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Blog Showcasing Singer Songwriter Talent

Blind Crush by Bijou Belle and The RathCo Is Flirty Midwest Indie Pop with Infatuation-Drunk Dive Bar Momentum

Posted on 21 July 2026

Bijou Belle became Americana’s new sweetheart after the Midwest supreme released her latest single, Blind Crush, with her band, Bijou Belle and The RathCo. The 17-year-old Rapid City, South Dakota alt-pop and indie-pop artist grew up in a staunchly musical family, with her grandfather, Rocke Grace, connected to the rock classic Rocky Mountain Way, and that inherited musical pedigree runs through her veins and into this track.

Raucous in all the right places, playfully seductive in all the rest, the rock-tinged country-pop earworm winds through the nostalgia of Y2K pop while sidestepping the crossroads of dated antiquity. Bijou Belle drives the aesthetic right into the centre of the contemporary pop zeitgeist, with the momentum of an artist who refuses to smooth her sound down to fit the superficial plastic-pop mould.

Blind Crush captures the irrational headrush of infatuation; the reckless moment when logic loses its keys and butterflies take the wheel. It’s the kind of hit you want to get your Levi’s hotpants on for and head to a dive bar to find your new crush, so you can get as giddy as the lyrics that writhe in the rapture of infatuation.

After touring the Midwest with The RathCo and reaching national audiences on NBC’s The Voice as part of Team Adam, Belle already carries the poise of someone learning how to make big rooms feel personal.

Blind Crush is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lotus Mirage’s Rebirth of Honor Is Dream Pop in Full Fairycore Bloom

Posted on 21 July 2026

When everything about an artist is titularly mystifying, it is hard not to feel your expectations rise before you hit play. Thankfully, Rebirth of Honor by the NY-based alternative artist Lotus Mirage delivers all the spirit-sating whimsy you hope it would. The classically trained singer-songwriter uses every ounce of knowledge she gained to cultivate the dream-pop scene, lending it a sense of grandeur; a sense of grandeur which elevates the genre without making any of the baroque beauty within her lush atmospheric single feel inaccessible.

Rebirth of Honor is escapism in its purest form; anyone fixated by the fairycore trend will find their own sense of utopia within it. Yet beneath the shimmer, the single carries a complex web of pain and the promise of possibilities, allowing the single to become emblematic of every transition of the spirit.

Lotus Mirage writes from the perspective of the high-achiever who left the mapped-out path, moving from classical piano, LSE and tech sales into atmospheric alt-pop concerned with nostalgia, ambition and identity after structure falls away. That context is integral to Rebirth of Honor’s emotional intelligence. The folksy arrangement explores the full emotional spectrum through lighter layers that add scintillation, while lower, sombre strings thread mourning through the release.

With appeal for admirers of Weyes Blood, Phoebe Bridgers and Sarah Kinsley, Lotus Mirage has found rare territory in dream pop, where academia, ambition and self-reinvention serve as mythic terrain.

Rebirth of Honor is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ava Trepeck Cast a Multi-Sensory Cinematic Spell with the Beach House-Level Textural Sorcery in ‘Sphinx’

Posted on 20 July 2026

Ava Trepeck created multi-sensory cinematography with her seminal ethereal pop single, Sphinx. The New York City-based alternative dream-pop artist, originally from Birmingham, Michigan, has a voice that could see her hailed as this generation’s Kate Bush, a sound that establishes her as talented as Beach House when it comes to alchemising intoxicatingly timbred melodies, and that touch of je ne sais quoi that makes her so stylistically hypnotic.

The soft, reverb-lush way every note drifts in hazy weightlessness through the retro-futuristic colour of the pastel-toned triumph is enough to make you feel as though you’re defying gravity as you drink in the dreamy, artful textures. Beneath the beauty, Sphinx carries a deeply considered emotional architecture, exploring divine union within the self and the balance of masculine and feminine energies as a route towards safety, freedom and inner equilibrium.

Trepeck’s background in psychology and cinematic arts at the University of Southern California gives the single its rare sense of psychic detail and visual depth. You can hear why Dora Jar, Lorde, Lana Del Rey, Kate Bush and Miley Cyrus sit within her wider constellation of influence, but Sphinx never feels derivative. It’s escapism at its finest, and it is proof that Ava Trepeck’s talent refuses to settle into complacency; there’s a palpable sense she’s pushing sound design into transcendently imaginative terrain with each of her new releases, and this is no exception.

Sphinx is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Mert Spalty’s PODUNK Brought Queens Alt-Rock to a Scuzzy, Sweat-Slick Punk Crescendo

Posted on 20 July 2026

The writing is on the basement-venue wall; Mert Spalty’s LP, PODUNK, is the kind of woozy, scuzz-laced release to get the alt scene moving to the exhilaration of posture-free punk rock again. The Queens-based independent musician has played north of 300 shows since 2022, and that live-wire through dodgy PA conditioning burns straight through the album’s beer-spilt bloodstream.

With the same devil-may-care authenticity as Pavement, the raw emotional accessibility of garage-punk heavyweights Fidlar and inklings of Modest Mouse through the campy eccentricity and existential slacker humour, PODUNK traverses the alt spectrum with unruly purpose. Recorded in a shared practice space and Spalty’s apartment, then self-produced and mixed, the record captures bar basements packed with friends, cigarettes outside and punk rock with a bossa nova flute interlude.

The alt anthems are slick with the sweat of an artist uncaging himself. It just so happens that the outpouring of his fervent candour takes the form of some of the best alt-rock and punk instincts: almost innocently childlike creativity, high-fidelity lines ignored, sanitised mainstream potential kicked aside, reality placed front and centre.

With Fletcher Gull tracking drums in a single day before flying home to Australia, and a sold-out Ridgewood release show already proving the songs’ physical pull, PODUNK feels built for rooms where people remember why guitars and gigs you don’t have to skip rent for still matter.

PODUNK is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jim Laczkowsk penned a Nocturnal Love-Letter Lullaby with ‘by moonlight’

Posted on 19 July 2026
hold on by Jim Laczkowski

Jim Laczkowski delivers the kind of honeyed melancholy that stings, even when the bitterness is abstracted from the bitter-sweet dichotomy. The Chicago-based musician, writer, filmmaker and librarian has spent two decades recording and self-producing original songs for records and film soundtracks, and by moonlight, from his new album Hold On, is locked and loaded to disarm through grace.

Lyrically, the single drifts into a nocturnal take on You Are My Sunshine, followed by Neutral Milk Hotel-esque indie-folk experimentation to close out the accordant, rich and intimately eccentric performance. It is the ultimate indie lullaby for lovers who know the true beauty in connection lies in the simplest of moments; the moments that feel as tender as the timbres and harmonies in by moonlight.

Laczkowski’s voice carries the softer, more melodic side of R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, but his artistic world is also shaped by film, literature and the kind of cultural devotion that led him to host Director’s Club, write about John Darnielle and compile Wilco covers to benefit Chicago venues. That wider creative life comes into focus with by moonlight, which feels curated by someone who understands memory as sound, image and feeling. With its Jeff Buckley-adjacent sensitivity and homespun glow, the single settles straight into the chest.

by moonlight is now available to stream on all major platforms. Support the artist by purchasing the single on Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ricky Leroy – Feiern Vereint: a Bubblegum Eurodance Party-Pop Anthem for Full-Throttle Escapism

Posted on 19 July 2026

Guilty-pleasure party pop feels like a dying art form in the pool of sanitised posturing we are calling modern music, but Ricky Leroy is keeping absurdity alive with his latest single, Feiern Vereint. Born and raised in the USA, Leroy brings rodeo energy and an honest life force into the German Partyschlager scene, giving each one of his hits a personality that refuses tasteful restraint.

Carrying that unmistakable classic 90s Eurodance beat and infectiously cheeky vocals that spill hype at every turn, Feiern Vereint introduces splinters of modern production to the genre while preserving the bubblegum Europop sweetness. The result is shamelessly kinetic, festival-ready and engineered for communal release; it’s the kind of track that understands pleasure as a full-contact sport.

After early songs unexpectedly lit up a party, Leroy’s project moved from novelty to a serious prospect through Shooter Promotions, producers, labels and a creative link-up with star producer Stefan Vogel. Together, they created his ten-track debut album, Hier Geht die Party Ab!, a record built for singing along, dancing hard and surrendering to collective escalation.

Feiern Vereint sits perfectly inside that mission. Ideally, you will hear it with a beer in your hand, surrounded by raised arms at Malle, clubs, festivals, après-ski or any room allergic to self-seriousness.

Feiern Vereint is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

TROUBLE Twisted Pop and EDM into an Untameable Dancefloor Rush with ‘that’s the way’

Posted on 18 July 2026

With their sophomore single, that’s the way, the already iconic duo TROUBLE unleashed another earworm that will stick around for long enough for you to be tempted to charge it rent. This time, TROUBLE locked their sight on the dancefloor and dropped the ultimate chameleonic floor filler. Few dancefloor DJs will fail to be seduced by the bordering feral glamour of the single.

After an intro which harbingers an intense burst of rhythmically injected energy, just when you think they have delivered a quintessential, messy Y2K EDM pop anthem, there is a seamlessly radical shift into a bass-heavy house floor filler before TROUBLE experiment with hyper funk elements and come into their own through a Latin pop twist courtesy of the bilingual vocals.

Built from glossy pop production and club-ready energy, the Nashville duo have already established an irreplicable artistic identity where infectious hooks meet bold visuals and unapologetic confidence. That willingness to lean into every strength gives **that’s the way enormous commercial appeal while preserving the personality that makes TROUBLE impossible to overlook. The mainstream could claim them, but they could never tame them, and that is exactly why we are obsessed with them

For fans of Charli XCX, COBRAH, Slayyyter.

that’s the way is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast.

Bitten Tongues Become Dreamy Alt Indie Rock Catharsis in Bushwick Princess’ Latest single, Temkins

Posted on 17 July 2026

Brooklyn trio Bushwick Princess channelled the pulled teeth of compromised peace into Temkins, a reverb-rich alt indie rock allegory steeped in post-grunge, melodic 90s rock and shoegazed art rock. The fourth single from their EP carries the strain of relationships stalled by stubbornness, pride and too much shared history, where potential remains visible while honest conversation stays trapped behind bitten tongues.

Matt Francini’s vocals drift through spectral Thom Yorke-esque harmonies and Cornell-reminiscent gravel, holding onto their honeyed vulnerability as angular guitars and choral bass movements swell around him. Kane Delaney’s drums give the arrangement shifting physicality, while Andrew Miller’s bass and synth work deepen the sense of emotional suspension. Every contortion in the production visualises the strain of loving someone through an impasse, accepting imperfection while swallowing the words that might disturb a fragile peace.

Francini’s classical background, years spent moving through blues, rock, alternative rock and industrial music, and later vocal training feed directly into the song’s precision and emotional reach. Recorded through a 100% DIY ethos in his Brooklyn apartment, Temkins carries the intimacy of something lived at close range. Its universalised alienation pulls the listener from a tiny interpersonal world into a spiralling vortex of connection, delivering a deliciously timbral, multisensory, synaesthesia-inducing experience with the philosophical force of discovering Kafka, Camus or Dostoyevsky for the first time.

Temkins was officially released on July 16th and is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Rick Vines Serenaded Bittersweet Acoustic Folk Consolation into ‘Alone in This World’

Posted on 17 July 2026
Rick Vines

We all know we are born alone, and we die alone, but maybe it is time to acknowledge that, for many, loneliness is a default state; Alone in This World by Rick Vines is the ultimate bittersweet meditation on the expanse of endemic isolation. In the minimalist acoustic folk production, the phenomenon is never treated as taboo; Rick Vines’ voice resonates as a clarion call to anyone who needs consolation instead of judgement and pity.

Calling out to someone who feels alone in an oversaturated population, whether geographically or spiritually, the profoundly affecting release is haunting through its intimacy as it meets the disconnected exactly where they are through sincere compassion. The guitar is sparse enough to let every breath matter, while Vines’ warm, almost conversational delivery makes the song feel like someone finally saying the thing nobody wants to admit aloud.

Recorded live in a single afternoon at Marigny Studios in New Orleans, Alone in This World carries the city’s strange balance of sorrow and connection without forcing local colour into the frame. The Chicago-based songwriter draws from folk, Americana and jazz-informed phrasing, yet the release remains beautifully direct, shaped by a desire to sound like himself rather than chase perfection.

Taken from the 3-track release The Marigny Sessions, Alone in This World is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Isabella Chiarini – Out of Control: a Funk-Fed Dance-Pop Anthem with Mainstream Firepower

Posted on 16 July 2026

Off-the-rails rhythms render Isabella Chiarini’s latest earworm, Out of Control, one of the most infectious singles of the summer. The Hamilton, Ontario singer-songwriter has always treated pop as an open field for emotional honesty and sonic reinvention, and with her latest meteorological drop, she hits the sweet spot between feel-good dance-pop, EDM euphoria and funky new-wave sticky sweetness.

The stabs, chops and grooves of the synth-pop production turn Out of Control into an anthem that surges with staccato euphoria. It has the sincere, feel-good transcendence of ABBA’s biggest anthems within a massive production that carries clear appeal for fans of EDM-pop giants in the vein of Kygo and Calvin Harris. Yet Chiarini’s strongest advantage sits in the perceptible instrumental complexity and the way every layer in the mix pops with organic musicianship. Written around the rush of finding someone who brings out new sides of yourself, Out of Control whips up that (hopefully) relatable sense of fervour without the single ever risking the loss of its emotional core.

Chiarini’s upbringing, shaped by resilience after losing her mother at three and being raised by a father who taught her never to give up, feeds into the empowered rapture of her writing. After early vocal training with Teresa Nocita, development through PCG Universal in Nashville and current collaborations with Nocita and Canadian Idol winner Brian Melo, Chiarini more than sounds ready for serious dance-pop traction.

Out of Control is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast