Browsing Tag

Soul Pop

Micah Marine’s second eponymous album allows pop to walk barefoot through blues, soul and Americana fantasy

Posted on 2 June 2026

Micah Marine brought a burst of authenticity back to pop with his second eponymous album, Micah Marine 2. The expansively styled LP traverses the entire pop spectrum, travelling further across the span of one single than many pop artists do in a lifetime. The second track on the LP, Daddy, is the ultimate introduction to Micah Marine’s soul-pop fusionist style.

The way he brings blues beyond genre and into an art form that reverberates with mainstream appeal is almost as affecting as the experience of the single itself. As acoustic guitar strings twang and the percussion is kept traditional, Micah uses his voice to push the arbitrary parameters of blues, allowing it to shine with brand new warmth while pop adopts the salacious-to-the-soul grooves.

Micah Marine’s wider world is rooted in cinematic pop, alternative pop, dream-pop aesthetics, Americana fantasy, and emotional storytelling, yet Daddy proves the mythology works because the feeling comes first.

His music moves between the spaces of intimate confessionalism and movie-soundtrack resonance, where heartbreak is gold-shimmered theatre, and reinvention becomes survival. Across Micah Marine 2, he folds healing, ambition, memory, identity, and escapism into songs that reach for something larger than life. Daddy gives that universe its most tactile pulse, all bluesy intimacy, soul-pop glow, and a fearless emotional core.

Micah Marine 2 is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Apple Music.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Experimental Singer-Songwriter, Klas Ehnemark, Gave ‘Indian’ the Force of Ancestral Belonging in a Disconnected World

Posted on 14 April 2026

If we all lived consistently reminded by the fact that we’re the current manifestation of our ancestry instead of focusing on our ego and the immediacy of our sole legacies, we might stand a chance at veering away from the dystopia we’re currently in. Klas Ehnemark’s Indian is a visceral interruption of self-obsession, an invitation to drench yourself in the bliss of knowing that even though everything is temporary, the roots of ancestry anchor you within a world becoming more and more disconnected. Hailing from the windswept Swedish island of Öland, and only now stepping into public view after years of private songwriting, Ehnemark arrives with the presence of someone who has taken his time for a reason.

Sonically, Indian is a lush landscape of pop, funk, and the pure heat of impassioned soul. Ehnemark’s vocals soar with spellbinding conviction, the emotional range of his delivery almost as impressive as his octave range; rock musicians would kill to carry the same force in their vocal cords, and all his power is primed without overshadowing the catharsis of the production. There are shades of Van Morrison in the spiritual warmth, hints of José González in the intimacy, and the reflective pull of Bon Iver and Nick Drake in the songwriting, yet Indian carries its own pulse of belonging and continuity.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

‘Backseat’ Finds SHALINI RANI in Full Femme Fatale Force and Soul-Pop Control

Posted on 11 April 2026

Some of the lushest RnB of the decade landed when SHALINI RANI dropped Backseat. The Watford-based British-Indian soul-pop artist has built her voice and vision on her own terms, pulling from jazz, soul and pop while rooting everything in fearless self-expression, cultural truth and the search for belonging. Backseat catches all of that in motion. Blazing with the same unfuckwithable fire and energy as Lola Young, with raspy in all the right places RnB harmonies, SHALINI RANI knows how to bring the hypnotism to her juxtapositions of soul and salaciously spicy femme fatale ferocity.

As a metaphorical refusal to live small and operate from a secondary position, Backseat stirs vindication deep within without any of the emotion feeling forced. SHALINI RANI tempers it all with luxe grooves that grip your rhythmic impulses in a way that leaves you wondering whether they’ll ever let go. There’s sensuality in the movement, steel in the intent, and a self-possessed centre that gives the single its real charge.

That sense of reclamation runs through her wider creative life too, from self-teaching her musical language to advocating for queer and female artists through Haven Studios, while also contributing to The Ivors Academy’s early careers and jazz-focused spaces. Backseat feels like liberation in motion.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Contemporary RnB Artist, Rochone Salaciously Dripped Disco-Glitter Grooves and Aphrodisiacal Harmonies into ‘I Love Sex’

Posted on 10 March 2026

Lust reigns over romance in Rochone’s LP, Love Fails. Guilt-free pleasure takes precedence in the standout single, I Love Sex, where Rochone keeps his cards close to his chest while slipping into the airwaves’ sheets with a luxe contemporary RnB groove. The track bridges the gap between the imprint The Weeknd has left on the genre and the scintillating soul of funk-chopped disco euphoria, delivering a rhythm that feels equally primed for dim-lit dance floors and late-night headphone confessionals.

Through Nile Rodgers-esque staccato guitar chops, synths that deliver disco ball glitter synaesthesia and harmonies aphrodisiacal enough to get listeners on the same salacious page as Rochone, the single moves with a knowing swagger. The groove glides along with silky confidence, while the vocal performance keeps a sly sense of control, teasing out the track’s sensuality without giving away the whole hand. Within that polished RnB-pop framework, the hook lands with sticky-sweet immediacy. .

Rochone’s arrival as a solo artist carries the experience of a seasoned performer. Raised in Los Angeles and steeped in live entertainment, he spent his early years performing with the boy band Radio For People, taking to major stages including televised talent shows that demanded charisma as much as vocal power. That background in dance and performance still bleeds through the production choices here, giving the groove a kinetic charge that feels built for movement as much as listening.

I Love Sex is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Meditate in Tranquillity, Vulnerability, and Self-Reclamation with CTLN’s Soulfully Spiritual RnB Release, I Saved Me

Posted on 7 March 2026

Singer-songwriter CTLN turned her RnB lens onto self-reclamation in her latest single, I Saved Me, easing listeners into the warmth of a love letter written to her inner child, penned for herself, and for anyone else searching for a little light on the path back towards inner-healing. Through lush, hazy 80s aesthetics and a seductive-to-the-soul aura, she creates a cocoon of tranquillity that glows with sincerity. The serenity within the release is only matched by the emotional clarity in her vocal performance, which uses every inch of her octave range to gently implore the listener to surrender to themselves before they give anything away to the world.

The consoling catharsis within the easy-listening serenade deepens as CTLN refuses to engage on surface level. Vulnerability takes precedence over performance polish; the way she lets her emotions breach the atmosphere gives the track its quietly disarming potency. As she lets the lyricism unravel in soft confessional waves, the invitation to reflect becomes impossible to dodge. The track carries the kind of stillness that insists on reciprocity; it leaves you standing on a higher plateau before the outro dissolves into silence.

Originally from New Jersey and now based in Los Angeles, CTLN has been building a body of work grounded in radical honesty, soulful storytelling, and the desire to make listeners feel seen. As a burn survivor forging a space for people carrying both visible and invisible scars, she approaches songwriting as a conduit for emotional liberation. During a period of deep meditation and self-inquiry while volunteering in Guatemala, she wrote I Saved Me as an ode to healing through inner child work, reflection, and spiritual grounding.

I Saved Me is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lou Waters Turned Wilt, Wonder and Quiet Soul-Driven Consolation into the Art Pop Bloom of ‘Cut Flowers Die’

Posted on 1 March 2026
Lou Waters

Lou Waters used flora as a parable for transient romance in her latest single, Cut Flowers Die. The wistfully poignant exposition of watching beauty decay mellifluously flows with the traditions of classic pop songwriting, carried by a soul-driven, cathartically warm conversational tone that never tips into theatrics. It’s the kind of writing that lets melancholy sit gently on the surface while something deeper flickers underneath, almost like she’s whispering a truth you missed while living through it.

The way the melodies take on a non-linear feel as the chamber pop instrumentals pirouette through the progressions builds an enrapturing aura. The art pop foundation lets her quirky signature vocal style move freely, evoking the sincerity of 70s folk singer-songwriters while embodying the earnest consolation usually found in the timbre of soul singers. The complexity and sonorous timelessness of Cut Flowers Die is one thing; the way Waters catches you off-guard by breathing poetry into moments most people disregard is another entirely. Ironically, she blossomed through Cut Flowers Die in a way Lily Allen would have sold her soul to achieve through her latest album. There’s something almost spiritual in the artful eccentricity of her approach, which refuses to augment or over-polish any part of its authenticity.

A Welsh singer-songwriter now based in Oxfordshire, Waters has quietly shaped a lane where introspective storytelling, off-kilter musicality and emotional warmth meet. Cut Flowers Die feels like the beginning of a compelling new chapter: a vignette rich enough to linger longer than your next fling. It’s a stunning reminder of how impermanence has its own kind of beauty when framed through the right lens.

Cut Flowers Die is now available on all major streaming platforms, including SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Pam Messer lifted quiet resilience into melodic clarity in her latest alt-indie-pop release, I Want More

Posted on 6 December 2025

In Pam Messer’s latest single, I Want More, the experimental gravitas that has marked her place on the indie pop map rises again with an ease that feels entirely her own. Her songwriting has always carried a reflective charge, shaped by her instinct to work across sound and colour at once, often painting while writing, letting the two practices cross‑feed until a fuller emotion settles. That multi‑sensory instinct threads through this track as she untangles desire with a steady, clear‑eyed assurance. There is no grasping, no posture of entitlement, only a confident reach for what the heart already knows it deserves.

The gentle staccato guitar licks give the rhythm a two‑step sway that burrows in before you even notice, sitting against polyphonic electronic layers that spark against the breezy ska‑leaning textures. It lands with a spiritual lightness, almost like Pam Messer has found a way to let longing breathe rather than tighten. The vocal delivery mirrors that same calm certainty. It refuses theatrics, which somehow deepens the pull. You can hear the painter in her, the way she places each phrase as if it carries its own shade, its own temperature.

