of love. Being drawn to danger, captivated by a toxic love that will only bring pain, blinded and bewitched by a relationship destined to unravel. We hear that dark gothic romance echoed perfectly in ‘Mad’s eclectic sonic palette. Frontman Sophus Alf’s impassioned vocals recalling the New Romantics of the 80s, while the killer rhythm section brings heavy grunge energy to bear. Guitar work that takes sweeping bittersweet melodies worthy of The Smiths and injects them with an ethereal shoegaze shimmer. The uplifting empyreal breakdown at the song’s centre feeling like the brief calm at the eye of a hurricane, before the roiling tempest comes crashing back in. This track sees Sunraker gather a real melting pot of styles and ideas, all in service of crafting the perfect balance of crushing darkness and shimmering radiant melody.
Spotlight!: Josephine Illingworth
Humanity once perceived their surroundings through the lens of storytelling. It was our way of understanding the world and our place in it. Everyone coming up with their own answers for the things beyond their understanding. Every faith and piece of folklore, every cautionary tale and legendary hero, all told and retold as a way to explain away the unknown. Our ancestors would look up at pinpricks of light in the dark canvas of night and let their imaginations connect the dots. They’d see their world with such wonder, respect and curiosity; a uniquely human spark that has since dimmed in our modern world. We’ve become conditioned to stick to our routines and not think about lies beyond. We lose sight of all the wonder and beauty that we pass each day and take for granted, and get so wrapped up in our own problems that we forget how small we truly are in the grand scheme of things. We need more stories. Reignite that curious spark by mythologising the mundane, remind ourselves that we are not separate from nature, but part of something greater.
Continue readingTop Tracks: Philippe Nash – Hurt
Honesty is usually the best policy – especially when it comes to being honest with ourselves. The first step to solving a problem is to acknowledge its existence. Yet we’re constantly obscuring the truth from the world, ourselves included, using that oft told lie: “I’m fine”. When it comes to the storm raging inside our heads, all that pain, stress and worry that we carry, dragging us down like heavy iron chains, our first instinct is always to bury it deep in the hope it goes away. That’s sadly not how it works. A wound left untreated will fester, why should one within our mind be any different? ‘Hurt’ – the raw and haunting new single from singer/songwriter Philippe Nash – is all about accepting the burdens we carry. Even if its something so deep and profound that we’ll carry it for years to come, the only way to ultimately come to terms and make peace with it is to feel what needs to be felt. From the mournful string arrangements and dark grungy flourishes, to the tenderness and vulnerability in Philippe’s crooning vocals that evokes the likes of Thom Yorke and Elliot Smith, the sombre slow burn of ‘Hurt’ is the kind of track that reaches into murky recesses of your mind and drags your demons into the light.
Belwood Music 