Frankie Rose – Anything a percolating synth bop that acts like Rose putting your hand on the shoulder and telling you that you’re doing fine. Through crystalline production and dynamic melodies, Rose delivers her sage viewpoint in a way that makes the weight of your problems feel lightweight, manageable and universal beatsperminute

Lachlan Denton – Changed we have been fans of Lachlan Denton’s art in his various group projects (The Ocean Party/Pop Filter/Partner Look), as well as his work with Emma Russack and his solo recordings… “Changed” presents a “wow” moment. It bubbles and chugs with a terrific vocal performance riding the synth-driven arrangement. Considering the introspective and affecting lyrics, it may well be the anthem of the album, but in any event it is a showcase tune whenyoumotoraway

Boygenius – True Blue comes with  acute observations on relationships: “When you don’t know who you are / You fuck around and find out” she sings, eventually resolving “It feels good to be known so well / I can’t hide from you like I hide from myself.” Dacus writes with so much emotion it hurts; Bridgers oscillates from cynical to sincere; Baker’s piercing vocals make even the most ironic line feel genuine. Each boygenius may have separate artistic aims, but their talents coalesce to hit you right where it hurts nme

The National – New Order T-Shirt Trying to write this through glossy eyes is proving harder than expected… The comfort that this new track emanates is almost overwhelming, it is like a hug and a pat on the back. And while the melody tells me “Everything is going to be okay”, frontman Matt Beringer whispers in my ear to hold on… “To me the line ‘I keep what I can of you’ means something about everyone I’ve ever known or loved. There’s a simplicity to ‘New Order T-Shirt’ that reminds me of our earlier records, but with the full maturity and experience we have now. It feels like a really important song for the future of our band,” band member Aaron Dessner explains… Hold on to memories, because everything will indeed be okay as long as music like this keeps meaning something. indiependent

Dancer – The Split The talk-singing reminds me of Sue Tompkins’ (Life Without Buildings) antsy defiance, matched by fidgety post-punk guitars and taut sprung bass like the the first two Go-Betweens albums. You know all the other reference points – Talking Heads, The Fall and The Raincoats if you’re old; Dry Cleaning, Black Country, New Road, and Display Homes if you’re still paying off your student loan.

So others do it and others have done it, but Dancer are special. And not just because they rhyme “couple of glasses” with “catharsis” or have a song called Chris Whitty’s Inner World. Don’t ask me to explain their alchemy. Sometimes – rarely, that’s the point – a band turns up, traps lightning in a jar and leaves you gasping didnotchart

Lael Neale – I Am The River  It is at once personal and universal with a gifted warmth enhanced by a nagging ominichord and hoisted to new heights on the back of a repeated “ba ba da da da do na um” refrain that flows right through you. This is bloody fantastic. godisinthetvzine

Belle and Sebastian – So In The Moment After a couple of listens it feels like you’ve just met up with friends you’ve not seen for a decade or so, the years fall away as you pick up from where you left off. louderthanwar In some ways, Belle and Sebastian have come to be under-rated, purely due to their relentless consistency. ‘Late Developers’ should be applauded on its own merits, the work of a group whose continued evolution is tied to an astute awareness of where their talents lie. ‘Late Developers’ is a fine piece of pop whimsy, delivered with self-deprecating panache. clashmusic

Belle and Sebastian – When The Cynics Stare Back From The Wall

Cinéma Lumière – Sunday A Filipino band… The track itself has been around for a couple of years now in various forms (here and here) but this new version has finally seen (heard?) the track sound as it always should of have. It’s a fine piece of C86/twee inspired indiepop as you could wish to hear this, or indeed any other year! recordsilike

Memorials – It’s In Our Hands when you think film soundtrack you might initially think of something bombastic and classical, or the sort of artsy minimalist electronics of Jonny Greenwood or Trent Reznor, yet listening to It’s In Our Hands, Memorials sound considerably more like a traditional band. The drums rush by nodding to the rapid jangle-pop of Literature or The Cleaners From Venus, while Verity’s precise vocals and meandering keyboards showcase a clear love of Stereolab, as well as krautrock and Bossa Nova sounds that influenced them in the first place. With the promise of everything “from choral harmonies to experimental sound collage”, Memorials might be hard to pin down, but on this evidence, it’s going to be a lot of fun finding out fortherabbits

