So here we finally have it: my Summer 2025 Playlist! I mean, it’s still fairly warm where I am anyway with a final early-fall heatwave, and it’s not like I let out-of-season names affect when my other articles come out (I refuse to move my “End of Year” articles any earlier than the next January, “End of Year” includes what I listen to in December and I need time to process all of that!). I tried to be a little more concise to help speed things up, but I don’t really think it worked.
As per usual, if you’d like updates about my Out of Left Field posts, I have a mailing list for that here! (And it’s separate from my baseball one.) And also like usual, I’ll note that a lot of these artists post their music on Bandcamp, and that’s a great way to support them if you like their stuff!
Note: In a shocking first, almost every single track that I included was available on both YouTube and Spotify. The one exception was the two tracks by alpha, which weren’t on Spotify (but were on Youtube). Also, I’m still doing album and EP titles in single quote marks instead of italics, to make publishing easier.
The Playlist (but as an article)
Racecar: Without a doubt, ‘Pink Car’ by Scottish trio racecar ended up being the soundtrack of my summer this year. It’s basically perfectly designed for the task, a March release of breezy pop music that even invokes lazily hanging around all summer in the first lines of opening track “Lay Me Down” over a bouncy bassline and funky light guitar riff. It’s a catchy start (one that I couldn’t help but repurpose for the playlist here), and perfectly builds from there into a frantic little pop tune stuffed to the gills with catchy hooks, flowing melodic lines, and exciting little flourishes.
But the fun part is letting it carry you along with the flow and eventually realizing that what seemed like a fun little aural lazy river to float along with actually has some actual depth and currents to it that will sweep you away before you catch on. Racecar is a talented group of songwriters, and their arrangements are richly layered and show off the variety of styles they’re playing with. But the album is also structurally fun, as they let tracks flow into each other as they build out a fuller story about a tempestuous summer fling and the storm of emotions it brings.
Individual tracks stand on their own, but also end up feeling like movements in larger suites; on my first listen (fittingly, while driving along the highway), I didn’t actually register that the “first song” had ended until track 4, which was the first clean sonic break on the album. Even when they do make clean breaks, they’ll often utilize quick breaks to mask those, making it feel like just another one of the mid-song style shifts that they love using. For example, “Fall Leave”, which starts almost immediately on the closing sounds of predecessor track “Nightshow” with a 30-second purely-vocal choral round, jumps to the main bulk of the song (which, on another note, includes some of the biggest belting moments of catharsis in pop music), stops with a minute left to do a bridge of largely pizzicato strings, the returns for a final reprise of the main theme before smoothly winding down into subsequent track “Remains” (which even includes a few throwbacks to “Fall Leave”, because again, Racecar loves these sorts of “suites comprised of multiple pop songs” structures).
Really, it’s shocking how poppy these songs feel, considering that they eschew basically all conventional forms of pop songwriting. I don’t think there’s a single moment of traditional “verse-chorus-verse-chorus” structure here. And yet, the main hooks and melodies are so infectious and well-utilized and generally great that they immediately get stuck in your head just like any traditional pop song chorus. They used the tag “Post Pop” on their Bandcamp page, and I don’t feel like that genre is really well-defined enough to just drop in a quick summary (especially when compared to something like “alt pop”, which I feel like has spread enough to merit using it in their intro description), but like… this may codify my understanding of what Post-Pop can be, sort of like a mastering of the pop music “style” to the point where they can make completely off-the-while writing styles feel not just recognizable but familiar and welcoming.
“Pink Car” is 13 songs, 50 minutes, crammed full of ideas that it rushes through, and yet still feels too short. I feel like several of these songs could have been expanded to their own 15-minute EPs or something and I wouldn’t even mind. And they touch on so many ideas… full string sections, big electronic textures and hits, french horn dueting with voice, a sort of big echo-y chime synth part in “Wolf” that always catches my ear... and this isn’t even getting into the stellar traditional components of bass, guitar, and drums. “Lay Me Down” might be my favorite bass part but there are plenty of other fun licks across the record, and the weird, funky drum part of “Got You Into It” is a big part of what makes it feel like the other big climax of the album.
I know I said that I might try and be more concise in this article only to immediately launch into this extended bit, but that’s just how excited this album gets me. I was relishing the chance to revisit it and just gush about all the things I love. I’m starting my writing with this part, and I’m really not sure I can manage another section like this for any other thing that I listened to.
That even goes for ‘Orange Car’, racecar’s debut album. I went back and checked it out after falling in love with ‘Pink Car’, and it’s good! You can see the beginning of a lot of ideas that would evolve further on the follow-up, and their general sound is basically in place from the drop. But it’s “just” a very solid indie pop album with a bunch of good songs, not a rollicking epic of a pop record. Still, shout out to tracks like frenetic album opener “Animals”, which could have just as easily kicked off this playlist as “Lay Me Down”.
Gloomy June: I highlighted this Bay Area indie rock/pop-punk quarter in my last Playlist, which was published the week before their self-titled debut album dropped. And in a world where I hadn’t found Racecar, this really could have been my soundtrack of the summer. I kept coming back to it, their power pop hooks and energy are just infectious and made for great listening at basically any time of day. The album is, befitting of the title, a little darker sonically and lyrically than ‘Pink Car’, but that honestly might have suited my summer a little better; I dunno, sometimes cruising with the windows down has some anxiety to it, and you need some echo-y guitar riffs and more-emo lyrics. Even knowing five of the twelve tracks pre-release didn’t bother me (I feel like I’ve complained about that a lot in the past), everything here is so propulsive and catchy that it could be a single. It does mean that I won’t re-use the best song on the album, “picking scabs”, since I included it last time, but I have no problem finding other stuff here to showcase instead.
OK Cool: I feel like every time I do one of these playlists, there’s one album that I check out early in the cycle and think “yeah, that’s not bad”, then keep subconsciously coming back to over and over until it gets to be time for the write-up, at which point I realize with a little surprise “Oh wow, this album really worked it’s way into my brain, it’s become one of my favorites in the list now!” That honor this time goes to ‘Chit Chat’, the debut LP of Chicago garage rock duo OK Cool. It’s an efficient ten tracks, packed with catchy guitar riffs and anthemic Midwestern rock choruses that just sweep you along before you even notice it. And the couple times they break out the fizzy guitar solos (like in album centerpiece ‘Jeans (I Get It Now)’) are such good moments of payoff.
CLIFFDIVER: Cliffdiver’s ‘birdwatching’ was one I heard about on a delayed “Best of 2024” list, and I’m so glad that I did. I wasn’t familiar with the Tulsa group, and their punk rock/post-emo sound was instantly grabbing. It’s as catchy as the poppiest pop-punk stuff while also keeping more interesting arrangements and twists on the style (including a saxophonist as one of the septet’s standard members, always a big win in my book). And there’s a maturity to the sound, too; like, there’s still a lot of humor and levity like you’d normally find in this genre, but it’s less immature and more the knowing goofiness of someone who has seen rough times and chooses to keep things loose and light, which plays up the more serious tracks anymore. Stuff like “thirty, flirty, and thriving!!!” and “team fight tactics” is what makes the “dayz gone” and “lord have mercer” of the tracklist hit even harder, even while having some depth themselves.
There’s a joie de vivre that permeates this record, and it’s so infectious. I was a little shocked to find out that it was made after the band was in a freak car accident on tour that nearly turned fatal, although that was less because of the content of the album (which, again, already felt like someone who had seen some shit) and more because the story itself was so bizarre that it sounds like a horror movie. But knowing that did feel like it cast a different light on the music, and made it feel almost life-affirming in its outlook. But I also don’t think the album reaches that status if it didn’t have quite a few anthemic bangers on it to go along with it. It’s just an all-around solid listen.
Similar Kind: We’ve got another debut album from a band that I’ve loved covering in the past! Similar Kind’s sound is a tight and suave jazz-pop glide with a bit of a new wave finish, and that’s on full display with ‘good grief!’. Look, I’m a sucker for good saxophone, and these songs are just built for a sax to come cutting through a swirling, hazy groove at a key moment. This was another album that I just loved to throw on and bounce along to for the full length, every song just sweeps me along. (Also, I realized while writing this that my Start of 2025 playlist included pre-release single “let me go” despite it technically being released after my cut-off, so uh, pretend it’s the third pick here instead?)
The Beths: The New Zealand power-pop quartet finally released their follow-up to ‘Expert in a Dying Field’ (one of my favorite albums of 2023) at the very end of August. Thus, it just barely made my window of consideration for this playlist (which I kept at Labor Day even though the article itself was delayed), but the extra time to consider it hasn’t made it easier to write about. I think it’s a good album, although it falls into that awkward spot of “I like it less than their last album mostly due to personal taste, while also recognizing that it’s still very good at what it’s trying to do”. The album still deals with stress and anxieties lyrically, but has swapped its predecessor’s twitchy restlessness for a more reflective, melancholic sound, something that the opening track even lays out in its discussion of mental health. “Metal” is a beautiful, contemplative song that I think is one of their overall standouts and sums up the album (although I included it as a pre-release single on my last playlist, so it’s not here), and even stuff like “No Joy”, which sounds closer to their previous style, still feels at home lyrically on this album. It’s less immediately satisfying to me than last time, but I definitely think it will grow on me over time.
Nourished By Time: I was going to make a joke here and just copy and paste the intro from the section on The Beths here, but that seemed a little excessive. Marcus Brown’s debut album ‘Erotic Probiotic 2’ was another one of my favorite albums back when I heard it, with a compelling and ethereal blend of ‘90s R&B, electronic, and bedroom pop that was unique and immediately stood out. ‘The Passionate Ones’ evolves that sound, taking it more in the direction of house/other dance music, while also making it feel… hazier and more atmospheric? It’s hard to discuss, because Brown’s sound is still fairly unique, meaning comparisons to himself are the easiest ones to make even as the whole point is how different it feels now. Songs now feel like they’re allowed to expand into the background and slowly fade away in a way that’s hard to put to words; plenty of songs on the last record used a sort of fade-out ending, but it felt like a more standard choice to end a pop song, where here it feels more like the way electronic music can kind of keep going with a mood until it burns itself out. But also, there’s still that sort of dark, late-night vibe to the album’s sound, something it has in common with Brown’s debut, but which stands out more as the songwriting style has shifted a little from R&B to dance. Again, I’m not sure I like it more on a personal level than the last album that I fell in love with, but I appreciate the clear vision and decisions to go in a new direction, and I can see it growing on me over time. And again, there’s still not really that much out there right now that sounds like Nourished By Time.
Sydney Sprague: Another returning favorite, alt rocker Sydney Sprague returns with a three-song single to mark going independent, her first release since 2023’s stellar ‘somebody in hell loves you’. Sometimes I feel bad about including multiple songs from such a short release like this one (the three songs together don’t even reach 8 minutes), but I don’t mind it here, since I keep getting these songs stuck in my head. In fact, cutting one of them was still kind of difficult! Sprague is such a great songwriter, pulling off such efficient builds to big moments even in short times, and I really gel with her vignettes about the different anxieties that plague her. (Edit: Literally as I was working on formatting this piece to publish, I got a notification from Bandcamp that she released a new album including all three of these songs.)
Jamie Paige: Jamie Paige returns with the Deluxe Edition of ‘Constant Companions’, one of my favorite releases of 2024. It falls into an awkward spot: I like it because I love Jamie Paige’s music and I will not turn down more of it, but I also worry it would be hard to recommend this version to a newcomer as “the definitive version” because the twenty minutes of new content(!!!) pushes this to over an hour in length, and that can be a hard sell to someone who isn’t already pretty invested. But the new stuff here is good, particularly new single “BIRDBRAIN” (which seems to have taken off, deservedly so). I’ll also use this as a chance to throw “Object of Affection” on this playlist, since it was a hard cut last time.
Not included on the Deluxe Edition? “Radiant Revival”, her official collaboration with “Hatsune Miku Digital Stars”, which comes with a cute little low-poly video. And Flavor Foley (the trio that Paige is a part of) also remained busy, releasing “Static” and “Spoken For”, another pair of fun songs with interesting videos. I can see why those seem to have taken off online (Or maybe it’s just the circles I’m in? It can be hard to tell sometimes…).
ODDEEO: ODDEEO is another Jamie Paige collaborator who I finally got around to checking out. Or, rather, checking out again; I’ve mentioned instrumental rock guitarist Unit.0 before, and that’s just Oddeeo’s side project, which I didn’t learn until now. Anyway, his main thing is electronic and vocaloid stuff, and he’s quite good at it! “Wonder” and “Monte Carlo” feel like lost ‘80s city pop/synthwave classics. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have that many songs, in part because he makes incredibly high-effort animated music videos to go with each one.
Racing Mount Pleasant: I also liked the self-titled record from this post-rock/folk/chamber pop septet, their sound is so warm and pretty and produced so well, and supporting lyrics of vignettes capturing stories of emotional vulnerability. It’s a beautiful album to just sit with and sink into. My only real gripe (if it even qualifies) is that I kind of wish the “big” moments of the album were a little more climactic than they already are, but I also worry that I have no idea what I’m talking about and that going even more dramatic might ruin the overall effect. If you enjoyed Great Grandpa’s albums, I think this is close enough to recommend. Also, this is a case of all the names lining up, giving us the song “Racing Mount Pleasant” off the album ‘Racing Mount Pleasant’ by the band Racing Mount Pleasant.
Martha: I wasn’t aware of Martha, despite the fact that they seem right up my alley and have been releasing music for over a decade; even ‘Please Don’t Take Me Back’, the album of theirs that I stumbled upon, is nearly three-years old at this point. I thought it might just be because they’re British (specifically, from the northern town of Pity Me, which I didn’t know was a place before now), but it seems like they have actually gotten some attention here across the pond, and I just missed it. Either way, I’m glad I found it now! ‘Please Don’t Take Me Back’ is an excellent power-pop record with some punk influences, super high energy and loaded up with tons of hooks and catchy melodies. “Beat, Perpetual” is a rollicking opener, you get a run of great songs after it like “Baby, Does Your Heart Sink?” that demand to be sung along to, and there’s even a quick piano reprise of the title track kicking off the final stretch of the album (I love those kinds of touches). It just makes me more excited to dig into their earlier releases and see what else I’ve been missing!
Durry: We’ve got another bit of Midwestern garage rock, in the form of Minneapolis sibling band Durry. ‘This Movie Sucks’ is a good record, full of strong meat-and-potatoes catchy rock songs and a fun, distinctive lyrical voice. There’s a sort of balance in the topics of the crushing mundanity of adult life, but also a self-depreciating sense of humor and wry goofiness that propels the songs alongside their natural energy. Maybe not revolutionary, but I had a good enough time that I’m curious to keep checking out what they’re doing (and, spoiler alert, their first album is going to show up on the next playlist).
Indigo de Souza: I’ve mentioned Indigo de Souza a few times here I think? Her first few albums were pretty solid throwback to ‘90s folk- and alt-rock sounds, and her last one (2023’s ‘All of This Will End’, my favorite of them) was starting to get some buzz. After that, she signed to a larger label, apparently? Her last release was ‘WHOLESOME EVIL FANTASY’ last year, an EP of straight-up dance music; an interesting detour that seemed to stem her desire to experiment with the sound (even with the difference, it was still clearly her distinctive voice and style).
However, she seems to have have taken what she learned there and folded it back into her sound; her new album ‘Precipe’ is back closer to her first three albums, but working in more of the pop and electronic sounds from the EP, a pretty straightforward example of the alt-pop sound that I feel like is having a moment. It’s a weird comparison, but I was repeatedly struck by comparisons to Brandon Flowers and the Killers while listening. She doesn’t have the big glitzier, glammier aspects that they do, but there’s a similarity in her moody songwriting and lyrics, and her quavering, emotional voice and the ways that she uses it to great effect. I feel like a few artists this summer dropped records that went for that darker, moodier alt-pop sound to good effect, but de Souza’s was the one that landed the most on the “alternative” side of that split (which makes sense, given her background).
Chloe Moriondo: While we’re on the subject, Chloe Moriondo has been on a bit of a journey over her last few releases too. I found her through her second album, ‘Blood Bunny’, which was a gussied-up version of the bedroom pop that initially got her notice. Her follow-up, ‘SUCKERPUNCH’, took a hard swing into hyperpop, which was interesting and had some good bits, but you could also tell it was a sound that Moriondo was less familiar with. After some smaller projects in a similar vein, she returns with ‘oyster’. It’s another album which is still rooted more in the electronic, although I think it takes a little more from the 2000s electronica sound that’s in vogue right now, rather than hyperpop.
I think the experience from those experiments comes through; ‘oyster’ feels much more natural, with Chloe blending her bedroom pop songwriting style with the new sounds. “Hate it” feels like the best stuff from ‘Blood Bunny’, with its lower-key build into a sharp chorus that feels massively cathartic even without getting huge in scope, while also feeling like it clearly stands apart from that era. She makes the whirling, synthy atmosphere work with her style, as well as the album’s general theming; the sound does give that murky, underwater feeling while sitting under Moriondo’s array of oceanic-themed writing choices (a broad topic that gives a lot of apt options for metaphors and scenarios as Moriondo does her usual reflections on relationships). The whole thing just comes together very cleanly, and I enjoyed it!
Lorde: We close out this run of thematically-related records with the biggest one, from the artist who arguably pioneered this alt-pop sound to start with. I saw some speculation that she was going to follow-up her big guest appearance on Charli XCX’s record last year with her own dance record, especially after debut single “What Was That” dropped. The end result isn’t really that, it’s still a Lorde album first… but you can also see some of that influence there. Lorde hasn’t ever done that kind of pop necessarily, but you still get some of the electronic influences, as well as the confessional lyrics (although those have always kind of been Lorde staples anyway, so it’s less a huge change and more her normal style naturally lining up well).
I know I’m not alone in thinking her last album (‘Solar Power’ from 2021) was kind of a whiff, and upon a re-listen, I still kind of found it kind of aimless and mushy. Her first two records were often downtempo and not exactly peppy, but they were never really unfocused. So it’s great to put ‘Virgin’ on and immediately feel locked in; “Hammer” reminds me of “Green Light” from her second album, but less in the “it sounds the exact same” way and more the “you realize after a few listens the energy is the same” way. And there are a number of solid tracks here, between that, “What Was That”, “Man Of The Year”, “Favourite Daughter”... I say this as a more casual fan who hasn’t really put any thought into the question until just now, but this might be my favorite Lorde album? I guess we’ll see if that changes over time and thought.
Moe Shop: I hadn’t really realized it until reflecting on it while writing this piece, but I had been missing Moe Shop; their last EP came way back in 2018 (long enough ago that I can’t really even link to a playlist where I wrote about it), and even the intervening singles had kind of dried up. Honestly, one of the nice things about writing these pieces is that it allows me moments to reflect like that.
Anyway, the electronic producer returned in a big way, first with new single “LOVE RECORD” and then with ‘EVO EVO’, which I believe is their first full album? I feel like a lot of producers from their cohort started with a very energetic, almost sort of hyperactive house sound fit for partying, and have since moved in a more restrained direction. And Moe Shop does sort of fit that general outline at first; lead single “TIMEOUT” is even about being uncomfortable at a party and wanting to go home, and there are some darker sounds in the songs following it. But even those tracks tend to be lower-key grooves. This is still a dance record, even if it isn’t as sugary as early Moe Shop, and it makes for a good, bouncy listen. And hey, the penultimate track on the album (“NEWLY HUMAN FEELING”) even sees them reuniting with Jamie Paige (and her GUMI voicebank) for the first time in seven years, which is a lot of fun!
McKinley Dixon, Spellling, and Alien Boy: A few publications that I follow put out “Best of the First Half of the Year” articles back in June, and these three (‘Magic, Alive!’, ‘Portrait of My Heart’, and ‘You Wanna Fade?’, respectively) were some of my favorite things I found while browsing those. I feel a little silly, because I know each of them have a lot to talk about (especially since they were getting Best of the Year shoutouts), but in trying to write about them, I struggled to find much to say beyond “Yeah, I liked them too, and I wanted to give them a shoutout!”. Ah well, I need to finish this piece and move on eventually, so probably best not to force things. If you also end up enjoying them, I’m sure there are longer reviews elsewhere that you can look at. For the quick pitches though: Dixon’s albums (I also checked out his previous record, ‘Beloved! Paradise! Jazz?’) are extremely literary jazz-rap; Spellling is a Bay Area musician making experimental alt pop; and Alien Boy are keeping the ‘90s alive with their shoegaze-y alternative rock.
Great Grandpa: Let’s briefly do some explicitly following up on things from the Start of 2024 Playlist. I had Great Grandpa’s ‘Patience, Moonbeam’ at the top of that list, and after reading others’ reviews of it, was encouraged to go back to their prior album, 2019’s ‘Four of Arrows’. And yep, it’s still good! A lot of what worked in the newer record is still here, although it’s a lot less grand in scale and sticks a little more closely to folk rock. I’m always going to prefer ‘Moonbeam’, but I wouldn’t blame anyone who said they preferred this one.
Courting: Courting also released the single “the twins (1969)” just two months after their newest album released. That seemed like a quick turnaround, but then I realized they did the same thing last year after ‘New Last Name’ too, with “Battle”. That seems like a wild turnaround, but then again, so does releasing an entire new album after only 14 months in the modern music scene. They’re just really productive, I guess. Anyway, both singles are good, and included here!
Oakman and Cute Girls Doing Cute Things: While we’re on the subject of “backlogs from artists I talked a lot about last time”, I checked out earlier EPs from French indie rockers Oakman (‘Plastic World’) and Japanese electronic producer Cute Girls Doing Cute Things (‘IDEAL’). I don’t know that I have a lot to add that I didn’t say last time; both are great stuff to check out if you want more of their sounds! A little less good than what came after maybe, but if you liked that stuff, definitely give these a listen too!
Snail’s House, Andora, and Alpha: I’ll also use this as a chance to bring up some other recurring electronic producers in the Playlist series, to keep this as a sort of themed block. The always-busy Snail’s House released a new EP from the more-chill Ujbeats series. Andora finally released an EP in ‘Polychroma’, and while over half of it is a collection of past singles, the new stuff is good! And finally, we have Alpha with the fourth installment of their bright, hyper Kawaii Pop Assort series.
The Singles and Other Pre-Release Tracks Section:
-First, some random singles that I really liked and wanted to shout out: “savings flowers” by producer Salute and Rina Sawayama; Tyler the Creator and Madison McFerrin’s collaboration “Don't You Worry Baby”, and “I Really Want to Stay at Your House” by Rosa Walton of Let’s Eat Grandma (which I missed when it came out with ‘Cyberpunk 2077’, but finally heard after it was added to ‘Guilty Gear Strive’ as part of their crossover).
-I mentioned last time that St. Lucia was planning to release a second album later this year, ‘Fata Morgana: Dusk’, to complement ‘Dawn’ from back in March. They teased that it would have a very distinct sound too, and we got a preview of that in “Crimes of Passion”. One of my big complaints about ‘Dawn’ was how mellow it was, so I’m excited to see that ‘Dusk’ is leaning into higher-energy influences like house and dance music.
-I still have no idea what Chappell Roan’s plans are for a follow-up, from how she’s going to fit such a mismatched set of singles (to date) together to a potential timeline for release, but “The Subway” is another winner, so it’s all good at the moment.
-I haven’t seen any news of a third Underscores album yet, but “music” is a fun electronic single.
-Caroline Kingsbury released the fun ‘80s-inspired single “Shock Treatment”, and it looks like that will soon have a follow-up EP, which is good news.
-Synthwave masters The Midnight have a new album set for October, including single “Shadowverse”.
-Technically The Happy Fits released new album ‘Lovesick’ last Friday, but that’s after my Labor Day cutoff (and I’ve been so busy finishing this article I haven’t even had time to listen to it yet), so in the meantime, here’s single “Cruel Power”.
-Indie rocker KennyHoopla (who I’ve included in a few playlists now) released “orphan//”, a track produced by Paramore’s drummer Zac Farro that’s an interesting combination, I’m getting some mid-2000s dance punk vibes (which maybe isn’t what I expected at first, but it makes sense). There’s apparently a full EP coming out, too (it’s almost certainly out by time of publication).
-I was taken off-guard when I heard new music from futurepop duo Purity Ring on the radio, their first new stuff since early 2020. The early returns there have me curious to hear the rest.
-Some other artists that I’ve covered in the past who released new singles that have me interested in hearing more (although there’s nothing official yet, to my knowledge): Milk Talk, PRIZM, Fickle Friends (late edit: they ended up announcing their next album the day before this was published), Long Island, The Greeting Committee, Betty Who, and The Mowgli’s.
Katanak: As I believe I have stated several times in these playlists, I long for the days of 2010s indie pop.* Katanak is today’s callback to that era, and the inspirations are immediately apparent (a suspicion that was quickly confirmed by the listed influences); I was instantly caught by the opening synth notes of “Honeycomb and Hurricane”, and it was definitely wound up being one of my favorite and most-played songs of the summer. A perfect breezy pop jam full of big hooks, to kick off an EP full of the same.
*Speaking of, that scene will probably need a better moniker soon, something that really solidifies it as a distinct sound and genre; but we’ll see how that develops in the next few years. I imagine there will be more people inspired by that era cropping up soon.
Orchards: I’ve noticed a certain kind of indie synthpop sound spread (particularly across Britain?) late, with bands like Fickle Friends and Long Island as examples, and I’m a fan of it. Orchards is my most recent example of it with their album ‘Bicker’, which was even produced by Jack Wilson of Fickle Friends. There are quite a few good songs here! In the meantime, I might need to reflect on a name for this style.
Rhymies: ‘I Dream Watching’ is the debut EP of Bay Area solo act Rhymies, which is the side project of Lauren Matsui (whose main gig is guitar and vocals for shoegaze band Seablite, although I’m not familiar with their work). It’s a short but sweet collection of synthpop, proud of the bloops of its early sounds and layered in a shimmering layer of dreamy synths. I’m curious if this will remain a one-off side project, or if Matsui decides to expand on this sound even more.
Sorry Darling: I’ve mentioned this Power Pop quartet on a few playlists now, and they finally released their self-titled debut album. The downside is that it’s mostly just a collection of things they previously released with a new track added, but it did provide an excuse to relisten to their catalog so far, and it’s all still really great! Another case where I had no problem picking two songs here, even after removing all the past picks* from consideration.
*One of those past picks was the song “Sorry Darling” (which still rips!), meaning I couldn’t include the song “Sorry Darling” by the band Sorry Darling from their album ‘Sorry Darling’. But again, I at least wanted to shout that out.
Atomic Tom: Some weird backstory for this one: Atomic Tom’s first album’The Moment’ was kind of a big thing for me back in 2010? It was something I just kind of found on my own just browsing and sorting through random new releases online, so it was one of the first things that I felt like I found on my own, rather than from reading other recommendations. Sound-wise I think it holds up; it’s a fairly normal ‘80s-inspired 2000s indie rock album, but I think Atomic Tom has always had a gift for writing soaring, catchy, heartfelt anthems, and I think that skill goes a long way. For a minute, I thought they had a chance to get really big (they even had a brief viral moment back in 2010 performing their music live on the NY subway, using only the then-relatively-new iPhone), but it never quite happened. And yet, they kept up the good songs for the second release at least, despite a five-year gap and going independent, before kind of fading away… There was an odd single or something (some of which I’ve mentioned here), but even those stopped after a few years.
But apparently, the Pandemic inspired them to get back together and start writing and recording new music, and that multi-year process finally culminated in the release of their third album ‘The Way It Never Was’. After a decade, I kind of didn’t think they’d be making anything else, but this one feels comforting, like they haven’t lost a step in the intervening years; it’s just them coming back and doing what they do best. I haven’t directly compared it to ‘The Moment’ or ‘Era’, so maybe consider giving those a listen too if you’re interested and haven’t heard them before. But for me, this is definitely good enough to bring back all of those nostalgic memories.
Sub-Radio: Lately, I’ve been thinking about… I guess a general umbrella would be “radio pop-rock from around 2000s”? I remember some music writers that I follow coining the term “Minivan Rock” for it a few years ago, and I like that term, I think it gets the general idea across. I grew up with that sound, so it holds a lot of nostalgia for me, and these days I find myself thinking about it every now and then. I know to some people, it seems sort of lightweight and easily dismissable… but at the same time, I can appreciate music styles like Power Pop for being solid, catchy pop songwriting, so I’m not sure why that appreciation wouldn’t apply to others doing the same thing, just slightly differently in their approach.
Anyway, I’ve mentioned Sub-Radio in the past, and included them on a few playlists now. They released ‘Sunrise City’, their… I think it was their debut album? They’ve had plenty of releases over the last decade, mostly singles and EPs though (although some of them felt a little long to “just” be EPs, so it’s subjective). Anyway, I don’t know that the full album coalesces into more than the sum of its parts, but its parts are still “a bunch of really catchy pop-rock songs that were a lot of fun to throw on while chilling on summer afternoons, which I kept getting stuck in my head and didn’t mind”. I’ve included a few of the pre-release singles (“Pink Lemonade”, “I’m in Love!!”) on past playlists, and still had plenty of good options to pick from for this edition.
Great Good Fine Ok: I feel like it’s been a while since I highlighted one of their EPs, but Great Good Fine Ok’s newest one ‘SEVEN’ is pretty good! They brought in some solid collaborators for this one, and got some funky grooves for a nice lower-key release.
The K’s: The K’s feel like a pretty of-their-scene British indie rock group; I can’t really put it into words, but there’s a certain sound that I kind of associate with UK indie rock of the last 10-20 years. I see the title “Landfill Indie” get thrown around online, and as an American who’s a little separated from that discussion, I can’t tell if that’s an actual genre label or just a dismissive nickname, but either way, they feel like they fit around there? Anyway, I found their 2024 debut ‘I Wonder If The World Knows’ while browsing Bandcamp and enjoyed it on first listen, but kind of forgot about it… until doing final re-listens for this article. They actually have deceptively sticky hooks and catchy pop melodies. The deluxe version of the album goes on a little long (18 tracks and nearly 70 minutes), which might have caused my initial fatigue. But when I went back, I kept saying “Oh right, this one, I remember it, it’s pretty good”, and that’s probably a good sign. I doubt that it’s going to win over anyone who isn’t already a fan of that sound, but as someone somewhat partial to it, I enjoyed myself. Also, this is another case where I wasn’t aware until researching my write-up that they’ve actually released a follow-up album in the time since I found ‘I Wonder If The World Knows’, so again, maybe that will pop up on the End of 2025 Playlist…
Elisabeth Elektra: I feel like I regularly go on these binges where I seek out these big, bombastic gothic synthpop albums by singer-songwriter types, listen to them for a bit, then sort of float away over time. I’m not really sure why that is, really. But comparatively, I did find myself latching on much more strongly to Elisabeth Elektra’s ‘Hypersigil’, which is definitely of that style. I think that part of it is that Elektra does a better job at changing things up a little, keeping things from getting too same-y from track to track, and she has a better ear for big, catchy choruses too. I also suspect that I vibe better with some of Elektra’s non-music inspirations, too (the album’s title is a term coined by famed comic writer Grant Morrison, and the album artwork has Elektra wearing a red outfit reminiscent of the one worn by the similarly-named Marvel character).
Mellowpunk: Last Playlist, I went on for a little bit talking about Courting and their blend of rock music with electronic and hyperpop elements. I learned about Mellowpunk and their new album, ‘carsick’, and it also seems to be exploring those ideas. The big difference between them in my estimation is the rock music base that they were working off of; where Courting was more 2000s dance- and post-punk, Mellowpunk seems to be coming more from the direction of shoegaze and Midwest emo. Maybe that’s a reflection of their backgrounds, too? Mellowpunk is from Providence, Rhode Island, whereas Courting is from Liverpool and sounds very British; and those are sort of the associations that I have with the indie rock of each country ten-to-twenty years ago. Despite being American, I tend to line up more with Courting’s taste on that split, but I still really appreciate Mellowpunk’s take on this genre fusion, and I definitely found myself coming back to ‘carsick’ fairly often over the summer. I’m very interested to see where they go from here.
Nao: I wasn’t really familiar with her until stumbling on her new album ‘jupiter’, but it was a good find! It’s just a bunch of great synth-heavy, atmospheric electro-R&B tracks, and I love the hazy grooves of stuff like “Wildflowers” and “Poolside”.
After: Another smaller act that I found while browsing Bandcamp, I was intrigued by their description of their sound as (paraphrasing) “What if Michelle Branch fronted a trip hop group?” And you know what? Truth in advertising, they nailed it with that one. It really feels like something I would have enjoyed hearing on 2000s pop radio as a kid, then come back to years later saying “you know, this holds up!”. I guess that means it ties into that “Minivan Rock” re-evaluation I mentioned later? Also, their album artworks really nail that Y2K design aesthetic.
Erica Eso: I like browsing more experimental attempts at pop on Bandcamp, there’s always interesting stuff there; Erica Eso’s ‘192’ is in that vein. My elevator pitch would be “If Sungazer (who I’ve included on a few playlists) is jazz musician trying to make pop music with non-traditional time signatures, Erica Eso is jazz musicians trying to do that with non-traditional melodic structures”. You get a lot of unusual harmonies and microtonal patterns in what sound at first like normal R&B-pop. ‘192’ was released in 2022 and was apparently trending when I found it because they had a newer album about to release, but I didn’t realize that until now, so I haven’t checked out their 2025 record yet; maybe it’ll appear on the next list…
Sharpie Smile: I feel like, when I see music writers praising an indie pop album, I mentally set up two categories in my head labeled “Carly Rae Jepsen” and “Caroline Polachek”, and it’s a coin flip on which of the two it falls under. I don’t say this to be mean (this split comes to mind for a reason; they’ve both been very influential, and I love both of those artists!), and in a lot of ways, it’s a fairly reductive dichotomy that leaves out a lot of great music. And yet… when I checked out Sharpie Smile’s ‘The Staircase’ on a recommendation, it immediately started tickling the part of my brain that enjoys listening to Caroline Polachek’s airy, atmospheric pop kaleidoscopes as they twist and wind along.
Crunk Witch: It wasn’t a new release, but I saw Crunk Witch’s 2018 self-titled EP getting some attention on Bandcamp and checked it out. My quick pitch for it would be “what if Matt & Kim was doing 2010s EDM”; I realize that a lot of people will hate that just based on the description alone, but as someone more partial to both things, I think it’s a lot of fun! I think that sort of party-EDM needs a penchant for corniness anyway, so I don’t really mind their kind of winking New England-hipster-style humor here; really, it mostly just plays out as “fun synthy party jams, but the lyrics about topics like ‘partying’ and ‘having a good time tonight’ are sometimes a little silly”. Like, this wasn’t going for profound lyrical poetry, so it actually kind of adds to the vibe, I think.
Anyway, as it turned out, that older album was trending because they had just announced their first new album in a while, ‘IN THE DARK’, so I checked that out when it released, too. That one goes in more of a drums-n-bass direction, so it’s a little darker and more aggressive, but still pretty heavy on the winking and goofiness of the self-titled album. Again, I don’t think it will change your mind if you’re the type who instinctively cringed at the direction, but if you’re in the market for that sort of big, bouncy, dumb-fun electropop, it’s a good time!
KICKSIE: I included her new album ‘BIG SUCKER’ on my last playlist, and it was good as usual, another solid release. Another win for those who like ‘90s alt rock, and with a few bigger moments of R&B influence than her past records. HOWEVER, a small gripe: last time, my choice for early release single on the last playlist came down to one of two picks, and I wound up going with the best song on the record (“MY CAR”) at the expense of “PRETTYGIRL”, which didn’t even make the final tracklist. So… I’m just going to include it now instead.
Anamanaguchi: It’s been a long time since their last non-soundtrack album, 2019’s ‘[USA]’ (another one that I really liked), and the band decided to go in a different direction in the intervening time. Most of the chiptune and electronic elements that were a defining part of their sound are gone, and they’re just doing a straight-up ‘90s alternative rock/Midwest emo thing now. It’s not bad and I enjoyed checking it out after such a long wait, but on the whole it’s much less my thing. From what I can tell, the people who are into that seem to like it though, so that’s good.
Tapeworms: This was another Bandcamp find that I checked out in part because of a weirdly specific description. Their album had a pullquote from Fader magazine referring to them as “toygaze”, and upon listening, I totally got it; it’s shoegaze, but rather than mostly working with guitar music, takes synths, chiptune melodies, and remixed samples as its basis. If that sounds interesting to you too, give it a spin, it’s fairly unique!
Strange Neighbors: I’m always on the search for more power pop groups, and while Strange Neighbors’ ‘People Pleasers Pleasing People’ might not be my favorite one on this playlist, it’s a solid entry, maybe a platonic example of the genre, and definitely worth checking out! There are a lot of fun tunes here, like “Beer at the Bar”.
Primaries: Their EP ‘Nothing’s Wrong’ was another smaller find while digging through Bandcamp; Primaries is an exciting new Houston band with a grunge-y, hard rock sound.
Bangbang: Their first EP ‘Wetworks’ is a half-dozen really tight R&B dance-pop, built around shimmery, funky grooves.
…I don’t think I actually kept the write-ups as short as I initially intended to. Ah well. A full listing of songs on the playlist follows, but before then, one final reminder that you can join the Out of Left Field mailing list below! I only ever use it when an article goes up, so there aren’t even that many emails! Hopefully, I’ll have another video game one going up soon, it feels pretty close to being done?
The Full Playlist
| Artist | Song | Release |
|---|---|---|
| racecar | Lay Me Down | Pink Car |
| racecar | Fall Leave | Pink Car |
| racecar | Got You Into It | Pink Car |
| racecar | Animals | Orange Car |
| racecar | Nervous | Orange Car |
| gloomy june | doing great | gloomy june |
| gloomy june (ft. Amy Schmalkuche) | kill you | gloomy june |
| gloomy june | making plans | gloomy june |
| OK Cool | Waawooweewaa | Chit Chat |
| OK Cool | Splitting | Chit Chat |
| OK Cool | Jeans (I Get It Now) | Chit Chat |
| CLIFFDIVER | thirty, flirty and thriving!!! | birdwatching |
| CLIFFDIVER | dayz gone | birdwatching |
| CLIFFDIVER | lord have mercer | birdwatching |
| Similar Kind | idle brain | good grief! |
| Similar Kind | peace of mind (everything everywhere) | good grief! |
| The Beths | No Joy | Straight Line Was a Lie |
| The Beths | Roundabout | Straight Line Was a Lie |
| Nourished by Time | Automatic Love | The Passionate Ones |
| Nourished by Time | 9 2 5 | The Passionate Ones |
| Sydney Sprague | As Scared As Can Be | Flat Circle EP |
| Sydney Sprague | Fair Field | Flat Circle EP |
| Jamie Paige (with OK Glass) | BIRDBRAIN | Constant Companions (Deluxe Edition) |
| Jamie Paige | Object of Affection | Constant Companions (Deluxe Edition) |
| Jamie Paige | Radiant Revival | single |
| FLAVOR FOLEY | Static | single |
| FLAVOR FOLEY | Spoken For | single |
| ODDEEO | Wonder | single |
| ODDEEO | Monte Carlo | single |
| Racing Mount Pleasant | Emily | Racing Mount Pleasant |
| Racing Mount Pleasant | Racing Mount Pleasant | Racing Mount Pleasant |
| Martha | Beat, Perpetual | Please Don't Take Me Back |
| Martha | Baby, Does Your Heart Sink? | Please Don't Take Me Back |
| Durry | Monopoly Money | This Movie Sucks |
| Durry | Porcupine | This Movie Sucks |
| Indigo De Souza | Crying Over Nothing | Precipice |
| Indigo De Souza | Heartthrob | Precipice |
| chloe moriondo | hate it | oyster |
| chloe moriondo | abyss | oyster |
| Lorde | What Was That | Virgin |
| Lorde | Favourite Daughter | Virgin |
| Moe Shop | LOVE RECORD | single |
| Moe Shop (feat. orono) | TIMEOUT | EVO EVO |
| Moe Shop (feat. Jamie Paige) | NEWLY HUMAN FEELING | EVO EVO |
| McKinley Dixon | Run, Run, Run Pt. II | Magic, Alive! |
| McKinley Dixon | We're Outside, Rejoice! | Magic, Alive! |
| McKinley Dixon | Run, Run, Run | Beloved! Paradise! Jazz? |
| McKinley Dixon (Feat. Ms. Jaylin Brown) | Beloved! Paradise! Jazz? | Beloved! Paradise! Jazz? |
| SPELLLING | Portrait of My Heart | Portrait of My Heart |
| SPELLLING | Love Ray Eyes | Portrait of My Heart |
| Alien Boy | Changes | You Wanna Fade? |
| Alien Boy | Another Brand New Me | You Wanna Fade? |
| Great Grandpa | Mono no Aware | Four of Arrows |
| Great Grandpa | Treat Jar | Four of Arrows |
| Courting | the twins (1969) | single |
| Courting | Battle | single |
| OAKMAN | Clear Enough | Plastic World EP |
| OAKMAN | Fail | Plastic World EP |
| cute girls doing cute things | Ideal | IDEAL-EP |
| cute girls doing cute things | Bad Attitude | IDEAL-EP |
| Snail's House | Penguin Dream | Ujbeats: Summer |
| Snail's House | Te Amo | Ujbeats: Summer |
| Andora (feat. RANASOL) | Dream Fantasy | Polychroma |
| Andora (ft. 弱酸性) | Croquis | Polychroma |
| alpha | Muffin | kawaii pop assort 4 |
| alpha | Marshmallow | kawaii pop assort 4 |
| salute & Rina Sawayama | saving flowers | single |
| Tyler, the Creator (feat. Madison McFerrin) | Don't You Worry Baby | DON'T TAP THE GLASS |
| Rosa Walton | I Really Want to Stay at Your House | Cyberpunk 2077 Soundtrack |
| St. Lucia | Crimes of Passion | Fata Morgana: Dusk (upcoming) |
| Chappell Roan | The Subway | single |
| underscores | Music | single |
| Caroline Kingsbury | Shock Treatment | Shock Treatment EP (upcoming) |
| The Midnight | Shadowverse | Syndicate (upcoming) |
| The Happy Fits | Cruel Power | Lovesick (upcoming) |
| KennyHoopla | orphan// | single |
| Purity Ring | many lives | purity ring (upcoming) |
| Milk Talk | Mobius | single |
| PRIZM | Times Like These | single |
| Fickle Friends | UP! | Fickle Friends (upcoming) |
| LONG ISLAND | sweet song | single |
| The Greeting Committee | Get Over It | single |
| Betty Who | Run! | single |
| The Mowgli's | Change | single |
| Katanak | Honeycomb and Hurricane | Katanak-EP |
| Katanak | Talk Like That | Katanak-EP |
| Orchards | Say It | Bicker |
| Orchards | Bicker | Bicker |
| Rhymies | I Dream Watching | I Dream Watching EP |
| Sorry Darling | Language of Touch | Sorry Darling |
| Sorry Darling | Loved Well | Sorry Darling |
| Atomic Tom | Never Go Back | The Way It Never Was |
| Atomic Tom | Mad | The Way It Never Was |
| Sub-Radio | Onto Me | Sunrise City |
| Sub-Radio | Heavenheavenheaven | Sunrise City |
| Great Good Fine Ok & Danielle Bradbery | Appetite | SEVEN-EP |
| Great Good Fine Ok & Marc E. Bassy | Pressure | SEVEN-EP |
| The K's | Icarus | I Wonder If The World Knows |
| The K's | Circles | I Wonder If The World Knows |
| Elisabeth Elektra | Yearning | Hypersigil |
| Elisabeth Elektra | Desire | Hypersigil |
| Mellowpunk | Kar Sych | carsick |
| Mellowpunk | Gmod | carsick |
| Nao | Wildflowers | jupiter |
| Nao | Poolside | jupiter |
| After | 300 dreams | After EP |
| After | Lichen | After EP |
| Erica Eso | Home Is A Glow | 192 |
| Erica Eso | O Ocean | 192 |
| Sharpie Smile | Answer | The Staircase |
| Sharpie Smile | Love or Worship | The Staircase |
| Crunk Witch | Game of Love | Crunk Witch |
| Crunk Witch | Heatwave | Crunk Witch |
| Crunk Witch X HXNCLB | Shake My Bones | IN THE DARK |
| Crunk Witch X HXNCLB | Sad (With a Tambourine) | IN THE DARK |
| Kicksie | PRETTYGIRL | single |
| Kicksie | THE MESS | BIG SUCKER |
| Anamanaguchi | Lieday | Anyway |
| Anamanaguchi | Darcie | Anyway |
| Tapeworms | Window Seat | Grand Voyage |
| Tapeworms | Pitch Pop | Grand Voyage |
| Strange Neighbors | Crush | People Pleasers Pleasing People |
| Strange Neighbors | Beer at the Bar | People Pleasers Pleasing People |
| Primaries | Killjoy | Nothing's Wrong EP |
| Bangbang | Without You [Extended] | Wetworks EP |
| Bangbang | San Fan Gigolo | Wetworks EP |
| WOLVES | Kick the Habit | Say the Word EP |
| WOLVES | Hold On For The Night | Say the Word EP |
| Veronica Lewis | Disconnected | Too Late for Tears |
| Veronica Lewis | Unless I Call | Too Late for Tears |
| Evergreen | Whiplash | VEGETAL DIGITAL |
| Evergreen | Never Be The Same Again | VEGETAL DIGITAL |
| Bad Suns | Slow Karma | Accelerator |
| Bad Suns | Just Like Magic | Accelerator |
| The Sukis | To No One | Single |
| The Sukis | Imposter Syndrome | A Sense of Doubt-EP |
| Winona Fighter | Subaru | My Apologies to the Chef |
| Winona Fighter | Swear To God That I'm (FINE) | My Apologies to the Chef |
| The Crystal Furs | Neon Heart | single |
| King Isis | PERMANENTLY BROKEN | SIRENITY EP |
| Trust Fund Ozu | Father's Day 2023 | Ozumaki |
| CATBEAR | Who Cares? | single |
| Wishy | Chaser | Planet Popstar-EP |
| South Arcade | Fear of Heights | single |
| Primo the Alien | STR8 | single |
| Primo the Alien + VVEBB | Tremors | single |
| Chloe Qisha | Modern Romance | Modern Romance EP |
| Fullbloods | Troubleshooter | Playing It Safe |
| Strawberry Station | Midnight Oil | Midnight Oil EP |
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