2026 Indie pop

‘My Skyscraper’ represents 40 years or so of works, re-works and works-forever-in-progress of one Steven Hall, aka Nirosta Steel — son of Scotland; step-son of the United States of America; adopted Daddy of Taiwan; Five-Star General in the Buddhist Army; legendary horndog stickman (we have pics!); friend, neighbor, collaborator and co-conspirator of Arthur Russell; and one of the most jawdroppingly sincere songwriting voices you’ll hear in this wretched modern era. Sure, that’s a metric fuck-ton of descriptors for a single person. But it's sorta impossible to capture the full scope of this human being named Steven Hall.
‘My Skyscraper’ doesn’t really even scratch at the surface of his output. And plenty of material is already out there — a devastating 1999 live [but not exactly your standard live recording] called Cool Fire; an EP produced with Russell called Foxy Pup; all his work with the storied outfit Arthur’s Landing, a not-quite-tribute group formed to carry Russell’s torch; and quite a load more. But it’s always a rare and specific constellation of ideas and motifs: queer love songs — night life, giddy desire and odes to lovers of yesterday. There’s the anti-vibrato ethos he shared with Russell always present in the vocal stretches and horn performances. Sexy AF window-buffet disco. Cloudfolk earlobe-lick confessionals. Post-rave sauna-wave. We culled ‘My Skyscraper’ from a few hours-worth of longform mixes Hall sent to us last year. Right away, we noted he also shares with Russell a forever-sculpting approach to songcraft. A folk version of a song here; clubbed out disco version of that same one over there. An absolutely maniacal organizational process that had us triple-checking our metadata. No, we've never met a dada quite like Hall. A True Scotch-American wildass. There’s a dance song originally penned for Madonna in the early 80s (“ENGLISH PARTY”) and an unhinged falset-toe industrikal sludgefunk banger (“YHEMA”). “BOSS TRIX (BENNY’S SONG)” is a seductive deep-house ode to a former Taiwanese boyfriend whose profound intellect was only matched by his ability to shoot a load of come up over his own head — which, now that we think about it, is exactly what the song sounds like, in a good way. Side C of this double vinyl features two super-longform acoustic meditations recorded with Russell. And we have right here 22+ minutes of their Buddhist Bubblegum praxis on full peacock plumage display — Russell’s transcendental tippytap drums propelling us along as Hall works through koan after koan of melody and poetics. The stunning ‘GO FOR THE NIGHT’ — co-written with Russell and performed here with Arthur’s Landing — is lounge-y elegant jazz-pop in the way of Sade that captures the quiet percolating anticipation an approaching night at the club. Will the boy be there? Only one way to find out. Put your headphones on and go for the night.

MUNA’s journey has always been about holding space for the complex, messy, ecstatic realities of life, and with their fourth album, Dancing On The Wall, they’ve never been sharper, darker, or more exhilarating. Emerging from the sparkly, confetti-strewn heights of their 2022 self-titled record, MUNA now channel the anxious, uncertain energy of living in a Los Angeles defined by political tension, environmental decay, and the quiet pressures of millennial precarity. The result is a record that feels both intimate and spectacular, a pop world built with teeth, wit, and emotional resonance, a soundtrack for hearts simultaneously on fire and observing the chaos around them.
Across the record, MUNA explores desire, intimay, and connection against a backdrop of a world in flux. There’s a quiet reckoning throughout the album with how to keep living, loving, and reaching for one another while bearing witness to political brutality and systemic violence and how joy survives without denial. Tracks like “Wannabeher” capture the dizzying thrill of stepping fully into someone else’s fantasy, while “Why Do I Get A Good Feeling” lingers long after the beat ends, a meditation on fleeting joy and suspended possibilities. The album closes with “Buzzkiller,” a stark reckoning with desire and its aftermath, the ache of achieving what you wanted only to realise new questions, doubts, and hungers remain. Their previous work, including the viral hit “Silk Chiffon,” has earned hundreds of millions of streams and widespread acclaim, alongside TV appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Late Late Show with James Corden, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Good Morning America. The band also maintains a devoted following across TikTok, Instagram, and Spotify.
The record is produced by Naomi McPherson, with their trademark attention to detail blending effortlessly with bandmate Josette Maskin’s well-honed behind-the-scenes pop technique to create living, breathing worlds for lead singer Katie Gavin’s incisive lyricism and signature voice. Dancing On The Wall blends euphoric sonic landscapes with sharp, human storytelling. The album reflects a fiercely self-directed creative process, one shaped by instinct, trust, and total artistic control. It feels lived-in, urgent, and cinematic, a reflection of a generation navigating uncertainty while refusing to let go of joy. With this album, MUNA proves once again that pop can be daring, intimate, and socially conscious all at once: a record that doesn’t just capture the moment, but distills it into a world you want to inhabit.