Browsing Tag

power-pop

Victories’ ‘I’m a Swiftie Too’ Is Pop Punk with Glitter on Its Knuckles

Posted on 7 August 2026

Taylor Swift has probably received her fair share of love letters, but you can bet most of them never matched the euphoric visceralism of I’m a Swiftie Too by Victories, the pop-punk juggernauts bringing back Y2K-esque, hook-carried electricity with even more sugar-rushed voltage.

The premise of Victories’ latest release began with bassist Chris Brandel promising Montreal Rocks podcast host Randal Wark that the band would write a love song to Swifties if they hit 10,000 monthly Spotify listeners. They were sitting around 3,000. By June, they had crossed 20,000. A promise was a promise.

Clearly, Taylor Swift is the girl some of the bad boys want now. With reminiscences of Bowling for Soup and Fountains of Wayne, Victories have created the Stacey’s Mom of 2026 while busting the myth that mainstream pop is something to feel guilty about enjoying. Somewhere, a man in wraparound sunglasses and bootcut jeans just clutched his can of Monster Energy in distress.

For everyone comfortable with their ability to enjoy a sticky-sweet earworm, I’m a Swiftie Too is an infectious riot of an anthem. The guitars bounce with mall-rat glee, the drums sprint like they have been dared by a teenager in eyeliner, and the chorus arrives with the shameless grin of a song already picturing itself shouted back from summer stages.

The single is already well on its way to becoming one of Victories’ biggest hits on Spotify, proving they have their finger right on the appetite for pretence-free pop punk. This is fandom as confession loaded into a serotonin cannon, fired directly at the miserable little bouncers guarding taste. The era of posturing is over, with Victories at the vanguard, glitter on the pickguard and absolutely zero patience for joyless gatekeeping.

I’m a Swiftie Too is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ana & Gene – See Me Smile: a Riffed Out Power Pop Anthem for Unapologetic Selfhood

Posted on 23 June 2026

Imagine a fusion of the hook in Smells Like Teen Spirit and Hanson’s iconic MMMBop with Pixies-esque distortion drifting through the guitars before Blondie and Morrissey enter the mix, and you’ll get a good idea of the euphoria which swells through the sticky-sweet hit See Me Smile by power pop powerhouse Ana & Gene.

Once there has been enough syrupy harmony, the award-winning duo unleashes raw-as-a-razorblade-cut riffs, leaving swathes of adrenaline to drink in while visualising what it means to be unapologetically happy in the skin of your authenticity instead of wearing the uniform of socially prescribed happiness. See Me Smile is as empowering as it is uplifting, and therein lies the beauty of the always infectiously high-voltage duo.

The Chicago duo’s cross-genre fingerprints remain unmistakable, with Gene Roberts’ gold-certified pop history and Anastacia Bella’s research-led songwriting perspective feeding the track’s bright bite without sanding down its sharper edges. Since forming during the strange stillness of 2020, Ana & Gene have built their own lane through award recognition, international nominations and indie chart success, but See Me Smile feels more personal than a résumé flex. It is a Machiavellian grin with rebellious resistance behind it.

See Me Smile is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ana & Gene – I Feel So Alive: Whimsical Indie-Rock Gospel for the Ennui-Stricken

Posted on 21 June 2026

‘Whimsy’ has become a bit of a buzzword lately, but singer-songwriter duo Ana & Gene have been injecting a sticky-sweet sensibility into a synthesis of indie rock and power pop way before the trend took hold. Their latest single, I Feel So Alive, captures the symbiotic sonic force at their most affecting as they coax their international fanbase away from ennui through melodically infectious instrumentals, layered harmonies and a sense of soul which makes their modus operandi of lifting as many people as possible viscerally palpable.

I Feel So Alive, with its swanky, extended blues-rock-esque guitar solo that leads into lush layered harmonies before a hymnal verse from Ana, is gospel for everyone who won’t find salvation on a church pew, but through a pair of rock renegades who have earned their stripes with a side serving of wisdom, recognising the tragedy of lives lost too soon and the ripple effect of addiction.

Chicago-based Ana & Gene bring serious history to that uplift. Gene Roberts’ gold-certified pop background meets Anastacia Bella’s research-driven, emotionally charged songwriting, with their award wins, Josie Music Awards and ISSA Awards nominations, and indie chart success proving their reach stretches far beyond scene-level buzz.

I Feel So Alive is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

credits Pushed Alt-Country Away from Indie Landfill with the Rose-Tinted Sting of Evergreen

Posted on 1 June 2026

If any contemporary band is worthy of being the ambassador for Liverpool’s culturally rich indie scene, it’s credits, who turned their latest single, Evergreen, into a session in soul-deep sublimity, carried by quasi-prophetic grace in the lyrics and the way they are projected into the expanse of alt-country, 90s indie, and Americana.

