Browsing Tag

The Flaming Lips

Milk Break turned millennial wound-licking into whimsical cosmic indie on ‘Is It Home or Is It Hole?’

Posted on 22 August 2026

Milk Break picked out the splinters of growing pains with a retrospective sense of maturity with Is It Home or Is It Hole?, the third and final single from his upcoming debut album, Don’t Put It Down, Put It Away. The Minnesota singer-songwriter and indie pop-rock musician, real name Jared Bohlken, performed, recorded and mixed the primarily solo project from his home studio, using the album to process ended relationships, aimlessness, loss and hope from his 20s.

His lyrics are practically prophetic, but will the youth of today take heed to his introspective gold before getting burned themselves? Absolutely not, making Is It Home or Is It Hole? an aural gem for millennials still licking their wounds. The organic instrumentation and quaint vocal delivery fall on just the right side of twee as Milk Break reaches the epitome of candid, honeyed devastation.

Building into a cosmic arrangement that hits the same offbeat sweet spots as The Flaming Lips, Grandaddy and ELO, the track contorts itself into a quintessentially whimsical trip across the cosmos of memory, as Milk Break claws at the most tender echoes of heartbreak.

The fuzzy solo feels present for catharsis as much as sonic appreciation; it bridges the gap between the tentative breaths of the prelude and the unrestrained polyphonic synth timbres platforming meta-poetry that feels far too natural for Milk Break. It’s an odyssey that will undoubtedly reflect everyone’s proverbial diary entries penned in their 20s.

Grab the tissues and prepare for the resonance because Is It Home or Is It Hole? is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Carl Krausnick became a cosmic conduit of the purity in humanity with his sticky-sweet slacker jam, Handle with Care

Posted on 29 May 2026

Carl Krausnick’s Handle with Care tears a strange, celestial hole through the alt-indie ceiling, arriving as the kind of artful slacker-psych jam that makes Wayne Coyne’s cosmic harmonies feel like part of the same far-off constellation. After a soaring rock-opera-esque guitar riff throws the electricity of amplification into a distorted psychedelic kaleidoscope, the track slips into an arrangement swimming with the cerebral care of Radiohead, the endearing wonk of Grandaddy, and a tinge of The Beatles in their most mind-altering era.

Krausnick handles each transition in sound in the way the metaphysics behind alchemy could explain, turning fractured guitar textures, warped pop structures, and emotionally off-kilter songwriting into something oddly pure. The Memphis-based indie psych artist, fresh from his debut LP, Dining Companion, pushes deeper into art-rock terrain here, letting Handle with Care feel loose, lucid, and spiritually aerodynamic all at once.

The Flaming Lips, early Stephen Malkmus, Radiohead, and Grandaddy hover as useful coordinates, yet Krausnick’s signature reaches somewhere stranger than reference points can contain, with genuine cross-over appeal. If humanity ever needs to negotiate with beings from another planet, I’m voting for Carl Krausnick as our ambassador; there are few people better equipped to exhibit the beauty and purity human minds are capable of.

Handle with Care is now available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Favourite Armchair Landed in the Cosmos Between the Flaming Lips & Grandaddy with ‘Overflow’

Posted on 19 April 2026

For their latest release, the indie folk troubadour-comprised outfit, Favourite Armchair, debuted a remastered version of their single, Overflow; the quaint indie folk aesthetics which have become quintessential to the artist’s sonic signature remain, but with this release, they dug his sound deeper into the cosmos than they’ve ventured before, giving the still intimately lo-fi release a touch of the soul-tingling euphony of the Flaming Lips and Grandaddy.

In the same way that the Flaming Lips’ iconic single, Do You Realize?, which will always have a place in the pantheon of ingenious aural invention, seems to loosen the knots in your heartstrings, Overflow is a stunningly affecting exhibition of Favourite Armchair’s ability to transform an outpour of emotion into interstellar transcendence, which still remains tethered to the roots of folk.

