Tuesday 5 March 2024

WATCH: Half Moon Run - 'Can't Stop Loving You'

Aghhhhh, how great are Half Moon Run?! MontrĂ©al's sweethearts are back with new track Can't Stop Loving You (which is ironic because I can't stop loving them either!!!) from the Salt album sessions and it is a stunner. I'll be honest, they've never disappointed - since stumbling across them almost by accident when I picked up their debut album in a multi-buy in HMV over a decade ago (say what now) I've been firmly in camp HMR, and I'm adoring this new track. 

On the release, the guys share: "Back when we we deep in the writing process for Salt, we had been working very hard on a different song for many hours, and were starting to consider going home for the night, when Devon started singing the chorus-line. He later mentioned it had popped spontaneously into his head in the day or two since we’d last been together. We whipped together the arrangement very quickly and recorded the demo-version that very night. 

We always knew we'd find the right moment to release 'Can't Stop Loving You' and the time has now finally come!"

Follow Half Moon Run - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

Wednesday 28 February 2024

WATCH: Cosmo Sheldrake - 'Old Ocean'

There's a new Cosmo Sheldrake album on the way. What a time to be alive!!!! Eye To The Ear is due via Cosmo's own Tardigrade Records on 12th April (not long!!!) and somehow I managed to get myself an early listen - it is magnificent. Obviously. Twenty-one tracks! All beautiful and inventive and wild and bonkers and just brilliant! Run is giving me allll of the heffalumps and woozles vibes. Just you wait! More on the record in due course...

Cosmo recently shared a couple of tracks from the album, including the superb single Old Ocean, which arrives with an equally superb video. 

On the track, Cosmo shares "Old Ocean, like many songs on this album, was made almost entirely using solar power. I spent much of 2020 and some of 2021 living in a small off-grid cottage powered by an unpredictable generator, so I made a temporary solar powered studio. Around this time there was a lot of discussion of so-called 'alternative facts', and the idea of truth was becoming ever more slippery in public discourse. In this song I try to make sense of these developments against the ever present back drop of acidification, dead zones, deep sea mining, coral reef bleaching, over fishing, noise pollution, and many other threats that the ocean faces."

“I am very excited to share the music video for Old Ocean directed by Narna Hue. We had a lot of fun making it. Narna created wonders with the amazing sets, costumes and choreography. Shot by the wonderful Tom Jacobs. Many thanks also to the brilliant dancers and collaborators, Wilm Danby, GrĂ¡inne Young-Monaghanm and to Flora Wallace, who also helped make the costumes.”

Follow Cosmo Sheldrake - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

Thursday 15 February 2024

WATCH: Maggie Rogers - 'Don't Forget Me'

I just stumbled onto the blog, thinking that I should probably write something soon.... and I was greeted with the glorious sight of 500,000 (!) all-time views. Say what?! That's a big number. Whether you're here by accident, or you're a regular scroller of my infrequent rambles - hi. Thank you! 

Now, there couldn't really be anything else that I need to write about right now when my headphones have been slightly consumed with one particular piece of new music for the last week or so. In fact, I got an early listen of this and cried in the staffroom, of course I did. Absolute queeeeen Maggie Rogers is back with Don't Forget Me, the title track from her upcoming third album, due on 12th April (the same day as Cosmo Sheldrake's new album - lord help me.) I've listened a fair few times already and I am adoring the new track. Maggie is making exactly the music she wants to right now, and you can tell. It's gorgeous. 

I have had so much fun at every stage of making this album. I think you can hear it in the songs. And I’m finding it’s sort of the key ingredient to making all of this really fly.

This album was written over five days, two songs a day — three days in December 2022, two in January 2023. It was written in chronological order.

Some of the stories on this album are mine. And for the first time really, some of them are not.

I wanted to make an album that sounded like a Sunday afternoon. Worn in denim. A drive in your favourite car. No make up, but the right amount of lipstick. Something classic. The mohair throw and bottle of Whiskey in Joan Didion's motel room. An old corvette. Vintage, but not overly Americana. I wanted to make an album to belt at full volume alone in your car, a trusted friend who could ride shotgun and be there when you needed her.

This has been such a transformational and special time in my life. I’m so grateful for many years of support and care I’ve been offered to let me come to all of this in my way and in my time. I can honestly say I’m more ready than I've ever been…and most importantly, I’m having a blast. I hope you love this record as much as I do.


Follow
Maggie Rogers - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

Friday 2 February 2024

LISTEN: Hailaker - 'Lorely'

Picture the scene. You've been living under a rock, and somehow you missed the real beaaaaautiful return of Hailaker. Hey, you might even have somehow slept on Hailaker in the first place? Poor you. Fear not, I'm here to rectify that. The duo (brill artists Jemima Coulter and Ed Tullett) just came back with Lorely, their first new music in almost three years (wild?!) and it is a pure delight. On repeat. 

I should be getting to sleep, so... maybe that's all I have to say at the moment. They're brill - you should listen to them. Let me know when you do!

Follow Hailaker - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

Thursday 25 January 2024

WATCH: Siv Jakobsen - 'America'

Just over a year ago, Siv Jakobsen kicked off 2023 with one of my favourite albums of the year, her third album, Gardening. It's properly beautiful stuff. If you haven't listened yet: sort it out. It turns out there was a song missing, kind of. One that had been intended to be the opener for the album, but that Siv wasn't quite ready to put out at the time. A year on, America is out in the world and is, unsurprisingly, a stunner. Over to Siv... 

I moved to America in 2009, shortly after my 20th birthday. Fueled by endless episodes of Gilmore Girls and Friends, I wanted to live out my version of the The American Dream. The song “America” is about the substantial grief I felt when I packed up my life and left the US again only 5 years later. After having been convinced for most of that time that I would make it my forever home, giving up that dream felt like a massive defeat.

In most ways I had an incredible experience in the US. I made friends for life and wouldn’t ever take back the time spent there. But when I realised that I wanted - needed - to go home to Norway, it felt like a real defeat. I felt like I had failed; at my life in the US, at my then crumbling relationship, and at my music-career that I was trying to get off the ground at that point. I went home, tail between my legs, realising that 20 year old me had been wrong.

America was the very first song recorded for Gardening. For a long time it was set to be the opening track, a subtle intro to the album ahead, with it’s Disney-esque intro and soft arrangement. However, as the recording process developed it became increasingly clear that although it is part of the Gardening universe for me on a personal level, it didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the record. A bit of an odd one out thematically, and yet right at the heart of it all.

Follow Siv Jakobsen - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

Sunday 14 January 2024

WATCH: The Vaccines - 'Discount De Kooning (Last One Standing)'

Ah, the glorious feeling of a new year with so much exciting new music ahead of us! As if my list of upcoming releases didn't already look completely beautiful, Cosmo Sheldrake just announced that he's releasing the first two tracks from his new album this week. Novo Amor seems to be teasing new music too... and albums from The Staves, Everything Everything, Sam Lee and MGMT are on my radar. 

Two weeks into the year and already so much new music to wrap our ears around! I can't wait to give the new records from Marika Hackman and Emma Gatrill a listen. For now, though, I've been a little caught up with Pick-Up Full Of Pink Carnations from long-time favourites of mine, The Vaccines. Way to start the year with an album of the year contender. Their sixth studio album and arriving three years after Back In Love City, it is 31 minutes and 34 seconds of pure joy. I love those guys. 

Whetting your appetites here with the current single, Discount De Kooning (Last One Standing). Superb!


Follow The Vaccines - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

Tuesday 12 December 2023

LISTEN: Asha Jefferies - 'Keep My Shit Together'

So. Festive songs. How do we feel? To be completely honest, when I'm delving through a full inbox of submissions, the festive tracks are usually the first to go. The overly joyful ones aren't really for me. Sadder festive songs however - sign me up. Recent favourites include Fenne Lily's Christmas Alone, Sunflower Thieves' It's Not Like The Christmas Films and a version of O Holy Night from Stornoway (I mean really, how could I possibly resist that?!) 

Thankfully, this one slipped through the net, and didn't make a direct line for the bin - I'm reaaaally liking Keep My Shit Together from Brisbane based Asha Jefferies. With a string of festival slots, support tours (Stella Donnelly - big yes) and awards under her belt, Asha's debut album looks set for release next year, and I can't wait to hear more. 

Keep My Shit Together was produced and mixed by Sam Cromack of Brisbane band Ball Park Music in his studio Prawn Records. Asha's music is at once euphoric and vulnerable, coming from a place of a young woman learning to express her queerness. On this one, she's testing her bravery in the face of 'milestone-induced anxiety' (celebrating Christmas with a new partner) and like I said, I'm very much here for it. 

On the track, Asha explains: "Keep My Shit Together was written one hot and sweaty day around my piano in December. While feeling stuck and existential, this song is an ode to bringing lightness to hot and heavy feelings around Christmas time. We recorded this in mid-December, air-con cranking and all in organised matching white tank tops."

Follow Asha Jefferies - Facebook | Instagram.

Thursday 7 December 2023

ALBUM NEWS: The Staves - 'All Now'

The Staves are back! Album announcement time! Isn't it exciting????!!! 

It feels like time has been a little bit wobbly for the past few years - somehow, their last album came out in early 2021, meaning there will have been just over three years between albums. We are ever so deserving of this new album. That 2021 record, the excellent Good Woman, was my album of the year. My most listened to album of that year, the first show that I got to after the various lockdowns - a record that really unlocked a deeper love of this band for me. A little bit exciting that they're back with a new one then.

Produced by John Congleton and their first release via Communion Records (I mean - a perfect fit if ever I saw one?!) All Now arrives on 22nd March 2024, and features recent single You Held It All (again - excellent) and this new single, the glorious title track. 

On the track, Jess and Camilla say "it's a stream of consciousness about frustration and feeling overwhelmed with modernity. Kind of a rejection of the performative way we have to express ourselves now in order for it to be deemed valid." 

Discussing the video, which was directed by James Arden, the pair add "We were in love with the old footage of singer songwriters performing in shows like 'The Old Grey Whistle Test', and the way the audience hung on the singer's every word. We wanted to play with the idea of 'All Now' being an ideology and a message. Something that came from artists and creatives, but is then hijacked and commodified by corporate creeps, preaching the message to gain power."


All Now arrives 22nd March 2024 - you can pre-order and check out US, Europe and UK tour dates here.

Follow The Staves - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

Wednesday 6 December 2023

A (sort of) love letter to live music and community

December - goodness. Many of you will know that I work in a bookstore, and can probably imagine just how busy and stressful that is right now. Carrying stacks of books (and everything else) from section to section, fielding queries, recommending books. It is at once the best and worst time to work in a bookstore. Helping people to choose gifts can be kind of magical, but retail definitely presents you with the worst of people - sadly not even bookshops are immune to that.

As ever, music is a big salvation, and beyond my headphones and the blog inbox, it has been a delight to find time to escape to a bunch of gigs over the past couple of months. A quick scan of my gig list tells me I’ve been to fourteen shows so far this year, in various forms… including an album launch on a nature reserve, in-stores at Rough Trade and Banquet Records, and even a night at the British Library. Varied and always brilliant. For the majority of those I was on the guestlist/given tickets by the artists and their teams. Getting invited along to shows was always one of the best blog perks, and I feel really lucky to still get asked, despite blogging a little less frequently.

Aren’t gigs great?

I’ve been going through some stuff lately… I’ve talked a little about this online, but the long and short is that I’ve come to realise that I might be autistic. I’m in the very early stages of looking into getting an assessment. The more I read about autism, about it in general, about other people’s experiences, the more I feel that I am coming to understand myself better, how my brain works, and how I form (or more accurately, struggle to form) connections with others. I've  come to realise that it probably isn't "normal" that I've always just felt a bit odd, a bit of an outsider, quiet, and that there might be a reason that I sometimes struggle to communicate, to make connections that others seem to do so easily.

Music, though, has always been one of the few ways that I could connect with others. With artists, their teams, with fans who share my love of a particular artist. The blog you’re on now is in a way the centre of a community of sorts that I have formed around myself, rooted in a love of music and of the people making music.

I love live music but gigs aren’t always the easiest experience - they can be loud and overwhelming. I look around at groups of people from my spot in the corner, where I'm probably alone reading a book in between sets. But gigs can be, and often are, pure magic. Transcendent. A couple of shows I’ve been to recently were exactly that - Johnny Flynn and Rob Macfarlane at Rough Trade East and Bear’s Den at Union Chapel.

Johnny and Rob’s show was one of a couple of album launch in-stores for The Moon Also Rises and it was stunning. Far from the scripted, rehearsed and polished world of the Lost In the Cedar Wood show I went to at The Globe last year (and wrote about here) this was endearingly chaotic. A bunch of friends having fun and reliving the experiences of recording the album together through conversation and song. Even for a relatively small and short in-store like this, Johnny roped in three vocalists who sang on the record to perform with him, which was breathtaking.

Rob came on stage to chat with Johnny for a short while about the process of making the record (at Cosmo Sheldrake’s studio, with a bunch of their pals) and he mentioned something which really resonated with me - about Johnny creating community around his music. A record like this and a performance like that doesn’t come around by accident… Johnny has forged a close community of creatives around him over the years, and it comes across so beautifully in the recordings and the performance. In fact, Johnny talked about this being his favourite way to make music on a recent radio interview

I wanted to write about this, and about how great the show and album were, but work (and life) got in the way, and I haven’t found the time.  Then I went to see Bear’s Den at Union Chapel and I felt the exact same sensation that was so tangible while watching Johnny, and I wanted to write about that show - and the two posts have merged themselves, to become this stream of thoughts you're stumbling across now.

The magic of the Den playing four nights in such a special venue is no accident, nor are the gorgeously talented musicians joining them on stage (brass AND strings… aaaaagh.) They’ve helped to create this through Kev's label Communion and through their music, through years of touring, of making connections. They’ve surrounded themselves with so many brilliant artists and to see them seemingly still so humbled to work alongside them all is genuinely beautiful as an audience member.

I'm rambling... but I guess this is all to say that I sometimes struggle to find exactly where I fit in, to find my 'tribe' as it were. I often feel that I’m on the outside looking in, admiring these musical communities and not feeling like I could ever be part of them. Through the blog, and through gigs like these two, I feel like I’m able to dip my toes in, to venture into these communities, even if just for a night, and that is magic enough for me. (Though I would also very much like to be a fly on the wall for a recording session at Cosmo's place...)

Now: onto the next gig!

Tuesday 14 November 2023

LISTEN: Emma Gatrill - 'Out Of The Dark'

We might be nearing the end of the year and album of the year round-ups can't be far off (yikes) but there are still some exciting new releases on the horizon. One of the things I'm particularly excited for is Come Swim, the new record from Brighton based multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and all-round musical good egg Emma Gatrill, which arrives on November 24th via Willkommen Records

I've shared a couple of the singles here already as I think they're brill (I particularly love Adonis Blue - especially as I heard it around the time I saw one!) and I'm not stopping yet, here's Emma's latest gorgeous single Out Of The Dark. Harp, strings, synths, harmonies - there's a little bit of everything, and I'm all over it. 

Talking about the new track, Emma explains that it is "a song about searching for the light in the darkness, trying to discover the best in ourselves and those around us. We have to be the first to change to bring about change. It pays homage to the fabulous Kristin McClement whose song 'Pursue the Blues' was inspirational to this tune. For this album I asked lots of different drummers to record me beats to write to. This song was crafted to a beat written by Jamie Whitby-Coles but then took its own direction. The drum machine ended up replacing the original drums as it added the grit and drive that the song needed."

For those of you lucky enough to have a ticket, Emma opens up for Bear's Den at the second of their four-night run at Union Chapel on Monday 27th November. Enjoy!

Follow Emma Gatrill - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.