Welcome back to the Real Gone 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 selection takes in a genuine curveball from a cult musician, shares a perfect slice of soul, a great single from an up and coming singer songwriter, a brilliant melodic rock banger, and more… As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!
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With just a few weeks left of 2025, US deep psych/shoegaze band Tombstones In Their Eyes released not only one of the best albums of the year, but one of the best of their career. Some of the material felt a little bit samey if heard in one sitting, but the band’s command of a riff and ability to weave a great atmosphere allowed the material on ‘Under Dark Skies’ to work brilliantly when approached in the right mood.
Twelve years is a long time between releases, but Kate Bush doesn’t have the monopoly in disappearing for that long, since ‘Strange Life’ – the first new Howling Bells album since 2014 – marks a long overdue return for the Aussie dream pop trio. Despite the passing years, the record’s eleven tracks actually sound like a perfect continuation from previous releases, and although this may seem a little safe, it results in an album that fans will take to in a heartbeat, and will introduce those who missed the band the first time around to a set of songs that’s almost guaranteed they’ll backtrack.
In terms of taking a break, twenty six years is a long holiday by any band’s standards, but that’s exactly how long Lowsunday were AWOL between their second and third releases. The musical landscape may have changed a great deal since the death of the 90s, but the first sounds shared by this Pittsburgh based alternative/shoegaze/goth band at the end of 2025 found the musicians sticking rigidly to what they do best. In many ways, the resulting ‘White EP’ is all the better for that. Yes, the five tracks sound very retro, but in fairness, the strong gothy element in their sound was already retro by 1999. What the five tracks on this EP achieve – whether deliberately or otherwise – is to bring a massive pang of nostalgia which, coming at a time when the world feels as if it’s heading into even darker places, is certainly most welcome.
Since the release of their first full length release ‘Floating Above Everything Else’ in 2023, Keeley Moss and her eponymously named band have felt like a massively important part of the indie underground. That record’s heavy nods to a shoegaze and dreampop past ensured listeners who spent the 1990s as wide-eyed twenty somethings found an immediate connection with the KEELEY sound, while the lyrical content – heavily influenced by the narrative surrounding the murder of young traveller Inga Maria Hauser – gave some great tunes a cerebral edge. 2024’s ‘Beautiful Mysterious’ repeated the formula, but certainly didn’t sound like a band treading water. If anything, the album sounded a little more confident; richer, even, and it was clear there was certainly more of a story to be told regarding the Hauser case.