We have a bunch of comebacks this month, with bands I liked once upon a time returning either in reality or just to my radar because they put out something great in June. You can access the playlist here if you can’t see the Spotify widget below.
Editors – Karma Climb. This is the best New Order song in 21 years. (Editors are not New Order, and this is the second single ahead of their seventh album, EBM, due out in September.)
The Beths – Silence is Golden. The Beths have had some great tracks over their four years of releasing music, with a lot of punk influences in their power-pop formula, but the music here is as close to straight metal as they’ve ever veered – and it works.
Talk Show – Cold House. Talk Show gets labeled as post-punk, or new wave punk, but their music is more darkwave with far less of a punk influence than any of the reviews.
Jungle – GOOD TIMES. Jungle’s already back with a two-track single less than a year after Loving in Stereo dropped, with this the better (and more uptempo) of the two songs.
Automatic – Skyscraper. Now this is post-punk new wave.Automatic was new to me before this track, although their newest album, Excess, was their sophomore release.
Queen Colobus – Think Fast. Welsh vocalist/saxophonist Beth Hopkins leads Queen Colobus, mixing jazz with indie/alternative rock, as if Dry Cleaning or Yard Act merged with Sons of Kemet.
CVC – Docking the Pay. Another Welsh band – I swear this is a coincidence – CVC might be most notable for wiping all their old music from streaming platforms, so right now all there is from them are two songs, this and “Winston.” This new single combines an electronic beat that reminds me of a HAERTS track with vocals that might be from a drinking song.
Inhaler – These Are the Days. Bono’s son – I guess at some point I should stop calling him that – and his band keep churning out solid alt-rock singles.
The Aces – Girls Make Me Wanna Die. I’d lost track of Aces after their first single, “Stuck,” made my top songs of 2016 playlist, because I didn’t find the debut album as catchy, but this has that same pop energy with better production values.
Sløtface – Come hell or whatever. Sløtface has gone from a band to a one-woman operation, with singer/songwriter Haley Shea the only remaining member, and this the first new single from her as the new Sløtface.
Bartees Strange – Wretched. Strange’s second album, Farm to Table, is a big step forward, expanding his repertoire of genres and reducing the influence of the National on his overall sound.
Preoccupations – Ricochet. A welcome return for these Canadian post-punks, whose fourth album, Arrangements, is due out in September.
Kid Kapichi – Rob the Supermarket. Kid Kapichi had two singles this month, this rocker, which could fit very well on their debut album This Time Next Year, and the extra-biting acoustic track “Party at Number 10,” the subject of which should be quite evident.
beabadoobee – 10:36. Beabadoobee does Sunflower Bean? This is a delightfully sunny pop track, leading into her second album, Beatopia, due out on July 15th.
FKA twigs – killer. Yet another new track from FKA twigs, separate from her Caprisongs mixtape, and I think more in line with the music from magdalena. “It’s dangerous to be a woman in love” can have so many meanings here.
Dry Cleaning – Don’t Press Me. I don’t love Dry Cleaning’s flat and very forward-produced vocals, but they get this great Wire/Magazine vibe when they let it rip, as they do on this lead single from their sophomore album, Stumpwork, due out in October.
Christine and the Queens – Je te vois enfin. This is the first new track from Christine and the Queens since last fall, and introduces the “Redcar” persona, although whether that means anything for the music remains to be seen. It’s in a similar musical vein to “I disappear in your arms,” one of my favorite tracks of 2020.
Kiwi jr. – Unspeakable Things. Man that organ riff with its one chromatic tone is pretty great, harkening back to the brief moment in the mid-aughts when emo was listenable.
La Luz – San Fernando Shadow Blues. I assume this is the theme to the next James Bond movie, which will star the as-yet unnamed actor skeet-surfing in the opening scenes to save the planet.
Porcupine Tree – Rats Return. Closure/Continuation marks Porcupine Tree’s return after a 13-year absence from recording, including this heavy, Rush-like rocker and last year’s single “Harridan.”
Soilwork – Nous Sommes la Guerre. New prog metal from a Swedish band I typically associate with more extreme sounds, but here we get only clean vocals and a very melodic synth line driving the track.
Every time I see something for this band “Talk Show” I think about the time (all the time, really, but the specific time) Scott Weiland was so strung out that the DeLeo brothers formed a fake Stone Temple Pilots band, called Talk Show, in the late 90s. They made one album and it was okay. Then Scott stopped doing drugs for a few weeks and they got back together.
Same. I actually liked “Hello Hello,” but what I remember most is a review, maybe on Allmusic, that referred to the band by the lead singer’s last name, calling them Coutts & Co., which was a very obscure reference to a boutique British bank. (Also that band’s existence makes it harder to google this one.)
Top Secret reference for the win!
Kid Kapichi played both new tracks (“Rob the Supermarket” and “Party at No. 10”) at their gig at the Electric Ballroom in London in May, and were very well-received. Izzy from Black Honey came out for a duet version of “Thugs.” Maybe the best gig I have ever seen (and I’ve been gig-going since ’93).