Welcome back to the Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the more interesting individual tracks that have landed in our inbox over the past few weeks. This time around, there’s an amazing ballad from a veteran singer-songwriter, some really cool retro vibes from a brand new rock act, a slab of almost perfect shoegaze, and a metal oriented number that flaunts a massive 90s riff with an industrial edge. You’ll also find a piece of Americana tinged pop-rock that shows massive promise, and more besides. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!

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There’s a wonderfully old fashioned quality to ‘Casablanca’ by Argo and The Violet Queens. That’s largely due to a blues toned guitar that runs through the core of the number with a swirly and almost psychedelic feel. It’s to the band’s credit that something that sounds so retro doesn’t appear stale: the arrangement shifts from the vaguely bluesy to funky and back again, eventually settling on a melody with a strong 70s vibe that really works the guitar, but also makes a prominently placed bassline invaluable. In some ways, the vocal is the least important feature here, but that too has a lot to give, with frontman Andy Goswami turning everyone on with a performance that takes a natural tone but fills it with a great energy. The decision to record this live in the studio lends the track an extra edge, but that wouldn’t mean much without a great song in hand, and ‘Casablanca’ makes for a fantastic experience all round.

Here’s a piece of Americana that might cross over well to a pop-rock loving audience. The core of ‘Wicked Ways’ by Matt Jones and The Bobs harkens back to the radio friendly sounds of Hootie & The Blowfish and Toad The Wet Sprocket with a world of hard strummed guitars and a pleasingly warm bass. Even the reverb laden lead guitar that peaks through the vocal has a decent leaning towards light rock, while a subtle organ hints at a love of old 70s fare. It’s only really the voice that owes a bigger debt to the country set, with the busy narrative delivered with quite an obvious twang. If you can make it past that, there’s actually a lot to love here; the track is perfectly arranged on all fronts, the big chorus hook – simple enough to balance out the verse – has the ability to stick, and The Bobs’ affinity for a fairly old school sound is more than clear wherever the music takes them. Despite working in a very different genre, much like Argo and The Violet Queens, this feels like a welcome slice of the past transplanted into the present.

Opening with a rather lo-fi sound where a vocal sits atop a quiet drone, ‘Running Out of Time’ by KiKi Holli + The Remedy is immediately striking. By initially holding back, the track invites the listener to pay closer attention, and then by opening out slowly with the help of steady beats and bell-like accompaniment, it invites the audience further into a dream-like world. A bigger sense of rhythm soon couples a broader sounding vocal, but all without losing too much of a wonderfully light atmospheres where fey sounding indie influences meet with an assured dreampop arrangement. The music is often strong, but KiKi’s vocal remains the real focus here, and her wonderful tones bring out the very best in an excellent late night listen.

Marc Valentine is one of those artists who knows what his fans want, pretty much instinctively…and the huge, chiming chords that kick off ‘High In The Underground’ are pretty much guaranteed to thrill. By taking a riff that sounds like Alice Cooper’s ‘Be My Lover’ retooled by Cheap Trick, he drops his audience into a world of retro cool that sounds genuinely effortless. Bringing in a glam-infused vocal, a few soaring lead guitars and a few shameless woo-woo’s, the track pushes all of the right “feel-good” buttons in record time, and even though a bar-room inflected lead guitar break sounds like something that would feel more at home on an old Gilby Clarke or Watts recording, everything pulls together to create a hook filled and rousing experience that bodes very well for a forthcoming album. If this happens to be your first listen to Marc, there’s a good chance you’ll find yourself backtracking to uncover more musical gold.

‘Midnight Calls’ by Louise Aubrie arrives with an odd intro full of clattering sounds that aims to wrongfoot the listener. It’s a smart move, as this makes the emerging verse sound even more melodic. Ploughing forth with a busy drum line and a world of jangling guitars, the track has a pleasingly 90s feel, with a chorus that blends pop hooks of an old Voice of The Beehive number with relentless indie rock rhythms. With a simple hook in hand, this would be enough to sell the track, but Louise’s slightly sneering vocal also has a huge sound that captures the best in something retro. At its best, this recording has a sharpness that gives this single a contemporary feel: it’s busy in places, but more importantly, it’s also very catchy. This is a single that is set to open new ears.

Danny George Wilson – ex-Grand Drive – is in a really mellow mood on ‘Before September’. Across almost six minutes, he applies a rather fragile vocal to a strident piano melody that takes a stripped back feel to its most logical extreme. Everything sounds as if it were recorded live, and this really helps to give the performance an emotive edge that really pulls at the heart strings. Fans will still hear a distinctive voice, but for those older ears who are perhaps approaching Wilson with little knowledge of his past works, this is likely to have greater appeal, since it feels markedly different. It takes the route of an old Billy Joel ballad, crossed with torch song orchestration, and shares a slight feel that owes more to the work of Paul Buchanan than the roots rock of Grand Drive. Very occasionally, it even taps into a melody that revives the ghosts of Rick Derringer’s ‘Big City Loneliness’, and although this is almost certainly never deliberate, it gives this number an even bigger appeal.

Seemingly keen to capitalise on their return after a two decade vacation, Lowsunday continue their promotion of the ‘Ghost Machine – White’ EP with the release of the brilliant ‘Nevver’ as a digital single. It’s a track that, in many ways, acts as the ultimate advertisement for the band. A wave of drum machines and groove laden bass first give off a vague hint of influence from early Human League, but it isn’t too long before Lowsunday steer the track into more of a comfort zone. A huge arc of distorted guitar adds a dense sound that borrows heavily from classic My Bloody Valentine and A Place To Bury Strangers, and during the chorus, it’s so loud and intense, it dominates everything to the point where the mechanical rhythms and more melodic elements can barely be heard. That doesn’t matter: it really helps to give the impression of a number where dark moods and atmospheres feel more important than melodic or lyrical hooks, taking the listener to the heart of the Lowsunday sound, and for those who love the heavier end of the shoegaze spectrum, this will be an instant hit.

‘Revolution Evolution’, a recent single from Love Ghost, is a pleasingly chunky affair. The basis of the arrangement has a common root with some of the more industrial sounds from the Metropolis label, but the band uses that heavy, mechanical sound to build something more interesting. In places, a heavy, grinding riff touches upon a Rob Zombie-ish intensity, which coupled with a vocal that sounds like a distant relation of Marilyn Manson, creates something that lovers of 90s sounds will love. The real interest here, though, comes from the track’s quieter elements, in particular, a verse that couples a drawling, almost sneery vocal with a twangy guitar tone that owes more to a cinematic style. With a few of these elements heavily treated to bring a darker mood and with the melodies occasionally underscored by sirens, this creates a brilliantly unsettling listen. “Another war has begun…”

March 2026