Browsing Tag

Pop-Rock

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

Stephanie Braganza Sparked a Pop Rock Revolt Laced in Anthemic Catharsis with ‘Feel a Little Less’

Posted on 24 April 2025

Feel a Little Less by Stephanie Braganza is an electricity and self-empowerment-charged pop rock anthem which takes the anatomy of an earworm and injects it with steroids. As the guitar lines chug, amplifying the energy and anticipation for the drop of the chorus, Stephanie Braganza’s soaring vocal lines rise above the pop-punk-adjacent instrumentals while painting a vignette of what it means to reclaim your mind on your own terms.

For anyone who knows how hard it is to feel with intensity instead of psychologically scratching the surface of everything you emotionally touch, Feel a Little Less is an anthem that will console until you feel a little more whole and infinitely better about your tendency for your emotions to dive right off the deep end. This radio-ready anthem will undoubtedly take Stephanie Braganza to brand-new heights.

Nine years after her last release, the powerhouse vocalist makes her return with the fire of someone who has battled through the darkest chambers of the psyche and come back with the flame still in her hand. The track was first penned in 2015 while Braganza was clawing her way out of mental confinement. It has since evolved into a sonic exorcism, sculpted in the defiance of distorted riffs and cathartic vocal conviction.

With accolades including a Guinness World Record and recognition from CBC Music as one of the top South Asian Canadian artists to hear now, Stephanie Braganza’s comeback is set to make a tsunami of waves.

Feel a Little Less is now available to stream on all major platforms. For the full experience, watch the official music video. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast.

Ian McFarland Used Pop Punk to Augment Optimism in His Latest Single, You Are So Loved

Posted on 18 April 2025

If there’s any justice left in indie’s distorted underbelly, Ian McFarland will be recognised as the artist who gave serotonin back to pop-punk. The Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter has already earned a presence across regional charts and NYC live haunts, but You Are So Loved deserves to break much further beyond.

Following a sticky-sweet synth-pop intro, the single throws the genre right back to the golden era of visceral expression with its pop-punk crescendo of unfiltered optimism. But the stylistic transgressions don’t end there. Jangly new wave indie-pop nestles into the volition of the punk-tinged foundations, allowing McFarland to exhibit one of the most distinctive sonic signatures we’ve heard this year.

It’s not just the sound design that makes You Are So Loved cut through the cynicism often used as a crutch in alt scenes. McFarland weaponises sincerity as if it’s a subversive act. There’s bravery in broadcasting this much raw affection, especially within a genre known for self-deprecation and detached irony. But McFarland knew what he was risking—being written off as cloying or sentimental. He bypasses that pitfall entirely with his unshakable authenticity.

Born from a need to pull joy from bleakness, You Are So Loved is an adrenaline shot of altruism for anyone who needs to remember that the world can still look beautiful through a cracked lens.

You Are So Loved is now available to stream on all major platforms, including YouTube. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast.

Nick Cody & The Heartache’s ‘Next Up’ Is A Swaggering Alt-Rock Serenade to Survival

Posted on 11 April 2025

With their latest single, Next Up, from the freshly pressed LP This is Love and the Heartache, Leeds-based Nick Cody & The Heartache have decidedly dialled up the swank and swagger. Frenetically paced grooves pull listeners into a sandstorm of Jim Morrison-esque desert-infused vocals, while backing harmonies create a dynamic, kinetic whirlwind of alt-rock reverence. The ensemble seems charged with an infectious energy that leaps effortlessly from musician to musician, ensuring the track becomes a certified serotonin shot—even against the stark refrain, ‘you don’t know what it’s like to die ‘round here’.

Clearly the band’s boldest sonic exploration to date, the creative gamble has spectacularly paid off. Genre boundaries crumble away as Next Up seamlessly sways from funk to college radio rock, slipping into vintage soul without missing a beat or dropping intensity. Released via Green Eyed Records—an imprint championing creative collaboration, previously hosting acclaimed artists like Jon Gomm and Martin Simpson—the single underscores Cody’s razor-sharp lyrical instincts and penchant for crafting melodies that refuse to fade.

