NEEB have always had a knack for making sophistication feel easy. And on their latest offering ‘You Are Not Alone’, the Hartlepool quartet step away from the brighter sheen of ‘Feeling Tonight’ and settle into a gentler, more inward-facing piece that brings out the subtler side of their songwriting. InsteadContinue Reading
Paul Garside’s ‘Mariana Trench’ is built around one of his strongest metaphors yet: the feeling of being so far beneath the surface that light seems almost unreachable, followed by the slow, uncertain journey back towards it. Written about his own experience of depression, the track carries that emotional weight withoutContinue Reading
Underlowe take a clear, uncomplicated idea and give it enough weight to carry ‘No Pictures’: the value of being present without feeling the need to document every moment. The Cardiff band frame that message through a mix of pop-punk familiarity and heavier contemporary production. The opening is relatively restrained beforeContinue Reading
Delta Fire slow the pace without losing any of their weight on fourth single ‘The Worst of Everything’. The Glasgow four-piece lean into something closer to a ballad this time around, using a tightly wound rhythm section and increasingly raw emotion to show a more vulnerable side of their alt-rockContinue Reading
CAPYAC have always been at their best when things feel just a little out of control, and ‘Big CrUsh En3rgY’ leans gleefully into that instinct. Funky, flirtatious and packed with movement, it finds the Berlin and LA-based trio turning fleeting attraction into something loose, colourful and irresistibly physical. The trackContinue Reading
Body’s ‘Building A Building’ takes one of the least romantic settings imaginable, the car park, and somehow turns it into something strange, hazy and emotionally charged. The Kelowna-based project, led by former Hot Hot Heat member Paul Hawley, has built a reputation around skewed synths, odd textures and left-field atmospheres,Continue Reading
There’s a quiet confidence to Kate Solmara’s debut single ‘Ease’. Instead of announcing herself with something oversized, the singer-songwriter begins with a song about loosening your grip, stepping away from constant pressure and allowing rest to become part of the process. That makes the track feel especially well judged asContinue Reading
OpCritical continue their run of overtly political releases with ‘Guillotine’, a track that uses the imagery of revolutionary France to frame a wider argument about wealth, inequality and the consequences of social division. Musically, the band approach the subject with scale as guitars sit alongside alt-pop elements and orchestral flourishes,Continue Reading
Saline Grace have spent years cultivating a sound that thrives on atmosphere, and ‘Weeping Wounds’ continues that tradition with a sense of brooding patience. Taken from the album The Tree of Knowledge, the track slowly draws us into its shadowy world. Ricardo Hoffmann’s background across darkwave, gothic rock and sinister AmericanaContinue Reading
They Owe Us sound most convincing on ‘There Goes My Fairytale’ when the song feels slightly frayed around the edges. The latest single from Kristoffer Ragnstam’s project takes a fading relationship and letts the roughness in the performance mirror the feeling of something already coming apart. The verses have aContinue Reading