The last couple of years have certainly brought a lot to the surface culturally, and in the world of music, it created an open window for up-and-coming artists from across the underground to break into the mainstream and reframe what pop can be in this new decade. Young Holyfield has not sat by and lets
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Comprised of a subtle but enticing rhythm, swaggering lead vocals, an indulgent slew of melodicism that forms a foundation perfect for ushering forth blues-laden lyrics and a sense of urgency that is underscored by the frustratingly pendulous accent towards the main hook, describing Regina Ferguson’s new single “Canyon Town” as a complex effort might not
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A tried and true melodic wit is one of the few things in this world that I would undisputedly deem recession-proof, and it takes an artist like Justin Love to demonstrate this point time and time again. In Love’s potent new single, titled “No Friends,” we don’t hear a rapper playing to the fundamentals of
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Hidden beneath layers of mammoth melodies and striking vocal harmonies delivered in a way that only singer Lori P. Davis can, there lies a beacon of hope in the decadently designed dirge that is “Bad Boy.” This latest single and music video from the Lori P. Davis Project is becoming a critics’ favorite this year,
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Few music scenes in the American underground are as iconic nor as recognizable as the country circuit, and while Nashville itself has been falling short of the success that its counterparts have been enjoying lately, it’s presenting audiences with quite the interesting new sound in Lan Law’s “Hillbilly Legal” this April. Not overtly country but
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A soft beat finds its way through the mist of budding melodies as we listen in on the first few bars in “Fav Flavor,” the new single from Amanda Holley, but its initial energy is only a glimpse into the groove that’s about to come barreling out of the stereo only moments from now. A
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Jason Owens is an artist in all aspects of his life, from his dedication to expression on the stage to the studio he dominates with his decadent lead vocal, and never has this been any clearer than it is in the new single “Party Like You.” Stylized as a 2000s country power ballad with a
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Strung together with a humble pop vernacular, gentle swing beat, and a moderate rock electricity beneath its every verse, there’s a case to be made that Carbon County’s new single “Panic!” is everything a throwback track should be – a celebration of vintage aesthetics presented through the lens of contemporary songcraft. Carbon County is on
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Grinding out a bassline as grungy as it is reminiscent of a noise-laden American metal underground still not properly recognized for its importance nearly fifty-five years after its advent, we find the opening bars of Changing Tymz’s “Shark Attack” ready to smother just about anyone who comes in contact with them this April. The vocals
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Following 3 sold out shows in Los Angeles, rising alternative duo Migrant Motel return with their newest single, “Party”. The mid-tempo track is a new take on a party anthem: It laments a recent breakup and not wanting to go to a party to see a lost love with someone new. Its heartbreak-and-chill with a beat. The band’s Chava Ilizaliturri says “The
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Instrumental pop music is all about establishing a mood, and if there’s one producer/songwriter that I’ve listened to in the last couple of months who knows how to do this better than most of his peers in the international underground do, it’s Sebastian Lightfoot. Lightfoot’s new single, “Ascension,” is a song steeped in moodiness, starting with the
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A sweet but understated bassline. Jazzy swaying from one direction to the next. A voice as soft and decadent as some sort of divine cloud. Nya’s “I’ll Be Okay” wastes no time in transporting us to the dreamlike environment that the critically acclaimed singer conjures up whenever she steps to the microphone, and inside the
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While his peers are seeming content to relive the past in their work through one melody or another, Lavon Coates doesn’t want to be the same kind of barroom poet that has dominated the country music conversation for two generations-plus. In Coates’ new single, which is titled “Raise Her Right,” the singer/songwriter makes it obvious that
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Jessica Carter Altman is serenading us with a lot of desire in her heart in the all-new single, the power-style ballad “Blood Moon,” her soft vocal designed to counter an oncoming deluge of synthesized intensity that’s about to erupt just around the next corner in the composition. Altman encapsulates the very essence of fun in
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“My mom thinks ur trash and my friends think you suck / If they saw you out they’d probably all key your truck / I want to believe the side I saw of you / Is really who you are but I just don’t know if it’s true,” proclaims Daisy Briggs in the opening line
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“Like how could you do that to me / Like I skipped the fall I wasn’t planning to leave” croons a humble 301icon in the opening lines of his new single “Love Songs,” currently out everywhere smart hip-hop is sold and streamed. In his words, 301icon has nowhere to hide from the emotion he’s putting
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Approaching us with a vocal that is as crisp as it is lush and filled with a melodic color all too rarely acquired when browsing the mainstream isles of the local record store is none other than Milky Chance’s “Living In A Haze,” a late spring single that has been gaining traction in the underground
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In his new single “Demon,” rapper Fresh Da Zoe turns his focus to the straightforward element of his sound and entirely abandons the notion of commerciality in his artistry at the door. From the moment we press the play button forward, Zoe is on top of us with a rhythmic swing from the strings that
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In their latest single, titled “Cadillac,” King Falcon continues to cultivate a sound that tends towards the genre’s Alternative/Indie pool. Delivered with a passionate lead vocal that has become a bit of a signature attribute for the band’s magnetizing lead singer, “Cadillac” feels and sounds like a statement of self for the group behind its conception. I think it’s one
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Industrious and fuzz-laden in one moment, seamlessly cosmopolitan and dance-friendly in the next; “Life…is a Fraction VI. Realization” might be Elsewhere at the act’s most versatile, but it’s also one of the most compelling songs this unit has ever released. When you’re working in the studio with virtually no aesthetical limitations to quell your desire
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In “Moma,” Dude Reppin Knowhere changes things up and goes after the crowd that occupies the dancefloor in what could be described as his most rhythmic effort yet. DRK applies his signature brand of rapping to a previously untried framework in this track, utilizing as much of a swing-driven beat as he does the melodic
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The new wave of mainstream synthetic music hasn’t been kind to any genre, but I think the pop community has probably taken a harder hit than a lot of others in the past year. Pop music has a long history of fostering an immersive relationship between artist and audience, and as organic elements in the
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A hard-charging drumbeat and a chilling melody greet us at the onset of the political hip-hop track “Road To Damascus,” and within an instant of their appearance, we start to feel like we’re in the center of the audience at a Chris Waters performance this spring. While Waters is recording this powerful and emotionally provocative
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There’s a lot of patience in the guitar-born harmonies of the new single “Spirit of the Trees” by Christian Parker, but not for one second does it sound like our leading man is dragging through this song with zero interest in the urgency within the lyrics. Rather than following suit with his singer/songwriter contemporaries, Parker
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Although it could be described as being a bit compositionally minimalistic on paper, there’s nothing limited about the melodic output we encounter in the new single “I Believe God” from rising gospel star Jekalyn Carr, which was released this season to a warm reception from critics and fans the same. “I Believe God” is built
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Instrumentally speaking, you could say that the new single from Life Change, “Hit the Spot,” has all the standard trappings one might expect out of a funked-up hip-hop track. The beat is big, the rap is sweeping, and the rhythm is connective in every department that matters, but I don’t know that the arrangement of
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Instrumentally, there’s nothing over the top or exceptionally out of bounds in the new single “The Angels Went Back To Heaven” by MattO, but in terms of melodic presence, this is a track that needs a couple of dedicated listens to appreciate its strengths. Rather than assaulting us with the pomp that a lot of
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Addictively poppy in spots but constructed with enough attention paid to melodicism that we don’t start sweating as the ascent towards the chorus reaches its fever pitch, Palms Station’s “I Don’t Know The Way To Your Heart” could be their most calculated single to see widespread release thus far. There are so many elements in
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Codefendants are putting it all on the line with us in their new single “Def Cons;” all of their pain, sorrow, and startlingly unfiltered love for humankind, but they never let the heavy subject matter transform this track into another mournful dirge in a year overflowing with them. This is a thought-provoking punk number that
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There are countless ways that a heavenly harmony can affect us, and in Brian Keith’s “So Long Emily,” it’s perhaps even more essential to the construction of the song’s narrative than Keith’s lyrics are. From the get-go, the backing band and the man of the hour are conjuring up a charming vibrancy in their shared
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Comprised of a darkly melodic strain of instrumental fabric and an organic lead vocal left untainted by the commerciality of a synth-crazy generation in pop music, you could perhaps call Cleo Alexandra’s all-new single “Taken By Desire” a product of the minimalism-inspired times it was born into, but at the same time, I would be
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Making one hit single on any given album is a challenge all on its own, but stacking the deck can be next to impossible – unless you’ve got a skillset like Dr. Shaheed and DJ Supreme’s. Shaheed, who have been roaring through the American underground like nobody’s business in the last few months, and a
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Ascending from the silence like a divine force that was always meant to rise from this earth and return to the heavens from which it was originally sent, we discover the opening bars of “This is Awkward” adorned with a melody as rich as it is palatable to anyone who loves guitar-driven pop music. Even
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“When you walk in everything that’s dark leaves / Your like brown red yellow gold leaves / Pedals of your heart is a mystery / When it’s so cold baby you the sunbeams,” we’re told by a soft, bittersweet vocal in the first couple of lines in Neon Dreams’ “This is It.” As poetically endearing
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A jazzy and familiar MJ beat comes into focus and is quickly adorned with kaleidoscopic melodies, the best of which originate from a staggered yet gentle rhythm. There are no glittery synths, no bloated basslines. Will Wheaton hasn’t even started singing, but the mood is difficult for anyone within earshot to ignore. This is “Lady
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Fun and simple in every way that counts for something in music these days, CEO Fully Loaded’s “Round the Corner” is undeniably hip-hop at its very best. There are no mundane melodic props in this track – no plasticized harmonies, inarticulate verses, or pointless poeticisms that allude to someone else’s brand. In “Round the Corner,”
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Spinning out of the silence with a proud strut, Mateo Briscoe’s anthemic single “Insane” kicks into gear on the whim of a beat that can induce chills on the spot no matter how many times you’ve heard the song. Briscoe himself weaves his words in between the explosive bursts of percussion, every lyric espousing a
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As the ancients have taught us, love waits for no one in this life, and when you find the person that you’re supposed to be with, there’s no sense in holding back from confessing your feelings to the whole world around you. Tom Keifer, a legend in the music community, is using both smart poetry
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When two singer/songwriters as skilled as Mike Stinson and Johnny Irion get together, you know that some sparks are going to fly, and that’s exactly what happens shortly after pressing play on their new joint album Working My Way Down. Working My Way Down has all the hallmarks of a brooding, immensely reflective folk-rock effort, but in songs
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After winning over both fans and critics in 2022 with the immaculate Folds of Time, Louis Siciliano returns this winter with his most evocative work to date in Ancient Cosmic Truth, a four-song extended play that rewards his fans with an unfanciful look at his beguiling style of jazz and world music unlike any other he has
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As I listened to the transition between the beats in “Let’s Party,” the new single from none other than God-tier beat-makers Kool & the Gang, it occurred to me how important making a single of this variety that flows evenly really is. As a music critic, I’ve had the misfortune of having to cover a
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The Cofields have been conjuring up a storm in the independent press over the past year, and it’s easy to understand why when getting a peek at their new single, “Royalty.” Non-virtuosic but ambitiously structured nonetheless, “Royalty” invites us to see the world through the lens of the optimistic eyes of Calvin and Kimberly Rice-Cofield,
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If you haven’t already noticed simply by turning on the radio, sociopolitical-themed music has been making quite the comeback in the last couple of years. No matter your affiliation, it’s easy to understand why international turmoil is yielding great melodies – it always has, historically – and though Major Spark’s new single “Birds Aren’t Real”
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In his latest single, “Sunday Afternoon,” Mychael Gabriel delivers what could be his most relaxed yet lyric-driven tracks to date. At a moderate total length, “Sunday Afternoon” doesn’t appear on the surface to be the most ambitious indie pop tune out this winter – but inside its efficient structure, this song is sporting some of
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Whether you’re watching the TV or scrolling through social media on your phone, there’s seemingly no escape from the discord that has been plaguing our world and every corner of it in recent years. We’re living in an era that tests us daily, and Greg Hoy fights against the culture of chaos we’ve created for
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There’s a slightly blue overtone to the velvety verses adorning the grooves in Betty Beata’s “My Favourite Time Of The Year.” From the moment that her breathy vocal comes into focus, the melody it emits is saturated in a solemn but colorful texture; in both what she’s singing and how she’s singing it, she’s expressing
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The lauded Sonarpilot has been making some big waves with word of his work in the studio once again, and in “Citadel,” he invites another layer of cerebral craftsmanship into the mix to make some truly mystical music for the ages. “Citadel” plods along to a staggering beat, but its melodies are anything but a
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A bassline emits an optimistic tone as brittle beats attempt to replicate it in the opening bars of “I Feel,” the latest single from DMF Musa. When DMF Musa starts to rap in his brutish voice, his vocal wraps around the bass tightly but leaves just enough room for a fleeting percussive stomp to penetrate
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Pedrito Martinez opens up his heart to us and gives his most intimate and vulnerable performance yet in the new single “Avenida Malecon,” the latest cut out of the pop underground to get a lot of attention from critics across the board this month. In this song, rigid textures are flanked with fluid transparency in
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Waves of melodies are skewed with the light touch of an electricity from the rhythm; a soft crash of drums and the rollicking beat they create as we enter a sweetened cover of “This Christmas” from The Tribe Band, but these first few bars are only a small sampling of the chill-spiking harmonies that await
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