Browsing Tag

Alt Pop Rock

Betty Moon – A Taxi Ride: A Tarantino-esque Take on Neo-Noir Pop

Posted on 22 July 2026

Seductive indie pop smoulders into a slow-burn retro soundtrack that sets the scene of a sun-bleached desert highway in Betty Moon’s single, A Taxi Ride, from her seminal EP, Strangely Beautiful. The Los Angeles-based alt-pop-rock artist, songwriter and producer built the track around reflection, loss, desire and the self-possession required to move into a new chapter without surrendering your fire.

With a garage-rock edge meeting cinematic hooks and neo-noir pop demure energy, Betty Moon joins Wolf Alice, Deap Vally and Warpaint in their ability to play with 60s pop sensibilities, retro-cool aesthetics and Western swagger to alchemise an earworm that could have been ripped straight from Pulp Fiction. City lights, rearview reflections and late-night emotional movement glow through the arrangement with enough illumination to leave you dazed.

Carrying the hypnotic sensuality of Lydia Lunch into contemporary pop’s darkest corridors through her harmonies, while evoking Garbage nostalgia, Betty Moon is one of the most stylised icons of pop in 2026.

Moon’s past with A&M Records and her decision to remain independent through Evolver Music makes her aura in A Taxi Ride feel even bolder; she’s a siren hellbent on ensnaring on her own terms, and it shows. She has already placed music across television and film, including Californication, Dexter and The Walking Dead, but clearly, she’s not just destined to soundtrack someone else’s vision.

A Taxi Ride is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Mythic Melodys Tears the Scars of Cinematic Alt-Pop Rock Wide Open with ‘Hold On’

Posted on 15 May 2026

Mythic Melodys, the independent Swiss project led by Pascal Stich, makes an immediate claim for emotional altitude with Hold On, the opener from his LP, Between Love and Loss, and the ultimate introduction to his ability to sonically visualise the sound of a soul splitting open wide.

Fuelled by the raw resolve of rock, pierced by pop hooks, and tinged with the aesthetics of trap, the feverish proclamation of a pain so visceral and unrelenting hits like the force of a hurricane from the first chorus. Mythic Melodys screams for salvation in perfect harmony as he caresses the scars embedded by a relationship that refuses to lose its grip past its expiry date. Romance is revived in the impassioned earworm that trembles through the sheer amount of conviction cascading through it.

Stich writes from the bruises where heartbreak, growth, and late-night self-reflection start speaking louder than reason. His cinematic alt-pop rock sound gives those private implosions a widescreen intensity, turning personal fracture into something communal, melodic, and strangely purifying. Hold On carries a story through its atmosphere rather than simply dressing pain in polish, leaving the emotional residue to linger after the final hook.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Emotion whiplashed through JANAYAH’s indie pop-rock powerplay, ‘Bad Taste’

Posted on 3 November 2025

JANAYAH is writing her boldest chapter to date in her indie pop rock era. Throughout her discography, she’s proven herself as a scintillating sonic shapeshifter, but whatever form she takes, there’s no compromise to the livewire current of her signature emotive energy. Bad Taste is no exception; it’s pure indie pop-rock perfection.

Seamlessly shifting between melancholically moody, sticky-sweet, and firebranded with hard-fought-for resilience, JANAYAH backs the nurture over nature argument as she illustrates, through her high-octane vignette, how we’re constantly forced to reckon with ourselves to come out stronger. Especially when someone’s seen the softest corners of us and twisted them for their gain. There’s strength here, but it’s not posturing. It’s blood-soaked and breathless, layered over riffs that punch through and hooks that land in the psyche long after the track ends.

Born in New Zealand and now based in London, JANAYAH’s creative range is as far-reaching as her geographical roots. From her early stage and screen appearances to recording vocals for Dancing with the Stars New Zealand at just 16, she’s long known how to command attention. Her debut EP Stepping Stones captured her evolution, moving between stripped-back ballads, Drum & Bass adrenaline, and rock-laced confessionals. But Bad Taste is where she grabs the wheel and slams the accelerator. It’s the sound of a siren who’s done shrinking herself, ready to unapologetically fill the rooms she’s anxiously occupied.

Bad Taste is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Amelina perfected pop-rock euphoria with her anthem, Step by Step

Posted on 27 October 2025

Amelina was always going to hit the ground running with her riff-powered hit, Step by Step. With a voice made for the architecture of affectingly euphoric pop-rock anthems, she commands the soundwaves with the kind of magnetism that can’t be rehearsed or replicated. Angular, Interpol-esque guitar notes build tension until the chorus crescendos explode with cathartic clarity, making it impossible to remain passive as you bear witness to her exposition on how pace is the trick when you’re building a new reality from the rubble of the last.

There’s all the girl-next-door accessibility fused with irrefutable songwriting talent and the rare ability to submerge listeners in emotional realities. The teen singer-songwriter has already surpassed her decades-older peers with her rapidly matured presence on the airwaves. Yes, there’s purity and innocence in her tone, but her soul sounds like it has lived a thousand lives, delivering hard-won truths with lyrical grace.

Based in Spain after relocating from Russia in 2023, Amelina’s story is woven into Step by Step. Music became her compass when she arrived with nothing but hope and curiosity. That sense of belief in belonging, wherever you are, pulses through the production like lifeblood.

Step by Step is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lauren Ash Bottled Existential Alt-Pop Rock Euphoria in ‘Diet Coke and Lexapro’

Posted on 11 September 2025

With her debut LP, Call Me When You Get This, Lauren Ash is set to become every woman’s new sonic girl crush. Within the record’s cage of heartbreak and sharp catharsis lies the standout single, Diet Coke and Lexapro, a dark and hauntingly relatable track that mirrors a culture fuelled by caffeine and SSRIs. It’s an intravenous shot of serotonin for the overmedicated and overtired, where crunching guitar lines crash against the razor-sharp cadence of Ash’s sardonically infectious vocals.

Already adored for her unflinching roles as Dina in Superstore and Lexi in Not Dead Yet, Ash has long commanded the screen with raw defiance. Now, she’s throwing that same fire into music. With her debut album, she proves she has the keys to a myriad of pantheons, shaping herself as an artist capable of holding the weight of vulnerability and humour in the same clenched fist. The high-voltage concept LP transforms grief into something almost euphoric, letting the wreckage of heartbreak shimmer with distorted guitars and venom-laced wit.

Her career in music has already made waves, from charting globally to headlining venues like Toronto’s Phoenix Concert Theatre and LA’s Whisky a Go Go. Yet Diet Coke and Lexapro feels like the truest signpost of what’s to come, a generational anthem for those looking for light in the wreckage while wired to the hilt.

Diet Coke and Lexapro is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Emilie Thorsby Poured Pop-Rock Fuel in the Fire of Empowerment with ‘Amazing as Hell’

Posted on 25 April 2025

For anyone familiar with the pressure of contorting into a distortion until all that remains visible is a hollow façade, only to find acceptance still painfully elusive, Emilie Thorsby’s single ‘Amazing as Hell’ is your alt-pop rebellion wrapped in compassion. The track delivers a powerful cascade of empathy, injecting fuel into weary hearts desperate for empowerment.

With theatrical flair, Thorsby effortlessly navigates a myriad of styles—synth-pop hooks dissolve fluidly into baroque pop motifs before surging into bold, Prince-esque rock riffs. Each stylistic shift visually manifests the many masks we don to gain approval from the shifting gaze of those around us. Yet at the centre remains Thorsby’s unapologetically striking vocals, soaring confidently over an infectious nostalgia-inducing production, reminiscent of pop’s golden decades, the 80s and 90s.

Drawing deeply from her personal narrative of resilience, Thorsby confronts past betrayals and abuses—relationships that diminished her worth, leaving emotional scars she transforms into powerful affirmations. Her anthem insists fiercely that inadequacy lies not within ourselves but in the eyes of those incapable of truly seeing us. ‘Amazing as Hell’ holds a mirror to our self-doubt, boldly declaring it baseless and invalid.

Thorsby’s single is a declaration of independence from societal expectations, confidently crafted and passionately performed.

‘Amazing as Hell’ is now available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ghost Nation’s ‘Last Words’: A Dark Pop Mirror Reflecting the Tightrope of Truth

Posted on 7 April 2025

Ghost Nation’s latest dark pop single, Last Words, opens with disquieting, carnivalesque scintillation, quickly establishing an atmosphere thick with tension. The distorted effects enveloping the vocals mirror how fractured we can become when communication is reduced to a battle of reticence and manipulation rather than genuine connection. It’s proof of Ghost Nation’s adept grasp of lyrical themes, vividly amplifying the intense narrative beneath the track’s surface.

There’s swathes of desolation oscillating throughout the darkwave and industrial-infused pop production, emphasising the idea that no man is an island—we’re all adrift if we lose the ability to tether ourselves with truthful expression. But truth itself can cut deeply, and Last Words provides ample space to ruminate on the weight every syllable carries.

Formed by vocalist and producer Tomas Vasseur and producer Micke Berg, Ghost Nation has cultivated a globally resonant sound since 2016, accumulating over eight million streams by fusing alt electronica with cinematic arrangements. Their seasoned approach is apparent in every motif of Last Words, particularly in the dynamic interplay between innocence and strength.

By intertwining rhythmic urgency, playful experimentation, and philosophical depth, Ghost Nation reveals the fragile tightrope we all navigate with words—where one slip can irreversibly alter our connections.

Last Words is now available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

One More Weekend will meet you at the crossroads in their latest alt-rock hit, Opportunity

Posted on 19 January 2023

Melbourne’s premier alt-rock outfit, One More Weekend, has unveiled their latest chill-inducing single, Opportunity. The opening pop-rock vocals are thick with insular malaise but there is plenty of sanctity in the jangle pop guitars that counter the ennui before the progressive track bursts into a fervid feat of riff-driven rock that will reel you in, overdriven hook, line, and sinker.

The only thing more visceral than the emotion within Opportunity, which offers an olive branch of resonance to the disenfranchised, is the distinction in their sound. The luminary outfit pays homage to Birds of Tokyo, Foo Fighters and The 1975 before stratospherically blasting into a distinctively refreshing pop-rock amalgam.

After performing hundreds of shows across Australia and racking up their streaming stats to achieve almost viral status, One More Weekend is one to watch.

Opportunity will officially release on January 19th. Hear it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Anthony Mascia spun an exhilarating redemption narrative in his alt-pop-rock hit, Daybreak

Posted on 19 December 2022

NY-born and raised, New Hampshire-based singer-songwriter Anthony Mascia’s lyrics cut candidly deep in his latest single, Daybreak. Drawing on deeply personal life experiences that would make an imbittered cynic out of most, you’ll be rooting for him and all his vibrant resilience in his alt-pop-rock instant classic by the time the first verse runs through.

“Anything to numb the sadness, hallucination or false acceptance” may be the most resonantly raw lyric I’ve ever heard – no hyperbole. After relaying all the roads that led Mascia to recording to this triumphantly super-charged power ballad, the light shimmers into the production, reminding you that no situation is beyond salvation.

The level of investment you will feel compelled to make is a testament to Mascia, who is easily one of the most talented songwriters we’ve heard in the past few years. His vocals may be the cherry on the cake, but the layers created beneath the sticky-sweet instrumental icing through his ability to construct a redemptive narrative will leave you craving more and more.

With his third album, Ambassador, Vol. 2, which traverses themes of love, loss and queerness, set for release in 2023, save space on your radar.

Daybreak is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

ORCHAD take us for a ride on the Devil’s Ship with screaming new single ‘Critically Ashamed’

Posted on 29 November 2020

Coming on in a welter of heavily overdriven ascending riffage, Montreal’s ORCHAD’s (pronounced ‘Orchid’, obviously, and consisting of vocalist Julian Hannas and lead guitarist Justyn Vynn) new single ‘Critically Ashamed’ is a screamer of an alt-rock anthem with a deeply, bone-movingly danceable groove underlying the hard-rocking guitar sound. There’s an old-school metal-ness to the basal riff, something thrashy and San-Fran sounding lurking under the modern rock tone, driving and energetic before dropping down to a dense flanged arpeggio, Hannas’ super-strong vocal carrying the verse between the powerchord frenzy of the earworm chorus.

Vynn shreds and divebombs on the solo without ever sounding contrived or dated, with a bluesiness that belies his sixteenth-note runs and twiddly licks, before the singalong ‘woah oh oh oh’ playout groove. Overall ORCHAD manage to mix modern pop sensibilities and catchiness with an undeniably rock sound and a little bit of hip hop funk; on the basis of this, ORCHAD have absolutely nothing to be ashamed about, critically or otherwise.

Check out the stunning (and very pink) video for ‘Critically Ashamed’ on YouTube. Follow ORCHAD on Facebook and Instagram.