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.
But also, there’s something to be said for just having your sound, doing it well, and further refining it. Nobody else sounds like Brigitte Calls Me Baby, in my opinion, so there’s not really a desperate need to change things up to stand out or stay fresh or anything. Just keep getting better at that schtick. The debut had plenty of big, anthemic songs or wonder and yearning and other big emotions, and ‘Irreversible’ feels like a step up. It’s even more jam-packed with them, all building to these big moments that demand to be wailed along to and keep popping up in your head for the next week afterwards. It’s one of those releases where it was actually kind of hard to whittle it down to just a few picks for this playlist.
If I have one complaint, it’s on some weird track sequencing; “Slumber Party” feels like a great opening track full of driving guitars a frantic drums that really pulls you in, but it comes second on the album after “There’s Always”, which works as an opener but feels even more like a big, twinkling closer to send the album out on a high note, even more so than the actual last track “Send Those Memories”. I kind of wondered for a while if there was a glitch that ordered the tracks wrong that I missed, but no; maybe if it has something to do with how it makes things line up on repeat? I don’t know, this is weirdly nitpicky, but it stuck in my craw, and it’s something that translates better to text than me just trying to belt out the chorus to “I Can Take the Sun Out of the Sky” once again.
Hemlocke Springs: This is a difficult one to write for good reasons. As I mentioned in my last playlist, towards the end of last year, I listened to Hemlocke Springs’s 2023 EP, ‘Going…Going…Gone!’ and enjoyed it. Shortly after, she started releasing singles for her follow-up debut album, ‘the apple tree under the sea’, which finally released in February, and… I also loved it! For pretty similar reasons, really; ‘apple tree’ is an appropriately larger project, going longer and larger in scale, but is still built on a foundation of strong pop songwriting and a mix of new wave and hyperpop sounds to form its own bold and arresting vision of synthpop. This time still feels like an evolution though, pulling from an even wider array of sources on top of that base to help reach that larger scale. And while a lot of ‘Gone!’ was more in the pop tradition of straightforward songs about relationships, the lyrics here get a little more grand and abstract (including multiple Biblical allusions and a revenge song in multiple movements framed as avenging angels), which also helps the scope feel even bigger. I dunno, it feels a little like a cop-out to just say “it’s doing all the stuff I liked last time, but even more, and also better”, but… that’s kind of exactly what happened here; ‘the apple tree under the sea’ somehow managed to exceed my expectations while still basically being exactly what I expected it to be. That doesn’t feel like an easy trick to pull off!
Underscores: It’s funny how off guard I was by the release of her new album ‘U’, I went back and looked at my last two playlist articles, each of which included Underscores singles, and in both of them, I was speculating about her new direction on a potential next album. I just checked YouTube or something one day and said “Oh wow, there’s a new Underscores album out? Usually I hear something at least a little ahead of time.” Maybe it’s a commentary on how difficult it is to track new releases in the modern environment, even for artists that you really like who have obviously been leading up to something.
That might also have worked to help set expectations too, honestly. Underscores’s last album, 2023’s ‘Wallsocket’, was a pretty ambitious and sprawling project, taking inspirations from different genres to tell the story about a fictitious small town and its residents and reaching nearly an hour in length (and a little over, with bonus tracks that put the final track list at sixteen). ‘U’, meanwhile, is kind of back-to-basics in a lot of respects: nine tracks, 34 minutes, and solidly in the wheelhouse of electronic music. But that smaller scope has the payoff of increased focus; it’s incredibly tight, every track is great and there are no wasted moments. You can feel the synthesis of different production ideas into something new within it, like Porter Robinson (who Underscores toured with while working on it) or The Neptunes and Timbaland (who she’s cited as an influence for some of the sound; also, a sidenote, it’s cool she did a production stream for the record!). It’s like the inventiveness and explosive creativity from her hyperpop origins applied to a narrower scope, and I think it makes for a very strong and interesting listen even though the elevator pitch sounds less so than its predecessors. In some ways, it’s also kind of like going back to the sounds that she started with to demonstrate how much she’s grown as an artist in the years since, and that’s pretty cool!
Good Kid: ‘Can We Hang Out Sometime?’ is Good Kid’s first official full album, after four self-titled EPs… which is actually kind of a funny way to think about it. Each of those four releases was six songs and 15 to 18 minutes long, while this one is ten songs and 25 minutes. Not really that big of a shift in the grand scheme of things… but it did take me some time to get used to it, for reasons that I don’t fully understand? Maybe it’s because my initial expectation was for a bigger shift to mark the “debut record”, but I don’t think they do anything too radically different here in their sound. It’s basically the same tight, poppy, guitar-heavy indie rock sound they’re known for.
