These LITM Pop Picks are everything from warm and gentle to haunting and dreamlike; featuring ABFAB, Oaken Wires, Neural Pantheon, and more!
1. ABFAB – Wide Open Spaces
Built on gentle yet upbeat acoustics, Wide Open Spaces stays true to its title: atmospheric and expansive, it feels like the kind of song that would play in the background as the protagonists of a coming-of-age film work through their inner conflicts. With lyrics like “Empty roads and wide open spaces / No ties, no chains, no crowded places / The wind whispers secrets in my ear / I’m nowhere, but I'm finally here,” the song resonates inwards as much as it projects outwards. A textbook pop hit, Cape Town duo ABFAB weave freedom and exhilaration into every moment of the song!
2. Oaken Wires – Footprints
Footprints grabs your attention from its very first moments because of its unconventional blend of genres and sounds; Tottenham-based collaborative duo Oaken Wires crafts a web of sound where electronic textures meet folk-pop sensibilities, leading to an atmosphere that simultaneously holds familiarity and modernism. It has a sense of finality to it – the bittersweet feeling of knowing a chapter is about to close, but another wonderful one is about to begin. Oaken Wires employs distortion and haze with precision, creating the sense that you’re halfway between a dream and reality. This is a song that hits hard while lifting you up – check it out here!
3. Neural Pantheon – The Merchant’s Last Coin
Equal parts haunting and beautiful, Neural Pantheon’s The Merchant’s Last Coin from their latest album The Nameless Hour delivers a dark message with power. It brings touches of foreboding, old-world fables and warning tales of greedy ambition together, weaving a story about a merchant who trades parts of himself away for material wealth (“First I sold my mother’s song for a chest of gold so strong / Can’t recall her lullaby, but these riches never lie / Each transaction seals my fate”, as the lyrics go). With dark folk vocals and instrumentals humming ike a current throughout, the song raises important, relevant questions about how far you’ll go to get what you want – listen here.
4. I’m Not a Blonde – To Fall
When To Fall begins, it feels like being suspended in mid-air, hundreds of feet above the ground; the rest of the song then slowly guides you back to safety. The Italian-American duo I’m Not a Blonde creates an enveloping atmosphere that floats and swirls around you with its electronic textures and synthpop sound. The song creates an almost zen space in the midst of all this, pulling you into a sort of trance as you listen. The song seems to establish a dialogue between the vocals and the recurring arpeggios, while the production moves from alien-like delivery to a choral sound, creating a contrast that’s a treat to listen to!
5. DJ Druskin – Sittin in the Garden
DJ Druskin’s Sitting in the Garden is a delightfully wholesome and heartfelt indie-folk track that feels like warm sunlight on a chilly day. Drawing you in with soft acoustic textures and gentle percussion, DJ Druskin paints a vivid picture with intimate details that make you feel like you’re imagining exactly what he is. “Just sittin’ in the garden, watchin’ it grow / Learning everything the seasons know,” the melodic vocals sing, giving the song a lived-in feel. It has all the warmth and rustic feel you’d expect from an indie-folk-pop track, but is nuanced enough to never exude the same feel as any other song of its genre. Listen here!
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