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NYC Pop

Strange Neighbors grooved to a ‘Quiet Beat’ in their latest power pop single

Posted on 21 August 2023
Quiet Beat - Single by Strange Neighbors

NYC power pop outfit Strange Neighbors gave their vocal melodies all the country twang of an early Taylor Swift record in their latest single, Quiet Beat while allowing their retro sonic aesthetic to strip away the past few decades and safely transplant you into the sanctum of the 90s.

Between Aidan’s vocals and Zach’s guitars, there’s a sticky-sweet brand of alchemy that won’t fail to intoxicate you when the jangly chorus, which reminisces with the tones popularised by the Psychedelic Furs, is in full swing.

Quiet Beat is just one of the meticulously manicured singles crafted by the groove-driven outfit which has been spilling colourful aural euphoria onto the streets of New York City since 2018 by staying committed to their MO of orchestrating earworms you would need a concussion to forget.

Quiet Beat will officially release on September 14th; until then, stream and purchase the single via Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Get caught in the melodicism of the ‘Morning Rush’ with Sophia B.’s latest single

Posted on 6 August 2023

You’ve heard of bubble gum pop; prepare yourself for the even more visceral rush of caffeinated pop before you delve into the latest experimentally authentic single, Morning Rush, from the one and only luminary, Sophia B.

However you take your coffee, you will find the notes in Morning Rush more than palatable as Sophia B. creatively tears the monotony from the morning commute and replaces it with a soulfully sticky-sweet buzz. There is a plethora of pop hits that pay ode to the way infatuation hits late at night when you’re left with little but your thoughts, but only the NYC-hailing award-winning composer and lyricist found the opportunity to pay ode to the confusion that brings you to question whether your morning rush is stemming from the sugar in your coffee or the apple of your eye.

With the dreamy chords, the smooth installations of soul, and the aptly hyper touch to the vocals, regardless of your relationship status, Morning Rush will leave you blissfully on cloud nine.

Keep Morning Rush with you at all times by purchasing the track on Apple Music or stream the official music video via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

V3x reclaimed the power of her vulnerability in the future-embracing alt-pop hit, D34D

Posted on 13 February 2023

NYC alt-pop originator V3x puts the experimentalism of Grimes and FKA Twigs to shame in her standout future-embracing trip-hop-y single, D34D. Making no bones about attacking mistreatment through ferocious innocence, the luminary independent artist came into her vindicating own through this 8-bit-adjacent earworm.

With “sometimes I think I might be dead, given the way you treat me” as an opening lyric, the instrumentally sunny single, which spills the tropic heat through the scorching synth timbres and brings in the indie intimacy via the guitars, empathy is non-optional.

We’ve all been there, handing our vulnerability over to people that were always going to manipulate it. In 2:30 minutes, V3x proves how sweet it can be to reclaim that susceptibility instead of stripping it from our psyche.

Check out the seminal single, D34D, from V3x via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Sarah Anne Fernandez is phantasmically demure in her antithesis of an electro-pop breakup track, Nightmare

Posted on 13 January 2023
Sarah Anne Fernandez

‘Nightmare’ is the phantasmically demure electro-pop hit from Sarah Anne Fernandez, which slices through the vulnerability with razor-sharp wit to help anyone coming to terms with romantic loss to leave their feelings of  loss in the dirt.

The artfully moody hit definitively proves that clever meta-wordplay goes a long way in quashing the usual feelings of grief. How could anyone feel sad when succumbing to the vision of haunting their ex in their nightmares while they are lying next to their new romantic victim?

It’s the ultimate antithesis to the usual pop breakup track that affirms your sadness as it flips the script and liberates you with seductively dark imagery. The NYC artist is definitively one to watch in 2023.

Nightmare will hit the airwaves on January 13th. Check it out on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Chloe Southern – Naked: Intimately Confessional Neo-Folk-Pop

Posted on 2 December 2022

Taken from her debut EP, Last Man on Earth, Chloe Southern’s indie neo-folk-meets-pop single, Naked, strips emotionally bare. The urgency of the distinctive vocal delivery paired with the intimacy in the confessionalism makes for a powerful listening experience. Anyone that has ever wrestled with entropy to feel viscerally again will be consumed by the conceptual score, which runs through the dim views that get dimmer in the wake of loneliness.

