{"id":7289,"date":"2019-01-06T08:00:04","date_gmt":"2019-01-06T13:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=7289"},"modified":"2019-01-13T09:31:51","modified_gmt":"2019-01-13T14:31:51","slug":"music-update-december-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/06\/music-update-december-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Music update, December 2018."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I posted my rankings of <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/2Cqkv3m\" target=\"_blank\">my top 100 songs of 2018<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/2CmFbcl\" target=\"_blank\">my top 18 albums of the year<\/a> in mid-December, so this monthly playlist is a little shorter than normal \u2013 plus artists tend to release less new material during the holidays. I still found fifteen songs worth sharing, though, a few of which were out in time for my year-end list. As always, you can access <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/user\/keithlaw1\/playlist\/0iBQDmomAyJeT5S4VG2TCB?si=_unp-YCdR5CGr0PSXKxrZg\" target=\"_blank\">the Spotify playlist here<\/a> if you can&#8217;t see the widget below.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/user\/keithlaw1\/playlist\/0iBQDmomAyJeT5S4VG2TCB\" width=\"300\" height=\"380\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allow=\"encrypted-media\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Are We Static \u2013 Weight of Water<\/strong>. A new single from these British alt-rockers who draw on equal parts Britpop, new wave, and classic British psychedelia, this time featuring guest vocals by Sussex-based folk singer Talitha Rise.<\/p>\n<p><strong>White Lies \u2013 Finish Line<\/strong>. A middling follow-up to the strong lead singles ahead of the group&#8217;s forthcoming record <em>Five<\/em>, due out February 1st.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Blac Rabbit \u2013 Seize the Day<\/strong>. I was sure this was a new Tame Impala track the first time I heard it, but I suppose that&#8217;s a compliment, especially since I love that group&#8217;s ventures into psychedelic rock. Anyway, Blac Rabbit is a Brooklyn quartet whom Wikipedia tells me often draws comparisons to \u2026 Tame Impala.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sleeper \u2013 Look At You Now<\/strong>. All the Britpop icons are getting back together; Sleeper reunited in 2017, and their first album in 22 years, <em>Modern Age<\/em>, will drop in March. I didn&#8217;t realize that in the interim lead singer\/songwriter\/seductress Louise Wener had written four novels. She still sounds the same, and this track has that same sort of slightly off-kilter riff that Sleeper&#8217;s best hits (&#8220;Delicious,&#8221; &#8220;Inbetweener,&#8221; &#8220;Nice Guy Eddie&#8221;) had.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Swervedriver \u2013 The Lonely Crowd Fades In The Air<\/strong>. Speaking of &#8217;90s British bands making comebacks, this makes two good songs in three singles ahead of Swervedriver&#8217;s upcoming album, <em>Future Ruins<\/em>, their second since they reunited.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lauren Ruth Ward \u2013 White Rabbit<\/strong>. Ward has put out two covers of classic rock tracks in the last month, this one, which I think is pretty strong and plays well to her vocal strengths, and a cover of the Doors&#8217; &#8220;Break On Through (To the Other Side),&#8221; where she&#8217;s oddly restrained on a song that calls for a bit of bombast.<\/p>\n<p><strong>whenyoung \u2013 Given Up<\/strong>. Singer\/bassist Aiofe Power looks like Riley Keough and  sounds a lot like Dolores O&#8217;Riordan, which makes the band&#8217;s cover of the Cranberries&#8217; &#8220;Dreams,&#8221; found on the same EP as this indie-pop track, eerily authentic to the original.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Anteros \u2013 Fool Moon<\/strong>. I think this is the most danceable song so far from this London quartet, who seem to dabble in all corners of indie rock.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hinds \u2013 British Mind<\/strong>. A new single just a few months after this Spanish band released their second album, <em>I Don&#8217;t Run<\/em>, which featured one of my top 100 songs of the year in &#8220;Tester.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ten F\u00e9 \u2013 Echo Park<\/strong>. A bit of a change of pace from these guys, who specialize in &#8217;70s-tinged soft rock that still manages to feel modern.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lady Bird \u2013 Reprisal<\/strong>. These British punks made my top 100 this year with &#8220;Spoons,&#8221; and capped off their year with this single, more of the same with spoken lyrics and a catchy guitar riff beneath it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Raconteurs \u2013 Now That You&#8217;re Gone<\/strong>. A new song from the Jack White-led supergroup that accompanied a reissue of <em>Consolers of the Lonely<\/em> and will also appear on a (surprise!) new Raconteurs album in 2019.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wheel \u2013 Vultures<\/strong>. Another one from my top 100, one of only two metal songs on the list (along with Ghost&#8217;s &#8220;Rats&#8221;), from a new Finnish prog-metal act who have promised a debut album in February.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Teeth Of The Sea \u2013 Hiraeth<\/strong>. Teeth of the Sea&#8217;s 2013 <em>Master<\/em> made my list of the best albums of that year, but they&#8217;d been quiet since 2015&#8217;s <em>Highly Deadly Black Tarantula<\/em> before this new seven-minute opus appeared last month, with more of the same experimental post-rock stylings, showing their ability to create eerie soundscapes is completely intact.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Children Of Bodom \u2013 Under Grass and Clover<\/strong>. I liked 2013&#8217;s <em>Halo of Blood<\/em>, especially for the track &#8220;Transference,&#8221; which is one of the best melodic death metal songs I&#8217;ve ever heard, but the 2015 follow-up <em>I Worship Chaos<\/em> went too far in the commercial direction (and then the silly death growls sounded even more ridiculous than ever). This track is the first single from their forthcoming album <em>Hexed<\/em>, due out in March, and I&#8217;m cautiously optimistic that they&#8217;re not going full In Flames on us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I posted my rankings of my top 100 songs of 2018 and my top 18 albums of the year in mid-December, so this monthly playlist is a little shorter than normal \u2013 plus artists tend to release less new material during the holidays. I still found fifteen songs worth sharing, though, a few of which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[978,359,757,852],"class_list":["post-7289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2018-in-music","tag-alternative","tag-metal","tag-music","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7290,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7289\/revisions\/7290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}