I've really not been keeping up to date with new music lately... birdsong, audiobooks and musical soundtracks (Operation Mincemeat mostly, at the moment) are all competing for my attention, and new releases aren't getting too much of a look in. I was listening to a playlist of lots of music I've enjoyed over the past few years on my commute this week and was reminded of my love for Banji. They're a Dutch band who I've been listening to since 2020(!) when I shared Listen here (and called it a 'juicy ear-worm' - I wasn't wrong). They released their debut album Freshcakes in 2022.
I haven't really thought about them much lately but Listen and TalkieWalkie came on shuffle recently and I was reminded how great they are. Imagine my delight when I open up my laptop and find that they've just released their first new music in three years in the shape of new song IN MOTION.
Sharing the news to Instagram, the band wrote: "this song is about the feeling that you’re constantly supposed to be getting somewhere. stuck in a world that tells you to keep moving. finding a job, finding a house, making money, figuring your life out. what i’ve been doing these past years. eventually I realized i was measuring my life against standards that didn’t even belong to me. and that moving at your own pace is still movement."
I just realised I haven't posted here in a couple of months. Crikey. I say it every time I pop back up, but I'm trying... there's just a lot. Anyway. Hello! In honesty - I've listened to two albums over and over for the past couple of weeks. Both the Broadway and London soundtracks to Hadestown. No regrets, just an enormous desire to get straight back to the Lyric Theatre to see it again. Is tonight too soon?
This one has however made it through the gap between album listens... Lucy Rose just released new track Pink and it is, as ever, excellent.
The first time, I showed
Weakness it took you all by
Surprise, something must be wrong with this girl
You could not, shake the
Feeling like it was all a front
A really personal one about the health struggles she's faced lately tied up in a generally great track. Love you Lucy!
I've been feeling a little rough lately (haven't we all?!) and those best laid plans of writing more posts here haven't quite come to fruition yet, but I've been enjoying this new one from Flyte and wanted to share. The duo's first new music of the year, I'm Not There is a taster of more to come from a record made with producer Ethan Johns at his home studio and is just beautifully vintage Flyte. I adore them.
On the process of creating the new track, Will shares:
Although regular therapy and the ever-enlightening practice of songwriting has helped me immensely over the years, a lack of self-love, self-forgiveness, and the baggage of family trauma still hangs around - sometimes heavily.
This song was written under a particularly dense cloud, with a rainy brain. I was draining my subconscious, not present in the slightest. From the few times we’ve played this song live, it’s been noteworthy how male leaning people of all ages have been quick to tell us about their immediate connection to it - make of that what you will.
What may also be interesting to some is that it’s a fully live performance, cut right at the start of the album recording session. We played it once and once only, and that’s all the listener hears bar a single piano added later. Nick, Ethan and I hadn’t played as this trio before and you can hear us introducing ourselves to each other, figuring the whole thing out as we played. Ethan, as well as being a sensational producer/engineer is an experienced, emotionally intelligent drummer, which provided a safety net that allowed us to step blindly into the performance with no preparation.
It’s taught us that there, in that risky place, is where the truth is most easily coaxed out of us.
It is rather blustery out there, so I don't know about you, but I'm hunkering down with books and music for the day. Where better to start than with this latest track from Samantha Crain - Ridin' Out The Storm. It may be in fact be sponsored by the current UK weather. Maybe.
On the track, Samantha shares: "I was watching this TV show called “The Great” one night and this one line caught me. I’m sure it is based on some older, canonical text but, basically, it was this: “Let it go. It is a storm. They will never stop coming, but pass through and away. They always will.” To me, that seemed like the best way I could sum up the gist of living and I wanted to write an expansive song about how that has played out in my life.”
I love Samantha's music and it is great to have her releasing new songs into the world - and better still, she's headed out on tour soon! She's just announced a 2025 US tour with a few UK/EU dates sprinkled in - full list of tour dates and tickets are here.
