Secret Friends

STATE OF SOUND PLAYLIST

The September Collection

Published: 1st September, 2025

Artwork: Resource Database / Unsplash

Every month, we publish a playlist of emerging artists, who will feature or have featured on State of Sound during that calendar month. This is your portal to the best new music from the ever fertile grassroots.

Secret Friend is a playlist of light and shade, abrasion and gloss, earthy tremors and cloud-high breezes. The textual contrasts are a particular highlight: the chamber pop of Paul Garside (whose whimsical gem ‘Drifting Clouds’ provides the playlist’s title) beside Sarah McQuaid’s languid, blistering guitars, giving way to the chimes and jangle of Shapes Like People. We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

Tracklist

1. A Fool and Three Quarters, Paul Garside

2. When the Radio Plays, Shapes Like People

3. If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous, Sarah McQuaid

4. Discount Dracula, Paul Garside

5. Ambition is your Friend, Shapes Like People

6. Sprig of Thyme, Sarah McQuaid

7. The Ship is Soon to Sail, Shapes Like People

8. Psychic Powers, Paul Garside

9. Rabbit Hills, Sarah McQuaid

10. Never Cut Asunder, Shapes Like People

11. Break Me Down, Sarah McQuaid

12. Drifting Clouds, Paul Garside

13. Yalding Song, Paul Garside

14. Ocean Blue, Shapes Like People

15. Brenda Vaccaro vs. the Sad God, Paul Garside

16. In Gratitude I Sing, Sarah McQuaid

17. Don't Hear Your Footsteps, Shapes Like People

18. The Sun Goes on Rising, Sarah McQuaid

19. For Henry Fool, Paul Garside

© 2025 State of Sound. All Rights Reserved.

RELATED

COMING SOON

INTERVIEW

When Kat Mann challenged husband Carl to write songs to pitch to Kylie Minogue, neither of them knew it would lead to the formation of Shapes Like People, nor a glistening debut album. David Rea spoke to them to find out more.