The Lightning Seeds return with a new studio album called “See You In The Stars” dur for release in October.
The 10-song collection features the first single, ‘Sunshine’, which you can preview below and also boasts a collaboration with Terry Hall who co-writes Emily Smiles (Hall co-penned, Jollification‘s ‘Lucky You’, you might recall). Two songs on the album – ‘Great To Be Alive’ and ‘Live To Love You’ – also saw Ian Broudie co-write with the Coral’s James Skelly.
The new album will be the first Seeds long-player since 2009’s Four Winds. Why’s it taken so long? Here’s what IanBroudie has to say: “I always think music’s like attack and defence in football –or like politics – or like life. It’s about balance, and achieving that is the challenge for me.”
“See You In The Stars” will be released on 14 October via BMG.
Jack White’s label Third Man Records has already put the final album by the White Stripes back in circulation through their subscription-only Vault Series, packaging the 2007 release with a double-LP set of demos and tracks from the same sessions. This new edition is just the original LP, as it was originally released on vinyl, right down to the sticker placed in such a spot that it needs to be cut through to access the actual records. It’s a cute little trick but will surely leave collectors drooling over whether they can safely peel it off without it tearing or whether cutting into the album’s resale value will be worth it. Whatever your feelings on the matter are, it’s great to have the ultimate statement by Jack and Meg White brought back to the format that serves their high-wattage garage blues antics best.
The White Stripes seemed to have wandered far afield of the nervy electric blues of their breakthrough album “Elephant” with 2005’s gloomy “Get Behind Me Satan“. Then came “Icky Thump”, their last blast of garage-band glory.
This return-to-form LP arrived on June 15th, 2007, It couldn’t have had less in common with “Get Behind Me Satan”, which sold about half as much as 2003’s “Elephant” – a platinum smash that featured “Seven Nation Army.” The experience seemed to have stung singer/guitarist Jack White, who developed a newfound appreciation for remaining true to one’s roots.
“I told someone that one of these new songs could be an old 45 of ours,” White admitted in a 2007 talk with the New York Times. “And they said, would you want the Beatles to have ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ on the White Album? And I said, yeah, I would love that — what would be wrong with that?”
With “Icky Thump”, White’s stinging guitar moved forward where pianos and light orchestral arrangements once were. Tough, blues-inflected songs replaced the quiet balladry that dominated Get Behind Me Satan.
Credit must also go to a year spent on the road with White’s other band, the Raconteurs. The time away seemed to have sharpened his riffs to a razor’s edge – even as it loosened him up. “Rag and Bone,” a talking-blues in the style of John Lee Hooker, boldly recalled the White Stripes‘ fizzy initial successes, while “Little Cream Soda” grew out of an on-stage improvisation.
“You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do as You’re Told)” howled with an open-hearted, country-soul rawness, while two tracks (“Prickly Thorn, but Sweetly Worn” and “St. Andrew”) featured a bagpipe. The White Stripes converted a video treatment by Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry into a finished song (“I’m Slowly Turning Into You”), and even included a mariachi-driven cover of Patti Page’s “Conquest.”
“When it comes to the songs themselves, the songs are in charge – not me,” White told Reuters in 2007. “Take a song like ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told).’ That was pretty much a country song in my mind. If I really was in control I could have just said, ‘Hey, how dare you allow electric guitar and heavy organ on there,’ but I don’t do that. I let the song tell me what it wants.”
Recorded over three weeks with drummer Meg White in Nashville, “Icky Thump” also arrived as they made a seemingly uncomfortable shift to a major label. Hints came in the selection of “Conquest,” but also the subtext of this album’s gnarled title track – their first-ever Top 40 single. Both seemed to point to lingering trust issues for the White Stripes, those heroes of garage-rock outsider-dom. “Icky Thump” is “about people using other people,” White said in 2007. “The theme is ‘Who’s using who?'”
As with many bands who came before them, it seemed the White Stripes‘ long-awaited success simply created more pressure. “Icky Thump” scored a career-best but, like “Get Behind Me Satan“, that didn’t match the million-LP sales of “Elephant” or 2001’s “White Blood Cells“. An accompanying tour was cut short, with White citing Meg’s growing anxiety about performing, and the White Stripes went into an extended hiatus.
Critically acclaimed, award winning icon for her generation, beabadoobee returns with her second studio album ‘Beatopia’ (pronounced Bay-A-Toe-Pee-Uh). ‘Beatopia’ is a fantastical yet deeply personal world that was formed in the imagination of a 7 year old beabadoobee and has been carried with her ever since. Housing Bea’s most impressive work to date, ‘Beatopia’ marks a huge progression, in 14 songs she traverses fuzzy rock, classic singer-songwriter, psychedelia, midwest emo and outright pop whilst remaining undeniably herself throughout.
‘fake it flowers’ landed as a fully formed, rounded beast – fans of everyone from the pixies to japanese breakfast to american football were picking up on different notes and claiming beabadoobee’s sound for their own.
The Filipino-born, London-raised singer/songwriter/guitarist beabadoobee announced her new album, and shared its first single, “Talk,” via a video for it. “Beatopia” is due out July 15 via Dirty Hit Records. Alexandra Leese and Luke Casey directed the video.
Beabadoobee’s real name is Beatrice Laus (and she is also known as Bea Kristi). “Beatopia” is her sophomore album, the follow-up to her debut album, “Fake It Flowers”, and 2021’s “Our Extended Play EP”, which was co-written with and produced by Matty Healy and George Daniel of label-mates The 1975.
Beabadoobee had this to say about the new single in a press release: “I wrote ‘Talk’ just after my first album. I was obsessed with Tuesday because I thought it was the best night to go out, not too much chaos but just enough to have a good time. Generally, it’s about doing things that aren’t necessarily healthy or great for you, but you can’t help indulging. It’s like that unavoidable feeling that you get. You can’t get rid of it, and you know it’s bad, but you love it really, and it’s whatever, so you do it anyways.
but the truth is, for all of it’s obvious touchstones, ‘fake it flowers’ doesn’t sound wholly like anything else. there’s a niche, hidden in what we thought was a well trodden path, that she managed to carve out and present in a way we’d not heard before.
we’ve been desperate for more of that magic ever since. and now she’s delivered. ‘beatopia’ promises to be her “most impressive work to date”, 14 songs that traverse “fuzzy rock, classic singer-songwriter, psychedelia, midwest emo and outright pop whilst remaining undeniably herself throughout.” we cannot wait to dig in.
If you’ve read any 2019 album-of-the-year lists, then you’re familiar with Black Midi—the young SouthLondon band whose music exploded the minds of music critics and nerds alike. They possess unbelievable technical skills, but they also have a strange allure that helps bring their dramatic vision to life. Their debut album, “Schlagenheim”, is one of the most inventive guitar records in recent memory, and their improvisational live shows have to be seen to be believed.
If someone asked me for a quick introduction to what makes black midi special, I’d recommend their three-song EP Cavalcovers. The band’s curious spirit is perfectly represented in their covers of King Crimson (“21st Century Schizoid Man,”) Taylor Swift (“Love Song,”) and Captain Beefheart (“Moonlight on Vermont”) even if the steel wire-tense experimental post-punk they’re known for is loosened up slightly to showcase the strength of the original compositions. It’s also what makes their albums “Schlagenheim” and “Cavalcade” as good as they are, this sense of self-control over the riots they unleash that’s almost surprising as the chaos itself.
“Eat Men Eat,” the second single from black midi’s third album Hellfire, is another unexpected transmission from the band and a pitch-perfect channelling of their signature restless energy. Flamenco guitar spurs the song forward as Geordie Greep, singing ambitious and literary-minded lyrics from bassist Cameron Picton, describes an anti-corporate fantasy thriller that would make Ted Chiang smile. The atmosphere is pure black midi, but the planet they’ve landed on is somewhere thrillingly new, even for this perpetually forward-pushing band. Hear it in the music video below, directed by Maxim Kelly.
The post-punk band’s third album “Hellfire” is out July 15th.
Here’s the b-side to La Luz’s new single “Endless Afternoon” that is the most explicit surfy thing this band has done in a while, by way of “Hazy Shade of Winter.” On the heels of their critically acclaimed self-titled record, La Luz has announced the release of a new single entitled “Endless Afternoon,” available worldwide on all DSPs. Shana Cleveland of La Luz says that “Endless Afternoon” is a “California lullaby. The melody for this song came to me while I was hiking in the hills above the Yuba River. About the sweetness found in slow days close to home.” This song is the a-side of a physical 7” that is b/w the track “San Fernando Shadow Blues” (available digitally on June 14th) with both songs physically available on July 7th.
Led by enigmatic songwriter Rowan Sandle, Crake is driven by her endless curiosity. Armed with her gently cracking vocal, and inspiration from writers like Shirley Jackson and Nan Shepherd, she sings of crinoids, slime mould and pussy willow. When they supported Buck Meek at Brudenell Social Club, Buck found himself so beguiled by Sandle and her band that he invited them to support Big Thief on their UK and EU tour in 2019. Crake duly obliged and have been building towards their debut full-length ever since.
Much of the forthcoming album revolves around the death of Sandle’s friend Anna, who died in Syria after being hit by a Turkish air strike. Anna was working for a woman’s liberation group in the war-stricken country when the tragedy took place. ‘Human’s Worst Habits’ explores the grief that followed and the lessons learnt from dealing with such a significant loss.
Sandle does, however, find space to explore more themes alongside this grief, such as cruelty and queer nature. On lead single ‘Winter’s Song’ she acknowledges the cruelty and coldness that exists within us all, and questions how we can continue to grow and love whilst remaining true to that.
Speaking about the track, she said: “Winter’s Song is about the absolute mundane beauty of being fallible. It’s a true story, I saw the moon rise but swore it was the sun setting. I think about this line a lot: “keep a little coldness in you, just wear it soft and gentle” Be soft, be kind, be honest. Being unremarkable has its own beauty.”
Sandle’s love for queer nature is so fervent that it makes the experience of listening to Crake akin to that of stumbling on an entirely new world. Sandle believes that life isn’t as black and white as we’ve been taught, and thinks nature holds the key to revealing the true nature of human experience. The appearances of things like slime mould – single-celled organisms that form a single body when in search of food – brittle starfish – a type of starfish whose awareness isn’t concentrated in one place – and other such oddities furnish ‘Human’s Worst Habits’ with a folklore all of its own.
‘Human’s Worst Habits’ will send you down multiple rabbit holes and you’ll emerge from each with a newfound appreciation for the complexities of the world. Perhaps even more important than this though is the humanity that lies at the very heart of this debut full-length.
Whether it’s in the sensitivity in how she portrays the loss of her friend, the depiction of our most base instincts – namely cruelty, passion and love – or the sincere, pure quality of the song writing itself, it’s this that makes ‘Human’s Worst Habits’ essential, and invaluable listening. “A pensive, dejected moment of magic, but magic nonetheless”, Gold Flake Paint “Charming and intimate alt-folk”, Dork “Consider it a maxim: when Crake releases music, listeners will be entranced by it”, Secret Meeting “”In a world of cynics, [Crake] make you believe anything might still be possible”, For The Rabbits “A perfectly-timed warm blanket to block out the cold world and insulate the love”, Beats Per Minute.
releases June 17th, 2022
Rowan Sandle – Acoustic Guitar, Vocals Russell Searle – Electric Guitar, Piano Rob Slater – Drums / Backing Vocals Sarah Statham – Bass / Backing Vocals
Dan Bejar said that when he and regular collaborator John Collins first started talking about making the album that became “Labrynthitis”, they originally wanted to make a full-on electronic dance album, with “slamming techno,” acid house and maybe dash of late-’90s Cher. And that is apparently where Dan thought Collins would take his skeletal song-sketches he sent to him, but “in the end, that’s not what we made, because we make what we know, and we don’t really know those things.” “Labrynthitis” is still very much a dance record but one informed by the ’80s, from the over-the-top production of Trevor Horn (ABC, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Art of Noise) to peak New Order, John Hughes soundtracks. There’s also a little actual ’70s-style disco sprinkled throughout.
With more contributions from the rest of the band — drummer Josh Wells adds immeasurable thump and thwock — than any album since “Poison Season“, “Labrynthitis” falls somewhere between the rain-soaked swoon of “Kaputt” and Have We Met’s computer-processed sheen. It’s easily Destroyer’s most danceable record to date, but Bejar’s lyrics, written during the pandemic’s first wave, give everything an undercurrent of dread. On “It Takes a Thief,” the album’s most relentlessly upbeat song — at 145 BPM it’s like The Style Council’s “Shout it to the Stop” on speed — he sings “up in flames, another way of saying goodbye.” On “The States,” which has house music origin you can feel just a little, he sings “No matter how you frame it, sun ain’t gonna shine.”
Trying to discern too much meaning out of Bejar’s lyrics, though, is a bad idea. The best approach is to just let his words and always delightful delivery wash over you. In the process, lines will stick, be it “Ruff Ruff goes the beagle to the terrier” “Eat the Wine, Drink the Bread”, “You lose your umbrella to the sideways rain” “The States”, “Fancy language dies and everyone’s happy to see it go” “June” or “The ceiling’s on fire and the contract is binding” “Tintoretto It’s For You”.
John Collins really outdid himself on the production, from the sweaty insanity of the aforementioned “It Takes a Thief,” to the lush opener “It’s In Your Heart Now” that channels both New Order and Disintegration-era Cure (lots of bass as lead instrument), to the crashing melancholic grandeur of “All My Pretty Dresses.” The wildest combination of prose and production, though, comes in “June,” a six-minute extravaganza that starts as a sexytime disco number and then makes a left turn at the halfway point where Dan heads into spoken word jazz odyssey territory, somewhere between Jim Morrison and Barry White, rattling off lines like “Low-born Madonna / With her typewriters in the rain / Clacking their misfortunes, Speech, Speech!” as the cowbell kicks in and spaced-out trumpets swirl around. Only in Bejar-land.
Just when you’ve got “Labrynthitis” halfway figured out, in comes “The Last Song,” which is just Dan and his guitar in sing-a-long mode. It makes the most sense of anything on the record, distilling the rollercoaster ride of the last two years, a glorious hangover on a perfect morning: Again, with Destroyer it’s best just to go with the flow. “There’s just a lot of wild moves,” Dan says of the album, noting that he and John Collins ended up trying “to make the most disorienting record we could.” Mission accomplished in the best possible way.
When the record ends with a lo-fi acoustic singalong that could have fit on a 1990s Destroyer record, and you realize how much ground Dan Bejar has covered since those days
Destroyer (the project of Dan Bejar) released a new album, “Labrynthitis” via MergeRecords. but there was one album track we really liked “It Takes a Thief,” which is relatively short when compared to the album’s other singles (the last one was seven minutes long).
Previously Destroyer shared the first single from “Labrynthitis”“Tintoretto, It’s for You,” via an atmospheric video for it.
“Labrynthitis” is the follow-up to 2020’s “Have We Met”. It was written mainly in 2020 and recorded in spring 2021. Bejar once again worked with regular collaborator John Collins, this time under lockdown conditions, with Bejar in Vancouver and Collins on the nearby remote Galiano Island. The Destroyer band then came in to flesh out some of the songs prior to mixing. The Books, Art of Noise, New Order, and disco are all cited as reference points in a press release announcing the album.
Released March 25th, 2022
Dan Bejar: vocals, synth, guitar Ted Bois: piano, synth Nicolas Bragg: guitar David Carswell: guitar JP Carter: trumpet John Collins: bass, synth, guitar, drum programming Joshua Wells: drums, percussion
Dan Bejar’s 13th “Destroyer” album is dizzying, dazzling, and disorientating disco as only he could make.
Jenny Hval’s music has often looked at a woman’s place in society, and her eighth album starts in a familiar place, pondering the institution of marriage: a guy proposing at one of her gigs, as well as her own wedding. The Norwegian singer songwriter reassures us that she only got into this patriarchal construct for “contractual reasons”. But as “Classic Objects” unfolds, that sense of certainty melts away as Hval interrogates how her identity and values were formed, and what she really believes in. As weighty as that sounds, the music is loosely dubby and shimmering, and Hval finds humour, lightness and transcendence in her searching.
The glorious sophistipop of “American Coffee”—who else in pop music can make us groove to lyrics about watching The Passion of Joan of Arc while “having a UTI”?
Female genius in pop music, subtly epic song writing. ‘American Coffee’ by Jenny Hval is taken from new album ‘Classic Objects’, out now via 4AD Records.
Lili Trifilio does, as her band Beach Bunny’s latest album release “Emotional Creature” (due July 22nd, Mom + Pop) single makes clear. The “Entropy” she sings about is in her narrator’s own heart and mind, a disordered energy—head-over-heels love, to be exact—that she feels helpless to direct. “And I can’t release, but I can’t hold in / All the smiles and grinning / Like life is just beginning,” Trifilio swoons over power-chord crunch and cymbal crash, swearing in the song’s ultra-hooky choruses, “Somebody’s gonna figure us out / And I hope they do, ‘cause I’m falling for you, whoa.”
Equal parts sweet and sensitive, “Entropy” is another satisfying preview of Beach Bunny’s much-anticipated sophomore album.
The Fat Angel Sings 