A female gaze. A female gloom. You are stalked from the shadow by the eyes of a purring shadow. Knowing and feline. In them, you see glimpses of your own rage. Your own sadness. Your own lonlieness, reiterated back to you more eloquently than you could have ever managed. These records are the soundscape to female complexity. Like being clawed by a soft paw you forgot had sharp nails. There is a fragility to their cold, dissociative feel. There is a beauty to their obscurity. There is a serenity to how they haunt you. How they watch you. How they know you already. This is atmospheric alternative and moody indie. By women.

**Heartcore**, Blanche Biau (2025)

By far, one of the best albums of the year. This was an incredible find (credit to A.P.) and I have personally been listening to this record non-stop since discovering it. Munich-born Zurich-raised Blanche Biau was not previously on my radar, nor is she on many people’s radars. With around 30k monthly listeners, Blanche creates her self proclaimed “sad but dreamy” (and sometimes nightmarish) shoegaze indie.

I could tell you that her music feels like drowning (in the best way possible), but you would probably prefer to read Fabrizio Lusso’s description of her sound a 2022 interview with the young artist for White Light / White Heat: “she creates bass and drum-machine driven dreamlike and melancholy spellbinding synth-wave-pop realms, pervaded by ecstatic refractions of light and shadow, amidst eerie celestial visions, heady somber synthetic dizziness, misty shoegazing raptures.” One of the album’s strengths is it’s coherence. It has a strong theme and sticks to it, meaning the songs bleed into eachother beautifully and making the album feel like a 30 minute performance. It works because, athough the transitions are seamless, each track maintains it’s own autonomy and stands on it’s own. I’m still not over the nonchalant-ness with which she quietly dropped this stunning record (that still remains no where near streamed enough). If there is any album you take away from this playlist, I hope it is this one.

**Star Witness**, True Blue (2025)

If you like **Heartcore**, you will surely like **Star Witness**. The LP is not an album but a mixtape, featuring all her singles since 2023. Seven of the eleven songs on the record had been previously released as singles across the past two years. Nonetheless, seeing them compiled in this way grants a newfound appreciation for the tracks’ surprising coherence. Despite playing around with genres, **Star Witness** remains on-theme throughout.

Concretely, it is a dark, obscure, feminine take on a fusion of atmospheric electronic and indie rock. Between the sad, funky, and experimental elements, True Blue truly does make it impossible to know what is coming. I would place her sound is somewhere in between Blanche Biau and Oklou (featured later in this list). Knives Out is a cool track that leans more indie while I Wanna Believe is a full embrace of funky electro-dance while Cherry-coloured Funk lands perfectly in between the two. If you are looking for a sexy mixtape to get you through your shadowy nighttime city excursions or the overcast days of city winter, Star Witness promises to coat you in her cloak of demure gloom.

**MADRA**, NewDad (2024)

One of the best indie records I’ve found in a long time. While not the most visionary or original album ever, NewDad simply nailed the basics on this record. There really are countless Irish/British alternative groups making great music in this genre (you can’t blame them, they’re damn good at it), but NewDad is truly among the best of them. With succinct, punchy writing, production that verges on shoegaze without being muddled.

The content of the album is rather spiky and consumed by pain. And yet, somehow, the band drowns out this pain in their dreamy pop sound that makes for an utterly pleasant listening experience. Any lovers of Wolf Alice, wet leg, or Garbage (especially with the self-harm themes) will find comfort in the familiar disturb of MADRA.

**Object Permanence**, Sophia Stel (2024)

Sophia Stel has one of the most interesting voices in pop at the moment. Despite the young artist’s (intentional) awkward and amateur persona (which is actually part of her charm), **Object Permanence** feels very *cool*. Through and through, it gives damaged model energy: 50% super fucking sad, 50% super fucking hot. **Object Permanence** is just as good for self-loathing as it is for self-love.

Hopping between big pop ballads and niche hyperpop sounds, Sophia Stel manages to fit a lot into the relatively short record: dark dancey synth (I’ll Take It), spacious and ambient (I’m Not Alone), catchy indie kicks (Object Permanence), emo dance (You Could Hate Me) and grungey rock energy (No Pressure). The nostalgia (and fun) of Object Permanence promises to bring out your y2k alter ego. Embrace it.

**choke enough**, Oklou

Oklou is making her way to the top. It has been lovely (and not without hiccups) to watch Oklou locate her sound after over a decade of making music. She is a remarkably unique and innovative artist. Very much like FKA Twigs (whom she recently collaborated with), Oklou’s music feels like an extension of her person(a). She feels full of unsolveable mystery - her music brings us close to understanding, but never all the way.

Her voice is not an attempt to bring herself into the spotlight of the song. Rather, she is just another instrument in the layers of sound on Choke Enough. Her lyrics and voice, laced perfectly into the sonic orchestra, are there to sink us deeper into the sound, not pull us out of it. I believe even newcomers to indie/alternative can find pleasure in her music: catchy tunes smoothed by synth flute or trumpets that mask a profound soft underbelly of Oklou’s immense understanding of music.

Black Cat

Spoon

Black Cat

System Overload

Alt Rock Isn’t Dead

Spoon