Tag: indie music

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Polar States – 2020

Polar States - 2020

Polar States is a four-piece guitar band from Liverpool, UK (seriously, is there something in the water over there? Is it the Mersey?) that in all likelihood will become the next big British band to take the world by storm. The group got already a cult following despite releasing their first EP less than 3 years ago. They describe themselves as a ‘dark pop’ band but I think their genre is spot on alternative rock.

The band released just last week a new single, 2020, which is extremely catchy and already a musical crush of mine. It has huge potential to become a big hit and if you hadn’t listented to it before, this is your opportunity to do so before it does!

I can’t believe it was recorded in their own houses…

Featured on the following mixtapes:

  • Everything
  • Alternative

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Mélanie Laurent – Début

Mélanie Laurent - Début

You probably know Mélanie Laurent for her famous role in Quentin Tarantino‘s film Inglorious Basterds or from any of her many other films (with my favourite one being this one), but it is a lesser-known fact that she’s also a musician. In fact, back in 2011 she released her first and only (so far) album, En t’attendant, to moderate success. It was basically a French pop album, with many of those pop songs co-written with Damien Rice. However, the reason why I decided to highlight Mélanie’s album for this week’s Throwback Thursday, is because of the two wonderful piano solos that open and close the record: Début and Fin.

I decided to feature here Début, but I might just as well have chosen Fin. Both songs are incredibly beautiful and delicate, the type of tracks you can listen on repeat without getting tired of them. Unfortunately, there is no “official” video on Youtube, but you can listen to Début on the mixtapes below (or the one on the sidebar here). Enjoy!

Featured on the following mixtapes:

  • Everything
  • Relax

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Semisonic – DND

Semisonic - DND

With the news this week that Semisonic is back together with their first song out in 19 years (which is okay but not great), I thought it would be appropriate to reminisce about Semisonic’s great 1998 album, Feeling Strangely Fine, as this week’s #ThrowbackThursday. The record, which was the band’s second album, was without a doubt one of the best ones of 1998. It had three singles, with one of them being a massive success. In fact, some people might think that the band led by Dan Wilson was a one-hit-wonder because of Closing Time, but that would be wrong. The other two singles were also really good and got decent airplay (I do have a soft spot for Secret Smile). However, the song I wanted to highlight here was never a single. It was the sixth track on FSF: DND.

If you have listened to DND before, you probably agree with me on that it is a great tune with that memorable acoustic intro. And if you haven’t, please do yourself a favour and do it here now. Welcome back, Semisonic!

Featured on the following mixtapes:

  • Everything
  • Alternative

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flor feat. MisterWives – yellow

flor feat. MisterWives

I love cover tracks that are not just karaoke versions of the original songs. In particular, when the artist manages to bring the song to his/her own style in a way that makes it sound as a brand new track (and even better when the styles are very different). This is exactly what flor accomplished with their cover of Coldplay’s iconic song: Yellow, for which they had a bit of help from Mandy Lee from MisterWives.

flor (they don’t use a capital F) is a pretty well-known band in the indie circuit, but in case you don’t know who they are, they started in 2014 in Oregon, US; and have released two studio albums so far. This cover of Yellow, however, is part of a EP, reimagined, that the band released in February this year, containing new versions of two of their most popular songs plus the song being featured here. All three songs come recommended and deserve a listen, but you can start with Yellow here:

Featured on the following mixtapes:

  • Everything
  • Indie
  • Pop

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The Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition

Sweet Disposition

Last week, we recommended the marvellous instrumental cover that Kirsten Agresta Copely did of this classic, so for the #ThrowbackThursday of this week, the obvious choice has to be the original song, which –as mentioned in that post– is considered an indie anthem. It was released in 2008 as the lead single of The Temper Trap‘s debut album, Conditions, and became a top 10 single in multiple countries, including the UK. Something curious about The Temper Trap is that the lead singer, Dougy Mandagi, was born in Indonesia and worked a busker in Melbourne when he met some of the other members of the band.

¿Who doesn’t sing along with the song’s bridge?

“A moment, a love

A dream aloud

A kiss, a cry

Our rights, our wrongs

A moment, a love

A dream aloud

A moment, a love

A dream, aloud“

The Temper Trap, Sweet Disposition

Featured on the following mixtapes:

  • Everything
  • Alternative
  • Folk/Indie

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Hazey Eyes feat. Panama – Emotion

Hazey Eyes

I got my lovely wife to thank for this discovery, as it showed up while she was listening to a playlist with recommendations from one streaming platform. Hazey Eyes is the moniker of 22-year-old Philadelphia-based electronic artist Thomas Michel, who released in 2019 his latest EP, Love Lost. For its lead single, Emotion, the classically trained multi-instrumentalist collaborated with Panama, the well-known electronic/Indie project by Australian songwriter/producer Jarrah McCleary, and the result was this emotional blend of electronic and indie music with a catchy yet vulnerable melody.

Emotion got serious potential to become your next musical crush and you can stream it below.

Featured on the following mixtapes:

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Kodaline – Sometimes

Kodaline - Sometimes

Who doesn’t remember Kodaline‘s All I Want? That single and their whole debut album were a massive hit for the Irish band, and even though their two subsequent efforts had moderate success, they haven’t come close to the magic of their first release.

The band will be back with a new album, One Day at a Time, two days from now (the 12th) and one of its lead singles is the song featured here, Sometimes, which has a perfect Indie vibe with an upbeat melody, despite deep lyrics talking about the subject of anxiety. Hope you enjoy it (please let me know)!

“Sometimes is a song I wrote while on tour in Asia last year. I had a really bad day dealing with my own anxiety issues and I kind of let it get the better of me. I started writing the song in my hotel room to help me calm down, music has always helped me in that way. For me It’s a song about accepting the bad days and trying to stay positive. We all get lost sometimes…”

Steve Garrigan, Kodaline’s lead singer

Featured on the following mixtapes:

  • Everything
  • Folk/Indie