Song Review – Page 3 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Reykjavik Kids’ “Hyper Etrian (Gleaming Universe)” is a Buoyant and Immersive Synth Pop Song About Unplugging From the Attention Economy

Reykjavik Kids, photo courtesy the artists

Reykjavik Kids offer their usual richly rendered synth melodies on “Hyper Etrian (Gleaming Universe).” With a mix by James Aparicio, the song seems to make a commentary on the mediated nature of how we often interact with the larger world these days and how there is an impulse to break with that and the pressures of presenting an image to be judged and consumed. Maybe it’s not a commentary on how always performing or the social inducement to do so is ultimately unsustainable and corrosive to the human psyche and to our relationships with each other. Whatever the origins of the song’s lyrics the layers of saturated synth tone and a retro synth pop aesthetic and modern, vivid production with strong low end is immersive and carries you along with in its buoyant energy and vibrant tones from beginning to end. Fans of MGMT and M83 will appreciate the sonic and emotional places the song goes. Listen to “Hyper Etrian (Gleaming Universe)” on Spotify and follow Reykjavik Kids from Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, and not in fact Iceland, at the links below.

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Silver Liz’s Electro-Shoegaze Single “Dream More Vivid” is a Sustained State of Dreamlike Bliss

Duo Silver Liz sounds like its spent some time deep into the more obscure regions of 1980s synth pop and the more interesting end of the soundscapes of OMD and Gary Numan. The single “Dream More Vivid” has the saturated synth sound adjacent to what we’ve heard from Black Moth Super Rainbow. But the percussion and its finely accented, almost break beat style, rhythms lend the song an electronic music quality like a piece of music out of the part of the 90s that hasn’t often been adopted by modern artists. Think the more electro end of Lush and Medicine and fully Curve. Maybe Sextile most prominently has been taking inspiration from 90s Big Beat. But the vocals and the arrangements of melody place the song solidly in a modern aesthetic of genre bending pop that fuses styles in service to creating a song that sounds like it is pulling from past decades to craft a mood that feels vibrant and transporting. When the song is over you want to be in the energy it has sustained all along because it’s like getting to exist in a beautiful dream for a full four minutes thirty nine of pure bliss and worthy of its title. Listen to “Dream More Vivid” on YouTube and follow Silver Liz at the links below. The band’s new album III releases January 30, 2026 on vinyl, digital download and streaming.

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Macatier’s Hypnotic and Melancholic Post-Punk Song “Fade Away” Captures What It Feels Like to Struggle to Let Go Long After You Should

“Fade Away” by Macatier will be reminiscent of The Cure in the vocals and the bass line in the best way. That being a pitch perfect evocation of melancholia and a strong and steady low end pulse to push the song. The song is about a relationship that is probably over but not yet “officially,” just on its last legs with neither party wanting to pull the plug but let things linger until it dissolves of its own inertia after each person is harmed a little in the holding on too long. What makes the song is some use of reverse delay in the guitar so that the song’s melodic structure curves back on itself the way one’s feelings often can which can be a pleasant thing or in the case of this song, reinforcing all the things that keep you trapped rather than moving onward even if it hurts to do so. And yet the effect really gets stuck in your head as does the song’s irresistible melody. Listen to “Fade Away” on Spotify and follow Macatier at the links below.

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“I Used To See Her On The Way Home from School and She Lit Up The Sky with her Beauty” by Dylan Henner is a Transcendent Expression of an Adolescent Experience of Infatuation

Dylan Henner perfectly mixes sonic elements to capture a different kind of adolescent headspace than in a typical rock or pop song on the blissful “I Used To See Her On The Way Home from School and She Lit Up The Sky with her Beauty.” The harp arpeggios and lightly distorted tones going from one end of the stereo field of sound to the other and the wordless vocals feel like that elevated state of emotional rapture that one associates with the kind of infatuation that you only really feel quite that same way when you’re young while your heart and mind are not as covered over by life experience and the corrosive effects of regular adult life often have on the human spirit. That purity of feeling Henner has conjured up and plugged directly into the composition of the song and for those five minutes and fifteen seconds you can feel a cleansing of the psyche the songwriter must have drawn from in putting together its angelic strands. Fans of Popol Vuh’s music for Aguirre, the Wrath of God in its unalloyed sense of wonder will find resonance with the piece as well. Listen to “I Used To See Her On The Way Home from School and She Lit Up The Sky with her Beauty” on YouTube and follow Dylan Henner at the links provided.

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CATBEAR Tells Us How Self-Acceptance is Attainable on Breezy Synth Pop Single “It’s Okay”

“It’s Okay” finds synth pop duo CATBEAR making a strong yet sensitive statement about self-acceptance. The pace of the song and its typically tonally rich synths are reminiscent of early Ladytron and Pleasure Victim-period Berlin. The touch of guitar shimmer washes bring a gentle texture the song that enhances the mood. When the rhythm drops out we’re left with the warmly comforting vocals and ethereal streaming it’s like an extended moment to rest and relax, to let one’s guard down as the song suggests and to step into a complete sense of self rather than one more edited for arbitrary standards of acceptance on any level. Listen to “It’s Okay” on Spotify and follow CATBEAR at the links below. The group’s new album For Now, For Ever is available now on limited edition vinyl, digital download and streaming.

don’t get lemon’s “Paid Holiday” is Like a Synth Pop Theme Song For a Jared Hess Comedy

don’t get lemon, photo courtesy the artists

“Paid Holiday” doesn’t strike one immediately as an offbeat song but not many songs by don’t get lemon do. The music video shows a man dressed like a character from a movie set in the Napoleon Dynamite universe and looking like it’s shot on Super-8. It fits the song about a guy living with delusions of low rent grandeur and constantly living a life of “adventure” unattached to obligations and somehow skating by on fantasies of a nomadic “lifestyle” thinking he’s living the high life on the cheap, going on until the wheels come off and dreaming of that life of being his own man with no expectations for himself than dubious luxury. It’s a way of being in which you have to tell yourself it’s what you want even if it’s ultimately unsustainable. And yet the song has a beautifully fuzzy melody and lends the depicted a soundtrack to his dreams of freedom and dignity. It’s an expansive synth pop song that like certain Wes Anderson movies the style brings a sense of romance to the unromantic and the contrast between the images of the video, the lyrics and the music is what sets the song apart from most other synth pop. Watch the video for “Paid Holiday” on YouTube and follow don’t get lemon at the links below.

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&Tilly and BlauDisS Elicit a Deep Sense of Existential Drift on Dream Pop Song “Chaotic Neutral”

Pulses of melody course through &Tilly and BlauDisS’s single “Chaotic Neutral” like drifting photons of tone, trailing in the field of hearing. In the music video the singer seems to be sitting in a bathtub and contemplating a moment adrift in a mood, in a state of being. The title of the song is perhaps a reference to the alignment in Dungeons & Dragons most motivated by impulse and being neither malicious or guided by a particular moral framework that one would identify as “good” it can be difficult to predict. But in real world terms it might encapsulate a sense of being adrift when most things that have anchored anything to values or a system of values has been eroded and you can easily get to a place in the mind when you start to wonder if anything has any inherent meaning and if anything is truly worth doing except what intersects with your mind in any given moment. Most thoughtful, sensitive people who may have once really believed in something only to have the foundation of that thing or set of principles supporting it undermined and discredited. This can be a cultural, societal, political, spiritual or interpersonal thing that was at the core of your sense of self and if you don’t have a solid sense of self separate enough from any of those things you can feel like it’s all nonsense even if for a short or extended period of time. The song’s gentle rhythms and melancholic moods suits a sense of disconnected yearning that remains when you’re not sure if anything matters but you can sometimes feel like you want something, anything, to resonate with you deeply. Watch the video for “Chaotic Neutral” on YouTube and follow &Tilly at the links below.

Madeline Goldstein’s Commanding Synth Pop Single “My Own Design” Reigns in a Spiral Into Anxiety and Panic

Madeline Goldstein once again demonstrates her complete mastery of composing percussive synth tone and rhythm on “My Own Design.” The song is about finding a way of handling the experience of anxiety and panic by projecting those feelings outward and describing them in words and wrangling them with captivating melody and dance beats. What Goldstein does in this song, as in others, is find a way to externalize what it’s like to live with those feelings that can feel constant or constantly on the horizon of consciousness threatening to crash in and derail one’s ability to function. Yet sometimes when you feel like you know what’s going on and can think through it you can ride through the worst of the moments with a sense of self preserved which makes it easier to pull yourself out of panic mode through an awareness of what’s going on no matter the specific triggers. In the song Goldstein sings about really feeling those feelings that can trigger one’s panic reaction rather than suppress them as a way to comprehension even if it can all feel incomprehensible in the moment. The circling vocal choruses are like mantras of being in the moment and work as anchors of a well crafted pop song which Goldstein has delivered in her recorded output to this point. Throughout the song Goldstein appears to sing about how she feels overwhelmed by feelings while showing how to propel oneself out of state of feeling helpless. Fans of Molly Nilsson, The Motels and OMD will appreciate the way Goldstein orchestrates her songwriting generally and the rich melodies and deeply evocative vocals that are simultaneously vulnerable and confident. Listen to “My Own Design” on YouTube and follow Madeline Goldstein at the links below. Expect the new album out in 2026 on Artoffact Records.

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Taleen Kali Disentangles Ego From Self-Transformation on Urgent Shoegaze Single “Crossed”

In the churning whirlwind of noise and melody of Taleen Kali’s shoegaze track “Crossed” one hears the touch of Going Blank Again-period Ride, maybe a hint of The Vaselines in the sheer embrace of raw sound in a pop hook. The rippling/repeating synth line that opens the song is like a primer for the glorious flood of sound that carries you through the rest of the song. The songwriter’s vocals soar in harmony and solo over the proceedings while not dominating the mix. The lyrics seem to express an inner change and acceptance of transformation and change rather than holding on to outmoded ways of thinking and being. The music and its layers of atmospheric guitar and texture at headlong pace supports this untangling of self into more expansive states of spirit and the song hits as triumphant rather than melancholic. The single is also available as a limited edition lathe cut on Bandcamp. Listen to “Crossed” on Spotify and follow Taleen Kali at the links below.

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Joyer’s Indie Shoegaze Single “Glare of the Beer Can” is Warmly Rendered Portrait of Fond Reverie

Joyer has a gift for framing fond and emotionally complex memories in a way that is more touching and affectionate than nostalgic. The atmospheric and detailed guitar melodies put one in a reflective mood instantly and on “Glare of the Beer Can” the group offers vivid memories in a way that suggests creativity and insight in the realm of visual art to inform the music and vice versa. The song is about how so many things in your environment can remind you of the people that have made memories with you and how it could be haunting but it can also be something you don’t mind sitting with especially in moments of loneliness and isolation to warm the heart just enough to lift your spirits. It’s one of the more mellow songs on the group’s excellent new album, On the Other End of the Line… (out October 24, 2025 via Julia’s War Recordings) band one that showcases the group’s musical versatility and attention to the fine details of how feelings flow through the mind and what triggers memories and how it all interacts within one’s lived experiences. Watch the video for “Glare of the Beer Can” on YouTube and follow Joyer at the links provided.