I’m back with my playlist and article discussing the music that I’ve been listening to the last few months (specifically, January through April of this year). I was trying to keep it shorter than the last few, to keep it more manageable. I’m not sure if I pulled of the “shorter” part, but it did feel more manageable, possibly due to better planning on my end.
As per usual, I’ve made YouTube and Spotify versions of the playlist to follow along to. Also, a lot of these artists are on Bandcamp too, and that’s a good way to support them if you like what you hear (the next Bandcamp Friday isn’t until August, but they have the best artist payouts even outside of then). I’ll throw in one last pitch for signing up for the Out of Left Field mailing list below, and then we’ll jump right in.
Notes: Not too much is missing this time; the track by In Love With a Ghost is not on Spotify, and Jamie Paige’s ‘C-Sides’ EP is mostly constrained to her Bandcamp page.
PinkPantheress: I spent the first few weeks of 2026 continuing to go through various places’ Best of 2025 lists, and ‘Fancy That’ by PinkPantheress was one of my absolute favorite discoveries from that process. It was kind of funny, hearing it and saying “oh wow, I was totally sleeping on this!”, then getting to see her hit the American mainstream a few weeks later (following gold medalist Alyssa Liu skating to a remix of “Stateside”).
The record is pretty short for a full release, clocking in at nine songs and just over 20 minutes on the original version without remixes and such (in fact, she seems to describe it as a mixtape rather than a full album, which makes sense). But gosh, does it just lay on the gas from the word go and never let up, from the spacy synth chords of “Illegal” and PinkPantheress’s breathless introduction that immediately grab your attention before passing you through an infectious procession of thumping bass synths, four-on-the-floor beats, and impossibly catchy hooks. Songs slide into each other in a way that refuses to let up and makes it feel extra cohesive, aided by a sort of stream of consciousness lyrics that feel like they could be describing either a fun night out in first person, or an exhilarating Guy Ritchie-esque romp of mayhem through night clubs. Something breathless and blown up to its most exciting form, soundtracked by a stream of songs that could all stand alone as singles.
It the kind of dance pop where, even if you aren’t listening in a club setting, it still immediately overwhelms you and draws you into its embrace; I actually love the video for “Girl Like Me” for running on that logic, turning the whole world into a set of vignettes run by its thumping beat, like it’s a level from Rhythm Heaven. That really just captures the sensation I’m trying to describe.
Brigitte Calls Me Baby: Chicago alt rockers Brigitte Calls Me Baby were one of my favorite acts back in 2024 with their debut album, so I was excited for their follow-up ‘Irreversible’ when I learned it was coming out. Where would they go from there? ‘The Future Is Our Way Out’ was notable for their distinct sound, which I think I compared to “The Cure if they had an American Rockabilly singer”, but where do you go from there? The answer turned out to be “more of the same”, and it absolutely kicks ass. I don’t know, I feel like reading music criticism, people get really into the idea of changing up sounds to signal new releases and such. And that’s a powerful idea, it’s led to some interesting music, it’s even worked my way into my thinking even though I don’t know that I was ever consciously totally on board with it.