Quivers – Apparition With a cowbell countoff intro, “Apparition” instantly wins you over and Quivers keeps hold of you while borrowing bits from the Rolling Stones (a very Keith Richards riff) and Pavement (“Oh my god, oh my god / everybody’s god, everybody’s got a reason” is straight out of “Shady Lane”). The real key, as usual with Quivers, is Bella Quinlan and Sam Nicholson’s melodies and trade-off vocal style that greets you with open arms brooklynvegan

Laughing – Bruised I have to admit, even I’m not immune to ‘90s nostalgia, but where the rest of the world seems to be searching through radio singles from the summer of ’94, I’ve been tearing through power pop gems, just waiting for the weather to break. Seems like I’m not alone in that respect. Montreal’s Laughing launch into a classic strum, picking apart memories of Matthew Sweet, Lemonheads… The jangle of mandolin gives the song a bit of an Athens ‘80s wash as well… It’s a loving homage that sticks around the head for days ravensingstheblues

Adam Ross – Free Will “Tattoos versus religion, A choice between the two, One’s a permanent mark you’ll regret in later life……the other’s a tattoo”

The song is a stream-of-consciousness journey through a list of doubts, desires, demons and disputes as warped synths and rolling bass guitar slowly build to a sweeping orchestral conclusion….takes you on a stroll through a north-east village as the narrative flits between parochial and existential concerns, introspection and shabby romance fikarecordings

mui zyu – the mould born in Belfast to immigrant parents from Hong Kong, raised in the south of England… the moniker Mui Zyu, her childhood pet name (in Cantonese it means “little sister pig”).

Liu’s work has the surreal sweetness that such a name might suggest… Making playful pop that’s left-field and tender, dissonant and melodic all at once, Mui Zyu has crafted her own absurd, beautiful home theguardian

Yea-Ming and The Rumours – Ruby simply a wonderful pop record. Expect intimate and melancholic jangly indie pop, sprinkled with subtle ’60s girl group vibes, along with folk and country influences that shine like rays of sunshine on a cloudy day…. I first played the record on the train home after a long day. Its effect? Instead of multitasking on my phone, I found myself staring out the window, fully immersed in the music. This is the kind of record that slows down everything around. It’s not just good for the ears — it’s soothing for the soul addtowantlist

Autocamper – Budge While the 80s, 90s, and 2000s forged definitive twee-pop roads across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom, Manchester stood defiant against this ‘wave of fey’ with the jangly muscularity of The Smiths, a whole host of Creation Records acts, and two urchins under the name of Gallagher, who appeared to tap into lad culture just as lad culture was primed to become a thing… Autocamper seem set to be ‘the’ band that could break through such musical machismo… Budge offers a whole lot of pretty. Sparkling, plinking synths and luscious guitar-pop cushion Niamh Purtill’s vocal sweetness and gently let it land on an unobtrusive, jangly indie-pop aesthetic that offers the notion that melancholy is just ‘too gorgeous’ janglepophub

King Hannah – Big Swimmer (feat. Sharon Van Etten) lull listeners into a state of complacency with Merrick’s alluring vocals before delivering a rousing response, usually the result of Whittle’s sophisticated orchestration. Behind a simple acoustic guitar, Merrick spins a metaphor about bravery: “When the river is floating / And the mouth has come to its end / Do you carry on swimming or / Do you jump out and grab your towel?” Even after nearly two minutes, when they swap the acoustic for an electric guitar, the song still moves languidly before laying out a pristine guitar solo indebted to Galaxie 500 popmatters

Marcel Wave – Peg Straddling the line between post-punk and synth wave, the band pulls riffs taut and softens the strangle with the faint perfume of keys. Tense or tender, the songs are all buoyed by Maike Hale-Jones’ perfectly acidic delivery. She drills down their dirge with a level stare, a tone that feels accusatory, but also mid-sigh, as if she knows the fight’s for naught. The band rattles the rags that have been left behind for current generations to sort out. They run bleak, but with a biting wit and a wobbled glee that’s hard to deny. Probably just the sort of thing we need to get us through the mire ravensingstheblues

Neutrals – That’s Him On The Daft Stuff Again a sort of concept album from a bunch of Californians (one a Scottish expat) about life in Great Britain in decades past. Tackling planned communities (“New Town Dream“) and seaside vacays in Spain (“Wish You Were Here“), the record is claustrophic in subject matter… Still, there’s warmth for the human condition here, and that warmth is married to sharp riffs like on an early Buzzcocks offering…  New Town Dream is most successful when the big hooks and chords carry these tunes into a sweet spot that reminds one of how fresh this sort of music was back then, and how absolutely vital it can still be when done right in 2024 apessimistisneverdisappointed

