Chicago-raised Andrew Belle first came on our radar as a 10% share of this year's Ten Out of Tenn tour, a wonderful and uniformly excellent, ever-changing collaborative mix of mostly Nashville-based singer/songwriters. Hearing his music it comes as no surprise that in high school Belle often escaped to his bedroom to revel in what he calls the "meaningful pop music" of the time: the melodic rock of Counting Crows, Verve Pipe and Third Eye Blind. Wondering "maybe I can do this someday", Belle began to write and then perform his own songs. Now after logging hundreds of shows on his own, Belle is following up on the promise of his recent 5-track EP All The Pretty Lights with with his debut full length The Ladder now set for a February 23 release.

Even with the success of his shows, it's clear that Belle's bright, densely layered songs are meant for a grander production scale onstage, more Fray meets Coldplay than solo personal introspection. First track from Ladders, "Static Waves" (featuring TOT tour cohort Katie Herzig) is a scarily infectious gem of staggered rhythms and detailed construction with an ear candy hook of monumental proportions. We're guessing that Ladder will also up the ante with some more muscular pop/rock on display via the Lights EP, where the arena-sized guitar riffs and anthemic choruses of tracks like "Replace Me" and "In Your Sleep" add some welcome heft.

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Andrew Belle - Static Waves (w/ Katie Herzig) (from the album Ladders)

Andrew Belle - "All The Pretty Lights" (from the EP All The Pretty Lights)