The best songs of San Cisco have this uncanny way of sounding like a Fremantle summer even when you’re listening in the dead of a Northern Hemisphere winter. I still remember the first time “Beach” came through my headphones on a grey commute — it felt like someone had smuggled sunshine into an MP3 file. Since forming in 2009, Jordi Davieson, Josh Biondillo, and Scarlett Stevens (with Nick Gardner rounding out the lineup for the band’s early years) have built one of Australia’s most reliably charming indie pop catalogs, and picking favorites from it is genuinely difficult. So I went deep, pulling together the 20 tracks that best capture the band’s entire arc, from scrappy 2012 debut singles to their glossy 2023 releases. Grab your headphones or earbuds, because this is a catalog that rewards close listening, and if you’re still shopping for the right pair, our headphone comparison guide is worth a look before you press play.
Awkward
Released in September 2011 and later anchoring the Awkward EP, this is the song that put San Cisco on the map. It climbed to number 7 on the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2011 and eventually went platinum in Australia, which is a wild trajectory for a track built on little more than a wobbly guitar riff and Davieson’s deadpan delivery. What makes “Awkward” endure is its lyrical honesty — it’s a song about liking someone you probably shouldn’t, and the band never oversells the emotion, letting the melody do the heavy lifting instead. On record it’s tight and unfussy, but live it turns into an arena-sized singalong, which tells you everything about how well the hook was built.
Wild Things
Released on October 5, 2012, “Wild Things” was the lead single from the band’s self-titled debut album and one of the earliest signs that San Cisco understood how to write a chorus that sticks. The production, handled by longtime collaborator Steven Schram, keeps things clean and uncluttered, letting the vocal melody breathe instead of drowning it in effects. Lyrically it’s flirtatious and a little reckless, which fits a band that was barely out of their teens when they wrote it.
Beach
“Beach” is arguably the song that introduced San Cisco to international audiences, released as their debut UK single on December 10, 2012, and later shot as a music video on Brighton Beach under director Ruskin Kyle. The songwriting credits go to the full original lineup — Davieson, Biondillo, Nick Gardner, and Stevens — and you can hear four distinct musical personalities locking into one idea. What gets me every time is the mix: airy vocals, jangly guitar, and just enough reverb to make the whole thing feel like it was recorded with sand still in the amp cables.
Fred Astaire
Originally pressed as a promotional CD-R in late 2012 before its official release on January 25, 2013, “Fred Astaire” was recorded at the legendary Sing Sing Studios and went on to place 48th in the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2012. It’s one of the more melancholic entries in San Cisco’s early catalog, built around a slower tempo and lyrics that read like a diary entry rather than a pop hook. Meanwhile, the arrangement stays sparse enough that Davieson’s vocal cracks and imperfections come through, which only adds to the song’s intimacy.
Run
The lead single from 2015’s Gracetown, “Run” dropped on October 24, 2014, and immediately signaled a more confident, danceable version of the band. Handclaps, a rubbery bassline, and a chorus built for festival crowds all point to a group that had learned exactly how to translate their live energy onto tape. Vice Noisey once called the accompanying video “kaleidoscopic and strange,” and honestly, the song itself carries that same slightly off-kilter charisma.
Too Much Time Together
Released in February 2015 as the second single from Gracetown, this track eventually went gold in Australia, and it remains one of the band’s most frequently performed live songs by a wide margin. Davieson has said the song flips the usual “too much togetherness” relationship trope on its head to also comment on the pressures of being in a band, which gives the bright, ooh-filled melody a slyly self-aware undertone. On the other hand, if you strip away that context, it still works purely as a summer pop song, and that dual functionality is part of what makes it so replayable.
Magic
Featuring Scarlett Stevens on lead vocals, “Magic” arrived in May 2015 and channels a slinky, retro-pop energy that critics have compared to Len’s 1999 classic “Steal My Sunshine.” The chunky drums and up-floating guitar lines give it a nostalgic, sun-bleached quality that fits Gracetown‘s overall theme of looking backward at young love. Stevens’ vocal performance here deserves more credit than it usually gets — there’s a coolness to her delivery that balances out the song’s inherent sweetness.
B Side
Released as a standalone single in 2016, “B Side” sits in an interesting pocket of the band’s discography, arriving between the sun-drenched Gracetown era and the more atmospheric sound of The Water. It’s a transitional song in the best sense, retaining the hooky instincts of their earlier work while hinting at the moodier textures to come. If you’re building a chronological San Cisco playlist, this is the track where you can hear the band’s sound start to shift.
SloMo
The lead single from The Water, “SloMo” dropped in October 2016 and marked a noticeably more layered, textured production style compared to Gracetown. The tempo, true to its title, downshifts into something dreamier, and the mix leaves more room for reverb-soaked guitar and atmosphere. In contrast to the punchier singles that came before it, “SloMo” rewards patient, headphone-first listening rather than car-stereo energy.
Hey, Did I Do You Wrong?
Released in March 2017 as the second single from The Water, “Hey, Did I Do You Wrong?” leans into a breezier, more conversational vocal delivery from Davieson. Lyrically it’s an exercise in self-doubt dressed up as a pop song, which has become something of a San Cisco specialty. The production, again shaped with Steven Schram, keeps the arrangement light on its feet without sacrificing the emotional undercurrent.
The Distance
Closing out the singles from The Water in September 2017, “The Distance” opens the album’s tracklist and sets a wistful, mid-tempo tone that runs through the rest of the record. It’s one of the more emotionally direct songs in the band’s catalog, dealing with the strain of being apart from someone you care about. The arrangement builds gradually, giving the chorus real payoff once it finally lands.
Skin
Released on October 23, 2019, as the lead single from the Flaws EP, “Skin” marked a noticeably shinier, more contemporary pop production than San Cisco’s earlier guitar-forward work. Triple J covered the single as San Cisco “shaking things up,” and that’s a fair description — the synths sit higher in the mix here than on almost anything from The Water. The song later got a fresh coat of paint via the 2021 Gum & Ginoli remix, which leaned even further into dancefloor territory and introduced the track to a whole new set of ears.
Reasons
“Reasons” came out on February 13, 2020, first appearing on the Flaws EP before later resurfacing on the full Between You and Me album. It became one of the band’s biggest recent successes, landing at number 31 in Triple J’s Hottest 100 of 2020 and later receiving a remix from fellow Australian indie favorites The Jungle Giants. The production strikes a great balance between melancholy lyrics and a genuinely uplifting melody, which is a needle San Cisco has always threaded well.
On the Line
Released May 21, 2020, as the lead single from Between You and Me, “On the Line” was produced alongside James Ireland and longtime collaborator Steve Schram, and it also charted in the Hottest 100 of 2020. Davieson has described it as “a lament disguised as a pop song,” and that tension between cheerful instrumentation and genuinely serious subject matter — whether to hold onto a relationship or let it go — is what makes the track so replayable. Gigwise praised the band for their knack of using earworm hooks to evoke real feeling, and this song is a textbook example of exactly that skill.
About You
A quieter, more reflective moment from Gracetown, “About You” later got an acoustic rework released on May 3, 2019, which stripped the song down to its emotional core. Where the original leans on full-band arrangement and gentle percussion, the acoustic version puts Davieson’s vocal front and center, exposing just how strong the melody is on its own. It’s a great example of a song that works in two completely different sonic contexts without losing its identity.
When I Dream
Released as a standalone single in 2018, “When I Dream” sits between The Water and Between You and Me eras, carrying some of the dreamier textures of the former while hinting at the more polished pop instincts of the latter. It’s a song that rewards a good pair of earbuds, since the layered backing vocals and subtle synth work tend to get lost on tinny speakers — worth keeping in mind if you’re deciding what gear best suits your own listening habits, and our earbuds comparison guide can help with that decision. Thematically, it continues San Cisco’s ongoing interest in the gap between how relationships feel and how they actually play out.
Flaws
The title track of the 2020 EP, “Flaws” dropped on March 27, 2020, right as pandemic lockdowns forced the band to cancel their touring plans behind it. Davieson called the EP a preview of the full-length album that would follow, and “Flaws” itself carries that in-between energy — confident melodically but a little rawer emotionally than the polished Between You and Me tracks. The Creative Issues described the EP as blending melancholy and euphoria in equal measure, and this song is the clearest distillation of that idea.
Lost Without You
Released February 24, 2023, “Lost Without You” opens San Cisco’s fifth studio album Under the Light and quickly went gold, becoming one of the standout tracks of the band’s more recent era. It’s classic San Cisco in the best possible sense — radio-ready, instantly hummable, and built around a chorus that sneaks up on you after just one listen. Several reviewers singled it out as one of the best songs of 2023 from the Australian indie scene, and honestly, that feels about right.
Under the Light
The title track of the 2023 album, “Under the Light” was released August 11, 2023, and features contributions from Tame Impala and Pond member Jay Watson on acoustic guitar, bass, and synthesizer. Atwood Magazine described it as an “immersive and lush” soundscape, and that’s an accurate read — the production is gently psychedelic without ever losing its pop backbone. The song explores the feeling of total presence, of existing fully in a single moment without the usual mental noise, and the music mirrors that idea by letting each instrumental layer breathe.
Honeycomb
Released May 19, 2023, “Honeycomb” leans into disco-pop territory with a bounce that practically demands movement. Scarlett Stevens’ vocal work is the highlight here — reviewers have called her performance on this track pure “ear-worm ecstasy,” and it’s hard to disagree once that chorus locks in. Produced with James Ireland, mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Neal H. Pogue, “Honeycomb” is proof that San Cisco’s newer material can go toe-to-toe with their most beloved older singles.
If you’ve made it this far, you’ve basically just taken a tour through more than a decade of Fremantle indie pop, and there’s a lot more where that came from — check out our full songs archive for more artist deep dives like this one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is San Cisco’s most popular song?
“Awkward” is generally considered San Cisco’s signature song, having peaked at number 7 on the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2011 and earning platinum certification in Australia. More recently, “Reasons” and “On the Line” have become major streaming favorites, both charting in the Hottest 100 of 2020.
What genre is San Cisco?
San Cisco is primarily classified as indie pop and indie rock, though their sound has shifted over the years toward dream pop, disco-pop, and lightly psychedelic production, especially on their 2023 album Under the Light.
Who are the members of San Cisco?
San Cisco is fronted by Jordi Davieson (vocals, guitar), Josh Biondillo (guitar, keys), and Scarlett Stevens (drums, vocals). Bassist Nick Gardner was part of the band’s original lineup during their debut album era.
Where is San Cisco from?
The band formed in Fremantle, Western Australia, in 2009, and their hometown’s beachy, laid-back atmosphere has shaped much of their sound, from early singles like “Beach” and “Wild Things” through their more recent releases.
What is San Cisco’s newest album?
As of this writing, San Cisco’s most recent studio album is Under the Light, released March 1, 2024, featuring singles like “Lost Without You,” “Honeycomb,” “Horoscope,” and the title track.
Is San Cisco still making music?
Yes. The band has continued releasing new singles and touring behind Under the Light, and they remain active within the Australian indie pop scene.