On six tracks the Australian six-piece traces blurred boundaries, resentment and shifting emotions across reggae, alternative rock and psychedelia — ending with a stripped-back closing that leaves the songs exposed.
Second in Line is a six-track debut EP that explores friendship’s messy emotional terrain — jealousy, blurred boundaries, resentment and uncertainty.
Vocal duties are shared by Brianne Reyes and Sienna Law, giving multiple perspectives to the EP’s narratives.
The EP closes with an acoustic, cello-backed track that contrasts with earlier heavier arrangements and leaves the record on a vulnerable note.
Calico City formed in high school and spent the past year shaping a sound that crosses alternative rock, reggae and psychedelia. Second in Line is their debut EP, a six-track collection that treats friendship as a complicated subject rather than a simple given.
The EP examines the grey areas of friendship: jealousy, blurred boundaries, resentment and uncertainty. Each song takes a different angle on how a friendship can change — unravel, harden, or shift into something else. Vocalists Brianne Reyes and Sienna Law alternate and share duties, which broadens the storytelling by supplying more than one perspective on the same emotional territory.
Approach to arrangement and dynamics
Shared lead vocals are central to the EP's intent. By handing songs between Reyes and Law, the band avoids a single point of view and instead presents relational conflict and uncertainty as multi-sided. That choice supports the lyrical focus on the messy, non-romantic relationships that most people navigate.
For a debut, Second in Line covers a wide sonic and emotional range without losing focus on its central subject: the instability that can exist inside close friendships. The record's most effective moments come when the band lets the messiness of those relationships inform the musical choices, so that production, arrangement and performance all reinforce the lyrics.
Second in Line is out now. The band's online presence includes a Linktree (linktr.ee/calicocityband) with Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, Triple J Unearthed and social channels listed.
Melding hazy psychedelia and melodic rock, Drawing Room‘s excellent single “Object Permanence” grew from an improvised rehearsal-room performance, preserving the original bass and drum take as the foundation for a song whose themes of memory and absence eventually inspired its title. The Los Angeles-based project of Gr
Wishy's second album is a studious reinvention of bygone, joyful indie rock.
Chicago-based rockers Sun Queen ventures into heavier territory on “Calypso,” their first release since 2025 debut album Pieces and the opening single from a forthcoming sophomore album. Inspired by an imagined island refuge beyond everyday anxiety, the track balances nocturnal tension with a persistent pull toward sti
Chester four-piece Red Seas continue to carve out their own space within the alternative rock landscape with “Lilac Fields,” a raw and atmospheric second single that combines distorted guitars, heavy drums and deliberately lo-fi production. Released as the follow-up to “Soda Bath,” the track captures a band increasingl
Berlin-based Pretty Average channels raw distortion and unapologetic storytelling into a sharp-edged, live-driven sound. The band’s frontwoman Candy Bassas delivers songs from a female perspective on identity, social rejection and generational uncertainty — her rough, unfiltered voice cutting through waves of gritty gu
Made up of Anna McClean, Stan Thompson and Luke Faiers, with Ozan Koseoglu on drums, the London-based dreampop band slowly, then all at once, releases their debut offering, Rewind. Complete with 90s-style nostalgia and reverb-drenched guitars, their first single is cinematic and subtly ambitious. Discussing the writing
Loading more related stories...
Open the app view to save this story, compare related coverage, and continue from the same source.