Browsing Tag

Progressive Pop

Skip the Self-Help Shelf and Put Don Castor’s Euphoric Pop R&B Wisdom on Repeat with ‘I Make Me Happy’

Posted on 4 August 2026

You could read 100 self-help books, skim some Eastern philosophy and curate your Instagram feed into a barrage of positive mantras, or you could listen to I Make Me Happy by Don Castor for the same effect. Taken from the Freedom LP, the single wraps all the wisdom you’ll need into a euphoric pop earworm that writhes through R&B, soul and electronica.

Accompanied by a tongue-in-cheek music video, complete with a comedic B-movie-style Conan the Barbarian detour and an intergalactic UFO battle for extra serotonin, I Make Me Happy is guaranteed to colour your soul.

Castor’s experience across film and television, including Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Fantasy Island, feeds the visual spectacle without distracting from the song’s sincere emotional centre. By the outro, its infectiously warm chorus has hauled listeners away from terminal despondency and planted them somewhere sunnier.

I Make Me Happy extols the virtue of finding validation within yourself, checking out of the comparison game, putting one foot in front of the other and cutting ties that leave you anchored in misery. The bright production keeps everything airborne and reminds you that sometimes, all you need is someone to take the form of a conduit of soul and an icon of progressive house pop simultaneously, and lift you to heights that only sincerity can reach. Keep Castor on your radar for your own sake and sanity.

I Make Me Happy is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Apple Music.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Puzzles by Jay Tone Is Progressive Alt-Pop with Avicii Scale and Elliott Smith Emotional Range

Posted on 29 June 2026

Even with the music industry beyond its saturation point, every now and then, there are voices that will instantly catch you off guard, as the emotion projected by them trembles within you. Everyone who comes across Puzzles by Jay Tone will be blessed with that experience of mining a diamond in the superficial, algorithmic rough.

The NYC singer-songwriter, born Jack David Tonrey in St. Paul, Minnesota, has already moved through theatre, melodic rap under the alias Weatherman, pandemic-era discovery through Instagram Live moments with names such as Smooky Margiella, 2KBaby and A$AP TY, and a debut EP titled New Chapter. Now as an independent entity ready to make a new mark, he carries a sharper sense of self and serious momentum behind him.

Puzzles is a progressive alt-pop ballad and an arsenal of wounding vocal inflections as the powerhouse of talent explores co-dependency in a toxic relationship. Every instrumental line is fine-tuned through melodic complexity, the piano artfully frenetic as the progressive dance-pop beat fluctuates in tempo around poetic confessions which scream of emotional intelligence and maturity. He is a heartbreaker in the best possible way.

Mentored by Richie Cannata and connected to Cove City Sound Studios since 2021, with features in Earmilk, The Source and Billboard Hip-Hop, plus recent track It Goes On placed for radio in GTA VI, Jay Tone is entering a serious phase. If you could imagine Avicii with the emotional range of Elliott Smith, you will get an idea of how seminal he is about to become.

Puzzles is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Mathias Julin created faultlines from feelings in his progressive house pop blockbuster, Could You Lie

Posted on 26 April 2026

Mathias Julin delivers hits of evocative pop that swell straight through the soul, and in Could You Lie, he pushes that gift into overdrive. The scale of the production spellbinds with surges of adrenaline crashing through the contours of a progressive house pop earworm, while the kinetic arrangement creates the perfect equilibrium between momentum and intimacy. By tempering the sleek production with nuanced nods to folk, he draws a sense of narrative-forward vulnerability into the augmented scintillation of this polished radio-ready hit.

It’s Avicii, Mumford & Sons, and Yungblud in the bloodstream, yet Mathias Julin channels those touchstones into something fully charged with his own emotional voltage. His vocal delivery carries visceral force and controlled feeling in equal measure, tracing over the fractures that form in a relationship and make it harder to traverse, while never diminishing the affection running through the wreckage.

At 20, the Danish singer-songwriter has already built serious momentum, drawing a fast-growing international audience with emotionally charged songwriting, intimate vocals, and cinematic production. Signed to Los Angeles label Broke Records, he is fast cementing his place in the modern pop pantheon.

Could You Lie is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Kindled-With-Catharsis Orchestral Pop Burns Bright in ‘Back at the Campfire’ by Tristan Blaskowitz

Posted on 9 April 2026

Fuse the glow of Fireflies by Owl City into the often otherworldly sincerity of The Flaming Lips, incorporate the enrapturing tenderness in the colourful world of Mike Oldfield, and you’re left with the whimsical mesmerism of Back at the Campfire from Tristan Blaskowitz’s kindled-with-catharsis LP, Short Stories, where the lines between fantasy and legacy blur through the scintillating sonic sleights of hand by the German-Canadian composer, keyboardist and filmmaker. Featuring Greg Van Kerkhof, the release is shaped by a self-taught musician whose work across film, theatre and video games has clearly sharpened his feel for atmosphere, arrangement and emotional pacing.

Hit play, and you’ll find yourself instantly immersed in the expansive intimacy of a campfire-lit woodland, where vignettes of history lift with the embers. There’s a deep sincerity to the polyphonic production, one tempered by Blaskowitz’s cultivated touch, which refuses to lean on posterity or saccharine tricks to force emotional investment. Instead, the semi-psychedelic revelation of the single rests in his ability to place soul within the grandeur of cinematic orchestral pop.

Back at the Campfire is now available on all major streaming platforms, including YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The AI-Man – From Darkness to Light: A Pop Opera Eclipse of Emotion

Posted on 7 January 2025
The AI-Man

The AI-Man’s standout single from his upcoming debut album, From Darkness to Light, allows listeners to live vicariously through a visceral metamorphosis, guided by genre-fluidity and scribed through emotionally charged storytelling. The track opens with a poetic hush, as reverberant vocals float over an ambiently cinematic foundation, setting the stage for a crescendo that bursts with iridescent light and theatrical intensity.

The tightly woven soundscape flows between electronic euphony, pop grandeur, and the bruising simplicity of singer-songwriter confessionals. As the title suggests, the single traces a passage from despair to illumination and back again, with the sonic shifts reflecting the push and pull of personal evolution.

The AI-Man, the artistic moniker of Casper Gottlieb, has poured the turmoil of losing access to his children into this release, allowing the lyrics to strike an elusive balance—abstract enough for universal resonance, yet steeped in enough candour to convey the raw emotion.

Crafted as part of his upcoming debut album, A Father’s Truth, the song offers a glimpse into the artist’s exploration of grief, hope, and resilience through the motifs and aesthetics of classical, gospel, country and EDM. It may be difficult to pigeonhole, but it is effortless to find awe within.

From Darkness to Light will be available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify, as part of The AI-Man’s debut album, A Father’s Truth.

To stay up to date with all the artist’s news and new releases, hit follow on Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Kasey Butler – Love Like That: No Indie Alt-Pop Artist Has Worn Scorn Better

Posted on 2 July 2022
Kasey Butler

“You’re the darkest daydream in my mind” is one hell of an opening lyric; the poetry doesn’t falter from there on out in Kasey Butler’s latest progressive indie hit, Love Like That.

From a folky, vocally flooring intro into a fiery scorned proclamation of contempt for the people that send our orbits off-kilter to the tune of massive EDM pop beats, Love Like That is a summer stormer that just keeps on raging.

Ingraining even more gravitas, there is also a touch of theatrical piano-pop sewn into the hit around the arrestive orchestral swells. In every conceivable way, Kasey Butler constructed the perfect pop hit. It keeps you guessing; the monolithic shifts in tone and momentum happen as easily as breathing and that voice… That mindfully poised voice wrapping around the earworm choral lyric, “I know you don’t have dimension, broken heart was your intention, forgive me I was naive”. It is safe to say we are hooked.

Love Like That will officially release on June 30th. Get it in your ears via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Kate Gala has released her sticky sweet summer EDM pop earworm, Summer in October

Posted on 19 April 2022

Since making her 2019 debut, the EDM pop artist, Kate Gala, hasn’t failed to pick up traction with her progressively momentous instrumentals, consolingly sugared vocals and innocently candid lyrics. After garnering over 97k streams with her seminal single, Hold on Tight, she’s here with her sun-bleached earworm, Summer in October.

If Taylor Swift poured her endlessly bright vocal timbre over Avicii’s beats, the end result wouldn’t be far from the Virginia Beach singer-songwriter’s epically blissful hit that deserves to dominate the electronica charts. It shares plenty of the hallmarks of your average summer love song, but with Gala’s soul-deep vocal performance, few hit as euphonically as this.

Summer in October is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The prodigal son of impassioned EDM pop HeartMouth has returned with his brand-new single, Get Right for You

Posted on 18 March 2022

Brace your heartstrings for the stridently impassioned soul in HeartMouth’s latest stormer of an EDM Pop track, Get Right for You. There’s nothing more romantic than someone pulling their psyche into a brighter place for the person that inspired the change, which makes this pop track a rip-roaring roller coaster of all the feels.

From folk-pop style harmonies to entrancing beats, Get Right for You seamlessly transgresses through the atmospheric build-ups and high octane full-frontal harmonic pop proclamations of passion. Get Right for You isn’t just radio-ready; it’s Grammy-worthy. 90s pop boybands eat your heart out.

Get Right for You will officially debut on March 18th. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud or HeartMouth’s official website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Agaaze proves that pace is the trick in his electro-pop-meets-neo-psych single, Take it Slow

Posted on 8 January 2022

The New York-hailing multi-instrumentalist and producer Agaaze is fresh from the release of this debut 7-track EP, A Portal Inside, which features the eclectically progressive, Take it Slow.

Take it Slow was curated to prove that when it comes to progress, pace is the trick. The progressive single starts with the downtempo, dreamy textures you would expect from a track under such a name. By the time Take it Slow reaches the outro, expect to find yourself in a trippy, psychedelic rabbit hole that is structured by Agaaze’s soulfully sweet magnetism and the sheer range of his experimentalism. At the age of just 19 years old, his songwriting talent transcends the majority.

The world will never see another David Bowie for the simple reason that they’d rather place icons on pedestals and believe independent artists can never reach them. As far as we’re concerned, Agaaze came pretty damn close with Take it Slow.

Watch the visualiser of Take it Slow on YouTube or add it to your Spotify playlists.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Gard Read pops the perfectionist bubble in his anthemic indie pop debut, All We Can Do

Posted on 12 November 2021

Indie electro-pop artist Gard Read joined the swathes of artists making their debut in 2021 and scarcely left any commercial potential for the rest with ‘All We Can Do’.

While every faction of the media convinces you that you deserve nothing less than perfection while implanting unrealistic romantic ideals, Gard Read popped that naïve bubble with the reminder that Nobody is perfect. The stunning Slowdive-reminiscent guitars cushion the blow while the fiery production mimics the torrid state of mind  we enter when we contend with our insecurities and question if we’re worthy of affection.

Gard Read is right up there with Empathy Test for the way he can turn raw emotion into an anthemic hit that unifies through the resonance. If any track is going to convince you to embrace your imperfect autonomy, it’s All We Can Do.

All We Can Do is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast