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Photo: Claryn Chong

At this point, Thomas Headon is no stranger to Ones to Watch: there was that time he showed us how to make the perfect English breakfast, the time he hand-delivered a free sofa to my flat in anticipation of Victoria, and, of course, that other time he let us decorate his face in gold star stickers and made him pretend to read a huge stack of books for his feature in our first zine. The London-born, Melbourne-bred artist might not have a “brekky” or a sofa for us today, but we think he’s got something you might like... a brand new, shiny EP—six songs thomas headon likes and thinks you would like too.

six songs thomas headon likes and thinks you would like too feels like the perfect coming-of-age soundtrack to your summer. With each track, Headon lets us inside his world via punchy melodies and witty lyrics about falling in love that leaves you craving more the second it’s over. The EP demonstrates Headon’s versatility as a songwriter, whether it be through folky acoustic guitar riffs carrying the melody of “Georgia,” the sped-up chorus reminiscent of the alt-hip-hop SATURATION days in “2009 TOYOTA,” or the slowed down, sonic soundscapes buzzing throughout “i loved a boy.” While each track’s composition varies ever so slightly, Headon maintains a cohesiveness through his sing-song vocals and indie-pop undertones.

It isn’t a Headon song if it doesn’t have a lyric that could be turned into an ironic graphic tee. “W4NNA DO” takes us back to the artist's classic sound we know and love, asking “Do you guys have oat milk?” before jumping into pop-rock guitars, falsetto vocals, and a chorus that feels One Direction-coded, where he sings, “Yeah I’ll be waiting on you, ‘cause that’s all I wanna do.” Meanwhile, “not saying goodbye :(" expresses a softer side of Headon, where he dreams about the what-ifs and what-could-have-beens following a brief encounter with the one who got away. “The hardest part was not saying goodbye,” he wistfully sings, moments before the track fades into a voicemail recording.

I can’t write about six songs thomas headon likes and thinks you would like too without praising the standout track, “wet tongue.” Perhaps a nod to Wet Leg in both its title and use of verbiage nonchalantly spoken over pounding rhythms, Headon takes an unexpected turn into British post-punk territory, and we’re absolutely here for it. Trading his typical pop-infused instrumentation for true indie rock and roll, Headon turns up the vocal distortion as he sings “She’s got a wet tongue and she’s just begun.” I never thought I’d find myself moshing to a Headon track, but the high energy in “wet tongue” leaves the listener with no other option but to lose themselves in the flurry of electric guitars and drums. Falling two seconds shy of two minutes, “wet tongue” wraps up the EP with a shiny and succinct ribbon, ready to be unwrapped and listened to again and again and again.

On the release of the EP, Headon shares, “I’ve always written songs without a purpose, they’ve always just been a documentation of how I’m feeling at the time and then I’ve managed to put them into EP’s as a shared feeling or moment. These six songs are the first time that I’ve put together a collection of songs without a shared feeling, and more so just six songs that I fucking love, made for my audience and hope they love too. I wrote these with some of my favorite people from all around the world and I’m so excited that everybody can finally have them, especially after I’ve been teasing them for months.”

Listen to six songs thomas headon likes and thinks you would like too below: