synth pop – Queen City Sounds and Art

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

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

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.

booelectric.com

Battery Operated Orchestra on Twitter

Battery Operated Orchestra on Facebook

Battery Operated Orchestra on Instagram

Battery Operated Orchestra on Bandcamp

Reindeer Flotilla’s Synth Pop Single “Chef’s Knife” is a Vibrant Song About Navigating Challenging Situations

Reindeer Flotilla, photo courtesy the artists

With its new EP Studio City (out May 12, 2026), Reindeer Flotilla seem to have fused an inspirations from 80s synth pop and Animal Collective. This is especially effective on lead single “Chef’s Knife” where the band seems to have written a song about how one can take the poor treatment of others one has chosen to endure or had imposed upon you by a situation that may have been necessary and use that to focus one’s capacity to process and handle the static that comes your way. The way the band crafts pacing with tone and layers of rhythmic and percussive sounds and pairs it with a melancholic melody really draws you in and keeps you in the song and its evolving moods and shifts in tone through to the end. It hits the ears like something from another era but the production is fully modern in a more sound design mode with expert placing of and processing of electronic and analog sources. Listen to “Chef’s Knife” on Spotify and follow Los Angeles-based group Reindeer Flotilla at the links below.

reindeerflotillaband.com

Reindeer Flotilla on Facebook

Reindeer Flotilla on Instagram

NESYA’s “PUT THE FRIES IN THE BAG” Should be the R&B Darkwave Electronic Dance Club Hit of the Summer

NESYA’s “PUT THE FRIES IN THE BAG” dissolves any lines between pop R&B, darkwave, post-punk and electronic dance music. The video shows the artist looking like a subversive figure broadcasting with equipment that intentionally distorts and partly vertically pixellates her image. It’s the perfect aesthetic for a song that turns attempts at oppression and narrow othering on their head while point out truths about how attempting to erase the inconvenient doesn’t eliminate them or really push them into the background except as a presence that erodes the illusion of power. Musically at times it’s reminiscent of Boy Harsher, Alice Glass and the newer era of Sextile. But NESYA’s vocals are uniquely her own, soulful and even a little spooky in a way that boosts the emotional resonance of the music. It’s a song that should appear on the playlist of every Goth night this summer and beyond. Watch the video for “PUT THE FRIES IN THE BAG” on YouTube and follow NESYA at the links below.

NESYA on TikTok

NESYA on Instagram

NESYA on Apple Music

Lukka Celebrates the Multitudes Within Each of Us on Psychedelic Synth Pop Single “Tomboi”

Lukka perfectly accents the rhythms of synth pop single “Tomboi.” The melodious and breathy vocals seem to invoke the embrace of different sides of oneself within and the virtues and unique qualities attendant to them. In particular the unification of masculine and feminine inside everyone as a product of superficially disparate elements coming together to produce a new human entity. The song’s effervescent and vibrant energy feels like a celebration of that acknowledgment and acceptance of how each of us contains multitudes that conventional culture conditions us to separate out as if that’s even possible without great effort at suppressing the manifest truth that need not be resisted. The song has some cool funk beats while fully psychedelic in its crafting experimental sounds into a pop song that makes its heady ideas accessible. Listen to “Tomboi” on Spotify and follow Lukka at the links provided.

Landroid’s Retro-Futurist Disco Synth Pop Single “Say My Name” is a Perfect Sound for Summer

Rather than engulf you with synth melodies at the beginning of “Say My Name,” Landroid draws you in with a steady and strong bass line. But then the vocals come in with a beckoning quality with saturated synth with a mood reminiscent of a late 70s Giorgio Moroder production or Blondie’s “Rapture.” It’s the kind of song that has an infectious and inviting rhythm that would be perfect for roller skating or a disco dance floor. It has that retro-futurist feel while benefiting from modern production methods that make for a wide tonal range that gives the whole song a little extra something that brings you back to revisit the song. Listen to “Say My Name” on YouTube and follow Landroid at the links below. The group’s sophomore album Constellation drops this summer just in time for the season fitting its moods.

Landroid on Facebook

Landroid on TikTok

Landroid on Instagram

Angel T33th Moody Dream Pop Single “Mika 2000” is a Tale of Unlikely Love in the Isolated Corners of the Human Intergalactic Diaspora

Angel T33th seems to channel Dazzle Ships-period OMD and the manifestation of those sounds in Future Islands in the expansive and lush “Mika 2000.” The sound has an energy that feels explorative and reflecting on what wonders may be ahead. The steady pulse of harmonic distortion and hand clap percussion and the more more insistent synth melodies convey a sense of romance and tragedy that the vocalist in her breathy turns of phrase seems to sketch a story of interacting with a person, an entity who is always around but exasperating but whom one comes to appreciate on a level that can only really happen when familiarity turns to affection. Overall the song feels like a piece of a futuristic story of isolation in the far flung corners of the human intergalactic diaspora. Listen to “Mika 2000” on YouTube and follow Angel T33th at the links below. The debut album A Message to Myself dropped on August 11, 2025.

Angel T33th on Instagram