Browsing Tag

Alt Country Pop

Young Talent with Big Potential: Ruby Jean’s ‘One Step at a Time’

Posted on 27 January 2025

With her sophomore release, One Step at a Time, 11-year-old Ruby Jean from Kincardine, Ontario exhibited how she’s building the foundation for a career that could see her standing alongside the likes of Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor Swift if she continues to hone her craft with the same determination and tenacity.

The Americana-tinged pop earworm single is effortless to sink into and lose yourself within, offering a warm embrace of chords and harmonies that sweep you up in their sincerity. What makes this track truly impressive isn’t just the composition but the maturity Ruby Jean infuses into her lyrics and vocal delivery. It’s hard to fathom how an artist of her age managed to conjure such an emotionally rich sound, but she’s clearly a natural when it comes to pairing heartfelt narratives with impossible-to-forget melodies.

Ruby Jean, who wrote both the lyrics and music for One Step at a Time, shows a passion for singing, songwriting, piano, and guitar that belies her youth. Her talent for storytelling and her ability to make listeners feel every note set her apart from her peers, marking her as an artist to watch closely.

One Step at a Time is not only a testament to her potential but also a reminder of how far raw talent, passion, and authenticity can take an artist, no matter their age.

One Step at a Time was officially released on January 16; stream the single on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

‘!! Stand’ by RoBB!EMAC: Reinventing Pop with Y2K Nostalgia and Emotional Cadence

Posted on 4 December 2024

The prolific pop prodigy, RoBB!EMAC, may have only made his official debut in 2023 with the drop of his LP, The Anecdotes of Mr. Songsmith, but he’s already delivered his fifth album, Howling at the Moon, proving that there’s no end to the flow of his creativity or his ability to find fresh alt-pop intersections to explore.

The standout single from his expansive 16-track anthology of pop-hooked vulnerability, ‘!! Stand’ kicks into rhythm through a melodic piano-driven prelude followed by a mash of pseudo-trap, Y2K nostalgia and the twang of alt-country pop; a synthesis which orchestrates a dreamy sense of reverie to drift within as you lock into the vocal cadence which sinks into synergy with the solid backbeats.

If anyone can bring back the trend of putting lighters in the air instead of iPhone cameras, it’s RoBB!EMAC, with his sound that leans into nostalgia while illuminating the path to the pop pantheon which is ready and waiting for his arrival.

RoBB!EMAC, the New Jersey-Hailing, Dallas-based innovator, is far from your average genre-fusionist; he’s mastered the art of ensuring every aesthetic at his disposal lends itself to the mood and meaning of his sound. In ‘!! Stand’, the singer-songwriter strips back all sense of pretence to outpour a vignette that assures the listener that, as we all make our way through the disillusionments of life, we’re all a work in progress, regardless of how perfect our facades appear to be.

Stream RoBB!EMAC’s Howling at the Moon LP on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Love prevails in Phil Dutra’s retro pop single, It’s Not Enough

Posted on 6 November 2021
It's Not Enough (Falling For Your Love) by Phil Dutra

Break free of your ennui with the old school romanticism in Phil Dutra’s latest retro country-pop single, It’s Not Enough (Falling for Your Love). The Austin Texas artist’s sway-worthy guitar-driven melodies provide a sure-fire nostalgia hit as they croon through the crescendos as Dutra goes all-in with his robustly romantic vocals.

If you cranked up the intensity in Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling in Love by 1000%, it still wouldn’t come close to the stridently visceral release that is the aural equivalent to holding a boombox up underneath an ex paramour’s bedroom window. Romance will never be dead, for as long as there are songwriters in the same gorgeous vein as Dutra.

It’s Not Enough is available to stream and purchase via Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Laurel K Adams has released her artful country-pop crossover single, Dancing in the Eye of a Hurricane.

Posted on 20 October 2021

The 17-year-old singer-songwriter and instrumentalist Lauren K Adams has released her debut alt-county-pop crossover EP, The Introduction. The standout single, Dancing in the Eye of a Hurricane, carries the coveted gravitas of an artist that has dedicated their life to honing in on their craft, but discernibly, the melodies that her poetic lyrics breeze through are as natural as breathing. If you could imagine a hybrid of the best parts of Cohen, Stevie Nicks and Kate Bush, you’ll get close to imagining the ingenuity on offer here.

You’d be seriously hard-pressed to find another up and coming artist with such succinct talent when it comes to capturing the multifaceted complexities of the human experience. The airwaves are an infinitely better place for her debut. The motivation for it goes beyond the yearning for accolades; it stems from the far less factious inclination to empower her listeners.

Dancing in the Eye of a Hurricane is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lindzey Autumn kicks up country roots in her stylistic debut single “Bad Influence”

Posted on 23 October 2020

There’s a fairly cast-iron archetype for female voices in Country, Lindzey Autumn tore it apart with her empoweringly fierce debut single “Bad Influence”.

No, she doesn’t try to play the hedonistic miscreant herself, enlightenedly, harmoniously she tears down the pretence of the people who carry themselves with a devious air, the ones who think it makes up for a lack of personality.

The contemporary styling of the roots-deep sound and the amount of convictive within it will undoubtedly see Lindzey Autumn rising up from the underground in no time at all. Get her on your radar. You won’t want to miss her debut EP which is currently in the pipeline.

You can check out Lindzey Autumn’s single Bad Influence for yourselves by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast