If you’re like me, you can spend countless hours contemplating the meaningless and trivial. I suspect one day, sociologists will label my years on Earth as the Trivial Era – a time in which humankind fiddled with our phones as the planet burned. That may seem like a kind of depressing way to begin an article on outstanding recent vintage pop music, but it kind of gets at the very nature of the most loosely defined of all major music genres.
“Pop music” doesn’t really mean anything. Or, perhaps it does – but that meaning is ultimately meaningless. Pop music is popular music, and what is popular changes with the weather. There is no real stylistic thread that holds together pop music, beyond the very fact that it is popular. Consider this:
Billboard redefined the way it classified music and began releasing year-end top songs for post-war popular music in 1958. The first number one – by definition the most popular song of the year - was Domenico Modugno’s “Nel blu, dipinto di blu,” which you may know as “Volare.” Or maybe not. It may well have been a hit – as Paul McCartney might say – before your mother was born.
Brilliant indie pop albums from the last five years that you must hear
Today, the reigning year-end Billboard champ today is Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night.” Tell me the link that binds a romantic chanson to a mournful country ballad with a beat. While you’re working on that, consider the songs that have been Billboard-certified as the most popular in the “3s.” Wallen’s country ballad came in ’23.
In ’13, it was Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop.” 50 Cent’s “In da Club” dominated 2003. Whitney Houston’s Dolly Parton cover “I Will Always Love You,” the Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” Tony Orlando’s “Tie a Yellow Ribbon,” and the Beach Boy’s “Surfin’ U.S.A.” fill out the list. Again I ask you, beyond popularity, how to link those songs stylistically?
Thus we began applying modifiers to the basic term “pop.” That did carve up the broad genre into more understandable pieces. So Bubblegum Pop could refer to the Osmond Brother’s brand of bouncy, tween-centered songs, while Pop Punk could define a harder-edged, but still melodic type of song. “Thrift Shop” and “In da Club” are both hip-hop songs with a melodic sensibility, and that may be the single most defining aspect of pop music – a melody-forward impulse. Still, those melodies are a far cry from Whitney Houston or the Beach Boys.
Now, when you modify an ill-defined genre like “pop” with an equally vague adjective like “indie” – well, that pretty much opens you up to virtually any type of music. “Indie” just means independent, which suggests this type of pop music is free from the narrow strictures of mainstream gatekeepers. That is an indirect definition – describing what indie pop is not, rather than what it is. So indie pop is not Sabrina Carpenter. But what is it?
It's a conundrum – a genre of music that wants to appeal to a mass audience without relying on the tired formulas that have been working in the recent past. And out of that very conundrum sprouts some great music. It is positively dialectical, practically Hegelian in its evolution. OK – that’s the last time I’ll mention Hegel – at least for the next two weeks. After all, we’re not here to talk about 19th-century German philosophers.
We’re here to talk about some awesome indie pop albums that have come out in the past five years. They span the genres and draw influences from a variety of sources. But they all have that pop melodicism that makes them perfect for both casual listening and rocking out when you need a lift. Which defines all great pop music, indie or not.
Heavy Light by U.S. Girls (2020)
Music critic Sophie Kemp once referred to Meg Remy as a “collagist.” It’s a very apt label. Kemp, who has been performing under the U.S. Girls name since 2007 released her seventh album – Heavy Light – in 2020 and showed off the restless curiosity that has made her one of pop music's most inventive voices.
From the percussive disco of the opening two tracks – “4 American Dollars” and “Overtime” – to the slow burn power ballad “The Quiver to the Bomb” which comes second to last, Remy tests the varied limits of what pop can be. For her final track, Remy offers a new take on one of her earliest hits. “Red Ford Bronco” had been a subdued, sludgy experiment on her second album, Go Grey, back in 2010. Ten years later, it is recast as a type of industrial dream pop.
That serves as a fitting close to Heavy Light. Remy described it as an album built on voice, and the new “Red Ford Bronco” is just that. Just as importantly, Heavy Light is a clear-eyed look backward, which is also accomplished by the reboot of an old song. The rest of the album features folk-pop (“Woodstock ’99), gentle dream pop (“Denise Don’t Wait”), and the infectious bossa nova shuffle of “And Yet it Moves/ Y Se Mueve.”
There are nods to Diana Ross and other ’60s girl groups but with a decidedly modern vibe. Remy even tosses in a few backward-looking spoken word snippets and refers to herself both as Meg Remy and as Meghan Ann Uremovich – her birth name – in the credits. When Meg Remy looks backward, she is very thorough.
Posture & the Grizzly by Posture & the Grizzly (2021)
Like pretty much every young band that was looking to break in the late 2010s, Posture & the Grizzly was devastated by the pandemic. Tours were canceled, and opportunities were missed. Compounding the challenge, Jordan Chmielowksi was struggling to find compatible bandmates and write a new collection of songs. Posture's second album, I Am Satan, dropped in 2016, and suddenly, they were being labeled the next (in a rather long line) Blink 182. But Chmielowski didn’t really have a full-time band, so he just kept writing and waiting for an opportunity. Teaming up with Ryan Pelegano provided it.
They spent a long time on the next self-titled album, and it was immediately recognized as something of a bridge between their debut – the pure punk Busch Hymns – and the emo-pop punk-leaning Satan. It opens with three pop-punk bangers, including the very Blink-like “Creepshow” and “Black Eyed Susan.” But there are always nods to emo-pop in the lovely love song “Kairi” and the Taking Back Sunday-inspired “Create Me.” Emo-legend Evan Weiss even shows up on “Unfortunate Friends.”
Posture sets off different chapters with minute-long musical interludes designed to transition into the different sounds offered in the album. It serves a purpose as they bounce between the angry punk screamer “Five Band Gig” (about the futility of having too many bands at a show) to the sweet closer “Flying Sailboats,” a song Chmielowski wrote when he was 16. Apart from a tenth-anniversary rerelease of Busch Hymns, Posture hasn’t been around of late. Chmielowski has been playing bass full-time with Prince Daddy & the Hyena for the past couple of years. But perhaps a reunion will come about in time.
Death of a Cheerleader by Pom Pom Squad (2021)
Mia Perrin launched Pom Pom Squad when she was 18, and within a few years, she found steady bandmates and released a few Eps. Death of a Cheerleader was the band’s first full-length album and it showed off Berrin’s outstanding eclecticism as a songwriter. From the somber nod to Smoky Robinson in the lovely “Second That” to the messy sarcasm of “Cake,” Berrin is at home in a variety of pop-punk styles. “Lux” is a hard-rocking earworm. “Red With Love” borders on dream pop.
And that only scratches the surface. Psychedelia shows up in a cover of “Crimson + Clover,” while "Crying" manages to be a slow-burning grunge rocker that somehow opens with 1950s-style harp and strings. Finally, “Head Cheerleader” is one of the very best songs of 2021 – rock pop that showcases one of the most incisive songwriters in the modern rock and pop universe. Her second album, 2024’s Mirror Starts Moving Without Me, shifts the focus more toward pop with less obvious hard rock influences. It is equally top-flight pop, though not quite as diverse as Cheerleader.
Ribbon Around the Bomb by Blossoms (2022)
If you are sitting on the east side of the Atlantic Ocean, you can rightly question why Blossoms is included in an article about underrated indie pop. Ribbon Around the Bomb hit number 1 on the album chart in the UK – the third of Blossoms’ album to do so. But for some reason, here in the States, the Stockport quintet has never hit big.
Even with the sweet anthem, “Ode to NYC,” and its chorus “Fall in love with New York City,” Blossoms remains a niche act in the USA. The supremely catchy title track and the doo-woppy “The Sulky Poet” seem ready-made for radio success. Each song shines with near-perfect pop production with minor stylistic shifts to keep the whole thing from drifting into monotony.
So the strings that dramatize the chugging rhythm of “Edith Machinist” are wisely left out of the simple acoustic “The Writer.” Perhaps the orchestral instrumentals that open and close the album (strings open and a piano closes) are a touch precious, but they are short, and the pristine sounds never threaten to suck anything out of the pop perfection.
f.e.a.r. by Stand Atlantic (2022)
I’m calling Stand Atlantic indie pop, though I admit frontwoman Bonnie Fraser stretches the envelope when it comes to the number of f-bombs you can drop in anything considered pop. Stand Atlantic certainly resides in the pop-punk section of modern pop, but their tunes are so bright and melodic that they could still fit in just fine at your neighborhood pool party. Just tell the kids not to listen to the lyrics of “Pity Party” – chorus: “f**k you and f**k your pity party.”
“Van Gogh” establishes Stand Atlantic’s basic attack. A great pop hook verse gives way to a screaming chorus as the guitars rev up. Fraser has the rare ability to create high-energy screamers like “Hair Out” and “Bloodclot” without sacrificing the pop sensibility. And she can downshift into purer pop on songs like “Nails from the Back” though it is pop with lyrics like “I guess I’ll let the very best of me rot in peace.” That’s the brand of edgy pop you get from f.e.a.r.
Expert in a Dying Field by the Beths (2023)
The New Zealand quartet took a major step forward with their third studio album. Vocalist Eiizabeth Stokes’ established herself as one of the very best songwriters in modern pop. From the opening title track through the finale “2am,” Stokes never fails to find melodic hooks that serve up bittersweet, break-up lyrics without ever becoming maudlin. “Knees Deep” is impossibly catchy. “Silence is Golden” shows how Stokes can write a hard-driving drum-fueled rocker and still maintain a firm grasp on pop melody.
The rest of the album bounces along from the sweeter sounds of “Your Side” and “I Want to Listen” to more skittish rockers like “Head in the Clouds” and the anthemic “Best Left.” They conclude with more contemplative numbers that sweeten the mix, whether it is through mid-tempo rockers like “When You Know What You Know” or lovely romances like “A Passing Rain.” The same year, the Beths teamed with fellow Kiwi Lukas Mayo to release another undeniably sweet single, “Brand New Colony.”
Good Together by Lake Street Dive (2024)
Lake Street Dive explores the neo-soul side of modern pop with songs that often sound like throwbacks to the 1960s. They score with an achingly sweet piano ballad like “Twenty-Five” or the throbbing funk-tinged “Help is on the Way.” The common thread is Rachael Price’s pristine and powerhouse lead vocals that inject soul into every track. The rest of Lake Street Dive – who can all play multiple instruments and can all sing dynamic harmony – is a constant presence as well.
The glorious “Better Not Tell You” anchors the album. Had it been released in the early ‘70s, it would have soared up the R&B and Pop charts. The album concludes with the peppy party anthem “Party on the Roof” followed by the beautifully operatic “Set Sail,” which builds on a stately prelude into an uplifting hymnal.
Forever by Charly Bliss (2024)
I began by bemoaning how difficult it is these days to define indie pop and then proceeded to run through albums that bounced from art to punk to soul-influenced brands of modern pop. We’re closing with an album that is not the least bit debatable. Charly Bliss is pure indie pop. They use plenty of electric guitars and plenty of synths to create inescapably catchy tunes. Eva Hendricks sells them all with a blend of tough bubblegum vocals, captured perfectly on the clear statement of purpose “Calling You Out.”
There’s a sad beauty of the piano-fueled “Nineteen” and the adoringly young “In Your Bed.” There’s the resilience of “How Do You Do It,” or the drone of “I Don’t Know Anything,” or the hopeful agony of “Last First Kiss.” Every Charly Bliss song bounces from soft to hard, sometimes allowing for lyrical side journeys from guitarist Spencer Fox, but always sticking close to the bright pop that you’d expect from a band called Bliss.