Anya Mia is the performing persona for a terrific vocalist-songwriter from Ontario named Anya Wassenberg. With four Bandcamp releases since 2021, she's back with a 4-song EP titled Cold + Blue. Though superficially jazz-pop, each track is presented in a different style, while all being connected by Mia's powerful, spotlight-worthy voice. 

​Mia explains her circuitous musical journey: "I've gathered many influences along the way, from the classical music my family listened to, and the RnB, funk and pop on the radio as I was growing up; exposure to multiple genres as an adult (and a unique perspective as a lyricist) to my music. These four tracks range from the personal to the existential, each with its own eclectic style." Recording took place at Boxcar Sound Recording in Hamilton, Ontario, with mixing and mastering by Matt Montour.

"Cold + Blue" perfectly matches the song title, with minor-key strings and heartbroken piano. Mia plays all instruments and commands the song with a powerful solo vocal, filled with regrets as she describes being "lied to my heart... it's like poison to a heart that's true." You could almost call it a dirge, except that it's so sadly beautiful. "Corporate Jive" follows with a more upbeat title and actual beats courtesy of drummer Rawle Ski and bass player Justin Bontje. Mia plays Rhodes piano and takes a jazzy lead vocal not far from Bonnie Raitt or Susan Tedeschi. No heartache here; just the sad reality that we're all "cogs in the wheel (until) the next one's already hired, and your name's been forgotten." Just a quick note that I would have enjoyed more time with each track so far. 

"Time Is It Our Enemy?" is the longest song at over four minutes and again features the rhythm section of Bontje and Ski with Mia on Rhodes, with the addition of shimmering backing vox by Pamela Blackwood Marques & Emily K Bolyea-Kyere. The question the song poses is serious, but this track grabbed me the hardest thus far as Mia really takes the reins of the music and my heart. Her vocals especially shine complemented by her backing singers.

​The closing "Lost In The Water" is a baroque, classically-influenced reverie with acoustic guitar by Louis Kirstein and Mia on vocals, keys and even flute (which I was expecting, since she's holding a flute in her photos). This track reminds me how, any time my own music flirts with medieval tropes, my sister says it sounds like Jethro Tull... but that's the kind of deep forest, Elven-queen vibe we have here and I love it.

Well! This is a lovely EP, if a bit too hasty to wrap things up. Mia's got a lovely voice and writes great music. Have a listen!

Become A Fan

Fixation rarely develops in a straight line. It repeats, retreats, and returns with greater force, which is also how Michellar’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Mind” unfolds. Beginning in a subdued acoustic setting, the song gradually adds weight until its restrained confession becomes something louder and more difficult to dismiss.

Michellar is a San Francisco artist who turns private emotions into vivid psychedelia. Influenced by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and The Doors, she writes about desire, obsession, and the thoughts people often struggle to express. Michelle Bond wrote the lyrics and melodies, while Nashville producer Michael Beckheart handled the production with Michellar’s artistic and visual identity in mind. The two developed the material through sessions in San Francisco and Nashville.

“Can’t Get You Out of My Mind” is the first single from Michellar’s forthcoming psychedelic album. The song came from feelings of obsession that had become impossible to contain, framing attraction as consuming and irrational. Michellar and Beckheart revised the arrangement several times before settling on its hazy, unsettled sound.

The opening melody reminded me of the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” It has a similarly somber, contemplative quality, and the lyrics follow that mood. Acoustic guitar leads the first section before the bass and drums arrive. I liked the groove, and I thought the change in the arrangement was pretty cool.

The hook consists of Michellar repeating “Can’t Get You Out of My Mind.” I have to say that it reminded me of Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” although Michellar places the idea in a classic-rock setting rather than a dance-pop one. A guitar solo pushes that influence further, and the final hook is the song’s most expressive section, supported by its fullest instrumentation.

​Overall, I thought this was a cool and catchy song with some interesting transitions. Take a listen.

Rough Grind approach four decades of guitar music as if they were rummaging through an overstuffed record collection: traditional metal theatrics sit beside pop punk momentum and glossy hard rock. On their third album, Neverending Night, the Finnish band rarely stays in one lane for long. The stylistic turns can be exciting, occasionally puzzling, and sometimes more revealing than the songs themselves.

