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Annie Elise’s Shoegaze-y Synth Pop Single “everything” is Like Being Caught Up in the Euphoria of a New Love

Annie Elise’s production choices on “everything” from the vocal processing and the layering of bright and hazy synth sounds in a drifting rhythm serve a sense of feeling being caught up in the emotional moment. The way the vocals switch from a warping and fluidly pitch shifting in the beginning so there is a touch of hyperpop sensibility without being of that aesthetic. The song expresses a charming sense of infatuation and melancholy mood at the feeling that you might be too much, too caught up in your own psychology to be adequate for the moment with a new relationship but feeling so strongly about it all that you’re not willing to give up even if things feel a little overwhelming because it clearly matters so much as a larger part of one’s life. The song bursts with emotions and then settles into a tranquil fadeout without wasting a moment of time and conveying so much in a mere two minutes twenty seconds. Fans of Jockstrap and Caroline Polacek will appreciate what this songwriter has been up to lately. Listen to “everything” on Spotify and follow Annie Elise at the links below.

annieelisemusic.com

Annie Elise on Twitter

Annie Elise on Facebook

Annie Elise on TikTok

Annie Elise on Instagram

Annie Elise on YouTube

applied communications’ Retro Synth Pop Single “return of jafar” is a Song Suggesting We Re-Examine What We Think Are Our Dreams

applied communications, photo courtesy the artist

There is something surreal and relatable about applied communications in the video for “return of jafar.” It looks like something made on an iMac in the 90s, appropriate given the cinematic reference of the title with its own resonances for the themes of the song as well. Throughout the song Max Wood relates what sounds like the inversion of the usual nostalgia of youth like someone who is deeply skeptical of the concept in the face of lived reality. But he whimsically delivers lines that are dryly amusing yet insightful like a music resonant with the sensibilities of a Daniel Clowes comic. The line “I have this vision I can’t see/It’s always driving me/To something I don’t believe” and the bit about the “jazz interlude” reveals a level of sardonic wit that isn’t heard in much music. With the song ending with the repeated line “return of jafar” fits the rhythm of what we’ve been hearing but also a sly nod to hey this thing you think you’ve always wanted out of life, is it really what it’s cracked up to be or do you maybe take what you think your aspirations might be a little less to heart and be willing to do things differently. Nothing about the song is too on the nose and that’s part of the appeal behind it sounding like a bizarre alternative soundtrack to a lost computer and New Age self-help informercial. Watch the video for “return of jafar” on YouTube and follow applied communications at the links below. The new album applied communications bites the big one released September 25, 2026 via Rare Noodles in collaboration with Bar/None Records.

applied communications on Instagram

Josaleigh Pollett Guides Us Out of the Hypnosis of Insomniac Thoughts With Electro Pop Single “Bed of Quiet”

“Bed of Quiet” finds Josaleigh Pollett initially sketching thoughts against a backdrop of impressionistic sound but goes into gear exploring themes of insomniac thinking. The steady beat and Pollett’s voice anchor the song while swells of tone and minimal guitar comes in to accent lines until the song expands into full-flung expression before seemingly fading into a harmonic outro. The song captures well the sort of thoughts one can go over endlessly when you can’t sleep if you’re prone to overthinking mistakes and better options because you could have made better decisions for your life and how it can be hard to accept your perceived mistakes rather than accept that maybe your conscious mind can’t know or think of everything or account for every possibility in the moment. Life can present itself to you as a high stakes game but most things in life aren’t necessarily imbued with a sense of catastrophe yet we can convince ourselves that everything is a life or death decision without considering the pressure we put on ourselves and others in the process. The song takes on a more playful tone than that and feels more like an odd yet soothing dream given its themes of nighttime anxiety and in that way serves as a passage out of that headspace. Listen to “Bed of Quiet” on Bandcamp and follow Josaleigh Pollett at the links below. Pollett is touring this summer in the wake of the release of the new album If I Let It Quiet out July 24, 2026 on vinyl, digital download and streaming.

Josaleigh Pollett Lintr.ee

Josaleigh Pollett on Facebook

Josaleigh Pollett on TikTok

Josaleigh Pollett on Instagram

Annie Elise’s Intimate and Otherworldly Synth Pop Single “make a wish” Encourages Us to Act On Our Dreams

One of the things that is immediately striking about Annie Elise’s single “make a wish” is how it establishes a dreamlike mood with sounds seemingly drawn from “vintage” electronic sources of the late Twentieth Century. The vocals are processed and the arpeggiated synths sequenced like they were originally composed on an 8-bit or 16-bit machine. And the sound palette is both reminiscent of early chillwave and a more modern glitch aesthetic at the same time. The effect is song that creates a psychological space for the listener to consider the song’s themes of yearning and the need to act on one’s dreams and desires rather than be stuck in a state of stasis being held captive by hyperfocused aspirations and reach for what you really want and not merely what you’ve told yourself is the only perfection worth pursuing. Fans of early Purity Ring will appreciate Elise’s arrangements and inventive use of tone and processing of sound sources to lend them a paradoxically intimate and charmingly otherworldly quality with sonically rich resonance. Listen to “make a wish” on Spotify and follow Annie Elise at the links provided.

annieelisemusic.com

Annie Elise on Twitter

Annie Elise on Facebook

Annie Elise on TikTok

Annie Elise on Instagram

Annie Elise on YouTube

Charlotte Greve’s Cinematic Pop Single “Membranes” Layers Vocals, Drones and Playful Rhythms to Express Leaning Into an Acceptance of Impermanence

Charlotte Greve’s simple percussion and low key bass line paired with her layered vocals and ethereal synth drones lend “Membranes” a cinematic quality reminiscent of the more experimental end of tUnE-yArDs. One images images akin to the multi-media presentations of mid-80s Laurie Anderson particularly when the expressive sax comes in the later parts of the song and the ways in which Greve accents her vocal lines to lend the words a thematic and visual aspect as she sings about the constant motion and forward momentum of her mind and body that she seems unable to fully control as embodied by the line “If there’s one thing that does not change it is the will to change.” Then words about trusting one’s inner processes and leaning into the impermanence of the current moment and embracing the changes that are beneficial while working through those which seem challenging. Greve’s facility with combining rhythm, texture and melody as a unified whole with a playful and direct energy makes the single fascinating beginning to end. Listen to “Membranes” on Spotify and follow Charlotte Greve on Instagram. Her new album WATERBODIES releases October 2, 2026 via New Amsterdam.

Akiyoshi Yasuda’s Ambient Piece “day4 by memento” Induces the Listener Into a Deep and Transformative Environmental Awareness

Akiyoshi Yasuda, photo courtesy the artist

Akiyoshi Yasuda immediately puts us in a time and place that feels familiar yet enigmatic from the beginning of “day4 by memento.” The constantly present harmonic drone is like the background energy of an urban environment like a steady presence of the human collective. The layers of textural rhythm and resonating tones and swells of abstract sounds all interact to create a tapestry of noise that flows into your brain like becoming fully aware of the world around you that you normally take for granted which could be startling but Yasuda’s composition is more soothing and it causes you to pay attention to details you might not otherwise and notice things like the occasional processed piano work through the haze of closer sound sources mixing with all other sensory elements. The song is like a musical Zen experience in which one becomes present and accepting of what is around you without judgment or becoming overwhelmed by one’s hyper awareness. And then the sonic energy recedes seeming to have taken no time but in fact brought you along for that journey for over five minutes. The production on the piece itself is impressive for how Yasuda placed each sound component and orchestrated them all for a singular listening experience that conveyed experiences beyond what music often does. Listen to “day4 by memento” on Spotify and follow the Japanese composer at the links provided.

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Akiyoshi Yasuda on Instagram

Bondo’s Hypnotic Yet Cathartic Post-Hardcore Single “Running Back” Draws You In With Its Sonic Contrasts

Bondo seems to sketch and stretch out musical ideas on “Running Back,” like its structure was arranged like stringing together journal entries. Connecting thoughts and feelings with a hypnotic and meditative bass line and drums. The vocals are nearly laconic and meditative but the guitar fractures that peace and feeds back slightly to give the song some evocative dissonance. The song’s mood is reminiscent of a more mellow Unwound or more discordant Versus song which is what makes it immediately relistenable. It is economical in its composition and hits the dramatic notes at the right times with a sense of emotional urgency. What isn’t as obvious initially is how it isn’t conventional in its structure. There is no intro or outro, just moments in time in the songwriting and the way it draws you into its dreamlike tone and thrilling moments of peak catharsis. Watch the video for “Running Back” on YouTube and follow Bondo at the links below. The band’s latest, self-titled, album releases July 24, 2026 on limited vinyl, digital download and streaming.

Bondo on Instagram

Bondo on Bandcamp

Coloma’s Introspective and Melancholic Dream Pop Single “Skylights” Eases Lingering Emotional Turmoil With Its Gentle Touch

Coloma brings an intimate air to “Skylights” with a steady, jazz-like beat and gentle guitar accents and gossamer melodies around deeply introspective, melancholic vocals. It has a reflective mood processing sadness and a sense of guilt over how things have gone and a yearning for some kind of reconciliation. In moments the way the vocals and guitar are arranged and sync up in their tones is reminiscent of early Mojave 3, Mazzy Star and the more dreamlike moments of Throwing Muses. The tenderly shimmering slowcore style of the song keeps you engaged with its expansive vulnerability and in the emotional moment and treating psychological pain with the gentleness required to get through the toughest dips in mood and truly feel the feelings one might bury on initial impact in order to not be sunk by them. The sensitive and subtle production all around really helps the song to shine and for the emotional beats to hit perfectly. Listen to “Skylights” on YouTube and follow Coloma at the links provided.

Coloma on Instagram

Coloma on Apple Music

Moodlighting’s Effervescent Single “Guardrail” is a Dream Pop Song About the Foibles of the Tourist Mindset

Moodlighting, photo courtesy the artists

Moodlighting has been talented at crafting simple and uplifting melodies with guitar and vocals from its early days when the duo was performing in Denver before relocating to California. Its new single “Guardrail” is paired with “Rude sometimes” and the song showcases layers of delicate guitar with crystalline tone and expertly accented, chiming jangle riffs that complement perfectly almost ethereal vocals like a latter day Slumberland Records. The song sparkles and sounds like it’s dancing about with how the rhythms are arranged. And yet the song appears to be about being annoyed with tourists in Australia, you know the kind, that treat places they visit like an exotic and disposable commodity instead of a place with a true sense of place and organic community that has to contend with how attractive it is to people who don’t feel like they need to respect the complexity and dignity of a place and people that aren’t just there to cater to your implicitly consumerist mindset. But the song on its own feels like a soothing and unexpected breeze in the summer and an evolution into an expanded songwriting style for the band whose new album party school! drops in early August. Listen to “Guardrail” on Spotify and follow moodlighting at the links below.

moodlighting on Instagram

moodlighting on Bandcamp

Battery Operated Orchestra’s “Alligator” is a Triumphant Synth Pop Song About Exiting an Oppressive, Toxic Relationship

Battery Operated Orchestra, photo courtesy the artists

Battery Operated Orchestra’s video for “Alligator” is reminiscent of the visual style of Damian McCarthy and Phil Tippett with an unusual underground chamber in which the narrator frolics and acts out the claustrophobic mood of the song. It’s all very surreal and borderline elevated horror especially with the decayed structures of the environment and washes of color until our protagonist escapes into sunlit fields. It suits a song seemingly about someone who has felt under the spell of someone whose ways of being and talking initially charmed but the habits are revealed as methods of keeping someone trapped in a relationship and not acts of genuine love. The saturated synth and soothing moods build up to an urgent pace as escape from a stifling relationship and the path out becomes clear against the odds and it has a triumphant tone, a sound of yearned for liberation. Musically it’s reminiscent of both the Cardigans and Japanese Breakfast and fans of either will find much to like in the way BOO crafts its creative and textural beats and layers of complimentary melodies to great emotional impact. Watch the video for “Alligator” on YouTube and follow BOO at the links provided. The band’s new album Sea Views Soft Rains is out August 4, 2026.