Goodness, where did the year go? I've been really struggling to find much time for the blog recently (so if you're reading this, I appreciate you sticking around) - it turns out that managing a bookstore is a fairly time consuming thing. Who knew?! I'm still here though (and the blog is now on Bluesky if you're that way inclined) and still falling for so much gorgeous new music.
About a year ago, I went to see Bear's Den at the stunning Union Chapel (coincidentally the next show I have lined up is Stornoway in the same venue - I can't wait!) The Den did a run of a few nights there, with a different opening act each night. On the night I went it was Jacob Alon, a pretty spectacular solo artist with an acoustic guitar, angel wings (no, really) and an angelic voice to match. I adored their set - and was delighted to see that they've recently shared their first couple of singles. I just had to come here and share Confession - I'm a tad obsessed.
Don't just take my word for how brilliant the track is, and Jacob - they're already counting Jools Holland and Elton John as fans with recent appearances on their TV and radio shows respectively. Impressive stuff!
Alright, sure, some other songs were released last week... but do I need to listen to them when there's new Melin Melyn to stick on repeat?! Vitamin D is their first new song in a couple of years and the first single from their soon to be announced debut album, due to be released in early 2025. The Welsh six-piece are one of my favourite new bands of the past few years (I might not always understand the Welsh songs, but I know that I love them... Dewin Dwl is a bop) and I for one absolutely cannot wait for their debut record!! Now feels like a perfect time to hop on board if you've missed the boat on these guys so far.
On the new track, lead singer Gruff Glyn shares: “Ah, a bit of Vitamin D on a sunny day. Pretty essential for most of us, right? Not for the protagonist of this song, who’s fallen head over heels for a computer character called Annie. What’s the point of catching some rays if you can stay inside in your dark room until the early hours of the morning, immersed in a virtual world with your one and only? Don’t you dare question the authenticity of his romance though, or you’ll end up in a coffin… like his mother.”
If I haven't made it clear over the years: I've got an overwhelming amount of love for Christof van der Ven's music. (He's a great human too.) It feels that each new track he releases finds a route straight to my heart and soul... there's always such a deep connection, so much emotion. And they're just reaaaaaally great. Every. Single. Time!
His next album (I'm manifesting) is one of my most anticipated... and the release of new track For The Ages gives me hope that news of that might not be far off... but for now, I'll take this. It's a stunner, and you're all going to love this as much as I do.
Whether you're a firm fan of Christof, or he's a new artist for you, you'll want to see him live, and you're in luck - he's doing a short run of dates in the UK in November, taking in Bristol's Exchange (26th), London's Sebright Arms (27th) and Leeds' Cardigan Arms (28th) - tickets on sale here.
Only the best news from Transgressive Records, always. They're celebrating their 20th (!!) anniversary this year with a run of shows later in the year and festival showcases, starting with Glastonbury later this week. For now though, album news from the label: New-Yorkers MICHELLE are back, following up their recent EP GLOW with news of an upcoming album. Their third studio record, Songs About You Specifically is due on September 27th, and features first single Oontz which you can hear below. Silky smooth and groovy as ever, I'm adoring this, and them. They're such a refreshing, exciting collective - a group that I'm always so thrilled to recommend to anybody who'll listen.
On the new record, the group have a new found closeness and vulnerability, formed through time spent living and writing in a house in Ojai, California and on the road. Talking about the developing bonds between the band, Emma shares: "there are friends I've had for almost my whole life who I won't know as intimately as I know members of this group. There isn't really an opportunity for that in any other kind of relationship in your life."
MICHELLE are Sofia D'Angelo, Julian Kaufman, Charlie Kilgore, Layla Ku, Emma Lee and Jamee Lockard.
Goodness. We've made it to June and I've only posted on the blog ten times this year. So much has been happening, and it is so difficult to find the time. I've spent much of May travelling on buses and trains to get to work. I promise I am always on the look out for new music, even if I've not been so great at sharing it here. As I am always saying however, I reaaaaaally want to write more. I have so much great music to share - and I really love flexing those writing muscles too.
