Chime School – Give Your Heart Away  looks back through the gauzy veneer of the past, glazing memories with rosy hues that might have dimmed in their own age but shine like diamonds out of reach these days ravensingstheblues

I Was A King – Favourite Colours

Frode and Anna Lise are the absolute stars here, with the light jangling and tinkering piano lurking quietly in the background; they’re clearly hanging out in the song, with the piano sparkling in its work, though they, too, are in awe of the majestic powers of the vocal work this go round. A forlorn bit of guitar slides in between the cracks, all of it giving this textured blend of classic power pop that confirms our belief that I Was a King is one of the best power-pop acts around austintownhall

Sassyhiya – Kristen Stewart if the infectious delivery and stuttering dance from the percussion aren’t enough… then maybe you’ll have to turn to the chorus. They open the tune up there… the employment of multiple layers of vocals throughout the tune is a nice little 1-2 punch for me, laying me out on the floor so I can play the track on repeat austintownhall

Peel Dream Magazine – Lie In The Gutter references an Oscar Wilde quote, and its hazy, wide-eyed dreaming is redolent of those vintage New York cinematic moments. Never afraid of their own beauty, Peel Dream Magazine play with these tropes, allowing the sighing vocals to recall Broadcast yet with their own distinctive flavour clashmusic

Dummy – Nine Clean Nails It’s rare to review an album where one of the major target demographics would be particle physicists… a project indebted to the concepts of perpetual motion, the collision of particles, the ever-fluctuating rhythms of the spatial and the sub-atomic. The band, who suggested that the album title should make you think of unlimited “thermodynamic potential” and a “fire that doesn’t need fuel,” have made a record that wants to get you on the floor. Rather than using distorted guitars and looping synths that characterize Dummy’s sound as a background, Free Energy wants those elements to act as a canvas upon which pulsating, propulsive and continuously energizing tracks can bloom pastemagazine

Dancer – Priority Girl Glaswegian no-pop masters. A serendipitous conversation with HHBTM Records led to the band befriending queer-post-punk Portland act, Whisper Hiss, and the two acts agreeing to cull their individual projects for a Split 12″ release! “Priority Girl,” features brilliant little vocal twists and turns that continue to establish the act as one of the best in the game. Whisper Hiss had to give the Scots a little bit of a “hold my beer” moment, upping the ante by throwing out some old school angular punk wiggles that worm their way into a bit of an erratic shimmy. Two really great acts combining for a pop release for the ages austintownhall

Whisper Hiss – Movable Objects

G2G – Pop Song features jagged edge guitars, thumping percussion and directly sung female vocals that border on the shouty. It’s a great mix as far as I am concerned and one thankfully I will never tire of recordsilike

Field Music – The Limits of Language piano-beating, synth-rocking… takes a playful glance at Wittgenstein’s famous quote, “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world”, as Peter Brewis wonders “if a hug or a smile or some seemingly mundane gesture (like tidying up) might reveal more than a few misunderstood words. Or a few misunderstood lyrics. Or even a misunderstood quotation.” clickrollboom

Memorials – Lamplighter the duo of Electrane’s Verity Susman and Wire’s Matthew Simms…. In a press release, the duo said “Lamplighter” is “the poppiest song on the album and we created our own tape machine mellotron especially for it.” Though upbeat, the track has meaningful introspective undertones and quotes an intense letter by Fanny Burney: “At what age do we stop wanting more?” undertheradarmag

Lael Naele – Electricity an illuminating sway, ripe with Neale’s anchoring vocals that are at once haunting and plugged into deeper feelings of being cut off from everything, ‘Electricity’ swells into a mini-epic of longing for human contact godisinthetvzine

The Decemberists – All I Want Is You Once a figure of ridicule and derision, the nerd defined the first decades of the 21st century even more than the hipster or the bro… The Decemberists, named after an obscure Russian revolution (which they winkingly misspelled), represented a more benevolent side of geekdom: They were smart, of course, but also very passionate about arcana. They fussed over prog-folk epics, sea shanties, and Shirley Collins the way other nerds nitpicked D&D campaigns or Star Wars canon.

The Decemberists weren’t rock nerds, though, which may be why actual rock nerds dismissed them in their heyday. Instead, they were theater nerds—a wildly intense phylum of geek. Meloy wrote songs like playlets, constantly implying a proscenium, and the band performed them like a troupe of thespians, occasionally even reenacting Tolkien battles onstage. There was an element of playacting in every song, which made them seem like the nerdiest band around (even Barenaked Ladies’ theme songs never went that deep)…

With their ninth studio album, the Decemberists have done something that few 21st-century nerds even consider: They’ve matured in their relationship with their obsessions. They’ve grown up. Not a lot, but enough. The archaic syntax of the title As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again suggests a “return to form” or at the very least a career retrospective….but there are no quote marks around these songs. It’s more a personal reckoning with their own past: a rummage sale of dusty enthusiasms.

So there’s an unexpected melancholy to these new story-songs, a poignancy that wouldn’t have been possible 15 or 20 years ago. Meloy understands we obsess differently in our dotage, with a new sense of impermanence and a more acute understanding of mortality. He has sung about death many times before, but it sounds a little more immediate on opener “Burial Ground.”… That’s how they start the album, and every song that follows ponders the inevitable end of every story pitchfork

Kate Bollinger – To Your Own Devices Glazed with a melancholy that melts into the heart like butter in the pan ravensingstheblues

Laura Marling – Patterns Marling’s new record, Patterns in Repeat, charts the emotional topography of becoming a mother—from the highs of postpartum euphoria, to the gradual dawning of how drastically her life had changed, to the deeper philosophical questions it prompted around her own childhood, and balancing her newfound double duties as a mother and an artist. The record was made almost entirely at her home studio in east London, with Marling’s baby daughter bouncing on her knee or crawling at her feet. “You can hear this whole other incidental story happening behind, and the mistakes are left in, but that’s all stuff I like when recording anyway,” she says, breezily…

it’s the eighth album from the 34-year-old musician, who burst onto the British music scene back in 2008 as a teenager, and has barely paused to take a breath since… her masterful ability to explore the nuances of friendship, family, love, and loss—and then distill these complex, sweeping ideas into a tidy string of words—is as present as ever. Not least on the album’s gorgeous debut single, “Patterns,” which touches on understanding, with a profound new clarity, the sacrifices made by her parents during her own childhood. (“And as those years go by they’ll look upon you / Kindly like a friend / A pattern in repeat / And never ends,” she sings.) vogue

Lindsay Reahmer – Necessary Without researching the fact, this is surely the first time the Jon Bon Jovi hologram has been referenced in a folk song, and from that starting point the song unwinds through small pockets of everyday, often mundane snapshots of a life: a motel room, an inflight magazine, a rotisserie chicken. Finally, in a graceful swoop, the track finds a way to dig its nails in, and linger in the long-after, Reamer closing out the song with a gentle sigh of memory; “You show me it’s okay to depend on somebody, Not just okay, but necessary” goldflakepaint

RVG – Don’t Take It Badly I love RVG. Not only is their music brilliant, but they have also provided me with the opportunity to explore my usage of terminology and phrases like ‘post-punk modernity’ and ‘jangly muscularity’ in previous reviews, thus satisfying my amateur music hack urge to indulge in faux verbosity…

transports us back to the mid-80s, a time when the idea of women dressed as Victorian prostitutes shuffling with morose melancholy to the gigs of post-punk acts was no longer a celebrated event. Instead, the sound of 1000 primarily Northern UK acts, whose names began with ‘The’ and ended in either a common British surname or a remote northern Rugby League town, replaced the goth-laden darkness with a sprightly jangly guitar sound. RGV hasn’t truly embraced this aesthetic before, but this release shows they certainly have the ability to do so janglepophub

Desperate Journalist – Afraid The title comes from a twatty backhanded compliment I once received: “what’s good about you is you’re not afraid to be ugly” It was pleasing to be able to turn that around and use it as a statement of strength based on non-judgmental love…. It’s an odd little song with loads of bits which shouldn’t quite all work together but they somehow do and I think it is very much more than the sum of its parts singer Jo Bevan

Young Scum – Fall Into Your Arms continue to offer the sweet, melodic, jangly indie-pop that captivated everyone on their debut as their music sometimes evokes a sense of youth, akin to a strange nostalgic appeal janglepophub

The Proctors – Silhouettes The resilience of jangle-rock (for lack of a better word) always astounds me. Thirty years ago, we had to dig for these releases… Now, thanks to generations of fans who weren’t even born yet during the first few waves of bands inspired by C86 and the like, the genre is thriving…

What I like about The Proctors is how this music is so bright. Even the relatively downbeat or introspective songs burn with a kind of positivity that suggests a belief in music’s power even when one’s at one’s lowest. And on the upbeat numbers, the spark is more obvious, making compelling each Byrds-y twist and turn on the guitar. The Proctors are not trying to re-invent the wheel on Snowdrops and Hot Air Balloons, but they are finding a way throughout this record of how to make the familiar feel fresh again. The prowess of The Proctors is there, in that resilient faith in the possibility that a shiny pop song can indeed mean so much, and be so dear. apessimistisneverdisappointed

Cinéma Lumière – Change Of Heart the debut album by Manila-based quintet… is a superb testimony of how their ability to seamlessly link their beautiful, jangly dream-pop core to various musical nuances janglepophub

ACHB – Double Agents short for Alex and The Christopher Hale Band, a New Wave Pub Rock band from Nottingham… known for their blend of anti-cool indie rock & roll energy, creating a sound that’s both nostalgic and fresh. 

The band consists of 35-year-old child prodigy Alexander Christopher Hale and a selection of more competent musician friends who he was able to trick into backing him… The song reminds me of the music from Altered Images. With a mix of catchy melodies and a driving beat… From the moment it begins the infectious rhythm grabs hold of you, making it impossible not to tap your feet and start moving. leftlion

Teenage Tom Petties – Night Nurse Dear Teenage Tom Petties. I sincerely need you to stop writing such catchy pop songs that, quite frankly, are ruining my day. I’m sitting here looking at an email inbox of over 100 new tracks and albums, but all I want to do is listen to this new track. I love how you’ve pushed the gritty bits of guitar to the distance; they’re not completely gone, but they allow the pitch of the vocals to really sell the melody. Oh, and then you went and threw in some “whoas” and handclaps. Are you serious? How can you expect anyone to get anything done when you’re writing with such whimsy and joy, all the while tossing in hooks galore? You’ve ruined my day austintownhall

Sharp Pins – When You Know lo-fi guitar-pop of the Guided By Voices-worshipping variety… It’s just tastefully retro power-pop splendor all the way stereogum

The Burbs – Ladder To The Moon One can’t run away from their Britpop past… It’s like Oasis got stuck in a pit of quicksand, as they try to escape, the vocals seem like their drifting into the ether, which gives it more of a Pink Floyd vibe austintownhall

WUT – Mingling With The Thorns the main subject of their ire is men, which is surprising to me as I consider myself one and I am great!…

it appears that we are generally to blame for unhappy relationships (well who would have thunked it)?… 

I am always surprised at this ‘what are men thinking’ rumination as six seconds ago I was thinking of sex, in six seconds time I will be thinking about the same and in between I will be thinking about sport, music or some other favourite pastime. Such a thought loop can only be interrupted by the quest to satiate hunger. Therefore it is not that man are ‘disconnected’ we are just interminably vacuous. Some men will deny this, but then men’s lies are also covered in this album…

Hopefully, this review of this simply glorious album won’t be perceived as the “mansplaining,” of it and if it is, please accept my apologies. After all, men must always apologize after every argument, regardless of who is at fault and it would appear from Mingling With the Thorns that we have a whole host of things to apologize for (winky emoticon). janglepophub

Shady Cove – Midwest After comparing Shady Cove to Wilson-Philips, I still can’t walk away from that comparison. But, what I can say is they’ve continued to take that dual vocal work and branch their sound into something that feels timeless. There’s a heavenly synth wash throughout this tone… I do appreciate how they’re flirting with those of us with dreampop inclinations, yet they hold onto their own instincts, which keeps a little uniqueness in their craft austintownhall

Kim Deal – Coast The musician helped redefine American guitar music, through her dual roles in Pixies, and then The Breeders clashmusic recorded by Steve Albini with Kelley backing, dotted with mariachi brass and the melody of Sunday Girl filtered through her band (either of them)’s more becalmed surf-adjacent moments sweepingthenation

Yuta Mori & Stuart Murdoch – You Are So Amazing

The Reds, Pinks and Purples – All Night  the musical element is striking, setting this sort of somber tone that feels like a slow-paced time lapse video. Donaldson’s voice, always familiar, feels like its one of those timeless voices that makes you nostalgic for friends and memories, drawing you deep inside his songwriting austintownhall released for the debut UK tour 2024

Nightshift – Sure Look A calming reminder to pay attention to self care, it bears the band’s hallmark propulsive rhythms, inventive guitar and enchanting vocals, all accented with a fiddle whenyoumotoraway

Personal Trainer – I Can Be Your Personal Trainer the project of Willem Smit, who collaborates with Casper van der Lans in the studio and performs with a rotating live band. Originating from Amsterdam…. a mix of playful and thoughtful themes, with personal touches that add warmth and intimacy. The lyrics often reflect Smit’s inquisitive nature and his ability to find beauty and honesty in unexpected places thefirenote

Hinds – The Bed, The Room, The Rain, and You the Spanish-speaking Hinds… have had their fair share of struggles (namely extreme line-up changes – losing half of their gang between records)… Jump forward to 2024 and the Madrid-duo are releasing their fourth studio album, Viva Hinds, proving that even as two, they can still carry on in their usual breezy meets garage-rock style.

“The Bed, The Room, The Rain And You” finds itself as the only narrative on the record that tackles love (“the light is you / oceans are too / I sing for you”). Breezy and weightless, the cut is a soaring, freeing exploration of romance and shows off the duo’s more tender side thelineofbestfit

Ynys – Aros Amdanat Ti the band’s second album, Dosbarth Nos (“Night Class”), is absolutely crammed with hook-laden earworms. Specifically, these are very ’70s-style earworms. Jones has a way with ELO/Seals & Croft-style orchestral pop, flecked with a little ’80s synthpop… Not all songs are in sung in Welsh, but most are, and in the midst of enjoying a big chorus you might notice Jones’ mouthful-of-consonants delivery — and that you don’t know what he’s singing — but the songs are so catchy it never pulls you out of the pleasure center brooklynvegan

Secret Postcards – My Ghost  a Greek indie pop band… dreamy and summery, in the tradition of Sarah Records. Expect jangling guitars and angelic vocals, with a good dose of youthful spirit, charming and magnetic addtowantlist

Humdrum – See Through You Slumberland will never steer you wrong, and the label shines a light on the debut record from Humdrum today. The band… pounces on the soaring harmonies and heartache that dotted the indie enclaves in the early ‘90s, feeling like a kindred spirit to Heavenly, Felt and Ride. With a mighty mix of jangle and breezy melodies, the first single from the upcoming album crashes into view on a pop of percussion and Vanderbilt’s wistful delivery ravensingstheblues

Best Bets – Spooky Signals New Zealand quartet… detail a bit of romantic confusion and distance with an explosive enthusiasm that it’s hard not to bob along to this driving, shuffling chaos post-trash

Man/Woman/Chainsaw – Ode To Clio The band say they ‘thrive on the thin line between pretty and noisy’…. Opening with an experimental chamber pop sound, there are stirring strings and lyrics about being betrayed and rocking horses before things ramp up around the two-minute mark into a power-pop anthem – before then expertly collapsing on itself again complete with impassioned chanting and an all-too-sudden finish spectralnights

Autos – Stay Clean Not many bands can brag about writing a song about the existential trials and tribulations of taking your clothes to a laundromat, but this Santa Cruz bunch can… in under two and a half minutes, the band adds some riffy guitars, iffy drums, and a nifty vocalist adding in, “Spin me around and show me the floor.” It totally works and then the last 30 seconds or so is a beautiful mangled mess daggerzine

The Smashing Times – Tarts And Vicars jangled and jovial, evoking UK ‘80s indie with the best of ‘em… the band captures the kind of charms that have kept ‘em in high rotation these last few years ravensingstheblues

The Softies – California Highway 99 On their first album in 24 years, Rose Melberg and Jen Sbragia are indie-pop minimalists with the biggest of hearts, conveying complex adult emotions with the freedom and possibility of youth… In the world of the Softies, to crush is to live. Their songs are pop miniatures where the spectrum of human feeling seems to ripple outward from the bittersweet ache of liking a person so much that your mind is pulled obsessively in one direction, however momentarily. Maybe it is Rose Melberg and Jen Sbragia’s 30-year friendship and indelible, world-of-its-own musical chemistry—two plainspoken voices, two sparkling guitars, and space—that helps communicate that intimacy so effectively pitchfork

Melanie, The Courettes – Rag Doll Known for her iconic performance at the 1969 Woodstock festival, Melanie once recorded a cover version of “Rag Doll” by The Four Seasons in 1984. The Fabulous Courettes, the duo from Brazil and Denmark, have taken Melanie’s cover and made a monster out of it that should fire-breathe your speakers into oblivion… their Hold On We’re Coming album features a rock ‘em sock ’em robot recording of “Peppermint Twist,” the 1961 #1 hit single by Joey Dee & The Starliters thejerseysound

Cœur À L’Index – Minette a delicious song taking in influences from C86, Chanson and 1980’s power pop. Sublime stuff recordsilike