I don’t believe in guilty pleasures, but if I did, Michy Tree would be a shining one. The term ‘pop punk’ almost always describes music I don’t like, but this is an exception.

I first heard London’s Michy Tree early this year when “Pushover” was released, but it took her latest single “Bad News” to convince me to put this together. Here’s that song:

The melody is too catchy to ignore, and the production stops just short of being overpolished. And it’s not the only single she’s put out like that this year. In April she released “Noise.”, a slightly rougher take on a similar sound, with equal catchiness:

Which brings me back to the first Michy Tree song that I added to my playlist back in February. “Pushover” is the punkiest of the recent releases. Another killer melody, but the half-spoken, cynical, sick-of-this-shit vocal reminds me of a PG version of blog fave Shiv and the Carvers.

There are two more singles from the last year – Hunting for Blood and Dirty Stop Out. I presume these are leading up to a new EP or album, but I didn’t find any details on that.

She’s not a new act — She’s been releasing music since 2020. Their debut EP Purgatory came out in 2022, and it’s full of major-key melodies paired with Riley Sager-ish lyrics. For me, the highlight of that record is “Red Crane”. The climax of the song at 2:45 is killer:

Can’t wait to hear what’s next.

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