Intergalactic Burnout
Staring at stars scattered low across the horizon line only to discover they are fragments of human glow from afar. Intergalactic Burnout sounds like freedom but feels like a dead end. In its heavenly soundscape, you are reminded of your own demise. There is an emptiness to its vast lushness. There is a philosophical thoughtfulness to the vintage-tinged haze of these records. A new point of view, a piece of advice. A nostalgic futurism. This is where dreams meet death. This is depression, set to new wave. This is synth pop existentialism. This is Intergalactic Burnout.
La Meillure Chose Que Me Soit Arrivée, Galatée (2019)
Galatée has a vast and varied discography you may, too, find yourself paralyzed by at some point in time. Lost sea of synth pop, it is hard to choose a favorite EP or LP. However, time and time again, I find the atmosphere and conciseness of La Meillure Chose Que Me Soit Arrivée difficult to beat.
While some of their other works can get muddled into the amalgamation of dream pop that exists, La Meillure Chose Que Me Soit Arrivée manages to break out the confines of the genre, packing a punch while staying true to the hypnosis of new wave at its core. There is something frightening about the title track. Like the approach of a fog bank like a blanket in the night. Like the onset of something sinister yet mesmerizing. The progression to Veilleuses feels natural but certainly enters us into a new chapter of the night - one of exploration and a little more comfort as we sink into the consistent rythym. The following Palmiers Dans La Neige is a deep sleep, an interlude to the sonic wandering that tethers us to breathing synths as if in a meditation before we are thrown into Ce Soir. An incredible track that truly feels intergalactic, Ce Soir closes the EP on a trip through a star-studded abyss that will leave you dazed and coming back for more.
Later Than You Think, John Maus (2025)
John Maus is a strange and diving figure. His messy affiliations - educational, political, and genre-wise - make him a bit of an anomoly in the indie and experimental music scene. The PhD “philosopher pop-star” has been known to mix lo-fi synth-pop with existentialism. As he weaves together ideas about the birth and demise of the world on Later Than You Think, his voice becomes one of the instruments in the hymns that characterize the record.
Maus’ seventh album feels like the intersection of new wave and church choir. A midnight mass turned disco. His title of a “nostalgic futurist” is fitting here as he fuses the medieval with the visionary. Later Than You Think is as lyrically bizarre as it is charming. Off-kilter lines about the antichrist, koalas or his funny French speaking fit seamlessly into a sonic landscape that feels funky, dysphoric, and dystopian all at once. There are glimpses of complex storytelling (Pick It Up, Losing Your Mind), but for the most part, Maus manages with little. Without sounding repetitive but rather like a cult prayer, the songs in Later Than You Think are succesful because of how meticulous their minimalist writing is. In some ethereal plane, Maus, with the voice of God, looks down on us, our sins, our fears - and laughs. A powerfully original record.
Amateur, Molly Nilsson (2025)
Amateur is Swedish Molly Nilsson’s eleventh studio album since she started recording back in 2009. Nilsson’s records are not terribly distinct from one another, making it rather difficult to choose Amateur over one of her many other albums. However, I feel highlighting Amateur is doing justice to Nilsson’s progression. While all of her work stays within the nostalgic confines of the synth-pop genre, Amateur feels the most relevant and modern.
“Where once her synths were hazy and amorphous… Amateur is taut”, says Fader in a review of the article. Nilsson’s music is bound to feel nostalgic by nature, but something about Amateur feels accessible. Between the coming-of-age drama of Die Cry Lie, the cheekiness of Classified, and the robust angst of Get A Life, Amateur is bound to at least something that everyone, everywhere can resonate with. Rather than showing you something new per se, the record sinks you into feelings and memories you just forgot you had. While Nilsson’s avant-garde artistic pop vision is unwaveringly coherent, her self-proclaimed DIY self-recorded style is bound to be more controversial among listeners. Her production can indeed be fuzzy and even funny at times, but there is something charming about the vibe it curates. Like listening to soundtrack for a 90s movie on an old cassette. If you can get behind Nilsson’s vision - even if that means looking past unconventional production style - her work is bound to be fulfilling.
Midnight Hill, Bluhm (2024)
On their beautifully-produced sophomore album, the energing independent Detroit-based duo Bluhm captures all of the same existentialism as the other albums on this playlist but with litte less synth and a little more indie. While maintaining a predominantly new wave spirit, Midnight Hill sees Bluhms voice at the forefront of the album, rather than drowned into the hazy instrumentals as in the other records.
Bluhm’s self-proclaimed “music for lovers and leavers”is just that - it floats in between simply blissful and shatteringly metaphysical. It is this duality - a confrontation of classic humanhood and an old soul - that makes it fit right at home in this playlist. This is thanks to Midnight Hill’s generally flawless writing that echoes questions we all have like “will you wait for me?” that apply just as well to love as they do to loss. In this way, Midnight Hill walks the line between life and death, somehow making it feel effortless, meaningful, and just a little bit frivolous. Here, Bluhm reminds us of our own demise and yet encourages us to not take any of it too seriously.