My Best Unbeaten Brother – Extraordinary Times A collection of “seven songs by three men from Croydon,” as guitarist and vocalist Ben Parker describes, “inspired by getting older, getting sadder, getting angrier with a post-Brexit world where The Smiths have been ruined by the actions of the ex-singer.”… melancholy, nostalgia and cynicism never quite manage to extinguish the belief that something better might just be possible, however misplaced it might be varioussmallflames

Cowtown – Can’t Talk Now that chorus. It’s catchier than a yawn in a staff meeting… After an eight-year hiatus, they’ve clearly been honing their craft. So, get ready to dance, laugh, and ponder the absurdities of life—welcome back backseatmafia

Wyatt C. Louis ft. Wild Pink – Oh Vibrant Sky Both sweet and memorable, a gem of unhurried restraint, a yearning summer ballad that casts the world in a peach-glow of fading daylight, a lingering sense of tenderness forged through intimate connection goldflakepaint

Marina Allen – Red Cloud unfolds as both fairly tale and travelogue, making no distinction between sweeping discovery and rude awakening… She hitchhikes through the pouring rain, drinks a slumber-inducing brew stew in the cold, but also weaves baskets (“with baskets come bounty they say”) and the hair of fellow roving women, her trek ending with a majestic cliffside view over golden waters. It’s a song that clutches love, trust and generosity like a Northern star – gentle and soothing in sound, yet resilient and unearthly in its quest to relish the fruits yielded from chasing down experiences that feel novel and mysterious beatsperminute

Cassandra Jenkins – Delphinium Blue it evolves from sparse, gossamer Lynchian layers and electronic hits, through… spoken word bridges into technicolour celestial choirs and guitars like power tools in the background sweepingthenation

Cassandra recites the spoken hook with an entrancing, eerie swagger, like she could be anything from a gang lackey to a housewife: “Chin up / Stay on task / Wash the windows / Count the cash.” Really, she’s working at a flower shop, as the title gives away vulture

Stephen’s Shore – Garden We would understand if it made you want to grab a surfboard and head to the beach, because that is exactly what came to our minds (right before the the realization that we no longer have surfboards) whenyoumotoraway

Beverly Kills – Sunset Drive Gothenburg indie act… perfect for endless drives and dancing by the seaside lastdaydeaf

Kindsight – Eyelids an album which is instantly likeable and perfect for the hopefully sunnier days ahead… an immediate song, that marries My Bloody Valentine flavoured guitar action with sweet vocals from Nina Hyldgaard Rasmussen, and sounds a bit like you would imagine Alvvays would sound if they were produced by Kevin Shields – in other words, pretty great! godisinthetvzine

Blind Terry – Hundred Years Too Old It has been over two years since Cloudberry Records released music, it was always likely that it would take something extremely special to coerce them out of hibernation… As such, it was the return of Blind Terry, an act that had last released with Cloudberry in 2007 when they collaborated on their debut (and only) When Prefab Sprout Wrecked My Mind EP, that saw them dust off their release schedule and offer a 10″ vinyl EP… languid, faux dreamy jangle and incessant earworm melodies… a sound that is as indie-pop yearning as it beautiful janglepophub

Ezra Collective – God Gave Me Feet For Dancing (Feat. Yazmin Lacey) look at dancing in a more spiritual capacity, like it’s our God-given ability to shake away the badness of life and dance instead the band’s Femi Koleoso

Orchid Mantis, Jordana – My Forever There is a secretive, introspective quality to the album where warbling lo-fi strums of down tuned guitars move in and out of focus like faded polaroids, a strange sadness settling over these songs’ hushed beauty. The pace is glacial, the vocals soporific, shaping spectral lullabies that shimmer and fade… My Forever, featuring a truly beautiful vocal from guest singer Jordana, possesses a late-night, jazz-inflected shuffle, particularly in the way drum beat, piano sample and vocals intertwine, its melody longing and spine-tingling start-track

Iris – Wit and Wendy a beautifully wistful piece which manages to combine a dash of The Smiths, a little folk and lilting elevator music backing vocals into just over two minutes of quirky, intriguing storytelling… Let’s cut a long story short. In 2014, a brief segment of a mysterious song appeared on the WatZatSong.com website which is dedicated to identifying unknown tracks. After ten years of hunting high and low by a number of dedicated enthusiasts, a user who had chanced upon a copy of the original record revealed the song as Wit And Wendy from the Appendix EP by the band Iris. Original member Phil Wagg (now with Electric Pets) was bemused to receive a Facebook message from a guy in Peru asking if he was the guitarist / vocalist identified on the record sleeve. One thing led to another and, with a growing clamour for further material from Iris, the decision was made to re-release the band’s back catalogue, starting with the original 1993 EP plus additional tracks recorded at the same time… louderthanwar

Mo Troper – The Billy Joel Fan Club a lovely little track about forging connections based on shared interests stereogum

