(via Shutterstock)
We all need music.
It soundtracks the good, the bad and the ugly – this reference makes way further down this pot – and it gives up hope and a sense of direction when all around us life feels like it’s sinking beneath the waves.
These five featured artists know the power of music to console and change and give insight and a sense of comfort, using words and banging beats to make the difficult and the challenging just that little bit easier to deal with.
So, sit back, or better yet, get up and dance, and lose yourself in knowing your pain and your thoughts are shared with others and that there is huge power and hope in that …
“Romantic Sadness” by girli
(courtesy official girli Facebook page)
Active in the music industry since 2014, Girli, known to her parents, friends and the UK Government as Amelia Toomey, is a talented London-based singer-songwriter.
One of her many great strengths as a music artist is her gift for marrying compellingly melodic pop tunes with incisive social or personal commentary in ways that turn her songs into agents of change that never fail to first capture your attention and then keep it.
One of the more recent songs, “Romantic Sadness” fits beautifully into this tradition, with the meaningful lyrics sitting nestled within upbeat music that is entirely at home on the dance floor.
It’s a magical, repeat-listenable track about which music is to blame. has this to say:
Amelia Toomey, also known as GIRLI uses her latest single “Romantic Sadness” to explore what happens when coping mechanisms stop working in the face of tragedy. The chorus starts with an admission, “Run out of ways to romanticize sadness / Now movies and poems don’t cut it.” There’s something so human about how people try to soften the blow of heartbreak by using the media around them. This song acknowledges that, sometimes, though, it is not enough to become a distraction.
“Shiny New Songs” by Em Beihold
(courtesy official Em Beihold Facebook page)
I adore the music of Em Beihold.
Hailing from the U.S., the singer-songwriter born in Los Angeles, keeps releasing infectiously catchy after infectiously catchy track all while having something super thoughtful to say as she does so (think her insightful commentary on mental health in 2022’s “Numb Little Bug”).
The latest evidence of her sublimely good craft is “Shiny New Things”, lifted off her debut album, Tales of a Failed Shapeshifter, and it’s a song that Melodic Mag cited as one of their “Recommended Tracks” off the album along with “Brutus” and “Van Gogh”.
Kicking off with some seriously funky “la la la” energy, the song laments the fact that people are always racing off in search of new things rather than actually connecting with other people.
It’s a biting commentary on the current digital age where people can’t seem to sit still long enough to actually appreciate what it means to have a meaningful, lasting connection, one which will prove way more fulfilling than embracing the latest glittering new trend.
The music is upbeat, the vocals are harmonised to a compellingly beautiful sheen and the lyrics really hit home, giving you a chance to reflect on your own part in the modern digital rat race as you sing merrily along.
“FEVER DREAM” by Alex Warren
(courtesy YouTube)
“Fever Dream” is one of those memorable tracks that bursts out the gate with warm, rich vocals and tons of energy and doesn’t let up for anyone through its three-and-a-bit minutes run-time.
Brought to you by American singer-songwriter Alex Warren, the country influenced upbeat track which That Eric Alper calls “arena-sized pop” moves at a cracking pace that carries you along on a burbling wave of melodically danceable pop.
It came with a pre-release Instagram tease campaign and a very cool clip that sees the artist living a series of increasingly over-the-top scenarios in her search of an elusive woman who always seems one step ahead of him.
Rather cleverly the clip ends up with a question mark about whether it’s a dream after all or real life, adding some cinematic fun to a song that absolutely knocks it brilliantly out of the park and doesn’t look back even once.
“SOMEWHERE ELSE” by TOMORA
(courtesy official TOMORA Facebook page)
There is immense power in collaboration.
Current Example A is TOMORA, which brings together Tom Rowlands from The Chemical Brothers and Aurora, a fantastically creative Norwegian artist I have long admired for her brilliant, out-of-the-box artistry.
The result of their combined talents, which first found fruition, says Joy of Violent Movement, during recording sessions for The Chemical Brothers’ 2019 album, No Geography, to which Aurora contributed vocals on three songs.
“SOMEWHERE ELSE” is proof that seven years later the fruit of their collective labours remains potently listenable with the euphorically danceable song which came very early on in the collaboration.
’SOMEWHERE ELSE’ is one of the first songs we ever wrote, as TOMORA. And it opened up a big door for us, into our world,” AURORA says. Tom Rowland adds, ‘Ever since AURORA sang that melody to me it’s been running around my head brightening my day. We played an early version of the song at Glastonbury Festival and it felt like magic. Now we get to share it, it’s a total joy.’ (Joy of Violent Movement)
The track joins debut single, “Ring the Alarm” on the group’s first album, COME CLOSER, which releases 17 April this year.
“Ride” by Jessie Ware
(courtesy official Jessie Ware Facebook page)
There really wasn’t a lot to recommend the first year of the COVID pandemic in 2020, but along with the bliss of working from home and a chance to catch our digital-adrenalised breath, I discovered the impossibly brilliant queer-friendly pop delights of British singer-songriter, Jessie Ware.
The song that started the ball rolling was “Save a Kiss”, which came complete with a clip featuring all of her dancers and crew dancing out a set of choreographed moves from the safety of their locked-down homes, and since then, song after song has proved that this artist has her fingers very much hard on the pop pulse.
If I needed any more proof of her talents, and honestly I don’t, it’s new-ish track “Ride” which comes with a glossy Westerns aesthetic and a disco deliciousness that suggests that the title may not necessarily be about going for a gallop out on the ranch.
Oh, who are we kidding – she comes out and says it directly, all of it laced with vibrant sense of danceable lushness and what CLASH says is an interpolation of “the iconic theme from Spaghetti Western flick The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, all of it summoning up a brilliantly catch tale of “carnal desire”.
It’s an absolute banger of a track that Ware says had the following genesis (CLASH):
‘”Ride” was the first song I wrote for this record. I made it in 2024 with my best friend Jack Peñate and Karma Kid, who feature throughout the album. It’s a song for the clubs, for the dancefloor – fun, cinematic, cheeky and powerful. I first performed it at NYC Downlow at Glastonbury after headlining West Holts, and I’ve been waiting two years to finally put it out. I know others have been waiting too… So here it is. You’re welcome.’
SONGS, SONGS AND MORE SONGS EXTRA!
One of the absolute best algorithmic discoveries of 2026, which came courtesy of a lazy deep dive into the realms of YouTube one night after a torrid day at work, was “Click Clack Symphony” by stunningly talented British singer-songwriter, RAYE.
It is lifted off her newly-release album, This Music May Contain Hope, as is this other incredibly moving and empathetically rich track, “I Know You’re Hurting”, which beautifully articulates what we all wish we could say to a friend in pain.
This performance is stunning …