Brightr – A new era of Gloom Emo Pop ?

NMR – Acoustic niceness make the title a bit deceiving as it goes, this seems anything but gloom but then its the artists words ! I found this track to be put together ready well, good guitar sounds and arrangement , vocally it comes across really nicely too, melody and harmonies sound great…listen to the end  …

Brightr Returns with New Single “Charles Petrescu” from Upcoming Album Year Two

Brightr, the beloved gloomy emo-pop troubadour, is back with Charles Petrescu — the first single from his long-awaited sophomore record Year Two.

Reuniting once again with producer Matt O’Grady (known for work with You Me At Six, Don Broco, and more), Brightr delivers 2 minutes and 41 seconds of frenetic pop-punk energy blended with his signature brand of crushing self-reflective sadness.

Charles Petrescu dives deep into the hardest of realisations, exploring emotional wounds that never truly heal. It’s raw, fast, and painfully honest — a powerful taste of what’s to come from Year Two.

Brightr Announces New Album Year Two — A Joyfully Crushing Return to Gloomy Emo Pop

Brightr — arguably the UK’s longest-serving purveyor of gloomy emo pop — is set to unleash the gloomiest of follow-ups to his debut album Year One in the summer of 2025.

Ironically titled Year Two, the new record promises to continue the epic journey of sadness and introspection that began back in 2016. Laurie (the artist behind Brightr) once again joins forces with producer and engineer Matt O’Grady (You Me At Six, Deaf Havana, Don Broco) to bring this deeply emotional collection to life.

Though even sadder and more stripped back than its predecessor, the nine tracks of Year Two feel like a powerful emotional purge. Speaking about the album, Laurie shared:

“I’ve been writing Year Two pretty much since I completed Year One, but it’s been a lengthy work in progress: with an EP, a pandemic, and multiple split records in between. I think it ultimately took a while to finish some of these songs and bring others to the surface because I’d buried the feelings and memories so far down, or maybe even morphed the true narrative of them to feel better than they were to somehow protect myself. Whatever the reason, Year Two is finally here. It’s painful, it’s poppy, deeply honest, and brutally vulnerable. It’s joyfully crushing — but it’s me.”

With its raw honesty and emotionally charged melodies, Year Two looks set to resonate deeply with fans old and new alike.