Pernice Brothers – The Purple Rain It has always been a bit of a mystery – bordering on travesty – as to why an exceptionally astute songwriter (not to mention a man of many other talents: novelist, screenwriter, poet and even baseball coach) such as Joe Pernice and his band Pernice Brothers continue to be relatively obscure and unheard of in wider circles… 2023 marked the 25th anniversary of Pernice Brothers’ lushly produced debut album from 1998… the arrangements are pristine, the editing succinct… Profoundly life-changing events which have deeply impacted on Pernice over the past few years provide the bulk of the lyrical inspiration on this album. The words may seem noticeably more downbeaten, but the realisation – articulated on many of the songs here – is that as we all get older, we have no other option but to face the inevitable louderthanwar

The album’s emotional centerpiece is its stunning closer, “The Purple Rain,” a heartfelt tribute to Pernice’s late friend David Berman of Silver Jews, Purple Mountains, etc undertheradarmag

Los Campesinos! – 0898 Heartbreak As a longtime fan, it’s still a bit jarring to hear just how smooth Gareth David’s voice sounds nowadays… While a bit more sonically refined than a lot of the band’s previous material, it’s still got an upbeat, spunky bite that will please veteran listeners and sound kickass live stereogum

ME REX – Goodbye Forever presents Myles McCabe’s word-splattered pop-rock at its most fervently catchy… features bashed-out drums, an unhinged synthesizer line, and some of McCabe’s most impassioned singing stereogum

nathy sg – Something You Said Him off Martha again with… well, if we’re honest the most like Martha one of his solo tracks has sounded sweepingthenation

Good News – Orange Juice In The Shower Relationship goals change as your priorities shift, don’t they. What do we look for in a significant other? Although someone with exact same taste in absolutely everything waves massive terrifying red flags visible from outer space, surely someone who sings Orange Juice songs for your pleasure is a true Tinder keeper? Answers on a Postcard, but we think so, anyways. Good taste is good taste godisinthetvzine

Lightheaded – Always Sideways Will it change your life? Probably not. Combustible Gems, as the name implies, is of the bright, fizzing moment, a sparkler throwing white fire then collapsing to ash. It’s not made for the ages but for the ecstatic, fleeting now dustedmagazine

The Cords – Bo’s New Haircut told from the perspective of their family dog Bo after an unwanted shearing staticsoundsclub

Pretty much everyone who meets and sees The Cords live goes on to rave about them. Eva and Grace Tedeschi are young teenagers who, if they had a Delorean, access to a flux capacitor, plutonium or the ability to harness a bolt of lightning, would set their time circuit settings to circa 1985 so they could try and get a song on NME’s C86 compilation everythingflowsglasgow

Hello Shark – You Were Right Halloran has written some of my very favourite ‘singer-songwriter‘ albums, well, ever, and if you need something sad and pretty to spend your day today then I can recommend diving into his back catalogue… The new track… is suitably despondent, a country-sway of tender playing and bruised lyrics: “Last night I spent all my check on a carpet, where I slept. Last night you spent it round my neck like a necklace, and I misread it.“…

Just three-and-a-half minutes in length, but long enough to shift your day and set you off wandering into places old and imagined, blushed and blemished, it’s a timely reminder of the way things can sneak out of the shadows and keep us company, for when we didn’t even know that was needed goldflakepaint

Maggie Rogers – Don’t Forget Me admits her friends’ relationships don’t provide models for what she’s looking for: Sally’s getting married, Molly’s out partying every night. She’s after something more casual — but still lasting in its own way. “Love me till your next somebody,” Rogers sings to whomever’s listening. “And promise me that when it’s time to leave, don’t forget me.” nytimes

Taylor Swift – But Daddy I Love Him Grandly theatrical, righteously aggrieved and witheringly funny latimes

Mary Lattimore & Walt McClements – Nest Of Earrings endlessly beautiful, it truly feels like two people painting with sound clashmusic

At the beginning McClements whispers, “Oh my God, Mary…Do you see the babies?” It’s tough to make out the rest of their conversation as the music fades in, but it is clear that they are both looking at something natural and trying to convey their individual wonder to each other popmatters

Crumbs – Dear Deidre have been incubating new album, You’re Just Jealous, for a few years now. We don’t know how they kept all the energy in check.  It must have been like sitting on a volcano. The songs burst out with pure pop fire, sending splinters of guitar, sharp lyrics and snatches of the catchiest backing vocals. Post-punk energy, pop sensitivity, driving beats, bass lines you could eat, guitar you could sleep with, vocal melodies to die for louderthanwar

The Wendy Darlings – Don’t Flirt they’re checking off most of what I look for in music. On Lipstick Fire they sound like either a garage band creating ’60s girl group songs, a twee pop band playing punk music, or a bubblegum band going riot grrrl. But really, it’s all of the above. This is DIY indie pop bliss in a concise, scrappy and ramshackle package created by a band that knows that this kind of music works best when played with genuine enjoyment and with all imperfections retained addtowantlist

Helen Love – Stay With Me Perennial Welsh cult-icons Helen Love return with with Northern Soul-Honouring new single louderthanwar

The Accident Group – Go Away (Please Come Back) a sparkling piece of wonky stop-start infectious indie pop louderthanwar

Stephen Pastel and Gavin Thomson – The Most Beautiful House in Airdrie Featuring Pastels’ members Tom Crossley on flute and Katrina Mitchell on ethereal, wordless vocal, “The Most Beautiful House in Airdrie” imagines this odd, modernist house and also the ghosts of its occupants, echoing down through time. “We wanted to convey the idea of something being out of place, out of time – that town landscapes are rarely one dimensional,” says Stephen Pastel. “The most beautiful house is sat right next to an estate of squat brutalist council flats, a mid-century anomaly, romantic and hopeful – almost like a dream” thelineofbestfit

New Starts – Asbestos Roof a London-based band, fronted by Darren Hayman alongside members of adults and Tigercats. Formed out of Darren’s desire to reconnect with his days as a teenage band member, New Starts is his most collaborative project in years… The song revels in escapism, embracing the idea that in our minds we can be anyone and anywhere… Darren seems to howl at the passing of time…. Like all of us, as old as he’s ever been and as young as he’ll ever be, yet with the fresh energy of his compatriots in New Starts, this might just be the most exciting, and excited, Darren Hayman has ever sounded fortheerabbits

Mammoth Penguins – Flyers the group manages to bang out these heavily distorted riffs, yet wrapped them this buoyant rhythm section, creating this infectious edginess. Emma Kupa, of course, sells the hook with her typical powerful vocal performance; the track’s detailing of the challenges of that rock n’ roll lifestyle are likely relatable to anyone who’s managed to get a record recorded and hit the road; it’s not an easy life… austintownhall

Guided By Voices – Serene King from Guided by Voices’ upcoming FORTIETH album. That’s right, 4-0. And it’s fantastic, just as rocking, anthemic, hooky and fist-pumping as you’d want from Robert Pollard and what is arguably the best-ever lineup of the band, complete with a tight twin-lead guitar solo. All in three minutes and 15 seconds. How does Bob do it? Actually, I don’t want to know, but please never stop brooklynvegan

Restless Leg – Sow A Little Seed a gloriously up tempo jangle pop delight that recalls the almost naive yet wry innocence of early Go-Betweens and the raw energy of The Bats or The Chills, laced with a sense of self-deprecating humour and a whole oil tanker full of melody backseatmafia

Arab Strap – Strawberry Moon tries to synthesise two of their main mods of expression at once, cheap drum machine and churning fuzz… while Aidan sees the moon’s waxing and waning as a constant in a time of personal turmoil sweepingthenation

Stephen Pastel and Gavin Thomson – The Most Beautiful House in Airdrie Featuring Pastels’ members Tom Crossley on flute and Katrina Mitchell on ethereal, wordless vocal, “The Most Beautiful House in Airdrie” imagines this odd, modernist house and also the ghosts of its occupants, echoing down through time.

“We wanted to convey the idea of something being out of place, out of time – that town landscapes are rarely one dimensional,” says Stephen Pastel. “The most beautiful house is sat right next to an estate of squat brutalist council flats, a mid-century anomaly, romantic and hopeful – almost like a dream. David Keenan has said that in all his time living in Airdrie he never saw anyone come in or out or even appear at the window.” thelineofbestfit

Mary Lattimore and Walt McClements – Nest of Earrings endlessly beautiful, it truly feels like two people painting with sound clashmusic

At the beginning, McClements whispers, “Oh my God, Mary…Do you see the babies?” It’s tough to make out the rest of their conversation as the music fades in, but it is clear that they are both looking at something natural and trying to convey their individual wonder to each other popmatters

Crumbs – Dear Deidre have been incubating new album for a few years now. We don’t know how they kept all the energy in check.  It must have been like sitting on a volcano…. Post-punk energy, pop sensitivity, driving beats, bass lines you could eat, guitar you could sleep with, vocal melodies to die for… louderthanwar

Maggie Rogers – Don’t Forget Me admits her friends’ relationships don’t provide models for what she’s looking for: Sally’s getting married, Molly’s out partying every night. She’s after something more casual — but still lasting in its own way. “Love me till your next somebody,” Rogers sings to whomever’s listening. “And promise me that when it’s time to leave, don’t forget me.” newyorktimes

The Cords – Bo’s New Haircut Told from the perspective of their dog Bo, this is over in a beautiful 100 seconds and a flash of sunshine. Three verses. Fast paced fun indie guitar pop. Pure. No pretence. No bullshit. Just naturally cool without trying everythingflowsglasgow