whenever someone asks me about my taste in music, i panic. i'll never be able to give the right answer - the cool answer, the esoteric answer, the knowledgeable answer. music history is too vast and life is too hard to try to be an expert in everything.

if i was going to answer 'so, what kind of music do you like?' honestly, i would say i like rem, xtc and jangle pop. i also like songs i can sing in the car. most of all, i like indie 'LA' happysad pop.

music that was produced on a macbook in somebody's bedroom 20 miles from a beach. music best listened to through headphones, on repeat. sad lyrics set to music you can dance to, or affirming lyrics set to music that makes you cry.

why? i like music i can't intellectualise. i think i like being reminded that its okay to feel two things at once: wistful but excited, heartbroken but ready, hopeful but scared. i like music that makes me feel like it's alright to be in two places at once, straddling the past and the present, halfway between dreams and reality.

this is a wip page for the 'hopebeat'-adjacent artists who keep me sane
if you describe your taste in music as "good", maybe skip this page
non-exhaustive list presented in no particular order (except how much i love them)

the ultimate boys. permanently altered the trajectory of my spotify algorithm

their single hotels rewired my brain when i first heard it in 2017. i was in the middle of my undergraduate degree, and adding this song (and 1985 and dialtone) to my essay-writing playlists made them a mainstay - and made writing my dissertation fun.

the band got terrifyingly quiet after 2021, then released til the end of time in 2024. they keep teasing new songs on their instagram, and i am locked tf in.

their single painkillers functioned as exactly that while i wrote my dissertation. i couldn't have predicted then how much i would come to love everything this band puts out.

their 2022 album 'the lost years' pulls together some of their best singles (overtime, nothing new and miles ahead) and some new faves (looking at you, through the silence). other insane recent bops include soundtrack, the getaway and - literally the week i'm writing this! - american dream.

i'm sorry! i'm sorry to be so basic! so what if i saw their first ever gig in london! its just casual, i swear!

pleased to announce they have returned to their depression-core roots with their newest EP, 'bruises'. eight years since the black and white, it's nice to have someone who's trying - even if we had to endure the self-titled album to get here. please, the band camino, don't peak with something to hold on to.

their music feels like a dream. late nights blurring, busy streets settling under a mist.

year after year, their singles deliver: holding on, twenty something, this time last year, lover/loner, hate my favorite band, like i do, don't even think about it. listen to the feeling, too.

just so much fun. ty for finding me loudspeaker and who. ty for healing me silk chiffon, home by now and anything but me. ty for being a bop one that got away.

yeah, i can tell. their first ep dropped earworms like classic and adeline, but they really showed their mastery of *feel-good pop with a nostalgic bent* with growing up and mandy moore. some fun stuff on their ep 'information overload' - npc, irl and i blame the internet.

lany you're iconic but sometimes you're too sad for me. shoutouts go to super far, (what i wish just one person would say to me), dancing in the kitchen, never mind, let's break up, ex i never had, 'til i don't and no.

i like me better was a radio staple. 2020's '~how i'm feeling~' delivered: fuck, i'm lonely, mean it, sad forever and sims. in this house we love all 4 nothing and love u like that.

its physically impossible to be sad listening to vinyl. if you want to be just the right kind of sad, there's lovely and la lonely. its easy to be productive listening to songs like waiting tables, no choice, in the night, infinitely falling and the weather. i can't get enough of different lives.

i can't apologise for putting them this high. not when text me? and box sound like that through my headphones. i love it when bands are brave enough to get a little 5sos-y a whole decade too late (and that was already pushing it): close to you and psycho (when i wake up) come to mind. their latest single wreck my life is currently on repeat.

so sad. they have to have their own slot bc i love so many of their songs: loveless, kiss me, kill me, 1990, bad news!, sad people dancing, and mid life time crisis.

btw ily - easy tiger, say it back and the summer
dreamfone - talking to myself and the old days
honestly - night life
knox - girl on the internet, i'm so good at being alone, me myself and your eyes, miss when you missed me, and not the 1975
quotes from the movies - as long as i can and dry erase
valley - like 1999

a r i z o n a - electric touch and what she wants
drive!drive! - feels, no good and sorry
flor - where do you go
great good fine ok - find yourself and progress
hardcastle - millenial attraction and something i've been waiting on
the ivy - gold and records
jadn - just like that and all for nothing
jakil - everytime we talk, fool without you and truth is
joan - drive all night, flowers, loner and simple
jocks - riddle me this
milkk - forever 17, leaving and up on us
nik mystery - pms and the internet
push baby - thenineteenseventyfive and every time i think about you baby, i hate it, you blow my mind
smallpools - night shift, stumblin' home and swayze
valley - lost in translation
victors - slow down