Connections – I Confess Thinking about the previous Connections records, this new one sounds refreshing in a sense; it’s got softer edges and more melody; it almost feels like the group is one upping fellow Ohioans GBV by bringing in sharper hooks and more pop. But, you can be the judge on that one. I said what I said. You can’t deny the draw of the vocals in the front of the mix here, with jangling guitars echoing in each ear of your headphones and a steady bop on the drums hanging backstage austintownhall

Pynch – 2009 We all look back on our teens with a mixture of embarrassment and nostalgia, but with “2009” Pynch dive headlong into those memories as a way of escaping the greyness of today. Enock starts by announcing “I’m gonna dye my hair and listen to heavy metal / and skate down to the edge of the world”, and the humming guitars and lightly propulsive rhythm gives us that feeling of riding a skateboard, casually swerving in and out of people, master of our own little universe. As Pynch indulge in more nostalgia about “the beautiful chaos of it all” there is a wistfulness that permeates the song, the reality of being an adult kicking in – acceptance that most things from that teenage life have been irreparably lost or changed. However, Pynch push that all aside for the finale to “2009”, focusing fully on reliving those teenage dreams and repeatedly announcing “I’m gonna kick it like it’s 2009”. Let’s all join them. beatsperminute

Peter Hall – About Last Night Everybody these days wants immediacy in their music, great today, forgotten tomorrow. when I’ve always felt that the songs that stay with you far longer are the ones that stand repeated listens, growing more and more until you realise that this may be with you forever hearasingle

Roller Derby – Always On My Mind not a cover of the song made popular by Elvis Presley from Hamburg’s Roller Derby. Instead, the new single is a delightful indiepop tune that should warm the cockles of the heart of every indiepop fan out there. Some nice 80s tinges throughout, too recordsilike

Panic Pocket – Mad Half Hour a tick box of everything that’s so lovable about them, from the luxurious harmonies to the often comical levels of sass. The track is an honest, if somewhat tongue-in-cheek, celebration of a “90s icon who turned ‘Girl Power’ into a slogan”, celebrating the moment of social awakening, even if, “this might not have been the revolutionary feminist moment the music industry tried to package it as“. More than a straight tribute though the song seems to dig deeper into the aftermath, riding a wave of nostalgia so long you face plant into the moment when everyone else has moved on and you’re still not quite sure what you’re doing fortherabbits

Girl Ray – Hold Tight The band’s label write that “Prestige is the sound of Girl Ray reclaiming disco music as the celebration of sexuality and outsider culture it started out as” and kudos to that recordsilike

TV Star – Room make good on the potential that the big boys zines like Stereogum and Brooklyn Vegan have been slathering about in relation to the drip-fed singles that preceded this release… If it weren’t for Ashlyn Nagel’s fervid, inflamed vocals filtering any sense of fluffy from Room … the songs would drift along on the helms of floating 80s dream-pop janglepophub

The Plus 4 – You Look Right Through Me This could be one of many readers’ favorite posts in a long time. Why? 1. Because it introduces them to a great new band; and 2. We don’t know enough about the band to bore everyone. What we do know is that the name of the band is The Plus 4, and they are based in the UK. Their sound is an appealing ’60s throwback, and …. well, that’s all we know.. whenyoumotoraway

Juniper – Bang! The album mixes in a handful of original songs with an extraordinary selection of covers. While contemporary in every respect, She Steals Candy recalls the golden age of pop music — when there was no shame in working with stellar session musicians or interpreting someone else’s songs. A lot of incredibly talented people had a hand in the creation of this record, and what results is something truly special. 

While still a teen, Juniper is a young adult now. Her vocal tone now carries more richness and gravity while still retaining the likeable, down to earth quality that made her an instant sensation. She gives The Sails’ Brit-pop smash “BANG!” an added touch of melancholy — taking a great song and fully making it her own….From the vocals to the musicianship to the production to the arrangements, everything about this album hits the spot. At a time when we’re conditioned to think of cover songs as filler, it’s a joy to come across a record like this that celebrates great songs. Juniper and Michael Shelley chose to record all these songs because they love them, and they’d be the first people to encourage you to seek out the original versions fasterandlouderblog

Big Blood – 1000 times A family band often gets treated as if its kitschy, but I don’t think that’ll be a word anyone uses when they listen to Big Blood‘s first single from their forthcoming album. Sure, the band’s teenage daughter is rocking the vocals, but that performance alone sounds like a kid wise beyond their years; she belts out notes with such power and strength that you’d hardly harp on it had I not brought it to your attention. Just take one moment to bathe in the chorus and you’ll ultimately come to the agreement that everyone likely needs to listen to this track austintownhall

The Telephone Numbers – Weird Sisters The band’s debut was a sparkling font of jangle pop and bittersweet indie, so crammed full of hooks that it was hard to keep from constantly setting the needle back to the beginning the moment the record rang to a close. The new single was a concerted effort on the part of songwriter Thomas Rubenstein to break out of his songwriting mold and explore new territory, even if that territory was catchy-as-hell indie bliss ravensingstheblues

Salt Lake Alley – Guess I’ll Never Know Stockholm’s Salt Lake Alley jangle their way down the jangle pop highway. Not sure if I mentioned it, but it’s very jangly recordsilike

Hot Coppers – Soft World For a long while, Gareth Parton has been working on the production side of things, working with acts like The Breeders and Go! Team. But, now he’s working on his own as Hot Coppers, dragging in some friends from The Lucksmiths, Zebras and other heralded Aussie outfits to create the songs that make up his debut LP…. . The song itself is an ode to that lost love, and what’s left behind austintownhall

The Reds, Pinks and Purples – The Town That Cursed Your Name will get a good amount of digital ink in the indie blogsphere and more ‘formal’ press, and it deserves every inch. You can read of sweet melodies and hooks, bittersweet themes, and warm, lightly sandpapered and aching vocals. We agree — it is all true. It is a fine album infused with the great melodies we have come to expect and augmented with a bit more bite and fuzz instrumentally. It will certainly will be one of our most memorable and often played albums of the year.

But for us the overarching point is what the recent series of releases from TRP&P, culminating with The Town That Cursed Your Name, means to us. The last few years have been challenging, with pandemic fears and uncertainties, job upheavals, social discord, and isolation. It becomes all to easy in such times to withdraw inward. For us, what Glenn Donaldson has done with TRP&P during this period is to remind us of our humanity, our connectedness, our ability to feel pain and love, to cry and be resilient. In that sense, The Town That Cursed Your Name and its predecessors are a gift beyond music. And since the main theme of The Town That Cursed Your Name is persistence and resilience, it is the fitting statement as we move forward whenyoumotoraway

Lauds – Don’t Mind a moody highlight here, conjures up memories of early Wire Train and a faint hint of the kind of soaring guitar-pop that powered The Wild Swans into the hearts of listeners some decades ago. Lauds make this seem fresh, not just nostalgic, and the cut has a real natural charm apessimistisneverdisappointed

Water From Your Eyes – Barley In 2023, it’s hard to put out music that is truly unique and interesting, and yet not so experimental that it’s unlistenable. With “Barley” Water From Your Eyes successfully thread that needle with a challenging song that still has enough pop to keep the listener fully engaged for three-and-half minute undertheradar

En Attendant Ana – Wonder the perfect juxtaposition of indie-pop and post-punk modernity, tracks such as the stunning Wonder… see the frontwoman, Margaux Bouchaudoman, steal the show with a decadent, haunting vocal delivery that is produced to such a dominant effect that it feels like it is conducting the remainder of the band to acquiesce to her musical bidding. Simon Cowell would peak over the top of his trousers and gush about her “x-factor,” and so will I , as I cannot think of anything else that is worthy enough to describe her allure in these tracks janglepophub

Robert Forster – The Roads conflates road trips through Germany and Australia into a metaphor for friendship…  Whether celebrating his family, the wisdom of experience or memories of his early days finding inspiration in Bowie, Reed, Byrne and Tom Verlaine, Forster’s observational directness and simple language are always in service to the deep feeling in his songs and few better imbue the quotidian joys of domestic life and the power of memory with such poetry dustedmagazine

Goliath – Hannah We can’t tell you much about Goliath, but we think the Scottish band’s recently released Garden EP deserves your ears. We are particularly taken by their lovely cover of BMX Bandit’s “Serious Drugs”, but there are other delights as well whenyoumotoraway

Tiny Microphone – Stranger features a contribution from Gary Olson of the Brooklyn band The Ladybug Transistor. This is the work of Kristine Capua of Very Truly Yours and Tiny Fireflies. thedelimagazine

Royel Otis – I Wanna Dance With You “Gather the courage to tell someone how you feel but muck it up like Frank Spencer on roller skates,” Royel Otis said of the new song in a statement

Whitney’s Playland – Sunset Sea Breeze About 35 seconds into the opening title track, a tiny, fragile jangling riff trips through Inna Showalter’s beautifully drifting vocals and lo-fi Robert Pollard-style languid fuzz to entrap just about every listener with any sort of musical soul… All defiantly unhurried and deliberately the lowest of lo-fi production, these tracks accentuate the sense of stunning in every note as they act as the softest cushion for Showalter’s ‘steal the show’ vocals. Fuzz has never been so beautifully lucid. janglepophub

The Tubs – Wretched Lie A great jangle-pop record’s primary objective is to go down easy, and Dead Meat always does. The album saves one of its niftiest nods to the genre’s heyday for last, nodding to The Queen Is Dead on “Wretched Lie,” right down to the frolicking Johnny Marr guitars and “Bigmouth Strikes Again” chipmunk vocal warps. It offers a bit of context for the 25 minutes of music that preceded it, a reminder that this niche style was once one of the dominant aesthetics in independent rock. Dead Meat’s sound may be a throwback, but it’s so tunefully crafted that it charms the way it did the first time around pitchfork

The Photocopies – This, That, And The Other a short fuzzy indiepop song that is inspired by the past and is primed ready for the listening ears of the present thanks to it’s satisfying and supportive message about diversity recordsilike

Cindy – A Trumpet On The Hillside the aesthetic is so gloriously ‘churchy’. Not in the happy clappy way that followers of charismatic churches enjoy, but more specifically in the dank atmospheres of old cavernous stone churches where permanent echo accentuates a sense of monasterial and wood and stone punish worshippers for having the temerity to give praise. The perfect setting to emphasize melancholy janglepophub

The Lost Days – In The Store For those familiar with Molina’s work, the fact this album has ten tracks and clocks in at around thirteen minutes will come as no surprise. He is, after all, a master of delivering micro-doses of musical perfection. However, on previous records, his mini masterpieces have always felt the perfect length. In contrast, each of the tracks on In The Store make you wish they would hang around just that little bit longer. It’s a neat trick. In a time of disintegrating attention spans and an accelerating need for instant gratification, Molina and Janko force you to take a pause. To contemplate what you have just experienced, and feel the longing for something more. secretmeeting

The Sprouts – I Hear Music “Melbourne is as Melbourne does”…I am not quite sure why I am adapting Forest Gump sayings in the opening paragraph of a review. In fact I am not quite sure of anything much, apart from somewhere in the quaintest recesses of my mind I have convinced myself the adaptation somehow fits this debut album by the city’s latest dolewave darlings’, The Sprouts…. All offer the traditional dolewave vibe offered by fellow Melbourne acts such as The Stroppies and House Deposit and augmented such an aesthetic with off kilter, twanging tinny riffs and a slight coastal slacker that are more uniquely The Sprouts. janglepophub

First Day Of Spring – Moon Boy blooms seamlessly into its full beauty, offering a track that feels both intimate and immense as its ambient haze gives way to buoyant grandeur undertheradarmag