For his latest single, Just a Dog, the Ireland-born, Tokyo-based artist Mark Earnest served a stellar slice of lush RnB pop. You can’t help but drift away with the mellow funky grooves, the soulfully resonant vocals that are pinched by melancholy instead of overarched with it, and the mellow guitar-centric rhythms.
With the bedroom artist’s greatest motivation centred on bringing catharsis and compassion, he gave his soul free reign over Just a Dog, which lyrically sees him changing species to allude to his need for simplicity. If you aren’t on board with that sentiment, have you even been alive for the past few years?!
Just a Dog will officially release on July 1st. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.
Interest in the LP format may have waned in recent years. If anyone can make a case for them in 2022, it is the Sydney singer-songwriter Robbie Maroon, with his riotously eclectic blend of funk, pop, RnB and rock in his third album, Reckoning.
The opening single, The Fighter,doesn’t set the tone for the album that throws everything from soulful ballads to rock anthems to groove-led jams. Instead, it throws you head-first into the captivating energy and expressive soul that Reckoning was created with. The consistently evolving nature of the release never allows you to get complacent with the unpredictable transitions in tone, style and lyrical influence. Yet, each visceral piece of the puzzle binds together seamlessly.
After the early Faith No More meets Go West opener, the album careers into funkier and playfully synthy territory with Track 2, Cyberlovestory, which will resonate with everyone who had the displeasure of experiencing the surrealism of dating during the lockdowns. Crafting the track in the form of an 80s synthwave love song was cunningly clever. I think the extent of the ridiculousness of the past few years finally just hit me with its full force.
After two infectiously protestive tracks, in track 3, Maria, Maroon delivers the indie funk-pop ballad, which celebrates the sanctuary that only certain people can open the door to. The upraising vocal layering, Men at Work-reminiscent horn stabs, and the sticky sweet melodious essence is enough to make you pick up your phone and tell your favourite person you love them.
Track 4, Rewind, is the perennial soul-pop earworm of the album that gives you a view into just how much command the Prince-inspired artist has over funk-bridled rhythm. From rap bars to vocal lines that would give Seal’s soul a run for its impassioned currency, the vocals stick to your synapses like superglue.
Track 5, My Love, allows Maroon to wear his James Brown and George Michael influences on his sleeve through the slick-with-salacious-funk-disco-grooves. The hand claps against the Nile Rodgers-Esque chops bolster the nostalgic euphoria, while the smooth vocals and equally as smooth lyrics scribe Maroon’s unrelentingly sonic signature.
With track 6, Falling out of Love, Maroon proves that love goes as quickly as it comes in quick to burn love affairs before he grooves into the striking funk aesthetics of Stand. Track 7 gives plenty of limelight to the female backing vocals that raise the energy throughout the album with their shimmering old-school soul.
Track 8, I Won’t Be Doing That, leaves a similar question springing to mind as Meatloaf’s I Won’t Do That. The intriguing ambiguity in the rock-licked track grips onto grooves reminiscent of Hall & Oats, and there is plenty of room for the unpretentiously virtuoso solos. Strangely, they amplify the sense morality mystery while you wait for more clues.
In Track 9, Maroon is out of his funk in the harbingering 80s rock title single, which grieves the normalcy that forgot to get a return ticket after the pandemic. I can quite honestly say that listening to The Reckoning was one of the most vindicating and affirming aural experiences I’ve indulged in this year. While the mainstream media keeps trying to sell us fear and hate, the masses find new brands of tribalism, and everyone secretly loses their sanity in the privacy of their bedrooms; it is impossible to find a voice of reason. Thank god one exists on my playlists now.
I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing the closing single, Take a Bow before, but my tear ducts still opened the floodgates to the ode to Prince. Simultaneously a celebration of his legacy and an illustration of the impact that inspirational people have on us, the subtle and quiescently yearning single is a tribute like no other. Hell, it’s a ballad like no other.
Nu-disco meets funk-pop in the latest single from the UK pop luminary, MACY. ‘Pink Bandana’pops the bubblegum pop bubble with the overdriven guitar riffs, funk-laced bass guitar and vocals that will leave any Marina and the Diamonds fan with the inclination to make the perennial pop earworm a playlist staple.
Pink Bandana, which was produced by Owain Felstead, runs you through the early stages of heartache, seen through a sticky-sweet prism of self-empowered optimism. The emboldening energy reads through the high vibe hook-filled instrumentals and MACY’s playfully fiery vocal charisma. Together, they’e a powerfully infectious combination.
Pink Bandana is now available to stream via Spotify.
Instead of focusing on emulating a genre, the up-and-coming artist, Ism, keeps political ideology and the artistic lens as the essence of his sound. In his latest single, Unchartered Waters, taken from his album of the same name, there’s a groove-deep blend of rock, indie, funk, pop and rap that fuses around Ism’s socially dissecting philosophy.
Unchartered Waters finds a nuanced and almost subliminal way to reflect our fears of upsetting the societal apple cart and note how exhausting autonomy can be when an unquestioning mind is far more comfortable. Every time you listen to it, you find something new to pontificate on. We can’t wait to hear what Ism brings with the rest of his highly anticipated LP.
Unchartered Waters is now available to stream on Spotify.
“Rewind” is the latest jazzy rock-licked funk-pop track from the raw-soul-peddling Australian singer-songwriter Robbie Maroon. After being introduced to his sombre and spacey sound in 2019 through his single, Stepping Stone, this new profoundly hopeful approach to production is quite literally music to our ears. You can’t help but catch the positive vibes that radiate through the release that captures the chaos of our lives and releases us from it with the era-spanning old school grooves.
With vocals that sit somewhere in between Shinedown and the sultry timbre of George Michael, it’s all too easy to find yourself in the heart of the hook-filled track which comes complete with stabbing horns and layers of funk-riding progressions which pull together to deliver a nostalgia hit you’ve never tasted before.
Rewind was officially released on March 18th. You can check it out for yourselves on Robbie Maroon’s website or via Spotify.
The London-based singer-songwriter and producer, Andrea, has staked her biggest claim in the UK pop industry to date with the release of her funk-dipped bass-swathed hit, All I Want, which was co-produced by the Grammy-award-winning Andre Lindal.
Even without the club remix, All I Want is a guaranteed floor-filler. You can practically feel the hedonism building around the drops and crescendos, which make Andrea’s latest single addictive from the first hit.
As if Andrea’s effortlessly arrestive vocals and synth-carved hooks weren’t enough, even more admiration can be found within the 20-year-old artist’s MO as a 100% independent artist. She’s currently studying production in London, which leaves her completely autonomous in the male-dominated industry that takes up 96% of the room. She’s following in the footsteps of the icons that paved the way and making room for even more aspiring artists. Just as Courtney Love compelled girls to pick up a guitar in the 90s, Andrea is making a just as revolutionary act in the world of pop production.
You can meet your new perennial pop earworm by heading over to YouTube.
After making us fall hook, line, and sinker with his previous releases, the indie singer-songwriter Nav’s Hook has released the poppy funk-rock track, New Beginnings. The prospect of this new year bringing good new beginnings has understandably left many people cynical under the weight they are still carrying the weight of the previous two years. By the time the chorus hits, that cynicism will fall victim to the strident optimism in the groove-filled high-vibe track.
When the perception-shifting introspection in an artist’s previous releases leaves you stoked to hear the intellectual gold in their new releases, it’s a clear sign that they’re a sharp cut above the rest. We will never get tired of Hook’s sound that constantly evolves around his unpredictable creative vision and lyrics that seek to pull the light from the dark. Many of us felt like we were shunted into a pitch-black 2022; tracks like New Beginnings prove that the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t always a train. Sometimes, it’s a visionary artist sharing his hard-fought-for optimism.
The official lyric video to New Beginnings premiered on January 13th; you can check it out for yourselves by heading over to YouTube.
It was impossible to imagine room for improvement after hearing Leifer’s standout single, Say You’re Mine, in 2021. Yet, his latest release, Vacancy, which hit the airwaves on New Year’s Eve, even caught us broadsided by the way it pulls you down with mellow tones in the intro and brings you back up fast enough to give you whiplash.
Vacancy starts by teasing serenity in the easy, hazy guitar chords before bursting into a high-vibe alt-indie pop track, complete with euphoric synths, funk riding basslines and vocals that make an earworm out of the release.
Despite the vibrant energy, Vacancy forces you to reflect on the spaces that we leave other people’s lives, while the high-energy progressions ensure that you don’t get caught up in rumination. We can only hope that Leifer starts a trend with his meaningful approach to pop. If there’s one thing that this world needs more of, it is self-awareness, and Leifer’s emotionally intelligent lyrics offer the perfect mantras to follow.
Vacancy is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.
Reading UK-based solo artist, Sam Handy, has been lauded by Jeff Beck, the BBC and everyone lucky enough to catch his soul-spilling sound live. After his latest single, Done, he’s set to take his career to even greater heights – the world can’t sleep on this.
Like all of Sam Handy’s recent releases, Done was produced by Ed Stokes. Discernibly, Stokes shares Handy’s passion in keeping the focus on stellar songwriting and instrumental ability; instead of over-producing the raw elements out of the track.
With the funk of Nile Rogers in the light instrumental hooks, the raspy, harmonic neo-soul vocals that carry reminiscences to D’Angelo and the sniping lyricism, Done becomes so much more than a sum of its parts. The single that explores toxic relationships is an intoxicatingly all-consuming track that allows the instrumentals to bring the warm catharsis while the lyrics prove that soul and resilience go hand in hand. In an emboldening way, Done reminds you that everyone deserves a backbone. We can’t wait to hear what follows.
Done is now available to stream on Spotify. To keep up to date with new releases, follow Sam Handy on Instagram.
‘Lavender Tea’ is the latest indie synth-pop nostalgia hit from the experimental Bay Area solo artist New Sense (Ethan Brown). The funk-soaked ode to the 80s takes influence from icons, Earth Wind and Fire, Tame Impala and Still Woozy; New Sense also wears his MJ influences on his sonic sleeve in the high-energy track that is infectious from the first hit.
There is plenty of authenticity in Lavender Tea to quench your thirst for fresh funk; we can’t wait to hear what New Sense serves next.
Lavender Tea is now available to stream on YouTube.
