Songs like this are why I have this blog. The bulk of the songs of Welsh-Australian singer-songwriter Stella Donnelly are not really my thing. Decent indie folk, but too rock for me. Which is fine, I don’t judge artists because they make music for other people. But this quiet, piano-led Year of Trouble, in which Stella sings about a broken relationship (or is it a friendship?) is so beautiful and hits me right in the feels every time I play it. This is why I blog. “Gradually wе both lead different lives / Wish I could hear about what you like”.

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Mandy, Indiana is a four piece from Manchester whose French singer Valentine Caulfield, according to a 2023 interview, was expecting to fully settle in Berlin. I don’t know if she ever did (at least her French passport would have helped), but in any case the band is still around and is about to release its second album URGH. This Cursive was released as a single ahead of it and even more than on other songs, they sound like an industrial version of Chicks on Speed. Which I guess makes sense, given the geographical references.

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“The bands we loved are dead” the Just Joans reminisced back in 2008. But look, 18 years later, the Joans are still very much alive and have evolved into a full band that is about to release a new album (Romantic Visions of Scotland, coming out this Friday on Fika Recordings). Of the three singles preceding the album, this Limpet is my favourite. It sounds less tongue-in-cheek acoustic indiepop than their early songs (becoming a parent is a rather serious subject, lyrically) and reminds me of fellow Glaswegians Camera Obscura, especially with Katie singing rather than her brother David.

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I mentioned Cub the other day and guess what, Come Out Come Out, the 1995 second album of the Vancouver, BC three-piece was just remastered and re-released to honour its 30th anniversary. That’s great, as Cub remains one of the best all-girl twee pop bands and laid the groundwork for later bands like All Girl Summer Fun Band or more recently WUT. They appear to have invented the term ‘cuddlecore’ for their own music. That, and the fact that they sometimes played shows in pajamas, should give you a picture. And 30 years later, this is still so much fun.

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I was, as they say, today years old when I discovered that Special Friend is actually the name of a band and not a, well, special friend joining various bands at a gig. Thanks, Skep Wax for the clarification, for it’s the London label who will (co-)release their upcoming album (not even the band’s first) Clipping in March, from which Breakfast is taken. Special Friend is a French-American duo residing in Paris that, at least here, reminds me of early Allo Darlin’: cute, slightly lo-fi indiepop singer-songerwriter. It’s a good friend to have.

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Worldpeace DMT (Leo Fincham) and Rowan Please (neé Miles) are, according to Pitchfork, part of the “00s-fetishizing London scene”. It is possible that this fetishization included the Moldy Peaches, whose only studio album was released 25 years ago this year. It remains one of my favourite albums ever and I mention them as the album Leo and Rowan just released (The Velvet Underground & Rowan) has the same rare energy the Peaches had and that has made me obsessed with this album – and this song in particular – for the past week. “Lonely as you’ll be tomorrow, we’re here with you today”.

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There is a certain kind of jangly-twee all girl band that only appears to exist in the Pacific Northwest (Tiger Trap, All Girl Summer Fun Band) or just across the border in Canada (Cub). Maybe it’s the weather. Heck, in that part of the world it’s almost certainly the weather. WUT is from the same region (Vancouver, BC) and released two albums of fine tunes that easily match the aforementioned bands. I was reminded of them as they are about to play two shows further inland in Canada, if that’s where you are based. If not, here’s a lovely song.

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Heavenly is back. After their sad demise back in 1996 and semi-reincarnations as Marine Research and Tender Trap, the quintessential twee pop band is playing shows again and will release an album (Highway to Heavenly) on their own Skep Wax records next month. Of the few songs already released, Portland Town (a single from last June) is my favourite and the one that reminds me most of old Heavenly. In particular the neuroscientist (Cathy Rogers) providing background vocals to the economist (Amelia Fletcher), for Heavenly is that cool. And even with an average age of around 60, so very good.

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There is the psychedelic pop of The Chills and the noisy lo-fi of Tall Dwarfs, but for me Christchurch’s The Bats have always been the band that best epitomizes New Zealand’s alternative pop music: jangly, melodic, punky and a little bit underground — or is that down under? The band has been around for more than four decades (with a hiatus somewhere in the middle) and is about to tour New Zealand once again, but Made up in Blue is one of their earliest songs and still my favourite song of theirs.

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I am really into pop songs, with the emphasis on ‘pop’ as much as on ‘songs’. So I don’t really have much with six minute long instrumental EDM-dub-techno songs. And yet I am really into this song by Binary Algorithms, the alter ego of Colombia’s Andrés Ávila. His music – I am citing Bandcamp – “frames a narrative of decay and despair, where the Latin—American periphery, the hopelessness of unlove, and the tragedy of resistance in the Global South collide”. Now that I can at least relate to. Plus I love Colombia. And this song, it seems.

