Browsing Tag

Indie Singer Songwriter

Australian alt-indie singer-songwriter Greg Barnett advocated for nature in his existential serenade, ‘The C-Bomb’

Posted on 15 January 2023

Starting his single with clips of Donald Trump’s cognitive dissonance was a bold choice, but his obnoxious tones will always evoke a visceral reaction from the minds Greg Barnett aimed to compel with his standout single, The C-Bomb.

Taken from his massive 30-track debut LP, The Flat White Album, the single reminds us of the role we all need to play in salvaging the planet before it burns hotter than the temper of a right winger when expected to find a modicum of empathy or awareness.

The orchestrally laced alt-indie-folk soundscape that will make any Elliott Smith fans feel instantaneously at home delivers a shot of vindication through the affirmation that you’re not alone in your climate anxiety. Which is as warranted as it is a necessity if we want to take back our world from the disaster capitalists who would be happy to walk in the ashes as long as there are enough 0s in their bank balance before the curtains close on humanity.

The C-Bomb is available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Sam Scherdel narrated the descent of the ‘BOY WHO FELL TO EARTH’ in his artful indie-folk piano ballad

Posted on 6 January 2023
Sam Scherdel

2022 saw a cascade of hit singles from the superlatively talented indie singer-songwriter Sam Scherdel; to round off a perfect year, he eked new melancholy from Fairytale of New York with Harri Larkin. If there was any cultural justice in the UK, it would have made it to number one.

Now he’s starting 2023 with a bitter-sweet bang with the release of his live recorded single, BOY WHO FELL TO EARTH. It shares a few of the sombre tones of his Christmas release, but this emotionally layered piano ballad, complete with orchestral strings, stemmed from his own compassion-gifted mind.

As much as we adored the indie anthems, this folky turn that gives a more intimate view into a mindset that resonates with the contemporary atmosphere of collective ennui is just as seminal.

The live recording efficaciously captures every ounce of vulnerability pouring from the vocals that inhibit nothing to deliver a sincerely profound experience. Between the artfulness of Radiohead’s High and Dry and the hammering keys of Elton John’s Rocket Man rests this tender sonic narration of the boy who fell to earth. Prepare to be viscerally disarmed.

BOY WHO FELL TO EARTH will be available to stream and download on all platforms from January 6th via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Two cultures collide in Rob Carey’s consoling amalgam of Americana and proto-rock NEW YORK STATE OF PLAY

Posted on 3 January 2023

Any fans of Violent Femmes and the Psychedelic Furs will easily find a place on their playlists for the jangly proto power-pop guitars against bluesy twangs of Americana in Rob Carey’s latest era-spanning alt-indie single, NEW YORK STATE OF PLAY.

The blissful harmonies entwined with the enrapturing warmth of his nostalgic tones pushed into overdrive, bypassing innovation, around the Billy Bragg-Esque edge of everyman blues, are a melodiously amalgamated remedy for the soul.

By day, Rob Carey is a mental health nurse and counsellor. By night, he uses his understanding of the complexities of the human psyche in his compassion-driven singles, which efficaciously envelop you in their consoling melodicism.

NEW YORK STATE OF PLAY officially released on December 14th. Hear it on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ye Angst – 15: A Superlatively Succinct Alt-Indie Rock Remedy for the Soul

Posted on 2 January 2023

The indie singer-songwriter Ye Angst is renowned for sharing his artistic vision through the looking glass of youthful angst. In his evocatively enriched discography, which dates back to 2011, the perfect example is his exemplary single, 15. The jazz-blues piano keys around the Americana folk-rock body unravels as a superlatively succinct remedy for the soul.

In the same way, Cohen, Cat Stevens and Lou Reed emanate elevated grace, Ye Angst is in the habit of implanting ethereally cathartic instrumental accord in his singles that will effortlessly take you to a higher plateau while the lyrics and vocals pull you back down to our ennui-imparting earth.

Nearly a decade has passed since the release of 15, but the timeless single still resounds with glistening gospel for the impiously disenfranchised. Even around the complex instrumental interludes that give way to Journey-Esque heart-in-throat vocals, you’ll be caressed by the upliftingly melodic single, which perfectly rounds itself with orchestral strings for a filmic touch.

Succumb to the soul in 15 by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Gwac paves the way towards acquiescence in his alt-indie-folk single, Stacks

Posted on 30 December 2022

South Korea-based singer-songwriter, Gwac, unveiled the quiescent alt-indie-folk melancholy in his debut EP, MOHO, on December 19th. Narrating themes of loss, denial, regret and acceptance, the 4-track EP flows through the grief cycle, hitting the most visceral spot on track two, Stacks.

With hints of Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea paired with the monoculturalism-shattering world music motifs, innovation mellifluously spills. The accordance set up by the angular guitar work and woodwind instrumentals fed through torrid effects reflects the storms we weather before we arrive at a state of mind where we break through the listless frustration and arrive at a place of acquiescence.

“Throughout the making of this EP and digging through past experiences, I learned that sadness has a lot of dimensions for me. Some of the saddest memories are sometimes the most beautiful things I know. There’s no need to try and erase them or run from them. By just letting it be, I see a bit of light in my unsettling mind”.

