On This Track: Weekend Listening #9
- Anne
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Five new releases about heartbreak, change, second chances and the things we carry with us.
The five releases in this week's On This Track: Weekend Listening 9 move from a record that waited twenty years to be heard to new music about dating, heartbreak, old songs finding a new shape and everything that happens when life doesn't quite go as planned. They don't sound alike, but each one gave me a reason to listen again.
FLEUR ROUGE - “Small Talk”
I think most people have had a conversation like this. You match with someone, exchange a few messages, maybe move to another app and then somehow you're still talking without actually saying anything. “Small Talk” takes that very specific kind of dating exhaustion and turns it into an alt-pop song that doesn't take itself too seriously. The guitars have more bite than you'd expect from a song about endless conversations. They're gritty without taking over, while the hooks keep everything moving. FLEUR ROUGE's conversational way of writing suits the subject especially well. She sounds like someone telling a friend exactly how ridiculous the whole situation is. What makes the song work is that the humour doesn't hide the loneliness underneath it. There is a real frustration in searching for something genuine while so many interactions remain superficial. “Small Talk” doesn't try to solve that problem. It just gives the feeling a catchy chorus and a few sharp lines. As the first glimpse of a grungier chapter for FLEUR ROUGE, it's a good fit. The guitars are louder, the attitude is sharper, but the songwriting still feels personal rather than polished into something unrecognizable.
🎧 Stream “Small Talk” on Apple Music
The Wheel Workers - “One More Thing To Say”
Twenty years is a long time to leave a record unfinished. For The Wheel Workers, "One More Thing To Say" was apparently never finished at all. The songs stayed with Steven Higginbotham after the original band broke up and eventually he went back to them. That gives the album a strange quality. These aren't simply old recordings being pulled out of an archive. Higginbotham kept some of the original performances, added new parts and, in some cases, recorded alongside his younger self. The result is a record that exists somewhere between then and now. The title track makes that particularly clear. “One More Thing To Say” sounds restless, with an odd-metered bassline, sharp guitar chords and keyboards that give the song an uneasy edge. The lyrics are political, but the song doesn't feel stuck in the moment when it was first written. The idea behind it - that the people making decisions are often far removed from the consequences - hasn't exactly disappeared. There's something quite moving about hearing a band return to music they thought they had left behind. "One More Thing To Say" isn't trying to pretend those twenty years didn't happen. They're part of what makes the album what it is now.
🎧 Stream “One More Thing To Say” on Apple Music
Savannah Pope - “Panopticon”
The first thing that stands out about “Panopticon” is how much is happening at once. The song feels huge, almost theatrical, but there is something uncomfortable underneath it. Opera, baroque pop and cabaret all come together around a very personal subject: the feeling of still being watched by someone long after they're gone. Pope writes about her own experiences with body image and sexual trauma and the song never tries to make that subject easy to listen to. There is beauty in the arrangement, but also tension. Sweeping sounds and dramatic vocals keep pushing against the more exposed parts of the song.
The video takes that idea even further. Rococo paintings, dressing-room mirrors, fashion imagery and the measuring tape turn the feeling of being judged into something almost surreal. And then there's the humor. That combination makes “Panopticon” much more interesting than a straightforward visual representation of trauma. It's intense, strange and deliberately excessive in places. But underneath all of it is something very human: trying to take back control over the way you see yourself.
🎧 Stream “Panopticon” on Apple Music
Advertisement
Distribute your music to Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok and 150+ other platforms with Ditto Music.
Keep 100% of your royalties and release as much music as you want.
Boston Manor - “Laika (acoustic)”
There are songs you remember because of how loud they were. Then there are songs that still work when you take almost everything away. “Laika (acoustic)” belongs to the second group. The acoustic version strips the song back and puts the writing much closer to the surface. Without the full-band weight, the emotional side of “Laika” becomes harder to miss. It feels more intimate, but not necessarily softer. There is still something restless underneath it. That makes the timing interesting. "Be Nothing." turns ten this year and Boston Manor are revisiting the album with several acoustic reworkings rather than simply putting out another anniversary edition and leaving the original untouched. Hearing “Laika” this way also makes it easier to understand why the 2016 record became such an important point for the band. The songs had enough character to survive outside the sound they were originally recorded in. Ten years later, “Laika (acoustic)” doesn't need the nostalgia to make an impression. The acoustic version is a reminder that a good song can change shape without losing what made it work in the first place.
🎧 Stream “Laika (acoustic)” on Apple Music
ROREY – ”I Get It Now”
There are albums about heartbreak, and then there are albums that stay inside it for a while. ”I Get It Now” feels closer to the second kind. ROREY doesn't seem interested in skipping ahead to the part where everything makes sense. She keeps returning to the same questions, the same misunderstandings and the same hope that maybe things could still turn out differently. That makes the album feel very personal without becoming difficult to connect with. Her songwriting is direct, sometimes painfully so, while the music gives those thoughts enough space to breathe. The songs move through different shades of intimacy and uncertainty rather than treating heartbreak as one single emotion. What stayed with me is the idea at the centre of the record: love can be real and still not be enough. There is no easy resolution in that. ROREY's decision to write through it instead of trying to make it sound prettier gives ”I Get It Now” its weight. By the end, the title feels less like an answer than something you finally say after asking the same question too many times. Maybe that's what getting it now actually means.
🎧 Stream “I Get It Now” on Apple Music
Five releases, five very different stories. Some of these songs look back, some try to move forward and some sit somewhere in between. Maybe that's why this week's selection works so well together. None of these artists sound alike, but every one of them has something worth saying. We'll be back next week with five more.
Continue discovering independent music through On This Track, Three Track Week and Artist Features. Read more about new music, indie artists and alternative music on INDIENOXZINE.
Comments