PORTLAND – AN ARTIST SPOTLIGHT AND SINGLES REVIEW

2025-10-15

PORTLAND – AN ARTIST SPOTLIGHT AND SINGLES REVIEW

Photo: Portland’s Jente Pironet © Titus Simoens & Nina Swaans

By Ralph Beauchamp

Portland is a Belgian dream pop / indie pop outfit led by frontman Jente Pironet that first drew significant attention around 2018 after winning De Nieuwe Lichting, a talent competition by Studio Brussels From the start their sound was noted for its melancholic beauty, immersive atmospheres, layered vocals, and emotional sincerity.

Their debut album, Your Colours Will Stain (2019), established them as a strong voice in the Belgian alternative / dream pop scene. It featured tracks like “Pouring Rain,” “Lucky Clover,” “Expectations,” “You Misread Me,” and “Ally Ally,” many of which show the band’s skill in combining lush production and introspective lyrics. They followed up with Departures in 2023. This album is more direct, with more polished songwriting and arrangements, showing growth and a deepening maturity.

More recently, they’ve been working toward a third album (titled Champain, to be released in November 2025) and have released singles like “Exactly What I Need” and “Lay Me Down” which both reflect an artist confronting personal adversity and emerging with resilience

Much of Portland’s power comes from how honest their music feels. After Jente Pironet’s diagnosis with brain cancer, that personal struggle seems to have fed into the songwriting in a very real way — not just for catharsis, but as a way to connect. Songs like “Exactly What I Need” are bittersweet: joyful in melody and arrangement, but rooted in darker undercurrents of fear, loss, and recovery.

Dream pop is often about texture, mood, and space — and Portland excels here. Their use of echoing guitars, synths, layered harmonies, reverb, atmosphere, and gradual build-ups make their tracks immersive. “Sensational,” the lead single off Departures, nicely illustrates this: melancholic in its tones but hopeful in its sunlit moments.

Their melodies tend to linger; vocal delivery is delicate but expressive. Even when arrangements are lush, the songs feel grounded. They don’t rely purely on production to carry the song; lyrics, structure, and emotional dynamic are integral. Departures in particular shows more precise songwriting — letting songs be what they need rather than layering for show. Over the albums you can hear Portland expanding: in scope, emotional range, and production. Moving to the UK to record Departures, collaboration with producer Oliver Bayston, etc Also, the recent material suggests that adversity has inspired rather than stalled them — Champain seems set to be their most mature work yet.

Portland has played major festivals like Rock Werchter, Pukkelpop; their live shows are highly anticipated in Belgium. Their success isn’t just studio-based.

Dream pop is a crowded space, globally. Portland certainly has its voice, but comparisons (to Beach House, School of Seven Bells, etc.) are frequent. To truly stand out long-term, they’ll need to continue evolving in sound or thematic depth. The movement toward more direct songwriting suggests they are aware of this need.

Their upcoming album Champain seems poised to be a milestone. With singles like “Exactly What I Need” and “Lay Me Down,” there is a sense of both reflection and resurgence. The themes are darker — illness, recovery, mortality — but musically there’s more energy, more brightness seeping in. The contrast between what is expressed lyrically and what is delivered in arrangement seems sharper, more intentional

Also, in terms of production maturity, songwriting direction, emotional vulnerability, I’d expect Champain to be their strongest release to date. There’s a tension in their recent singles between the weight of past hardship and a hopeful forward motion; if they can carry that through the whole album, it could be very compelling

Portland is a band who have managed to combine beauty, melancholy, and emotional truth in a way that feels both personal and broadly resonant. Their evolution shows care: they’re not just relying on atmospherics but are pushing their songwriting and performance forward. While they haven’t completely redefined the dream pop genre, they’ve carved out a meaningful space in it — especially in Belgium and the Benelux region — and seem ready for a broader audience.

If you like music that’s immersive, emotionally rich, occasionally bittersweet, and beautifully produced, Portland is definitely worth diving into. Champain will likely be a good entry point for newer listeners, while Your Colours Will Stain and Departures offer a map of how the band got here.