U2, Ireland’s own Fab Four, ignited a blaze in the mid-1980s with The Unforgettable Fire, then turned up the heat later in that decade with The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. Things cooled off a bit in the 1990s, which witnessed the release of the uneven Zooropa and Pop, plus a retrospective collection. But the group greeted the new millennium (or ended the last one, depending on how you figure) with a bang: 2000’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind, their 10th album, which builds on the elements that make their 1980s work so great.
Reunited with the production team of Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, who produced all of the aforementioned early triumphs,U2 offers an 11-song set that finds Bono singing passionately, with the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr., respectively, adding shimmering lead guitar, rhythmic bass lines and an insistent beat. Moreover, the anthemic, hooks-laden compositions are consistently as majestic and tuneful as any U2 has ever produced. “I’m just trying to find a decent melody,” Bono sings in “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of.” He and his bandmates find a whole bunch of them here.
The album—which debuted at the top of the charts in nearly three dozen countries—produced four well-deserved international hits: “Beautiful Day,” “Elevation,” “Walk On” and “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of.” This is an all-killer, no-filler recording on which tracks such as “Wild Honey” and “Kite” are just as memorable as the singles.
Twenty years later, All That You Can’t Leave Behind still sounds magical—and better than ever in the remastered copy that’s included in a new “super deluxe” anniversary edition. The set arrives in an LP-sized slipcase with a double-sided poster, a 20-page booklet with lyrics and a 32-page hardcover book of band photos, but those are just icing on a five-layer CD cake.
In addition to the aforementioned remaster, the first disc features “The Ground Beneath Her Feet,” a number with lyrics by novelist Salman Rushdie that appeared as a bonus track on the original album in several countries outside the U.S. A second CD holds nine odds and ends, including an acoustic version of “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of”; “Stateless,” from the soundtrack of the film The Million Dollar Hotel; four remastered B-sides; and three excellent session outtakes: “Levitate,” “Love You Like Mad” and “Flower Child.”
There’s also a disc with 11 extended remixes of songs from the original album, including two versions each of “New York,” “Beautiful Day” and “Elevation.” For the most part, these remixes add the sort of tech clutter that detracted from the group’s 1990s albums. But the new box also devotes a couple of CDs to a nearly two-hour June 2001 Boston concert that finds U2 at the peak of their form. It incorporates seven numbers from All That You Can’t Leave Behind plus such earlier highpoints as “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “Bullet the Blue Sky” and The Joshua Tree’s “Where the Streets Have No Name” and “With or Without You.”
What’s not to like? Well, it seems a good bet that most fans would have preferred a Blu-ray with concert video and/or a surround-sound mix of the album instead of the CD with remixes. That said, there’s more terrific music in this one box than in many artists’ entire catalogs.
The British singer-songwriter’s lockdown-created debut EP “Falling Asleep at the Wheel” has marked her out for big things on both sides of the Atlantic. Everything about this year is different. So when Holly Humberstone made her recent US late night talk show bow with a set on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, she leaned into that. Standing in for the studio glare of Los Angeles, witness the headlights of a creaking Range Rover on the farm back home. In place of a stage, find the car’s bonnet and the Lincolnshire countryside retreating into the night.
After tumbling from an opening slot on Lewis Capaldi’s European tour into COVID-19 lockdown, Holly Humberstone has spent recent months figuring out how to be creative under the current circumstances, playing online sessions (including an atmospheric offering for Guitar.com Live) and assembling music videos with her sister while gradually settling into the idea of writing new music. “It’s been so weird,” she says. “A lot of the creative stuff that I’ve been forced to get into during lockdown, I wouldn’t have been at all good at before, or even had the chance to do.
“At first I was really uninspired. I’m most prolific when I’m really busy, and seeing my friends, cramming my days full. It was really hard going from that to doing absolutely nothing, and finding it hard to write. I put quite a lot of pressure on myself as well. I felt like everyone was like, ‘There’s going to be so much creativity coming out of lockdown with all these creatives stuck inside…’ After I chilled out a bit, I had to see it as an opportunity.”
Humberstone released her debut EP “Falling Asleep at the Wheel” in August. It’s an artful collection of studied, serious indie-pop songs, fusing some luminescent melodies with searching lyrics that are hitting home with people in real time. She sees the title track – Maggie Rogers via bummer house keys and a War On Drugs lead break – as one of its anchors, having emerged at a time when she was tuning in to what sort of artist she’d like to be.
I wrote this song a while ago whilst still unsure of who I wanted to be and where I wanted to head musically. Writing this song was probably the first time I felt like I knew who I was within the music I was making. The track is about losing momentum and feeling like your emotions will slowly destroy the relationship you’re in and you altogether. I think the dark, wonky sonics define who I am musically, which is why Falling Asleep At The Wheel is such a milestone track for me, and has taught me so much about myself as a musician. We created the song at the house I grew up in, which is very old and falling apart, in the middle of the countryside. You can almost hear the weird sounds of the house within the track. It’s where I feel the most me and love that this is all coming from that one place.
“I remember writing the song and it being a real milestone for me,” she says. “I wrote the whole EP over the course of two years. It took me ages to figure out who I was within the music I was making, what I wanted to do with it, what kind of sound I wanted to make, what I wanted to say. It took loads of shit songs, loads of experimentation, before realising how I wanted to come across. Falling Asleep And The Wheel was a lightbulb moment.” Falling Asleep At The Wheel was largely crafted alongside Nottingham-based producer Rob Milton, and it’s an interesting blend of small town, late teen reality and widescreen could-be-massive songwriting. Humberstone is an open, insightful lyricist who prizes direct access, utilising her music as a communication tool even between the people closest to her.
“Deep End”, the EP’s striking opening song, was written for one of her sisters as Humberstone struggled to understand exactly how to help during a difficult time. “I’ll be your medicine if you let me, give you reason to get out of bed,” she sings over desolate guitars. “Sister, I’m trying to hold off the lightning and help you escape from your head.”
This song is quite a personal one. It came out pretty naturally, as one of my sisters was going through a difficult time and I was struggling to know how best to help. This song is my way of telling her that I’m always here. It feels like a lot of people are going through something similar or suffering themselves and don’t have an outlet to express it. It’s a difficult conversation but really important to let those around you know that you care for them and will always stand by them.
“I’ve been getting messages saying, ‘This is mine and my sister’s song’ or ‘I’ve felt the same way about my best friend’,” Humberstone says. “A lot of the stuff I write might connect with people because it’s universal. I’m never going to be the only one who’s feeling like that. We had a plan to release Falling Asleep at the Wheel first, but then I wrote Deep End. I think it’s the most vulnerable I am on the EP, that’s why it’s a good first track. I’m baring so much of my soul. When I wrote that song it needed to come out. I love that.”
This emotional honesty is a recurring theme on Falling Asleep at the Wheel as Humberstone interrogates anxiety, self-doubt, love and other big hits. She does so without so much as a lick of varnish, choosing instead to speak plainly wherever possible. “I really like songs that are conversational, and not trying to be poetic,” she says. “Like, ‘This is what I’m saying’ or ‘These are my unfiltered thoughts.’ I love listening to music that has personal detail in there, and rambling thoughts – people like Phoebe Bridgers or Damien Rice or Lorde.
“I feel like I know them personally from listening to their stuff. Also, a lot of the time I’m writing for myself. I’m just trying to get my words into a simpler format. I find conversations really hard to have, especially if they’re awkward ones about mental health or telling someone you like them or whatever. I think putting something into a song is easier for me to do and it’s genuinely a simpler format than having it all confusing up in my head. It helps me so much to work through my feelings. It helps me just as much as someone listening to it.”
The EP’s palette is a bracing, entirely trend-appropriate blend of traditional instrumentation and shimmering electronic textures. Humberstone manages to thrive in this arena, relying on sharp, unusual melodies and gutsy delivery to add blood and heart to a space that is rapidly filling up with identikit artists. Tracing things back to the start, she views her song writing approach as a sort of stylistic scrapbook, with multiple jumping off points. Unsurprisingly, emotion-first is a general rule.“ Sometimes it’s a guitar, sometimes it’s a piano,” she says. “I find if I’m writing on my own then I can usually just jot a load of stuff down and see what sounds nice. Some stuff stems from the title. I thought of Falling Asleep at the Wheel before I wrote the song. Sometimes when I’m co-writing with other people, it’s so important to have people in the room I can trust and who I can offload on first about how I’m feeling.
I wrote “Drop Dead” about a troubled & manipulative relationship that despite how bad it is, you can’t get out, because love can often be blinding. I think a lot of people have been through something where you’re with someone that was no good and for some reason all they have to do is look at you and you go straight back. I wanted the video concept to echo that feeling of something making you want to drop dead… when the rug is pulled from underneath you and you’re falling. I kept thinking about my failed driving tests and how awful they made me feel, so I decided to cover my dads car in learner plates and burn it down. My way of saying up yours to the driving tests !!
Some of the songs on the EP were written before the production [ideas], like Drop Dead and Deep End, but I also love going into a room with Rob and jamming, making something sound cool. That’s really inspiring as well. With Overkill l we were listening to loads of Fleetwood Mac and Haim, and it came from there. It’s different every time. I really love music that has that blend of real, natural instruments and cool, wonky electronic bits as well. Rob is so good at that, he’s got loads of vintage, weird, synthy, arpeggiated things. I love all those odd sounds.”
“Overkill” is probably one of my favourite songs. I was going through at a really happy time towards the end of last year. Before this, I’d never really been one for relationships, they just weren’t something I was looking for, but I’d recently started seeing someone and I was excited about it all for the first time. I realised I was falling for this guy and just wanted to know if he felt the same way about me, or if telling him how I felt was just going to freak him out and scare him away! I can be quite full on. I wanted Overkill to capture all the thrill and uncertainty and confusion and the many other emotions that come with falling for someone for the first time.
Milton also provided the guitar that Humberstone sees as vital to the EP’s overall sound. Accenting a handful of Fenders – Humberstone has been playing a Player Lead III and Mustang 90 of late – is an Airline Map baritone from Eastwood, modelled on a National Newport.
“I love an ambient, reverby electric guitar,” she says. “It just does something to me. I didn’t know the baritone existed before we wrote Deep End and now I’m obsessed with it. I play it all the time. I also play quite a lot of Fenders, but my first few guitars were Epiphone Les Pauls that my dad got second hand on eBay. They were great to learn on, but I dropped one on tour and snapped the neck in half. I’m scarred from that experience.” Having introduced her to Damien Rice’s O, Regina Spektor, Radiohead (be sure to look up her cover of Fake Plastic Tree) and Led Zeppelin, Humberstone’s folks are also behind the loops that have lit up her recent sessions. “I’ve got a really over-enthusiastic dad who’s down for getting new equipment that I have no idea how to use,” she laughs. “I think he’d seen.
“My parents are really supportive and I think he bought a beginner loop station, and I’d not really touched it. I still play solo, and when I went on the Lewis Capaldi tour at the beginning of this year I realised that if I’m going to be playing rooms that are a bit bigger I’m going to need something else to fill out my sound. I incorporated the loop pedal, but I still don’t really know how to use it. I’m so awful at the technical side of stuff. Honestly, anything could happen on stage. I hope for the best.”
As strategies go, hoping for the best isn’t exactly bulletproof. But you get the feeling that, even at this early stage in her career, Humberstone has enough talent and melodic smarts on hand to make it work. “Writing Falling Asleep at the Wheel, I’ve made a little world for myself,” she says. “I understand who I want to be. It’s really fun to explore that world, push some boundaries, and I’ve really enjoyed writing on my own. I have a few songs for the second EP that are things I’ve worked on solo, which is really important to me. That’s how I started out. I’m waiting for one or two more songs, but I’m so excited.”
Holly Humberstone’s “Falling Asleep at the Wheel” is out now.
The Black Keys release Brothers (Deluxe Remastered Anniversary Edition), an expanded version of their watershed 2010 multi-platinum, Grammy-winning sixth studio album via Nonesuch Records. To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Brothers is re-released with three added bonus songs: Keep My Name Outta Your Mouth, Black Mud Part II, and Chop and Change. It is available in three formats: a 7” box set, a 2-LP set, and a CD. This is the first in an annual series of archival releases from the band. Brothers, was originally released on May 18th, 2010, was largely recorded at the famous Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama. It was a career breakthrough for The Black Keys. Although they realised upon their arrival in Muscle Shoals, Alabama in hot and humid August that the studio had seen better days, the band – singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney – brought in their own equipment and proceeded. The duo recorded nine of the original Brothers songs in what was now “a remote recording in a historic room that had been gutted”.
The band recorded additional material in other locations: the album song Tighten Up in Brooklyn with Danger Mouse (Brian Burton), several others on Auerbach’s eight-track in his Akron basement, and three in Mark Neill’s home studio in San Diego. Chop and Change and Keep My Name Outta Your Mouth are bonus tracks on this anniversary edition of Brothers. The band then gave the music to Tchad Blake to mix.
The Black Keys have announced a deluxe, 10th Anniversary reissue of their 2010 album “Brothers”. The remastered album will be available in three different formats: CD, 2xLP, and a 7″ box set. The deluxe edition of Brothers arrives December 18th, 2020 in the United States and Canada, and January 1st, 2021 worldwide via Nonesuch. Watch a promotional video for the release below.
‘Brothers’, originally released on May 18th, 2010, was largely recorded at the famous Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama. It was a career breakthrough for The Black Keys, receiving critical praise and earning three Grammy Awards, for Best Alternative Album, Best Rock Performance, and Best Recording Packaging for Michael Carney’s design. Upon release, Rolling Stone hailed the album ‘a masterpiece’, and Uncut named them ‘one of the best rock ‘n’ roll bands on the planet’.
In addition to the original album, the Brothers reissue will include a 60-page booklet with archival photos, new liner notes written by David Fricke, a limited edition poster, and three bonus singles: “Keep My Name Outta Your Mouth,” “Black Mud Part II,” and “Chop and Change.” The Brothers reissue is the first in an annual series of releases from the Black Keys. Their most recent studio album “Let’s Rock” arrived last year.
Brothers Deluxe Remastered 10th Anniversary Edition will be released in three formats: a 7” box set, a 2-LP set, and a CD. It will include three new bonus songs & a 60-page book photos from the archives. A limited number of autographed copies are available exclusively to members of The Lonely Boys & Girls Club. Further details below. Brothers (Deluxe Remastered Anniversary Edition) 7” Box Set ● Limited edition – only 7500 copies available worldwide ● Nine 7” singles ● New liner notes written by David Fricke ● Three bonus songs ● 60-page book of photos from the archives ● Limited edition poster ● Special heat-sensitive ink on cover Brothers (Deluxe Remastered Anniversary Edition) 2-LP Set ● 140 gram vinyl ● 12” vinyl tip-on gatefold double-pocket album jacket ● New liner notes written by David Fricke ● Three bonus songs ● Insert with photos
Aarhus four-piece Yung have announced their second LP is due out on January 22 on vinyl and digitally via PNKSLM Recordings. The long-awaited follow-up to the post-punks’ 2016 debut, ‘A Youthful Dream’, is preceded by a visual for opening single ‘Above Water’.
Speaking about the track the band, led by Mikkel Holm Silkjær, say:
“For a long time we referred to this song as ‘The Yo La Tengo Song’. Finishing Above Water helped spark a curiosity towards a less obvious approach to songwriting. Originally, the song had a different ending but our friend and producer Neil R. Young swept in with a slick outro, which concluded the song in a big way. Lyrically, the song is an ode to individuals taking a stand against injustice and structures in society which oppose equality. These people often become the voice and the talisman of movements and generations, something that might come at a personal cost, but nonetheless something that makes way for dialog, discussions and hopefully positive change.”
Video by Tobias Holmbeck. Lead single from Yung’s second album Ongoing Dispute, due on January 22 2021 via PNKSLM Recordings on vinyl
Ali John Meredith-Lacey, better known under the moniker Novo Amor, is a Welsh multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, sound designer and producer. The past three years have been a burst of creativity from Aberystwyth-born singer/songwriter Novo Amor (AKA Ali Lacey). In 2017, he dropped debut album ‘Heiress’ which first introduced us to his unique pop/folk infusion followed a year late by second record ‘Birthplace’ – and now he drops stunning third instalment ‘Cannot Be, Whatsoever’.
Bright yet contemplative, Lacey describes his latest LP as “a shift towards the light” across the ten tracks which he self-produced. The optimism shines through as he deeply reflects upon the most important moments in his life and their meaning. When Ali Lacey was 20 years old, he had his heart broken. “As clichéd as it sounds, I wrote love songs about the whole situation,” he recalls. “You’re in those formative years when everything just feels more emotionally charged. But looking back, I kind of cringe about the way I acted.” He grimaces. “I was writing the songs as soon as things happened and then I would send them to her. Argh, I wish I didn’t. The lyrics are just so obvious.
Novo Amor will be playing headline dates during Spring 2021 to show off his new material, Official video for ‘I Feel Better’ by Novo Amor Lifted from the album ‘Cannot Be, Whatsoever’, out now.
“Whether it’s the reminder that aloneness isn’t singular or a simplistic jolt of motivation that is far from cheesy, Novo Amor delivers an album with complexity and subtlety all at once. At a time when chaos and pain seem next to impossible to look away from, Novo Amor gently reminds us of all the possibilities and ways of being true.” – Clash
Quarter-Life Crisis is a collaboration between Ryan Hemsworth and various artists who’ve come to prominence over the past couple of years, many of whom got their start playing scrappy DIY shows. The self-titled debut EP released on December 4th, 2020 features contributions from Frances Quinlan (Hop Along), Meg Duffy (Hand Habits), Charlie Martin (Hovvdy), Yohuna, and Claud. It showcases Hemsworth in a new phase of his career, one that is perhaps a bit less indebted to the nightclub dance floor. “It’s always been a goal to mix, like, 25% electronic sounds and 75% live indie rock sounds,” he says. Collaboration is paramount to Hemsworth’s process, and though he produced all of the instrumentation on the album, he left the lyrics and intention of the song up to the contributors. The resulting collection shapeshifts from track-to-track, taking on new personalities as it moves between artists.
Quarter-Life Crisis, Ryan Hemsworth’s shared another new track from their self-titled EP: “Comfortable” featuring Meg Duffy of Hand Habits. Quarter-Life Crisis‘ debut EP also features collaborations with Frances Quinlan (Hop Along), Of the track Duffy said “When I was asked to do a writing session with Ryan, I had no idea who he was or what his music sounded like or what his life may be like. I completely showed up to this weird little studio completely blind to predisposition, a little embarrassed because the first time Ryan and I tried to connect I accidentally no-showed him after writing in the date on my analogue calendar wrong. I had never done any sort of co-writing session before and was a little nervous, but since I had no investment I went in with the intention of having fun and being open to whatever spirits wanted to move. We threw autotune on as a joke (half-joke because I can be pretty pitchy especially in the writing process) and it sounded kind of cool. I started thinking about AI and cyborgs and people/souls disassociating from bodies and identity and kind of just freestyled until a mildly understandable common theme started to swim up. It was really fun!!”
The collaboration is paramount to Hemsworth’s process, and though he produced all of the live instrumentation on the album, he left the lyrics and intention of the song up to the contributors. The resulting collection shape-shifts from track-to-track, taking on new personalities as it moves between artists. Quarter-Life Crisis announced the EP with “Postcard From Spain” feat. Frances Quinlan, which Stereogum, Paste and Under The Radar hailed as one of the best songs of the week upon its release. This was the followed by “Waterfall” feat. Charlie Martin of Hovvdy, which was highlighted by NPR, Under the Radar, and others.
The genesis of Ryan Hemsworth’s new project, Quarter-Life Crisis, can be traced all the way back to his childhood bedroom in Nova Scotia, where the producer spent the bulk of his high school years listening to emerging indie acts and playing guitar. Not loving the sound of his own voice and without a band, he eventually started making music on his laptop, which earned him accolades as he stepped out into electronic and club music scenes. His prolific output, paired with a voracious appetite for a wide range of genres and creation of his own label Secret Songs, has made Hemsworth a fixture since he released his debut solo album, Guilt Trips, in 2013.
But now, Hemsworth’s trying his hand at something unexpected that is nonetheless close to his heart and origin story as a musician. Quarter-Life Crisis is a collaboration with various artists who’ve come to prominence over the past couple of years, many of whom got their start playing scrappy DIY shows. “This project has me in the process of going back to when I was a kid when I’d sit down and play guitar for hours and come up with melodies and chords by just messing around,” Hemsworth says. “It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for ages. Quarter-Life Crisis is just another way for me to work with artists whose music I really enjoy and listen to all the time.”
