Browsing Tag

Folk Pop

Patient by Tom Will Morris Rendered Rain-Streaked Reconciliation into Cinematic Acoustic Pop

Posted on 5 July 2026

Tom Will Morris has been lauded for his impressive vocal range and style by critics, but you won’t need a golden ear to hear that he carries a depth and distinction in his vocal melodies; you’ll feel the resonance of the emotion slip under your skin and swell through your soul. His latest single, Patient, lulls you into a peacefully pensive state as an arcane aura wraps around the soft acoustic guitar notes. There’s a lot of emotional weight to bear in the single, but given that we’re becoming jaded generations, it was probably about time someone didn’t sugar the sonic pill.

The Kent singer-songwriter approaches his music as storytelling, making sense of the world through songs that move through belonging, love, adversity and hope. Patient pours from the perspective of a life fractured and half-lived, waiting, hoping for reconciliation, with the vocal phrasing augmented by longing rather than melodrama. There is a rare steadiness to the performance, the kind that lets sadness breathe without forcing it into spectacle.

After being featured on BBC Kent Introducing in 2024, where Callum French praised his cinematic sound and impressive vocal range, Morris proves exactly why that attention was deserved. His voice has the ability to make stillness feel vast and carry devastation through nuance.

If there was ever a song to be played while someone forlornly stares through rain-streaked glass, it is this cinematic triumph that exhibits Tom Will Morris as an artist capable of making the world feel as deeply as he does.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Isabella Richardson – Waiting Room: Indie-Folk Romantic Fury for the Lucy Dacus and Mitski Faithful

Posted on 18 June 2026

As equally luminous as Lucy Dacus and atmospherically intuitive as Mitski, indie singer-songwriter Isabella Richardson is already a phenomenon in her own right. The release of her EP, First Aid Kit, featuring the lead single Waiting Room, establishes the introspectively poetic siren as one of the most talented voices of her generation.

Richardson carries the force of an entrancing vocalist with a gift for artfully tempered theatrical folk confessionalism, yet the deeper magic lies in her refusal to sing from anyone else’s hymn sheet. There is a fire of lyrical poetry burning through her like an inferno, and Waiting Room lets that fire spread across the arrangement with haunting control.

In this heartbroken tour de force, her emotions, thoughts and observations spiral into a sermon of spitefully fierce revelation. Each line bears down more vulnerable weight on your conscience as the arrangement pirouettes through artfully evocative progressions, leaving you feeling the full force of her romantic fury.

Raised in Melbourne, shaped by Nashville, Los Angeles and now the UK, Richardson has built an independent career across continents, from early country chart success to a Disney+ soundtrack placement and more than 1.7 million Spotify streams. With First Aid Kit recorded in South London and The Come Down tour carrying her voice across UK venues, Waiting Room feels like her most self-possessed statement yet.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Flora-Filled Indie Folk and ELO-Tinted Psychedelia Bloom Through Chris George’s In My Garden / It’s All Strange

Posted on 13 June 2026

Singer-songwriter Chris George keyed into the harmony of spring in In My Garden, the first single from his double A-side release. The motifs, melodies and aural visuals within the whimsical indie folk offering may all be of the material world, but the confluence of blossoming notes, warm vocal caresses and bright atmosphere lets the spectres of nature come together to transcend the ordinary perspective.

If Elliott Smith stopped, sniffed the flowers and took spiritual lessons with The Beatles, his discography could have turned out very differently, exactly like the flora-filled atmosphere of In My Garden. From Montreal, Quebec, George writes with a loose, ear-led openness, letting whatever catches his imagination find its way into the music. That freedom gives the release its charm, with the first single sounding like sunlight moving through leaves while the melody keeps the heart somewhere close to the soil.

The second single, It’s All Strange, takes a slightly more psychedelic turn as spacey kaleidoscopes reflect the kind of ingenuity ELO got us accustomed to. Across both singles, it is impossible for your soul not to turn a smile. Chris George’s lush way with melodies is sure to win him the hearts of everyone his sound touches.

In My Garden / It’s All Strange is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Inside Starlight Fever, Isaiah Angel Hubbird Found Pop’s Softest Nerve and Made It Shine with the Starlight Fever LP

Posted on 3 June 2026

Starlight Fever, the debut album from the Chicago-hailing singer-songwriter Isaiah Angel Hubbird, teases indie folk pop into the framing of classical arrangements without altering the quintessential instrumentation or architecture. The diaphanous sweeps of choral chamber pop through the melodies and the way his voice harmonises on an octave that would send shivers down the spines of celestial beings bring rare arcane grace to 12 singles which refuse the parameters of contemporary pop.

The album aligns more with Y2K and 2010s stylings, from the era when intimate candour was celebrated and Plain White Ts reigned supreme in the footsteps of vulnerable singer-songwriters such as Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley. Each release is profound with wonder, tenderness, and the wide-open soul of an artist who uses his innate ability to feel deeply to share his gift through sound. It is almost as if starlight refracts straight through his soul-salving scores of scintillation.

Born and raised in Chicago, Hubbird began writing music in 2014 under DreamsofYou before releasing projects including Boundless Rose, Finding Our Way, and I Am Dead (Without You). Since reclaiming his full name in 2020, his acoustic singer-songwriter world has become a vessel for expositions on anxiety, depression, love, hope, and emotional release.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Carver Jones Turned BEST FRIEND into a Soft-Focus Indie Rock Hymn for People Still Chasing Feeling

Posted on 30 May 2026

In the same way Jack Johnson hypnotised acoustic indie fans in the 00s, Carver Jones possesses that seraphic sweet sensibility that makes even the edges he etches into BEST FRIEND feel like dreamy incantations of pure soul. The 22-year-old Omaha singer-songwriter repurposes folksy indie pop rock melodies to orchestrate semi-lucid escapism for anyone seeking the softer side of the human experience.

Carver Jones is superlative when it comes to lulling his expansive international fanbase into a catatonic state of pure serene sublimity with his soprano harmonies and Y2K pop lyrical waxing, making proclamations of passion that dig deeper into emotion than most. BEST FRIEND carries that open-road ache with sun-warmed intimacy, as though the track was written somewhere between a van door left open, a street-corner performance, and the kind of late-night confession that changes the temperature of a friendship.

After turning down a college basketball scholarship, Jones spent three years travelling America with his two best friends, performing from street corners to packed venues, experiences that now live inside the grain of his songwriting. Following CARV, the AMERICAN DREAMERS series, a sold-out US tour with 54 Ultra, and LIVE FROM MOHAWK, BEST FRIEND continues the rollout for his forthcoming 8 EP with wide-eyed nostalgia, emotional nerve, and folk-pop sincerity.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Tasha Keswani Reacquainted Pain with Grace in the Americana-Laced Alt-Pop Ballad, Hello Stranger Hello

Posted on 20 May 2026

Stunning doesn’t even come close to encompassing the resonance-rich latest single from Tasha Keswani. Within the arcane expanse of ‘Hello Stranger Hello’, the Bangalore singer-songwriter blurred the lines between the swoon-demanding pop ballad, the folk narrative of a soul being torn into tributaries by splintering connection and a rich Americana vignette, complete with dusky winding guitar strings.

With a voice that has surely made its fair share of grown men cry and a clear, rare songwriting talent, Tasha Keswani ensured Hello Stranger Hello sweeps you up in the celestial alt-country pop twang; the sweetly soft chords are enough to metaphorically break the bind of gravity as they transcend in a seemingly infinite trajectory.

The instrumentation is kept traditional to the country pop genre, making it all the more impressive that the young singer-songwriter was able to nestle so much authenticity in the rapture of the release, which reacquaints with a ghost from the past with the kind of grace which reflects how much pain had to pass to seem amicable in the face of the returning wanderer.

Produced with UK-based Jack Gourlay, the single carries warm acoustic textures and layered harmonies shaped by Keswani’s Hindustani classical training and choral background across India and Scotland. Following recognition from Rolling Stone India and editorial support across Spotify and Apple Music, Hello Stranger Hello affirms her place as an artist writing from the fragile seams of love, change, and memory.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Siren Song by First Robin Wraps Indie-Folk Pop Around Seduction, Devastation and Diaphanous Euphony

Posted on 5 May 2026

Lush with weightless whimsical feeling, the sophomore single from indie singer-songwriter First Robin cradles you in euphony so diaphanous and ornate that you might be hesitant to breathe through fear of disrupting the arcane atmosphere of Siren Song.

Following on from her successful debut single, Spider Veins, First Robin has remained committed to projecting the intimate aches of womanhood. The airwaves are flooded with pop songs seared with growing pains, but there’s a maturity to Siren Song as she relays the lingering pains of the fragility of femininity through poetic lyrical devices and angelic motifs that allow you to envisage cherubs fluttering around the musings of how inspiration and seduction rarely come without devastation.

It’s a stunning release from a phenomenal voice, who has the effortlessly beguiling presence of Dolores O’Riordan; coincidentally, her sound shares a similar pensive depth to The Cranberries, all off the back of her expansively emotive authenticity.

While some artists stay in their own lane, First Robin has her own orbit and turns hyper-specific feeling into something broadly human, letting indie-folk and subtle dream pop textures carry the emotional undercurrent with rich resonance. Siren Song circles the dangerous line between temptation and ruin with grace, wisdom, and enough melodic strength to leave a long afterglow.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Budd Jeepers filled hollow longing with retro indie folk pop warmth in ‘No One to Serve’

Posted on 1 May 2026
THEVOICEOFAFULLGROWNIDIOT by Budd Jeepers

The melodically gifted mind behind the Minneapolis-based project, Budd Jeepers, has recently launched the LP, THEVOICEOFAFULLGROWNIDIOT; an exhibition of what it means to break away from the façade of obscurity and lean deeper than ever into the candour of uninhibited melancholia.

In the standout single, No One to Serve, the haunting vocal stretches of Thom Yorke meet the intimate devotion to the emotional excavation of Elliott Smith; the affecting timbres bask in retro folk pop warmth in the production propelled by tropically fervid tones and tempos and driven by the guitars as they pierce through the veil of posturing with intricate flourishes of urgency.

The lament of how empty it feels to live hollowed away from connection, to never have the compulsion to kneel at the altar of another and, instead, relentlessly search for an answer to the question of soul-deep existentialism, unfolds as a viscerally euphonic proclamation that stands as a testament to the independent artist’s practically transcendent talent.

THEVOICEOFAFULLGROWNIDIOT is the debut Budd Jeepers release from Minneapolis artist Kyle Imes, following years of lo-fi, freak-folk material under the Deepest Bison moniker. Here, he pulls the vocals and lyrics closer to the front, strips the arrangements back for a more immediate live feel, and lets the writing move with free association, darkness, humour, and earnestness; expect to feel your soul flinch in acknowledgement of how searingly sweet sincerity can sound.

No One to Serve is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Bandcamp.

 Review by Amelia Vandergast

Experimental Singer-Songwriter, Klas Ehnemark, Gave ‘Indian’ the Force of Ancestral Belonging in a Disconnected World

Posted on 14 April 2026

If we all lived consistently reminded by the fact that we’re the current manifestation of our ancestry instead of focusing on our ego and the immediacy of our sole legacies, we might stand a chance at veering away from the dystopia we’re currently in. Klas Ehnemark’s Indian is a visceral interruption of self-obsession, an invitation to drench yourself in the bliss of knowing that even though everything is temporary, the roots of ancestry anchor you within a world becoming more and more disconnected. Hailing from the windswept Swedish island of Öland, and only now stepping into public view after years of private songwriting, Ehnemark arrives with the presence of someone who has taken his time for a reason.

Sonically, Indian is a lush landscape of pop, funk, and the pure heat of impassioned soul. Ehnemark’s vocals soar with spellbinding conviction, the emotional range of his delivery almost as impressive as his octave range; rock musicians would kill to carry the same force in their vocal cords, and all his power is primed without overshadowing the catharsis of the production. There are shades of Van Morrison in the spiritual warmth, hints of José González in the intimacy, and the reflective pull of Bon Iver and Nick Drake in the songwriting, yet Indian carries its own pulse of belonging and continuity.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Brooke Hall Sent Sepia-Soaked Longing through the Indie Americana Warmth of ‘Waiting’

Posted on 30 March 2026

The indie-folk warmth of Brooke Hall’s single, Waiting, is a temperature made for fans of Bonny Light Horseman, Hiss Golden Messenger and Big Thief. The indie Americana harmonic drifts are the epitome of swoon-worthy, matching the magnetic mesmerism of the vocals, which deserve to put Brooke Hall in the same league as Stevie Nicks; she’s got that organic depth to her vocal timbre that instantly makes her a confidant at first acquaintance. In a vapid world, Brooke Hall’s timeless sepia-soaked sound is the oceanic antidote to superficiality.

The melodies seem to catch in your throat as your soul is scintillated by the longing in the reflective release, which exposes how much of life is spent in a state of stasis, yearning for something to add colour to our worlds.

Brooke Hall, a singer-songwriter rooted in Louisville, Kentucky and Southern Indiana, spent years behind the drum kit before stepping forward with her own material, and that sense of restraint serves the release well. Waiting marks her first fully produced single, and it may seem like she left no room for improvement, but we’d put money on her surprising us with her sophomore release.

That ability to hold space inside uncertainty gives Waiting its staying power. It’s the perfect aural elixir for anyone who has ever sat in the in-between, hoping life would shift shape before the lights went out.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast