There’s a particular kind of hurt that doesn’t get quieter when you turn the volume up. It just finds another way into the room. For Toronto’s AloneKitty, that’s where the guitars come in: thick, distorted, and unapologetically loud, with melodies that refuse to disappear beneath the noise.

Led by Michelle K, AloneKitty is stepping into its next chapter with wide awake, an 11-track album due November 6, 2026, via Mint 400 Records. The first single, “I’m Wide Awake,” sets the tone for a record that carries the DNA of classic shoegaze without treating the genre like a museum exhibit. The fuzz is familiar. The emotional stakes feel painfully immediate.

Noise That Knows Where It’s Going

Shoegaze has never needed pristine edges. Give it a guitar that sounds like it’s coming apart, a melody fighting its way through the static, and a voice that feels a little too close to the truth. That tension is the whole point.

AloneKitty understands the assignment. The project draws from the worlds of My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, and Sonic Youth, but its identity rests on Michelle K’s songwriting rather than nostalgia alone. There’s a difference between recreating the weather of a classic record and finding your own reasons to stand in the storm