Melissa Kacar

"Everything's Just Wonderful" inhabits the sarcastic, dry wit that has always made Lily Allen stand out as an artist. This is such an underrated gem of Y2K British indie pop and a sharp, clever classic from her 2006 debut Alright, Still . The song pokes fun at modern society with her signature biting humor and sarcasm. Structurally, it's also surprisingly unconventional for a mid‑2000s pop single, leaning into a kind of conversational storytelling that felt refreshingly blunt at the time. Co‑written and produced with her frequent collaborator Greg Kurstin, this song pairs a light, carefree melody with lyrics that contrast with a much daker undertone.  The song is an interesting satirical commentary on many political and societal pressures that have remained very relevant since the time it was written. "Do you think everything, everyone is going mental?" Lily sings in the opening lines. "It seems to me we're spiraling outta control, and it's ine...

As part of the final leg of her GUTS tour, Olivia Rodrigo headlined festivals all over the world, including day two of Lollapalooza in Chicago during the summer of 2025. With that set, she reportedly broke the record for the biggest headline crowd  in the festival's history, bring over 150,000 people together in Grant Park.  During her record-breaking debut set at Lolla, she was joined on stage by surprise guests Weezer . They performed two songs together, which was a very special and full-circle moment for Olivia as the band was her first ever concert when she was younger. "You always remember your first concert. It's a very, very special moment," she said before introducing the special guests. "I remember my first concert. It was a very memorable night. I watched this incredible band and I am so over the moon, because that incredible band is actually here tonight to play a few songs. Will you please say hello to Weezer?" They performed two of the band...

Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I’m Not served as the introduction to a band that would go on to define a generation, reshaping the sound and spirit of modern rock. In doing so, Arctic Monkeys blended styles of punk, garage rock, indie, and alternative rock into a sound that was all their own. The band originally formed in 2002 and continued to build momentum until their eventual debut in 2006. They became known for handing out free demo CDs at their shows, circulated these early recordings among friends and unintentionally became one of the first music acts to gain traction on MySpace. Their rise was unheard of at the time, especially for an indie band from the suburbs of northern England. Their guerilla approach to digital music marketing ended up re-shaping the entire industry, without even intending to do so. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not ended up becoming an early blueprint for the role social media would soon come to play in the music industry....

"Narcissist" was a standout single from No Rome 's 2018 EP RIP Indo Hisashi , his first release under The 1975's label, Dirty Hit . He worked closely with George Daniel and Matty Healy throughout the entire project, so their sonic influence runs through the EP, but this track is the only one to officially feature The 1975 as a collective. In a 2018 interview with Zane Lowe for Beats 1, No Rome - the stage name for London-based Filipino artist Guendoline Gomez - opened up about the early concept of the song and their collaboration. He said, "I made a demo then I sent it over to Matty cause we were listening to the stuff that I'd been working on recently. I sent him over that track and he also fell in love with it the same way I did, and he was like, 'oh, do you wanna do something with it?' so I was like 'yeah.'" The song has such an infectious hook and is truly an underrated gem. It captures the feeling of going round and round in a rel...

The concept for Finn Wolfhard 's debut solo album, Happy Birthday ,  was born from the challenge he gave himself in 2022 to write fifty songs by the end of the year. This nine track album ended up becoming a brief and curated glimpse into the music he made during that time.  "I started realizing a general theme in a lot of the other songs involving my identity, anxieties, nostalgia, childhood and loneliness. All of that was a part of a bigger puzzle. I knew I wanted to make a record, but I didn't know with which songs," he said in an interview with NME . Finn is best known for his role as Mike in  Stranger Things , as well as starring in two  Ghostbusters  reboots and  It , among others. Alongside his acting work, he has always been making music. In 2018 he released an EP with his band Calpurnia, and later was one half of the psych‑rock duo The Aubreys.  Happy Birthday  marks Finn's first solo music release and is largely a reflection of the conti...