There’s something so compelling about Plain Drifter’s latest release, Cracks in the Mirror. It sounds good, obviously. The guitars bite, the melodies know exactly how to make you stay. But underneath all that is something that is harder to fake: vulnerability. The kind of vulnerability that a lot of rock records seem to have forgotten
Plain Drifter’s “Cracks in the Mirror” Is Rock With Nothing to Hide Read More »
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Protected: QUINTESSE feat. KARL JOSEF’s “On my way” Is Your Sign to Keep Going Read More »
When the velvet breeze of Dubai night air meets the nostalgic warmth of classic Manila romance Jesse Posis finds his sweet spot on Ako at Ikaw Magpakailanman. This artist feels like pulling listeners into an intimate twilight setting filled with delicate nylon-string acoustic strums and swinging percussion. The track glides along a smooth rhythm reminiscent
Jesse Posis Delivers a Timeless Bossa Nova Romance on ‘Ako at Ikaw Magpakailanman’ Read More »
You just gotta love it when an artist doesn’t pretend the mess around them isn’t real. They throw it onto the table and say, “Yeah, let’s talk about it.” Trey Bruce’s All Americans sounds exactly like that, no sugarcoating needed. Three decades of writing songs probably explains why Bruce knows exactly what he wants to
Trey Bruce’s “All Americans” Isn’t Here to Make You Comfortable Read More »
Everyone can talk about burnout and urban anxiety. Yet somehow, only a few make space for the idea that you don’t have to figure it all out just yet. That’s the kind of comfort you’ll find in fernvie’s newest single, Dito Muna Tayo sa Pagitan. It feels exceptionally fitting for the Manila-based band fernvie to
You’ll Probably Recognize Yourself Somewhere In fernvie’s “Dito Muna Tayo sa Pagitan” Read More »
Some nights call for fogged-up windows, warm skin, a little reassurance, and a song as catchy and intoxicating as GlowDriver’s latest release, Tell Me. A repeated “tell me baby” could easily go wrong, but somehow, GlowDriver makes it work. What could feel excessive instead becomes a hook, a pulse, and a little spell through contemporary
GlowDriver’s “Tell Me” Is What Yearning Sounds Like at 123 BPM Read More »
Credit: Original Painting by Perri Neri There’s a very particular type of optimism that can only be sustained after so much of it has been exhausted. “MIRROR BALL,” Ryan James Monroe‘s new glam-rock single, is more or less a prayer to the notion that the years somehow make you less appealing. The track reimagines the
Ryan James Monroe’s “MIRROR BALL” Wants You to Dance Through the Identity Crisis Read More »
Grief is one of those feelings that seems impossible to put into words without making it sound bigger or smaller than it really is. Somehow, Starboard to Sunset finds its own way to navigate it with their latest single, Without You Here. That ability to express something as deeply personal as grief feels fitting for
There’s A Certain Ache To Remembering in Starboard to Sunset’s “Without You Here” Read More »
Sandy Martin’s “Ice Candy” is a song about a goddess who has existed since before time, possesses enough power to treat the universe as her personal playground and still cannot find someone to love. This is, objectively, a lot to ask a pop song to explain before the second verse. Fortunately, Martin approaches the premise
Sandy Martin’s “Ice Candy” Wants to Take You to the Stars Read More »
Franxie’s “Stone” could have gone in the way of a particular kind of singer-songwriter who treats emotional distress as an opportunity to place one sad piano chord beneath another until the listener understands that sadness has occurred. Instead, it finds something more interesting in the familiar territory of anxiety, exhaustion, and the difficult business of
franxie’s “Stone” Turns Imperfection Into the Point Read More »