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Music update, June 2021.

Life is busy here, in good ways, and with the draft now just a week away I’ve been extremely preoccupied … but the good new music keeps coming, so here’s a new playlist for you.

CHVRCHES featuring Robert Smith – How Not to Drown. I did not see this collaboration coming. So many pairings of current artists with some of their heroes from prior generations only serve to highlight how the older artists have lost their fastballs – especially singers whose voices have started to go. Smith sounds the same as ever, and this is the second great CHVRCHES single ahead of their upcoming fourth album.

Gang of Youths – the angel of 8th ave.GOY are stars in their native Australia, but they might be a little too indie to see that kind of success here. There’s some Echo & the Bunnymen, The Church, and even early U2 in here.

Wolf Alice – How Can I Make It OK? Blue Weekend is one of the best-reviewed albums of the year … and I think it’s good, but it has some of the same issues I had with Visions of a Life. When Wolf Alice rocks, they rock. When they slow things down, the formula doesn’t work as well. That’s not a universal truth – “Safe from Heartbreak” is a 150-second acoustic track that has a strong hook in the chorus, and “How Can I Make It OK” has a slower tempo but is boosted by a big guitar riff. I just like their music best when they let it rip.

Little Simz – Rollin Stone. I’m all in. Little Simz’ new album, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, comes out on September 3rd, and the songs she’s released so far make me think it’s going to be her best yet.

Tom Morello, The Bloody Beetroots, Pussy Riot – Radium Girls. Morello and the Italian electronic duo The Bloody Beetroots have an EP coming out in the fall called The Catastrophists, featuring this track co-written by Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova, Savages’ Jehnny Beth, and frequent Morello collaborator Carl Restivo.

YONAKA – Raise Your Glass. YONAKA’s new stuff is veering towards the anthemic, which is fine in and of itself as long as the hooks are good (this one is), although I hear this song and worry it’s going to show up in a Heineken commercial in two years.

James BKS – Kusema. James BKS’s debut album Wolves of Africa is due out in the fall, and the son of the late Cameroonian musician Manu Dibango (who died last year of COVID-19) has released at least three tracks from the album so far, including this one, with a Swahili title that means “to express” and that features BKS rapping for the first time.

Jungle – Talk About It. Jungle’s third album Loving in Stereo comes out on August 13th, and this second track from the record is among the most straight-up dance tracks they’ve done (lighter on the ’70s soul and funk elements) to date.

SAULT – London Gangs. SAULT just released Nine, their fifth album in the last 25 months, although this is the shortest one to date, clocking in at just over a half an hour. The band is also saying they’re removing the album from the internet after 99 days, which means it’ll vanish from streaming sites (and from my Spotify playlist) at some point in October, which strikes me as a stunt. You can (and should) grab the album for free from their official site, although I don’t think it’s as strong as either of their 2020 releases.

Inhaler – It Won’t Always Be Like This. Solid work from this Irish band, although they can’t really get away from the U2 comparisons when the lead singer sounds so much like his father, Bono.

Everything Everything – Natural’s Not In It. The Gang of Four tribute album The Problem of Leisure was delayed five months but came out on June 4th, featuring two covers of this track, which gives the album its title, two of “Damaged Goods,” and three of “Not Great Men,” but none of “At Home He’s a Tourist.” At least EE’s singer Jonathan Higgs pronounces “migraine” in the American style.

Wye Oak – Its Way With Me. That’s the second single from Wye Oak this year, along with “TNT,” to go with singer Jenn Wasner’s solo effort as Flock of Dimes.

Kiwi jr. – Cooler Returns. I wasn’t familiar with this Canadian indie band until my friend Paul Boyé named their new LP one of his favorites of 2021 so far. There’s something a little too hipstery in their lyrics and vocals for me, but this title track from the record is strong.

Floatie – Shiny. “Math rock” is kind of a meaningless term, no? This is experimental music, and I don’t mean that adjective in the way anti-vaxxers use it, although I doubt Floatie’s debut album Voyage Out is FDA approved.

The Lottery Winners – Favourite Flavour. I’m becoming a bigger fan of The Lottery Winners all the time, and I can’t get over how prolific they are, approaching King Gizzard level, but in this case churning out one catchy indie-pop single after another.

Descendents – Nightage. I mean, all good Descendents songs sound pretty much the same, but that’s what we pay for, right?

Quicksand – Missile Command. If bands still released singles with B-sides, Quicksand should have paired this with a cover of Killing Joke’s “Asteroid.”

Accept – Zombie Apocalypse. I had no idea Accept was still around and recording music, and while I suppose purists might object that it’s not Accept without Udo, but I don’t have that same history with the band that I might with other ’80s metal acts, so the new vocalist doesn’t faze me. Their newest album, Too Mean to Die, leads off with a pair of impressively heavy songs for a band that was often lumped in with hair-metal acts in their heyday, with thrash elements in both this song and the title track.

FALSET and James Labrie – Kickstart My Heart. “Kickstart My Heart” is actually my favorite Mötley Crüe song, and this track is quite faithful. FALSET’s drummer is the son of James Labrie, longtime lead singer of Dream Theater, who does a very reasonable imitation of Vince Neil here.

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→ June 4, 2021
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Music update, May 2021.

I’m not sure if this was a weak month for new tracks or if I just missed a lot as I spent more time seeing games and working on some stuff around the house. It ended strongly, however, with a slew of important album releases on the last Friday in May and the first one in June. As always, if you can’t see the widget below you can access the playlist here.

black midi – Chondromalacia Patella. black midi are back, with their second album, Cavalcade, dropping on the last Friday in May. It’s frenetic, cacophonic, and deeply unsettling music, similar in attitude to their debut record, Schlagenheim, but differing enough in tone and style to mark a real progression in their sound. This was one of the lead singles and remains one of the better tracks on the record, which in some ways is more accessible than the first LP but which, on first listen, doesn’t have enough great hooks in the longer tracks like “Ascending Forth” or “Diamond Stuff.”

Pond – America’s Cup. Pond have always been weird, sometimes to good effect but sometimes to the point where it was easy to dismiss some of their experiments. Whatever the hell this is, though, I want more of it. This is early ’80s funk, still bearing the influence of peak disco, around lyrics about the rapid gentrification of Fremantle in Western Australia after that country’s entry won the America’s Cup sailing race in 1983 and the city hosted the Cup in 1987. This is the good shit.

YONAKA – Call Me a Saint. That’s three new singles this year from this Brighton quartet, whose feminist alt-rock made Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrrow one of my favorite albums of 2019. Still no word on a release date for a second LP.

Little Simz feat. Cleo Sol – Woman. The second single ahead of Little Simz’s sophomore album, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, due out in September, “Woman” is also her second collaboration with singer Cleo Sol. Little Simz is easily one of my favorite rappers working today, both for her own vocal style and her choices of backing music.

Bobby Gillespie & Jehnny Beth – Chase It Down. That’s the lead singer of Primal Scream and the lead singer of Savages, respectively, and their album, Utopian Ashes, will be out on July 2nd. There are hints of Primal Scream’s more psychedelic leanings in here – rather than the straight-up Rolling Stones homage they did on “Rocks” – along with a fantastic guitar solo at the end.

Emma-Jean Thackray – Say Something. I’ve seen Thackray called a jazz musician, but this isn’t jazz – this is smart, textured dance music, with elements of jazz, and R&B, and house, and more. She has her own record label, Movementt, and appears to be building up towards a debut album after releasing two singles in the last two months.

Jorja Smith feat. Shaybo – Bussdown. Smith’s EP Be Right Back feels like a tease, as the nine-song, 25-minute release just isn’t enough from the talented R&B singer/songwriter, whose debut album Lost & Found came out three years ago this week. I’ll take any Jorja Smith I can get, though.