Working with musicians who largely fall into the category of “indie” gave Hemsworth the opportunity to revisit some of the artists who inspired him to become a musician in the first place. He cites bands like the Cardigans, Grandaddy, Bright Eyes, and Sparklehorse as being foundational to his writing process this time around. Quarter-Life Crisis a sharp turn away from his last project, 2019’s CIRCUS CIRCUS, which he made alongside the Japanese rap duo Yurufuwa Gang, but for Hemsworth, working in a wide array of genres and modes keeps him on his toes, and ultimately, keeps his career interesting. “Getting out of my comfort zone and bringing others into that process has always led to something really unique,” Hemsworth says. “As a producer, I really respond to other people’s ideas and whatever they can bring to a song. Being in a room with someone with a different outlook, or working remotely with them, I hopefully help facilitate something that feels new and exciting for both of us.”
Quarter-Life Crisis – from the Quarter-Life Crisis EP out December 4th, 2020 on Saddle Creek Records.
The War on Drugs have announced The Super High Quality Podcast, premiering November 23rd, a few days after the release of their forthcoming live album. That’s not it, though—they’re also sharing a live cover of Warren Zevon’s “Accidentally Like a Martyr.”
This cover is the second single from the forthcoming live album, which is titled “Live Drugs”. It, according to the press release, collects “over 40 hard drives of recorded live shows.” That’s a lot of hard drives. The podcast will feature the band discussing those live performances and why they decided to make the live album. According to the announcement, “The Super High Quality Podcast” is a four-episode series, airing weekly beginning on the album’s release day. Throughout, guitar tech and band confidant Dominic East listens as the band talks casually about how they arrived at the performances and the decision to release their new live album.
“Live Drugs” is a collection culled from over 40 hard drives of recorded live shows spread out across years of touring behind multiple albums, according to the announcement — and anyone who’s seen the band live knows that someone heard an awful lot of soloing on those 40 hard drives. Sequenced to reflect how a typical 70-minute show would flow, it’s the first volume to capture the band’s live interpretations and a document showcasing the evolution of The War on Drugs’ live show over the years.
“Live Drugs” is not your typical live album. Rather than recording a board feed from a specific night at a specific venue in a specific city, this is a collection of live recordings from multiple live shows that the band feel best represents what they’ve done on stage. “Even though this recording is from a year of tours, this is really how these six guys evolved as a band from 2014 to 2019,” frontman Adam Granduciel says. In essence, even though these are all different recordings stitched and mastered into Live Drugs, the album is sequenced like how a live set would feel. And damn it if anything remotely resembling a real live concert ain’t exactly what we’re all craving right now. So if we can’t be at a live show just yet, we’ll gladly take the mind trip that Granduciel and company are so graciously handing us.
The group recently debuted a brand new single, “Ocean of Darkness,” on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” The song is the first release of any new material by the band since the release of 2017’s Grammy-winning “A Deeper Understanding,” and a taste of what they have been working on in the studio these last many months. “Ocean of Darkness” does not appear on “Live Drugs.”
“Live Drugs” arrives November 20 via Super High Quality Records.
After delivering ‘Day By Day’ and ‘Night Drive’, White Flowers are back with ‘Within A Dream’, the title-track of their forthcoming EP, to be released via Tough Love Records on January 15th 2021. Following the release of two 12″s in the past year, White Flowers returned with the “WithinA Dream” EP, a recently recorded four song collection to be released on 15th January 2021. Alongside digital formats, it will be pressed to 12″ transparent vinyl in an edition of 300 units. The four songs on the EP came together earlier this year during various periods of enforced isolation, and somewhat inevitably reflect the conditions of their provenance, exploring themes of dissociation, multiple selves, and the role of the individual in an increasingly strange and fragmented world. Alongside the three originals is a cover of Mama Cass’ ‘Didn’t Want to Have to Do It’ that closes the EP, and as with their version of Red House Painter’s ‘Katy Song’ from their previous 12”, is a further example of how defined their aesthetic has become, as they’re effortlessly able to shape the music of others to their own vision. Indeed, as with all their videos and records to date, the artwork for the single is again created entirely by the band, another example of their intentions to create a defined White Flowers universe.
Preston’s White Flowers, made up of Katie Drew and Joey Cobb, have so far not disappointed, and this third track – accompanied by the self-directed video below – from the Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Perfume Genius, Portishead) co-produced EP, delves further into their gothic dreampop world, with enticingly atmospheric instrumentals and hauntingly whispered vocals.
Within a Dream EP out 15th Jan 2021 on Tough Love Records.
Working Men’s Club release their highly anticipated self-titled debut record! Following the early October release of their excellent self-titled debut album, “Working Men’s Club” have today shared the video to the latest track to be taken from the album, “John Cooper Clarke”. Directed by Warmduscher frontman Clams Baker, Working Men’s Club share new video for ‘John Cooper Clarke’.
Taken from the band’s just-released self-titled debut album, the track is an homage to the Northern poet.
“I think John Cooper Clarke is a Northern icon,” says Sydney Minsky-Sargeant. “One of the last survivors of that era, going back into that period of time where he lived with Nico and lived in Hebden Bridge, which is down the road from me. He’s just a proper punk, and one of the last remaining punks there is. Now Andrew Weatherall’s dead, and people like that have fallen, he’s still going. He just does it how he wants to do it, and I think that’s quite admirable, as a creative.”
“My idea behind this video was to show three different generations and situations of celebrating with as little to do with JCC as possible and if I said anymore I’d be lying,” adds Baker. “I just wanted to make something fun in these hard times and visually tell all the screwballs to relax and keep your peckers up.”
“Britain’s most urgent new young band… Covid era’s first rave classic” – MOJO ★★★★ “Outstanding debut” – The Guardian ★★★★ “Completely unforgettable” – DORK ★★★★★ “Pulsating rave anthems on attention-demanding debut” – NME ★★★★★ “A scintillating debut” – Uncut 9/10Working Men’s Club overcome change to create a debut more than worth the wait.” – The Line of Best Fit 8/10Working Men’s Club are this unholy brew, this broad, immersive elixir.” – Clash
Working Men’s Club is the thrilling, energising, bracing sound of a reformed indie kid who side-lined the guitars and amped up the post-industrial synths, glacial beats and a bored-but-impassioned vocal style pitched somewhere between Ian Curtis and Mark E. Smith.” – The Face
“An explosive cocktail of emaciated rock with post-industrial ambiences, funk and electro beats designed for dark and feverish nights.”…”From this intense album we come out washed out but powerfully invigorated.” – Télérama 4 ffff
Upon its release in 2009, I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose cemented a barely-out-of-school Bombay Bicycle Club as key players in a thriving indie music scene; an unpredictable new act and a rapidly rising one, too. Its second single, ‘Always Like This’ is still an undeniable live favourite and has slotted seamlessly into their sets throughout those ten short years. If you’ve seen the band headline a festival or play one of their many notoriously-stellar live gigs, you’ll have seen first hand just how beautifully this track translates on to a live stage. We can’t wait to see similar ingenuity from the other eleven tracks that make up the album, and how the sometimes criminally underplayed tunes are brought rightly back into the limelight.
The album’s youthful vitality and thoughtful takes on life as an ’00s teenager have continued to enchant new audiences as the band’s career has flourished, and stayed with day one fans as they’ve grown up alongside the band. Therefore, I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose seems the perfect album to remind us once more of live gigs; of the shows we went to and sang along at not too many months ago.
The exciting news of the live album follows the release of the band’s fifth studio album, “Everything Else Has Gone Wrong” earlier this year. The album peaked at #4 on the UK album chart and garnered widespread acclaim from fans and critics alike. The release was due to be followed by an extensive European and North American headline tour and numerous festival headline appearances, which would undoubtedly have been brilliantly received and long-remembered. The new live album acts as a timely gift to their fans and a fine celebration of the power and togetherness of live music.
Speaking about the release, the band say, “This time last year – in the good old days when live music was possible – we played a handful of shows around the UK to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our debut album, ‘I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose.’ This tour finished on a Friday night at Brixton Academy in London, and we took the decision to record the show that evening.”
“This was a particularly special night for us in any case – seriously a show that we’ll all remember forever – and especially considering what’s happened since, we’re grateful we have a memory like this to keep us all going until live music can resume.”
I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose – Live At Brixton will be available digitally, on vinyl and CD and as a double LP, which includes the original studio album as well as the live recording.
The album was recorded on 8th November 2019 at the band’s sold out Brixton Academy show, celebrating the 10th anniversary of their debut album. It will be released on 11th December via Mmm… Records + Caroline International.
The Fat Angel Sings 