Tag: indie pop

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: J. Bernardt Returns with Swaggering and Strutting “Love Is On My Mind”

Jinte Deprez is an acclaimed singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, programmer and producer, best known as being one-half of the songwriting duo behind the acclaimed Belgian JOVM mainstays Balthazar. Over the course of their two-plus decades together, the acclaimed Belgian outfit has played across the global festival circuit with sets at All Points East, British Summer Time, and others — while selling over 600,000 albums globally. And during that same period of time, Deprez has firmly cemented a reputation for being a wildly talented generalist: Along with his songwriting partner and bandmate Maarten Devoldere, Deprez has co-produced three of Balthazar’s five albums to date. 

Deprez is also the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed solo recording project J. Bernardt, With J. Bernardt, Deprez has released two albums, 2016’s self-produced Running Days and 2024’s Tobie Speleman and Deprez co-produced Contigo. His third J. Bernardt album, the Paul Butler-produced Wild Swim is slated for a November 13, 2026 release through Play It Again Sam.

Unlike his previously released work, Deprez chose to step outside of anything familiar in his creative process. He travelled alone to Los Angeles, where he leaned hard into a caricature of himself: a washed-up European musician landing in America to reinvent his life and his carer. He learned so hard into the caricature that it was as though Jinte Deprez didn’t get on the plane; but rather, J. Bernardt.

Recorded at Los Angeles-based 64 Sound Studio, Wild Swim‘s producer Paul Butler created an initiative environment in which Deprez found what may arguably be the most liberated vocal performance of his entire career to date. “On my third solo record, I truly felt for the first time what singing can feel like.” he says. Los Angeles itself also left its mark on both Deprez an the recording sessions. The city’s uncompromising and frenetic energy collided head-on with the acclaimed Belgian artist’s West Flemish instinct for restraint “In the US, there is no time for subtlety. You surrender to your impulses,”

Many of the songs were recorded in fiery one-take performances with Alabama Shakes‘ Lewis Wright (drums), Adele‘s Peter Randall (bass) and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros’ Mitchell Yoshida (keys). The result is a more ope and expansive sound that retains the project’s signature but expands into a retro-modernist sound with smoldering rhythms and sprawling melodies. The Motown-like backing vocals of Lex Noblitt, Isabel Whelan and Dasha Chadwick are woven throughout the album’s material, acting as a counterpart to Deprez’s vibrato. And Butler’s kaleidoscopic production makes the album’s material feel as though every window in the Belgian artist’s mind has been thrown open at once. The result is album that’s euphoric and reckless.

Thematically, Wild Swim sees Deprez take a new direction. Whereas his previously released albums were fairly autobiographical, the new album features a more universal perspective, embracing a manic celebration of life’s randomness. The song’s aren’t anchored in reason, but rather in feeling with the album being a balancing act between lust for life and a sort of euphoric nihilism. “After the wreckage of a breakup, eventually you reach the point where you can see the humor in life again,” Deprez says.

Wild Swim will include the previously released “Four In The Morning” and the album’s latest single “Love Is On My Mind.” The new single is a strutting and soulful pop tune that showcases Deprez’s uncanny knack for remarkably catchy hooks — but while arguably being among the most euphoric, playful tunes of his growing catalog.

“’Love Is on My Mind’ is a guitar-driven song I wrote on an old piano, while feeling watched by the stars,” Deprez explains. “It’s about a new, unintentional starting point — ‘I hear it coughing around the corner, ready to cause a scene, how the hell did love get in my mind.’ Who knows when or how, but you always seem to pick yourself back up one day, right when you weren’t paying attention.”

Directed by SJ Spreng, the accompanying video is a cinematically shot GQ-like visual sho tin Los Angeles earlier this year and features the Belgian artist in some snazzy outfits, strutting and vamping in the hills.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tokyo Tea Room Returns with Breezy “Hypnotised”

Last year’s full-length debut, No Rush saw the rising Margate, UK-based outfit Tokyo Tea Room — Daniel James Elliot, Beth Dunn, Ben Marshall, Sam Teather and Sam Ewens — quickly establishing a sound and approach that takes listeners on a journey within a tender, comfortable bubble. Their music is inspired by lived-in, human emotions while thematically exploring longing and the ephemeral nature of existence. The album eventually led to millions of monthly listeners across the DSPs and a sold-out North American tour, helping the band amass a rapidly growing global audience.

The Margate-based quintet’s highly anticipated sophomore album, the Daniel James Elliot and Kristofer Harris co-produced Feel Forever is slated for a September 18, 2026 release through Nice Guys. The album, which marks the first time Elliot has worked with a producer, reportedly sees the rising taking a bold step forward with their sound. And while being a decided evolution, the material remains rooted in the emotional depth that they’ve begun to be known for. “We took a yacht rock approach to the recording, taking our time to smooth all the edges and make something that felt more polished than the last record,” Elliot says of Feel Forever‘s recording process. “Both of us spent hours obsessing over the smallest detail, which felt very apt for this album. The result is something that we are all very proud of, it’s a different kind of Tokyo Tea Room that has come out the other side of it, but it feels right and I hope people enjoy listening.”

Feel Forever will include the previously released “Eyes Off You” “Always In The Sun” and album’s fourth and latest single “Hypnotised.” Featuring glistening synth stabs, a sinuous and strutting disco groove beneath Beth Dunn’s yearning, ethereal delivery, “Hypnotised” is a hook-driven and breezy tune that’s seemingly one-part yacht rock, one-part Yumi Zouma — and wholly escapist fantasy of eloping to balmier climates with a lover or love interest. But beneath the laid-back two-step including groove and beach club-meets-lounge vibes, “Hypnotised” captures the woozy and euphoric glee of madly obsessive love.

“‘Hypnotised’ is about that feeling of being completely drawn in, when everything else around you seems to blur,” says the band’s Daniel James Elliot. “It’s the uncertainty and fantasy that contribute to the excitement of something new, and I wanted to reflect that in this song, kinda like a soundtrack to your mind wandering into a daydream.”

Directed and animated by CC Mulligan, the accompanying video for “Hypnotised,” features some mind-bending, brightly colored and downright trippy imagery.

The rising British act will return to North America for a fall tour, supporting their new material. The tour includes two NYC area dates — October 13, 2026 at Music Hall of Williamsburg and October 14, 2026 at Bowery Ballroom. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Jonas Davies Shares Shimmering and Earnest “My Dear”

Oregon-based singer/songwriter and musician Jonas Davies can trace the origins of his music career to a childhood love with music. With the release of his debut single, last year’s “Porchlight” and his full-length debut, Off Days, which was released earlier this year, Davies has quickly established a sound that blends hazy guitars with subtle and dreamy R&B-like textures. The result is material that exists in the uneasy space between warmth and tension.

His latest single “My Dear” is the first bit of new material since Off Days, and the single is a shimmering and introspective tune that’s one-part shoegaze, one-part indie pop while showcasing an artist, with an uncanny knack for a pairing a catchy hook with earnest, lived-in songwriting.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Ayanna Witter-Johnson Shares Gorgeous, Meditative “Blue”

Born and raised in North London to Jamaican parents, acclaimed and rising, Music of Black Origin (MOBO) Award-nominated composer, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ayanna Wittter-Johnson grew up surrounded by the sounds of reggae, gospel and classical music. After earning a first-class Bachelor’s degree at Trinity Laban Conservatory and a Masters at the Manhattan School of Music, supported by a Higher Education Scholarship, Witter-Johnson has built a career founded in authenticity and cross-genre collaboration.

From composing to performing, the London-born artist’s work is a sonic bridge between worlds, seamlessly blending jazz, reggae and soul while celebrating her Jamaican heritage, culture and identity. Witter-Johnson’s recorded output — 2014’s Black Panther EP, 2018’s Truthfully Still and Ella, Reuben & Aly EP, 2019s full-length debut, Road Runner, 2021’s Rise Up EP and 2023’s sophomore album Painted Light — has seen her collaborating with producers Marc Mac and James Yarde, as well as pianist Robert Mitchell, vocalist Cleveland Watkiss and rapper Akala while earning critical acclaim and widespread acclaim across BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 1Xtra, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, BBC Music 6, Jazz FM and Magic Classical. 2023’s Ocean Floor, a collaborative album with the London Symphony Orchestra Percussion Ensemble dove into her Jamaican heritage, weaving classical textures with island rhythms and ancestral storytelling.

As a composer, Witter-Johson has won the Nordoff and Robbins 02 Silver Clef Classical Award and an RPS and AIM Awards Best Life Performer nominations — and she has been commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, Kronos Quartet, Chineke! Orchestra, Guerzenich Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra, as well as numerous chamber ensembles.

The acclaimed London-born artist has been both prolific and very busy: She’s currently working on a major new commission for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to celebrate their 90th anniversary and co-scoring her first TV drama for Sky Arts, which is slated for release this year.

Witter-Johnson’s highly anticipated album New Roots is slated for a September 18, 2026 release through her own Hill and Gully Records. Written across a series of retreats, hotel rooms, quarantine lockdown and quiet pockets of life on the road, New Roots documents moments where stillness becomes a portal, a place to her ancestral voices, confront personal truth and re-anchor yourself in what matters. Further cementing the London-born artist as a world-builder and musical polymath, the album sees Witter-Johnson delving into her heritage and spiritual practice, reflecting on British-Caribbean identity, the inheritance of Windrush Generation wisdom, grief and remembrance and the the strength required to keep choosing oneself. (By the way, the Windrush Generation was the Caribbean Island folk, who moved from the island nations from 1948-1971)“It’s an album about finding centre — personally, culturally, and cosmically — and about learning that new roots can be grown even in unfamiliar or fractured ground,” the acclaimed artist says,

Sonically, the album reportedly sees her expanding on her signature fusion of R&B, soul, classical and jazz, while tracing her Jamaican heritage through lush orchestration and raw, personal storytelling. The result is an effort that’s both deeply rooted and yet forward-looking.

New Roots‘ latest single “Blue” is built around a sparse yet gorgeous arrangement of Witter-Johnon’s percussive cello playing and subtle bursts of strings beneath her expressive, searching delivery. The result is a song that’s intimate, lived-in and yet cinematic. Sonically seemingly to nod at Joni Mitchell, Meshell Ndegeocello and contemporary R&B, “Blue” was originally written pre-pandemic during a “write-an-album-in-a-week” retreat, and was a way of processing the emotional fallout of a toxic relationship. But with distance and reflection, the song took on a new life.

“With distance and reflection, ‘Blue’ has grown into something broader: a meditation on patterns of pain and the ways in which victimhood can quietly shape multiple areas of life,” Witter-Johnson explains,. “The song now stands as a metaphor for a range of difficult relationships and situations — moments where suffering becomes familiar, and where growth comes from recognising and gently releasing that identity.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Alex Amor Shares Heartbroken Yet Buoyant and Anthemic “Inside”

Rising Scottish singer/songwriter and musician Alex Amor has three EPs under her belt, 2021’s debut, Love Language, 2022’s The Art of Letting Go and 2023’s Super Sonic, all of which have received praise from The Line of Best Fit, DIY Magazine, Clash Magazine, Dork Magazine, Wonderland, Notion, 1883 Magazine, The Skinny, Ones to Watch, The Sunday Mail, and The Scotsman — and she has received airplay from BBC Radio 1‘s Jack Saunders and Sian Eleri. 

Building upon a growing profile across the region, Amor has made a run of the UK festival circuit, playing sets at TRNSMT, The Great Escape, Liverpool Sound City, Live at Leeds and Dot to Dot. She has also toured across the region, playing on bills with the likes of Good Neighbours, Liang Lawrence, Gretta Ray, Swim Deep, VLURE and a list of others. 

Amor’s highly anticipated full-length debut Heavenly Bodies is slated for an August 21, 2026 through New York-based label VERO Music. Written and recorded between London and Glasgow with Peter Brien, Baz Kaye and Karma Kid, the album’s material is heavily informed by meditation, rune reading and the work of Swedish mystic Hilma of Klint. Weaving together celestial imagery, spirituality and the vast emotional terrain of human connection, the album’s material reflects Amor’s fascination with cosmic symbolism and the belief that personal experiences mirror the rhythms of the universe. Sonically, the album is a decided evolution from the raw indie charge of the rising Scottish artist’s earlier work as the album features diaristic, intimate and confessional songwriting is paired with shimmering guitars, ethereal synths and slow-burning arrangements. 

The album will feature the previously released “Avalanche” and the album’s final pre-release single “Inside,” which comes on the heels of festival appearances at this year’s Liverpool Sound City, The Great Escape Festival, Footsteps Festival and opening slots with Liang Lawrence and Prima Queen. “Inside” is a twangy New Wave-tinged bop that showcases Amor’s unerring knack for pairing catchy hooks and shout-along worthy choruses with introspective, lived-in lyrics. While buoyant and rousingly anthemic, the song is anchored in a complicated mix of loss of innocence and faith, weary, heartbroken exhaustion and of devastating loss that lingers and reverberates throughout your life.

Originally written as a sprawling poem, “Inside” arrived in the studio with producer Baz Kaye determined to preserve every word Amor had written. With a run time of 5:30, the song features what may arguably be some of Amor’s most earnest and devastatingly honest writing with an defiantly upbeat arrangement, informed by the optimism Kaye and co-writer Peter Brien carried back from that summer’s Glastonbury Festival.

“It’s about coming to terms with compounded grief, generational trauma and taking a stark look at one of the coping mechanisms that defined much of my twenties: dissociation,” Amor explains. “Pulling away from connection altogether to avoid the pain of needing someone, missing someone, or losing someone. Part of love is accepting loss, making space for grief, and finding the courage to feel it all. It’s a song about connection, the choice to be vulnerable, and learning that the only way through grief is to let yourself feel it.”

The accompanying video follows a simple conceit: Amor and her band performing in the corner of a studio space — or an elevator. It nods at early MTV-era videos with a modern, frenetic sensibility.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Twin Temple Returns with Soulful and Yearning “Haunt Me”

Formed back in 2017, Twin Temple — married couple Alexandra and Zachary James — are an acclaimed Los Angeles-based duo, who specialize in a new sub-genre and style that they’ve dubbed “Satanic Doo Wop,” which blends their practice of Satanism with a sound that’s influenced by The Platters, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly and the like. 

The Los Angeles-based duo have developed for being one of the contemporary scene’s most talked about crossover acts, earning widespread coverage from media outlets like Rolling Stone, NME, Billboard, American Songwriter, Stereogum, Consequence, Revolver, Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Loudwire, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and a long list of others, and for being one of the most provocative acts out there right now. Their uncompromising artistic vision routinely sparks much larger and more serious conversations about artistic freedom, religious freedom, freedom of expression, censorship, the role of controversy in art, and on a broader sense, the wider role of art within the cultural landscape.

Some of y’all, have heard of the duo after Charley Crockett abruptly dropped the band from his shows earlier this month — specifically because of their usage of Satanic imagery. This led to Jack White publicly inviting the band to open for his Los Angeles area show in September. Serendipitously, the duo’s highly-anticipated third album Doomed Lovers will come right on the heels of their latest, and arguably biggest controversy to date.

Slated for an October 9, 2026 release through their own Pentagrammation Records, the Shooter Jennings-produced Doomed Lovers was recorded at Hollywood-based Sunset Sound‘s iconic Studio 3 and marks the acclaimed duo’s boldest chapter to date.

Born from one of the darkest periods of their personal lives, Doomed Lovers is reportedly their most intimate and emotionally revealing work to date. Expanding upon the cinematic scope of the sound that has won them acclaim while remaining rooted in the timeless sound and traditions of early rock ‘n’ roll, the album is their most ambitious and fully realized artistic statement so far. The album continues the band’s commitment to analog recording while expanding upon their sound with lush orchestral arrangements performed by a 37-member orchestra. Yes, 37!

“We poured everything into this new record that we made with Shooter,” says the acclaimed and controversial duo. “We wanted to push ourselves creatively and expand the production further than we have before, drawing inspiration from the lush orchestral productions of Roy Orbison, The Ronettes, and The Shangri-Las, and added in some Countrypolitan flair. We brought in some incredible musicians like Matt Chamberlain and Jay Bellerose, and a 37-piece orchestra. We wanted to make something as beautiful as we possibly could – of course with our dark spin on things.”

The truth is, this album was made during one of the darkest periods of our lives. We had been struggling with grief, health issues, addiction, and depression. But day by day, going into Sunset Sound, making music with incredible people who believed in us, and being surrounded by that creativity slowly brought us back to life. We started smiling and laughing again. I was becoming alive again. It connected us to why we fell in love with music in the first place and became our most personal album yet.”

The album will include the previously released, breathtaking gorgeous, album title track “Doomed Lovers,” and the album’s latest single “Haunt Me.” “Haunt Me” is a decidedly twangy, Wall of Sound-meets-Sun Records-like tune with a subtle node to gospel that should remind the listener that country’s iconic period is heavily indebted to gospel, the blues and a early rock ‘n’ roll. That’s right, think of some of those early Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Chuck Berry albums — but rooted in a confusing, paradoxical mix of dread, jealousy, fear and longing that feels lived-in and deeply experienced.

“‘Haunt Me’ is a gothic love song about fear, obsession, dread and jealousy with nods to classic American gospel, 1960s rock n roll and the blues,” the duo explain. “It romanticizes the terrifying nightmares your lover brings, and the paradox of never wanting them to stop haunting you.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Hayley Law Shares Self-Assured, Hook-Driven “Circle Back”

Hayley Law is a Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based actor, singer/songwriter and producer, who initially wrote, produced and recorded under the moniker Hayleau. She has since retired the moniker and project, saying “Hayleau was a version of me that I really love. Softer, shyer, and still trying to figure herself out through everyone else’s voices. I think that name became a little too shaped by perception, expectation, and who people thought i should be. Coming back to Hayley Law felt like reclaiming myself and deciding I don’t want anyone else molding who I am anymore.”

Performing under her own name, the Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based artist has crafted a sound and approach that sees her blending pop, R&B and pop rock with diaristic storytelling. Her work lives between vulnerability and control in a way that’s intimate, nostalgic and quietly disarming, pulling listeners into moments that feel as impulsive as they are intentional.

As a completely independent artist, Law has built her career on her own times while amassing over four million streams across the DSPs through purely organic growth and without chasing trends or traditional industry pathways.

Alongside her music career, Law has played roles in globally distributed Netflix projects and studio films, including Riverdale, Altered Carbon and more. She’s set to star in Jackie! Zhou’s FLYOVER.

Building upon a growing profile, the rising artist’s highly-anticipated Law, Jesse Boykins III and Melo-X co-produced Last Summer is slated for an August 14, 2026 release. The album sonically is a blend of sensual alternative R&B-influenced diaristic songwriting and early 2000s pop punk, creating an album of material that’s intimate, emotionally unguarded yet cinematic. Across the album’s run-time, Law effortlessly moves between softness and control, exploring desire, performance, heartbreak, ego, femininity and the versions of ourselves we create to be loved. But the star of the show is Law and her voice: vulnerable without being self-pitying, confident without false armor and deeply self-aware of the contradiction of wanting intimacy while trying to remain in control.

The album will include the previously released album title and opening track “Last Summer” and the album’s second and latest single “Circle Back.” Subtly channeling hook-driven, late 1990s and early 000s R&B — think Brandy, Monica and the like — “Circle Back” is built around an atmospheric production twinkling keys, a soaring string sample, skittering beats and glitchy, DJ scratches beneath Law’s self-assured, self-aware delivery. The song’s narrator spends the song’s runtime recognizing that this love interest is probably just a fling — and that fling needs to back off a bit and just enjoy things for what they are.

“Have you ever had a fling that just moves sooo fast? By the time you come up for air, you realize you’ve spent 3 days with the person and aren’t even sure you see it going anywhere,” the Canadian-born artist explains. “That is ‘Circle Back.’ I wear my heart on my sleeve and fall quickly and this song is my reminder to check in with yourself. Not every fling turns into a relationship. And having two/three weeks of something HOT is awesome.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Twin Temple Shares Swooning and Lush “Doomed Lovers”

Formed back in 2017, Twin Temple — married couple Alexandra and Zachary James — are an acclaimed Los Angeles-based duo, who specialize in a new sub-genre and style that they’ve dubbed “Satanic Doo Wop,” which blends their practice of Satanism with a sound that’s influenced by The Platters, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly and the like.

The Los Angeles-based duo have developed for being one of the contemporary scene’s most talked about crossover acts, earning widespread coverage from media outlets like Rolling Stone, NME, Billboard, American Songwriter, Stereogum, Consequence, Revolver, Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Loudwire, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and a long list of others, and for being one of the most provocative acts out there right now. Their uncompromising artistic vision routinely sparks much larger and more serious conversations about artistic freedom, religious freedom, freedom of expression, censorship, the role of controversy in art, and on a broader sense, the wider role art plays within the cultural landscape.

Some of y’all, will know of the duo after Charley Crockett abruptly dropped the band from his shows this past week — specifically for their usage of Satanic imagery. This lead to Jack White publicly inviting the band to open for him in Hollywood in September. Serendipitously, the duo’s third album, Doomed Lovers is coming red hot off the heels of their latest controversy.

Slated for an October 9, 2026 release through their own Pentagrammation Records, the Shooter Jennings-produced Doomed Lovers was recorded at Hollywood-based Sunset Sound‘s iconic Studio 3 and marks the acclaimed duo’s boldest chapter to date. The album continues the band’s commitment to analog recording while expanding upon their sound with lush orchestral arrangements performed by a 37-member orchestra. Yes, 37!

Born from one of the darkest periods of their personal lives, Doomed Lovers is reportedly their most intimate and emotionally revealing work to date. Expanding upon the cinematic scope of the sound that has won them acclaim while remaining rooted in the timeless sound and traditions of early rock ‘n’ roll, the album is their most ambitious and fully realized artistic statement so far.

“We poured everything into this new record that we made with Shooter,” says the acclaimed and controversial duo. “We wanted to push ourselves creatively and expand the production further than we have before, drawing inspiration from the lush orchestral productions of Roy Orbison, The Ronettes, and The Shangri-Las, and added in some Countrypolitan flair. We brought in some incredible musicians like Matt Chamberlain and Jay Bellerose, and a 37-piece orchestra. We wanted to make something as beautiful as we possibly could – of course with our dark spin on things.”

The truth is, this album was made during one of the darkest periods of our lives. We had been struggling with grief, health issues, addiction, and depression. But day by day, going into Sunset Sound, making music with incredible people who believed in us, and being surrounded by that creativity slowly brought us back to life. We started smiling and laughing again. I was becoming alive again. It connected us to why we fell in love with music in the first place and became our most personal album yet.”

Doomed Lovers‘ latest single, album title track “Doomed Lovers” features a lush, breathtakingly gorgeous, sculpted wall of sound-like production and arrangement beneath Alexandra James’ remarkably Patsy Cline-like croon singing confessional lyrics desiring an a consuming, all or nothing love along the lines of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and other Romantic-era literature.

The first time I heard the song, the first three or four thoughts that entered my mind were “holy shit, that’s fucking gorgeous!,” followed by “this sounds like it could have been a B-side to Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces” and “Back in Baby’s Arms” or Roy Orbison’s “Only The Lonely” and “Crying,” followed by “I’d pay to hear Alexandra James read entries in the phone book.”

“This is the philosophical centerpiece of the album – a theatrical and confessional take on all or nothing love, the dark side of devotion and centuries old mythic literary Romantic themes,” the acclaimed duo explain. “It longs for a love so enduring and eternal that it ultimately consumes, obliterates, and drives one to madness and death. At its core, it asks the question – ‘What happens when your lover dies?’”

But what makes the song unique is that it rejects the conventional and culturally accepted answer… ‘I know I should tell you to find someone new,’ in favor of raw, unfiltered and selfish desire, things that would be shameful to speak in mundane reality.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Sam Palladio Shares Sexy and Hypnotic “Burberry Jacket”

Sam Palladio is a Pembury, Kent, UK-born singer/songwriter and actor, who’s best known for his breakout fan favorite role as Gunnar Scott on ABC’s Nashville during the show’s six-season run. Since then, Palladio has carved out a musical identity that has seen him blend indie pop, Americana and folk influences.

Palladio’s full-length debut, 2024’s The Perfect Summer’s Day, Before We Lost the Light was created alongside New Politics‘ Søren Hansen and multi-Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Sardy. He followed that up with a couple of acclaimed singles, including “Tennessee,” which featured Foo Fighters‘ Chris Shiftett. The British-born singer/songwriter and actor has balanced his music career with roles in Netflix’s The Princess Switch trilogy, AMC’s Humans, Showtime’s Episodes, ABC’s Rebel, the Bob Marley biopic One Love, and the thriller series The Couple Next Door.

Last month, Palladio released “Glitter” to praise from The Tennessean and BBC Radio London. Building upon a growing profile as a solo artist, the British-born singer/songwriter recently released Sam Palladio, Phil Barnes and Kendall Goodman co-written “Burberry Jacket.” “Burberry Jacket” is a hook-driven bit of New Wave-inspired pop that features Palladio’s croon beneath strutting and shimmering guitar paired with a pulsing bass line. Set against the backdrop of London‘s Fleet Street, “Burberry Jacket” makes subtle nods to Sweeney Todd while painting a portrait of mesmerizing and cinematic femme fatale-type, who’s impossible to escape.

“I wanted the song to feel as hypnotic as its main character, with the pulsing bass and rhythm of the drums providing the backbone to build this sonic world,” shares Palladio. “The Dire Straits-inspired riff in the bridge, played by the amazing Joey McClennan, pushes that feeling even further, and I love it.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: J. Bernardt Shares Shimmering and Euphoric “Four In The Morning”

Jinte Deprez is an acclaimed singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, programmer and producer, best known as being one-half of the songwriting duo behind the acclaimed Belgian JOVM mainstays Balthazar. Over the course of their two-plus decade run together, the acclaimed Belgian outfit has played across the global festival circuit with sets at All Points East, British Summer Time, and others — while selling over 600,000 albums globally. And during that same period of time, Deprez has firmly cemented a reputation for being a wildly talented generalist: Along with his songwriting partner and bandmate Maarten Devoldere, Deprez has co-produced three of Balthazar’s five albums to date.

Deprez is also the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed solo recording project J. Bernardt, With J. Bernardt, Deprez has released two albums, 2016’s self-produced Running Days and 2024’s Tobie Speleman and Deprez co-produced Contigo. Recorded in Los Angeles-based 64 Sound Studio, the Paul Butler-produced “Four In The Morning” is a hazily euphoric and mischievously playful tune featuring sprawling and shimmering synths, driving and pulsing drums serving as a lush bed for the JOVM mainstay’s sultry delivery. But the euphoria and playfulness is a bit deceptive, and at its core, the song’s narrator has started to finding a moment of clarity about themselves and their lives. Whether they were drunk or sober isn’t said — and probably isn’t necessary.

To me it’s a summery song that evokes late nights, coming home and singing and dancing to your favorite song by yourself — often with no one watching. And if anyone was, you didn’t care.

The song reflects the evolution of J. Bernardt into a fully-fledged artistic universe with its own trajectory and ambitions. Deprez worked far away from familiar and long-held routines. Butler’s free-flowing approach in the studio encouraged spontaneity and led to Deprez’s most liberated and carefree vocal performance to date.

“The song caught my attention very quickly because it’s not the kind of song I would normally write,” Deprez explains, “It has this manic urge that made me think: ‘Is something calling out your name, man?’ So I went for it, probably because of the sense of rebirth it gave me. Why not? I wanted to feel reborn. And that’s how it happened: a dancer in his finest suit wandering through LA at four in the morning. I hope it ends well for him.” 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tokyo Tea Room Shares Mesmerizing and Shimmering “Eyes Off You”

Last year’s full-length debut, No Rush saw the rising Margate, UK-based outfit Tokyo Tea Room quickly establishing a sound and approach that takes listeners on a journey within a tender, comfortable bubble. Their music is inspired by lived-in, human emotions while thematically exploring longing and the ephemeral nature of existence. The album eventually led to millions of monthly listeners across the DSPs and a sold-out North American tour, helping the band amass a rapidly growing global audience.

The Margate-based act have new music coming that will reportedly see them entering a new chapter that sees an evolution of their sound that remains rooted in the emotional depth that the band has begun to be known for. The rising British act will return to North America for a fall tour, supporting their new material. The tour includes two NYC area dates — October 13, 2026 at Music Hall of Williamsburg and October 14, 2026 at Bowery Ballroom. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.

In the meantime, the rising outfit’s latest single, the Daniel James Elliott-penned “Eyes Off You” is an atmospheric, mesmerizing and hook-driven, sophitispop-inspired bop that features Beth Dunn’s yearning vocal ethereally floating over shimmering synths, Nile Rodgers-like guitar and a supple yet propulsive bass line. “Eyes Off You” captures the desperation and delusion of an all-consuming obsession, describing the inability to let go, even when it hurts.

Directed by Jacek Zmarz and starring Anders Hayward, the accompanying video for “Eyes Off You” is a cinematically shot fever dream that follows Hayward as he expressively dances in series of surreal yet gorgeous locales.