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The Girls in the Garage compilation series unearthed many long forgotten songs from the 1960s, all sung and performed by girl bands. They showed that a group of women back then could release great pop songs without the involvement of that guy and his wall of sound. One of my favourites from the series is Turn Her Down, a 1962 song by Cupons (think The Crystals going lo-fi punk), who may have released only one other song. I’m not the only one intrigued and someone else found a bit more and also discovered this ‘male version’ of the song.  

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I keep forgetting about Oakland, California’s Ryli and then when I listen to their debut album Come And Get Me (released last June on Dandy Boy Records) again I remember how good the four-piece really is. I Think I Need You Around, which had previously been released as a single in 2024, is my favourite song from the album. The perfect pop reminds a bit of Camera Obscura, as if that band had grown up next to the San Francisco Bay rather than the river Clyde. If they keep putting out songs like this, I do really need Ryli around.

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Look, I like good lyrics as much as the next music fan. But for me the biggest catch of Assistant’s Flowers is the “do do do do do do do do” throughout this song. The three-piece from Brighton, England lists Felt, Stereolab and the Field Mice as its influences but at least on this song (Flowers appears on a split 7” with Manchester’s Goodbye Wudaokou) sounds a lot more laid back: a simple acoustic indiepop song that you can just imagine listening to while walking along Brighton beach at night. While humming “do do do do do do do do”.

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In its overview of the best global albums of 2025, The Guardian calls Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan “a staple of the region’s indie music scene since the 1990s”. I hadn’t heard of her until recently and I am writing this from an Arab country, so double shame on me. Shmaali ( شمالي in Arabic, meaning North) is heavily rooted in Arab music – again, I can’t claim to be a connaisseur – but also with clear influences from dub and electronic music. It is very good and should be a good starting point for a musical journey through the region.

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Happy 2026! This year it has been three decades since I left my small hometown for a much larger university town. Which meant I was finally able to see decent bands play live, the first of which were Dunedin, New Zealand’s The Chills. I knew only one song, Pink Frost, that someone from Canada had put on a mixtape. I don’t remember much of the concert and it took me years to fully appreciate The Chills, but this dreamy psychedelic song with its solid drum rhythm (as the song’s Wikipedia entry rightly calls it) remains my favourite song of theirs.

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From one Finugrian female singer to another. Tiia Jaakola, the woman behind Count Jaakola, is Finnish but lives in London where among other things she is a touring member of Allo Darlin’. That’s great for her and for them, but musically Count Jaakola doesn’t share a lot with Allo Darlin’. It sounds more generic female-fronted indie, with quite a bit of variation between the songs. Boy Bingo (“It doesn’t matter if you’re Tom, Ben, Trevor or whatever”) sounds like of a less dance-y Saint Etienne and is my favourite song from her debut album, Kind Eyes.

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Mariin K is a project from Mariin Kallikorm, who plays guitar in the band of trip hop musician Tricky. But it is also a band who share a drummer with fellow Estonians Pia Fraus, whom I wrote about earlier, and who are a much better musical reference, for they both fish from the same dreampop pond. I’ve been pretty obsessed with Mariin K lately (their debut album Rose Skin was released earlier this year on Seksound, Pia Fraus’s own label) and with Beach in particular, which keeps popping up as a background sound in my head, like a beautiful dream.

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I’m perfectly fine with today’s digital-first music world, if only for the convenience of not having to carry boxes of heavy vinyl in yet another international move. But I do sometimes miss the evenings where I would continuously play 7” singles. Such as this 1994 debut single by California then Oregon’s Rocketship, who later went on to release a really fine full album on Slumberland. It’s less shoegaze-y and more clear pop (Unrest, anyone?) than their later work, but just as good, and I’m glad I can still listen to it on all the online platforms.

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In true 7″ fashion, the Bandcamp link (and embed) includes both songs from the A-side of the single. But that’s okay as Naomi & Me, about Galaxie 500’s Naomi Yang, is also a really good song.

Yeah life got busy, but it’s Christmas and while I’m in a place where they don’t know it’s Christmas time at all, I found the time to write about what has been my favourite Christmas song for about two decades. Eux Autres is a brother-sister duo from California (later the drummer from the Aislers Set became an adopted family member) who sing catchy jangly indiepop, with this sarcastic Christmas-themed song being one of my favourites. Even when listening to it through my AirPods, it’s hard to resist clapping along. “Dad slides a fiver over / Play me Hotel California, little one”

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I only became a fan of Saint Etienne gradually, joining their fan base late, via the side entrance. Over the years though, the London three piece has become one of my favourite bands, putting out many of my all time favourite indie dance songs. And now, after a tour next year, the band is quitting. They end on a high note though, for I really enjoyed their last album, of which The Last Time is a very fitting closing song. “Now I′m really glad we made the trip // Because only three survived”. Thank you for all the awesome music.

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