Soccer Mommy – ‘M‘
You can always rely on Soccer Mommy to craft songs of understated beauty, but with the first slice of her forthcoming album ‘Evergreen’, she breaks new emotional ground, paying tribute to her belated mother and the comfort of enveloping herself in her memory: ‘‘I don’t mind talking to hollow walls”. Hushed but never hopeless, a pretty flute solo tops things off, creating an affecting, wistful testament of loss.
Billianne – ‘Crush‘
When Billianne’s cover of Tina Turner’s ‘Simply The Best’ went viral on TikTok back in 2022, fans were quick to comment on the then-teenager’s impressive vocal tone, warm and heady with Canadian country spirit. On her new pop single ‘Crush’, she opts for something more upbeat, channelling Haim, Griff and Taylor Swift through propulsive synths and sweetly-layered vocals. Good luck getting that chorus out of your head.
Pom Pom Squad – ‘Spinning‘
With 2021’s ‘Death Of A Cheerleader‘ doing absolute bits on Indie ‘Ones To Watch’ lists, Pom Pom Squad could have easily felt intimidated by the weight of their follow-up. ‘Spinning’ maintains the tension between love and angst but adds a few new crunchy elements; big riffs which reflect the growing pains of feeling “like a parody’ of your former self in the navigation of traumatic teens to twenties.
Brooke Coombe – ‘Dancing At The Edge Of The World‘
Written as she parted ways with her former record label, Brooke Coombe returns with another old-school soulful ballad, revelling in the relief of no longer jumping through somebody else’s hoops. ‘Freedom never felt so sweet”, she sings, driving parallels between her personal experience and that of wider emotional emancipation.
Tyler Lewis – ‘People Watching‘
Y2K Nostalgia isn’t going away anytime soon, but with ‘People Watching’, newcomer Tyler Lewis finds ways to update the format, taking a peek into the inner psyches of all the people she sees on her London commute. Under the tutelage of pop royalty MNEK, her vignettes of warring lovers and inner-city loners float across easy-breezy R&B, reminding the listener that you never really know what someone else is going through.
Charli XCX – ‘Guess featuring Billie Eilish’
BRAT summer is alive and well – as proved by Billie Eilish’s first feature of her career on this sexy-as-hell remix of Charli XCX’s ‘Guess’. Setting sapphic fandoms alight with Billie’s already iconic, “Charli likes boys but she knows I’d hit it” the track is a uniting moment for two women who have – in our humble opinions – released two of the best albums of 2024. Donating the contents of the underwear-packed music video to a women’s refuge? A class move. Words: Charlotte Gunn
