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 we have the return of a superb instrumental act, some fine retro sounding darkwave, a nod to shoegaze, an interesting offering from a low-key singer songwriter…and more. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!
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Following the wonderful ‘Letting Go’, Deardarkhead have delivered another winner with the atmospheric ‘In Another Life’. On this track, the instrumental act dive even deeper into a world of late 80s goth sounds with the help of a throbbing bassline and deep sounding guitar lines that venture into the darker corners of a sweeping melody. In keeping with the previous track, a brighter, ringing guitar tone adds some strong lead parts, often drawing again from old goth and post punk influences, but even carrying a faint echo of early work from The Fierce & The Dead. Helping the band to gain even more traction after a long overdue return, ‘In Another Life’ should appeal to fans and first time listeners equally.
‘Passage des Fleurs’ by Mathis Akengin is the poster child for “understated”. The track centres around a quiet piano riff that falls somewhere between the melodic elements of a Craig Armstrong soundtrack and the works of Erik Satie, providing a gentle backdrop for an aching, high toned vocal. With faint echos of past Anhoni Hegarty work, Mathis values atmosphere over immediacy. That is, until the track takes a swift turn into a percussive arrangement which adds a touch of Danny Elfman-esque grandeur. Even with something a little more striking in hand, the performer doesn’t change their tone accordingly, preferring instead to let their voice glide over the slightly clanky melodies, setting up a great contrast. This is as far from an old school “radio hit” as you’ll find, and yet it’s a strangely alluring track that more than deserves to find a devoted audience.
With a world of punky arrangements and gravelly vocals, LA’s Mermaid Island often sound like the missing link between later period Distillers and The Muffs. On their recent single ‘Panic Button’, they take a dramatic and unexpected twist. By tapping into verses driven by shuffling drums and lightly applied acoustic guitar lines, the track owes more to bar room rock and even the grittier end of the Americana spectrum. This allows singer Alex MacDonald room to stretch out and share more of a quietly emotive tone in more than a few places, before the chorus explodes with an overdriven riff that sees the band reverting to their noisier selves. When that riff hits and Alex hits full roar, the influences from The Distillers is far more obvious, but the track doesn’t settle for a basic push and pull between these two extremes: the second verse re-introduces the quieter melody but adorns it with slightly more of a rock-pop edge showing off a band to branch out. Fans will certainly find this interesting, and by the time the climax hits, the vocals hit such an intensity that this track becomes pretty much impossible to ignore.
‘Don’t Keep Me Guessin’, the 2021 single release from Dany Laj and The Looks, is one of the most infectious things you’ll ever hear. It cemented the Canadian band’s gift for a great hook, and its parent album ‘Ten Easy Pieces’ shared a lot of really fun material. The band’s newest offering ‘We’re The Freaks’ takes a tougher stance – the whole track is dominated by punchy sounding power pop guitar lines, straight from the late 70s – but at the heart of everything, you’ll hear a familiar band. Laj’s cheeky vocal tones offset the huge riffs very effectively, and Jeanette Dowling’s fat bass tones cut through the incessant jangle with a genuine intent. Like all of the band’s best tunes, this is an exercise in economy: done and dusted in just two and a half minutes, there’s no bloat here; no self indulgence – it really does hit the audience with another simple chorus that will stick with immediate effect. Fans will love it.
If you’ve been paying attention to the Americana underground in 2026, chances are you’ve heard a couple of great singles by Ruby James. Her new recording ‘Punk Rock Love Song’ outshines those previous efforts, not just on a basic musical level, but also for thinking outside of the box. She’s taken the Supersuckers’ ‘Pretty Fucked Up’ and reworked it from being a garage punk banger into an aching ballad, driven by electric piano. In its stripped down guise, the melody truly shines, and the slower tempo allows for a smoky lead vocal that actually sounds as if it feels the pain within the lyric. Once the bass arrives, the arrangement slides into a mournful bar room arrangement with country overtones, which is perfect for the sizeable lead guitar break – capturing a fine balance between a melodic and dirty tone – and the dual vocals that fill the second half of the track. For extra authenticity, the guest vocals come from none other than the Supersuckers’ own Eddie Spaghetti, who is clearly enjoying the opportunity to hear this fan favourite presented in a whole new way. [Warning: contains multiple f-bombs which may offend sensitive ears.]
‘Lawnchair.exe’ by Dafties is an interesting musical experiment. The single takes the guts of lo-fi pop, a swathe of noisy indie, a pinch of 90s alt rock and a guest appearance from a wrestler to create something that feels understated, yet at the same time, just a little cheeky. The fuzzy riffs that provide the heart of the track sound like they’re keen to soundtrack a slacker’s summer and are dripping with a nostalgic quality that calls back to the likes of Veruca Salt and Belly which, coupled with a slightly fey vocal reminiscent of Velocity Girl material, really works. The guest vocal from Kid Reed seems a little surplus in some ways, especially given its slightly atonal manner which takes the listener a little too far out of a melodic, dreamy arrangement, but looking at it more broadly, it’s an interesting insight into Dafties’ world of quirkiness.
Connecticut rockers The Pretty Graves have released a couple of enjoyable singles, and now they’re back with ‘Walkin’, a jangling, almost swirly indie rock affair that owes as much to the late 60s psych scene as the 90s shoegaze movement. The core of the track works a superb chiming guitar which gives the performance a solid backbone. Using that as a springboard, the band shares a great vocal arrangement – centring around a repetitive hook, driven by perfect harmonies – and finds time to drop in a superb lead guitar break along the way. Equal parts Ride, ‘Satanic Majesties’ era Stones and early Teenage Fanclub, this is a pure joy, even before the heavily treated second guitar solo hits. If this doesn’t make you want to check out the band’s self-titled debut LP, nothing will…
As part of the promotion cycle for their 2025 long player ‘Protection Spells’, darkwave act Ships In The Night have released the rather mesmerising ‘Inside’ as a video single. The track, driven by mechanical rhythms and a deep, bending synth-bass groove, taps into a great 80s sound from the off, and despite the music’s deliberate coldness, it manages to be a track that’s incredibly inviting. This is completely due to a great vocal: Alethea Leventhal contrasts the music with a beautifully human performance throughout, allowing some really light, almost dream pop influenced tones to soar above the music’s more rigid qualities. Even when the music opts for a punchier, speed driven approach for the climax, Alethea’s gentler tones hold firm, creating something that almost transcends the boundaries of pop, indie and goth. A great track.
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June 2026