How about some more soul soothing from néomí for your Thursday morning? Her music has been a delight to discover over the past few months, through singles teasing the release of her before EP, due in almost exactly a month's time on 24th June. not good enough is the latest taster from the EP, and another delightful listen. There's something in Neomi's vocal delivery and the production of the tracks that makes them feel so utterly intimate, as if we're not listening to music at all, but in the room with her, in conversation.
"This song is about losing the love you have for yourself. Sometimes the world can bring a lot of insecurities, along with opinions from people about you that you didn't even ask for. It actually is a reminder for myself and to anyone that listens that feeling "not good enough" doesn't mean it is the truth. It is a "I don't care" message for those who said you are "not good enough" to fit in."
Happy Wednesday, pals. If you missed it on Twitter and Instagram, the blog hit 400,000 page views last week... yikes! I celebrated by vanishing from the blog a little (life!!!!) but I'm dipping my toes back in the water / procrastinating looking at my inbox with this brilliant new video from LA's Wallice. Funeral is taken from her recent 90s American Superstar EP and the video is maybe her best yet...
Wallice shares: "The video for 'Funeral' was really important to me. It's my favourite song that I've made so far. I pictured a concert-like celebration instead of a traditional solemn funeral, sort of taking the heaviness of a funeral and treating it lightly. In my videos I like to incorporate my lyrics in a literal way, but I also try to capture the tone of them as well. This video walks the line between melodramatic and sarcastic in a way that really captures my sense of humor. The video is also more broadly a symbol for how I'm evolving as an artist - the "death" of cowgirl Wallice is meant to mark the end of that era and the beginning of the next."
Hot off the press album news time, folks. (Hey - am I the press?!)
Art Moore have just announced their self-titled debut album, due for
release via ANTI-Records on 5th August. The announcement arrives
alongside their second track, Muscle Memory, although the members of
the band are all long-familiar faces on the scene - they're a trio made up of
Taylor Vick (AKA Boy Scouts) and
Ezra Furman collaborators Sam Durkes and
Trevor Brooks.
Having worked on soundtracks with Ezra previously, Sam and Trevor originally
joined forces with Taylor with the intention of writing for movies and art
projects -
"it was like [...] let's think of a movie scene or a photograph or still
image and see if we can write some shit around it to see if we can pitch
it", says Durkes. "Four songs in, I think, after the first recording session, we realized it
was going well, and it was pretty efficient" adds Brooks.
"Making music with both Sam and Taylor has always been so easy. I record
other artists, and it's pretty rare to be so quickly on the same page with
people. We don't have to say much - we kind of get where each other is
coming from. It happens way too easily."
The pandemic saw the trio sending recordings to one another over email, adding
a digital aspect to the project. Taylor explains "I think [the pandemic] also probably contributed to the whole idea of
life, 'Well, we might as well just make an album, 'cause it's July and
things aren't any different'. We were still at home, so we thought we might
as well keep using this time." I'm glad they did - because the new track is a delight - listen below!
On the new single, Taylor shares "Muscle Memory was inspired by the many phases of life we go through
and the friendships that exist within them that inevitably transform as we
continue through life. I wanted to write about this experience from a
neutral perspective, one with the belief that it's neither a good or bad
thing but simply a given in life. It's a more fictionalized version of my
personal experience which was the kind of writing I gravitated towards most
in this band."
AHHHHH! As if a live Mika medley on Eurovision over the weekend wasn't enough, Paolo Nutini is back!!!!! Both of their debut albums were a permanent fixture in our car stereo in 2007, and listening back to These Streets as I type this (... and get distracted from typing this) I'm discovering that all these years later, I remember every word and every note of it. The end of primary school for me, I guess it was a pretty formative time for me musically - the debut album from The Hoosiers (still my faves) came out later that year and basically shaped my life from there.
Paolo last released a record in 2014, a few months before I moved away to University, and before the blog existed on this page. His return is the BEST news. We all deserve this, right? I don't have a press release (or, indeed, a direct line to Paolo) for a quote on this one - but just take my excitement over his return as all the encouragement you need to give this one a listen. Then, if you've got the time (or if you haven't) go on a deep dive into the era of music that gets you nostalgic - I'm very much enjoying my little walk down memory lane here!
It's been a minute since I did a premiere here... but we're in special
occasion territory, as the blog is nearing the big 400,000 all-time page
views! My premiere of a Pêtr Aleksänder track almost five years
ago remains the most viewed on the site (just) and if you liked that one,
you're going to love the latest form Joseph Lawrenson.
A founding member of the Leeds band Dancing Years, Joseph honed his
craft on the road and is now an in demand composer for film & TV.
Releasing today, his debut album Songs for Film is a patchwork
collection of original works, re-imaginings and reworks, and fresh
arrangements of classical staples (think Chopin, Bach.)
Taken from the record, Zero Zero Four Zero is one of the re-imagined
tracks, taking the originally instrumental 0040 from Icelandic
composer Ólafur Arnalds and adding a vocal performance by fellow Leeds
artist Jasmine Kennedy, to create a cinematic pop song with a twist. On
first listen to one of Joseph's previous singles I was struck with a
similarity to AJIMAL in his own vocal performance, so if you're into
him, or Pêtr, you're in the right place with this one. It's no secret I love
me some strings on a track so this is a bit of a dreamy one for me. Check it out on Spotify here or below!
On the track, Joseph shares: "Lyrically it explores the idea of someone cheating on their partner, from
the temptation to the resulting heartbreak and the devastation of the
ultimate betrayal. I took inspiration from a passage in William Faulkner's
'Light In August': 'You will tell me that you have just learned love; I will
tell you that you have just learned hope.' I was fascinated by this concept,
that hope can be mistaken for love. And this perfectly expresses the feeling
of the betrayed person in my song: 'that's not love you feel, it's only
hope.' I think we've all mistaken hope for love at some point in our
lives."
The record Songs for Film is out now - check it out here.
Wait... writing about another artist on the Heartstopper soundtrack, me? Really? I am completely besotted with the show, and was delighted on first watch to hear Matilda Mann's Paper Mache World soundtracking one of the sweetest moments of the series. I've not watched/thought about anything that wasn't Heartstopper for a couple of weeks (barely an exaggeration) so you're getting Matilda's latest track here as a result. You're welcome, and you'd better watch the show now...!
Nice sees Matilda working with producer Rich Cooper to create one of her most angsty and self-empowering songs yet. The track arrived with a video directed by Camila Noriega, shot on a recent visit to the LA hills, in which we see Matilda navigating a series of not-so-great dates.
On the track and video, Matilda shares: "'Nice' is my dating rule. If I go on a date and the only word I can think to describe it is "nice", it's not worth another date. You'd never describe your best friends or your family as just "nice". There needs to be a better first word that comes straight to mind. The music video was so fun to make, up in the desert in LA. We came up with all these date ideas where it's going terribly, and it ends with me having had enough and walking off to play 'Nice' with my band."
If you need a big ol' slice of joy in your life today, let me deliver it via this five minute music video. You all know how much I adore Rae Morris and how excited I am for her new record in July - well, there's a new track!!!! Go Dancing features Rae's long-time collaborator & producer (... and now husband!) Fryars. They really are the dream team and this is maybe my favourite track they've both featured on so far. The track is lovely, but the video is just.... a delight! We find Rae back in Blackpool, taking her dancing shoes to the famous Tower Ballroom... where we last saw her in the Dancing With Character video. Brb, counting down the days until the record is in my arms.
Question. Do they call it dream-pop because it's pop music and it is a pure dream to listen to? This new Abbie Ozard track backs up my theory. It is genuinely a dream, and aaaall too relatable. Give me all of the tracks that explore being in your mid twenties and being confused as to what on earth you're doing because they are calling to me right now. Rose Tinted is the final track to be taken from Abbie's upcoming Water Based Lullabies EP, which is due via House Anxiety on 1st July.
Talking about the track, Abbie shared: "Rose tinted was a poem I wrote a few years back when I realised all my friends were growing up and I felt kinda left behind. I found myself covering up these feelings with clothes and messing with the way I looked. I even tried meditating, which I hated because it made me think way too much. It's an observation on how 20 somethings cope with transitioning into adulthood, how they share morning routines online, meditate to stay calm, buy new outfits - that whole 'don't get depression vibe'. I want to be able to soundtrack my generation."
Rejoice, Siv Jakobsen is back! It feels like forever ago when I was falling in love with the tracks from A Temporary Soothing (definitely soothing, but not temporary, it turns out). The Norwegian singer-songwriter is back with a song about wanting to forget, and there is plenty more music on the way. Phew. I was in love with this campaign before I'd even clicked play on the track - Siv amongst sunflowers with bright dungarees on? This couldn't be more *my* thing if it tried! The track is a stunner too. Of course.
Having spent much of her life on the road previously, Siv spent time in her homeland since the last record, reconnecting with her origins - which included visiting a city that she used to live in many years ago, a visit which inspired the new track. "I knew that in going there it might awaken some difficult memories, but I was completely taken aback by how intensely I felt pulled back into who I was and how I felt all those years ago. I realised I had some unpacking to do, so that I could begin to properly come to terms with and understand those memories."
"Most Of The Time is about not being able to forget a particularly difficult relationship from my past. When left undealt with, the memories seemed to heighten in my sleep, in my subconscious, day and night, almost as if I was being haunted. It's about how our past affects our future, how it can affect our personalities morphing into someone slightly different. Being back in this place again after such a long time was a much greater shock to my system than I would have ever thought it could be, and it forced me to unbox a lot of things I thought I had safely stored away in the back corners of my mind. In the end, it's about reminding myself that I am feeling better now, most of the time."
I've been really bad at blogging lately but I promise I've been listening to lots of brill music - recently basically just Baby Queen on repeat forever... no regrets. A track I've been loving is the latest from pal of the blog Cj Pandit, If It Hurts, It's Healing. It's the third to be taken from his upcoming second EP +44, due soon (ish? maybe?) via Never Fade Records. Tender and uplifting as ever, this one is so gooooood. Love ya Cj!
About the track, he shares: "I was going through a yearly/monthly/weekly crisis of confidence and identity and just decided to live in it for a bit, to see what I could find and put together. This song was it. Grief is just a version of love breaking down, and sometimes you've gotta let things go. Sometimes, you have to stare in the mirror to see what's going on. If it hurts, it's healing is a little adventure into self discovery and mourning your former self, or something that's been eating you up and defining your character for a big chunk of time."