Narrating how she hates coffee because she only makes it for herself and the smell of snow which takes her to places where she finds a lost love’s shadow proves how easily our perceptions of elemental to inane things can change over time and with the absence of the co-creators of our stories before a chapter closes.

Through and through, it is a stunning single from the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter which deserves to complement the next heartbreakingly cinematic Blockbuster.

Naked is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Expectation meets self-preservation in Aleandro Valente’s blissfully tropic indie pop hit, Not O.K.

Posted on 25 October 2022

The up-and-coming NYC-residing pop artist Aleandro Valente tore off his façade in spectacular fashion in his single, Not O.K. to expose the duality of his determination of being what others perceive him to be and staying true to himself.

The angular indie jangle pop guitars around the sun-bleached tropic RnB pop keys create the perfect platform for the high dynamic stretches of Aleandro Valente’s smooth vocal timbre that pulls you right into the battle of self-preservation and will.

It is Ariana Grande meets the 1975 in this vulnerable earworm that will see the Italian artist and his candour go far. It will undoubtedly be resonant for plenty of his listeners that feel the expectation to amplify their true nature to tick boxes that we never agreed to fill in the first place.

Not O.K. is now available to stream along with the debut album it was taken from, Bite on a Lemon, on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Super Love advocate autonomy indie their electromatic pop hit, The Real Me

Posted on 22 July 2022

For the last two years, we’ve followed Super Love’s autonomously expressive career. Their latest single, The Real Me, which was released on July 22nd, is their most unapologetically authentic electro groove-led pop triumph to date.

The effect-laden, almost animatronic vocals fuse into the synthwave production, which keeps the funk rhythms rolling around the angular indie guitars that add to the cold, almost alien atmosphere of the single which acts as a harbingering warning of what it means to lose your sense of self.

We’re all guilty of going into auto-pilot mode from time to time and disassociating from our souls. With The Real Me on your playlist, you’re infinitely less likely to slip into that vacuous rabbit hole.

Check out Super Love’s latest single, The Real Me, via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jake Inzerra has unleashed his seductive 80s glam indie-pop earworm, Elevator

Posted on 6 May 2022
https://youtu.be/mDdGKdlY1QU

There was no forgetting Jake Inzerra after his punchy indie-pop hit, No Lips; the singer-songwriter and producer is back on glam form in his latest single, Elevator.

Believe it or not, Inzerra’s Elevator is just as seductive as Aerosmith’s Love in an Elevator, which may have a fair amount to do with the raucous bite in his vocal timbre that sinks its teeth just as deep as Adam Levine’s.

I’ve long held the theory that all of the best artists carry androgyny into their music; Inzerra affirmed it with his infectiously hook-filled hit that soaks into your soul as much as your synapses.

Jake Inzerra’s latest single, Elevator, is due for official release on May 6th. You can check it out for yourselves via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Elena Louvis gave her latest indie-pop single This One’s on Me, the tender touch.

Posted on 6 May 2022

With the same tender touch as Bill Ryder-Jones, Daughter and Tom Odell, the NYC up-and-coming artist and indie record label owner Elena Louvis’ latest single, This One’s on Me, is a masterfully raw feat of downtempo indie-pop.

With the neo-classic nods, her vulnerably glassy vocal timbre and the immersive yet stripped back and meditative production, the mournfully humble single hits the evocative spot with bruising precision. The confessionally honest lyrics which spill the ink on idiosyncratic regret are so intimate and personal, yet, at the same time, the sentiments are universally recognisable.

This One’s on Me will be available to stream from May 6th. You can check it out for yourselves via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Super Love showed us the light side of ‘The Moon’ in their latest 80s-inspired polyphonic alt-pop single.

Posted on 15 April 2022

Here with another slice of polyphonic 80s alt-pop nostalgia is the indie power couple Super Love; their synergy and chemistry more than translated in ‘The Moon’.

Oscar Wilde may have created the old gutters and stars adage, but why get your interstellar bliss from anyone else but someone already living it? Metaphorically speaking, of course, but you get the gist.

Despite the instrumental minimalism, The Moon is radiant under the polyphonic keys, the low and almost dreamy basslines and vocals that effortlessly exude a Blondie-level of cool while wrestling with sticky-sweet lyricism.

The Moon will officially release on April 15th; you can check it out for yourselves via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast