Manchester’s idiosyncratic art-popologists Dutch Uncles return with “Big Balloon”, their new studio album, on 17th February 2017 on Memphis Industries.
Big Balloon is the latest chapter in Dutch Uncles’ brilliantly witty, hip-swiveling, left-field adventures. Taking musical inspiration from Kate Bush’s The Red Shoes, Low-era David Bowie, some slightly-less fashionable records belonging to their Dads and East European techno, it’s the fifth Dutch Uncles studio album and the follow-up to 2015’s acclaimed “O Shudder”.
Functioning as ten distinct pieces, each tackling a different topic, including austerity cuts, therapy, fried chicken, paranoia and coming to terms with loneliness, Big Balloon is Dutch Uncles’ finest album to date, taking listeners on an exhilarating cerebral journey.
Mixing the heartfelt angst of a singer/songwriter with the brashness of a garage rocker, Ryan Adams is at once one of the few artists to emerge from the alt-country scene to achieve mainstream commercial success and the one who most strongly refused to be defined by the genre, leaping from one spot to another stylistically while following his increasingly prolific muse.
On new album “Prisoner”, Ryan has said: “I was reflecting on the different states of desire and what it means to be a prisoner of your own desire… I felt like I had been robbed of… the most valuable thing in a person’s life…Time.”
The twelve tracks that make up Prisoner came to Adams over a prolific period stretching back as far as the week his 2014 self-titled album entered the U.S. album chart at a career high of #4. During that run, Adams toured the world, recorded and released both his Live at Carnegie Hall collection and full-album cover of Taylor Swift’s 1989,
‘Saturday Night’, the first proper solo album from Tim Darcy (Ought), comes from one of those crossroads-type moments in life where one has to walk to the edge before knowing which way to proceed. Each track is woven to the next in a winding, complex journey through a charged, continuous present. There are love / love lost songs like the standout, almost-New Wave ‘Still Waking Up’ in which a Smiths-esque melody builds upon an underbrush that recalls 60s AM pop and country.
Darcy’s unmistakable, commanding voice and lyrical phrasing are, as they are in Ought, an instrument here – vital to the entire affair. There’s a line in ‘Tall Glass Of Water’, the album’s Velvet Underground-nodding opening track, where Darcy asks himself a rhetorical question: “if at the end of the river, there is more river, would you dare to swim again?” He barely pauses before the answer: “Yes, surely I will stay, and I am not afraid. I went under once, I’ll go under once again.” That river shows up again and again in the lyrics of ‘Saturday Night’. It’s about how wonderful it can be to feel in touch with that inner current. It’s about how good it feels to make art and how terrifying; how you don’t always get to choose whether you’re swimming or drowning as we grow and move through life, just that you’re going to keep diving in.
What Kind Of Dystopian Hellhole Is This? (Released 15/02/17) is the eighth LP from Berlin-via-Manchester based psych/post-punk outfit The Underground Youth, and it’s arguably their most accomplished yet. Perhaps what is most exceptional about The Underground Youth is their ability to create a brooding melting pot of Berlin chillwave, post-punk, folk, goth and shoegaze but delivered with a dreamy pop sensibility. With a huge back-catalogue that’s collectively clocked up several million listens from a dedicated global following, Craig Dyer and co have acquired a cult-like status and have consistently been at the forefront of neo-psychedelia since their inception. The band will be heading out on an extensive 25-date EU tour in support of the new LP
Hard Love, Tim Showalter’s latest release as Strand of Oaks, is a record that explores the balancing act between overindulgence and accountability. Recounting Showalter’s decadent tour experiences, his struggling marriage, and the near death of his younger brother, Hard Love emanates an unabashed, raw, and manic energy that embodies both the songs and the songwriter behind them. “For me, there are always two forces at work: the side that’s constantly on the hunt for the perfect song, and the side that’s naked in the desert screaming at the moon. It’s about finding a place where neither side is compromised, only elevated.”
During some much-needed downtime following the release of his previous album, HEAL, Showalter began writing Hard Love and found himself in a now familiar pattern of tour exhaustion, chemically-induced flashbacks, and ongoing domestic turmoil. Drawing from his love of Creation Records, Trojan dub compilations, and Jane’s Addiction, and informed by a particularly wild time at Australia’s Boogie Festival, he sought to create a record that would merge all of these influences while evoking something new and visceral. Showalter’s first attempt at recording the album led to an unsatisfying result—a fully recorded version of Hard Love that didn’t fully achieve the ambitious sounds he heard in his head. He realized that his vision for the album demanded collaboration, and enlisted producer Nicolas Vernhes, who helped push him into making the most fearless album of his career.
The Fat Angel Sings 