indie rock – Queen City Sounds and Art

Hour’s Cosmic Post-rock Jazz Single “Sky is Blue” Evokes a Sense of Introspection and Wonder

The minimal keyboard and intimate vocals in the beginning of “Sky is Blue” by Hour has a mysterious quality particularly as the vocals drop into minor chords in unexpected moments. The music video shows rain droplets hitting an outcropping of concrete and coursing down before the reflected lights take on an aspect like a clear night sky as the piano and clarinet come into the sound field but all contributing minimalist components that together build a mood that starts melancholic and rises in tone as the visuals turn to colored, abstract lights and solid drum beats and other horns come forth and a spare orchestral sound establishes itself bringing a complexity of emotional resonance that peaks right before the end. It’s like a post-rock jazz piece but one that evokes a sense of calm, introspection and wonder. Watch the video for “Sky is Blue” on YouTube and follow Philadelphia’s Hour at the links provided.

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The Artist Ren’s Reluctant Breakup Song “Doin’ Fine” Infuses a Will to Leave a Co-Dependent Relationship With Tuneful Sardonic Humor

The Artist Ren, photo courtesy the artist

“Doin’ Fine” by The Artist Ren definitely taps into 90s alt rock sounds but rather than fuzzy rock it’s the expressive accents in the rhythms. And the insightful sardonic humor and pointed emotional commentary on a relationship that is clearly broken but our narrator finds she can’t leave. Could be the song is about codependent habits and how one rationalizes discomfort and dissatisfaction while joking about wanting an intervention in the line “Why can’t someone interfere?” It’s an upbeat song with an infectious melody but the words have some real bite. Fans of Soccer Mommy and Chastity Belt will appreciate the contrast of pop hooks and poetic, melancholic words. Listen to “Doin’ Fine” on YouTube and follow The Artist Ren at the links provided.

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Milk St.’s Slackery Jangle Rock Single “Good Grief” Attempts to Make Sense Out of a Messy Life

The title track to Milk St.’s “Good Grief” is accompanied by a music video that looks like the opening sequence to a kind of elevated coming of age horror film akin to Talk to Me. Musically it sounds like a gloriously slackery kin to late 80s Flaming Lips, early Beck or even early Ween had those bands come up through 2000s indie rock and 2010s garage psych and indie pop. Though driven by jangle-y acoustic guitar and intentionally off key vocals that have their own, charming musical logic. We hear turntable scratches and flourishes of vocal delivery clearly inspired by hip-hop without strictly being rapped. The life depicted in the lyrics and in the video seems to be one of a dissolute life in search of meaning but accepting things as they are and turning a lifestyle into artistic expression to give it coherent accessible form. If it’s not supposed to have a kernel of humor the song and video nevertheless conveys a sense of the absurdity of life. Watch the video for “Good Grief” on YouTube and follow Milk St. at the links provided.

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Josaleigh Pollett’s Lushly Meditative “Cherry” is an Existential Dream Folk Song About Re-Examining Identity

Josaleigh Pollett sounds like she’s drifting through an environment as much as a song on “Cherry.” The languid pace and intimate yet deep mood is reminiscent of Strange Mercy-period St. Vincent. The gentle strums of guitar like rhythm and texture with layers of synth giving atmospheric definition to the song as Pollett’s voice seems to tell a story of people who have a lot of history together and thus have been through many of the same struggles and travails of shared experiences but things have gotten to the point where in spite of these long-held bonds some things feel like they’re no longer the ties that bind and coming to terms with being weary of old ways and habits of living and of mind. Yet not throwing away the memories and their significance for the kind of person you are now even if you’ve outgrown what felt so critically important at an earlier part of your life. The song sticks with you and like the lingering thoughts from deep within that never fully leave your psyche it leaves a strong impression well after the song is over. Listen to “Cherry” on Bandcamp and follow Josaleigh Pollett at the links below. The new album If I Let It Quiet is out now on vinyl, digital download and streaming. Pollett is alo currently on tour in the American west through August 14th with a performance at D3 arts in Denver, Colorado.

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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.

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atmos bloom’s Tender Dream Pop Single “Everything” is a Warmly Rendered Soundtrack to Hopeful Reflection

The uplifting, delicate energy of “Everything” accompanied by the music video with layers of cityscapes with the band atmos bloom superimposed over it, or vice versa, feels like a soundtrack to hopeful reflection. The guitar leads seem to dance over a buoyant rhythm even in the more melancholic and meditative moments. Tilda Gratton’s vocals seem to switch with complete facility between vulnerable and warm and yearning and urgent all with a delicacy of feeling that is accented and anchored by a minimal but comfortingly ever present bass line locked in with percussion that expertly guides the moods of the song with its pacing. The melodic shift in the last third of the song with a little more grit in an otherwise fairly ethereal song for just a few moments truly sets this song apart from a standard modern dream pop song. Watch the video for “Everything” on YouTube and follow London’s atmos bloom at the links provided.

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Skinny Dippers’ Cosmic Folk Song “When You Were It” Evokes a Warmly Reflective Immediacy

Skinny Dippers, photo courtesy the artists

Skinny Dippers stride fully into a paradoxical mood of deep reflection and emotional immediacy on hazy folk single “When You Were It.” The accented beat anchors the motes of melodic tone that illuminate and haunt the song throughout as well as the spare rhythm guitar, whistles and the tenderly wistful vocals as we’re invited into vivid memories but more so the lingering feelings of peak moments of a relationship. The title refers to the chorus “I’ll forget what you said/I’ll forget what you did/But I’ll never forget how it felt/When you were it” and how that succinctly captures one’s ability to not focus on the negatives but the essential resonance of connection. Everyone has down times in any relationship and maybe the developments and events that cause them to come apart but the feelings that drew you together and the strength of those emotions can stay with you long after without make it so that you’re stuck in the past. The song captures those moments with a precision that mere words are inadequate to on their own. The textural synth passages and the gentle flow of the song is reminiscent of Wilco’s most poetic songs that draw you back in immediately. Listen to “When You Were It” on Spotify and follow Skinny Dippers at the links below. The When You Were It EP released May 15, 2026.

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The Dead Century Offers a Refreshing Take on the Breakup Song on Impassioned Power Pop Single “Hey Chicago”

The Dead Century, photo courtesy the artists

The Dead Century on “Hey Chicago” sound like a classic power pop band in the 80s vein. Fortunately that also means crisp guitar sound, great clarity of tone, sonically and emotionally. The song uses the conceit of referring to someone by the city they’re from rather than have to denigrate a specific name or even assign gender. It’s a different take on the breakup song in which our narrator seems to have come to the conclusion that it’s over but doesn’t want to make an assumption that things are finished even if in it’s not officially so. The seemingly endless moments when everything threatened to collapse but didn’t as embodied so well by the lines “And for a minute we can both pretend/We’ve been counting down the seconds to a second chance/To sift through the requisite waiting/For something more stable.” Sometimes something so combustible can seem exciting but in the end can be so exhausting. But our narrator seems to want the decision to draw the relationship to a conclusion to be a mutual thing. The song has great momentum and an sweeping melody until the last minute six when things go quiet for tranquil moments of contemplation before ramping back up and back down to a quick outro of ghostly feedback. The songcraft is impressive and the sentiments don’t demonize anyone which can be rare in this subgenre of pop music. Listen to “Hey Chicago” on Spotify and follow Minneapolis, Minnesota’s The Dead Century at the links provided.

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“Fine” is Cosmic Madness’ Psychedelic Folk Song About Letting Go of Outmoded Habits and Leaning Well Into Where You Want to Be

Cosmic Madness, photo courtesy the artist

The lyrics to “Fine” by Cosmic Madness seems to unspool a narrative of reflection as a means of looking forward, of establishing a personal framing as the foundation of what comes next in one’s life. The guitar and vocal melody interweave and shift in tone from introspective to assertive as the song progresses in a way that feels like something growing and branching out and embracing what nurtures the expansion. The minimalism in the earlier parts of the song fill in with a backdrop of luminous harmonics and guitar allowed to drift in phasing passages that curl around the percussion and rhythm guitar to convey a sense of well being that uplifts the melancholic mood of the song borne of learning to let go of the habits of mind and living that no longer serve the life you want and are already leaning into. Listen to “Fine” on YouTube and follow Cosmic Madness at the links provided.

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The Notwist Brings a Fragile Jangle Pop Delicacy to Lovers’ Heartbreaking “How the Story Ends”

The Notwist’s new album News From Planet Zombie is out March 13, 2026 via Morr Music on LP, CD and digitally. But now you can hear a bit of what’s on offer with the group’s delicate but confident cover of “How the Story Ends” by Lovers from its 2008 album I Am The West. The latter was an indie pop band that made a splash in the underground before going on hiatus in 2014. Rather than synths, The Notwist employs a kind of repeated jangle guitar riff but keeps in place the vocals that sound a little raw and fragile in conveying words about a deep heartbreak and lingering heartache of the kind that comes back to you when you remember an intense relationship that ended a little messily and without the kind of closure you might want from a connection that can still unsettle your heart to think back on it because not all stories end neatly in the way of myths or fiction with a satisfying denouement. Listen to “How the Story Ends” on YouTube and follow The Notwist at the links below.