Category: New Single

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Twilight Sad Share Earnest and Rousingly Anthemic “Designed To Lose”

Scottish post punk outfit The Twilight Sad — currently, vocalist James Graham and multi-instrumentalist Andy MacFarlane — recently announced that their long-awaited sixth album and first in seven years, It’s The Long Goodbye. The album, which will include the previously released “Waiting For The Phone Call” featuring The Cure‘s Robert Smith on guitar, is slated for a March 27, 2026 release through Rock Action Records.

The origins of It’s The Long Goodbye‘s material can be traced back to 2016: Graham and McFarlane returned from the “pinch yourself” high of a tour with The Cure to learn that Graham’s mother had been diagnosed with early onset frontotemporal dementia. Roughly 80% of the album was written as Graham wrestled with the contrast between the joys his life — marriage, parenthood, career — and the bitter cruelty of his mother’s decline, followed by her death.

Over the next seven years, the album’s material was further developed with the London-based MacFarlane stockpiling musical ideas during COVID-19 lockdown, while exchanging words and sounds with Graham. The Cure’s Robert Smith, now a longtime close friend of the duo, provided invaluable input on the album’s demos and contributed guitar on “Waiting For The Phone Call,” mellotron on “Dead Flowers,” and six-string bass on “Back To Fourteen.”

“Then we had to piece together a band,” Graham says, now that the band is centered on him and MacFarlane. Sometimes Arab Strap members David Jeans and Mogwai touring member Alex Mackay were recruited to play drums and bass respectively, with the album produced and recorded by the band’s MacFalane with addition production from Andy Savours at Willesden’s Battery Studios, a location rich in The Cure history.

The end result may arguably be the most personal yet relatable album to date from a band whose portraits of bruised and battered humanity have helped to forge close ties with their audience. “In the past, I’ve used a lot of metaphors within my lyrics,” Graham says, “With this, there’s not as much. The record is heavily influenced by my mental health, grief and loss, and the need to be strong in positions where you’re not feeling it. It’s a very human story, I think – this is just my version of it. I feel that everybody goes through something like this. Everybody loses somebody. Everybody questions life.”

Graham adds, “To know that I’m saying things that connect with other people, that’s such a powerful thing. I want to be a relatable person that talks about things that can happen and give an opportunity for people to go, well you’re not alone. I want people to be able to listen to this record and hear that it comes from a place of raw emotion. The album is an opportunity to share my experience and move forward with my life.”

It’s The Long Goodbye‘s second and latest single “Designed To Lose” is a shimmering, propulsive and rousingly anthemic tune that’s anchored on an earnest reflection on the human condition, hinged on how we often seem doomed to lose in so many of our endeavors, including our capacity to cope with loss.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Parlor Greens Share Strutting “Eat Your Greens”

Organ trio Parlor Greens features a collection of grizzled veterans and incredibly accomplished musicians: 

The trio’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Emeralds is slated a March 27, 2026 release through Colemine Records. Emeralds reportedly sees the acclaimed trio upping the ante while capturing the band in top form: tour tight and more confident than ever in who they are and where they’re going. And while the results are stronger than ever, the overall mood of the recording sessions was much different.

The first time the trio met in Colemine’s Loveland, OH-based Portage Lounge Studio, the meeting was marked by a certain sense of freshness: It was the first time they had all played together. Understandably, it was exciting and unknown territory. But the sessions were underlined by the heaviness each of the individual members were going through at the time. With each member dealing with personal tragedies in their individual lives, the sessions serves as a genuine moment of joy. Just three talented musicians, writing and playing music, now as friends, in a familiar environment.

Emeralds‘ second and latest single, album opener “Eat Your Greens” is a a strutting and rollicking tune, that showcases the trio’s unerring knack for tight, crafted, old-school-inspired hooks and grooves, all while being roomy enough for some impressively dexterous solos from James and Scone. Fittingly, the track captures the talent and simpatico of three old pros, who can effortlessly balance songcraft with road-tested improvisation.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Henry Aberson Returns with Vibey “Call”

Henry Aberson is a Tulsa-based composer, producer and drummer, who has developed a reputation for bringing in top-tier talent for seamless collaborations and for lush, live instrumentation. 

Aberson closed out 2025 with “Call,” which continues a run of vibey Quiet Storm-meets-neo-soul inspired material that seemingly channels the likes of Maxwell, D’Angelo and others. And much like its immediate predecessor, the new single thematically reflects on vulnerability, desire, longing and emotional connection with a lived-in earnestness.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The X-Flowers Share a Rousingly Anthemic Ripper

The X-Flowers are a mysterious and emerging punk outfit, who, released their debut EP, the three-song First Bloom last year.