I think the real change is that the subject matter is much more cohesive than it is on the EPs; combined with some of the animations they got for music videos, it makes me wonder if there’s an actual narrative there? I haven’t really dug in there too much. And the songs are just as infectious as their usual work; I think lead single “Wall” (included on the End of 2025 Playlist) is still the stand-out, and it maybe overshadowed the rest of them initially. But in time, I noticed plenty of other hooks and riffs working their way into my brain, like the wailing guitar of opener “Rift” or the call-and-response refrain of “Cicada”.
Spiritual Cramp: I had missed the debut of this San Francisco punk rock outfit, but after hearing a track from their 2025 sophomore effort ‘RUDE; on the local alternative station’s music discovery block and being instantly hooked. Which is a little funny in retrospect, because the one that caught my attention is, like, the fifth or sixth best song on the album? This thing is just packed to the gills with great tracks. Spiritual Cramp are indeed punk rockers at their core, but they’re also more than happy to draw in influence from everywhere that punk’s influence has spread to; we’ve got some post-punk, pop-punk, even a little ska here and there. It helps keep this fun balance of being varied while still keeping a strong core identity. And like I said, the songwriting just kicks ass, energized by high-energy guitars and catchy, driving melodies in a way that makes you want to bust through walls, even when they move away from the pure punk into those reaches. Like, the more post-punky, bass-and-synth-driven “Automatic” or the more down-tempo “You’ve Got My Number” (featuring a guest duet from Sharon Van Etten) are some of my favorite tracks here, and despite technically turning the dial down on the speed and energy, they feel just as electric.
Juanpalitoschinos: After years of studying Spanish, I’ve been slowly trying more Spanish-language music. Mexico City duo Juanpalitoschinos were good practice for that, but I also firmly believe that their appeal is strong enough to cross language barriers for anyone not on that level. They describe their sound as indie rock inspired by City Pop, and yep, that basically nails it. That’s actually kind of impressive too, because my attempts to find non-Japanese acts that can put their own spin on the City Pop sound has been pretty mixed, but these guys just seem to get it. The sparkling, effervescent shine just pops off of their debut album ‘Natsukashi’, and even if you haven’t been looking for City Pop-influenced acts like I have, their skill at writing catchy, danceable pop songs is undeniable. This was just a perfect “good time” record to throw on throughout the spring.
Broke Royals: This was a great random pick-up on Bandcamp Friday. I had never heard of D.C.-area indie rockers Broke Royals until browsing through genre tags, and I enjoyed what I heard from their album ‘Campr’ to overlook that it was named like a lame phone app. That wound up being a great call, because this was one that I kept coming back to. Writing about and describing music is always hard, but coming up for the words here has been really tough. Something about their sound is just so familiar to me, it just feels like trying to describe refreshing water or something. I don’t know, it’s like the indie rock I knew in the 2000s, but bigger, with pretensions of arena rock despite its more intimate size. I keep coming back to “it’s like Power Pop is to Pop” or “it’s like Big Music is to New Wave”, and I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone but me. It’s so simple in form yet grand in its ambitions, make something big and powerful and catchy out of the basic elements of the art form, something that feels like staring up at the stars on a clear night and the wave of emotions that comes over you.
Is there a word for this? I definitely remember there being bands that have felt like that in the 2000s and 2010s, and I don’t know that they ever got a name. Honestly, I might call it Indie Arena Rock or Alt Arena Rock something, that feels right to me. Modern acts, often smaller ones, trying to make stuff that sounds huge, that could get tons of people singing along at a concert. I think some music critics (especially twenty or so years ago) were loath to compare things to arena rock, as it had a bit of a bad reputation as insincere or lame “sell out” music. But I think when done well, it really can be really catchy and moving, just sweep you along with it. Music is a dramatic art form, and I think part of the magic is that it can capture those big swells of emotion in a well-made, soaring chorus or solo or crescendo. I feel like songs here, like the title track or “Carriage” or “The Weather” do that; I would be listening on a walk or while I worked on something and just feel compelled to hum or sing along.
Bunny White: One of the more interesting albums of this cycle is Bunny White’s ‘The Higher the Hair, the Closer to God’. It’s a sort of sprawling meditation on life, death, and disappointment, all told through the eyes of a stylized, semi-autobiographical persona of the main singer and songwriter, and when I describe it like that, it seems very natural that the comparison that kept coming to mind was Ethel Cain’s ‘Preacher’s Daughter’ from back in 2022. Which is funny, because the two albums don’t really sound all that similar; the comparison is much more thematic. The other interesting comparison point there is that both are pop albums that sonically take heavy inspiration from that stylization they’re built on top of.
