Even the friend who introduced me to them was sleeping on MICHELLE. They had found this infectious song called “UNBOUND” while surfing Spotify and dropped it on a playlist that I was listening to back in the spring of 2023. Unlike my friend, I decided to try out a few more songs.

I fell in love instantly, and I think you might, too. 

MICHELLE is a six-piece pop band based out of New York City, made up of four women — the band’s vocalists — and two men, who serve as the primary producers. All six members come together to write, produce, arrange and perform pop songs at an astonishing level of quality.

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“UNBOUND” is a perfect example. It’s a blend of modern lo-fi sensibilities with the confidence of a girl group like Destiny’s Child. Alternatively, try out my most-played song of 2024, their track “Oontz” — a song that confidently cycles through the vocalists while stacking harmonies and twists atop a sprawling and incisive chorus. 

It’s hard to explain what makes MICHELLE so special without sounding like sponsored content, but I’ll admit that I’m a bit biased here. They’ve been my top artist on Spotify for two years now, and I owe a great personal debt to them as well.

I was born in Los Angeles and spent the first nine years of my life here before moving to New York City. I have a great deal of love for L.A. — after all, I’m studying at USC now — and the adjustment period to New York was laborious for me. Even as life improved for me, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that I was a foreigner in a city I’d called home for nearly a decade.

But then I heard “AFTER DINNER WE TALK DREAMS,” MICHELLE’s sophomore album from 2022, for the first time. Now, it is probably my most-played album ever. Not only is it a brilliant collection of pop tracks, but it’s also extremely upfront about being an album made by young people struggling in New York City, even as they love living there. “AFTER DINNER WE TALK DREAMS” is the album that made me unconditionally love NYC just as I was about to leave it. 

Their most recent album, “Songs About You Specifically,” came at a similarly prescient moment in my life. The summer of 2024 was a rough one for me as I grappled with issues like dishonest “friends” and an increasingly packed schedule. 

Songs like “Oontz,” “Missing on One” and “Blissing” placed many of my vulnerabilities into a highly danceable form. Those songs were so essential to me that I saw MICHELLE in West Hollywood less than 36 hours before I was scheduled to cover Camp Flog Gnaw for this paper. That mid-November weekend was full of brilliant sets from much bigger names like Tyler, The Creator and KAYTRANADA. MICHELLE’s was still my favorite.

I could gush all day about how MICHELLE has impacted my life. But I don’t want to waste your time with more sob stories because I’ve got a mission here. You need to give MICHELLE a shot and listen to their music so they can keep making more. Let me offer a few pitches to give you an idea of what you’re in for.

It almost doesn’t matter if you have a perspective on love, but if you do, MICHELLE has you covered. Are you full of lust? Try “Akira” or “DNR.” Are you … very much not like that, similar to me? You can enjoy “TALKING TO MYSELF” or “GLOW.” Are you still not over a past love? Try out “AGNOSTIC” or “FOOL 4 U.” 

But you know what, screw lyrical content. What about the music? MICHELLE’s got range for days: They’ve got electronic songs (“PULSE”) right next to pop-rock (“I’m Not Trying”). Then there are songs that just defy categorization. Either way, insane harmonies, lively production and biting lyrics anchor each MICHELLE track. If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t take your feelings into account while listening to music, I don’t think I want to meet you, but I do believe you’ll like MICHELLE anyway.

MICHELLE is also incredibly accessible, no matter where you want to start. If you want the full indie experience, you can go all the way back to their 2018 debut, “HEATWAVE,” and still find plenty of tracks to enjoy. All three of their albums run under 40 minutes, so they’re not much of a time commitment, either.

They also remain impossibly small for a band with this sheer level of appeal. The show I went to back in November was at The Roxy Theatre, where only about 500 people joined me to cheer them on. MICHELLE is a young band with quality tracks and a lively stage presence, including a remarkable choreography level by band member Emma Lee. To put it another way, the folks running our campus concerts could absolutely afford MICHELLE at this stage in their career. 

That is what’s at stake here — the best band you’ve never heard of is tearing up small stages worldwide while operating at a level of consistency that bands with followings much, much bigger than them could not achieve even if they tried. Give MICHELLE a shot, and if you end up liking them as much as I do, I’ll see you at their next L.A. show. 

​“Jam Journal” is a rotating column featuring a new Daily Trojan editor in each installment commenting on the music most important to them. Sammy Bovitz is a magazine editor at the Daily Trojan.