The punk outfit begin the new year with “Tilted,” a rousing, mosh pit friendly ripper that seemingly channels a synthesis of Joan Jett, 90s grunge and riot grrl-era punk.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Seoul’s Amohouse Shares Hook-Driven and Woozy “Lofi House”

Seoul-based producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Amohouse blends lo-fi textures with driving house rhythms. The result is music that features a chill yet energetic vibe. The South Korean artist describes his music as “the perfect soundtrack for your daily life,” adding that “whether you’re studying, driving or just relaxing,” that he’ll give you the beats you need.

Amohouse’s latest single “Lofi House” features a woozy and looping production that brings Kainalu and MUNYA to mind: skittering and dusty beats, twinkling, reverb-drizzled synths and a chopped up, sultry vocal, paired with the Seoul-based artist’s ability to craft a razor sharp, catchy hook.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Augu Returns with Slick, Club Friendly “Industrial”

Augu is a mysterious and emerging Lithuanian electronic music producer, who has released a series of attention grabbing singles including:

  • “Foreigner,” a slick synthesis of  John Carpenter film soundtracks with deep industrial house and Kraftwerk-like minimalism into a dance floor friendly, club banger.

  • “Line,” a club friendly track that features elements of thumping industrial electronica, Kraftwerk and Daft Punk, John Carpenter soundtracks and deep house, anchored around the Lithuanian producer’s knack for big, catchy hooks

The Lithuanian electronic music producer closes out 2025 with “Industrial” another thumping banger that showcases his unique, hook-driven blend of industrial, techno, house and sci-fi soundtracks. But unlike the previously released material, “Industrial” seems to subtly nod at the work of Blanck Mass, as the track is bruising but simultaneously deeply sensitive.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Dam CPH Shares Yearning and Anthemic “Whisper Desire”

Dam CPH is a Copenhagen-based producer and songwriter, who crafts emotional, melody-driven music ranging from intimate, cinematic pieces to neon-lit 80s-styled synth pop.

The Danish artist released their full-length debut, Roots and Wings earlier this year. Roots and Wings saw Dam CPH exploring organic, orchestral arrangements. His sophomore effort, the recently released Whisper Desire sees him diving into sensual, dance synth pop featuring both male and female vocalists. With both albums, the common thread is his knack for catchy hooks, a blend of Nordic melancholy and hope and storytelling as song-driven lyrics.

Whisper Desire‘s latest single, album title track “Whisper Desire” is slow-burning and cinematic, 80s-styled synth pop ballad featuring a sultry and yearning vocal over glistening and oscillating synths and big, rousing hook and chorus. Seemingly channelling acts like ACES and others, “Whisper Desire” is the sort of song you want to slow dance with that love interest or situationship that you want more from.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Anchorage’s dreamcat Shares Breezy “Heaven”

Anchorage-based indie electro pop duo dreamcat — couple Em Glaves and Colton Ciufo — can trace a portion of their origins back to when they were children: Glaves and Ciufo grew up in the same small town, and for them music has always been their escape.

The Alaskan duo specialize in homemade, heartfelt, positive indie synth pop that draws from M83, Chromeo and others. Last year, the pair gained recognition regionally by playing at two of Alaska’s biggest music festivals — Sundown Festival and Girdwood Forest Fair.

Over the past 12-18 months, the duo have built upon a growing profile across Alaska, with at the release of a handful of standalone singles and their debut EP joie de vivre earlier this year.

Glaves and Ciufro close out 2025 with “Heaven,” a breezy bit of synth pop that seemingly channels BRIJEAN, M83 and Oracular Spectacular-era MGMT while showcasing the duo’s ability to craft a remarkably catchy hook. But underneath the track’s breezy hookiness, the song, as the duo explain is about addiction.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Sunset Images Shares Sprawling and Brooding “El Tiempo Oscila y Muere al Incio (Tommy)”

With the release of their debut album, 2021’s Traumatismo Nacional and 2024’s NADA/CERO/INFINITO EP, Sunset Images, led by Mexico City-based singer/songwriter, musician and creative mastermind Samuel Osorio has firmly established a layered soundscape of dissonance, cathartic release and emotional depth that draws from krautrock, shoegaze and punk. Thematically Traumatismo Nacional was a scathing indictment on violence, racism and misogyny while NADA/CERO/INFINITO explored loneliness, anger and desperation, laying bare the emotional devastation of modern life.

The project has built a reputation for intense live performances while sharing stages with the likes of Mogwai, Godflesh, Boris, The Raveonettes, Acid Mothers Temple, Gnod, HIDE, RAKTA, Vinnum Sabbathi and more.

Eventually, they caught the attention of Dedstrange Records, who signed the Mexican project and will be releasing their highly anticipated sophomore album Oscilador on January 23, 2026. Reportedly, the album sonically is a reflection of the perpetual cycles that rules our world — birth, decay, chaos and resolution, fueled by the collision of fractured synths, pulsating vocals, primitive drum beats and feedback-drenched guitars. The result is a soundscape that’s hypnotic, disorientating and irresistible.

Oscilador‘s second and latest single “El Tiempo Oscila y Muere Al Incio (Tommy)” is a sprawling motorik dirge with a cinematic quality that’s one-part krautrock, one-part shoegaze, one-part noise featuring a throbbing, distortion pedaled bass line, bursts of swirling feedback-drenched guitar guitars, a relentless backbeat paired with Osorio’s hauntingly spectral vocal. The result is a song that’s intense yet with an almost fanatical attention to precision.

Sonically reminding me a bit of the likes of Yoo Doo Right JJUUJJUU and others, the song as Osorio explains explores “humanity’s self-destruction,” “conjuring visions of a world ravaged by toxic masculinity and patriarchy. This is a song about the abyss that awaits, how we cannot escape the passage of time & how it will ultimately consume us.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Club 8 Returns with Nostalgia-Inducing “Daydreams”

Last year, Stockholm-based JOVM mainstays Club 8 — Karolina Komstedt (vocals) and electronic music producer, artist and Labrador Records founder and label boss Johan Angergård — released their 11th album, A Year With Club 8. Since then, the the duo have been busy, releasing a single or so a month over the course of the year, including the previously released “ooo,” “None Of This Will Matter When You’re Dead,” “Staying Alive,” “Born The Wrong Time,” and “Sneaky Feelings.”  

The Swedish JOVM mainstays’ latest single “Daydreams” continues a remarkable run of breezy, hook-driven and nostalgia-inducing material anchored around Komstedt’s ethereal and yearning vocal, expressive and shimmering bursts of guitars and a motorik groove. The song evokes a pleasant reverie — but with the bittersweet realization that it like all things won’t last forever.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Italy’s Coldtrace Shares Broodingly Atmospheric “Reasons 1”

Coldtrace is a mysterious and emerging Italian post punk band, who released their debut EP, Shadows last month.

Shadows EP‘s latest single “Reasons 1” is a brooding bit of post punk, featuring angular and propulsive bass line, relentless four-on-the-floor, shimmering, bursts of reverb-soaked guitars paired with a dramatic baritone vocal. While showcasing the band’s ability to pair chilly atmospherics with razor sharp hooks, “Reasons 1” seemingly channels the likes of Cocteau Twins, Molchat Doma and others.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Kelly Finnigan Returns with Two Christmas Time Originals

Acclaimed San Francisco-based singer/songwriter, musician, producer and Monophonics frontman Kelly Finnigan has proven himself to be rather prolific over the past couple of years. Last year, Finnigan released his sophomore solo album, A Lover Was Born, which featured album singles “Be Your Own Shelter,” and “Love (Your Pain Goes Deep).”

This year, Finnigan followed up with two standalone singles:

Finnigan closes out the year with two new, self-penned Christmas tunes —
“I Can’t Wait (For Christmas Time)”/”Snowy Night In Ohio.”

“I Can’t Wait (For Christmas Time)” is a straightforward pop/soul arrangement that features labelmate Kendra Morris and her band on backing vocals. “I the Can’t Wait (For Christmas Time)” channels some of Finnigan’s previously released work, while reminding the listener that the holidays are about the excitement, anticipation and longing for reunions with loved ones.

“Snowy Night In Ohio” is a meditative tune that sounds as though it could have been previously unreleased track from the A Joyful Sound sessions that evokes the nostalgia and comfort of being with your dearest ones and looking out the window to see the snow gently fall outside.

