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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Listen: Crave by Aaron Title

Hailing from Washington DC, Aaron Title is a singer-songwriter, focused on creating lo-fi alt pop, R&B and electronic music. Aaron previously appeared on BlackPlastic back in 2023, with his song New Moon (Riptide). Here on Crave he has a piece of music, written and produced in his bedroom, that combines introspection and an upbeat feeling of momentum.

Crave stands out for its clean synth stabs and crisp percussion, which evoke the kind of sounds produced by Fred Again.., Roosevelt and SG Lewis. Title’s vocals come together with this instrumentation to create a kind of melancholic yearning. Disoriented lyrics fall in on themselves, like glimpses of someone on the dance-floor — a fleeting moment of desire, never to be realised. Gentle metallophone-like chimes give the song an organic feeling of warmth, remaining just a beat after the song reaches its conclusion.

At just over two-minutes long, Aaron Title has created a slight yet compelling piece of electronic pop. Check it out 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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Watch: Maybe Tokyo by Billet Doux

Hailing from France, Billet Doux take their name from the 17th-century expression, meaning ‘secret love letter’. The duo apply that emotionally charged feeling into their music, creating a tender intensity.

The latest single from their forthcoming album Superbloom is Here Again, Maybe Tokyo is a song about escape and uncertainty. Opening with a strummed guitar and tight clipped drums, the pair’s male-female duet creates a playful sense of excitement, amplified by moments of drama — a sudden burst of reverb, for example. Joyous synths lead you into the song’s chorus, and the whole thing has a dreamy mid-00s vibe.

Billet Doux are Kaycie and Pierre, and together they are partners not just in music, but in life. Maybe Tokyo comes off the back of the success of their prior single, Two Scorpios, which received prominent placement on curated playlists by both Spotify and Apple Music. On their latest single, they envisage a woman trapped in a cult in a remote American town, inspired to leave but uncertain where to go. The uncharted world of Tokyo holds appeal — promising precisely because it is unknowable.

Check out Maybe Tokyo 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:

Apple Music

Spotify

Listen: Bruising by Lila Holler

The latest single from Liverpool, UK/Seattle, WA artist Lila Holler, Bruising builds slowly. Glassy vocals and muted guitars create a 90s-esque folk-pop sound as Holler rapidly weaves together a series of intimate lyrical couplets.

Bruising hits its stride in its chorus, a minute in, fuzzy bass guitar establishing a hooky bed for Holler’s vocals. Increasingly frustrated, she asserts that, ‘you love me like propane, it’s just what kept you going… oh it’s useless, and I can feel us bruising’. The song switches back to the saccharine stylings of the verse, staying there for a brief 30-second interlude, before suddenly pulling me back into that chorus.

This time Holler’s vocals are joined by a pulse racing soft cacophony — layered percussion, warm bass tones, guitars and overdubbed all vocals all tumble together to give me goosebumps. It feels like Holler has been holding back on us — deliberately dulling herself to match the dissatisfaction of her relationship. A bit of me feels cheated by that first chorus, which is fine enough, but doesn’t have the fucking fight that I now know Lila is capable of. But then, isn’t that the point? Bruising feels great precisely because it gets you there gradually, a lesson in the power of contrast, and of layering.

Taking inspiration from the likes of Phoebe Bridges, Clairo, and FKA Twigs, Lila has created a little nugget of pop perfection. It also acts as an analogue — a reflection of the three-dimensional depth all of us have and are capable of. Why should we be expected to reveal everything, to those around us, straight away?

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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Watch: Take a Picture by Vitesse X

Having loved the heavenly progressive pop of her 2023 single, Right Now, I’m excited to have another jam from Vitesse X to feed my ears.

In the piece linked above, I mentioned how Right Now reminded me of the stuttering emotional electronics of BT. A group in a similar vein, who I haven’t thought about in years, are Swansea progressive breakbeat outfit Hybrid. Their orchestral breakbeat track Finished Symphony, and its accompanying album Wide Angle, sounded like the future when I was in my late-teens. In 2000, the group released a mixed album of Hybrid remixes, Entitled Remix and Additional Production by…, and on it was a remix of the rock band Filter’s Take A Picture. It was a crunchy piece that blended fractured beats with (ex-Nine Inch Nails guitarist) Richard Patrick’s surprisingly laid back and blissed out vocal.

It therefore feels like completing the circle to hear New York producer, vocalist, and DJ Vitesse X take on that same Filter track. She plots a journey that is much closer to Patrick’s original than Hybrid’s, her vocals imbuing the music with a similarly cracked performance, so close to Patrick’s delivery that it feels slightly uncanny. Where the original was all sunny grungy guitars and looping baggy drums, however, Vitesse X employs broken beats and soaring new age melodies, all whilst retaining a feeling of relaxed looseness.

When I asked, Vitesse X confirmed she wasn’t previously aware of the Hybrid remix of Take A Picture, and she only discovered track’s late 90s club remix history after recording her cover. The track has long sat on the edge of Filter’s catalogue, a little different to everything else Patrick released under that moniker. And Vitesse feels she was responding to the same elements that lead to others creating remixes — an underlying psychedelic atmosphere. She notes the way the song struck a chord with her, leading to the cover:

‘I was listening to Take a Picture in the car in the winter, deep in some heavy emotions. I was feeling really detached from the current state of music and exhausted by the demands of the modern world. When the song came on, I was immediately transported back to a feeling I had completely forgotten existed. A time where life felt tangible and simple and pure. It was honestly transcendental. I opened up my phone notes to remind myself to make a cover, and a month later it came to fruition.’

Check out Take a Picture 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:

Apple Music Spotify