Song Review – Page 5 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Hissuae’s Cinematic, Intimate and Transcendent Art Pop Single “Guilty Pleasure” Mixes the Personal With the Mythical

Hissuae breathes a sense of the intimate and cinematic into “Guilty Pleasure” with her ethereal and vulnerable vocals. The song’s arrangements are orchestral and minimal in their intertwining of sweeping piano and percussion so that the song feels like an immersive, living entity in the listening. In the background the barest touch of synth lends an otherworldly quality that puts the more human elements in the foreground and catches one’s full attention. The singer-songwriter’s singing style is reminiscent of the ways Kate Bush and Loreena McKennitt could intermingle the personal with the mythical in fine nuances of vocal expression. For a song that seems to be about transcending mundane, everyday existence that is the perfect tonal mode for the song to take. Listen to “Guilty Pleasure” on Spotify and connect with Hissuae on Bandcamp.

Genre Is Death Savage Inauthentic Aspirations on No Wave Punk Single “Attractive People”

Genre Is Death, photo courtesy the artists

On “Attractive People” Genre Is Death sound like they took a time machine back to 1980s New York (their hometown) and got to experience bands like Live Skull, early No Wave and Pussy Galore firsthand and shed obvious influences on their return to our era. What we hear is a caustic and noisy, haunting and thrilling song that weds mechanistic rhythms to discordant guitar and a hypnotically driving bass line to create a different kind of musical darkness with which the band shreds shallow aspirations and lifestyle over substantive living and creating. The lyrics are minimal, mostly “You don’t have a life/You just want to be attractive” and “It’s just a lifestyle” that can seem general but when combined with the music’s headiness and confrontational sound it speaks to anyone that recognizes certain social phenomena in the culture when there seem to be people who like the association of cool within a subculture or parasocial attachments without having to do anything to actually be so and live in a way that commits to something real which requires actual effort more than being attracted to the image of authenticity and accomplishment. Watch the video for “Attractive People” on YouTube and follow Genre Is Death at the links below. The band’s LP is out May 1, 2026 on In the Red Records.

Genre Is Death on Instagram

Genre Is Death on Bandcamp

Tory Silver’s Wistful and Hopeful Indie Pop Single “Microwave” Comforts With Images of Reliably Necessary Daily Rituals

Tory Silver mixes nostalgic wistfulness with hopefulness on “Microwave.” The crunchy yet melodic guitars have real grit and though reminiscent a bit of Pixies have a modern resonance particularly with Silver’s charmingly vulnerable vocal delivery. In the video we see what looks like VHS footage and in-camera-style effects interspersed with images of a microwave oven for an effect that enhances the song’s themes of holding onto daily rituals as a grounding for getting through the periods of self-doubt and mundane but necessary and repetitive experiences of life that help string the rest of it together and make it all possible even if it can be easy to forget and get swept up in periods of despair at the thought of possible future catastrophe and stagnation. It’s the kind of song that has a familiar mood and sound to it but mainly because we’ve all been there at some point and maybe even now and it’s comforting to hear someone articulate that state of mind so accurately. Watch the video for “Microwave” on YouTube and follow Tory Silver at the links provided. Silver’s new album In Through the Front with Lasers releases through Michi Tapes on May 29, 2026.

Tory Silver on Facebook

Tory Silver on Instagram

The Empty Page Eviscerates the Destructive Anti-Aging Rhetoric of Our Society on Brooding Post-Punk Single “A Feminine Ending”

The Empty Page, photo courtesy the artists

The Empty Page sketches in vivid sonic images and lyrics the toxicity of anti-aging rhetoric in culture and media with “A Feminine Ending.” With almost agonized yet cathartic guitar work and vocals that begin reflective and ramp up to furious the song is like an even darker, noisier early Concrete Blonde song. Shredding how our own self-hatred is marketed to us as inadequacy and insecurity cured by some technocratic capitalist method for addressing specific “flaws” and failing that to encourage us to withdraw from being publicly active and not seeing ourselves as having relevance and power even in our own lives. Especially if you’re a woman. The song feels like urgent resistance against a false and destructive narrative that is somehow still rampant in our civilization and just a thrilling song that gives voice to the instinct to reject being discarded as the worn out parts of the machinery of a deeply dysfunctional society. Fans of Latter and Kaput will deeply appreciate the way The Empty Page combines unfettered emotional expression, sharp social critique and creative expansion of out of obvious subgenres of music. Listen to “A Feminine Ending” on Spotify and follow The Empty Page at the links provided.

The Empty Page on Instagram

The Empty Page on Twitter

The Empty Page on Facebook

The Empty Page on TikTok

The Empty Page on Bandcamp

The Empty Page on YouTube

Florence Dore Gives Voice to the Frustrations of Academic Bureaucracy on Rousing Americana Rock Song “Twelve Great Minds (Department Meeting)”

Florence Dore, photo by Lindsay Metivier

Florence Dore’s rousing “Twelve Great Minds (Department Meeting)” sounds like a gritty honky tonk rock song that might be about some hard living and the foibles of life on the road. But it is a different kind of hard road about which Dore is giving pointed words about and that is the dysfunctional world of academia and how normally intelligent people in the rungs of academic bureaucracy and set aside the great ideas and thinkers they studied to get where they are only to set aside high-minded conceits for petty power struggles and the like that happens in higher education. Dore sums it all up succinctly with the spirited refrain of, “Twelve great minds and twelve ways to fuck it up.” If you’ve ever been in academia change the parameters and you can hear in Dore’s song your own struggle. Listen to “Twelve Great Minds (Department Meeting)” on YouTube and follow Florence Dore at the links provided. Dore’s new album Hold the Spark releases May 1, 2026 via Propeller Sound Recordings.

Florence Dore on Facebook

Florence Dore on Instagram

Florence Dore on Bandcamp

Florence Dore on Apple Music

Lukka’s Synth-Infused Dream Pop Single “Fabric of the Cosmos” is a Ballad of Acceptance of a Universe in a Constant State of Flux

A sense of constant expansion flows through the psychedelic harmonies of Lukka’s “Fabric of the Cosmos.” The song seems to be an extended reflection on the concept of impermanence in an ever changing universe as reflected in our own natures and how every moment is different from the next in ways that we may not notice without taking out a moment to take in that realization and how acceptance of this eternal state of flux and contingent realities can be found in considering essence of the natural world around us like the ocean and the metaphor attributed to ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus about not being able to step into the same river twice. Our culture places a premium on confidence in absolutes but Lukka here seems to suggest the greater wisdom is in being able to live with a more fluid and dynamic existence that is closer to the actual nature of the world in which we find ourselves. Philosophical/metaphysical considerations aside the song is a soothing and bit of synth-infused space rock/dream pop that fans of Stargazer Lilies and Public Memory will appreciate best.

Unwed Sailor’s Brisk and Warm “West Coast Prism” is the Soundtrack to the Anticipation of a Future Road Trip

The summery mood and guitar shimmer in forward motion on Unwed Sailor’s “West Coast Prism” is the right sound for the beginning of a road trip. The music video with a view of a coastline captured on warping VHS or Super-8 with a color shift lends the song’s presentation a touch of nostalgia or maybe more properly that as a lens as something to look forward to from fond memories of previous jaunts. The layers of textural guitar, rhythm and melodic leads alongside uplifting synth and a steadily progressing and brisk beat keep the spirit fresh throughout the song and in typical fashion without words suggest a cinematic experience even without the visualizer. Fitting seeing as Unwed Sailor will be touring this spring from April 21 through May 2, 2026. Watch the video for “West Coast Prism” on YouTube and follow Unwed Sailor at the links below. The new album High Remembrance is out May 8 via Current Taste.

Unwed Sailor Twitter

Unwed Sailor on Facebook

Unwed Sailor on Instagram

Unwed Sailor on Bandcamp

Field Hospitals’s Romantically Nostalgic “Everyfire” is a Jangle Pop Post-Punk Ballad About Reconnecting With One’s Passions

Field Hospitals from Minneapolis offer an expansion of its jangle pop sound on new single “Everyfire.” Sonically it resonates with the kind of mood and melodies of mid-to-late 80s New Order and The Call at once. There is a sense of romantic nostalgia to the song that puts one in a reflective mood with the guitars and more driving rhythms paired with a background harmonic in sustained synths as the lyrics seem to hearken back to cherished memories and former inspirations and passions that may have been left behind but which can be rekindled if you want with some help which the lyrics seem to ask for. The first part of the song sounds more yearning but the song itself ends on a satisfying note of maybe having decided on acting toward a new sense of self and purpose rather than merely wanting that to come to pass. Listen to “Everyfire” on Spotify and follow Field Hospitals on Instagram.

Lucille Two’s “What’s In My Mind” is a Hazy Slowcore Song About Moving on From a Relationship That Has Already Crumbled

There is a gentle sense of resignation in the mood of Lucille Two’s “What’s In My Mind.” The lyrics seem to outline the words of someone who has long since realized the relationship is over and emotionally broken even if it’s not so easy to let go and even when the excuses for not doing so linger. Trudy Bennett’s vocals are reminiscent of Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star in her ability to make heavy emotional expressions hit with a soft touch and the song itself while more in the vein of a classic slowcore song in the beginning ramps up to something with more sonic conviction to match the sentiments of the song’s ebbs and flows and finishing on a note of self-fortified forward motion out of what might have felt like an enervating denouement to a connection that once felt more life affirming. Watch the video for “What’s In My Mind” on YouTube and follow Lucille Two at the links below.

Lucille Two on Facebook

Lucille Two on Instagram

Fugue State’s “Dark” is an Ambient Jazz Dream Pop Song That Soothes and Stirs the Imagination

Dan Langa of Fugue State, photo by Alex SK Brown

“Dark” has an iterative quality to its arrangements with subtle changes in the repeated sequences. For the song Fugue State brings together elements of ambient jazz, truly left field pop and a sort of collage and cut up technique in laying out the rhythms and sounds so that tones overlap with rhythms with an effect of watching a film with layers of varying opacity so that there is an organic flow of what is at the forefront in the mix. The core rhythm is carried by a percussive melodic line and the vocals float dream-like through the song like a fond but elusive memory. There is something soothing and faintly uplifting about the song and it comes across as a retrofuturist dream pop that draws on older musical ideas to create something with new and fresh resonances. Listen to “Dark” on Spotify and follow Fugure State at the links below.

Fugue State on Instagram

Fugue State on Bandcamp

Fugue State on YouTube