Freddie Gibbs, Swizz Beats, and Shoota93 – We Want Justice Dammit! This track comes from season 2 of the series Godfather of Harlem, and both Gibbs and Swizz Beats deliver strong verses despite the near lack of a beat beneath them.

Atlas Genius – Elegant Strangers. I was seriously concerned these guys had hung it up for good, with only one new track in the last four years, but it appears we will get a third album from the guys behind “Trojans,” “If So,” and “Molecules.”

Renée Reed – Neboj. Reed is from Louisiana and sings in both English and French, but it’s the intricate finger-picked guitarwork that drew me to this song, from her self-titled debut album.

The Lottery Winners – Times Are Changing. I was very late to this parade, but damn can the Lottery Winners churn out pop bangers as fast as anyone. Their next album, which will be their second in 18 months (third if you count their lockdown covers record), is due out on September 24th.

The Wombats – Method to the Madness. There’s a distressingly slow start to this new track from Matthew Murphy and the lads, but it picks up in the second half and sounds far more like a Wombats song. They haven’t announced when their next album, which will be their fifth, will appear, but are planning their biggest concert ever at London’s O2 Arena next April.

Cœur de Pirate – Plan à Trois. Béatrice Martin released a surprise EP of instrumental piano tracks last month, and now she’s back with the kind of synth-heavy alternative pop for which she’s known. This isn’t quite up there with “Prémonition,” still my favorite song of hers, but it’s promising.

Greentea Peng – Dingaling. Peng’s debut album MAN MADE came out on Friday, June 4th, so it’s still in my queue, but her lead-up singles have all shown off her incredible ability to combine widely divergent genres. I feel like fans of the short-lived jazz-rap movement that started with Native Tongues and peaked briefly with Digable Planets will especially appreciate this track (and, I assume, the album).

Superbloom – Pollen. The title track from this group’s debut album couldn’t sound any more ’90s – I hear Hum more than anything else – if they tried, but as someone who wanted the music of that decade to last forever, I’m here for it.

Squid – Pamphlets. The British music press loves Squid’s debut album Bright Green Field, but it’s just too much of itself for me. I can do modern punk, I don’t mind music with a sneer, and I certainly like the art-rock stylings of Squid’s guitar work, but the lyrics combined with the deliberately obnoxious delivery just leave me feeling a bit too “oh shut up already” before the record is half done. I thought this was the best song on the record, but it’s nearly eight minutes long, and that is absolutely enough of Squid for me.

Mastodon – Forged by Neron. Mastodon has so many sides to its music that saying this is my favorite style of Mastodon track does something of a disservice to their ingenuity and breadth. But I do like when they pick up the pace a little and ensure their tracks have stronger melodies.

Sabaton – Defence of Moscow. These guys are ridiculous but I love it – it’s right out of a 1989 episode of Headbanger’s Ball. Savatage would be proud.

Gojira – Into the Storm. The French avant-garde metallists returned with the long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s Magma, which Decibel named the best metal album of the decade and which earned the band a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album, a rarity for any extreme metal band. Highlights from the new record, called Fortitude, include this track, “Sphinx,” “Amazonia,” “Born for One Thing,” and “Another World.”

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→ April 1, 2021
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Music update, March 2021.

What a loaded month for new tracks; maybe the possibility of tours later this year has encouraged artists to put out more new music, or maybe it’s a backlog of songs recorded during the long winter, but either way, this is one of my longest new music playlists ever, with 25 songs and over 100 minutes of music even after I made some cuts. You can access the Spotify playlist here if you can’t see the widget below.

The Lottery Winners featuring the Wonderstuff – Bang. The Wonderstuff’s “Circlesquare” is one of those songs I forget from time to time, only to have something bring it back the front of my memories and remind me of how much I like it. I wasn’t aware they were still active as a group, but they toured with then-rookies The Lottery Winners in 2016, which I assume led to this joint effort that I think is my favorite LW track so far. It’s indie-pop with a rough undertone in the lyrics, just like “Circlesquare.”

YONAKA – Ordinary. The Brighton quartet’s second new single of the year, “Ordinary” might be their best song so far, and I assume this self-produced track heralds a sophomore album at some point this year.

FKA twigs feat. Headie One – Don’t Judge Me. Headie One’s 2020 mixtape GANG had a two-minute song called “Judge Me (Interlude)” that featured FKA twigs on vocals, but it was truly an interlude, hardly a finished product. This, however, is a real song, with twigs elevated to lead status, or at least co-lead with Headie One, and how could you avoid interpreting the lyrics in an entirely new light after what she has gone through in the last six months? Her last album, MAGDALENE, was outstanding, one of my favorites of 2019, and I get the sense whatever she does next is going to top that.

Jungle – Keep Moving. Jungle put two songs on my ranking of the top 100 tracks of the 2010s, “Busy Earnin” (#64) and “Happy Man” (#11), one from each of their first two albums, both heavily influenced by 1970s soul, R&B, and funk. This lead single from their third album Loving in Stereo, due out August 13th, moves forward a few years in the past to the early years of disco, with a great hook but perhaps not the high ceiling of their best songs to date because it’s lost some of the harder edges.

Ghost of Vroom – I Hear the Axe Swinging. I was hopeful that Mike Doughty’s new project would bring back some of that long-lost Soul Coughing vibe after a promising EP last summer, and I think this new single, from the group’s full-length album Ghost of Vroom 1, delivers on that promise, from Doughty’s half-sung, half-spoken word vocals to a drum-and-bass backdrop. The whole album is made of the same stuff, although I think Doughty is more front-and-center than he was on Soul Coughing’s first two albums.

The Horrors – Lout. The Horrors came on the scene in 2006 with the arty, dissonant single “Sheena is a Parasite,” went more mainstream with their stellar album Skying in 2011, and continued evolving in an even tamer direction after that, so their new three-song EP, also called Lout, is a surprise and a callback to their mid-aughts sound, with this title track the most accessible on the record.

NewDad – Slowly. This new Irish quartet is the latest in a sudden surge of shoegaze bands from that country, a quarter-century after the original shoegaze movement peaked in England, although this new wave is often more pop-accessible, as on NewDad’s sixth single, off their new EP Waves.

Japanese Breakfast – Be Sweet. “Be Sweet” is one of the most-lauded tracks of the month as far as I can see, thanks to a big hook in the chorus and a sunny, poppy sounds that should really cross over to mainstream pop radio.

BLOXX – Everything I’ve Ever Learned. I enjoyed this West London group’s debut album Lie Out Loud, including the title track and “Coming Up Short,” comparing it to California indie pop, and that’s still here on this new single, which is a little more mature and layered without losing any of their knack for a strong melody.

Sprints – Ashley. Sprints, like BLOXX, appeared on my top 100 songs of 2021, and they’re back now with another punk-influenced banger, although here the Irish quartet bring more rock/pop elements to their formula for a song that’s less indignant but still rocks, building to a powerful chorus, with lyrics that might take a little from “Every Breath You Take.”

Everything Everything – SUPERNORMAL. These art-rockers released this leftover track from their RE-ANIMATOR recording sessions, and I kind of wish it had made the record – this is the kind of frenetic music at which they excel, and which first drew my attention nearly a decade ago with songs like “Cough Cough” and “Kemosabe.”

Jorja Smith – Addicted. Still waiting for word on a second album from Smith, who has still been busy, including this stunning single and, as I recently learned, a contribution to the soundtrack of Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon.

Sons of Kemet feat. Kojey Radical & Lianne La Havas – Hustle. This British jazz ensemble brings in elements of Afrobeat, Caribbean music, classical, and here rap courtesy of Kojey Radical. Sons of Kemet were shortlisted for the 2018 Mercury Prize for their last album, Your Queen is a Reptile, and their follow-up, Black to the Future, will be out on May 14th.

Daniel Casimir, Moses Boyd, et al – Safe (Part One). Because I’ve listened so much to Dark Matter, the 2020 debut album from jazz drummer Moses Boyd, I’ve discovered numerous other tracks on which he’s played, songs I would never have found otherwise because I don’t really know jazz well at all. Casimir is the lead artist here, a bassist and bandleader who put out his first full-length album (with Tess Hirst) in 2019 and has returned here with his longest song yet, this seven-minute opus that my limited jazz knowledge tells me bears a strong influence from John Coltrane.

DREAMERS, Big Boi, UPSAHL – Palm Reader. You might remember DREAMERS’ 2014 alternative radio hit “Wolves” or 2016’s “Sweet Disaster,” both perfectly cromulent songs, but this track expands their sound and is far more memorable for the contributions of Big Boi and the young singer UPSAHL. Just a reminder that palm reading is not a thing.

James – All the Colours of You. James’ peak output from 1989-1999, from “Sit Down” to Millionaires, should be up there in the pantheon of music in that era alongside the Oasises and the Blurs and other purveyors of smart rock/pop, but for whatever reason they’re just not remembered that way, and their music since the turn of the century has usually left me disappointed. This isn’t the next “I Know What I’m Here For,” but it’s good to hear James turn the tempo back up and bang the drums again.

TEKE::TEKE – Meikyu. Named for a Japanese urban legend about a vengeful spirit, this seven-piece, Montréal-based, Japanese band, incorporates traditional instruments into 1960s rock that sounds like the score to an early spy movie or a James Bond thriller. Their new EP Yoru Ni features two standout songs, this one and the title track.

Black Honey – Back of the Bar. This Brighton indie-pop band just released their second album, Written & Directed, which runs a scant 30 minutes but includes a bunch of catchy pop tracks, including this one, “Believer,” “Run for Cover,” and “Beaches.”

beabadoobee – Last Day on Earth. I do appreciate beabadoobee’s ’90s alternative radio sounds, but when she says “I’ve got something to say,” it just reminds me that she doesn’t seem to have anything to say. Her music isn’t catchy or compelling enough for me to overlook the lyrics yet, but she is a talented guitarist and songwriter, so she’s still a prospect with some upside.

Inhaler – Cheer Up Baby. Poor Elijah Hewson. The lead singer of Inhaler is never going to get away from comparisons to his father, Bono, because he sounds just like him whenever he extends his voice, as he does on the chorus here – but it’s a good song in its own right, and Inhaler doesn’t really sound like U2.

Royal Blood – Limbo. I’m not sure how I feel about this new single from Royal Blood, whose first single “Out of the Black” was my #1 song of 2014 and #13 of the decade, which is catchy and has that heavy bottom all their songs do (because Mike Kerr is playing a bass guitar with an octaver pedal, not a six-string), but it’s … dancy? Am I just thrown because this is a good song that is not what I think of a Royal Blood song? That bass riff at the end is pretty killer, though.

Death from Above 1979 – Modern Guy. “One + One” was the lead single from their new album, Is 4 Lovers, and I think my preferred single of these two, but I haven’t had a chance to dive into this album yet.

Wheel – Ascend. This Finnish prog-metal band has fast become one of my favorite artists in that niche, and their second album, Resident Human, has two standout shorter singles in this and “Fugue,” along with three songs that clock in beyond ten minutes, which I understand isn’t everyone’s taste.

Gojira – Amazonia. Is Gojira the best metal band in the world today? I’m inclined to say yes, especially since this is the third straight single they’ve released (“Born for One Thing” and “Another World”) that retains their trademark heaviness but strike a better balance between the not-quite-growled vocals and the showstopping music behind it.

Moonspell – The Hermit Saints. More gothic metal from these Portuguese stalwarts who seem like a throwback to heavy metal in the pre-death (pre-Death?) days.

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