This visit to the Singles Bar is quite guitar driven in places, with a brilliant single from a Scottish pop-rock band, some heavy shoegaze, and a slab of enormous sounding stoner rock providing the backbone of the eight picks. That said, there’s still enough of a deviation from rock influences to make this as strong as previous Singles Bar selections, with a soulful number shared by one of George Ezra’s colleagues, a great synth based track, and a piece of soul driven pop ready to be discovered. As always, of course, we hope you find something new to enjoy.

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Following the genuinely excellent ‘Imprint’, The Painting have returned with the equally strong ‘Scarlett’. A track that takes strong cues from noughties-era indie, the single shares a very radio friendly sound. Its mid tempo is perfect for a rousing vocal, and the way a strong verse manages to rise into a huge chorus shows a songwriting strength that suggests the Scottish pop-rock band are one of the best acts working the grassroots scene at the time of release. Better yet is the slightly reverbed lead guitar that runs through the heart of the track; although, stylistically, it shares a common thread with material from The Killers and their ilk, there’s also a musical muscle that calls back a little further to Simple Minds material circa ‘Once Upon A Time’, and more specifically the ever-punchy ‘Ghostdancing’. If you’re into big and melodic, guitar driven sounds, this is a track that’s not to be missed.

Wheezing brass and stabbed piano lines help to set a great mood in place for the intro of Luke Marzec’s ‘Broken Promises’. The sound is fairly retro, yet with a sharp production style that places the recording more within the present, but once Marzec starts to sing, his old soul cuts through even more strongly. With a slightly strained tone conveying a lived in persona, he delivers a soul edged melody that has a timeless edge. His cracked tones might not sound quite as user-friendly as someone like, say, James Morrison, but his take on a classic genre has definite character, and a few plays of this track uncover a tune that’s more than strong enough to outshine what might be an opinion-splitting vocal style.

Here’s something else that’s retro, but in a very different style. On ‘Hey Lady’, the third single from his 2025 LP ‘Modern Night’, Alex Fernet applies a pseudo disco rhythm to a world of synth based sounds. With echoes of Daft Punk colliding with the poppier elements of the present day Franz Ferdinand, the track conveys a Friday night, feel-good spirit from the off. Beneath the shinier elements, a pumping bass and choppy guitar work in tandem to give the track a pleasingly sharp edge without drawing too much away from the dance-able vibes, whilst a heavily filtered Fernet adds a flowing vocal that’s wholly sympathetic to the disco-pop backdrop. To hear this once is to love it; proof enough that although fashions may change, good adult pop will never die.

Scottish singer songwriter Sean Findlay received semi regular press over the past year for his self-penned stage musical ‘The Shakey Shakey Hips’, the title song of which shared a love for sly humour and a rock ‘n’ roll pastiche. Returning to something akin to regular programming, ‘Golden Born Child’ finds Sean in retro alternative rock mode, on a track that has a chord progression that calls back to the Seattle giants of the 90s and the slacker sounds of early Pavement. The performer’s rather lax vocal style will always gravitate further towards the latter, but with the aid of a couple of slightly funky bridges, Sean makes a familiar sound more of his own. Listen more closely and there are a couple of moments that still suggest links with Findlay’s 50s and 60s-centric interests, which gives this a little more of a twist. The vocal certainly won’t appeal to everyone, but there’s the core of a catchy melody trying its best to escape here, making it a track with solid potential.

Offering a confident indie “slow jam”, Alexei Shishkin channels classic Beck on ‘Tiki Taka (2006)’. Following a gentle fade in that’s driven by a couple of bass notes and strident piano chords, the short number gradually grows into a woozy piece where brass augments a slacker infused vocal. By the time everything reaches its climax, a track that initially seemed not entirely melodic has actually blossomed into a huge sounding, layered piece that captures a strangely psychedelic edge. Hearing Alexei sharing very long syllables against a steady beat throughout also creates something oddly nostalgic. Not so much “2006” as a musical nod to 1996, this should pique the interest of middle aged indie fans everywhere.

The tempo and weight of the riff that drives ‘The Sky Never Dies’ by Bentrees serves up some very traditional stoner vibes. The amount of distortion applied to that riff, however, adds a rawness that’s slightly garage infused, and that’s enough to make this track sound markedly different from the ten thousand Kyuss clones around the globe. Not that the extra fuzz changes everything too dramatically: there’s plenty here that a traditional stoner metal fan will love, from the blues drenched lead guitar break, to the semi-raw and very natural vocal, to the genuinely solid drum work driving the piece. There are very few bad stoner bands out there, but on the basis of this track, these Swedes definitely deserve more attention to help them stand out within a crowded scene.

From the second ‘Broken Masterpiece’ begins, Matt Benson shares a very retro groove. Steady beats and a solid bassline set a soulful sound in place, but there’s equally as much of an adult pop influence running through the track’s centre. Brilliantly produced, the music provides a superb backdrop for a voice that sounds far more mature than the performer’s years, and Benson weaves a George Ezra influenced melody with a real ease. It’ll take a few spins before the chorus hook stands out against a solid verse, and everything would sound even greater with more prominent horns, but this is otherwise a perfect number – one that’ll really place this singer songwriter on the radar of many a discerning listener.

Irish band Silk make a glorious noise on their second single, ‘but then, yes’. The overdriven guitars and array of distorted sounds used to kick off the track makes no secret of a love for fellow Irish act My Bloody Valentine, so much so that the first few seconds of this track could even pass for buried treasure from the Kevin Shields archive. As things progress and Silk begin to settle down, more of a melody begins to emerge, but in classic shoegaze tradition, it isn’t always easy listening. The indie vibes are swamped with an array of effects, leading to a sound that almost appears to swim from the speakers, and instead of being something that could’ve been a more melodic lynchpin, the vocal, too, comes layered with filtered effects, giving the tune even more of a strangely unsettling quality. The noisier guitars are reinstated for the chorus, and their amped up approach drowns out the vocal, but at the same time, there’s an aggressive mood set in place that is up there with the genre’s best. Eventually, the oppressive wall of sound is augmented by a howling lead guitar, and hearing everything together is to experience something angrier than most of the genre’s pioneers could even manage at their peak. Assuming you’re approaching this expecting to be swept along on a massive wave of sound, these five minutes are an absolute blast.

July 2025