Sam Foster Smith turns coastal nostalgia into indie-rock gold on ‘South West Summer’
Sam Foster Smith comes racing out of the blocks on debut EP South West Summer, turning memories of coastal adolescence into four gloriously expansive indie-rock songs. The title track sets the tone alongside ‘Go With The Flow’, with huge vocal hooks, bright power-pop guitars and festival-sized choruses capturing the freedom of deepContinue Reading
Lily Hain finds light beyond the darkness on ‘Learning To Let Go’
Lily Hain turns some of life’s most difficult moments into a powerful story of renewal on her fearless sophomore album, Learning To Let Go. Spanning twelve tracks, the record finds Hain sounding bigger, wiser and increasingly adventurous. ‘Settle’ and ‘Noise Ordinance’ deliver irresistible indie-pop immediacy, while ‘Dog To A Bone’, ‘Ecstasy &Continue Reading
Stolen Days make genre-hopping feel effortless on dazzling self-titled debut album
Stolen Days make a thrilling first statement with their self-titled debut album, a ten-track collision of hip-hop, dream-pop, indie, psychedelia and cinematic experimentation. Formed by producers Dub Sonata and Alex Fitts of The Kickdrums, the duo follow ‘Butterfly’ and ‘Daydream’ with new single ‘No Need For Alarm’. Driven by an irresistible bassline, pulsing synth melodyContinue Reading
Riverie emerges from the darkness on ‘The Ugly and The Beautiful’
Riverie makes a mesmerising entrance with ‘The Ugly and The Beautiful’, the first glimpse of Canadian artist Caroline Fernandez’s forthcoming debut EP Faded Empire. Created between Goa and the UAE, Riverie marks a striking departure from Fernandez’s previous work with Rivers Below Rivers and Paper Kid. This time, she dives headfirst into trip-hop, surrounding intimate songwriting with theContinue Reading
Sonic Anonymous makes grief glow in the dark on ‘Be Good Tonight’
‘Be Good Tonight’ is a song caught between collapse and momentum. For a debut single, Sonic Anonymous arrives with an unusually clear sense of identity: synth-pop that’s sleek enough to pull you in, strange enough to keep you off balance, and emotionally heavy enough to leave a long and lastingContinue Reading
Laura Ampersand falls between goodbye and becoming on ‘Middle’
There’s something immediately affecting about a song built around the fear of moving on before you are ready, and Laura Ampersand captures that feeling with remarkable sensitivity on ‘Middle’. The latest single from the Irish songwriter, composer and pianist explores the strange emotional space between endings and beginnings, where theContinue Reading
Ray’s Music Exchange turn thirty years of chemistry into ‘A Live Family Rayunion 2025 LP’
Some bands are best understood on record, but Ray’s Music Exchange has always sounded like a group that needs a room, a crowd and enough space for the music to stretch. And their new collection A Live Family Rayunion 2025 LP captures exactly that. Recorded during a sold-out performance at Cincinnati’sContinue Reading
Firefly Search Party turn the search for meaning into something joyful on ‘Sing Me A Song’
There’s an easy warmth to ‘Sing Me A Song’ that makes its bigger ideas feel wonderfully approachable. Firefly Search Party’s second single from forthcoming debut album Prism of Dispositions is built around the simple but resonant thought that if life is uncertain, then perhaps the best thing we can do is shareContinue Reading
Fierce Friend turns Amelia Earhart’s disappearance into a hypnotic descent on ‘Tokyo Rose’
Fierce Friend’s ‘Tokyo Rose’ begins in familiar territory and then slowly dismantles it. At first, the Brighton artist’s third single from forthcoming album Blood Red Hills & The Uncanny Valley feels almost restrained: sparse piano, intimate vocals and a sense of quiet uncertainty. But Alan Grice has little interest in keeping theContinue Reading
Awake & Dreaming sink into the weight of letting go on ‘Underwater’
Awake & Dreaming have always been interested in contrast, and ‘Underwater’ leans into that instinct with particular clarity. Taken from forthcoming debut album Inevitable, the single feels like a 2am conversation with yourself about what you keep carrying, what needs to be released, and what happens if you refuse. Throughout, ‘Underwater’Continue Reading