I reviewed this week’s faves as voted by our fab readers at fresh on the net. You can check out the full inbox here.
AMA ADEM – Walls
To kick off the faves we have a returning artist – Ama Adem was last a fave back in February and she’s back with a track that hits the ground running with strength! This is acoustic led, and laden on top with percussion a bass line and piano keeping things simple. But Adem brings the power with her voice, bringing a spirituality to the lyrics about leaving things up to God in her relationship.
She poses a strong question here:
If I told you i pray for you,
Would you let down your walls for me?
I like this line a lot, I connected with it from the outset.
So, for this reason this is my track of the week.
Ama is a singer songwriter from London, her name incidentally means born on a Saturday. She’s from Ghana.
Team Ghana jollof forever.
Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
CORA – (BOY)Cott
Putting the word in brackets open up a lot of questions but I think I get it having done a little bit of research. This song is about breaking up with a partner and taking back control of her life, it’s a pointed jab with levels of pettiness on the levels of You’re So Vain by Carly Simon, in the sense that Cora calls out the “boy” in particular for dressing like a child. You could say she’s going after the manosphere advocates with this, and rightly so she’s taking back control.
The fact that the Boy in boycott is in brackets is deep on many levels as it’s saying to me boycott boys, she’s making a stand against boys who have toxic personalities that are no good for her and standing up for herself.
This is all based around a heavy rock instrumental, guitars turned all the way to 11 and you can feel the anger through this…
What a tune!
Cora’s quite scarce on social media but from what I can find of her, she’s from Australia and this track has apparently already gone viral.
I love it when things like that happen.
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ELANDRA – Deadlock
This is a track that’s got jangly guitars over an indie disco feel, and calls to mind mid 2000s band Hard-Fi, in its energy and to me this track has the potential of being an anthem! What I really like about this song is the lyrics:
We search for ourselves
In labyrinths of thoughts,
We like to keep ourselves safe
In bubbles we don’t pop.
This song is essentially about being part of something that doesn’t seem to go anywhere but because there is safety in numbers they do it to keep the peace, at least that’s my interpretation anyway!
Elandra are a band from Brighton, a duo made up of talian-born songwriter/producer Paolo Siviero and bassist/co-producer George Seymour-Cole, this comes from their album Right Wrong.
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GRUBBY – The Least You Want
Fellow moderator and Londoner Grubby comes to the table with a track that’s slick in production and packed full of solid breakbeats. Add to that a coating of vocal samples that make you feel like you’re part of a very exclusive product launch – I can hear this being used in a car advert and now that music syncing is something that artists are looking to do I can’t see this out of place in that world.
The synths are played expertly, the beats are going at a decent speed and I can’t complain!
Grubby is a north Londoner, one thing I’d like to put on people’s radars is that he’s also a Jedi master level playlister so if you’re in his playlists this is a good thing! Submit to his playlists here.
Instagram | Twitter/X | Bandcamp
JULIANNA JOY -20 Minutes Away
This is a well produced track! I love that pulsing bassline, as it’s there to anchor to the lyrics – and what lyrics!
This is a track that tells the story of someone who leaves town to find themselves, but not quite – because they’re not more than 20 minutes away. The title drew me in when I looked at the inbox initially. I like the fact that Julianna Joy picked a big city like the City of Angels and not a generic small town for the story to begin. The song talks about how this person left LA because it felt empty and it is implied that they almost burned bridges, but the door is still open for them to come back.
One thing to note here is that the vocals are recorded in multiple layers – the main vocal is sung as usual but you feel the anger in the shouted parts underneath, it’s like the writer is illustrating that the anger is just below the surface and is not far at all. I love that kind of tactic!
Anyway, who is Julianna Joy? Funnily enough she’s from Los Angeles, she started writing songs at the age of 11 in her bedroom.
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LUNAR BIRD – The Things We Used To
Lunar Bird describe themselves as making music from outer space.
I’m a nerd.
I can work with that.
This has a lovely synth tone that occupies the space of a guitar given this is an indie pop tune, and is quite pleasing to the ear. It’s very New Order in the sound design, but the track in itself is anything but, this also has a layer of soul in there but I think that’s because this has a retro feel in itself. I think that’s intentional because this song looks back on a relationship put under the microscope to evoke memories.
And now we lost each other,
Yet we won’t forget,
Our dinners in the bathtub,
We won’t forget the hours spent,
Hiding so well, hiding in bed.
But then the writer has made peace with themselves because they know the inspiration for this is going to be okay.
Lunar Bird are a duo originally from Italy, Roberta Musillam being the vocalist and synth player and bassist/visual artist Eliseo Di Malto. They currently reside in Cardiff.
Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X | YouTube
MAIUS MOLLIS – Golden Child
Time for some dream pop now, this comes to us from an artist called Maius Mollis and if I was to analyse this from the song lyrics to the cover itself, then I’d say it’s about someone who’s caught between two worlds.
“I’ve been biting my tongue for so long
Fighting these feelings like I ought to
I’m in the middle fighting you both off
Golden child drowning in the deep blue.”
Could this be about the break up of two parents? Or the break up of two friends? Is Maius is caught in the middle? Loyalties are divided, and she doesn’t know which way to go. If you look at the track artwork it shows that Maius is almost split in two being dragged in one direction or another – it’s a very clever way of adding meaning to the song!
Maius Mollis is from South Shields, and has seen support from PRS for Women’s Make Music Fund, and as a result this is part of a series of releases for 2026.
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MARED – Numbing
One of my favourite things about the artists we discover through fresh on the net is that home baked warm bread sound that you get – it’s in the chord progressions and also the odd percussion sounds you might come across as well. This track has a combination of the two, in the beginning you hear a wood block as well the simple sound of what sounds like a la repeated on a n off beat, and then when the drums come in the beat skips a couple of times like you’re tripping over it but it’s not consistent – again this shows genius in the arrangement!
My favourite part of the song is in the chorus at 1:33 we are treated to soulful harmonies and jazzy progressions on the bass, and I love it!
Also, shout out to the drummer for the cymbal swells and ghost notes, and also helping to build tension under when MARED goes for a wander and goes ghostly.
This is stunning.
In which case…
Yep.
Mared is my one to watch.
Mared is a singer songwriter who sings in both English and Welsh, she blends her rural roots with the influence that living in a city has on her.
MON RAYON – One Of A Kind ft. Vira Milton
This track has that old school 60s vibe, you’re expecting this to be playing in the background of a Tarantino movie in a dive bar where two people from opposite sides of the track find love and then go on a killing spree while fighting psychotic aliens headed up by William Shatner in an abandoned spaghetti western movie set.
There’s a good reason why I’m a musician and not a screenplay writer!
Anyway this wouldn’t sound out of place on a vinyl run, the warmth it has is nice and analogue it has the psychedelic feel to it, the strings aren’t overpowering but they are present as are the glockenspiel.
Lyrically this talks about meeting someone for the first time:
You are so one of a kind so divine,
You make my Jawa drop,
I’ve got you stuck in my mind,
You are so one of a kind,
You’re sublime
You make my time stop,
And I’m tired of waiting around,
So tell me that you want me.
I also have to call out the vocals on this, very well performed and it’s one of my favourite things – it reminds me a little bit of The Mamas And The Papas. Vira Milton’s vocal gives me the impression of a James Bond movie soundtrack!
Needless to say, I’m now a fan.
Mon Rayon are a Swedish baroque pop and romantic indie duo formed by musicians Josef Ask and Christoffer Zetterlund. Hailing from Stockholm, they are known for blending 60s French pop, cinematic spaghetti-western aesthetics, and lush dual-vocal harmonies.
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YOVA – Sunday Afternoon
To close out the faves this week we have a short and sweet track from Yova. It just breezes in, and features a beautiful guitar melody to match a vocal that I. have fallen in love with to be honest. It matches the mood of a Sunday Afternoon too, when if it’s sunny like it is now, then you’d be sitting in Greenwich Park with a drink of your choice. I like it when artists soundtrack our lives probably without even thinking about it.
This track is so gentle, a mix of guitar and synth being played – I have it on good authority that the synths are analogue. I like the way it fades up and you hear a soprano singing before the guitar comes in.
I can’t get past the vocals on this it just washes over me, she could sing a lullaby to me and I feel comforted.
I don’t think there’s much I can say to that. I get the feeling this could end up being one of my favourite submissions of the year and for this reason I give Yova my chef’s kiss badge.
YOVA is an alternative/experimental indie-pop band formed by Macedonian-born vocalist and lyricist Jova Radevska and London-based musician and producer Mark Vernon.
