Listen: Cold Warm Green Blue by Olive Wreath

Opening with layered instrumentation, Cold Warm Green Blue unfolds like a collage. Percussion and guitars are roughly assembled with overlapping edges. From this textured picture emerges Olive Wreath’s gently processed vocal. Like a forgotten photograph fluttering out of a well thumbed paperback, it lands in our laps. It feels like a memory we had forgotten, yet one that instantly puts us back in a previously forgotten emotional state.

Based in London, Olive Wreath creates pop music through a combination of folk instrumentation and electronic production. Here on Cold Warm Green Blue, she depicts the experience of growing up against a background of shifting relationship dynamics and an emerging identity, as she describes:

‘I made my debut single cold warm green blue to express feelings of getting older and relationships changing in the context of an LGBT identity — like you're wandering through woods at night and a concert's fading through a mile away.’

The result is a song that quivers with a kind of nervous emotion — it is fragile and vulnerable, and yet wearing a layer of abstraction as a form of protection. The result is beautiful and intimate, a series of Polaroid-like snapshots of someone growing up, scattered across a bedspread, raising as many questions as they answer.

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Watch: Lover, You Should’ve Come Over by Penny

UK artist Penny blends indie influences and alt pop to create a distinctive and emotional sound. Originally from Huddersfield, she released her debut EP, My Secret Powers, in 2022, introducing her bedroom pop aesthetic.

With her new EP, entitled Prom? and released today, Penny has looked to deliver the most fully realised version of her vision. Regularly collaborating with Michael Lovett, of Metronomy and NZCA Lines, and Ash Workman (who has worked with Christine and the Queens, Metronomy and the Klaxons), there is a wonderfully distinctive and wonky edge to Penny’s sound. This is something you can hear on the thick fuzz of bass on the EP’s song Dirty, and the way the whole thing slows to a stop like someone just yanked the turntable’s power out of the wall.

With the release of Prom?, we get to hear Penny’s bold cover of Jeff Buckley’s classic, Lover, You Should’ve Come Over. Covers of such established and influential artists’ work should be treated with caution, and you can hear Penny deliberately lean into that risk on what turns out to be a staggering performance. The result is a track that feels like a gymnast attempting their biggest routine — part of the thrill is in the risk that she falls. Her vocal is warm, syrupy, and yet sounds a little terrified as she retraces Buckley’s footsteps.

What really sets this cover apart is the instrumentation and production. Doing away with the folksy warmth of the original, Penny is instead wrapped in layers of synths, arpeggios and thick bass swirling around her performance with all the drama of stage lights. The result reminds me of the hard left turn that was True Affection on Father John Misty’s I Love You, Honeybear… Both sit somewhere in the intersection of American folk and experimental widescreen electronica. With this cover, we witness Penny take a massive swing for the fences — and we get to hear her nail it.

Check out Lover, You Should’ve Come Over below, and hear the full EP, Prom?, on your streaming platform of choice here.

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Watch: Jaguar by Blumi

Entering with the kind of bass line that threatens to chin you, Jaguar is Blumi’s first release for Capitane Records, and provides a preview into her forthcoming debut LP, Steady Heart.

The tension at Jaguar’s core is concerned with the dichotomy between the individual and society — our need for space and solitude, combined with the desire for connection. That cool bass line is complimented by a percussion section that feels like a pan about to boil over. Together, they underpin the verse, which forms the portion of Blumi’s song concerned with herself — time alone, contemplating, reflecting. It evokes a kind of rhythm and blues that suddenly shifts gear into a psychedelic Day-Glo kaleidoscope of a chorus. Blumi declares, ‘People make me happy… People make me happier!’, a series of bright chords underlining her sense of connection.

Blumi’s song code switches between these collective and individualistic moments throughout the song, much as we do in our day-to-day lives. As someone right in the middle, with equal preference for introversion and extroversion, I recognise this back-and-forth. Time alone creates a yearning for connection, which initially provides and then depletes energy, requiring time alone to recharge.

