The Umbrellas – Write It In The Sky a thrilling pop rush full of fuzz, melody and excitement that will sit easily next to singles by the likes of Talulah Gosh, Shop Assistants and the Field Mice. It’s really that good – a sure thing to enter the cannon of perennial indie pop floor-fillers. thefatangelsings

Healees – Any Day Essentially it is noise with the beautiful factor ramped up to maximum janglepophub

Phoebe Bridgers – Sidelines The song is written from the perspective of someone fearless, before the introduction of love gives them “something to lose”. ‘Sidelines’ starts slowly, as Bridgers sings “I’m not afraid of anything at all/ Not dying in a fire not being broke again” evenly over keyboards. Then, strings and lush orchestration build as she says: “Not a plane going down/ In the ocean and drowning.” At the chorus, she admits: “Watching the world from the sidelines/ Had nothing to prove/ ‘Til you came into my life/ Gave me something to lose,” as the beat kicks in. nme

Angel Olsen – Chasing The Sun a liberating proclamation of love in a field of overgrowing loss for the musician. After years of grappling with her sexuality, Olsen came out to her parents, where her father passed three days later; shortly afterwards, so did her mother. During the pandemic, she had also experienced her first queer breakup, and went on to find love with her current partner…

Out of this cluster of genuinely traumatic shit, Olsen extracts astonishing amounts of emotional clarity on ‘Big Time’. The album is ten songs long, and each track is concentrated with wisdom that’s perhaps come at too high of a cost…

Set to a skeletal instrumental of piano (and a hint of strings), ‘Chasing The Sun’ is a vintage Hollywood conclusion that masterfully juggles satisfaction and sadness using Olsen’s expressive voice. One moment, she quivers as she asks if her lover needs something to do; the next line, she bursts into a wail: ‘drop everything I’m doing/Nobody needs me here.’ Olsen speeds off into the sunset, leaving behind the turmoil she’s gone through in the process of making ‘Big Time’. clashmusic

The Churchill Garden – Always There A sweet song about true friendship and the gratitude and reassurance that comes along with finding those loyal friends in life. Big love in the form of a song going out to those “one in a million” friends who are always there, unconditionally. staticsoundclub

Poster Paints – Falling Hard has the feeling of a perfect collision, two songwriters bringing their musical worlds together not in compromise, but instead in unflinching singularity. Carla’s sugar-sweet pop vocals take your mind to one place, before the musical grit of the guitars and pounding drums brings you crashing back down to earth. It’s as if Camera Obscura’s Traceyanne Campbell was fronting The Jesus & Mary Chain, with only a Be My Baby-like drum breakdown to showcase their shared musical DNA fortherabbits

Lande Hekt – Gay Space Cadets  I can’t believe how easily it slides into your ears and implants itself in your memory… you’re going to be begging us to get this song out of your head by the end of the day, but it lives there now, so get used to it! austintownhall

Peaness – Left To Fall Behind has a passing resemblance to The Wannadies, You and Me Song, not that I’m complaining, both are great tunes louderthanwar

Fresh – Fuck-Up there is always space for an album that quite simply makes you feel good. The record seems to be inviting you to roll down the windows, breathe in the summer days, let loose, and enjoy the path forward, even if you don’t know where it leads. undertheradarmag

Flowertown – Half Yesterday  masters of beautiful, slow core dream pop infused with a sense of disquiet whenyoumotoraway

Acid House Kings – Honey, Honey What can you say about the Honey, Honey the new single from Acid House Kings which has not been said before? Indiepop legends? Check. How about catchy and addictive indie/twee pop? Nope that’s been done! Glorious uplifting pop music that doesn’t take itself seriously? Sigh. That’s been covered too. Delicious melodies, hand claps and whistling resulting in stacks of fun? Might as well bang my head against the wall with that one. Er, just play the track and be done with it. recordsilike

Aderyn – Honey If love is blind, this is a song about what happens when you finally open your eyes godisinthetvzine

Dummy – Mono Retriever harnesses the band’s love of 60’s pop and spins it through a lens inspired by a fan’s comment that “Dummy sounds like if Stereolab was a hardcore band”, it somehow manages to be both drifting and driving, a melodic aural assault that takes repeat listens to find the magic within fortherabbits

The Photocopies – (Wishing I Had) Tickets For Saint Etienne the solo recording project of Michigan based Londoner, Sean Turner. In his 12 EP’s (he calls them singles, although most are 3 or 4 tracks long) he seems intent on bringing all things the indiest of Anglophile sounds, stateside… This, his latest three track single, appears to have set aside his recent fascination with the driven, incessant end of  C86 spectrum and replaced it with a fascinating mixture of 60s yesteryear and alt.jangle modernity… The true stand out of the release is undoubtedly (Wishing I Had) Tickets for Saint Etienne, which is all of the above, with all the fuzz, drive and buzzsaw attitude removed and replaced with chiming riffs and accentuated melodic intent. janglepophub

Chorusgirl – Don’t Go Back to ’89 perhaps not a song about time travel, but instead about the natural desire to not let go of someone you cared for deeply, and instead ask for a re-write for their ending, Sylvie kicking against acceptance as she sings, “I need you to be living, dying’s not an option here”. fortherabbits

Lawn – Night Life these songs are the culmination of years of heavy drinking, partying, disassociation, jadedness, political discussions, and constant talks about moving somewhere else thefatangelsings

Nation of Language – Androgynous Nation of Language on the cover: “One of the things that made covering Androgynous so exciting is that, for me, so much of the original song is carried by Paul Westerberg’s incredible melodies and emotional delivery, and that really leaves a lot of opportunity to imagine new instrumentation. I felt like as long as I was able to channel enough of that emotional power but bring the vocals into my own space, it would be a challenging and worthwhile endeavor.”

Ribbon Stage – Playing Possum a short fuzzy indiepop song which is guaranteed to get my ears tingling. It’s a relationship in decline song, the sort of which graced my youth more than once in the 1980s. That’s songs not relationships although thinking about it young love and all that…. recordsilove

Stella Donelly – Flood the song isn’t one that looks to dazzle—it simply aims to offer up a realist rendition of a meander trapped in amber. faroutmagazine

Tony Molina – I Don’t Like That He Pop music thrives on economy. You can always add more and more layers, extended outros, indulgent intros, interludes, bridge upon bridge upon bridge, but the best pop music has rarely subscribed to the idea of “more is more.” Like a spectacular live show, the general idea behind a great song—prog-rock excepted—is always to leave a craving for more even after it’s over. Get in and get out, in as little time as possible, and make every moment count.

That’s a lot harder to do than it sounds, and from where I’m sitting, it doesn’t even really sound all that easy. Bay Area singer/songwriter Tony Molina has never shown a particular interest in getting his Beatles- and Undertones-like punk-power-pop songs to the top of the charts, though he has a particular knack for writing perfectly concise pop songs that manage to pack every essential element into 90 seconds or less—big power-pop riffs, heartsick verses, soaring choruses and even a solo or two. Much has been made of the brevity of his compositions, to his own bemusement, but in spite of it, rare is the Tony Molina song that feels like an unfinished sketch. treblezine

The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness – Turning Red There’s an autumn sweater comfort to “Turning Red,” a kind of afternoon resplendence that’s both a blanket of serenity, and somehow instantly nostalgic for the moment being lived. ravensingstheblues

Let’s Whisper – The Thing That Defines You The In-Between Times album that Fika Recordings are releasing in late August 2022, is the first album Let’s Whisper have released since their brilliant debut, The Shortest Days of 2011… Naturally after such a long hiatus this band needs to offer an immediacy that will grab the attention. Here, The Thing That Defines You, excels on multiple levels. janglepophub

Say Sue Me – To Dream the album’s only Korean-language track and is quite possibly the finest on the album. The song taps into the sound of early shoegaze bands like Slowdive and the Cocteau Twins. It also shows off Byungkyu Kim’s dazzling work as lead guitarist and the ethereal yet understated vocals of singer Sumi Choi. popmatters The whole affair sounds like a love letter to the halcyon days of youth. Sonically and lyrically, Say Sue Me conjure up moods and motifs perfect for a warm spring day on the quad at a small liberal arts college. The songs evince bike rides in the glorious sunshine and rainy afternoons looking out the window. It’s the soundtrack to both holding hands with your first serious relationship and pining away after the person who’s broken your heart. treblezine

Jeanines – Through The Vines Don’t Wait for a Sign is studded with gem-like songs. They come on like wrapped chocolates, revealing their sweetness and melting to nothing, and you’d be sad about one ending so soon if there weren’t another just as enticing coming up behind it. dustedmagazine

Display Homes – CCTV A post-punk cracker recordsilike

Why Bonnie – Sailor Mouth  It has a wonderful sense of contrast from its rambunctious noisy intro to the rich, gentle warmth of the main body, it’s a feeling reflected in the lyrics that are torn between the past and the present, initially noting how, “the old ways are feeling tired”, yet always falling back to old habits, “it’s a salty sweet familiar taste when I say your name and it always tastes the same”. fortherabbits

Cheerbleederz – notes app apologies shows another another side to their musical acumen and is likely to see the cardigan crowd, join the tattooed indie rock masses janglepophub

Martha – Please Don’t Take Me Back a punk infused powerpop song which also owes dues to Nirvana – or maybe Credit to the Nation! The track is begging to be played loud as the protagonist wants to be taken back to the old days but remembers that they, like the future perhaps, were pretty bad and sad. recordsilike