Put an Americana twang against the soaring choruses of Gold Against the Soul-era Manic Street Preachers and the introspective candour of Mansun, and you arrive at the dusky alchemy of credits, a band paving their way away from indie landfill with pure sonic gold.

Nothing in the production is overblown, giving Evergreen the intimate lack of pretence that became synonymous with college radio rock, yet credits place each note in euphonic suspension, creating a cinematically visual, radio-ready feather in their cap. Pedal steel, jangly guitar chimes, and Jay Morris’ reflective storytelling turn the track into a rose-tinted reckoning with a past love that still rattles around the mind like an address you remember too well.

The Liverpudlian power-pop songsmiths wear the lineage of George Harrison, Tom Petty, Neil Young, James Taylor, and Laurel Canyon harmony with open devotion, while production from Ben Harper and mixing from JB Pilon keep the single rooted in the future of indie. Whoever said you can’t have the best of both worlds?

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Shape or Form’s Debut Single, ‘Don’t Turn Away’ Hung Lynchian Melodies, Scuzzy Pop-Punk Antagonism and Alt-90s Nostalgia in the Gallery of Their Ingenuity 

Posted on 1 April 2026

‘Don’t Turn Away’ may ease you in with woozy function-band melodic 80s nostalgia, the kind you’d expect to see people swaying and swooning to in a David Lynch film, but the debut single from Williamsport-based powerhouse Shape or Form, which keeps its tuning geared towards the past to drench the present in the kind of nostalgia that instantly makes your angsty soul feel right at home, dials up the pop-punk antagonism to the scuzziest degree, delivering a grungy homage to the alt-90s.

If Teenage Fanclub, Weezer and other bands in that deliciously visceral vein constitute your playlist staples, this lo-fi slacker jam is essential listening. There’s definitive talent to the way Shape or Form simmers tension into the release; the melodic ease of the opening gives way to a rougher, fuzz-frayed charge without losing its hooky core. That push and pull gives the track its staying power, landing somewhere between basement-show scruffiness and cinema-lit longing.

Formed in late 2023 in North Central Pennsylvania, the four-piece came together fast, driven by shared chemistry and a love of songs that carry familiar hooks without sounding stale. With John on drums, Micah on bass, Patrick on lead guitar, and Vaughn steering rhythm guitar and vocals, the band already sound locked in.

Don’t Turn Away is now available on all major streaming platforms, including YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Rooftop Screamers delivered a melancholic rush of cosmic power pop euphoria with ‘Our Story’, featuring Royston Langdon

Posted on 5 March 2026
Rooftop Screamers - Our Story (feat. Royston Langdon) by Rooftop Screamers

The melancholically euphoric rush of Rooftop Screamers’ Our Story could only have been fully realised through the quasi-cosmic harmonic timbre of Royston Langdon. The single lands as a spacy iteration of retro power pop, brushed with hues from the indie-pop palette that pull you into its kaleidoscopic colour. From the first moments, the track settles into a weightless atmosphere that feels oddly familiar, as though you’ve always belonged inside its sonic horizon.

There’s a natural ease in the arrangement that delivers a scintillating aura around the brashier textures. Swaggering-with-nostalgia guitars strike the production like bell tolls, ringing through the mix to keep the emotional gravity intact while the melody floats skyward. The sensation lands somewhere between melancholic reflection and full-bodied elation.

As a meditation on the bliss of recognising the one person who salves the existential ache, few artists have paid a more fitting ode to the sensation of longing being sated in the most absolute way possible. The way this is mirrored with the segue into psychedelic 60s pop before the track builds back up in a radio-ready rock opera-esque way that Rooftop Screamers triumphs with affirms that Mike Collins is one of the most accomplished songwriters out there. You may not see him at the Grammys, but you probably wouldn’t see anyone at the Grammys capable of orchestrating a feat like this either.

Supported by the instrumental flourishes of Dirk Sullivan and the pristine studio shaping by Kevin Hahn, the release moves with a clear understanding of melody, texture and atmosphere,

Our Story is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Bandcamp. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Scott McDonald Poured Anthemic Defiance and Rose-Tinted Melancholy into His Retro Rock Anthem, ‘Wave’

Posted on 31 August 2025

If life is a wave, Scott McDonald’s power pop meets retro rock signature is a tsunami of feeling. His standout single, Wave, taken from his debut LP See It Through, carries the incendiary fire of The Manic Street Preachers in their Generation Terrorists era, while channelling the glamour of Michael Monroe and the riotously infectious euphoria you’d expect from a Tom Petty record. With lyrical substance at its core, the augmented atmosphere traverses different epochs of rock with an energy that borders on the feral.

Wave lands as an anthem for anyone wrestling with karmic injustice, for those attempting to make sense of reality’s increasingly obscure forms, and for listeners trying to reconcile rose-tinted pasts with the black clouds hovering over their present. It is both escapist and grounding, offering catharsis through its relentless rhythm and soaring vocal delivery.

At the heart of See It Through lies McDonald’s own songwriting fire. As both lead vocalist and primary writer, he poured his personal touch into all twelve tracks, reflecting resilience, hope, and the fight to keep moving forward. Produced alongside Brian J. Anthony in Pennsylvania, the album’s sessions thrummed with an atmosphere that allowed McDonald’s creative spirit to fully ignite. With Wave as its flagship, this debut cements him as an artist who can soundtrack both despair and defiance with equal intensity and consolation.

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


Review by Amelia Vandergast

Zegovia Let the Bass Growl Them to Glory in PREFAB

Posted on 27 August 2025
Zegovia

Zegovia supercharged the sticky-sweet hooks of proto-punk and power pop with a raw rock energy that revels in guitar indulgence and the kind of rolling rhythm sections that take your pulse hostage, pulling it into the possession of pure, visceral volition. It is a sound only possible from prodigal sons of rock who have found the perfect equilibrium between restraint and raucous annihilation.

With Prefab, the band picks up where the Ramones left off while driving the anthemic heights of acts like Foo Fighters into their own indelible mark and letting their basslines growl them to glory. The thematic heart of the track throbs through the instrumentals, each chord and beat a defiant nod to chaos embraced rather than contained. The lyrics invite you into their fever dream without offering neat resolutions, instead giving space for interpretations that melt into distortion.

Since their debut LP OBSERVE, Zegovia have made their defiance a signature. Prefab is no exception, built to be felt more than understood, pushing their sound further into abstract terrain while holding onto their instinct for catharsis.

PREFAB is now available on all major streaming platforms. Find your preferred way to listen and connect with the band via this link. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Sucker for a Pretty Face whipped out power pop punk hooks sharp enough to scar with ‘Ghost in Blue’

Posted on 4 August 2025
Ghost in Blue (on the 405) by Sucker For A Pretty Face

Power Pop always bites down harder when it is hybridised with Pop Punk, so brace yourself for the hooks in Ghost in Blue to scar. Each twist in Sucker for a Pretty Face’s sonic vignette finds that mysterious sweet spot that lands somewhere between your rhythmic pulses and your soul.

The solo virtuoso proves what it sounds like when a pro attacks alt-rock, using nostalgic angst and tender, wistful longing as a lifeblood; the result is a single with enough bite to leave a mark long after the last note decays.

The project, the work of composer, musician, and singer Eric Vincent Thomas, stands at the vanguard of the brashy, bouncy nu-pop punk revival. Under the Sucker for a Pretty Face banner, Thomas alchemises tracks solo and with a revolving door of collaborators, channelling everything from old-school alt-pop-punk to melodically charged, lyrically driven modern rock.

If you were obsessed with Bowling for Soup the last time skinny jeans and panda eyes were cool, this will be your new sonic crush. For anyone whose playlists are a safe haven for anthems of nostalgia and sweet defiance, Ghost in Blue (on the 405) will feel like home.

Ghost in Blue (on the 405) is now available on all major streaming platforms including Bandcamp. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Dial into Blonde Otter’s New York-Bred Swagger with ‘Your Number’

Posted on 24 July 2025

Where else could Blonde Otter be but from New York? The luxe way their vintage garage rock panache reverberates through their latest single, Your Number, screams authenticity with such visceralism that the proverbial lungs making the proclamation could easily be torn.

The triadic way style, substance and swagger alchemises into a track that allows you to imagine White Stripes breaking through without selling out ensures that when you’re dialling into Your Number and those choppy angular guitars and you are enveloped within the static of the augmented lo-fi-yet-licked-with polish production, you have little doubt that while Blonde Otter may thrive in the murk of the underground, they are deserving of the crown in the post-garage-rock pantheon.

After rising up from Bronx house parties and quickly making a name for themselves in Mercury Lounge, Bowery Electric and the Gramercy Theatre, Blonde Otter’s signature sound drew in acclaim for its fusion of power pop, 80s new wave and unfiltered garage energy. Their self-titled debut album caught the ear of tastemakers, and now, after years of evolution, the group are more than ready for the next step. The new chapter sees the band reaching beyond personal tales to sketch out the broader aches and ironies of city life, holding tight to the urgency that fuelled their underground ascent while pushing for something sharper, more angsty and honest.

Your Number is now available on all major streaming platforms, including YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast