As a yardstick for where chilled alt-pop is today, this new one from Veronika Jokel is perfect. It conforms to everything a pop ballad needs to – sleek, hushed, seductive – but with its skittering, almost trap house percussion, its minimal, bassy background electronica and alluring synth motifs, it reveals itself to be very much the sound of the here and now.
Sitting somewhere between traditional pop and more urban inclinations, between minimalism and gentle infectiousness, it is a song that not only looks to the future of the genre but quite possibly helps define it.