“I Can’t Wait (For Christmas Time)”/”Snowy Night In Ohio” are out now as 7″ 45RPM single and on digital platforms through Colemine Records.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Parlor Greens Share Two Covers of Christmas Soul Classics

Organ trio Parlor Greens features a collection of grizzled veterans and incredibly accomplished musicians: The trio close out 2025 and celebrate the holiday season with the recently released “Auld Lang Syne”/”Every Day Will Be Like […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Tinlicker Shares Driving, Club Banging “Reborn”

Acclaimed Utrecht-based electronic music outfit Tinlicker — founding member Micha Heyboer, Jordi van Achthoven and their newest memberHero Baldwin — can trace their origins back to 2012, when the project was founded as a solo project of its founder. As a solo project, Heyboer released Tinlicker’s debut EP, 2012’s My First Time Here and the 2012’s Remember The Future demo compilation through his own label, Zero Three Zero. 

Jordi van Achthoven was introduced to Heyboer through a mutual contact in 2014. The pair bonded over their mutual inspirations of Paul Kalkbrenner, Trentemøller and Moderat, and at that point, Tinlicker expanded to a duo, releasing three EPs through Feed Me‘s Sotto Voce, 2014’s Like No Other, 2015’s Into The Open and The Space In Between, which featured “Oudegracht,” a track that amassed significant attention online. 

2017 saw the duo releasing material through Anjunadep, Armada Music and deadmau5′s mau5trap before singing a record deal with Anjunadeep, who released their breakthrough full-length debut, 2019’s This Is Not Our Universe, which featured contributions from alt-J, Run Rivers, Thomas Oliver and Belle Doron. The album reached #1 on the dance charts in the US, Australia, India, Canada and Finland and #2 in the UK, The Netherlands and Poland. 

The duo’s sophomore album In Another Life was released in February 2022. But by November 2023, the duo announced that the third album, last year’s Cold Enough for Snow would be released through [PIAS] Électronique. The ealbum featured collaborations with Brian Molko, Editors‘ Tom Smith and Circa Waves. The Dutch duo supported the album with sets at Pinkpop Festival, CRSSD Festival, Crystal Palace Bowl, Coachella and Sziget Festival. 

Back in 2020, as the Dutch duo were achieving commercial and critical success, they had started a successful collaboration with London-based signer/songwriter and producer Hero Baldwin that has continued through a series of singles including their most recent single “I Started A Fire,” which was released earlier this year. Heyboer and van Achthoven recently invited Baldwin to be a full-time member of the band. “Jordi and Micha seem to pull something out of me that resonates with my emotional landscape every time we make a song,” the London-based singer/songwriter and producer says. “I think it’s so important to feel creatively and emotionally secure, and Jordi and Micha always afford me that privilege.”

The act’s Melkweg Amsterdam show was their official debut as a trio. She also joined the duo for their biggest live show to date, Tinlicker In The Park at Crystal Palace Bowl. 

Tinlicker’s highly-anticipated fourth album — and first as a trio — is slated for an early 2026 release. The album will feature the previously released “I Want My Freedom,” which begins with a slow-burning piano intro that nods at Radiohead‘s “Everything In Its Right Place,” before morphing into a festival and club banger with a euphoric bridge and hook paired with Baldwin’s defiant and resolute vocal.

The forthcoming album’s third and latest single “Reborn,” is an expansive, almost cinematic, deep house banger, anchored around glistening and arpeggiated synth oscillations, a motorik groove paired with the act’s unerring knack for crafting enormous hooks and drops. Sonically speaking, “Reborn” seemingly channels 90s-00s house, making the song a high-energy homage to the sounds of their teens.

“Music can be a reflection of the era you grow up in. You fall in love with the soundscape of your teens and drag that feeling with you, because during this period you experience so many new adventures,” the members of Tinlicker explain. “‘Reborn’ is an homage to the early sounds that shaped us as teenagers, as it is an era in music we hold close to our hearts.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Italy’s Ellecielles Shares Brooding and Uneasy “Living Twice”

Ellecielles is the DIY, bedroom noise project of a mysterious and enigmatic Italian producer and multi-instrumentalist. His latest single “Living Twice” is a slick and seamless mesh of New Order-meets-The Cure-like New Wave/post punk/goth and classic shoegaze guitar textures serving as an uneasy, fever dream-like bed for goth-inspired vocals.

At its core, the song evokes a seemingly endless push and pull between one’s best and worst inclinations. The Italian artist explains the song is “about the burden of carrying two versions of yourself, or perhaps even experiencing moments is intense that they feel like a second life.”

“Lyrically, I delved into the struggle of contradictions: the urge of feeling something even if it has a high emotional price, the moments you feel like ‘Mr. Charisma’ are equally backed up by moments when failure eats you up from the inside,” he adds. “It’s about the moments where you question everything, feeling both completely lost and strangely found. . . . “I hope listeners find a place of their own duality within these lines, known that they’re not alone in navigating those complex emotional landscapes.”