New York–based alt-pop singer-songwriter Lauren Minear returns with "Perfect Girl," a razor-sharp, darkly playful exploration of what it means to be a woman expected to shapeshift endlessly to please others. Written from the perspective of a fictional, satirical character, the track leans into the absurdity of "perfection" and the way chasing it strips away humanity in the process.
Built on deliberately hard, robotic production choices, "Perfect Girl" captures the inhumanity of trying to be universally palatable. Minear originally drafted the song in 2021, but it found its true place during the creation of her new album, Boxing Day (released October 17th), a project rooted in anger, honesty, and reclamation. At a co-writing retreat, the track came fully into focus with the help of Dan Weeks, Dan Barrenechea, and Leah Wheatley, who pushed the melody and arrangement into sharper, more subversive territory.
"This song is unlike anything else I've ever written," explains Minear. "It plays with themes of body privilege and power to illustrate how the construct of perfection hurts and disconnects everyone (including men)."
Though the track is built around a fictional voice, "Perfect Girl" taps straight into Minear's longstanding thematic terrain: womanhood, mental health, self-perception, and the quiet wars we wage between who we are and who we’re told to be. "I don't deliberately write about the female experience," she says, "but I am a woman, a mother, and a psychotherapist trained in a feminist relational approach – it comes very naturally to me." In the end, "Perfect Girl" lands as defiant, mischievous, and liberating – a mirror held up to the impossible standards women navigate every day, delivered with a wink, a snarl, and a fully embodied alter-ego.
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As the release of their seventh studio album Pale Bloom approaches (February 13th via Unique Records), Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys unveil the record’s final single, “Damp,” which arrived Friday January 16th.
What began as a stripped-back acoustic sketch from Kruger was later reshaped by guitarist Liú Mottes into something more urgent and propulsive, gradually unfolding into a deep exploration of collapse, raw vulnerability, and the fragile promise of renewal. A steady pulse runs through the track, lending it movement and momentum while leaving space for uncertainty. Feelings of isolation are rendered physical and warm, with drifting violas fading in and out like the last light of day.
“Like most of what I write, it’s about a desire for depth and connection—a kind of quiet mocking of the mundane and domestic,” Kruger explains. “The first verse reflects that polite culture of not saying what you mean, of being too afraid to ask for what you need in case you seem too much, or expose the mess of falling apart. There’s a wanting, though—to give in, give up, or simply to give. Eventually, the fantasy of a breakdown moves closer to the tongue, almost reaching release, before slipping back into silence. Something restrained that feels both tender and oppressive, mirroring the path that led me to the mess of not making a mess in the first place.”
At its core, “Damp” wrestles with the distance between feeling and expression. The lyrics circle restraint, politeness, and the fear of asking for too much. The song builds toward release without ever fully arriving, settling instead into a quiet tension that reflects its central paradox: holding everything in, even when it might be easier to let it spill. Kruger adds, “I like that the thought that can’t quite be spoken hovers veiled above a bed of sound that expresses the feeling far better. It’s in that clash—the friction between what’s said and what’s felt—that the song finds its meaning, or at least does justice to its complexity.”
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Finnish synth-pop duo Sin Cos Tan continue their new chapter with In My House, the second single from their forthcoming album Greed. The track deepens and expands the album’s world by highlighting a more rhythm-driven, club-aware side of the band, without losing the melodic precision and emotional restraint that define their sound.
Formed by producer-DJ Jori Hulkkonen and singer-songwriter Juho Paalosmaa, Sin Cos Tan are known for their rare balance of Nordic melancholy, classic pop songcraft, and precise electronic production. Their music exists between nostalgia and the future: timeless synth pop that feels equally at home in headphones, on night drives, or in late-evening settings.
In My House is darker and more direct than the album’s opening single Cutting Losses. It is built on a steady pulse, repetition, and a rhythmic structure that reflects the duo’s long-standing relationship with club music. Rather than referencing house music as a genre, the track draws on it as an understanding of movement and space. There is something distinctly nocturnal about the song, about the moment when rhythm takes over and carries the listener forward. Within Greed, In My House approaches themes of power, ownership, and desire from its own angle, without explanation or emphasis.
Jori Hulkkonen is one of the central figures in Finnish electronic music, with a career spanning over three decades across multiple strands of electronic sound. In the 1990s, he emerged as a key artist on the influential French label F Communications, contributing to the golden era of French electronic music alongside the label’s founder Laurent Garnier and contemporaries such as Mr. Oizo.
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| Photo - Michelle G Hunder |
Naarm/Melbourne based singer-songwriter Anna Smyrk lets down her walls with ‘Skin Thinner’. The new single is here ahead of her debut album ‘Spectacular Denial’ which will be out on the 20th of March via Community Music. Arriving as a catchy dose of indie-pop, ‘Skin Thinner’ shines a light on the complex processes that come with the loss of a loved one. Sonically upbeat, the lyrics bare an unexpected and powerful vulnerability.
Sharing more Anna explained: ‘I wrote this song about trying to peel away the layers that I put up to protect my mind after my dad passed away unexpectedly. It’s a resolution to try to work through the shock and denial and be open to the world again.
Denial and staying numb can be a useful part of the process, it can protect you when you’re not ready to feel your feelings. But at some point, if you want to feel all the good stuff as well, you need to find a way to stay open and hold the painful stuff and the joyful stuff at the same time.’
With the release of her first full length album ‘Spectacular Denial’ coming in March, listeners can look forward to a beautifully compelling body of work. Shaped by her deeply personal journey with grief and her exploration of the many forms denial can take, the new album sonically sits in a rich space between indie, alt-pop, and folk.
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