Art School Girlfriend crafts a beguiling atmosphere of electronica and dance music, with illuminating synth-textures, dappling trance, and breakbeat-inspired elements, combine into an engrossing, detailed tapestry. Polly Mackey’s songwriting craft and depth is matched by a voice of knowing, longing and experience, yet it has a comfort of a Tracey Thorn, but it is her own voice that wraps itself around you like a warm duvet as she’s dealing with emotional peaks and lows.
Art School Girlfriend, Aka Polly Mackey, released her second album “Soft Landing”, via Fiction Records. The album is self-described as a series of “small euphorias”, it is an album that finds Mackey shifting her sound towards tactile electronics whilst retaining the floating melodies of her debut.
Lead track “Close To The Clouds”, follows the success of standalone single “A Place To Lie” earlier this year. “Close To The Clouds” is an integral part of “Soft Landing”, with the central refrain providing the album with its title, and the song unfurling into climbing, arpeggiated synths amidst acid-house indebted drums
Surprise! New song “Real Life” is out today. This is one of my favourites from the album, and wouldn’t be what it is without co-prod from Riley MacIntyre, strings from Chloe Kraemer + Alfie Johnson and backing vocals from Marika Hackman.
“Soft Landing” follows Mackey’s 2020 debut album, “Is It Light Where You Are?” an album made in the wake of a tumultuous time and released during one. “Soft Landing” feels like Mackey’s true debut, a record of curiosity and playfulness with songs that sound like they are falling effortlessly into place.
Audiobooks , the London duo of David Wrench and Evangeline Ling, returned with a new EP titled “Gulliver thisYear”. It included the previously released single ‘Tryna Tryna Take Control’, as well as a new track, ‘Burnt Pictures’, featuring OneDa. A charming cultural collision, this track marries impish Euro-electro pop with a slanted Talking Heads-like beats, Evangeline’s inventive, surreal, and witty flights of lyrical imagination, this time they are joined by MC OneDa whose freestyle adds a refreshing perspective.
It’s another aural riot from audiobooks who constantly delight and challenge with every release.
Body Type say their new album “Expired Candy” is “filled with hope, love, and danger, dancing with delicious uncertainty.”Australian girl gang Body Type live up to their promises because “Expired Candy” is a riot of garage punk rock delivered with a sly grin; pointed arrow to the heart. Forged in lockdown it consumes the chaos of a world swirling with division, break ups and breakdowns, populists and narcissists, and delivers an attitude, crammed with heart, intellect and hooky tunes! Big tunes like life-affirming opener ‘Holding On’ is a soaring, hook-laden track, smeared in hopeful, knowing melodies and sprinkled with jousting, joyous life-affirming choruses, where the protagonist’s longing and messy“monsoon” emotions are kept afloat by friends and aphorisms passed down by family members. Also ‘Weekend’ that’s bittersweet garage-pop jumps head first into a juddering rhythm and sing-along melody that’s almost Broadway-worthy.
‘Miss The World’ is a centrepiece, a razor-sharp garage-pop anthem born of the COVID pandemic, with scurrying Batman-theme-like guitars and pummelling drums, laced with lead vocalist and guitarist, Sophie McComish’s urgent vocals, that are both an insidiously hooky lament and a spitting ball of frustration, swirling with the tumult of isolation, claustrophobia and the absurdity of our society and culture, raging at the “unquestioning compliance and the ascent of tyrants, told through pre-teen anarchists, bichon frises, and a drum beat based on a Gwen Stefani song.”For fans of the Breeders, Courtney Barnett and Sleater-Kinney, “Expired Candy” is quite frankly unstoppable, the ace soundtrack to hanging by our fingernails and doing it anyway.
‘Miss The World’ single taken from forthcoming album ‘Expired Candy’ (Out June 2nd) now via Poison City Records
Declan McKenna has shared a cover of ABBA’s ‘Slipping Through My Fingers’, McKenna has done an acoustic cover of the song which appeared on ABBA’s 1981 album track, ‘The Visitors’. Due to high demand after a clip of the cover went viral on TikTok, McKenna has now released the full version of the track.
Sharing the song, McKenna joked: “Tomorrow my Christmas number one drops, He continued: “‘Slipping Through My Fingers (Declan’s version) out at midnight,” before adding: “it’s out and if it’s not Christmas number one I’m deleting.”
After an outpouring of requests from fans online, English singer-songwriter Declan McKenna has shared a full studio version of the cover song.
Earlier this year, a recorded segment of McKenna singing the track during a livestream performance went viral on TikTok. The clip shows the 24-year-old talent singing the song’s chorus and playing acoustic guitar, quickly drawing comparisons to a young Paul McCartney.
The unexpected interest in McKenna’s off-the-cuff cover caught the alt-pop artist by surprise. His choice to record and release the track for fans while in the midst of promoting his upcoming third album, “What Happened to the Beach?, is an unorthodox one. Still, McKenna is approaching the unpredicted, algorithm-driven success of his cover with a sense of humour.
“My full cover of slipping through my fingers is out now on all streaming platforms, I put a whole 2 and a half hours into recording and mixing this thing so please stream it as much as humanly possible
the 10 year anniversary pressing of “Love’s Crushing Diamond” which also includes a remastered version of the preceding “Cowboy’s Prayer” EP. It will be ready to ship in the spring. If there ever was an album that deserved to always be played from start to finish while lounging in the morning sun on a bed made of assorted throw pillows… then this would be that album.
Small-town dream pop band Wild Nothing is set to release their sixth studio album “Hold” next month, and their second single, “Suburban Solutions,” is a shimmering synth soundtrack of subversive suburbia—the counterpart to previous groovy single “Headlights On” (featuring Hatchie).
Wild Nothing (aka Jack Tatum) is releasing a new album, “Hold”, on October 27th via Captured Tracks. he has shared its third single, “Dial Tone,” via a music video. Min Soo Park directed the video (or visualizer as they are calling it), which features two lovers trying to find each other in a city.
Jorge Elbrecht (Japanese Breakfast) mixed “Headlights On,” which features drum production by Tommy Davidson of Beach Fossils, and backing vocals from Hatchie’s Harriette Pilbeam. Tatum self-produced Hold and Geoff Swan (Caroline Polachek, Charli XCX) mixed it. The album also features Molly Burch, Becca Mancari, and Tatum’s his wife, Dana.
“I’ve sat with this record for a very long time now, so naturally I’m both excited and apprehensive to let it see the light,” said Tatum of “Hold”in a previous press release. “It’s my first record as a father. My first self-produced record since my debut. It’s a record that deals in existential themes but doesn’t always take itself too seriously. It’s not afraid of pop but it’s hopefully not afraid to be strange either. It has fun, gets sad, dwells in the quiet moments and embraces the loud ones. It’s me doing what I love and feeling grateful for it.”
Packed with an unflinching ‘80s pop influence and a biting satire of the beloved decade, Jack Tatum’s comeback after five years of new fatherhood and the return of personal production is off to an impeccable start. The chorus delivers a jingle for a fictitious company, reassuring us to “Take a deep breath, “Suburban Solutions” has your back.” The single is the perfect merger of nihilism and nostalgia, punctuated with the promise of a colourful album we can’t wait to indulge in.
Jack Tatum’s synth-pop band Wild Nothing expands their range with some thrilling results on “Hold”. Kicking off with the rhythmic, ’90s-inspired jam “Headlights On” featuring like-minded peer Hatchie, it veers into oddball New Wave (“Basement El Dorado”) and epic romance (“Alex”) while making space for detours such as the stunningly gorgeous instrumental “Presidio” along the way. Meanwhile, Tatum sings his most personal and vulnerable lyrics yet. These new dimensions give “Hold”a strong case for best Wild Nothing album yet.
As Wild Nothing, Jack Tatum has explored just about every corner of ’80s pop, from the Cure-isms of his 2010 debut through lush sophistipop, synthpop and R&B. For Wild Nothing’s fifth album, and first in five years, Tatum has his eyes squarely on the charts, aiming straight down the middle, as in mid-’80s and the middle of the Billboard Hot 100 where some quirky stuff lurked on the edges of the Top 40 at the time. On Hold, Tatum fully embraces widescreen Big ’80s production — think Tango in the Night, Invisible Touch, Dancing on the Ceiling, Welcome to the Pleasuredome — with layer upon layer of synthetic and organic instrumentation, including such touchstone sounds as gated drums, fretless bass, and sampled orchestra hits.
If you have a fondness for these kind of visions of excess, Tatum shows a mastery of the form and it’s hard not to be impressed by the technique even if it’s not your cup of tea. Unfortunately, like much of what was produced in the ’80s, a lot of the album rings hollow. Tatum is still capable of writing stick in your head pop melodies and big hooks (“Dial Tone,” “Alex”) but, even more than on 2018’s Indigo, the songs get a bit lost in all the shiny overproduction. As an exercise in style, though, Hold is an empty calorie feast for the ears. Patrick Bateman would’ve loved it.
Four albums in, and on the heels of their collaboration with Jay Som as Bachelor, El Kempner delivers their most consistent album yet in “Eye on the Bat”. If you like guitars, layered upon guitars, layered upon guitars, “The Clutch” puts that song in single of the year category. But it’s the more heartfelt and confessional (not a new approach for Kempner) songs that win the day here. The back-to-back openers of “Good Sex” and “Independence Day” rotate quickly from amusing anecdote to a detailed remembrance of a breakup. While the closing two songs (“Right About You” and “Fadin’”) are softly hued, lump in the throat gems that help to showcase Kempner’s full range of abilities.
With their latest album, “Eye On The Bat”, Palehound have unleashed a sonic tour de force that cements their status as one of the most exciting and forwardthinking artists in indie rock. Recorded with Sam Owens (Big Thief, Cass McCombs) at Flying Cloud Recordings in the Catskill Mountains, the album is a breathtaking showcase of artistic growth and evolution, with primary songwriter El Kempner (as well as multi-instrumentalist Larz Brogan) delivering a stunning batch of new songs that brim with energy, vulnerability, and raw emotion. From the explosive guitar riffs to the thunderous drumming and Kempner’s signature vocals, “Eye On The Bat” is the most thrilling and exhilarating album Palehound has made to date. The album’s sharp and introspective lyrics explore themes of selfdiscovery, anxiety, and empowerment, adding a layer of depth and nuance to the album’s uncompromising vision.
In addition to Kempner’s recent work with Bachelor (a collaborative project with Jay Som’s Melina Duterte), Palehound has earned widespread critical acclaim in outlets such as The New York Times, Pitchfork, and NPR, which praised their unique sound and fearless artistic direction.
Palehound’s long and storied touring history has seen them play shows around the world alongside some of the biggest names in indie rock, including Big Thief, Sylvan Esso, Lucy Dacus, PUP and more. And it’s not just other artists who have been inspired by their music – Kempner’s passionate and introspective song writing has struck a chord with fans around the world, cementing Palehound’s status as a deeply admired and widely influential artist.
“Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road” is a 2021 documentary film about the Beach Boys’ co-founder Brian Wilson directed by Brent Wilson.
It follows Brian and Rolling Stone editor Jason Fine as they drive around Los Angeles and visit locations from Brian’s past, interspersed with footage from recording sessions and comments from musical artists about his influence on the industry.
The film was accompanied by the release of a soundtrack album consisting of previously-unreleased recordings by Wilson, several of which dated from his unfinished 1990s collaborations with producer Andy Paley, and one new song, “Right Where I Belong”, that Wilson co-wrote with My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James for the film.
Join The Beach Boy’s Brian Wilson on an intimate journey through his legendary career as he reminisces with Rolling Stone editor and longtime friend, Jason Fine. Featuring a new song written and performed by Wilson and interviews with Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Nick Jonas, Linda Perry, Jim James, Gustavo Dudamel and Al Jardine.
For Wilco album number 13, Cate Le Bon stepped in as the Chicago institution’s first external producer in 16 years – “To have someone else keeping an eye out for my maudlin tendency,” Jeff Tweedy told us. If 2022’s “Cruel Country” privileged a singular take on roots tradition, “Cousin” was informed by chillier art-pop, by new textures, as Wilco gradually melded them with their own experimental instincts and their finely-honed songcraft – and with Tweedy’s imperishable humanity.
Wilco spent years trying to shake off the Americana tag that’s dogged them from the start of their career before they finally embraced it with a full-force hug on 2022’s “Cruel Country”. Both proactive and reactionary, the double album flipped country music upside down and sideways as Jeff Tweedy and company stripped down for their most organic-sounding album since they got experimentally weird following 1995’s fairly conventional debut, “A.M.“
In true to form, “Cousin” – “Cruel Country’s” follow-up, and Wilco’s 13th LP overall – takes a different path on a career that’s strayed far from the expected ever since Wilco holed up in a studio for their first double album, 1996’s rock ‘n’ roll history lesson “Being There“. The left turns and sonic highways of albums such as “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”, “A Ghost Is Born” and “The Whole Love” have softened the surprise factor a bit, but part of the band’s appeal is that none of their records sounds like the one before it.
“Cousin” is another aural tour de force, this time overseen by experimental Welsh singer-songwriter Cate Le Bon, the first time Wilco has worked with an outside producer in almost 20 years. From the opening track “Infinite Surprise” – all ticking clocks, heartbeat percussion and ambient hums working toward a slow build – the band is back in their familiar post-YHF territory, as strangled guitars make their entrance at the halfway point of the nearly six-minute song.
Tweedy, purposely so, barely works up emotion in “Ten Dead,” a summary of modern indifference; “Meant to Be,” the album’s chugging closing song, surveys the cost of that indifference with the hope of making things right. And that’s the core theme of “Cousin”: fixing the state of the human condition against often insurmountable hurdles. The music, drifting among the avant-pop playground Wilco has spent the past two decades traversing, suits the occasionally despairing, often hopeful mood. As much as “Cruel Country” cleared the air regarding a part of their past, “Cousin” mostly dispels another chapter in Wilco’s history, that of a stubbornly determined band working without compromise.
“It’s too late to be unclear,” Tweedy sings in “Evicted,” one of the album’s most musically and lyrically direct songs. While tangled connections surface again in “Cousin’s” title song, unlike 2019’s “Ode to Joy” – with its disheartened Trump-era uncertainties for the future – there’s an optimism here that everything will turn out OK in the end. Not even the typically hazy soundscapes can obscure that message.
Wilco fans could be forgiven for expecting another album of low-key acoustic tunes, given that that’s the wheelhouse they’ve mostly been sticking to since 2016’s “Schmilco”. “Cruel Country” began to wriggle out of that particular mode, going back to the twangy sounds of their 1995 debut to satisfying effect. But “Cousin” is a new beast entirely, with Jeff Tweedy & Co. The vibe is still relatively gentle throughout, but the clever soundscapes and arrangements of tracks such as “Infinite Surprise” and “Sunlight Ends” crackle subtly with electricity, while the more straightforward songs still sprawl and spread in a fresh way. Nearly 20 years after “A Ghost is Born“, it’s thrilling to see Wilco still able to conjure that same magic.
Le Bon’s influences — among them the inclusion of saxophone, cheap Japanese guitars, and a cinematic, New Wave-style drum machine — drive the album into the future. The result is Wilco’s most pointed and evocative album, one related but not tied to our present moment, truly new ground for a band that has tested musical boundaries throughout its lengthy career
The Fat Angel Sings 