Best in Pop - Hot New Releases - October 2024
This month's edition of Best in Pop features; a song that sounds like a sunset from a memory; a song that sounds like you came across it in the digital wonderland that was MySpace; a song will incite Mika levels of joy; a song that sounds like it was the theme song to an unknown tv show in the 1990s; a song that can only be described as obsidian synth-pop and more!
Featuring My Midnight Heart, Sleek Teeth, Piper Connolly, SKATELAND, Anna Erhard, Freya Beer, Charly Bliss & Vitesse X, Pearly Drops.
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anew - My Midnight Heart
This song and the accompanying music video feel like something magical you would have stumbled across in the digital forest that was MySpace in the early '00s.
anew is a wonderland of glittering pads and synths; where the digital textures of the music and the ethereal quality of the vocals blend together to form a cloud of shimmering, meditative bliss.
On the song the songwriter confides: “Four years after my daughter’s birth I had only just begun to feel like myself again. My brain, my body, my blood finally felt like they belonged to me. I decided it would be my year. My moment. But when I realized I was pregnant with my son, I knew I would have to start the journey all over again. I struggled so much reclaiming my identity with my firstborn, I wrote this song wanting to allow myself to enter a speculative space where I gave of myself easily... Opening to the possibility of being alchemized in the process.”
Connect with My Midnight Heart
YouTube / Spotify / Instagram / X
Operating - Sleek Teeth
Obsidian synth-pop, that envelops you into its shadowy underworld.
The earth-shattering bassline and the industrial, alien-like pads weave together to create an ambience of unease and glamor; one saturated with darkness and ruthlessness.
This ties into the concept behind the song, as on this, the band confides "It's hardly a paranoid concept to believe that there are unseen forces perpetually at work in our world. We're not talking reptilian humanoids pulling the strings from the shadows, but things that are far less fantastic (and potentially just as menacing). Transparency rarely benefits those who would seek to manipulate others for their own gain, so it's good to remember that what you see isn't always what you get."
Connect with Sleek Teeth
Bandcamp / YouTube / Spotify / Instagram
Get in Girls - Vitesse X, Pearly Drops
All of Vitesse X’s songs have a lush and vaguely haunting quality to them; however, the most recent releases, which have a beautifully eerie 90s vibe to them, might be her best yet. This new song sees the artist team up with Pearly Drops; (a duo made up of Finnish musicians Sandra Tervonen and Juuso Malin).
Get in Girls is a dreamy blend of 90s grunge, pop and dreamy electronic. The vocals are heavenly, the instrumental lavish and murky, with heavenly vocals sprinkled throughout; you will become utterly obsessed with this.
Vitesse X’s new album “This Infinite” is out today.
Connect with Vitesse X
Website / Bandcamp / YouTube / Spotify / Instagram / X
Connect with Pearly Drops
Bandcamp / YouTube / Spotify / Instagram / X
Sunset Cinema - SKATELAND
This song is saturated with the achingly beautiful oranges, pinks and blood reds of a sunset; the instrumental is mellow, yet lavish, with some gorgeous bedroom pop textures.
The vocals bring to mind some of Empire Of The Sun’s dreamist choruses; with a dash of Two Door Cinema club. Sunset Cinema has the quality of a memory, the results being a song that is utterly divine from start to finish.
The artist shares, "I wrestle a lot with the tension of letting go and moving on, and that can be for something as big as ending a relationship, or as simple as throwing away a beat up old t-shirt. There's a romanticism to that idea which can be great, but the downside is that you can sometimes stay in something for longer than you should because you're hyper aware that when it's over it'll be gone for good."
Connect with SKATELAND
YouTube / Spotify / Instagram
Botanical Garden - Anna Erhard
This is a lot of fun; opening with the lines “He rates 2 out of 5 stars / For the botanical garden / Because the plants were dry / There was no space for parking”.
This reminds me of the absurdness of some of the songs from the likes of Mika; a pairing of wonderfully silly lyrics with extremely skilled songwriting.
There is a lofi/indie-rock/pop vibe to this, the song detailing the other petty complaints this man has. I am obsessed with this.
Connect with Anna Erhard
Bandcamp / YouTube / Spotify / Instagram / Website
False Hope - Freya Beer
I love the late 90s/early 00s vibe to this; this feels like it was the theme song of a hidden gem of a show from that era; one where everyone dressed in velvet, and the colors were kaleidoscopic and over-saturated.
I came across Freya Beer on Bandcamp; (exploring on Bandcamp has the joy of being in a music store), this song is a blend of indie-pop, indie rock and a dash of grunge, it is so fun, so nostalgic, and a blast to listen to.
Connect with Freya Beer
Bandcamp / YouTube / Spotify / Instagram / X
Last First Kiss - Charly Bliss
I will never forget the first time I heard Blown To Bits, the opening track from Charly Bliss’s 2019 album Young Enough, the double-tracked vocals, the droning synth, the anticipation rising and rising, an explosion of nostalgia and joy; all of these wonderful qualities are present in their new album Forever, and in this song Last First Kiss.
It begins with a throbbing bassline over soaring vocals, all of which flow into the dreamiest, most lavishly beautiful, earworm of a chorus, that will make you feel like a teenager again.
Connect with Charly Bliss
Bandcamp / YouTube / Spotify / Instagram / Website / X
welcome back girl - Piper Connolly
Pop punk with some alt-pop vibes, this has a wonderful Avril Lavigne vibe to it.
This song showcases Piper’s powerhouse vocals; the music itself is haunting, and this could very well serve as someone’s companion during a very dark time, as on the song itself she confides, "I wrote the song after seeing a friend rediscover herself after a very difficult time. She had completely lost herself as a result of a really bad relationship which included intimate partner violence. This beautiful, strong, effervescent personality had become unrecognizable as the person we all love so much. She left them which, in and of itself, was very hard for her to do and, with time, came healing and that familiar lovely woman came back to us and back to herself. She is now the 'welcome back girl' in my song. If you, or someone you know, is suffering from IPV, there is help. Text "START" to 88788 or visit https://www.thehotline.org/get-help/ for support."
Connect with Piper Connolly
YouTube / Spotify / Instagram / Website
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About Eimear O Sullivan
Eimear Ann O Sullivan is a multi-genre music producer, audio engineer and vocalist. After receiving a Masters in Music Technology from the CIT Cork School of Music, she went on to operate as a producer under the name Blakkheart. Her releases have received critical acclaim from Ireland's biggest music publications, such as District Magazine and Nialler9, alongside receiving heavy commercial radio airplay. She currently works in Cork recording studio Flashpoint CC. Previous clients of hers include the likes of Comedy Central’s Dragony Aunt star Candy Warhol, rapper Darce and Outsider YP. (Photo credit @Fabian Boros)
Contact Eimear O Sullivan at eimear.o.sullivan@musicngear.com
In this blog section we host new music releases, artist features and handpicked playlists by the Musicngear staff.
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