The 2026 Pure Pop Singles Club #1

By Henry Lipput

I'm starting this year's Pure Pop Singles Club with four songs that I've been enjoying for the past week or so. There are three singles released to promote an upcoming album (Shapes Like People, The Blue Herons, and Warmer) and a stand-alone digital single from one of my long-time favorites (Armstrong). I hope you enjoy these as well and perhaps pre-order the entire albums (at least the singles) to help to support independent music.

Shapes Like People, "Lately" (Jangleshop Records)

Shapes Like People's second album Under The Rainbow is being released on April 17th. Following last year's Ticking Haze (one of my favorite albums of 2025) "Lately" is the fourth and final single before the album's release and continues Kat and Carl Mann's ability to combine uplifting melodies and lyrics along with their trademark jangle and shoegaze.

Armstrong, "Muddy River" (Bandcamp)

Julian Pitt aka Armstrong is one of the most talented solo songwriters in the indie pop scene. Based in Wales he not only writes the songs he releases but he also arranges, records, and produces the music. He has a distinctive voice that draws the listener in and has tunes to keep you there. On social media sites he compares his music to bands and artists like The Beatles, Prefab Sprout, and The Kinks. With his new single "Muddy River" the comparison to The Kinks, and especially the songwriting of Ray Davies, is right on target as the new single has echoes of classic songs like "Days" and "Waterloo Sunset."

The Blue Herons, "Fight or Flight" (Bandcamp)

The Blue Herons are the transatlantic duo Andy Jossi from Switzerland and Gretchen DeVault from the US. The musical duties are also split as Andy (mostly just) takes care of music and instruments and Gretchen (mostly just) takes care of lyrics and vocals. On their new album Demon Slayer (out on April 3rd) they once again merge jangle pop and dream pop to create a wistful vibe for their music. Previously only a singles band (a lot of which were collected in 2024's Go On) Demon Slayer is their first album of all new material and "Fight or Flight" is the third single prior to the album's release.

Warmer, "Pitchfork Barndance (feat. Dave Carter)" (Half a Cow Records)

Warmer is the side project of Australia's John Encarnaco who is also half of the songwriting team with Pete Marley and also one-fourth of the band known as The Nature Strip. "Pitchfork Barndance" is the first single tor Warmer's forthcoming album and features producer Dave Carter on backing vocals and carnival barker. Five songs have already been recorded and recording will get under way again in March through May with an album hopefully released by the end of this year. Warmer is not well known in the US so to get up to speed with the band's past work you can check out their great Wooden Box With Strings album from 2020 or listen to last years Warmest collection.

A Few Of My Favorite Things 2025 Edition: The Albums

 By Henry Lipput

"The Lucky Thirteen."

That's what I'm calling my year-end list of my favorite albums of 2025, the ones I've most enjoyed listening to over the past twelve months. For each of them I've included a short description, my favorite song from the album, and a link to where you can find the album on Bandcamp (so that you can support these wonderful musicians and maybe bump into something else you can enjoy). 

David Mead, January, San Fernando (Bandcamp)

Since his debut album, The Luxury of Time, was released in 1999 David Mead has become one of the best American singer-songwriters we have. His new album, January, San Fernando, fits comfortably in his catalog especially next to albums like Indiana.

Favorite song: "Amelia"

Assistant, Certain Memories (Subjangle)

Certain Memories is a collection of sadly beautiful songs played by a band that makes a lovely, delicate jangly sound. The album is Assistant's first since 2022 and is a concept album of sorts dealing with the illness of a parent and how a family and friends get through it.

Favorite song: "Song for Jil"

Massage, Coaster (Bobo Integral Records)

Coaster is Massage's third album and the one where everything comes together. It's no coincidence that one of the members of this LA-based five piece was a co-founder of The Pains of Being Pure of Heart and you can hear this echoed in many of the songs on Coaster.

Favorite song: "When You Go"

The Bablers, Like the First Time (Big Stir Records)

Big Stir's release of Like the First Time was 25 years in the making as this album was only available in Japan and the band's native Finland in 2020. Full of power pop rave ups and ballads the album may have a different track listing but it's the way The Bablers want it heard now.

Favorite song: "You Are The One For Me"

Emma Swift, The Resurrection Game (Tiny Ghost Records)

If music has the power to heal, Swift has taken advantage of the opportunity to use the sounds of a swooning Nelson Riddle-like orchestra on her songs dealing with romance, desire, and a real-life nervous breakdown. And if the album is ever made into a musical the song "Catholic Girls Are Easy" would be a great Act 2 opener.

Favorite song: "Nothing and Forever"

Crossword Smiles, Consequences + Detours (Big Stir Records)

Consequences + Detours is the second album by the Michigan-based band led by Chip Saam, Tom Curless, and friends. The album is full of pop bliss and clever lyrics, a combination not usually found together but here found in spades.

Favorite song: "Millicent"

Tony Molina, On This Day (Slumberland Records)

Molina has been known for writing and recording songs that are less than two minutes long. None of these songs are throwaways or rough sketches.  Some like On This Day's "Faded Holiday" barely hit the one-minute mark but he puts everything in them which only makes you want to visit them again..

Favorite song: "Faded Holiday"

SUPER 8 featuring Lisa Mychols, UNFINISHED MONKEY BUSINESS (Bandcamp)

SUPER 8 and Lisa Mychols have been making music together from opposite sides of the world since their 2019 single "Timebomb." Their new collection consists of previous released singles and album tracks as well as songs that are new to me.

Favorite song: "Falling For You"

Sunny Intervals, Swept Away (Bandcamp)

 

The album is described on its Bandcamp page as a "late night whisper." Swept Away was written over the course of a decade and recorded by Andy Hudson mostly in his kitchen at night. The Janglepophub blog called it "pristine sunshine pop."

Favorite song: "Waiting For Sunshine" 

Shapes Like People, Ticking Haze (Jangleshop Records)

Ticking Haze is the debut album from the husband and wife team of Kat and Carl Mann. Following his work with The Shop Window it's not surprising that the songs are rich with melody as well as peopled with characters who yearn for love and a better life as well as an offering of hope and support to both lovers and friends.

Favorite song: "When The Radio Plays"

Tamar Berk, ocd, (Bandcamp)

Berk has described ocd, her fifth album in five years, as her most personal and intense.  She continues to add new musical ideas and instruments to her sound and she has found new ways to address both real and imagined conversations that can present roadblocks in relationships. 

Favorite song: "ocd"

Robert Forster, Strawberries (Tapete Records)

Since his time in The Go-Betweens and throughout his solo career Forster has mastered the writing of story songs. On Strawberries there are two: "Tell It Back To Me" and "Breakfast On The Train." "Train" is the one that has stuck with me because of its use of a novel storytelling device 

Favorite song: "Breakfast On The Train"

Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires, Sounds Made By Humans (Skep Wax)

Brian Bilston is a poet and The Catenary Wires are a pop group and their unique collaboration  produced an album of "song-poems." Using Bilston's words, the band's Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey wrote the music for songs that are sung and performed by The Catenary Wires and others have Bilston fronting the band.

Favorite song: "Every Song On The Radio Reminds Me Of You"

Ticking Haze, the debut album from Shapes Like People, is reviewed and Kat and Carl Mann answer the Pure Pop Phive

By Henry Lipput

Ticking Haze (Jangleshop Records), the debut album from Shapes Like People, is rich with melodies, full of yearnings for love and a better life, and the offerings of a hand of support to lovers and friends.

It’s appropriate that Ticking Haze begins with the song “Ambition Is Your Friend” with the lines “Don’t punish me for trying/Ambition is your friend” because Carl Mann, one half of the husband-and-wife duo that makes up Shapes Like People, is one of the most ambitious people I know of in the indie music industry. He began work on Ticking Haze after two years of work on last year’s Daysdream, a two LP, 16 song collection (and one of the best albums of 2024) from his other band The Shop Window (he sang lead vocals and played lead guitar, keyboard, and percussion and he also produced the whole thing).

Carl began writing song to pitch to other singers and asked his wife Kat, who works in the film industry, to provide female vocals so he could hear what it sounded like (Kat is no stranger to singing as she provided backing vocals to three of Carl’s songs on Daysdream). He decided to keep her vocals and went to work writing more songs for what would eventually become Ticking Haze.

With jangle-meister Carl at the helm and Kat’s double-tracked vocals on songs like the new pop classic “When The Radio Plays” Shapes Like People have a tendency to sound like Kirsty Maccoll covering a Smiths song.

Although “When The Radio Plays” and “A New Crown” are not set along side each other on the album’s track listing they are two sides of the same look at life in a city. In “When The Radio Plays” a woman watches the missed buses go by in the same way she has missed opportunities to find love. In the gentle “A New Crown” this woman has also dealt with buses but in a different way: “I’ve done time in the city smoke/Had to leave before I choked” and decides to leave for a life in the country with its “shade from an old chestnut tree’ and “blissful scenes with natural stone.”

Other highlights on Ticking Haze include the beautiful, hopeful “Weathering” with lyrics that work as life lessons and conjure up “weathering the storm” and “taking the breaks off.” And on the upbeat, alt-Country tune “The Ship Has Sailed” I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Kat and Carl were wearing Stetsons during the recording.

Kat and Carl answer the Pure Pop Phive

How would you describe your music?

Carl: It has elements of all the music we love - Janglepop, Dreampop, Shoegaze, Indiepop, and some have described it as having Folky vibes here and there. 

Kat: When we make music we’re not really thinking about genre, we’re just trying to create something we love the sound of. 

What/who are your major influences?

Carl: When we first started recording demos we’d sit and listen to all the albums and artists we both loved. We mainly focused on female-fronted acts to think about where we might want to take it.  

Kat: Here are some that we both love and may have inspired us - Alvvays, Sol Seppy, Agnes Obel, Weyes Blood, Lee & Nancy, Johnny & June, Isobel & Mark, Eurythmics, Carpenters, Jenny Lewis, Mazzy Star, The Sundays, Cocteau Twins. 

Do you perform live? Do you have any upcoming gigs?

Kat: At the moment we don’t have any plans to play live, but we’ll never say never.

Carl: Life doesn't provide us with much space for gigging, but it would be a joy to perform these songs. If we ever get around to it hopefully The Shop Window gents would step up and provide us with the band. 

How do you support yourself so you can continue to make music?

Kat: I work full time in the film industry, while Carl is focused on music and running the label. 

Carl: We’re about to start offering production, mixing, mastering, writing/collaborations and session guitar services through Jangleshop Records, so we’re in a little period of development before opening the books up. 

What’s your favorite album of all time (that's not one of yours)?

Carl: There are so many, but if we had to pick one album that is really special to both of us it would be It’s a Wonderful Life by Sparklehorse. 

Kat: Carl introduced me to this record when we first met, and all these years later we still listen to it. We instantly get transported back to that time. Plus, it’s just an incredibly beautiful album.