Myra Keyes Threw Indie Pop into the Fire and Let Foam Rise with Retro-Futuristic Fever –

Archetypal indie-pop cuts clearly aren’t sharp enough for Myra Keyes, judging by her seminal single, Foam, which takes the arbitrary parameters of pop and casts them into the inferno of her red-hot, authentically rendered aural blueprint.

The time signatures trip the rhythmic pulse into a state of dizzy reverie as they brush you up against the anatomy of the sticky-sweet, synth-driven earworm. Her vocals, glazed with just enough reverb to keep the hypnosis spellbinding, glide through the mix while the production fuses the aesthetics of Billie Eilish with the retrofuturist shimmer of funk-slicked new wave synth pop. It’s an electrified indietronica detour where the hooks keep swinging and the energy refuses to let up.

Chicago-based Keyes may have only just turned twenty, but her CV already reads like someone who has lived a full artistic lifetime. From her early years as a five-year National Piano Guild member, studying under jazz pianist Grant Richards, recording with Decemberist Jenny Conlee, and performing with Shook Twins and Patti King of the Shins, she’s no stranger to high-calibre collaborators.

Now writing, arranging, and producing her own material after teaching herself bass and guitar, she’s gearing up to release her sophomore LP, Signature Move, on October 24. With Joe Mengis, Scott Weddle, and Scott McPherson lending their talents, the record promises a full spectrum of genre-skewering vignettes.

Foam is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast