Earlier this week, Fontaines D.C. released their heartfelt new single “Favourite,” the closing track from the Irish post-punk band’s upcoming fourth album Romance. Frontman Grian Chatten explained that the album is, in part, “about protecting the tiny flame” that comes with “falling in love at the end of the world;” the “bigger armageddon looms,” he explained,  “the more precious it becomes.” And Romance’s first single “Startburster” expressed this immediacy firsthand, with percussion we described as simulating the simultaneous grace and violence of a beating heart, repeating into infini ..read more

Phantom Handshakes is the NY-based lofi dream pop duo of Matt Sklar and Federica Tassano. Their third album, Sirens at Golden Hour, follow-up to their sophomore album A Passport To Remain back in 2022, will be released this August, right in time for the dissolution of summer into fall. In fact, both the title of the album as well as the date of its release are apt, for the duo has repeatedly encapsulated nostalgia, warmth, and longing in their previous releases; “Good Intentions,” the album’s first single, is no exception. The duo explained the meaning behind the song: “The track explores ho ..read more

Today, COOL HEAT  – also known as the solo project of Chicago-based musician and photographer Eden Sierotnik –  shares the stunning single “Not My Fault.” Following “Real Life” back in December, it’s the second new single from Abandon, Sierotnik’s upcoming sophomore album, follow up to his remarkable debut album Nowhere released back in 2022 as well as his excellent EP Permanence released last summer. We described Permanence as meticulous, maximalist, modern dream pop that – oscillating between shoegaze, coldwave, and synthwave – ultimately represented endlessness, solidifying it as ..read more

Later this summer, Brooklyn-based indie rock quintet Ok Cowgirl will release their debut album Couldn’t Save Us From My Gut. Led by singer/songwriter Leah Lavigne, the band’s debut will be about “ self-empowerment in a variety of contexts – romantic love, societal obligation, how merciless a day in America can be – and working to parse their own truth from a tangle of inherited noise.” Following their first single “Little Splinters,” their recent single “Forever,” released this week, is somewhat of an anti-love song, a ballad about falling out of love, not into it. Specifically, it’s about va ..read more

Next week, Cola will release their sophomore album The Gloss. Formed after the disbandment of post-punk group Ought, Cola – made up of ex-Ought vocalist/guitarist Tim Darcy and bassist Ben Stidworthy along with ex-U.S. Girls drummer Evan Cartwright – released their debut album Deep In View back in 2022, which we described as a nuanced depiction of everyday human experience, with narratives simultaneously entranced and discouraged by capitalism, technology, poetics, pretension, and cynicism. “Romanticism is never far from laughter,” Fire Talk, the band’s label explains, “and equally never far ..read more

Seattle-based duo glass egg is the project of songwriter/musician Emilia Glaser and collaborator Julian Stefanzick. The duo met in college back in 2017 and quickly became friends; two years later, Glaser would bring in Stefanzick to play bass for glass egg, which was their existing solo performance project. Though evoking the ethereal, intensely emotive tones of bands like Beach House and Weyes Blood, glass egg is in a space all their own, amalgamating dream pop, shoegaze, and freak folk. “Choke” the duo’s gorgeous debut single, is about “breaking free from someone who is destructive, accompa ..read more

Earlier this week, Montreal-based lofi quartet knitting – made up of  Mischa Dempsey, Sarah Harris, Piper Curtis and Andy Mulcair – released “Spirit Gum,” the first single from their upcoming debut Some Kind of Heaven. Written over a period of several years when Dempsey was “navigating experiences of transition and coming into their non-binary identity,” the album addresses those experiences “while touching on many of the complications and growing pains of early adulthood.” “Spirit Gum,” about the end of a domestic relationship, is a stunning slice of shoegaze that “dissects” the spatial ..read more

Last week, Crumb released their stunning third album AMAMA. Follow up to the New York based psych quartet’s 2021 sophomore LP Ice Melt, AMAMA “culls the strange encounters from Crumb’s touring years, tracing the dizzying path of a group that’s been in movement for nearly a decade.” As a result, the album features the band’s “most vulnerable, tender searches for organic connection.” Described as “at the crossroads of psychedelia, pop, jazz, and rock,” Crumb – composed of singer and multi-instrumentalist Lila Ramani, keyboardist and saxophonist Bri Aronow, bassist Jesse Brotter, and drummer Jon ..read more

Earlier this week, London five piece Ain’t released their incendiary debut single “Oar.” Balancing the line between post-punk and shoegaze, Ain’t are said to “build their songs like seasons;” gesturing towards “both the calm and the storm, their lustral offerings bend toward introspective abundance and communal clarity.”Made up of Hanna Baker Darch on vocals, George Ellerby on guitar/vocals, Ed Randall on guitar, Chapman Ho on bass, and Joe Lockstone on drums, the band work to balance “nostalgia and ingenuity.” On “Oar,” the band explains it was  …originally drafted by George in the pan ..read more

Earlier this week, post-punk quartet Parallel released their stunning new single “Blister,” the first track from Flooded, their upcoming sophomore EP out later this summer. Influenced by bands like Slowdive and The Chameleons, the Oakland, California based group maintain a “dedication to an authentic and reflective sound, devoid of distortion and rich in clean tones drenched in chorus and delay,” as well as a “commitment to sonic purity and intricate songwriting.” Follow up to their debut self-titled EP released back in 2022, Flooded will explore “the intense fluctuations of emotions such as ..read more