Jumping in on a Sunday off work to share the latest from Hailaker. They're releasing third album Serenity Now on June 26th (a belated birthday present to me, very much appreciated) and Co-Star is the final single taken from it. Jemima and Ed are both brilliant on their own, but I have such a soft spot for this project and this track is no exception.
Writing about the new track on Instagram, they shared: "I’m realising there is a theme throughout the whole project, or more like a personality to it. It’s that of someone who sits somewhere in the middle of things, is unenthusiastic about doing anything, feels as though their life is hurtling past them and they can’t catch up with it, slightly and often overwhelmed with insecurity. Maybe what we (Hailaker) draw from is just snippets from that life and that personality, relationships, dreams, memories, tiredness, lots of tiredness ahaha.
Co-Star is a mantra to that life, the keeping going, riding the emotions. It expresses something near to a taoist philosophy: ‘it is what it is’… That maybe all this feeling of not being good enough just comes down to accepting and moving on. In that way Co-Star pinpoints the shift from the stories told in Holding to the ones of Serenity Now."
Ooft. My fave musical gals are very much smashing it at the moment - I'm devouring The Staves new record on a loop, we're just over a week away from a new Maggie Rogers record (remain calm) and there's new Lucy Rose on the way - what a time!!! I can't get enough of this either - with an Aaron Dessner produced record on the horizon, Bess Atwell recently shared new single Fan Favourite and it is exactly that. Sublime.
Speaking about the track, Bess said: "I wrote Fan Favourite after watching some behind the scenes footage from a popular TV show. Not even a die-hard fan of the show myself - I can't remember what it was now - I found myself emotional watching the cast's wrap party. I felt jealous of the sense of community and opportunity to reflect on shared experiences and history. I pictured my own family's "wrap party" and what that would look like. The sadness, humour, disappointment and joy that would come with acknowledging the huge shared experience we've had in this life. The song also touches on the passing of time, a sense of dissociation, and feeling as though you've missed out on life despite still living it.
Fan Favourite is an attempt at a self-wake-up call so I wanted the production to sparkle, breathe and feel alive, the instrumentation a reminder that life is indeed still there to be lived."
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!
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."
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!
"I'm grasping the neck of all of my friends singing I deserve the same as you do."
Chartreuse never disappoint, and I'm a little in love with this one. I should probably be heading to sleep, but I feel compelled to write as I've just listened to their new single a few times in a row and then fallen into a little Chartreuse shaped rabbit hole. Love them and love this one a lot! They recently announced their debut album Morning Ritual, which is due for release via Communion Music on 10th November - Whippet is the latest single to be taken from it.
With Hattie on lead vocals on this one, she describes how the track was inspired by a conversation she had with a friend at the pub about life plans and 'settling down.' "She was asking me what my plans were, and I said I didn't know. A lot of our friends have serious careers, and we're in a band. I felt bitter about having to have the conversation, so the line "left like a whippet" is me wanting to leave and stop talking about it."
If you like what you hear - they're heading on tour across November: dates and tickets here. They've also just announced a few instore shows, tickets here.
You heard it here first: I'm well and truly back in my The Staves era. So many of my favourite artists are coming back with new songs and albums at the moment and I have fallen pretty hard for this one. The duo are back with You Held It All, their first release via Communion Records (a match made in heaven, I think?) and their first new music since the 2021 album Good Woman(my album of the year.) It is almost TOO good?! I haven't much to say, apart from that I love these sisters so much. Crossing my fingers that there's an album on the way, but for now, I'll happily listen to this one on repeat...
On the track, the band share: "You Held It All is a song about understanding, and the knots we tie ourselves in when we don't express our truth; and how much power and freedom there can be when we do."
Months on, it still doesn't seem quite real that Stornoway are back but they really are - they're several festivals down, have an instore tour and a regular tour on the way, and their new album Dig The Mountain! arrives on October 6th. What a time to be alive! The new music keeps arriving and I think that you could hardly wish for a more dreamy coming together of voices than Brian Briggs and Sam Lee. I'm certain that the band's new track The Navigator is something I dreamt up. I think I must like it a fair bit - a couple of weeks after release it is already in my top three most streamed songs of the year. That good!
On the track, Brian shares: “this song was inspired by [a] sailing adventure with friends. For me there is no more powerful way to get perspective than to go in a small boat out of sight of land. There is surely no wilder place, no situation where you feel smaller or more vulnerable. We had no choice but to tune deeply into the shifting wind and waves that governed our days. Worries and problems shrank and were blown away. And a shared sense of isolation brought us together as a motley crew, whilst also making us question where we were going in our own lives.
It was a pleasure to record Sam Lee’s rich, woody baritone on a warm, May day in a Gloucestershire woodland. He made a wonderful addition to the crew!"
Sam adds: “The wait is over and Stornoway have returned with a bounty of utterly stunning songs. It seems their time away from playing has only made them a better band!”
Dig the Mountain! arrives 6th October - pre-order/pre-save here. Also very much worthy of note is the exciting news that the band are re-issuing their debut album Beachcomber's Windowsill on vinyl via the lovely Dinked (details here) on 8th December. You can pre-order that from a selected bunch of independent record stores (I'd recommend Resident Records in Brighton for a brilliant postal service if like me you don't have one particularly local to you!)
Welcome to the latest in a long line of: songs I'm obsessed with. Bombay Bicycle Club are just the absolute best, aren't they? I am living for the promo they're doing for their upcoming record. Digging up MSN conversations from the early days of the band? Too pure. A karaoke instore tour where fans got up on stage and performed as part of the band? Incredible. They're clearly having a great time promoting the album, performing and making music at the moment and I'm very much here for it!
I Want To Be Your Only Pet is the latest in a run of superb singles from the album - with a properly classic Bombay riff that just seems to get better on each listen. The idea of this one rushing over me at a gig some time soon... yes please?! P.S - I managed to sneak an early listen and the entire album is brill, obviously.
On the new track, Jack shares: "I was just playing around with guitar sounds at soundcheck, and started playing this riff. Jamie must have heard something in it because he got out his phone and started recording. For the next few months he would constantly text me to ask "have you written a song around that riff yet?" So finally I did to stop him harassing me. To me it sounds like if Abbey Road era Beatles had a love child with Rated R era Queens of the Stone Age."
I'm dreadful at posting at the moment - so many things are pulling against me, taking up my time. The blog is kind of the easiest thing to step away from a little so that I don't completely burn out... but I'm here, writing late at night (obviously) about Oxford pal Richard Walters, who has a new solo record on the way. While he's certainly been busy in the interim (a new album with his project LYR came out in the past few weeks which I'm very keen to listen to when I get a moment) Murmurate marks Richard's first solo album since 2020. Born out of the pandemic but not particularly inspired by it, the tracks on the album explore our shared feelings of having changed through isolation. Of realising that you wanted different things and experiences once the world started to open back up.
Richard explains "when the world started to wake up again post lockdown I sprinted towards the door; I bolted, with unbelievable enthusiasm and joy, and I fell. I wiped out a fair few times in my desire to get back into a routine, to return to normality. I eventually found myself moving back from the bustle and noise, a combination of anxiety and a previously unearthed desire for more and more calm... For me this is not a lockdown record. It was largely written in 2022, post weirdness, but many of the songs do tap into that sense of post-lockdown-anxiety (PLA!?) and the mixed up, confused feeling of needing to be elsewhere but feeling the tug of home.
When it comes to music, throughout lockdown I was desperate to be in the room with other people making things again. In my opinion, Zoom just doesn’t cut it when it comes to finding common musical ground and building things up. That’s where the title ‘Murmurate’ comes from - I just wanted to feel that unison again, to move in time with other songwriters and musicians, to flock and gather and soar a little bit, even if the distance from my home life made me feel torn from time to time.”
The album is previewed with first track After Midnight, about which Richard shares: "my attempt at being Springsteen! The older I get, the more home-based I become. It's a feeling I've noticed other friends my age expressing. So it's a middle aged anthem about not wanting to be out on the town post-midnight, about the beauty of the quiet life and the taxi home."
Relatable.
Pre-save Murmurate here, due for release 17th November.
It's a Monday night in June as I write this, and that can mean only one thing... Watching Birds by Stornoway on repeat. If you know, you know. (It's a tune - get listening!) What better way to spend my Monday night than writing a post about the band's new music?
ICYMI, Stornoway (Brian, Jon and Oli) returned last month with the brilliant new single Trouble With The Greenand the best news; they've got an album - Dig The Mountain! - arriving on 8th September. It's been quite a while since their previous record Bonxie (which came out way back in 2015... when I was first discovering the band) and I am counting down the days until this new record. It arrives a week before the new record from The Hoosiers (also their first studio album since 2015) and I may as well tell you now that I will be completely insufferable for all of September... sorry not sorry!
In case you hadn't guessed, I am so so soooooo delighted to have them back making, releasing and performing new music and excited to have a couple of shows lined up later this year (read my review of my last Storno gig, the last night of their farewell show in Oxford back in 2017.) Naturally, I'm delighted to have another new single to repeat over and over in the shape of Bag In The Wind. Classic Stornoway, this. I love it.
On the track, Brian shares: "people are a bit like bags, weighed down with worries and endless jobs, hoping for someone to take us by the handle and tip the gravity out of us... The song was born from just noodling around on the guitar, playing muted chords with all my fingertips just resting gently on the strings. I recorded two guitars and panned them fully in stereo which gave the close-up effect you hear in the verses. The vocal melody was partly inspired by the recording of the Agisanang Choir you can hear at the beginning and end of the song, singing 'Tschelane' in the Tswana language. I found the song on a favourite compilation of mine called 'African Renaissance Sampler, Music from the South African Broadcasting Corporation Archives."
A number of my favourite artists have returned with new music lately - each one filling my heart and bringing me alllll of the joy. The prospect of live shows, browsing for vinyl, commutes spent devouring new albums and playing singles on repeat. Big yes. One of these artists is Matthew And The Atlas, who came back with the gorgeous Folding Unfolding back in March, a teaser of things to come. Luckily, we didn't have to wait *too* long - he's just shared new track Nineteen, alongside news of brand new album This Place We Live, due on October 13th.
Excitingly, Matt is re-joining the Communion Records roster for this album - having been their first ever signing way back in 2010 with the release of his debut EP. Love me a bit of Communion history. (And anything to do with Communion, to be honest.) With previous record Morning Dancer having just celebrated its fourth birthday (they grow up so fast...!) I know I'm not the only one who will be eagerly awaiting this one!
More on the record in due course (you've got a few months of me ramping up the obsession over its arrival... you lucky things) but for now, I'm loving Nineteen, and glad to have something other than On A Midnight Street, Pyres and Temple to listen to on repeat. (All are big ol tunes. Promise.)
On Nineteen, Matt shares: "I wrote 'Nineteen' during a period when I was making music but struggling to focus on a clear direction to take it in, and I began to feel like I was losing my way creatively. This led me to reminiscing on how I felt about music when I was younger. I used to run an off-licence in my early twenties and a friend of mine would always drop by. We would stand out at the front of the shop, talking about bands we loved from America, what it would be like to tour there and if we'd ever be able to do music full time. The shop was in a little Hampshire town, next to a railway line which seemed very far away from that world, but it all seemed possible still. 'Nineteen' is trying to recapture that feeling of excitement and possibility I had back then when we were kids."
To celebrate the release of the record, Matthew And The Atlas heads on a mammoth 30-date tour across the UK and Europe in October and November. Dates and ticket info here.
