The eight picks that make up this selection for the Singles Bar cover a lot of musical ground. Joining a couple of superb singer songwriters, there’s a reggae-centric number from some legends of British ska, a beautiful track that pushes beyond the boundaries of dream pop, a slab of great post punk, and more besides. It’s one of our stronger selections in a while. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!
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Those keeping a close watch over the Boston music scene in a post-lockdown era will certainly be aware of The Chelsea Curve. Vocalist Linda Pardee and her band have really carved out a niche in feel good sounds, blending the hooks of the early 80s power pop bands with a mod driven feeling of power. Their short and sharp approach has delivered lots of superb sounding chorus oriented numbers that revel in their love of recycling the past, yet never sound stale.
Premier Jester aren’t afraid to mix genres. Since the release of their earliest singles ‘PJ Lovers’ and ‘Sales King’, the UK band have shared an energy driven sound that takes the guts of metalcore and splices its aggressive edge to a world of electronica and dance sounds, but also throws in a bit of retro alternative and some big choruses to create something huge. In many ways, their best work sounds like Electric Callboy, but steered in a slightly more accessible direction. As you might expect, such intensities work brilliantly in short bursts, making PJ masters of the digital single.
On their 2024 release ‘Mall Grab’, alternative band Integra Pink fused indie rock with a hefty dose of post punk angularity on a selection of short and punchy tracks that showed off their energetic style in a very direct way. Even from first listen, it was hugely gratifying to hear The Cure’s ‘Seventeen Seconds’ era guitar tones cutting through the heart of ‘Push Pop’, and ‘A Forest’s incessant rhythm jostling against a vocal that felt decidedly more new wave on the equally cool ‘As You Feel’. With tracks like ‘Lockjaw’ owing more to punk by pushing forth a harder guitar sound, and ‘How’s It Going To End?’ leaning further towards smart alt-pop when applying a funk bassline beneath a heavily filtered vocal, the album threw so much into a musical blender, it was likely that most listeners would come away having heard something interesting.
Following a fuzz heavy intro that suggests a love of shoegaze, ‘Abandoned Love’ – the lead track from Arrows of Athena’s second album ‘Daydreaming’ – opens up to share a techy sounding slice of alternative rock-pop in a Garbage meets Yeah Yeah Yeahs style. It doesn’t take too long before the number’s brilliant blend of mechanical rhythms and contrasting flowing vocal begins to make an impression. Against some familiar sounding music, the track places a spotlight on vocalist Jac-Lyn Gibson, whose performance here is almost strong enough alone to carry the entire track, and definitely makes it easy to forgive what might be perceived as sharing too much of an obvious influence. The vocal shares an immediate power, calling out clearly despite being subjected to filters, and ultimately sounds like the perfect compliment to a great musical melody. As for that intro: it’s not a red herring. Guitarist Scott Lerner creeps through the cracks to fill the bridges with more of that pleasingly aggressive style, giving this track a superbly tough edge when needed. When released as a single in 2025, it sounded like one of the duo’s finest recordings to date; when experienced as part of this full length, its impact certainly isn’t diminished, despite being complimented by several other strong performances. If you’ve not heard Arrows of Athena before, this will leave a superb first impression.