Straight to 5th gear with rock gems from Citizen Smith, V.E.N.! and Chris Oledude

Press ignition to different eras of explorative rock with Citizen Smith, V.E.N.! and Chris Oledude. This is retro hour, and you can follow these musicians for more like this!

Citizen Smith-Summer Magazine

These are The Cars vibes in a bottle. Citizen Smith brought together friends with diverse tastes in music. What they bring with their tunes represents the music that they love, playing it the way it should be. Is there a retro wash to it? Hell yes. Do they remind us of the radio that buzzed with static and played feel good music you drove long distances to? Yes. Summer Magazine shows you a catalogue of chord progressions or riffs that makes you feel like you’ve found a pot of gold in the library. The guitars are layered, bringing a familiar sound to us, while the vocals sound like Tom Petty with a smile. This is beyond love and infatuation; it’s that fleeting feeling of seeing a familiar entity through print. When you planned an entire future with someone you’d only just seen a photo of, imagination running wild:

V.E.N.!-Now

V.E.N.!’s music echoes through different time periods. Yet he grounds you to the present like no other indie artist I’ve heard before. His single Now from the EP The Beauty of Danger features an excited moment of revelation through guitar and flowing percussion. Eduardo Campoy Molinero sounds animated and excited and in peak desire for grabbing the present and living every moment of it. In this entire collection of tracks, he is looking at the liminal space between emotions, and he’s extremely poignant in his delivery. Guitar tones remain bright and inspiring, while he doesn’t overproduce the song to make it feel like generative AI slop. The song has a swing like a Beatles number and groove that V.E.N.! carries a very personal storytelling style in his music; you’d never be able to predict where his lyrics are going next. Now, I give you Now:

Chris Oledude – THE CHOICE

Make way for the old with the old. Chris Oledude showcases why art forms pre-internet had some kind of character. A proud “boomer”, his music elevates you with a certain dose of dopamine that isn’t available en masse. THE CHOICE is another brilliant song from his catalogue that might have more of a prog-rock feel, with the way it has been layered. A fan of several genres like funk, rock and pop, he brings a dramatic flair with this release. Can we shed ancient ideologies? Can we survive the inequalities? asks Chris. His music makes you think, not just blank out and stare into the distance. When his vocal patterns change, so does the rhythm mirror his movement. You could weave yourself into the cesspool of slop the industries make now. Or you could listen to thought-provoking music that has a pulse in every small detail. The choice:

Power through with more inspiring rock music here on our playlist!: