"Oh, that band? I’ve been listening to them since before they were everyone’s favorite." A phrase I’ve murmured far more than I like to admit. I'm so much fun at parties, if you can't tell. Over time, my pretentiousness hardened into what some might generously call "music taste." As my frontal lobe caught up, I learned to keep that thought in my head (less for humility, more for preserving the laid-back atmospheres of social gatherings.) Annoying, sure, but this quiet smugness sharpens your radar. If you’re actually interested in music and are a good listener, you start to sniff out what's about to blow up before anyone else. With years of fine-tuning my antennas and a proven track record of ruining other people’s fun, I’m here to let you in on my secret.
Here are seven artists who are primed for greatness and selling out big venues. It’s only a matter of time, really. Whether you jump on the bandwagon now or wait until you're elbowing your way to the front row in hopes of catching a glimpse, the choice is yours.
Daryl Johns
Daryl Jones' music is like the first days of spring, the moment when the earth awakens and the air feels new again. It's like watching Top of The Pops or drinking orange juice first thing in the morning. It's smooth, drenched in sunshine and grass stains, it's a celebration of joy that wraps itself around you. While it's easy to assume that the “feel-good” aspect would be the most striking part of his music, that would be a disservice to what this record truly offers. As Daryl Jones unfolds, you start to fall for the guitar work that’s so fast-paced that it feels like you're running a marathon. By the time the album wraps, you’ll have become one of those people who claims things like, “DJing isn’t real,” because you’ve just heard guitar playing taken to such an exhilarating level. The speed, the precision, it’s unlike anything you can easily pin down. Sure, you might be tempted to name-drop Toto or The Police, to reach for nostalgic references, but Jones defies imitation. His sound is too distinct, too electrifying, a concoction of energy that could only be achieved with at least a couple of Red Bull vodkas in your system. Drinking is the easy part, you'll also need the kind of talent that measures up.
UTO
UTO is a French pop duo that can be best described as kinetic energy waiting to ignite into a fiery, unstoppable machine of loving grace, delicate yet robotic, seamlessly blending chaos, collusion, and earnestness into motion. Their remarkable album When All You Want to Do is Be the Fire Part of Fire, which dropped earlier this year, has propelled them to the forefront of bands to watch.Tracks like 2MOONS and Napkin stand out, wrapping the listener in beautiful, pixelated, neon-colored blankets. The duo masters spitting out gut-wrenching, intimate songs while, ironically, positioning themselves through their modified image, largely driven by AI. The contrast between these ideas creates something remarkably fresh, blending raw emotion with digital cool in a way that feels entirely new.
Evanora Unlimited
Listening to Evanora Unlimited feels like ego death. It’s the kind of experience that throws you off balance, so wrong and right in ways that make your ears feel like they need to recalibrate to the chaos being poured into them. It’s disorienting, like stepping into a new reality where everything feels both familiar and foreign at once. The title of their 2024 album, Perfect Answer, is the definitive response to any question you might have about their music, though ironically, it raises more questions than it answers. Oh, it’s a punk album? No, wait, maybe it’s electroclash. Is this the final form of indie sleaze, chopped up and screwed loose into some disjointed, postmodern masterpiece? You’ll never know for sure. And that’s the beauty of it. Perfect Answer doesn’t offer easy answers, nor does it let you settle into a comfortable genre box. Instead, it challenges your listening habits and pushes against the familiar. But somehow, despite the jarring confusion, Evanora Unlimited delivers a completely unique ride, one that feels unpredictable, and oddly effortless in its brilliance.
Moin
Moin’s 2024 album You Never End wastes no time making its intentions clear. Not a moment is squandered on this record. The opener, Guess It’s Wrecked, sets the tone for what follows, an album steeped in existential musings and journal-like introspection. Cubby hits like an alarm clock, the same words repeated relentlessly, either to jolt you awake or to deepen your spiral of thoughts, how you interpret it is up to you. Each song drips with pain and sentimentality, often feeling like salt on a wound, leaving a bittersweet sting. The minimal production keeps the record raw and honest, as if it were recorded in your guest room, capturing a rare type of perfectionism that feels both unpolished yet perfectly intentional.
Colle
Few songs have hit me as hard as Colle's Silent for Joy. It’s a dreamy, nostalgic piece that’s perfect for those bus rides when all you need is to sit back and ponder all the possible versions of your life, the ones you lived, and the ones you didn't. There's a familiarity to it, as if you've heard it before, yet the ethereal vocals and the otherworldly layers of strings make it feel entirely new. Loving the track as much as I did, I wasn’t sure what to expect from her recent album Montalvo, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it holds onto the same emotional integrity. The album feels like an extension of that same wistful feeling, dripping with nostalgia, the passage of time, and quiet reflection. It's a beautiful listen, the kind of album that sits by your bedside, keeping you company and gently lulling you back into memories, like the taste of your first strawberry ice cream or the joy of blowing out candles on a homemade birthday cake.
Dog Race
This isn't the first time the mischievous band Dog Race has been mentioned on Tonitruale. One of our columnists, David, dedicated an entire article to the band, discussing how they’re a band truly worth keeping an eye on. Consider this a reminder, if you will. Hailing from London, Dog Race blends elements of post-punk, chamber pop, and gothic, operatic vocals to create a sonic destination that conveys their vision in ways words alone cannot. In It's The Squeeze, lead vocalist Katie Healy's voice is both grounded and ethereal, a duality that makes it feel like she’s everywhere and nowhere at once. When you think her voice has receded into the distance, you realize it’s speaking directly into your ear. Just when you think you have a hold on her presence, she vanishes again, leaving you suspended in the moment.
Fine
Copenhagen-based Glindvad Jensen's debut album Rocky Top Ballads is a retelling of deeply personal experiences that somehow feel universally familiar. Themes like childhood, remembering, forgetting, and the strange discomfort of still remembering, all take center stage. It’s fascinating how concepts so universal can feel so foreign the more we examine them, and this paradox is held beautifully in the album, through each song. The hazy, fuzzy textures of the record reflect the fleeting nature of each moment, bathing the entire album with a sense of impermanence. It’s as if the album itself is a memory book, a time capsule that no longer exists, yet the feelings it evokes linger, trapped in a place where time and memory blur. Rocky Top Ballads captures that bittersweet quality of recollection, where the past never truly disappears, but its edges soften and fade, leaving behind these songs as trails of what once was.
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