As someone who seeks salvation in her time alone, Blumi created Jaguar as a tribute to the beauty and chaos that comes from connection — here depicted as the large speckled cat, something we run from but, in the case of friendship and connection, for no real reason. Describing her inspiration, Blumi says:

‘I used to think, with great drama and hand-on-forehead-flapping, that what I needed the most was solitude. If only everyone would leave me be — leave me tranquil, as we say in French.’

Blumi is the musical project of French-British singer, songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist Emma Broughton. Having left her position as a political sociology researcher, she established Blumi, creating a musical universe shaped by everything from folk, to jazz, and classical music. Since then, she has collaborated with artists that include Bon Iver, Feist, and The National. Here on Jaguar, we experience a kind of avant-pop, as she performs a video imbued with an Art Nouveau aesthetic. The drama here flows all the way through to Jaguar’s fantastically type-faced closing credits. The result is artful, yet accessible.

Check out Jaguar below, and look out for the album Steady Heart in early 2027.

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Listen: Truth by Frau

Coming from Nashville-born, Brooklyn-based alt pop newcomer Frau, Truth is the second single taken from her forthcoming debut album, Flutter.

Anchored around a dream-like vocal, Truth leverages glitchy vocal techniques to accentuate Frau’s extended overdubbed harmonies, her vocal pulsing as they mutate into additional layers of instrumentation. Synth pads surround those vocals, splashes of cool blue and warm yellow atop Frau’s clean robotic soundscape. The overall effect invokes the surprisingly human electronic experimentation of both Caroline Polachek and Imogen Heap.

Produced by Michael Deano (SZA and Remi Wolf) and brand0, Truth reflects an urge to be a light for someone, drawing them in, and embracing that vulnerability. As Frau sings on the track, ‘I’m okay with losing and that’s the truth’. Describing the track, Frau says:

‘I don’t usually write about my relationship, but the words came before the thought. I remember tracking vocals next to the soft beat of a moth colliding with our kitchen lamp and that became the premise of the song. The desire to always be close to light.

Check out Truth below, and look out for Flutter, which is due out on 4 September 2026.

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Listen: See Me by Maddie Regent

Toronto-native but LA-based, Maddie Regents is an indie pop artist, crafting songs at the intersection of romance, anxiety, fantasy, and heartbreak. Here on new single See Me, she explores the sense of vulnerability and connection that comes from opening up and being fully known by someone else.

Opening with crisp synths and gentle guitar, See Me evokes the kind of clear-eyed storytelling style Taylor Swift is well known for. The gentle, buoyant melody provides a perfect to Regent’s vocal delivery. Throughout the song, she lays out the story of a pair of lovers separated by poor timing and a departing train — a sliding doors like romantic dichotomy.

See Me’s opening half is a relatively straightforward slice of synth pop, but things come alive in the song’s second half. A bridge sees Maddie’s vocal delivery accelerate, much like a train leaving the station. It is an emotive moment, as hopes and fears tumble from her mouth, asking herself ‘If I made the train, would I be your wife?’

Behind the song, Regent’s song was written together with her creative partner and fiancé, producer and songwriter Cade Hoppe. You can’t help but wonder how much of the song is autobiographical. She describes as follows:

‘See Me is about how the last piece of yourself to show someone is the side that gets cold feet and leaves them at the train station with your bag. Now suddenly this stranger knows you better than anyone else, and I don’t think there’s anything more romantic than that.’

Maddie starting songwriting at just 12, before taking up music more seriously during her college years. Following her 2021 debut, she has released two EPs, Miss Regent and Girl of Your Dreams, and a debut album, On the Phone With my Mom, last year. Check out See Me below.

In addition to listening in the post, you can find almost all the music BlackPlastic covers on the music player of your choice. Add the dedicated playlist below:

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