Whereas Cain was going for a sort of Southern Gothic tale built around country, roots rock, and industrial music, Bunny White’s is a mid-century melodrama focusing on the anxieties and ennui of Suburban America. That allows White to play with a whole host of sounds from the pop-music of the ‘50s and ‘60s, which makes for a fun and distinct sonic palette, with touches ranging from doo-wop, Brill building pop, early country, and even some more unusual picks like bossa nova and boogie-woogie (honestly, I’m not even positive I’m using all the right descriptors here; it’s all stuff that I recognize from hearing old pop music, but I often don’t have the vocabulary thanks to not listening to it as much). If I have any complaints, I guess it’s that the whole album is fine without ever having that one killer single, but that feels like a small quibble given how high the average track quality is despite that, and how much I kept coming back to it anyway. On the whole, this is a great time, as fun and unique to reflect on as it is to listen to!
Blackbird Blackbird: This is an interesting one. I’ve covered Bay Area electronic producer Mikey Maramag a.k.a. Blackbird Blackbird here before for his last album, 2019’s ‘Hearts LP’. I was pretty late to that one, and I wasn’t as confident in writing about electronic stuff at the time, but I still enjoyed it a lot; I maintain that “It Hurts To Say Goodbye” is stellar and deserves to be thought of as a dance music classic. We finally got the follow-up seven years later, ‘DREAMSTUCK’ and I don’t know if it qualifies as a full swerve, but it is noticeably different; a little quieter and more understated, but also a full on 23-song double album that clocks in at just under an hour.
Just from that description, you might be able to guess what stood out to me immediately on listening: these songs are very short, and the album actually moves rather briskly in spite of its length. Nothing here hits the 4 minute mark, and only five songs even hit 3 minutes (and one of those, only just). It’s a real shift from stuff like the epic, 6-minute “It Hurts To Say Goodbye”, and some of the songs on ‘DREAMSTUCK’ almost feel like sketches at times, like you’re just starting to get into them as they start through their catchy synth lines, and then they suddenly peter out or shift abruptly.
It’s less off-putting than that sounds, though, and I really got into it on re-listens. Maybe some of these could have been fleshed out into huge, 5-minute blowouts too… but they don’t really need to; most of them come in with their hooks, draw you in with their psychedelic dreamlike sounds and richly textured arrangements, explore those ideas, and then get out of the way as they flow into the next one. Really, “dreamlike” is a good way to think about it; at times, it’s like floating through a series of dreamscape vignettes, each with their own internal logic and unique arresting moments that stick with you, then floating on to the next one. The overall experience kind of reminds me of an electronic version of Cindy Lee’s ‘Diamond Jubilee’, in a few ways. I don’t know if there’s any one track that will keep me coming back here in the way that “It Hurts To Say Goodbye” did (and it did kind of make picking out individual tracks for this playlist difficult; is this even the best experience to showcase this music?), but the whole experience will probably keep me around.
Flavor Foley/Jamie Paige: Electronic vocaloid producers Flavor Foley continued their regular releases. Standalone single “Ego Renegade Boy” is fun and chaotic, and I’m getting more and more curious if the recent string of singles is leading to a second EP or just its own project. They also released “CONNECT: COMMUNE” as an official Miku collaboration, with a cute video from Louie Zong to go with it. And while I’m here, Jamie Paige released an EP called “c-sides” with even more unreleased tracks from her last album, ‘Constant Conversations’. I still love that album and am happy to be getting even more from it, although I acknowledge that I’m biased here and realize this might be more of a “one for the real sickos” deep-cuts release.
The Leaving: CHVRCHES is apparently working on their next album (ending my long national nightmare). But to tide me over until that’s ready, we’ve got one more hiatus release; I’ve already covered Lauren Mayberry’s solo album ‘Vicious Creature’ and the two ‘SEEDS’ EPs from Iain Cook’s side duo Protection. That just leaves Martin Doherty, who formed the duo The Leaving alongside touring/unofficial fourth Chvrches member Jonny Scott. I included single “Pray” here, which I really like, and there’s a good chance that I’ll be giving some attention to the full album next time (since I just learned that it came out back at the end of April while doing research for this article).
Don’t Get Lemon: Another short one, after enjoying their most recent album (‘Have Some Shame’, which I included on my last playlist), I’ve been following up with their new singles, and I love “Matrimony” with its frantic synth splashes and pulsing drum machines.
MUNA: Muna is a favorite around here, and they finally released their fourth album after a relatively long break… in early May, so after my cutoff for consideration. It will be featured next time, but for now, enjoy the lead single and title track, “Dancing on the Wall”.