Formed in 2011, Rough Grind have refined their sound across three EPs and the full length albums Pieces of Resistanceand Hardened. Neverending Night retains the physical force of those earlier records, but its arrangements are broader and more carefully considered. Melody carries more weight, the production gives each instrument room to breathe, and even the album’s heaviest passages arrive with a polished sense of scale.

“Waiting for the Night to Be Over” revolves around a cinematic atmosphere and a driving hard rock sound. The vocals sounded familiar to me, and I immediately noticed the singer’s accent, which gives the performance a distinct character. The lyrics embrace the grand gestures and nocturnal imagery associated with the era so completely that the song could have slipped onto a metal compilation several decades ago. I love that!

“The Great Divide” brings heavier riffs but periodically veers toward pop punk, creating a strange yet engaging collision of styles. Its guitar work lands somewhere between Satriani’s instrumental precision and the brisk immediacy of a pop punk anthem. “Shotgun Bride” favors accessible hard rock and pop hooks, while “All the Time” returns to metal with the scale and emotional sweep of a grand power ballad. “Ocean of Dying Dreams” is more aggressive, using abrupt transitions and demonic vocal effects to heighten its intensity. “Crazy Rodeo” and “Shining Scar” are both really string songs.

Then comes “Quietus,” a song built from New Age inspired textures that seems to belong to an entirely different project. I enjoyed it, and while it shares the album’s adventurous spirit, its placement feels random rather than like a natural extension of the record’s other songs because of the different palette of sounds.“Everything Must End” restores some order with a solid, appropriately weighty conclusion. Great closer!

​Rough Grind flirt with several styles beyond metal and hard rock, but I found the album most convincing when the band stayed close to those foundations. I was impressed by the musicianship, particularly the guitar solos, which frequently recall Satriani’s fluid and technically exacting approach. I also liked the production, which is clean and substantial without draining the riffs of their impact. I wouldn’t argue that Neverending Night redraws metal’s boundaries, but its affection for the genre, especially for the sounds of the 1980s and ’90s, is never in doubt. Metal and hard rock fans should find plenty here to enjoy.

There's several unique things about this new folk-country album Restraint by Fayetteville singer-songwriter Matthew Ryan Lester. This is not just Lester's latest release, but a marker on a remarkable journey of eight year's sobriety and weight loss, and a new marriage and Fatherhood.

Lester is a multi-instrumentalist who wrote, produced and mixed this album while performing all guitars and lead vocals in his home studio. He was assisted by his wife Aubrey Lester on violin and backing vocals, alongside Chad Bell, Graham Hopkins, Hugo Iglesis, Marco Pescosolido and Ciara Moser. His music is said to "mix the dark gloom and lyrical dexterity of Leonard Cohen with the weathered twang of Townes Van Zandt and Jason Isbell." Yet another unique aspect to this album is Lester's commitment to authentic sound: he uses real mics and instruments with no digital shortcuts. 

Full disclosure: Lester doesn't mention country anywhere, but "Midnight Drive" and the other tracks can't help sounding country, with shimmering lap steel and tons of reverb. Lester's template is to sing with unadorned earnestness, easy to listen to while hinting at the broiling tensions beneath. To this he adds a ghostly band sound and even ghostlier harmony vocals by his wife Aubrey. 

"My Brother" continues Lester's sound with the addition of more prominent keys, quieter lead vocals (there wasn't room to go TOO far down!) and some tortured-soul background wailing. Here we also have our first guitar solo, controlled but powerful. This leads without pause to "The Cost of Chaos" where Lester introduces a crystalline acoustic guitar and a compelling setup: "I'm always waiting for the day when I can smell it on his breath / Somebody told me that the journey only takes a thousand steps." However we got here, this track is the most clearly mixed thus far, with the drummer seemingly sitting in the room with us and the other instruments clearly delineated.

"Love Led Me Here" continues the "clean mix" trend, as if clouds had parted and the breeze died down. This track has a superficial resemblance to the Rickie Lee Jones song "Running From Mercy." Like that song, Lester's vocal seems recorded from inside his mouth. Don't miss the charming Easter Egg! 

​"Far Away" brings in yet another sound, with a Mariachi-like horn section (it's gotta be real, right?) that makes this feel like a 60's Hit in the Herb Alpert or Sergio Mendez vein. "Lovesick and Lonely" is another country-like lament thanks to the tremolo-bathed guitars, the bent notes and the 7th chords, with a deliberate, world-weary beat. Though I miss Aubrey singing along, Lester takes this one solo and you can really luxuriate in his tone and commitment. The crying slide guitars underline sad refrains like "He don't deserve you / We both know that it's true..." This is one of the longer tracks thanks to a haunting instrumental coda, which crosses directly into "Lullaby For Leaving" which is more of a minor-key James Bond rocker with a unique, horn-driven chorus. The middle section goes through some dramatic changes in tempo and arrangement, and for a moment Lester sounds like Phil Collins. "Restraint" is the suitably reverent finale, with a lovely acoustic-and-strings arrangement.

Lester's songs started good and got great... what more can I say?

Become A Fan

You might think you've heard the name French Inhaler before, and indeed it's the title of a great song by Warren Zevon. However, this Chicago synth-pop trio who've adopted that name don't sound anything like Zevon (and they're not even French!). They've just released a new single called Plastic Ocean, and more than anything it takes us back to classic 80's dance pop.

The band confirms my impression by noting the "bouncing basslines, lush synthesizers and atmospheric guitars, evoking the nostalgic glow of early '80s alternative music while exploring themes of environmental anxiety, digital overstimulation and modern isolation. It's a sound that feels equally suited for late-night drives and crowded dance floors." 

The trio is comprised of Ashvin Prakash (singer/keys), Adam O'Leary (bass) and Zen Choa (drums). Musically I found the group to be an interesting blend of Pretenders-like vocals and Berlin or Billy Idol synths and beats. The band themselves mention Nation of Language, New Order, The Cure and Drab Majesty. Now to the single itself, which has a great bit of cover art that's both retro and surreal. 

With the very first beats and synth notes, you feel you've been here before and it's a warm, comforting experience. The bass is lively and feels real, like a Rickenbacker. As mentioned, the lead vocals by Ashvin Prakash strongly recall Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders. What at first sounds like the chorus actually feels like another whole song, with the true chorus just a couple bars before we return to the verse. For the final third, Prakash limits her vocals to half-lines with lots of tremors in the reverb, which adds unexpected drama.

There was a "flip side" track on Spotify called "TV Love" which was more of a New Wave callback, but with a similar jumpy energy (love the line "I found love on television tonight!"). The two tracks together make this a fun journey to the past while very much in the here and now. Great stuff!

Become A Fan

SIREN/SECTION// just released Separation Team, a sprawling and heavy record that goes all in on world building. The Los Angeles duo, James Cumberland and John Dowling, works broadly within electronic post punk, some shoe gaze and like mined genres. As someone who grew up in the 1990s, a lot of this register felt immediately familiar to me in a nostalgic way but also in how it channels the era’s seriousness and fixation on dread, control, and technology. Take for example albums like OK Computer or Pretty Hate Machine.

At nineteen tracks and roughly seventy five minutes long, Separation Team plays like a double album in both scale and ambition. The record commits fully to dramatic intensity, carrying the kind of severity and theatrical weight associated with artists like Trent Reznor. Many of the songs seem preoccupied with digital identity and technological transformation, circling ideas of artificial intelligence, synthetic emotion, and the uneasy sense that the human voice is being filtered through something mechanical.

“CONSTRUCT” opens that conversation directly, using synth textures that resemble imagined computer circuitry paired with heavily processed, nearly unintelligible vocals. It leans hard into science fiction imagery, and when the robotic voice recedes, the track shifts through multiple vocal approaches. The drama escalates quickly, and at moments the confrontational tone reminded me of Marilyn Manson in his most theatrical phase. “BULLET TRAIN” moves into a more aggressive space, echoing the contours of nu metal from the early 2000s. It is blunt, rhythmic, and forceful.

“SOLIDARITY” pivots sharply. The mood softens, and the vocals take on a distant, almost shoegaze adjacent quality that caught me off guard. There is something understated and melodic here that brought to mind The Magnetic Fields which I really enjoyed. “GLASS CANNON” follows as a fuzzy, restrained ballad, while “EQUILIBRIUM” snaps back into industrial territory with a punishing kick drum and rigid 4/4 tempo on the beat. “SOME OF THIS MEANS EVERYTHING” strips things down to emotive piano lines layered with subtle sci fi textures, offering one of the album’s most vulnerable moments.

As the record continues, it starts to resemble a curated compilation of intersecting styles. High octave industrial tracks sit alongside intimate ballads but the mechanical sci-fi vibes tie it together. Separation Team presents a future facing emotional landscape where identity fragments across genres and voices. It is a dense, dramatic release that rewards listeners willing to sit with its intensity.

Become A Fan

Zachary Mason is the performing name for Daniel Macintyre, a 28-year-old artist based in Guildford, UK. He has one of the most unintentionally funny biographies ever: He says he's created over 200 demo tracks "on a recording kit gifted to him by a relative" (okay, he's a bedroom artist) but then reveals he's been featured in Spanish Rolling Stone, Rock Era Magazine and especially SPIN! He's even sold his songs to sync libraries! Clearly he's moved way beyond the demo phase. His new EP is a return to his folk roots titled Welcome To My Heart. 

Mason says his favorite artists include Neil Young, Bob Dylan, David Bowie and The Beatles. His own music often crosses strict genre lines, and he hopes the songs come across as "personal and emotive, full of reflection and feeling." His producer and mastering engineer is David E. Beats.

"Can't Feel My Autumn..." opens the EP with acoustic guitars and synth strings, with Mason's low-pitched vocals bathed in echo. The song details a time in Mason's life when Zoloft "inhibited him from experiencing Autumn in its full emotional depth and intensity." Musically the song is a two-chord strumming cycle, with a middle section that reminds me of a mellow acoustic jam session. 

"I Need Freedom" has a similar structure but feels more late-60's psychedelic, with banks of keys and even more echo. Perhaps the strongest influences here are Bowie or Marc Bolan. Though a bit buried in the musical wash, we have producer David Beats adding bass and Nate Barnes of the band Rose Hill Drive on drums.

The final track "Me And I" is a bit of an epic at eight minutes, and is said to be Mason's favorite. Aside from Barnes returning on the drums, we also have John Thomasson on bass. The track opens with a Spanish-sounding intro, like "The Streets of Laredo" with both acoustic and electric guitars in a sweet, melancholy interplay. Just over a minute, the intro fades and we're into the song itself with the same basic chord scheme, but with wider, fuller production anchored by acoustic piano and Thomasson's bass. Unlike the other two songs, this track has Mason's singing right up front and clear of excessive echo. It's as if we've emerged from a monsoonal storm and everyone can hear and speak clearly at last. Mason plays all the guitars and many types of keyboards, cleanly with a lot of economy. 

These three songs are superficially similar but each takes a different approach. I especially like the Bowie echoes in track two and the epic nature of the final song. A nice package!

Pop music can provide a temporary shelter from events it cannot resolve. On “Everything’s Better,” Kelsie Kimberlin returns to the brighter pop of her earlier work after spending much of the past year addressing the war in Ukraine. The change in subject does not sever the song from that reality. Instead, Kimberlin treats pleasure, dignity, and the ability to speak up for oneself as privileges that should not be surrendered.

The lyrics focus on a petty antagonist who makes the mistake of provoking someone capable of defending herself. Kimberlin answers with humor and swagger, turning a familiar personal conflict into a compact declaration of independence. The hook is deliberately simple, designed to make its point quickly and leave little room for self-doubt.

The production begins with a straightforward pop arrangement built from isolated piano notes and a thick, low synth. Kimberlin’s vocals are coated in delay and the popular Auto-Tune effect, giving the verses a glossy, digitally processed character. Hip-hop drums soon enter, but the track abruptly changes direction when the chorus introduces distorted guitars and an emo-influenced pop-punk hook reminiscent of Avril Lavigne. The contrast is sharp enough that the verse and chorus could almost belong to separate songs. Frequent changes in the drum programming reinforce that division, while a bluesy breakdown near the end adds another unexpected turn.

That restless construction gives “Everything’s Better” much of its personality, even when the transitions are not entirely smooth. Kimberlin is working with producers Pedro Vengoechea and Vasyl Tkach, along with mixer Brent Kolatalo and mastering engineer Joe LaPorta, and the finished recording is polished without sanding away its stylistic collisions. Listeners drawn to contemporary pop and early-2000s pop-punk should find plenty to enjoy.
​
The video, directed by Pavlo Khomiuk, complicates the song’s upbeat tone. Filmed in Kyiv during a week of sustained Russian missile and drone attacks, it shows Ukrainian women dancing, singing, and shadowboxing in red gloves. The apartment used during production was reportedly damaged soon afterward by a nearby drone strike. Under those circumstances, the video’s cheerfulness carries a trace of resistance. Having fun becomes an act of endurance, and female solidarity becomes something physical, public, and worth defending.

Watch Me Die Inside treats genre as unstable architecture on Infinity Fall III. Piano ballads collapse into industrial electronics, emo confession gives way to screaming, and mechanical rhythms suddenly make room for warmer passages. These turns are often abrupt enough to divide each song into separate acts, but that volatility is central to the record’s appeal. The EP draws heavily from the commercial goth and emo era, when anguish was presented with arena-sized seriousness and every piano chord seemed to anticipate catastrophe.

“Uneasy” opens with dramatic piano, forceful vocals, and a drum kit mixed for maximum impact. It reminded me of Evanescence, Linkin Park, and the goth-metal bands of that period that committed fully to their own emotional stakes. Halfway through, the song changes direction so sharply that it nearly becomes another composition. The guitars and grand piano recede, replaced by white noise, a rapping delivery, and electronics pitched somewhere between The Knife and 1990s techno. Rather than connecting the two sections discreetly, Watch Me Die Inside makes the rupture part of the spectacle.

“Boring” follows a similar design. Its first half pairs an emo-inspired vocal performance with piano and layered electronics before breaking into metal, electronic drums, and sustained screaming. Despite the density of the production, the performances retain a distinctly human strain. The screaming is not merely an effect placed at the top of the mix. It sounds physically demanding, as if the polished electronic framework is being pushed past its capacity to contain the singer.

The title track was the most interesting song to me. I liked its initial piano melody, especially because the performance is rendered with the same mechanical precision as the drumming. Both sound deliberately quantized, giving the opening a rigid quality. About halfway through, “Infinity Fall III” softens into a warmer ballad, and that transition alters the character of the piano. What initially sounded rigid begins to carry genuine tenderness.

Something about the vocals sounded immediately familiar to me. The emo scream that dominates these songs was once nearly unavoidable on rock radio, and Watch Me Die Inside revives it without irony. Much of Infinity Fall III recalls the commercial goth era, with its theatrical despair, immaculate production, and refusal to treat emotional excess as embarrassing. If you have missed that style of singing, you will find plenty to appreciate here. I think many listeners will recognize exactly what these songs are reaching for.

watchmedieinside.com

"What's Going On" is the ninth release from indie singer-songwriter Cheryl Craigie of Boston. Though a well-established writer herself, Craigie enjoys releasing cover versions of other artists including Taylor Swift, Lauren Daigles and now Marvin Gaye. Her catalog also includes folk, rock, country, pop, rap and Christian. 

I'm old enough to remember when "What's Going On" appeared on the radio as a new single, though I was not quite mature enough to understand the song's "powerful message of compassion, peace, and understanding that continues to resonate" as Craigie puts it. She says she “wanted to record a version that honors Marvin Gaye's masterpiece while sharing those sentiments in my own voice." Craigie performs all instrumentation, with production by longtime collaborator Eric Goldberg.

Since I've always been interested in how songs are recorded, I learned years ago that Gaye's unique "double vocal" style originated as a happy accident: he'd recorded two takes of the lead vocal, and when the engineers played them back together (with one track slightly lower) the effect was magic. I was interested to see if Craigie did something similar with her take.

Of course Craigie's version has a more modern, self-produced sound instead of Gaye's backing tracks created in Motown's Detroit studios. That said, Craigie's strummed electric guitar work is stellar, effortlessly holding together all the instruments as a perfect bed for her vocals.

​Though she doesn't do the classic "staggered lead vocal" trick, Craigie approximates that effect by having her backing vocals act as a call-and-response to her own lead vocal. Her reading of the song is a bit more gospel-traditional than Gaye's, who really made his looseness a hallmark of his style. Craigie's scatting in the C-sections (minus Gaye's jive talk in the background) is also quite smooth and in-the-pocket.

I'm a big fan of the Gaye original but I enjoyed this take very much!

Become A Fan