London to Stockholm to Dublin to Whitechapel: four indie rock acts with very different reference points, all of them making music that earns its place in the room. Let’s jump right in🤿
Monday’s Monsoon – Something New
Monday’s Monsoon have made something genuinely excellent with “Something New”: a string-laden London indie track that was mixed at RCA Studio B in Nashville and sounds every bit as good as that pedigree suggests.
“Something New” moves through a really lovely emotional arc: the hesitation of stepping into a new relationship when the last one did real damage, and the point at which that hesitation breaks. What distinguishes it sonically is the production journey it went on: tracked in London with four string-playing collaborators, mixed at RCA Studio B in Nashville, the same room where Elvis Presley’s recordings were mixed, then mastered at Metropolis Studios in London. Not bad, huh? That is a serious chain of facilities for an independent release, and the result justifies it, because it’s a really lovely piece of music. The vocal being the standout, and the strings carry emotional weight without softening the song’s edges. It’s got a tasty kinda patience to it too; feeling like it knows exactly where it’s going.
Monday’s Monsoon are a London band whose touchstones sit firmly in the atmospheric end of British rock: Elbow, Fink, Radiohead vibes. Richard Jupp, Elbow’s former drummer, has praised their writing as “really well written” with lyrics that are “really sentimental, really intimate,” which is a useful endorsement from someone who knows what that tradition demands. They made their Bristol debut at Mr Wolf’s in March 2026 and play The Castle in Whitechapel on 22nd May. The momentum is real, and we’ll be keeping an eye on this lot.
Arn-Identified Flying Objects and Alien Friends – Bells of Silver
Arn-Identified Flying Objects and Alien Friends have made a superb piece of melodic pop rock: warm, generous, and one of the most quietly affecting things you will hear this month.
“Bells of Silver” comes in all George Harrison with lovely, strummed guitars and the melodies to match. It’s produced beautifully, it’s clear there’s a genuine craft to this. It’s one of those tunes where the pre-chorus feels like the chorus because it’s so good, but then the actual chorus comes in, and we’re soaring. And aside from the horrible fade out – I hate fade outs – it’s brilliant. Echoes of The Beatles run throughout, but it’s The Beach Boys-esque backing vocals that send this one to the moon. Brilliant.
Arn-Identified Flying Objects and Alien Friends have been on our radar for a couple of singles now, and this is definitely is the standout so far. Working from Stockholm, he has channelled decades of melodic pop-rock listening into something that wears these influences clearly without really being defined by them. It’s a beautifully put together track, and definitely worth your ears this month.
The Sunday Shamans – Where You Begin
The Sunday Shamans have written a brilliant piece of psychedelic indie rock with “Where You Begin”: descending Beatle-ish chord sequences, real emotional weight, and a chorus that sticks.
“Where You Begin” is structured around descending chord sequences that consciously echo George Harrison’s approach on “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” and the band are upfront about that nod. What they do with it is the interesting part: the production is brilliantly crisp, and the the psychedelic reference is a starting point rather than a destination. Best of all is the lyric, which examines how you come to understand what another person has contributed to your life only in retrospect. Not your average girl meet boy indie track really. The guitar work is also brilliant, managing to be kinda present without overbearing, and I’ve not met too many guitarists who really get that.
The Sunday Shamans are a London band who have been friends since school. The lockdown period pushed them properly into the studio, and they have since released three EPs and excitingly are building toward a full album called “Together in Past Lives,” of which “Where You Begin” is an little preview. The concept of past lives, whether across multiple rebirths or simply the versions of yourself that existed before a transformative relationship, is threaded through the project, and this track is one of the clearest expressions of what that means in practice. A fantastic single, and we can’t wait for more.
Sean MacLeod – Light Up the Sun
Sean MacLeod delivers an excellent summer pop single with “Light Up the Sun”: melodic, optimistic, and built on the kind of harmonic instinct that only comes from a real songwriter.
“Light Up the Sun” is released separately from MacLeod’s album “That’s When the Earth Becomes a Star,” which arrived on 5th May 2026, functioning as a standalone piece designed to welcome the season rather than serve the record. And the result? Well, it does that job brilliantly. The melody is fantastic, the arrangement keeps its pop instincts clean and uncluttered, and then the chorus hits. MacLeod’s keen ear for a big chorus is definitely at work here; making it memorable without it being to heavy. This is an artist who has spent long enough writing songs to know when to let a hook just be a hook.
Sean MacLeod is an Irish songwriter and founding member of Dublin band Cisco, who we’ve been lucky enough to interview on this very blog. His solo catalogue now runs to multiple albums and numerous singles, drawing on the Beatles, Beach Boys, Motown, folk, classical, and elements of the avant-garde while keeping melody and harmonic structure at the centre. A sixth album of experimental music, “We Don’t See What We Don’t See,” follows shortly. For a man releasing at this pace, the quality control is remarkable. A brilliant single.