There is a homespun tenderness in the composition; while the remaster gives the track a wider celestial glow and a fuller sense of depth, the acoustic intimacy still holds firm, yet every tonal detail feels more luminously suspended, as though the song has been lifted into the memory of the night sky.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Dream Optimist sugared sonic soul before pouring it into their spacey synthpop single, Think Gently of Yourself

Posted on 9 September 2023

Silence the maleficence of your inner critic with the latest interstellar indie space pop escapade, Think Gently of Yourself, from Dream Optimist. If Do You Realize by The Flaming Lips never fails to pull at your heartstrings and stir your soul with unabashed positivity, the same viscerally sweet reaction awaits when you hit play on the seminal single from Dream Optimist’s 15-track LP, Seven Day Love Challenge.

Atop the twinkling Grandaddy-esque keys and around the chamber strings, the questioning and pervasive with doubt lyricism leads you on an affirming odyssey of a journey through the cosmos, with the consolingly compassionate vocals acting as a star-roving guide.

The Oakland, CA-residing songwriter and composer, frequently voyages between synthpop, bedroom pop, chamber pop and a myriad of other genres when penning his hits for his ‘low head count collective’. Before breaking into song crafting for the airwaves, the collective’s head honcho, David Marc Siegel, honed his talents in art-punk outfits and as a composer for ad music, theatre music, musical theatre, and short films, which goes a fair way in explaining how he settled on his cinematically spirited sound that will take you as high as the transcendent register on the vocal harmonies.

Stream Think Gently of Yourself by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Partisan Way gave hope to the hopeless romantics in their indie synth-pop sugar rush, I Know What You’ll Say

Posted on 3 June 2023

It may have been almost two years since we heard Partisan Way, but there was no forgetting the artisanal sonic sugar that emanated from their blissfully affectionate indie-pop hit, Borrow Me.

In 2023, they’re back on the airwaves with their single I Know What You’ll Say, which starts in the middle ground of The Beatles and Elliott Smith before there is a smooth transition into a synth-kissed summer bop, which celebrates the agonising pain of pre-emptive anxiety before a romantic proclamation.

Ultimately, I Know What You’ll Say is a waltz-y indie psych-pop invitation to embrace the beauty of vulnerability. The entire single is a testament to that very beauty; hopeless romantics may even gain some hope by the time the big synth outro comes around, following the honeyed high vocal lines atop the pop instrumentals that meld classic and contemporary songwriting. Wayne Coyne himself couldn’t have hit those notes better.

Just when we thought we couldn’t have any more predilection towards the indie outfit fronted by Dan Tierney, I Know What You’ll Say, in all its polyphonic synthy glory, allowed our soft spot to become infinitely softer under the duress of the unassured soul in the vocals.

Stream I Know What You’ll Say on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Go on a baroque space odyssey with Chris Sunfield’s Circus of Love

Posted on 15 May 2023

Circus of Love is enough of an oddity odyssey it could make David Lynch jealous. Yet, Chris Sunfield pulled it all together with the sweetly impassioned style and soul of Wayne Coyne and the spacey touches of ELO and Bowie, leaving just enough room for his own masterful maker’s mark.

Affectionate and Avant-Garde in the same histrionic breath, Circus of Love will easily become another hit for the singer-songwriter who always allows his sonic signature to evolve with every new release. The only consistencies are the superlative talents through which the sentiments are splayed out across the addictive melodies and the rapturous reception every new single garners.

Circus of Love hit the airwaves on May 5; catch it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Fleeting Foxes Release “Fleeting Foxes” Something For All Rock Fans

Posted on 9 October 2017

If there’s one word that can describe what some people out of rock music, it’s the word “big.” While a grounded punk jam or acoustic ballad are nice touches for more intimate settings, rock music remains forever changed by generations of bands who understood that by producing enormous soundscapes with their work, they were able to take their messages to another level. The advent of Arena Rock and groups like the Who and U2 knew how to create infinite spaces that to this day are transferred through headphones. Current torchbearers of this tradition include the Foxfires.

Fleeting Foxes is a track that calls for freedom from within. Appropriately, everything from the jangling guitars to the thunderous drums feel like they’ve been unleashed from a typical rock instrument in a garage to a force of nature. Vocals and bass join along as elements that maintain clarity and structure despite projecting to meet their companions in a mix that doesn’t feel crowded by any means, but instead feels full. The Foxfires have an inspiring sound and Fleeting Foxes will leave you wanting as much more as you can get. This track is truly something for rock fans of all ilks to behold.

-Paul Weyer