Actually, I’ll just throw in a bunch more singles that I really enjoyed here too. “End of 2025 Playlist” highlight Peach Fuzz is already back with a new single, “Old News”.
I also really liked Purity Ring’s “lemonlime”, a bonus track following their recent album.
Life Size Models has been releasing a number of good singles, with maybe a larger release on the way? I included “Bedroom Eyes” here, and wouldn’t be shocked if more start showing up on the next playlist or two.
Milk Talk continues to drop funky singles with “The Bay”, sadly with no full album news yet.
Andora’s steady single release stream continues as well, with “Karma”.
I really enjoyed Able Machine’s cheeky-but-groovy “Enbody’s In A Band”.
And Tomora’s “Somewhere Else” kinda goes hard, making good use of its members’s talents, with haunting vocals and a powerful electronic backing (Tomora being the side project of singer Aurora and Tom Rowlands of The Chemical Brothers).
Chayla Hope: I liked Chayla Hope’s two-song release for Valentines Day, and came back to it a good amount. Just two well-done retro soul-throwback pop songs, with strong writing and very clean production. Short, sweet, and to the point.
Caroline Kingsbury: Kingsbury’s new ‘Shock Treatment’ EP (out after a little delay) is another strong set of ‘80s-inspired synthpop. After this and the similarly-strong ‘I Really Don’t Care’ EP, I’m curious if a full album is in the works.
PHTMS: I feel like I sometimes get more focused on things like how I learned about an artist than how they sound; I think more music writing should focus on that, and a little less on their context. But on reflection, describing music in text generally is weird, describing new artists to people who likely haven’t heard of them is an even bigger challenge, and sometimes the context of an artist can help convey ideas of how their music sounds.
All of that is a roundabout way to say: I found PHNTMS via their collaboration with The Chain Gang of 1974, “Heat of the Moment” (which I initially missed somehow, and only found by looking for CG74’s actual new track, “Forever Your Star”, which I’ll also include in this part of the playlist), and was intrigued enough to check out more. That’s not a bad introduction, either; they definitely have a sound influenced by that wave of 2010s indie pop-rock* that was big for a few years there, with some of the synthwave and pop-punk touches that CG74 also often has. That combo was a good match! Anyway, PHNTMS only has a dozen or so songs so far over the last few years, and no larger releases yet, but there are some bangers there! Excited to hear more, hopefully.
*As someone who loves a lot of bands from that era and is often looking for things that remind me of it, there’s gotta be a better, less cumbersome name for that scene and sound. If I don’t find one soon, I might have to brainstorm one, if only to make it less of a pain to reference in these lists.
PRXZM: I heard some new singles from this San Francisco group’s music on a radio program that highlighted local artists, and liked what I heard enough to seek out not just their other singles but also their 2024 debut ‘Turn to the Sun’ (a fitting name). It was a good time, some shimmery, dreamy synth pop that feels like a sunny day. It was a good first album with some solid fundamentals and good high points, and I’ve really enjoyed their new singles, so I’m excited to see where the project goes next!
Arden Jones: Like with PRXZM, Jones is a Bay Area artist that I caught during Live 105’s local artist highlights. I haven’t dug into his back catalog as much; a lot of things online describe him as a rapper, but his new singles are definitely more 2000s indietronica. It has the whirring synths and falsetto that remind me a lot of Passion Pit on a gut level; honestly, for as influential as they seemed to be in the indie rock and pop scenes circa-2010, I’m shocked I haven’t seen more artists leaning into that sound in the years since, in the way that I could for, say, MGMT or Phoenix. It kinda bums me out, I loved early Passion Pit. Anyway, I’m excited to see what Arden does next, especially given that uniqueness!
Fun side note: while digging around a little to write this blurb, I did some searching to see what Passion Pit was up to lately, and not only do they have an EP announced for later this year (their first new release in nearly a decade), and guess who’s opening for them on the tour? Glad to see my instincts were dead on.
Dethcaps: And while I’m on the subject, I’ll do one more from the “Bay Area act that I learned about from a Live 105 local artist highlight” set. I feel like the overlap between more synth-driven bands and acts with a more goth-y bent, but that’s usually matched in the sound in some way, with darker, colder tones. Dethcaps kind of goes the opposite direction, with lyrics that sound like that, or maybe like the more emo pop-punk bands of the 2000s, but with a much brighter, modern pop sound in their synths and guitars. I enjoyed that combo; again, only some singles so far (including one post-cutoff for this list, so look for that next time maybe?), but I look forward to seeing what their debut record might look like!
Gregory Dillon: Another random Bandcamp find, Dillon’s debut ‘Heaven Hates Me’ is a banger dance pop album, full of thumping bass and neon synth lines over his emotional belting.
Torr: When I stumbled upon ‘CRASH BOGUS’ on Bandcamp, something about it seemed familiar in its sound. I thought that was just a comment on how practiced and polished it seemed, but as it turns out, Torr was actually one of the members of the electronic-hyperpop supergroup Webcage, who I’ve covered here before (as well several other alumni of that group, like Saoirse Dream), so uh, I guess it was another case of me being dead-on! So yeah, we’ve got some hyperpop-inspired pop-punk here that reminds me a lot of early Underscores. It’s a fun, fast, high-energy listen. I think there’s also a story here about the fictional band that shares the album name, but it seems pretty loose and I didn’t quite get around to figuring all of that out.
The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis: This was an older one, something I covered two years ago, but the Messthetics and Lewis are back with their follow-up to 2024 self-titled record. ‘Deface the Currency’ is another fun record, a lot grungier and more aggressive in its rock/jazz fusion riffing, much more content to go into improvisational soloing. I think I preferred the last one narrowly, but this is still a fun time, and I still love the combo of these two acts a lot more than the Messthetics’ JBL-less works. I feel much less qualified to say “there’s not much else like this sound” since I’m much less up on the worlds of jazz and jazz fusion than pop and rock, but with that caveat, I am not familiar with a lot of things that sound like this, so I’m happy to be getting more!
The Format: I wasn’t initially sure what to do with the news that The Format were reuniting for their first album in two decades. I learned about Nate Ruess through Fun. (which also hit during my high school and college years, probably a little relatedly), and while I have generally enjoyed the related projects of its members, the earlier Format records always felt a little… quaint in comparison? Which makes sense, they were a younger band, with more modest ambitions than what followed. I had liked the vastness and grandeur of Ruess’s subsequent work.
Which didn’t go away here. ‘Boycott Heaven’ is going for a lot of that same arena indie rock (yeah, I’ll keep using that, I think) size and scope that Fun so often went for and hit. The more chamber-pop touches from those records aren’t here, it’s basically back down to your classic rock band instrumentation; but in songwriting, sound, language, and a bunch of other ways, the connections here feel pretty tangible. It’s a good record overall, and it feels like a throwback in a lot of ways that I enjoyed. And given the pedigree here, I kind of wished it had gotten more play on alternative radio and on that side of the industry, I think it could use a little more of that scope these days, too.
Bruno Mars: ‘The Romantic’ is fine, I enjoyed it. It has no chance of winding up my favorite album of the year or anything, but it’s a breezy half-hour listen, and Mars remains a masterful pop craftsman, I’ve gotta respect the skill. I don’t know, I saw a lot of discussion around this one, and I kind of get it. It’s been five years since his last album, the Silk Sonic project, and nearly a decade since his last solo record. Expectations were running high, and at a certain point, there’s nothing he can do to top the hypothetical album some people have come to expect in their heads. Like, I saw complaints about the album’s length (it’s nine tracks, the same length as his last two albums), complaints about the lyrics being a little cliche (Mars has always kind of traded on pop songwriter cliches, it’s kind of his thing), complaints about how much of a throwback it was (again, that’s kind of become his thing)... I don’t know. It all seems pretty apiece of his past work. I wouldn’t call it my favorite work of his or anything, but I appreciate and respect it!
I guess I can kind of see the gripes about him going back to nostalgia rather than boldly trying to experiment with new sounds. Even his choice of inspiration feels a little lame, it’s still distinct from the classic R&B and soul thing that Silk Sonic was doing, but it’s definitely less of a leap than the one he took between that and ‘24K Magic’. Still, I feel like getting something this retro into the mainstream is still kind of bold in its own way. Yeah, it’s not like those sounds ever totally left the public, a lot of classics still see regular play, but most modern stuff doesn’t sound like that, and it does make them stand out on pop radio and such. Speaking of, its singles got pop stations to finally start to rotate out some of the pop tracks that were still clogging the airwaves for over a year (including some of Bruno Mars’s own work…), so by that account, I’ll count it as a mission accomplished.
TV Girl: As I said I would last time in the End of 2025 Playlist, I ended up digging into this band’s back catalog even more after enjoying ‘Who Really Cares’. The big one was the follow-up, 2018’s ‘Death of a Party Girl’, and I liked it for a lot of the same reasons. TV Girl’s hazy textures and hypnotic looping remain as comforting and nostalgic as they were last time, and they use that to good effect in their pop songwriting, stringing together more of an almost-narrative this time. I don’t think I liked ‘Party Girl’ as much though, partly because I like the songs on ‘Who Really Cares’ more, but also because the album gets a little sadder this time (both deal with a sort of post-relationship haze and period of mourning and reflection, but ‘Party Girl’ somehow felt sadder to me thanks to shifting from first-person recollection to more of a third-person fictionalized account, which is actually kind of weird?), which I found combined with their trademark sound to induce absolute catastrophic levels of melancholy. Like, I could throw on ‘Who Really Cares’ whenever and kind of accentuate the mood, to contemplate, to do work, to sit around outside, to go on walks; but ‘Death of a Party Girl’ would always bring things down to those “sitting around at night contemplating” levels. I appreciate the end result, but it’s definitely less universal.
I also picked up their 2023 collaboration with vaporwave producer George Clanton, and yep, that sure is exactly what it sounds like; TV Girl with a little bit of vaporwave mixed in. A pretty natural combination, really, and a solid listen on the whole. Much more a collection of songs rather than a full album experience like ‘Death of a Party Girl’, and probably a little less good on the whole as a result, but definitely more enjoyable to just throw on whenever.
Say She She: I decided to go back and check out their debut record ‘Silver’ after really liking ‘Cut & Rewind’ last time. It’s a good starting point, and all of their classic disco and R&B girl group sound and basically here. I think the song writing is just a little better and catchier on the follow-up, maybe a little funkier too, and the production has just a little bit extra sheen that goes well with this sound. But it’s not exactly a common style in this day and age, so if you liked that as well and want more, by all means, check this one out too!
The Belair Lip Bombs: This was a similar situation: I really liked the 2025 sophomore release (in this case, ‘Again’) enough to heavily recommend it in the last article, so I went back and checked out the debut, 2023’s ‘Lush Life’). This one is different though; Say She She feels like they came out of the gate more or less fully formed, but there’s some real change between the first and second Belair Lip Bombs release. The songs feels a little shaggier and fuzzier; more distortion, a little less riffing and more just following grooves, lyrics that are less concrete and a little more simplistic, more prone to devolving into shouting or trailing off. It’s different and a lot looser, leaning much more heavily into garage rock and much less on the power pop sound they do the next time. It’s interesting to see and compare from an artistic growth standpoint, and while the results are fine, I definitely prefer where they ended up on ‘Again’ a lot more. It makes me curious to see where they’ll go next, too.
Ratboys: The new Ratboys album was good! ‘Singin’ to an Empty Chair’ is their first one since their acclaimed ‘The Window’ in 2023. I enjoyed this one too! Sonically, I don’t know that it’s too far off from that one, but that’s not a bad thing. Lyrically, this one seems… more anxious, but in a way actually works well with the generally upbeat, jangly songs? Like, a lot of it is about isolation, being separated, loneliness, and even the upbeat songs about being with loved ones or fond memories tend to focus on them specifically as a moment in between those stretches of loneliness. It’s an interesting counterplay, and one I enjoy.
Arlo Parks: Another returning feature of this playlist series, Park’s third album continues to carve out her niche in the alt pop/R&B space. I enjoyed it like her last two albums, although I don’t really know how I’d compare this one; maybe as a little darker and mellower in tone? I kind of thought it might be a bigger swerve based on the initial single “2SIDED”, but most of the album doesn’t really have the same kind of roiling energy or get quite as expansive in its arrangements. It’s not a bad listen overall, but part of me wonders how something more like that might have gone.
Sombr: I checked out Sombr’s debut album ‘I Barely Know Her’ thanks to the combination of liking the singles on the radio and seeing some positive buzz on year-end lists. It’s uneven, but it’s definitely got some bright spots, and that’s especially impressive given that it’s from a 20-year-old. I love the droning, overwhelming wall-of-sound production on “back to friends”, and “12 to 12” is a solid bop. All in all, not a bad start.
Seeming: ‘The World’ was another one I pulled from 2026 wrap-ups, and I enjoyed it. I can be hit-or-miss on industrial stuff, but this one is basically just on the darker side of synth stuff, so not that far off from a lot of my normal fare. But also, is industrial stuff usually this theatrical in its stylings? It stood out to me, but maybe that’s just totally normal and it’s my greater familiarity with musical theater conventions poking through.
Little Image: This one is a follow-up after I highlighted them in the last playlist, they did actually release a full record shortly after the last playlist, ‘KILL THE GHOST’. It’s okay, although it does feel like a case of the best songs being among the early releases, which can make the full release feel a little underwhelming. I also kind of wish that it was either a little shorter or introduced a little more sonic variety over its 14 tracks. But if you really loved the sort of hazy, brooding vibe of those early tracks, they did a good job of nailing that over the full runtime.
Stripmallravestarr: I found South Florida duo stripmallravestarr’s debut album ‘halo’ while browsing Bandcamp’s new electropop releases, and it was a solid first effort! The pair work in the space of hyperpop and electronic rave sounds, and I think they have that sound nailed! The tracks are high-energy and well-produced, and I think they have an ear for melody. I’d like to see a little more variety in the sounds in future releases, and maybe a little better job turning those melodies into hooks and full songs, but I will be checking out what comes next; this is a good start!
Mystery Skulls & The New Pornographers: I don’t know what to say about these two acts, who both released new albums (‘Maximum Joy’ and ‘The Former Site of’, respectively). They’re both fine records, very good even! I don’t think I’ve heard anything I dislike from either. But we’re also pretty far into both of their careers, over a decade and seven albums (plus a few other releases) for Mystery Skulls and over two decades and ten albums for the New Pornographers, and I’ve even written several blurbs for each of them in past playlists. I don’t know that either of these new albums represents a radical shift in what they’ve been doing; if you’ve liked their stuff in the past, they’re worth giving a listen, they’re both seasoned veterans of electrofunk and indie rock (respectively). If you’re new to either one and just trying to get into their catalogs, this might not be the best starting point; I feel like both have higher peaks, but these are worth hitting eventually.
Softcult: And one more small Bandcamp find, I really dug Softcult’s “When A Flower Doesn’t Go”. It’s a very grungy, atmospheric listen, overwhelming you with distortion before hitting you with a track full of focused righteous fury.
Pacifica: I liked this Argentinan alt rock duo’s debut, and their sophomore effort ‘In Your Face!’ feels like a natural polishing of the formula. Their 2000s post-punk/dance rock sound is more polished and tighter at the core, but also accented with a few wider influences, and the high points are even higher.
Lucky Iris: I’ve highlighted Lucky Iris before, and I think their new album ‘fall in love with the dj’ is a nice step forward. A short and sweet take on hyperpop-inspired dance-pop. There’s some stylistic choices that I can see irritating some fans of more standard dance tracks, but I like them; I think that kind of very-idiosyncratic choice is very in the spirit of a lot of original hyperpop.
Lazer Club: Their album ‘Forevermore’ is just the most over-the-top synthwave stuff. All the most sparkling synths and cheesy keyboard settings and smoky saxophone/guitar solos. The whole album is a little overlong, but sometimes it all just comes together into sugary perfection.
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There’s a little bit more included after this, and it’s still good! But it’s generally stuff that I just didn’t feel like writing about. Like I said, these articles already go on pretty long. I’ll include the full contents of the Playlist as a table below for anyone interested, right after one more email signup box. Like I said at the top, if you’d like to know when these go up right away, you can always sign up there!
| Artist | Song | Release |
|---|---|---|
| PinkPantheress | Girl Like Me | Fancy That |
| PinkPantheress | Tonight | Fancy That |
| PinkPantheress | Stateside | Fancy That |
| Brigitte Calls Me Baby | Slumber Party | Irreversible |
| Brigitte Calls Me Baby | I Danced With Another Love In My Dreams | Irreversible |
| Brigitte Calls Me Baby | I Can Take the Sun Out of the Sky | Irreversible |
| Hemlocke Springs | head, shoulders, knees and ankles | the apple tree under the sea |
| Hemlocke Springs | moses | the apple tree under the sea |
| Hemlocke Springs | set me free | the apple tree under the sea |
| Underscores | Tell Me (U Want It) | U |
| Underscores | Hollywood Forever | U |
| Good Kid | Rift | Can We Hang Out Sometime |
| Good Kid | Cicada | Can We Hang Out Sometime |
| Spiritual Cramp | Automatic | RUDE |
| Spiritual Cramp (feat Sharon Van Etten) | You've Got My Number | RUDE |
| Spiritual Cramp | Crazy | RUDE |
| Juanpalitoschinos | Siente el ritmo | Natsukashii |
| Juanpalitoschinos | Tú | Natsukashii |
| Broke Royals | Campr | Campr |
| Broke Royals | The Weather | Campr |
| Bunny White | The Game | The Higher the Hair, the Closer to God |
| Bunny White | Jolly Rogers | The Higher the Hair, the Closer to God |
| Blackbird Blackbird | Time Again | DREAMSTUCK |
| Blackbird Blackbird | Dreamstuck | DREAMSTUCK |
| FLAVOR FOLEY | Ego Renegade Boy | single |
| FLAVOR FOLEY | CONNECT: COMMUNE | single |
| Jamie Paige | little anger | c-sides |
| Jamie Paige | some more of that song | c-sides |
| The Leaving | Pray | single |
| don't get lemon | Matrimony | single |
| MUNA | Dancing on the Wall | pre-release |
| Peach Fuzz | Old News | single |
| Purity Ring | lemonlime | single |
| Life Size Models | Bedroom Eyes | single |
| Milk Talk | The Bay | single |
| Andora | Karma | single |
| Able Machines | Everybody's In A Band | single |
| TOMORA | SOMEWHERE ELSE | single |
| Chayla Hope, Other Animal | Raspberry | single |
| Chayla Hope, Other Animal | If I Can't | single |
| Caroline Kingsbury | I See God In You | Shock Treatment EP |
| The Chain Gang of 1974 | Forever Your Star | single |
| PHNTMS & The Chain Gang of 1974 | Heat of the Moment | single |
| PHNTMS | Paper Flowers | single |
| PHNTMS | Body Language | single |
| PRXZM | Not All Romantic | single |
| PRXZM | Overgrown | Turn to the Sun |
| PRXZM | Warning Signs | Turn to the Sun |
| Arden Jones | someone new | single |
| Arden Jones | deadlove | single |
| dethcaps | Hide and Seek | single |
| dethcaps | I've Got a Friend | single |
| dethcaps | Little Secret | single |
| Gregory Dillon | Burning Kisses | Heaven Hates Me |
| Gregory Dillon | James Dean | Heaven Hates Me |
| torr | rot | CRASH BOGUS |
| torr | stagekiss | CRASH BOGUS |
| The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis | Deface the Currency | Deface the Currency |
| The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis | Clutch | Deface the Currency |
| The Format | Holy Roller | Boycott Heaven |
| The Format | Shot in the Dark | Boycott Heaven |
| Bruno Mars | I Just Might | The Romantic |
| Bruno Mars | On My Soul | The Romantic |
| TV Girl | Lonely Girls | Death of a Party Girl |
| TV Girl | King of Echo Park | Death of a Party Girl |
| TV Girl & George Clanton | Summer 2000 Baby | Fauxllennium |
| TV Girl & George Clanton | Butterflies | Fauxllennium |
| Say She She | Reeling | Silver |
| Say She She | Questions | Silver |
| The Belair Lip Bombs | Say My Name | Lush Life |
| The Belair Lip Bombs | Easy on the Heart | Lush Life |
| Ratboys | Light Night Mountains All That | Singin' to an Empty Chair |
| Ratboys | What's Right? | Singin' to an Empty Chair |
| Arlo Parks | Get Go | Ambiguous Desire |
| Arlo Parks | 2SIDED | Ambiguous Desire |
| sombr | 12 to 12 | I Barely Know Her |
| sombr | back to friends | I Barely Know Her |
| Seeming | A Failure of Imagination | The World |
| Seeming | Heart of Hunger | The World |
| Little Image | KILL THE GHOST | KILL THE GHOST |
| Little Image | RUN FOR FOREVER | KILL THE GHOST |
| Stripmallravestarr | easier to say | halo |
| Stripmallravestarr | get well soon | halo |
| Mystery Skulls | Untouchable Champions | Maximum Joy |
| Mystery Skulls | Best Is Yet To Come | Maximum Joy |
| The New Pornographers | Great Princess Story | The Former Site Of |
| The New Pornographers | Votive | The Former Site Of |
| Softcult | 16/25 | When A Flower Doesn't Bloom |
| Softcult | Queen of Nothing | When A Flower Doesn't Bloom |
| Pacifica | Indie Boyz | In Your Face! |
| Pacifica | Corridor | In Your Face! |
| Lucky Iris | fall in love with the dj | fall in love with the dj |
| Lucky Iris | heart 4 heart | fall in love with the dj |
| Lazer Club | Pizza Planet | Forever More |
| Lazer Club | In the Fire of the Night | Forever More |
| Madeon | Car Crash Baby | single |
| In Love With a Ghost | Dematerialized | single |
| Genuine Leather | gunshy | single |
| Dead Pony | Eat My Dust! | single |
| Lily Ward | Mending First | single |
| After | Cold | single |
| Mystery Friends | Never Been Better | Break Your Own Heart EP |
| LONG ISLAND | special place | single |
| Glitch Cat | REACHOUT | single |
| Trust Fund Ozu | Die Hard | ARTiCHOKE |
| Trust Fund Ozu | Al Dente | ARTiCHOKE |
| Broken Record | Drag | Routine |
| Broken Record | T-60 | Routine |
| Strawberry Station | Outta Your Mind | single |
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