Next Up is now available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Niamh Casey lyrically grounds the grandeur in her chamber pop diary entry, Fake Friend

Posted on 11 April 2025
Niamh Casey

Niamh Casey delivers tonal grandeur through grounded intimacy in her standout single, ‘Fake Friend’. Her flawlessly pitched, unfeigned vocal lines soar alongside an orchestral pop intensity, swiftly shifting into raw rock reverence with a broadsiding crescendo that spills beyond stadium proportions. Beneath the ornate instrumentation lies a deeper emotional reckoning: Casey captures the sheer exhaustion of existing at your emotional limits in a friendship devoid of reciprocity, where all is expected but nothing mutual ever materialises.

Pivoting away from her familiar themes of romantic heartbreak, Casey turns her gaze towards the murkier waters of friendship, highlighting the stark reality that bonds built on trust, honesty, and mutual support often fracture painfully. The single’s ironic title cleverly frames the cycle of adolescent reflection as Casey carousels through repeated disappointments, mirroring the shallow interactions with her own weary realisations. Each verse speaks rhetorically to the friend, challenging their conscience before swiftly turning inward, questioning her own judgement and emotional resilience.

As the bridge ignites, resentment physically releases through echoes of past betrayals and broken trust, vividly portraying how exhausting one-sided friendships truly become. Casey’s lyrical narrative relentlessly explores how grief and contempt intersect when the loss of a so-called friend offers more peace than pain.

With the potential of becoming the Tori Amos of her generation, all eyes and ears should be on Niamh Casey as the release of her upcoming EP inches closer.

‘Fake Friend’ is now available to stream on all major platforms.

Follow Niamh Casey on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jason Klaire Holds the Door Open to Solidarity in His Nine-Minute Pop-Rock Reckoning

Posted on 8 April 2025

Jason Klaire has always had a knack for translating chaos into art. With Open the Door, he strips away the noise of nationalistic chest-pounding and forces attention onto the slow rot of a society that’s convinced itself of its own superiority. Through theatrical piano-laced pop-rock progressions and gruff lyrical reckonings tempered by falsetto-soaked crescendos, he lays bare the internal malaise that festers in the face of external injustice.

The production carries the weight of disillusionment with a world that grows more fractured as the sands of time erode compassion, youth and the impulse to question. Open the Door isn’t content to simply reflect existential dread—it pushes past guilt and calls for a collective pivot, urging listeners to abandon cynicism and step into a future shaped by shared humanity. There’s no patience here for apathy, no room for denial.

Written as a defiant stand against territorial arrogance, Klaire’s nine-minute single was sculpted through painstaking revision, mastered by Steve Kitch, and eventually paired with a macabre AI-generated visual epic that consumed two months of obsessive perfectionism.

Klaire may have started with guitar chords and frustration, but what he built is a manifesto. One that swells with theatrical poise and lands with an emotional impact few artists dare aim for.

Open the Door is now available to stream on all major platforms. For the full experience, watch the music video on YouTube. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lauren Ash Lights a Match with ‘COOL STORY, BRO’: A Pop-Punk Anthem Fuelled by Scathing Contempt

Posted on 4 April 2025
Lauren Ash

Lauren Ash is driving the nostalgia of pop-punk back onto the airwaves, though you’d be mistaken to expect a familiar revival. Her latest single, ‘COOL STORY, BRO’, confidently flits between glossy pop hooks and sultry-sweet harmonies before crashing headlong into alt-rock territory, exploding into an anthemic chorus driven by jagged guitars and electrifying percussion.

Written from the merciless vantage point of someone whose heartbreak has curdled into sharp-tongued contempt,the track is an acerbic wake-up call delivered with visceral intensity. Lauren Ash channels the relatable brutality of post-breakup clarity, turning personal wounds into lyrical dynamite reminiscent of Alanis Morissette’s unfiltered honesty on ‘Jagged Little Pill’, with a pop-punk energy.

Though best known for her roles as Dina Fox in NBC’s ‘Superstore’ and Lexi in ‘Not Dead Yet’, Ash’s dream was always rooted in songwriting and live performance. With her debut single ‘Now I Know’ soaring to #5 on Billboard’s Alternative Digital Song Sales and #1 on Canada’s iTunes Rock Chart, and performances at venues like the Viper Room and Whisky A Go Go, her musical ambition is swiftly matching her acting acclaim.

‘COOL STORY, BRO’ is now available to stream on all major platforms. Find your preferred way to listen on the artist’s official website. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Noah Nordman Constructed an Indie Pop Rock ‘Paradise’ with His Latest Raw Revelation of a Release

Posted on 1 April 2025

Noah Nordman perceptibly shares melodic DNA with Sam Fender, but within his sound lies far more than sonic assimilation; he delivers stridence twined seamlessly with indie sensibility. His latest single, ‘Paradise’, is cultivatedly twee, presenting Nordman as an artist who wears both his heart and his digressions openly on his guitar strings and soaring vocal lines.

As the rhythm section steadily feeds the track’s pulse, all peaks and valleys emerge courtesy of Nordman’s elastic vocal range, contracting and extending to flood the track with endless nuance. This melodic confession bursts with blistering emotion, subverting the stereotypical tranquillity of summery indie-pop-rock into an intimate canvas that vibrantly colours Nordman’s vulnerability and candour.

Based in Indianapolis, Nordman made his initial impact through the 2022 release of his debut, two-part album, SHIPWRECKED!. Following live performances across breweries and distilleries, he transformed his ambition into reality by diving headfirst into home production. With ‘Paradise’—the first of multiple planned 2025 releases—his powerful, clean vocals align effortlessly with impactful lyricism that blends indie-pop immediacy with singer-songwriter introspection.

Nordman’s music invites listeners into a world where emotional sincerity bursts free from indie-pop convention. ‘Paradise’ confidently positions him as an artist unafraid to colour outside the lines, providing listeners with a melodic outpouring as authentic as it is unforgettable.

‘Paradise’ is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Soundcloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

OCEANS OF TEARS Delivered a Neon-Lit Lifeline with ‘LOSING MY WILL TO LIVE’

Posted on 27 March 2025

After starting with the iconic ‘snap out of it’ line by Cher in Moonstruck, which proves OCEANS OF TEARS has their finger on the pulse of the cultural zeitgeist, ‘LOSING MY WILL TO LIVE’ slides into a high-energy synthesis of 80s-spiked pop rock which serves an infectious chorus as the main sonic dish in this existential utopia.

With synth lines streaming neon lights into the production in place of a cliché rock riff, the track remains a seamless ride through synth-pop nostalgia while OCEANS OF TEARS maintains a firm grip on what brings distinctive panache to his sound.

Drawn from Steve W. Boily’s rock musical, Bullet in a Gun, ‘LOSING MY WILL TO LIVE’ confronts despair at its most unfiltered, capturing the raw agony of losing everything—love, work, pride. In a global climate weighed down by economic uncertainty, looming tariffs, and widespread job insecurity, the soul-stirring lyrics feel heartbreakingly real and strike harder than ever. Ian Hardwick’s guest vocals amplify the emotional intensity, channelling betrayal, failure, and isolation into a powerful anthem of desperation.

This is pop-rock sharpened to a neon-lit edge; honest, relentless, and emotionally charged.

‘LOSING MY WILL TO LIVE’ is now available to stream on all major platforms, including YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

JNDJ Spun Reflections of Liberation into a Riff-Charged Pop Rock Anthem with ‘Mirrors’

Posted on 12 March 2025

JNDJ’s latest single Mirrors throws open the windows to let the light in while ripping through the airwaves with an unmistakable alt-90s edge. The track eases in with a dreamy jangle pop melody before slamming into full riff-charged momentum, intensifying the (literally and figuratively) reflective lyricism. The mix of heavy rock energy and Latin pop spirit adds an anthemic, emotionally raw quality, making every note hit with intention.

With its emancipating, bolstered with lyrical gold, Mirrors is the ultimate pick-me-up, freeing listeners from the toxic ties of negative perception. The bilingual vocals carve another layer into the liberating single, reinforcing its message of resilience and clarity.

For Julissa and Jesse Girardi, music has been a lifelong pursuit—one that led them through the highs of industry success before disillusionment pushed them to seek deeper meaning. After rediscovering their purpose, JNDJ returned with a sound that leans into their ability to create music that resonates far beyond surface-level appeal. Mirrors proves that when they step up to the mic, they ignite something transformative.

If JNDJ had risen alongside Garbage, Texas, and The Cranberries, they’d already be in the same breath of recognition. If you’re looking for a band that knows how to pull you from the depths and shake you back to life, this is the one to follow.

Stream the official video for Mirrors on YouTube now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast