Browsing Category

Blog Showcasing Singer Songwriter Talent

Lauren Ash Lights a Match with ‘COOL STORY, BRO’: A Pop-Punk Anthem Fuelled by Scathing Contempt

Posted on 4 April 2025
Lauren Ash

Lauren Ash is driving the nostalgia of pop-punk back onto the airwaves, though you’d be mistaken to expect a familiar revival. Her latest single, ‘COOL STORY, BRO’, confidently flits between glossy pop hooks and sultry-sweet harmonies before crashing headlong into alt-rock territory, exploding into an anthemic chorus driven by jagged guitars and electrifying percussion.

Written from the merciless vantage point of someone whose heartbreak has curdled into sharp-tongued contempt,the track is an acerbic wake-up call delivered with visceral intensity. Lauren Ash channels the relatable brutality of post-breakup clarity, turning personal wounds into lyrical dynamite reminiscent of Alanis Morissette’s unfiltered honesty on ‘Jagged Little Pill’, with a pop-punk energy.

Though best known for her roles as Dina Fox in NBC’s ‘Superstore’ and Lexi in ‘Not Dead Yet’, Ash’s dream was always rooted in songwriting and live performance. With her debut single ‘Now I Know’ soaring to #5 on Billboard’s Alternative Digital Song Sales and #1 on Canada’s iTunes Rock Chart, and performances at venues like the Viper Room and Whisky A Go Go, her musical ambition is swiftly matching her acting acclaim.

‘COOL STORY, BRO’ is now available to stream on all major platforms. Find your preferred way to listen on the artist’s official website. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

John Drake’s ‘Ocean’ Washes Poetic Desolation in Waves of Soul-Stained Rock

Posted on 4 April 2025
John Drake

With his debut solo single Ocean, the truly prodigal rock n roll conduit John Drake has torn away from The Dust Coda to expose a more vulnerable but no less arresting facet of his talent. The first single from his solo debut Separation Songs is a slow-burning catharsis, steeped in self-doubt and the inertia of ambition, as he captures the conflict between longing and paralysis with a voice that gnaws away at the walls of the soul.

While Drake was never short of emotional artillery during his thirteen-year stint with The Dust Coda, Ocean is where he gives full licence to his inner poet. Resulting in a production steeped in haunting nostalgia, built on Bowie-style acoustic murmurs and thick, lumbering beats that drag you into a Radiohead-reminiscent realm where nothing is safe from introspection. There’s a quiet sense of disquiet that swells under the surface—never theatrically melancholic, always grounded in raw human ache.

Drake’s vocal delivery alone makes the release a force to reckon with—teetering between the cavernous grit of Eddie Vedder and the fragile celestial range of Buckley. It’s not a sound engineered to pander, but one engineered to bruise with truth.

Written in the aftermath of an identity-shedding leap of faith, recorded between Brisbane and London with ARIA-winner Cody McWaters and long-time collaborator Chass Guthrie, Ocean transcends the trappings of its influences. Nick Cave’s brooding presence lingers, Springsteen’s resilience flickers at the edges, but what Drake builds is unmistakably his: a cinematic alt-rock elegy for anyone who’s ever feared they might be swallowed whole by the scale of their own dreams.

Ocean is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Amanda Gabriel Crystallises Nostalgia into Sentimentality’s Sharpest Edge in Her Indie-Pop Single, Always Better

Posted on 3 April 2025

With her theatre roots, New Jersey-bred vulnerability, and a self-diagnosed tendency to feel too much, Amanda Gabriel builds entire sonic topographies from emotion. In Always Better, her girl-next-door demureness sharpens the blow of her emotional candour. The single pulls you under with infectiously seraphic progressions, tinged with a gentle nod to 90s and 00s pop, while keeping one eye fixed on the horizon.

The production elevates the songwriting to stratospheric heights. What begins with a dreamy, cloudlike atmosphere slowly tightens its grip as jangly guitar chops carve through the softness. It’s delicate without being breakable, with Gabriel’s dynamic vocal range gliding over the instrumental with glassy, diaphanous harmonies that feel fragile and unshakable.

Lyrically, Always Better distils emotional chaos into clarity, moving through beauty, confusion, pain, and longing without over-explaining or overstating. From the first verse, the sentimental pull is inescapable, and by the final note, you’ll know precisely what she meant—even if she never told you outright.

Her debut EP, also titled Always Better, made a strong first mark in early summer 2024, with the title track climbing to #16 on the aBreak58 chart and earning a slot on their radio station and playlist.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Afton Wolfe – So Purple (feat. Brian Brown, Jack Vinoy Remix): A Blues-Rinsed Trip Through Psychedelic Hip-Hop Alchemy

Posted on 2 April 2025

Afton Wolfe’s latest single, So Purple, was never made for the skimmers, the distracted, or the easily satisfied. It’s a track built to grip your brainstem and hold it under a hazy, hallucinogenic spell. In the Jack Vinoy remix, Wolfe, alongside Brian Brown, brings a soul-soaked, genre-scrambling opiate for the audiophiles who don’t want their boundaries respected.

Wolfe’s vocal delivery alone is enough to trigger an inner chemical reaction. Gruff and thick with Southern blues nuance, his timbre never fights for dominance. It lounges. It drips. It carves through the synth-drenched backdrop like molasses sliding off a neon-lit glass. The production doesn’t bow to any one style—hip-hop is the main artery, but the heartbeat throbs with experimental jazz-blues fusion, swirls of soul, and psychotropic layers that wouldn’t feel out of place in a track built for a Lynchian lounge.

When Brian Brown’s rap bars slide in, they don’t disrupt the equilibrium—they challenge it. The cadence is sharp, the diction is clean, but it’s never ornamental. Brown brings the punch while Wolfe bathes you in smoke.

Vinoy doesn’t phone in his role either. His touch is the hallucinogen. Every snare, warped synth swell, and backmasked flourish is precision-placed to hypnotise. This isn’t your standard producer flex—this is a psych-laced sermon served on a vinyl platter made for the hedonistic and the heartbroken alike.

So Purple is a lucid dream on loop. It welcomes you, intoxicates you, then leaves you wondering if the high came from the sound or the space it created inside you. Wolfe is pushing past what’s comfortable, and it’s about time the rest of us caught up.

The remix is now available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Angie Keys Unlocks Emotional Armour in Her Alt-Pop Anthem ‘Brave’

Posted on 1 April 2025

With an intro landing deftly between a bitter-sweet Taylor Swift ballad and the soaring guitar strings of a Springsteen-inspired country-pop anthem, Angie Keys’ single, ‘Brave’, instantly immerses you in melodically impassioned territory. Taken from her debut album, Finally Here, the track never allows its emotive momentum to falter, striking an affecting balance between intensity and tranquillity.

Keys’ instrumental swells resonate with palpable feeling, affirming her talent for embedding visceral emotion into each note. Yet, amidst this sonic strength, a gentle serenity emerges through Keys’ vocals, gracefully drifting through the production like whispers of comfort. This effortless vocal touch adds a serene reverie, making the single a musical salve for those wearied by fortitude.

Lyrically, ‘Brave’ explores the resilience required to thrive despite relentless trials—an honest narrative borne from genuine life experience. Keys, a Birmingham-based singer-songwriter with roots tracing back to childhood family performances, has grown into a nuanced storyteller. Her teenage fascination with 90s multitrack recording blossomed into mastery, fuelled further by life’s heartbreaks, repairs, loves, and losses. These lived experiences culminate impressively on her long-awaited debut, underpinned by contributions from global talents including Emiliano Boulot on drums, Daniel Beachy’s pedal steel, Marco Gatti’s piano keys, Hugo Lanauestudi’s lap steel, and Joseph Keys’ accomplished guitar and production work.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Vanna Pacella Haunts with Her Soul-Steeped Indie Pop Single, ‘Wolf’

Posted on 31 March 2025

With Wolf, Vanna Pacella doesn’t just revisit the time-old tale of naivety and misplaced trust—she reconstructs it through the raw magnetism of her voice and the expressive precision of her songwriting. At 18, the Cape Cod-based singer-songwriter, pianist, and self-taught producer proves that age has no bearing on the depth of emotional insight. Wolf is a soul-stirring excavation of entrapment, emotional dependency, and the slow corrosion of identity in toxic connections that confuse devotion for destruction.

Written and produced by Pacella and her Power Trio bandmates, Tom Davis and Nick Simpson, Wolf holds its weight in every detail. The swanky piano keys drop a moody noir atmosphere over the track, while Tom’s guitar injects bold, bluesy punctuation into the heartbreak. Meanwhile, Nick’s percussive pulse carries the emotional tide with stoic force. Pacella’s voice, equal parts timeless chanteuse and conduit of contemporary soul, weaves between jazz-tinted verses and gut-wrenching admissions, wielded like the most expressive instrument known to man.

The hook, penned on Halloween and later brought to life through obsessive refinement, carves out space for layered interpretations. Lines like “I built you into home” and “I can feel the bleed of time” reflect how easily love becomes confinement, while “Oh, but I am growing cold” closes the curtain with numb finality. The song’s melodic depth is only rivalled by its lyrical scope—Wolf exists as a sobering reminder of how easily we lose ourselves while chasing comfort in chaos.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast.

Hayden Royal explores the pain of knowing no decision is a remedy in his Indietronic RnB release, ‘Side by Side’

Posted on 30 March 2025

Hit play on Hayden Royal’s latest single, ‘Side by Side’, and brace yourself as emotion makes a full-on collision. Like every accomplished songwriter, Royal understands that affecting expression requires moving beyond thinking in black and white; here, he skilfully navigates the grey areas of duality. The lyrical protagonist faces a familiar yet brutal paradox—the pain of leaving someone can often match the agony of staying. Decisions become unbearable when love persists despite toxic dynamics, creating a tension that Royal vividly portrays.

Instrumentally, ‘Side by Side’ is an authentic amalgamation of indietronica, pop, and RnB—delivering something you genuinely haven’t encountered elsewhere. It’s a raw yet harmoniously layered exploration of indecision and grief, anchored by moody melodies, introspective lyricism, and soul-infused harmonies. Royal boldly traverses the chaotic push and pull between vulnerability and bravado, embodying a voice which will resonate with anyone caught between resilience and emotional collapse.

With darkly atmospheric production underscoring introspective verses and haunting hooks, Royal channels both tenderness and emotional exhaustion. There’s no bitterness here—just an honest reflection from a narrator clinging desperately to fleeting moments of warmth, knowing they’re scarcely enough to hold onto. With fearless candour, ‘Side by Side’ captures the universal struggle of letting go when holding on feels equally destructive.

‘Side by Side’ is now available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Cali Soul Singer Mark Alan Wilson Helped His Fans ‘Cut Loose’ With His Latest Release

Posted on 29 March 2025

Mark Alan Wilson is the kind of modern artist who makes you suspect he struck a deal with the devil, transforming his own soul into the purest conduit for RnB. His latest single, ‘Cut Loose’, lands effortlessly as a feel-good track fuelled with authentic substance and style.

Wilson is a rare musician who never needs to break convention to sign, seal, and deliver a sound that naturally stands apart. Distinction resonates powerfully through the rapture of his honeyed-smoke harmonies, drifting timelessly into that sanctuary only the sound of soul can provide. The track offers a gentle but necessary reminder that, although patience is essential for life’s bigger pleasures, small delights are scattered everywhere. It grants the listener full permission to cast aside life’s darker moments and simply cut loose, if only for one night.

The swanky jazz-infused interludes and blues guitar riffs sweep away the heaviness from any weary mind, allowing Wilson to effortlessly mainline serotonin into your day. Wilson’s commitment to authentic soul music is evident, resonating as he continues to build momentum through live performances, setting the stage for an array of promising releases throughout 2025.

‘Cut Loose’ is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Sebastian Graysen’s ‘Heartless Man’: A Raw Folk Confession in the Eye of the Existential Storm

Posted on 28 March 2025

The debut release from folk-adjacent singer-songwriter Sebastian Graysen taps into emotional pulses with neo-classic minor piano keys before vocals enter, caught compellingly between folk troubadourism and Broadway-style breathtaking visceralism.

The contrast between instrumental restraint and the raw outpouring of pain within the vocals intensifies the affecting propensities of this timelessly classic session of existential questioning. For anyone who knows how it feels to hold far more questions than answers or struggles to find affirmations beneath dark clouds, ‘Heartless Man’ stands as the ultimate reflection of psychological entropy.

Graysen’s songwriting is the unfiltered confessional of an artist who openly admits, “I write, I scream, I feel,” channelling personal hardship and emotional turbulence into music. Based in Limerick, Ireland, Graysen draws from a potent mix of folk honesty, classical refinement, and rock’s raw immediacy, orchestrating to make sense of life but also to heal through shared resonance.

‘Heartless Man’ serves as proof that music born from personal anguish can find universal connection. With its poignant minimalism and powerful vocals, Graysen offers a track which embraces vulnerability without apology. It reaches beyond mere introspection, delivering an anthem for anyone living under existential shadows, uncertain yet yearning for release.

‘Heartless Man’ is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jack Kendrick and The Broken Wonders Cut to the Core with the Folk-Punk Candour in ‘Spoke to My Doctor’

Posted on 28 March 2025
Jack Kendrick and The Broken Wonders

With an evocative sting sharp enough to cut through the coldest souls, Spoke to My Doctor pulls all the right emotively bruising punches. Jack Kendrick and The Broken Wonders are void of pretence as they put melodies to the maladies of the modern age, distilling the agony of a system designed to manage, not mend. The alt-90s aura bleeds through every chord, carrying the weight of raw emotion as the instrumentals fuel the energy and the lyrics lay bare the disillusionment.

Emotionally, the track pivots on a knife-edge, striking with unfiltered honesty. If you’ve ever stared down the tunnel, squinting for a light that refuses to show, or placed your faith in a medical system too ill-equipped to salve the wounds it barely acknowledges, Spoke to My Doctor will hit like a gut punch. The emotion isn’t just in the words—it’s in the way every note aches, in the expressive vocals that never veer into performance for performance’s sake.

After years of relentless gigging, sharing stages with folk-punk legends like Gaz Brookfield and Ferocious Dog, Jack Kendrick has built a reputation for no-frills, high-impact storytelling. This single only cements that further, proving their ability to turn personal turmoil into a cathartic anthem.

For anyone who’s ever felt unheard, Spoke to My Doctor makes sure the message is loud and clear.

Spoke to My Doctor is now available on all major streaming platforms.

Review by Amelia Vandergast