As the verses open out, the emotional core reveals itself. This is a song shaped by self‑worth, by the resilience she has built through past fractures in love, and by the quiet bravery of wanting something brighter after everything else has worn thin. It is indie pop with a gently experimental edge, fully rooted in her artistic world, and fans of thoughtful left‑leaning pop will find plenty to hold close here.

I Want More is now available on all major streaming platforms, including YouTube. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Indini melted old-school soul into cheeky sonic poetry in ‘l.o.m.l’

Posted on 7 November 2025

Indini has the kind of warmth in her voice that could speed up the effects of climate change; just like the icebergs, you melt into the luxuriant aura drifting around her synaesthesia-imparting harmonies tinged with sepia-hued soul. In her standout single, l.o.m.l, the London and Oxford-based RnB singer-songwriter evokes old-school soul, but as much as she gives reverent nods to her aural roots, she refuses to be boxed in by the act of assimilation.

The release takes on a life of its own, splicing euphonic, easy-listening serenity with gritty conversational interludes, cheeky rap verses, and pop vocal hooks. Indini doesn’t keep to one lane; she almost takes a jazzy approach to her vocal range, dipping between sultry, silk-spun harmonies and spoken segments that feel like side-eye poetry. It’s an uninhibited serenade shot straight at the soul, oozing authenticity without ever taking itself too seriously.

Still in her second year studying Popular Music at Goldsmiths, University of London, Tiffany Jakovljevich has already built a prolific back catalogue after releasing her first EP at 13. ‘l.o.m.l’ was penned during her first year at uni and leads the way on her latest release, NOBODY’S SOMEONE — a record shaped over three years with threads pulled from as far back as 2021. The DIY bedroom-pop origins are still stitched into the seams, but the artistic progression is as palpable as the radiance of her vocal delivery. Fans of RnB with a taste for nuance, wit, and emotive depth won’t need long to fall for this one.

l.o.m.l is now available on all major streaming platforms, including YouTube. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

O.W.T.O. shimmered with a solar groove in the funk-soaked pop celebration, This Is Amazing

Posted on 10 October 2025

As symphonies of soul, pop, and funk go, they rarely get sweeter than O.W.T.O.’s latest release, This Is Amazing. The feel-good powerhouse locks you tight into grooves that shimmer like a disco ball while tossing in a little Motown flavour to round out the cultural smorgasbord they serve to feed the souls of their ever-growing audience. There’s something irresistibly wholesome about this outfit, whether it’s their creative synergy or the sincerity that flows in every melodic breath. Either way, the vibrational pull of this track is strong enough to knock the airwaves’ solar system out of orbit.

The single bursts open with a buoyant rhythm section, glittering brass accents, and silky vocal lines that roll like pure dopamine. The composition doesn’t posture; it celebrates, with the kind of infectious radiance that commands movement from even the most static listener. The track’s energy is pure affirmation, a kinetic release that reminds us of what music can do when it’s crafted with joy, love, and genuine soul.

Following their #1 debut single Don’t Push It, This Is Amazing marks another milestone for O.W.T.O., whose “Ol’ Skool” ethos keeps live instrumentation and performance at the heart of everything they do. The single was written and produced by Dr P. A. Francis (UK) and features Grammy Award-winning guitarist Rudy Valentino Jr. (USA), both of whom inject the mix with dexterity and timeless groove. With air play spreading across the UK and US and international appearances steadily multiplying, O.W.T.O. are clearly ready to lead the revival of music that feels alive.

This Is Amazing is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

LA’s Kait Silva Draped Neo-Pop in Hazy Reverie with Her Debut Single, ‘Soulmate (For a Minute)’

Posted on 13 September 2025
Kait Silva

LA’s soul-pop-star-in-the-making, Kait Silva, swung back in time with her neo-pop debut single, Soulmate (For a Minute), waxing lyrical on the fleeting nature of affinity in an era where distraction reigns and there’s always someone seemingly more promising waiting around the corner or on the next app, but in’t it nice to get lost in the hazy reverie of fantasy?

The weight of nostalgia against her stark, unflinching exposition, narrated through dusky, dreamy, and conversational harmonies, leaves you floating in rose-tinted etherealism, clinging to the cinematic idea of romance that rarely mirrors reality outside the confines of your mind.

The decadently rich yet intimately awakening production carries you through a haze of crushed velvet warmth without losing its emotional pulse. Silva’s ability to pour heart, humour, and humanity into her songwriting is only matched by her skill in channelling her retro soul pop influences into something that feels both timely and timeless. Years of singing in choirs, a cappella groups, and jazz trios echo softly beneath the polish, grounding the track with a vocal assuredness that promises her upcoming EP will be just as evocative. For your own sake, keep her on your radar, just in case she has to heal your heartbreak with candour.

Soulmate (For a Minute) is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast