B-Side Guys

Twenty-something means navigating emotions without instructions, feeling everything intensely while pretending it doesn’t matter. Amelie Jat’s NONCHALANT, released October 31st, 2025, captures that specific contradiction—blissful and unapologetic pop that dances through heartbreak while laughing at chaos. The London-based artist born and raised in Hong Kong transforms honest emotions into eleven tracks of genre-blurring, diary-like pop, collaborating with Grammy-nominated producer James McMillan (quietmoneymusic) to craft songs that balance lyrical vulnerability with polished production. Following 2023’s for the plot, which marked a turning point in her artistry, this album cements her evolution as both songwriter and performer, building on fan-favorite singles “BUTTER” and “steal your shirt” while establishing what Jat calls “nonchalant pop”—exploration without pressure, relatability without explanation.

“ROLLERCOASTER” opens with the album’s central metaphor immediately deployed. The track documents toxic relationship patterns through amusement park imagery—horror show in the front row, heartbreak machine that you ride again when it’s over. Jat’s vocals, handling all lead and backing parts throughout the album, deliver lines about being poison ivy and cupid boy with the kind of self-aware drama that makes the dysfunction sound almost appealing. The production features Jim Board’s guitars, Marcus Finnie’s drums, and McMillan’s piano, programming, and horns creating the foundation for pop that peaked at #7 on Commercial Pop Club Charts with this lead single. The repeated insistence “we go again, we go again when it’s over” captures the addictive cycle the song documents, acknowledging you’re participating in your own damage.

“steal your shirt” shifts into early relationship territory, capturing the moment Venus calls and you surrender, aquarius eyes you’re obsessed with, the traffic light kisses and late-night driving realizations. The track demonstrates Jat’s gift for specificity—the first time at his house last summer, calling your bluff the night you met his mother—grounding romantic feelings in concrete moments rather than abstract declarations. The production keeps everything light despite the emotional weight, understanding that falling in love at twenty-something often feels both profound and ridiculous simultaneously.

“boys like you (leave girls dead inside)” arrives as the album’s darkest statement, examining how certain relationship patterns kill parts of people. The track addresses Monday morning violence, paralysis, watching someone lie with their string of numbers in pretty line. Jat’s bridge here delivers the album’s most pointed social commentary, imagining having a daughter and not wanting her with someone who liked her legs but never really saw her, calling out “selfish egotistic boy, a self-esteem destroyer.” The track refuses the nonchalance its title suggests, getting specific about damage rather than dismissing it.

“sorry 4 ur loss!” provides necessary tonal shift, sass replacing vulnerability. The track’s title and refrain mock performative concern—”sending hearts and prayers”—while documenting landslide drag-downs and ice cold grips. Jat admits being deluded while insisting the other person’s stupid, acknowledging complexity without accepting blame. The production here lets attitude drive everything, understanding that sometimes healing requires being mean rather than understanding.

“BUTTER” delivers the album’s most unabashed sensuality, built on food metaphors that could feel clichéd but work through sheer commitment. Jat positions herself as cowgirl reverie and pretty problem, spreadin’ like butter, melting like golden. The track’s confidence—”gimme your attention, gimme energy”—extends the nonchalant approach to desire itself, refusing to apologize for wanting what you want. McMillan’s production keeps everything summery and light, Jim Board’s guitars providing the perfect texture for pop this deliberately hedonistic.

“the one” explores the specificity of new connection feeling destined—blue eyes and leather jacket, lock eyes in the mirror, phone call whispers about being the one they miss. The track documents finding religion through touching someone, same song on repeat the whole time, waiting your whole life to feel this exact way. Jat’s vocal delivery throughout NONCHALANT benefits from her background as a dancer—she started drumming at three and has pursued arts ever since—bringing rhythmic sensibility to phrasing that makes even conversational lyrics feel choreographed.

“BLUSH” addresses self-destructive patterns and the rush of feeling something even when you know it won’t last. The admission “I don’t even like you, I like the way you make me blush” captures a particular twenty-something honesty about using people for sensation rather than connection. The track’s repeated insistence that “we’re too young to last” functions as both excuse and acceptance, recognizing temporary as valid category rather than failed permanent.

“speed dial (demo)” arrives as the album’s only self-produced track, Jat handling production herself while Michael Scherchen mixed at The Mix Factory. The demo designation suggests rawness appropriate to content about knowing someone across lifetimes, almost-kisses that never happened, confessing regret for saying they were wrong. The stripped-down production creates intimacy the fuller arrangements elsewhere don’t allow, proving Jat can craft effective material without McMillan’s collaborative infrastructure.

“03 BABY” documents generational identity through specific cultural markers—daydreams, cowboys and coffee, cherry bomb pop beat. The track addresses being messed up and lovestruck, bad dreams and no trust, taking serotonin from the shelf while remaining a train wreck in motion. Jat captures millennial/Gen Z cuspers navigating mental health awareness alongside romantic chaos, hazy premonitions and streaming double vision competing for attention.

“TEETH” examines letting someone in despite self-protective instincts, admitting “I bite with my teeth” while asking if they’ll fight for you anyway. Andy Vickery’s guitars here (replacing Jim Board who handles all other guitar work) add different texture, creating space for the track’s exploration of being with someone despite giving them reasons to leave. The question “do you really wanna be with someone like me?” captures the album’s ultimate vulnerability—all the nonchalance in the world can’t hide wanting to be chosen.

“APOCALYPSE” closes the album examining the line between friendship and romance, fifty-fifty dynamics where you’ve lost track of what’s happening. The track’s question—”if you had a choice would you choose me?”—haunts because it acknowledges choice isn’t always involved, sometimes you just collide and deal with consequences. The repeated observation about being “so empty at twenty” in the dead of night as worlds collide captures the album’s central tension: feeling everything while pretending you feel nothing, nonchalant as performance rather than actual state.

NONCHALANT works because Jat commits completely to the contradiction her title describes. She writes vulnerable, honest pop while maintaining breezy attitude, documents heartbreak while insisting it doesn’t destroy her, examines damage while dancing through it. The album was made for dancing while crying while singing while growing—all those activities happening simultaneously because that’s how twenty-something existence actually functions. Jat’s next chapter includes UK and USA shows in 2026, taking these songs into rooms where their contradictions can exist in real time, nonchalance meeting genuine feeling exactly where pop music lives best.