People spend most of their lives trying to get away from themselves. Most of them manage to do it, but it’s a temporary solution. Sooner or later, they’re forced to run back and made to regret ever leaving. The only trouble is that, usually, when they do try to retrace their steps, they find out that the footprints have been erased by a thousand storms. They’re trapped!

Artists have the same problems. They always do. But for them, the process of extinguishing the deepest parts of themselves is nearly impossible. It’s the kind of problem that pays dividends in time. Artists are rarely allowed to forget who they are. They can spend as much time on their subjects as they want. Amy Speace has recently found that out. 

“Days of Letting Go” is a great poem about modern American outlaws having to face tragedy and doing their best not to flinch. But one would reckon, even without knowing Amy Speace personally, that this is, just as much, a song about the writer herself. The impressionistic approach to the lyrics, and the hushed reciting of the words over a country-rock instrumental, work excellently. And who knows? Listen closely, and it might just be a song about you as well. You never know what pushes you back toward who you were to start with. 

Bloodkin – Drinkin’ Blue

I love country and blues music. But it’s not like I’m in a hurry to tell anyone. In fact, I keep it hidden from my musician friends the way that you’d hide a bizarre porn fetish. And when I do reveal it, maybe play a blues lick or two, I make it seem that it’s all just a joke, a goof. They don’t suspect a thing. Yet, still, I worry someone I know will walk out on me tapping my foot to an old country song. 

But why? Aren’t blues and country music the start, essentially, for all of pop music? Sure! The only trouble is that everyone thinks that they can play it. Which is not false. Everyone can play this kind of music, but most drain it of emotion while they’re busy figuring out what to solo over the chords. Bloodkin takes a different approach. 

On “Drinkin’ Blue,” retro-tinged country and blues are merely the vehicle for a confession that the singer sounds like he doesn’t even know if he should be making. This is proper blues, the kind that includes clutter, bad habits and broken dreams. This is a song that makes people cry even if the singer wouldn’t want them to. It’s the real stuff, and you can hear every one of those things in the tone of that voice. 

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Rock n’ roll is all about the here and now, the need to celebrate the moment, and the reasons why finding solutions to problems at this very instance is a waste of time. It’s the kind of set of ideas that is so ridiculous when analysed closely that it makes you want to invest in a Master’s Degree in accounting and a gym membership. 

It’s the sort of thing that makes you choose the opposite route and, in fact, obsess over the future and all of the things that you need to do to, eventually, be happy. Still, those who’ve lived enough will tell you that neither set of actions truly works the way that it should. Great things happen when you least expect, and they disappear when you’d give anything to make them stay. 

Nic Norton and Alice Morell’s “Gone” isn’t just a lovely pop song sung with the intimacy of someone who knows you and might arrive with a cup of tea to your bedside when you’re feeling ill. It’s also a meditation on the nature of “good times,” and on the fact that it’s hard to appreciate what you have and even more difficult to know when it’s time to properly start living. 

Vinyl Neón – Travesía Espacial

You and I are lucky music fans in a lot of regards. We can just open our streaming service of choice and instantly listen to nearly any song that we can think of. We can also acquire a large physical collection of recorded music that we have chosen from thousands that were available to us on the internet or inside of gigantic stores. Yet, aren’t we missing some of the magic of old? 

If tales told by those older than us are to be believed, pop-rock music used to be a kind of refuge from the real world and was used by many as the building block for an entire fantasy universe. Consequently, so many great songs and albums had, at their core, lyrical concepts about escape to faraway places and a sound created to inspire long, lengthy listens. These are the same principles with which Vinyl Neón is working today.  

“Travesía Espacial” is that kind of song. It is a Spanish-sung alt-rock song with pleasant pop melodies about a trip for two into outer space and outside of the madness that seems to have surrounded us. It’s not just the lyrics that are optimistic, but the music is also the kind that requires headphones and rewards those willing to spend a long time with it. This is a song for those looking to escape into their minds, and it’s something that’s still greatly needed today. 

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In Eastern Europe, a place where the Church and those working in it continue to be great authority figures, there’s an expression that loosely translates as: “Do what the priest tells you, but don’t do as he does!”

From what I’ve been able to gather, nearly all places have a similar saying, and these aren’t modern inventions. Regardless of the time or of people’s commitment to religious ideals, the established truth is that those who preach rarely work too hard to live by the same ideals. 

Yet, common folk like ourselves do need some guidelines. Remove those, and we’ll be knee-deep in blood in less than a week, and drunk off our feet the week after. With this in mind, take the ancient wisdom and the modern one provided by Great Demise and mix it all up until it all makes sense.

“LOSE YOUR FACE” is a great punk-rock song that feels like it was recorded in the garage downstairs. It could just as well be an anthem for the rise of nationalism and religious fanaticism, typically pushed by ridiculous figures who merely take advantage of their admirers. It’s a great song, but also just one big chunk of the truth. 

FarFarAway – Housewives in Suburban Ghettos

Wealth is not what they teach you it is. I found out the hard way. Most people never find out at all. And, of course, there is also that rare minority glad to be working and scheming as intensely as they can their entire lives to work on a dream that could tumble down at any point. 

If you want a good indicator of that, sadly, it’s the world’s supposedly richest countries that will show it to you. Not only do these countries have surprisingly large numbers of people living in poverty, but even those making a lot of money are bound by debt, the stress of how they can maintain their current lifestyle and ignorance of the fact that many of the supposedly poorer nearby countries offer greater balance for their citizens’ lives. FarFarAway sees through the facade. 

“Housewives in Suburban Ghettos” is an angry and provocative punk-rock song. It’s played with meanness and enthusiasm. It’s aggressive and tries to grab your attention. But it is also, in many ways, truthful. It’s a song that pokes at the great capitalist dream. Do all these tied to their houses and their brand loyalty really live happy existences? Is it all a dirty trick to keep the spokes of the economy moving? 

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There are a lot of songs about outlaws, gurus, eccentrics and maniacs. In fact, if you think closely about it, except for the love ballads, most of the greatest songs in rock concern the aforementioned types of characters. But why? Perhaps it’s the fact that rock stars simply have a great understanding of how these people’s minds work. 

After all, a rock star is someone who gets up on stage to entertain people while mimicking the greatest kind of confidence at all times. Rock stars want to be adored, pampered and have their merchandise bought by loyal fans. With this in mind, it’s always a thrill to hear rock musicians sing about self-aggrandising figures, and this is what Fuzzysurf do on their recent single. 

“Self Attraction” takes the myth of Narcissus and gives it a modern sports car and dark sunglasses meant to be worn exclusively indoors. This is a song about self-obsession that turns itself into tactical manipulation. But the song is also a cute, slightly aggressive indie-rock number that arrives just at the tail-end of the Summer and one that, perhaps, will be perfect for festival stages come next season. 

Milk St. – Good Grief

Yeah, life, essentially, happens the same way to everyone. We stare at photos taken decades ago, and we point and laugh at the silly clothes that people used to wear. We read the history books and imagine how people used to live centuries ago. Yet, at the end of the day, bar a few tragedies, life and all of its terrible difficulties and simple joys have stayed the same. 

If everything does move in circles and in patterns that keep popping out, why wouldn’t the same happen for music? Now, that rock n’ roll is old, established and means so much to so many; why wouldn’t the past be our future? With all of this in mind, Milk St. deliver new old stock about sharp, modern, but classic, problems. 

“Good Grief” is a wonderful mess of an indie-rock song, the kind of thing that you would expect to hear on a Pavement rehearsal tape where the band is busy trying to cover T. Rex or Slade. It’s an old sound, but Milk St. bring enough effervescence to the performance and a haunting, emotional set of lyrics that you have to believe that this is the truth for right this very moment. 

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When you watch the news showing the press conferences of presidents and prime ministers, you are, most likely, hearing the words of psychopaths who are smart about disguising their true selves. When you listen to the radio play the same playlist for the hundredth time in a row, you are likely hearing singing performed by colossal egomaniacs. 

It’s just how it works. The history books are filled with these kinds of people, and there’s no good reason for any sane, happy man or woman to ever want to have their name added to a history book in the future. Ego makes the world go around. Sting is a man of colossal talents, sure. But if you ask Kim Kix of PowerSolo, not one for self-deprecating humour or much modesty. 

“My Songs” is inspired by Sting’s recent reworking of his tunes, and specifically by the title of the project. PowerSolo’s tune, on the other hand, is a loose, bluesy garage-rock number where guitars mumble and scream over lines in which a singer-songwriter explains to his band the amount of colossal luck that has befallen them for being able to exist in this great creator’s orbit. Songwriters everywhere might chuckle, but likely not Sting. 

Creatures of the Sun – Kaleidoscope

We could all learn a thing or two from the rock musicians of the 1960s. No, I’m not suggesting we bring back the tie-dye shirts and round-shaped, purple glasses into fashion. I’m not even advertising for the kind of chemically charged hobbies that make one get excited about 20-minute guitar solos and lyrics plucked out from the Tibetan Book of the Dead. 

All I am saying is, give happiness a chance. Or, at the very least, keep alive the possibility that it might exist. In fact, don’t close the door on any possibility, and be ready to soak in any experience and let the road take you where it may. That’s what Creatures of the Sun are telling themselves and all the world that wants to listen. 

“Kaleidoscope” is imbued with the philosophy of the Summer of Love, but sounds like the kind of garage-rock number made inside of a modern, high-tech studio. It’s a tune that owes its swagger not just to the Beatles, but to retro revival groups like the BJM, who’ve now become veterans in their own right. It’s a shimmering, fuzz-driven song about the things that may still be waiting for us if only we give them a proper chance.

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There’s a real surge of pessimism lately, and if you’re a citizen of one of the developed countries, it is very likely that you’re feeling it more than others. Ask nearly anyone if things are improving or getting worse, and you’re likely to get a sigh, a bunch of curses and maybe even a hot tear shed. 

Are things really getting worse? Or have we just lost confidence that we ourselves and our kind will be able to find solutions to the new problems that seem to appear each? I’d reckon that it’s the latter, and that this accounts for people so desperately looking for confirmation of their beliefs in others. Basin Lot see the same situation, but knows that nobody is wholly innocent. 

Musically, “Not Much Difference,” is an attempt at the kind of sophisticated guitar pop that Elvis Costello and only a few other power-pop geniuses have been able to master. Lyrically, this makes for an interesting examination of the death of individuality, the rise of tribalism, and the lack of belief in ourselves. It’s a pop gem for uncertain times. 

Phasez – Don’t Let Go

It’s hard to be a great artist, even a rock singer, and maintain any real secrets. The requirement, it seems to me after thousands of hours of research, is that you have to tell your whole truth and nothing but it, consequences be damned. Sure, we don’t know the name of Morrissey’s spouse, or if he has one, but all his listeners know all the truths that really matter. 

In many ways, these rock songwriters are required to be their own guinea pigs. They have to inflict terrible pains on themselves, usually originating from matters of the heart, and then tell the whole wide world what it feels like. They’re required to be hopeless romantics even when all of their peers are pragmatists. That’s the approach that Phasez takes. 

The Smiths are certainly a reference point for “Don’t Let Go.” However, it is not just the sound of the Manchester band, but that restlessness and the truthful words about being desperately in love and aching from it. “Don’t Let Go” is a song about identity and how one can’t really experience love while holding too tightly to the person they are at their core. It’s a darkly romantic song about the tragedy of love. 

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Usually, you know what you’re going to get when you seek out a new song in your favourite music genre, or one made by the artists you like the most. And, while this may all sound a tad predictable, that’s hardly the point. It’s this familiarity that makes casual audiences become dedicated listeners and life-long consumers of one type of music or another. 

In fact, music’s always worked this way. Most of the music ever played outside of fancy halls was performed with the aim of making the audience feel hopeful. Yeah, optimism is built into the heart of styles like country music and everything else that has taken inspiration from it, and Trickshooter Social Club know it. 

On “Poppy and Harriet,” the band plays its fiddle-driven, bright country-rock with the full belief that just a hint of those melodies will make you smile and get you to decide that, just like the story told by the lyrics, you’ll find a reason to look out at the stars tonight and prepare for a better day. It is what your country-rock-loving ears want and what the sweet grit of the vocals provides here. 

Helena Hallberg – Brain Is a Liar

Most people would love to have dedicated their life to art. That is why artists, although hardly ever paid what they are really worth, are respected by folks from all walks of life, are stared at with admiration when they walk down the street and, occasionally, are even asked for their opinion and advice on important topics such as anxiety and how to make it go away for a few heavenly moments. 

And that’s precisely why there are so few of these people working in the pop world right now. Pop songs, for the most part, are designed to make folks feel lighter and help them forget about life’s troubles. Modern pop songs are a bit of an illusion, and one that’s getting thin. Thankfully, there are still singer-songwriters like Helena Hallberg taking things a little more seriously. 

In fact, “Brain Is a Liar” is dead serious, almost philosophical in nature. It does, however, balance things out by simultaneously being marvellously charming while whispering these deep, slightly unsettling truths. Our brains and the way that they hijack our instincts are, indeed, often our biggest enemies. Leave it to a smart pop song to remind us of this and, somehow, help us feel better. 

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Yeah, you’re not imagining it. Products are getting smaller, services are getting worse, and prices are being hiked up. And while it’s tempting to blame it all on the changing fortunes of the global economy, secretly, we all know that there’s more to the story. The people making and selling all of these things just lack a bit of soul, don’t they?

These people are living right beside us, as well. We can see them. We’re able to study. And we should be stunned by their lack of humanity, their continuously growing greed. 

But there are also things that can and will not change. There’s a natural world being governed by a different set of rules. In many ways, this is the world that Billie and the Bell talk about. 

Fittingly, “I’m a Woman” benefits from the kind of arrangement and production values, typically, associated with a different, richer time for pop music. The singing is on par and delivers a soulful, confident performance. “I’m a Woman” is a poetic, dreamy song about the things that simply cannot be left behind, nor easily replaced with cheaper variations. 

ckdndcrckd – evil (short version)

Professional songwriters have a routine that’s very similar to that of the common man working at the car factory. They get up early in the morning, get some caffeine in them, drive to the office and work until the late afternoon. When the day’s done, it is expected that they have completed a number of songs, or, at least, have some finished musical ideas to work with. 

These professionals, one assumes, were started on this career route by passion and by an acknowledgement of their skill. However, keeping things pure is always hard, and made all the more difficult when you write so much material. Need the truth? You might need to hear it from novices with great enthusiasm and even more impressive instincts. 

There are moments in ckdndcrckd’s “evil” when things sound like they might be unravelling quickly, when the next melody might get everything to crumble down. But those, as it turns out, are the most exciting bits. Those parts come together to turn “evil” into the strangest kind of pop song, one that is truthful, compelling and feels written on pure instinct.

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People lie out of necessity and, particularly, because they feel that this is what is expected of them. It’s not just in the things that politicians promise, or the sweet words whispered by a narcissistic lover. It’s in our pop songs as well, in the things that turn into mass entertainment. 

Awake & Dreaming’s lyrics are designed with the idea that it’s better to hurt and admit it than to extinguish any feelings and retain a pristine reputation. The band’s music on “Inevitable” is created with the hope that listeners would rather patiently wait for songs to unfold rather than demand a quick thrill. 

This is not to say that Awake & Dreaming are running away from your classic pop ideas: strong hooks, memorable lyrics, easy-to-grasp structures. Just listen to the opening track “I U Me” with its revamped trip-hop-like beat and the resonant, emotion-filled singing that intensifies just in time for the song’s crescendo. 

Next, on “Rewire,” the band builds from the ground up, using distorted guitars and bluesy licks as the foundation for this song about obsessions so large that they turn into a boredom, a veritable anthem of contemporary overstimulation. 

Pay special attention to the singing. These aren’t your typical, confidence-posturing performances that you’ll hear across most contemporary rock records. The vocals switch naturally between bravado and vulnerability, helping to turn these tunes into the kind of storytelling that feels believable and honest. 

If Awake & Dreaming is going for a confessional, punchy songwriting style, it is not repetitive or predictable. “Antidote,” perhaps the album’s strongest track, is a callback to 90s pop-rock. “Lights Down Low” is a soulful track dominated by a shimmering, strummed acoustic guitar. And on “Faceless,” the band makes room for tense electronica textures and vocal melodies that evoke the dramatic rock sounds of 2000s Northern European groups. 

Where does this all leave us? Emotionally open and ready to accept our vulnerability, perhaps? This is certainly what Awake & Dreaming try to bring to “Inevitable,” an album that echoes the far-reaching scope of 90s alternative bands with a set of songs built around conflicting emotions and the bravery to express them to the world.   

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All these things, however, are predictable, and rather boring. Sure, following this pattern may lead to results in the real world. But who really cares about that when you have all kinds of imaginary worlds that you can visit? How will logic and simple patterns improve those? 

Voip is a danceable, feel-good-loving psych-rock duo. They’re building a story and creating a myth about their internal universe, about the rules that govern the Voipdom. “Avoiding Voip” isn’t merely an album made to improve the vibes in your room (although it will). It’s a fantasy quest draped in psych-rock sounds. 

You’ll get a chance to get ready; don’t worry! On “Magnet Mirror,” the band takes shimmering electro synths and mist-covered production and pairs it with the confident voice of Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe to get all listeners ready for the mystery. 

Ready now? It’s a strange but generally smooth ride. “Small World…” mixes alert pop percussion with soaring guitar leads and glitchy electronica to paint a picture of planets where, most likely, the laws of physics known to us humans have no reason to apply. 

If most of the songs here sound like they belong to the soundtrack of a retro game updated and enhanced for modern consoles, this is probably by design. Like those sound designs that, very likely, you’ve heard repeatedly as a child, the songs here are built around colourful, foaming patterns that repeat themselves, fall apart, and then come together again. 

However, there’s a wealth of musical ideas worked into this framework. The melodic ideas of “Grid Waves” bring to mind 80s radio pop. “Last Mirage” calls to mind the funky, disco revival sounds of 90s Western Europe. And the album closer, “Just Outside the Frame,” feels like a power ballad transformed into an ethereal psych-pop jam. 

Where does it all leave us? Stranded in Voip’s world and trying to uncover the secrets of this duo’s music. It sure beats keeping up with events in this real world of ours. It sure is more rewarding tuning into these psych-electronica waves. 

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