February seems to be another month of exciting returns, hey? Teasing her return in November with the gorgeous single Over and over, the equally gorgeous human Brooke Bentham is back back. New track Let Go arrives with news of the Caring EP, due for release on March 17th. Ahh! The EP was recorded and produced with Patrick J Pearson (of too many brill projects to mention, but for me... Liu Bei, Dry The River and LYR) at Middle Farm Studios, and will be celebrated with a launch show at St Pancras Old Church on 12th April.
On the new track, Brooke shares: "When I wrote 'Let Go' I'd just started a songwriting course with Robin Pecknold and I was training to be a singing teacher. I was really thinking about the way our bodies hold emotion and how it affects us. I'd been trying to get the song right for a while and our homework for the course was to try to rework an old song. After playing around with old material for a while, I came up with 'Let Go'. I think it sounds like a release; letting go of what's been held in you without realising. My producer Patrick J Pearson really helped this song come to life, I love the guitar lines in the chorus so much. It's the song that feels the most like me so far."
A slice of much deserved joy - Brooke Bentham is back, yesssss!!! We deserve this news. Brooke's record Everyday Nothing (and its stripped back counter-part Sunday Self) was one of my favourite releases of 2020, so I'm thrilled that she's back with a corker of a single, taken from an upcoming EP. The track was recorded with Patrick J Pearson at Middle Farm Studios.
On the track she shares: "'Over and Over' was written fast. It was my way of asking myself if I could just write a song that I didn't have to think too much about, but reflected where I was at. The last few years have been full of road trips, camping, staying indoors. It's my ode to road trips, getting away from life, feeling like yourself and enjoying being alive. I wanted it to physically sound like that."
Hope you've all had a lovely few days celebrating (or not) Christmas! Before resuming *proper* posting for the new year, I'm back at it with some follow-ups to my albums of the year feature last week (read that here) where, in addition to a top five, I shared 35 records I've loved this year. I'm planning to share 7 records a day across the next few days, all in release order - each one of them is brill and I hope you enjoy!
Way back in January this year, this was the first record to be released that I'd been looking forward to, so it's been a favourite for a while, and listening recently I was reminded how brilliant it is! Your Light is one of the best pop songs of the year in my opinion... so good!! Barcelona and Why are also faves. Love their harmonies, and the fried chicken lyric in Dog Eat Dog ("round here they say it's dog eat dog but / it's more like pigeon eat fried chicken on the street") is GENIUS. They also deserve an AOTY mention for the fact their album release coincided with the moon being reaaaaal big. Clever.
Bombay Bicycle Club - Everything Else Has Gone Wrong (buy/stream)
Probably the coolest advance stream that I've ever had and absolutely HAS to be on this list! Listening to this on my commute before it was released made me feel very cool. Following their previous record in 2014 this was long awaited and it could so easily have fallen a little flat, but it is completely glorious - there isn't a note or lyric out of place. Favourite tracks include Is It Real, Racing Stripes and the title track Everything Else Has Gone Wrong. Seeing them live last year was a treat. Huge soft spot for Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You) below - the tongue-in-cheek video touching on their return. Also - I love their recent Live at Brixton album! Read my write-up of Everything Else... here.
I think this might be the only album that I've bought in a physical record store this year... since our HMV closed we don't have stores locally, and while I've bought a bunch of LPs from Banquet and Resident online through the year, I bought this one on a day out back in Feb. So I guess it holds a special place for being the only things that I've dug out in the vinyl racks this year - with quite a lot of glee at finding it! It's a quality follow up to Where Wildness Grows which I adore. So many favourite tracks - Heavenly Maybe, Atlas Please and Icarus are certainly up there.
This is Brooke's debut album and it's superb. One of those artists whose tracks I get sent to review, realise that I've enjoyed all of the singles, give the record a try and... woah. Love it. I struggled to pick between this and Sunday Self, the acoustic version of the record that Brooke brought out a few months later. Fave tracks include Control and All My Friends Are Drunk. This is for the Fenne Lily, Phoebe Bridgers, Marika Hackman etc fans (which you all should be...)
The award for the funkiest record on the AOTY list goes to.... damn. SO funky. I loved seeing themopen for Friendly Fires a couple of years back, loved the EP they brought out at the time and was eagerly awaiting their debut record. I listened back to this recently on a bus journey but would advise listening somewhere where you're able to dance like nobody is watching. Get me to a live Franc Moody set soon, please, world. Favourite tracks include Skin on Skin, She's Too Good For Me, and the title track, Dream In Colour. So much to love here.
Halloweens -Morning Kiss at the Acropolis (Bandcamp)
A side project of The Vaccines' frontman Justin Young and keys player Timothy Lanham (that's T Truman, to you and I) Halloweens have been the gift that just keeps on giving in 2020. Right from the first single, Hannah You're Amazing, in late 2019, I was hooked. Things have just got better and better ever since, and their debut record is a dream. They also released the Maserati Anxiety Designed EP recently, somehow finding time amidst making the new Vaccines record (!!!) and Timothy working on his solo project. A lot of love for the productivity when they keeps releasing such cracking tunes as these. Favourite tunes include My Baby Looks Good With Another, Lady and Ur Kinda Man.
I was first put onto this record by this year's AOTY... winner (?! is that a thing) White Tail Falls, when he recommended a few records that were circulating his earphones in our interview earlier in the year - on NNAMDÏ's BRAT he shared that it was blowing my mind. I wanted in on the action and took myself for a listen... which I think turned into two or three consecutive listens. Written, recorded and performed by Nnamdï himself, the record belies genre categorisation. There's a bit of everything going on. Styles which on paper, probably shouldn't work together, and that I might not usually choose to listen to, but I love this. It's OK, Really Don't and Perfect In My Mind are highlights for me - but it is best appreciated as the full piece of work.
Thanks if you've made it this far - I'll be back to share the next seven records tomorrow!! Happy listening...
London singer-songwriter Brooke Bentham has shared brand new track Control, and I'm really digging it. The track is the third single to be taken from her upcoming debut album Everyday Nothing, due for release via AllPoints on 28th February.
The track examines the phenomenon of ghosting, Brooke explains that "it's about when someone cuts you off entirely. I got blocked out with absolutely no reason why, and it makes you question yourself and you just can't stop thinking about it. You're just talking to a wall; it's bouncing back and you end up with this mess in your head." The accompanying video is almost humorously relatable as Brooke overfills cups of milk and lies down in random places but it has overlying tones of loneliness and anxiety.
In Brooke's own words, the album is "in part an ode to the little moments in life, the frustration of being young and unaware of what you want, but getting older and realising you still don't know. It's an album I searched for myself in, filled with questions I asked myself." Much like coming of age stories in literature, Brooke is using her youth and experiences to catalogue the tensions of young adulthood, making the tracks extremely relatable. She adds that "there is so much frustration in being young and unsure of what you want, especially when your path is creative [...] you can only hope that it leads you to something fulfilling, so you cling on to the everyday details - burning candles in your bedroom at 3AM aged 16, or having a bath in the evening at 23, or watching your breath when you step outside in winter. I was reflecting a lot when I wrote these songs, romanticising those moments."
You can pre-order Everyday Nothing before release on 28th February here.
Brooke Bentham has recently announced the release of her debut album Everyday Nothing on 28th February. At just 23, the album comes from a position of youth, in which hopes and dreams collide with frustration and confusion, resulting in a vulnerable and relatable record. Brooke explains that the record is "in part an ode to the little moments in life, the frustration of being young and unaware of what you want, but getting older and realising you still don't know. It's an album I searched for myself in, filled with questions I asked myself."
The announcement of the record comes alongside the brand new track Perform For You, which focuses on the power dynamics in toxic relationships, and is inspired by novels Brooke was reading at the time. Talking about the track, she explains that it is "probably my favourite, because it reminds me of lots of the music I love. Once we'd recorded that, I knew we were making an album. Musically it was exactly where I wanted to be."
Brooke Bentham is currently on a support tour with Sam Fender across the UK, with a free London headline coming up on 9th December at The Islington. She's playing a string of headline shows after the album release, dates below and tickets are here.
14th March: Whelan's, Dublin
16th: Yes, Manchester
18th: Crofters Rights, Bristol
19th: Omeara, London
Singer-songwriter Brooke Bentham has shared the second of her tracks with Bill Ryder-Jones, a wistful track reflecting on lost youth, entitled All My Friends Are Drunk. In a description of the track which I find quite relatable, Brooke explains that "I wrote the lyrics about growing older, and growing apart, and learning about yourself. I was one year out of university and a lot of the lyrics on the album sound a bit lost because I realised I am so existential every day, and I'm so constantly aware of myself." Take a listen below and keep an ear out for more music to follow from the pair!
She's just finished up a run of shows supporting Bill Ryder-Jones, and he'll soon be playing as part of her band as main support on the Sam Fender UK tour across November and December. She's also playing a free solo show at The Islington in London on 9th December - full dates and tickets are here.
