Trojan Horse: Check Out Amoreena’s Fantastic New Single

If you’ve read any article I’ve ever written regarding pop music, you’ve heard me say this time and time again: indie pop impresses the hell out of me, because pop is hard. And Trojan Horse, the latest single by Binghamton pop singer Amoreena, wasn’t just presumably hard to make. It goes hard, too.

If you’ll grant me the opportunity to bloviate a little, there’s serious daylight between indie pop and mainstream pop, the latter of which honestly doesn’t impress me. You’re pretty much yanking a pretty face out of a stack of headshots, training them, and then tossing them on an arena stage to cram unsuspecting preteens into a deceptive music marketing funnel. It’s inauthentic fame untempered by growth, trial, or error. It’s image first, marketing second, and music whenever we get to it.

But indie pop? That’s something else entirely. Binghamton pop acts like Amoreena, Kipani, and Jenna Michele (formerly Winnie) are making music because … well … they love music. These are proper musicians with stories to tell. They appreciate the artistic side of the genre and they want to create something new in that space. And it’s a challenging field to break into, because again, pop is hard. Small venue crowds and pop music crowds don’t statistically overlap by much. And how do you convince people to go see live pop music without a marketing team backing your play?

Well, you produce badass singles like Trojan Horse, for a start.

Modern retro in pop form

Just yesterday I was using my somewhat made-up phrase modern retro to describe the latest LP from Grown Ups. And Trojan Horse by Amoreena certainly fits that bill, with a sound that lovingly opens a sonic wormhole between 2024 and 1984.

Trojan Horse is a dark and moody tapestry painted in 80’s synths, gently reminding you that it’s contemporary through occasional sizzles of modern pop stylism. You’re pulled even deeper into that decade of Glo Worms, Atari, and VHS by a guitar solo that seemingly gives a big hug to the work of Vicki Peterson or Kenny Loggins, brilliantly performed by Brenna Swanger of Tom Jolu fame. You’d almost call it criminal to not include this song on the Stranger Things soundtrack if not for the fact it would violate the show’s canon.

Amoreena pairs this modern retro 80’s score with heartfelt lyrics delivered through her top-flight vocals. The end result is an enjoyable, approachable earworm that highlights the unmistakable creativity not only of Amoreena, but of the Binghamton music scene’s ever-growing indie pop contingent.

Trojan Horse is available now. Go check it out!

Trojan Horse is available right now on Spotify and Apple Music, so be sure to add it to your playlists. You’ll find it on Parlor City Sound’s Spotify playlist Parlor City Soundtrack, too. Definitely give this track a listen, and be sure to check out her broader catalog too!