This week’s visit to the Singles Bar is big on variety. We’ve got retro rock, some very 90s inspired dream pop gold, a great track from an up and coming Irish singer songwriter, a superb acoustic track and more besides. With very little fitting a “household name” at the time of release, this is testament to how much great new music there is being released at the beginning of 2026. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!
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Marking the end of a three year silence, singer songwriter Caïman released the wonderful ‘Dreams Are A Way To See Dead People Again’ in June 2025. The low key track blended indie, pop and dream pop elements in a way that helped to bring out the best in a light, melodic vocal, making it easy to hear why some had dubbed the performer “the French Marika Hackman”. It was an absolutely fantastic return.
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 previous few weeks. This time out, we’ve got a really arty track with a strong 70s undercurrent, a disarmingly honest number from a young, up and coming singer-songwriter, some vaguely baroque adult oriented pop, a legendary band fusing different styles in an unexpected way…and more. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!
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With their debut release ‘Gilded Echoes’, Scotland’s Silver Dollar Room delivered one of the finest albums of 2024. Its mix of hard rock and grunge drew from classic sources, including Smashing Pumpkins (with better vocals) and Bush (but with better songs), creating something that sometimes felt a little nostalgic but still relevant in the present.
After leaving Fairport Convention rather prematurely in 1969, singer songwriter Iain Matthews embarked on what was to be an epic musical journey. His first solo album ‘Matthews’ Southern Comfort’, released that same year, saw him venturing further away from folk and further into the realms of country rock and Americana, and two further albums released under the Matthews’ Southern Comfort band name cemented a warm, rootsy sound, eventually netting Matthews a UK #1 hit with a cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Woodstock’, presented in the mould of the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young version. For the more casual observer, that will be the recording for which Iain is best known.