The boss would be proud of Philine Sonny: Not only because Philine Bernsdorf from North Rhine-Westphalia refers to a song by Bruce Springsteen with her stage name and has already performed at the SXSW Festival in Texas. The guitarist and singer taught herself songwriting and production at a young age. She drew attention to herself in 2021 with “Lose Yourself,” a song about depression.
You can sometimes still hear the influence of Springsteen on their debut album; in “Eye For An Eye” the electric guitar wafts particularly beautifully and also brings to mind The War On Drugs. In addition to the Americana vibe and energetic indie rock (“Outrun”), there are also reduced acoustic pieces, “Weak Spot” sounds particularly delicate. The biographical texts are about family conflicts, emotional pain and anger.
Philine Sonny remembers heated arguments with her father and denounces the male-dominated music industry in “Gatekeeper”. But she also sings about maturity, understanding and better times. She also found inspiration in literature: the album alludes to the coming-of-age novel “Hard Land” by Benedict Wells. In the book you will find a neologism that is made up of the words euphoria and melancholy and also perfectly describes Sonny’s intimate debut: Euphancholic.
This review appears in Musikexpress 4/2026.
