From Los Angeles
Recommend if you like Erasure, Chappell Roan, Jade
Up next Debut album Big Disgrace out 13 March
Just when you think pop is finally moving away from the synth-heavy 80s sound, another thrilling new act comes along to say: “Nope!” With shades of Erasure and a good dollop of theatre kid energy, Haute & Freddy are the Regency-styled freaks sending a jolt through TikTok. Their latest single Dance the Pain Away is the year’s first true banger, a dazzling sad-pop production that bursts through the January gloom, thrusts a spritzer in your hand and drags you to the dancefloor.
The LA-based duo of Michelle Buzz and Lance Shipp know their way around a classic pop structure. Between them they’ve co-written for Katy Perry, Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears and Calvin Harris, but writing for established and relatively vanilla acts pushed their own work to the other end of the spectrum. They favour maximalism: the orchestra hit, thunderous stadium drums and lyrics that emote wildly in every direction.
They may look as though they’ve been thrift shopping in every era since the 1700s, but their sound is distinctly mid-80s Britain, filled with the ghosts of West End Girls’ wavy synths, Smalltown Boy’s winding bass, Erasure’s knack for soaring crescendos. Yet none of their seven singles to date sound like a rip off: more a series of love letters. You do have to concede they could be a label team’s meticulously constructed answer to Chappell Roan, right down to the Elizabeth I eyebrows. But there are some things you can’t fake: these songs are as thrilling to hear as their saucy dress-up-box visuals are to watch. Kate Solomon
This week’s best new tracks
Wendy Eisenberg – Meaning Business
Ever curious, nuanced and compassionate, the experimental New York guitarist strikes into new territory: straight-up countrified beauty, where jubilant fiddle meets Jason Molina-ish flashes of darkness as they contemplate identity’s impermanence. LS
Remember Sports – Nevermind
For anyone missing the crunchier side of Waxahatchee – or wanting more of what she did with Snocaps – this Philly band make perfectly wistful, twangy barnburners designed to tickle your indie-rock pleasure centres. LS
Asake x Wizkid – Iskolodo
Two of the biggest stars in African pop combine for a new EP, and Iskolodo is a highlight: a featherlight blend of classic Afrobeat, jazz piano, amapiano bass, ghostly salsa samples and gentle melodic chatter from the pair. BBT
Charlotte Plank – Crybby Blue
Plank is one of the best vocalists in British dance; her Chemical Fashion was a great underrated gem of 2025. Her first single this year is another winner, confronting emotional blackmail with whomping speed garage. BBT
James Welsh – Fret
The producer FKA Ocelot – and remixer for everyone from Rob Zombie to Britney – switches to his own name for a sharp-edged, unusual electronic record about grief: Fret prickles and seethes unpredictably. LS
Durand Jones and the Indications – Let’s Take Our Time
As ever, Jones and co sound as if they’ve stepped through a portal from the wood-panelled, symphonic-soul 1970s, and their new one has Aaron Frazer singing of similarly old-school courtship rituals in a tender falsetto. BBT
Joshua Chiquimia Crampton – Ch’uwanchaña ~El Golpe Final~
Blending choppy distortion and bleating riffage, Crampton’s guitar tone – last heard in his acclaimed sibling duo Los Thuthanaka – is so distinctive you can clock that it’s him playing in the opening seconds. (Available only on Bandcamp.) BBT
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