Some songs do not ease you in. They look you in the eye and name the thing you have been circling for months. Mona et Toi’s I Want You Gone does that. It is the focus track from their debut album Radical Romance of Mind, released 28 August 2026, and it sits right in that current sweet spot where indie rock, alternative rock, and a little synthpop shading all lean into atmosphere instead of just volume.
Mona et Toi are the London–Barcelona duo of French singer-songwriter Alison Manicourt and British-Persian guitarist-producer Shervin Hejazi. They build a noir indie-grunge world: sharp, immersive guitars, velvet-grit vocals, and songs that move from tight, intimate tension into something that actually explodes. Rock here feels elegant and a little dangerous. That is not an accident. Before the band, Alison and Shervin spent years writing original music for film, fashion, and brands. Work premiered at BAFTA-nominated festivals. Clients included Vogue, Lanvin, and Adidas. You can still hear that cinematic instinct. Every arrangement feels framed. Story and mood sit in the centre, not just the riff.
They have talked about the raw magnetism of The Kills and the fearless intensity of PJ Harvey, and the comparison makes sense without turning into cosplay. Mona et Toi carve their own space: hypnotic, visceral, and stubbornly human. The music keeps circling identity, vulnerability, desire, self-doubt, and connection. Personal mess gets turned into something cathartic rather than decorative.
Radical Romance of Mind was self-produced and recorded between London and Barcelona, where the pair are now based. Sweet + Sour and Jail Cell were tracked at Three Six Zero Studios, originally part of Trevor Horn’s SARM Music Village, with James Grant co-producing. Alex Ferrer — known for work with C. Tangana, Vitalic, and Depresión Sonora — mixed the record. The earlier singles Nothing Rhymes With Myself, Jail Cell, and Sweet + Sour already found real ears: KEXP features including New This Week, rotation, and The Runcast with John Richards, plus a COLORSxSTUDIOS Top 20 weekly chart run. There are nominations from the Berlin Fashion Film Festival and the Lonely Wolf International Film Festival, and press from Vein, Perfect, Disco Naïveté, and Tsugi Radio.
The album title is not decoration. Radical Romance of Mind is framed as a love letter to imperfect minds: self-acceptance as a process that may never fully resolve, confronting old wounds, dropping the people who keep you small, and choosing the life you actually want even when it is scary. I Want You Gone belongs in that sequence. The title does a lot of the talking. You do not need a lyric sheet to feel the cut.
What makes the record land in 2026 is how naturally it sits with where alternative and indie rock have been heading: guitar music that still wants space, texture, and a bit of electronic colour without losing the body. Mona et Toi already lived in that overlap from the film and fashion side. The result is alternative rock that can feel like a late-night club and a private argument at the same time.
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What do you think of Mona et Toi’s sound? Tell me in the comments which track from Radical Romance of Mind hit you first.