On that note, Gwac’s mind may be one of the most beautiful things I’ve encountered in 2022. His tangible songwriting and instrumentally conceptual talents are one thing; his ability to recontextualise pain and share a brighter philosophical perspective with his listeners is fundamentally requisite in these times.

Stream Stacks on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Chloe Southern painted the portrait of a morally grey romantic in her immersive folk single, Oil & Water

Posted on 4 December 2022

The 22-year-old neo-folk singer-songwriter and producer, Chloe Southern, goes beyond making honesty her brand through the motto, “the more alone I feel in an experience, the more I know I need to write about it”.

The Boulder, CO-born, Brooklyn-residing artist is fresh from the release of her debut EP, Last Man on Earth, which contains five singles, all orchestrated to give a confidant to anyone drifting along the same wavelength. One of the standout singles, Oil & Water, is a quiescent aching lullaby. Atop gentle acoustic guitar strings that weave rich Elliott Smith-Esque melodies, Southern finds her resounding voice as she heightens the emotions to the nth degree through the climactically gentle vocal progressions.

All too often, singer-songwriters paint themselves as flawless protagonists in their own stories. Southern switched the narrative by creating a morally grey character of herself in the single that traverses how she stole someone from the arms of another. But she pulls the romanticism back around by alluding to her ability to love him like no other. We’re officially rooting for her in the romantic saga.

Oil & Water is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Meg Chandler finds herself on the visceral side of ethereal in her intimately nostalgic indie alt-pop single, Woodland

Posted on 25 November 2022
Meg Chandler

Given that it has been a fair while since we weren’t living through a historical event of some devastating global nature, it’s all too easy to crave the uncompromised simplicity of youthful nostalgia. Meg Chandler brought it by the smorgasbord in her single, Woodland, which precedes her debut EP, due for release in 2023.

The 21-year-old singer-songwriter divides her time between a remote village in Shropshire, where she finessed her authentically out-of-the-smoke alt-pop style that will be a hit with any fans of Daughter, Adrianne Lenker and Phoebe Bridgers, and in Manchester where she enlists the help of the production/writing duo SOAP.

Never a truer line has been delivered than “now everything just seems to hurt” in Woodland, which flicks through the sepia-tinged memories of a childhood “chasing shadows by the lake”. Projected through intimately vulnerable indie pop vocals that resound on the more visceral side of ethereal, Meg Chandler, with her proclivity to hold nothing back in her lyrics, is set to make major waves with the profound consolation in her music.

Woodland will officially release on November 18th. Stream it on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

BREGN put the humanity in our collective anxiety with his reflectively expositional lo-fi folk single, YOU AND ME

Posted on 20 November 2022

Danish singer-songwriter, BREGN, gave humanity hope in his latest single, YOU AND ME, which was officially released on November 18th to dispel the disquiet anxiety spilling from each new global catastrophe.

BREGN’s minimalist soundscapes and the sonorous sense of soul in his quiescent harmonies always strike a visceral chord. With this new melancholic shift, YOU AND ME hit like a tonne of bricks. In the same way Slowdive can hammer home the emotion solely through their reverb-laced angular guitar notes, the guitars in this sombrely sweet single drive you to the brink of tears. Before the choral storm in the outro as a torridly dystopian crescendo pushes you over the emotional edge.

Here’s to hoping next summer gives us a chance to embrace the season free from an ever-pervasive sense of dread.

“YOU AND ME is a reflection of our times; a mix of summer, love, the insecurities imposed by war, political drama, and the deepening energy crisis. There is hope in the continuation of believing that there is still a “You and Me” at the end of the day, that is what I wanted to convey.”

Listen to YOU AND ME on SoundCloud and Spotify.

Follow BREGN via Facebook and Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Robert John Hanson sells sanctuary in his single, Hush and a Prayer

Posted on 24 October 2022

Judging by Robert John Hanson’s streaming stats, the soul in his sound has its own gravitational pull for listeners who want to fall into the vivid narratives and colourfully cathartic melodies time and time again.

The Liverpool-born, Rhode Island-residing singer, songwriter and guitarist’s standout single, Hush and a Prayer, celestially pays homage to the band that inspired Hanson’s lifelong journey as an artist, the Beatles, while reflecting the compelling styles of other British greats, such as Queen, The Kinks, Bowie and Pink Floyd.

Reminiscences all too quickly fall by the wayside to the lush ambience that swells around the guitar chords and his gently compelling vocal timbre that would fall into the easy-listening genre if it didn’t stir the soul so viscerally.

Hush and a Prayer is available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

AJ Elkins has released his indie folk meditation, Breathe In Breathe Out

Posted on 25 September 2022

With an acoustic guitar intro that rings with the same evocative timbre as Neutral Milk Hotel’s Two-Headed Boy before bursting into an art-rock arrangement, AJ Elkin’s indie folk single, Breathe In Breathe Out, is an emotionally-charged extension of sanctity.

The Nada Surf-Esque lyricism that sympathises with the trials and tribulations of the modern age becomes efficaciously consoling against the rugged progressions. The US singer-songwriter clearly has a knack for creating connective music; we can’t wait to see where his compassion and songwriting tenacity takes him – he is undoubtedly one to watch.

Breathe In Breathe Out is now available to stream on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast