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Pop Punk

TuskHead blurred the boundaries between acoustic pop-punk and folk in ‘Breaking the Man’

Posted on 17 October 2023

The boundaries between Americana, acoustic pop-punk and folk blurred beyond recognition in the rhythmically arresting latest single, Breaking the Man, by the Dutch musician, singer, and songwriter TuskHead.

With the bends of bluegrass weaving around the pull of the percussion, which won’t fail to awaken your rhythmic pulses and the lyrics, which sting with vulnerable volition, Breaking the Man is a hard lyrical pill to swallow, but the upbeat rhythmics take some of the sting from the deeply relatable pensiveness, allowing it to unravel as a cathartic olive branch to anyone unwilling to do the same and make the admission of ‘I’m not alright’.

Asking the time-old question, “how can you love me if I hate myself” and alluding to the fight from within that pills can salve but can’t solve, the heartache with the world is heart-wrenchingly affecting.

Breaking the Man was officially released on October 13th; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The UK pop-punk powerhouse Project Revise is in ‘Free Fall’ in their latest music video

Posted on 5 October 2023

Fans of Thrice, Glassjaw, and Reuben won’t be able to resist the hooks which punch with 00s emo volition in the latest single from the UK pop-punk powerhouse of a trio, Project Revise.

The ragged with rancour basslines wrap their snarls around the cacophonously tight drum fills beneath the nostalgically crunchy guitars as the vocal lines mainline antagonised adrenaline into Free Fall. There are high-octane hits, and there are releases that make you wonder if the instruments were plugged into nuclear reactors instead of amps, Project Revise is well and truly in the latter camp with Free Fall, and they’ve been there ever since they crashed into the scene in 2017 and started snagging accolades left, right, and centre.

They’ve been lauded by Kerrang, shot music videos with the Bowling for Soup frontman, Jaret Reddick, landed themselves on editorial playlists, and received endless BBC Introducing airplay. If they keep on releasing hits in the same vein as Free Fall, we’re pretty sure their career highlights will become infinitely more incandescent.

Watch the official music video for Free Fall on YouTube or add the track to your pop-punk playlists on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The emerging outfit, Hound, is spectre hunting in their debut post-hardcore-meets-pop-punk hit, Ghost in the Grey

Posted on 31 August 2023

Here to prove that emo isn’t a phase is the antagonistically enticing up-and-coming outfit, Hound, with their nostalgia-driven post-hardcore anthem, Ghost in the Grey.

The debut single is – almost – enough to tempt you to chop your hair into a side fringe and whip out the checked sweatbands, skinny jeans, and studded belts. Failing that, you’ll get to relive the glory days when Hawthorne Heights, Dashboard Confessional and Senses Fail reigned supreme in the alternative music charts, and it only felt like your internal sanity was failing instead of society as a whole.

Describing themselves as five 30-somethings with dodgy knees and broken dreams scarcely does their heavy pop-punk/emo mashup justice, especially with the sharp hooks, tight instrumentals and choruses that you will want to scream as though you’re performing your own exorcism. But it just goes to show how committed the powerhouse is to providing an escape from modern maladies and melancholy by creating pretension-less atmospheres in their music and at their live shows.

Ghost in the Grey riled up the airwaves after its debut on August 21. Stream it on Spotify.

 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Softmax connects through disjointed isolation in her Lynchian installation of electronica, Swishers

Posted on 9 August 2023
Softmax

Silence fell after the 2022 debut EP, But What If There Isn’t?, from the Chicago-native Softmax; in her time away from the airwaves, she honed her craft and primed herself for her latest single, Swishers.

Co-produced by Joel Ford, of How to Dress Well fame, and Berlin’s premier electronica producer, Gabriel Gifford, Swishers sets a dramatically Lynchian tone to create a dystopian synthpop backdrop for the portrayal of inwardly imploding isolation while everyone falsifies their lives online.

The sentiment is just as resonant as the score orchestrated to depict the agonisingly disjointing feelings. Clearly, Softmax has a talent for reflecting the rawest facets of the human experience back at us. The syncopated beats and oscillating synths paint a portrait of how it feels when black holes of alienation form as a fixture in the arrangement of your bedroom furniture.

In her own words: “It’s about wanting to connect with the world and understand people while feeling further and further from it,”

Swishers will hit the airwaves on August 9th as a courtesy of the London-based indie record label, Psychotic Reaction Music. Stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Grand Nights descended with his demons in the orchestral pop-rock masterpiece, Falling

Posted on 8 August 2023

Render your heartstrings raw with the latest single, Falling, from the alt-pop evocateur, Grand Nights. The orchestral pop-rock outpour of artfully uninhibited emotion takes you on a cinematic cruise through the kind of introspection that only dares to visit you in the dead of night; hang onto the ornately atmospheric nostalgia tight as you’re driven through the 80s and 90s via a route never taken.

After cutting his teeth as a drummer in a metal band, honing his talents in rock, punk and pop bands, the one-man powerhouse behind Grand Nights was ready to take to the centre stage and exhibit his heart-in-throat lyrics that amplify in visceralism to the tune of his panoramically immersive melodies.

With his EP, South of Everything, in the pipeline, there has never been a better time to implant Grand Nights on your radar.

Start the descent with Falling, by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Gemma Felicity ignited 00s pop nostalgia with ‘Come Back to Me’

Posted on 4 August 2023
Gemma Felicity

Gemma Felicity ignited early 00s pop nostalgia with her latest single, Come Back to Me, which is set to drop on the 4th of August.The muted and choked-up guitars at the start of the single set the tone for a hair-raising feat of pop-punk. But the London-based singer-songwriter chose to run through with a moody slice of synth-pop with reverb-heavy keys and a danceable melody beneath her viscerally soulful vocal lines that will spark an evocative fire between your synapses as you lose yourself in the adrenalizingly progressive single that will leave you simultaneously wanting to hit the dance floor and wanting to drunk text your ex.

Following a mystery illness that left her physically and mentally drained, the songwriter studied for her Masters in Music Performance in Leeds before dropping her first singles, This Place and Better Without You, in 2022. Her upcoming EP was penned to explore her unhealthy romantic relationships and her journey back to herself and self-sourced peace. Keep tuned for it.

Check out Come Back to Me on Spotify and iTunes via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Rev yourself up with the adrenalized volition in Matt’s Keys pop-rock amalgam, Let’s Go

Posted on 28 July 2023

Any fans of The Pretty Reckless will find just as much anthemic fire in the latest pop-rock hit, Let’s Go, from the songwriter Matt’s Keys. With no compromise to the intimacy of the lyrics or the power in the vocals, Let’s Go is a moving single, in pretty much every respect.

Rev yourself up with the adrenalized volition in the pop-punk spliced dance track that uses overdriven guitars to cause friction against the ascending piano chords and frenetic hyper-pop beats that will keep a firm hold on your rhythmic pulses until the outro.

Let’s Go is the ultimate playlist staple to put on repeat when you need the inspiration and permission to live life to the fullest, whether that’s by hitting the dancefloor instead of staying home with the cat or putting your heart on the line instead of keeping it behind lock and key.

Let’s Go was officially released on July 21; hear it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Foreign Saints is sonorously spectral in their debut shoegaze single, Here With Me

Posted on 11 July 2023

If you placed yourself in the middle ground of Elliott Smith and Slowdive, you would be in good company with the sonorously spectral debut single, Here With Me, from Foreign Saints.

With a slice of psychedelia written into the indie pop songwriting chops, Here With Me unravels as a hazy kaleidoscope of wistful colour. As the lyrics allude to what’s lost through time and distance, the dreamy instrumentals envelop you in their reverb-swathed cathartic tonality.

The bedroom pop project from the Brooklyn-based musician, Thomas Roberts, may not be far past its inception, but Roberts is already proving himself to be an unreckonable resonant force. Fans of The Japanese House, War on Drugs, and Day Wave won’t want to let the project slip them by, especially with the debut EP in the pipeline.

Here With Me is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Eguie5 turned up the heat in the Latin American alternative scene with his solo project debut, One Last Dance

Posted on 19 June 2023

Eguie5 became a conduit of post-rock and pop-punk alchemy in his anthemically hooked debut single, One Last Dance, which efficaciously captures the bitter-sweetness of goodbyes before bringing in the cacophonous drums that pay homage to the superlative skin-beating style of Taylor Hawkins.

After spending two decades cutting his teeth as one half of the alternative duo, TUNNL19, the Puerto Rico singer-songwriter reconnected with his artistic roots via his solo venture, which keeps expressive experimentalism at its core.

The emotively melodic structures in One Last Dance made the heart-in-throat choruses all the more riotous, in the same way Linkin Park allowed their audience to feel the sense of resonant vindication while screaming the reprise of “I’ve given up”, One Last Dance became the silver lining of heartbreak. The atmospherically intuitive hit struck all the right chords to affirm that Eguie5 is a one-man monolith of innovation.

One Last Dance hit the airwaves on June 14th; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Tune into Rebels in Stereo’s riotous punk rock anthem, Lace of Steel

Posted on 17 June 2023
CoVault by Rebels in Stereo

‘Lace of Steel’ is the riotously hooky seminal single from Chicago’s premier pop-punk-influenced outfit, Rebels in Stereo. Taken from their EP, CoVault, the overdriven to the nth degree hit reels you in with the edged and tight anthemics, but it is the vignette weaved through the high-octane release that keeps you immersed.

With a similar narrative to Thrash Unreal by Against Me! any female-identifying outliers that are looking for resonance will get more than they have bargained for when they delve into the punk rock anthem, which gains momentum through the modernist melodic power metal licks and the songwriting chops that are as sharp as a butcher’s cleaver.

With a new LP in the pipeline, there’s little doubt that 2023 will be the year of Rebels in Stereo. It takes far more than a powerful set of pipes to become an arresting frontwoman; thankfully, Cassidy’s vocal range is as wide-spanning as her talents in weaving soul into her superlative harmonies.

Stream and purchase Lace of Steel by heading over to Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast