In the summer of 2026, synth pop act Oui Plastique shared ‘Linger’, a single which straddled a cold mood and a melodic heart, making no secret of a love for early 80s Ultravox. As a preview of an upcoming album, it was hugely effective, presenting a very familiar sound in such a way that any obvious recycling – both from the band’s influences and their own past recordings – felt as if it could still be inspiring.
It’s astonishing to think that the release of the three track ‘Want It Bad (The Pep Talks and Playing Fields of Old England)’ comes five years after Colin Moulding shared ‘The Hardest Battle’, but the XTC man has never been the most prolific of recording artists.
After forming in 2021, Girl With A Hawk took a rather casual approach to promoting themselves, sharing a number of digital singles over the next four years. Although these quick musical hits gave some indication that this Boston band had a lot of potential, hearing them in three and four minute bursts didn’t quite showcase their full talents effectively enough, even if a “record and release” approach to working seemed far better suited to keeping the interest going in a digital realm and in a world of increasingly short attention spans.
At the end of summer ’26, The Sean Coleman Project introduced themselves with ‘You’ve Got To Choose’, a 90s infused electric blues workout that introduced some genuine talents. Not only was Sean’s guitar work a great feature of the very retro sounding track, but guesting vocalist Mia Boonstrom also proved to be a vital ingredient within the Project’s confident sound, sharing a huge performance that blended a strong melody with a great feeling of power.
Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore the more interesting individual tracks that have been sent our way over the past few of weeks. This time out, we have a cult figure from the alt-rock world tapping into some 70s sounds, a couple of very different singer songwriters sharing a couple of very different narratives, a couple of great bits of power pop with a rockier edge, and more besides… As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy.
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