AG Cook
Lifeline
AG Cook – the founder of major label budget-guzzling collective PC Music and producer behind Charli XCX’s last two head-spinning mixtapes – has a way of drawing out intense emotion with the most superficial of sounds. Opening with some syrupy-soft emo vocals over gentle, bubbling synth lines before the 80s drum beat properly kicks in, Lifeline – which also features Caroline “Chairlift” Polachek – is like a classic power ballad delivered to us from the far future.
Post Malone
Circles
On the one hand, Post Malone looks like a secondary school mephedrone dealer who starts fires and smells like chip grease. On the other, he keeps releasing these curiously affecting, catchy earworms. His latest, Circles, is a bittersweet, surprisingly tender lament on a love gone cold, delivered over dreamy indie guitar. If you still don’t know where to place this guy, don’t bother: just daub a shopping list around your eyebrows and begrudgingly enjoy the song.
Jack Peñate
Prayer
Between the layered, gospel-tinged vocals and minimal electronic claps, this almost sounds like what would happen if James Blake and Bon Iver started teaching music in schools. But it’s not. It’s Jack Peñate, the indie musician who made your 2007 boyfriend think plaid shirts and ukuleles were a good substitute for a vibesless personality. And no amount of abstract dance moves and mood lighting will alter that fact.
Tegan and Sara
I’ll Be Back Someday
With a reboot of The L Word on the horizon, it’s very timely of Tegan and Sara – who have spent the past two decades slowly amassing a diehard queer mega-following – to release a pop-punk song that sounds as if it should soundtrack Shane tonguing someone in a skinny leather tie and vest. In other words, I’ll Be Back Someday fits neatly within their tried-and-tested formula: riffs, feelings, then more riffs and more feelings.
Bombay Bicycle Club
Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You)
I must admit I haven’t listened to Bombay Bicycle Club since I was 15 and thought three neon belts wrapped round white jeans was a good look. But they’re back after a five-year hiatus and people seem to be excited, so they must be doing something right. Their comeback single is a wistful indie jam about romance and daydreaming. Is it nice? Yes. Will it change your life? Absolutely not.
