LISTEN: Ed Nash - 'Think You Feel The Same'

Receiving an email into my submissions with the subject 'Bombay Bicycle Club - new project' last week certainly grabbed my attention. I was really intrigued to see that the band's guitarist Ed Nash is releasing some solo music over the coming months. I love Good Day from the band's recent record, which Ed wrote. Having released a record under the moniker Toothless back in 2017, this time around he's stripping the disguise and releasing under his own name. I've heard a couple of unreleased tracks (....ahh!!) and I'm sure that you're going to love them. This news is all worth sharing for Ed's own label name alone... Bangers & Nash. Genius.

On the thoughts behind the project, Ed shares that "after initially spending some time writing and recording a follow-up to the first Toothless album, I realised I wanted to do things differently. The music I was writing felt increasingly more personal, both lyrically and sonically. Labouring over a record for years no longer feels productive for what I'm doing, where I want to just write songs and get them out to you as quickly as possible. I'm also going to be releasing music under my own name going forward [...] I don't want to use a moniker when everything else about the project is so personal and homegrown." 

First track Think You Feel The Same is out now - Ed shares that it was written "at the start of last year on one of the writing trips I took with Jack to work on the most recent Bombay album. It marked a real change in the music I was writing and sparked my move into wanting to try something new. It's been a long old road from that point until now but I can honestly say I have enjoyed putting together this music more than anything I have done before."

Follow Ed Nash - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

LISTEN: Charli Adams - 'Didn't Make It'

I've been listening to this one quite a bit over the last week - Charli Adams is a new name for me, but I'm really enjoying Didn't Make It, the lead single taken from her upcoming debut album Bullseye, due for release in 2021 on Color Study. The record name, rather casually, comes from a nickname given to Charli by Justin Vernon (yup, that one) while they played darts following a chance meeting at a Nashville dive bar... oh, America. The nickname took hold among friends, representing a more liberated version of Charli following a conservative upbringing in Alabama. The record's tracks document this coming of age and if this first track is anything to go by, it's going to be pretty special. 

Charli Adams · Didn't Make It

Talking on the new single, Charli explains - "I wrote Didn't Make It about trying way too hard to be with someone and cutting your losses. When there's memories and nostalgia tied to someone it's hard to let go and accept it for what it is. I was stuck on a loop with this guy when we were 17 and we just kept fucking it up."

"I love a song with hidden references (even if I'm the only one who knows it's there), so "You were racing in the streets" is a reference to my favourite Bruce Springsteen song and "We were kids we broke the chain" is a reference to Fleetwood Mac. Growing up I was basically only exposed to what was on the radio in the 2000s and it wasn't until this relationship that I discovered the classics."

Follow Charli Adams - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram. 

LISTEN: Rosie Shaw - 'Sometime Soon' EP

With recent posts on my musical loves BE GOOD and Low Island (who are both absolutely smashing it) I'm really embracing the Oxford scene on the blog currently. It's always felt a bit like the blog belongs to Oxford and that it has a bit of an affinity to homegrown talent, even if I am living 90 miles away now...

The desire to share brilliant music from the city isn't stopping anytime soon, and I'm really excited for you all to hear Oxford born singer-songwriter Rosie Shaw. Her debut EP Sometime Soon was released last week, with previous singles Temporary Love and Summer Doesn't Feel The Same alongside two new songs. The title track is a highlight for me, a stripped back acoustic which packs an emotional punch. 

I'm not really one for a 'if you like this...' comparison often, but this is certainly one for fans of the likes of Phoebe Bridgers, Brooke Bentham and Maggie Rogers. A varied set of tracks offer a stunning showcase of Rosie's vocals and songwriting. It feels inherently sad, but simultaneously like a warm musical hug... I can't wait to hear more!

Listen to Sometime Soon on Spotify here.

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WATCH: MICHELLE - 'UNBOUND'

Quickly - I should mention some blog news which is pretty cool and overwhelming - in an effort to get the blog seen by as many people as possible, I submitted to Feedspot a couple of weeks back, and got an email recently saying that it had been chosen as one of the Top 80 UK Music Blogs. The blog is number 39 currently which is wild. You can check the list out here, and if you sign up to the site, can follow the blog there and subscribe for email updates on new posts.

Back to the music: I am so so so excited about this!!!! A brand new track from NYC collective MICHELLE. They're one of my favourite 2020 discoveries, with their track THE BOTTOM getting a little resurgence earlier in the year, before their single SUNRISE dropped in July. UNBOUND is their second single of the year, and was premiered as the Hottest Record in the World on Annie Mac's BBC Radio 1 show last week, before the video premiered on The FADER. It's glorious to see them getting such brilliant press for it because the track is superb - a giant hit of nostalgia in a slice of 90s-esque R&B. Dreamy in every way. 

Talking about the track, the band shared that "UNBOUND came alive really fast. It's about desire: the kind that oozes for the person you do want and the kind that evaporates for the person you don't. We wanted to make something groovy and colorful, that could access nostalgia while also giving our listeners something new and danceable in a way we haven't before."

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LISTEN: Low Island - 'Don't Let The Light In'

Kicking off the week beautifully with a new tune from one of my favourite bands in the world... Oxford's Low Island have recently shared their first new track in over a year and I am loving it. If you noticed a later than normal playlist update this weekend you can blame both the fact that I was working on Friday, and that I kept listening to this one on repeat. As distractions go, it's all kinds of lovely. Don't Let The Light In is released on the band's own label Emotional Interference, and features on the new FIFA 2021 soundtrack (huge!)

Coming into life originally three years ago, the track was finished earlier this year in remote France, where the band were recording until the day that a national lockdown was announced. Written, produced and engineered by the band themselves, the track was mixed by Matt Wiggins and has artwork made in collaboration with cinematographer Evelin van Rei. Listen below... 

Low Island · Don't Let The Light In

Talking about the track, singer Carlos Posada explains "it's a song about trying to preserve the moment of falling in love, but ultimately being unable to. I fell quite deeply in love with someone who didn't love me back, and it set off a pattern that started to continually repeat itself; a flying start and then an abrupt ending, as if someone had just switched off a light with no explanation. This song is about trying and failing to capture that initial moment in time; of pressing pause and holding the frame before it falls apart." 

I was delighted to hear recently that the band had been awarded the PPL Momentum Fund bursary by the PRS Foundation, which they're using to help record their debut album (ahh!!!!) Having spent lockdown working on new material, they've also been using the time to learn everything that they could about the industry, choosing to set up their own label in order to have, the band says, "the freedom to make whatever we want, to take risks, and to only have ourselves to answer to." 

Follow Low Island - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

LISTEN: T Truman - 'Born To Be Right' EP

It's finally here! Born To Be Right, the debut EP from T Truman, the solo project of The Vaccines keys player & half of Halloweens, the all-kinds-of-talented Timothy Lanham. The EP follows singles Holiday (a certified bop) and Rock 'n' Roll and was co-written and co-produced by Timothy's friend and long-term collaborator Geoff Roberts. It's genius. Cleverly playful songwriting sits across tunes mixing influences of modern indie and 70s rock, where the piano headlines, front and centre. Born To Be Right is a highlight at the moment, but this is certainly one of my favourite EPs of the year.

Along with the EP release, title track Born To Be Right has an equally brilliant music video to match... from the press release - 'mirrored walls, check. Chequerboard floor, yes sir. Entourage of dancers, naturally. This is T Truman in his natural habitat.' On the new single, T Truman shares "I'm just having a joke about being a know it all and wondering why no one likes my company. Naturally the video needed a disco scene. So my mate and I cleared out a garage in Australia, put on safari suits and begged our friends to come."  

Listen to the Born to be Right EP on Spotify here.

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LISTEN: I See Rivers - 'Deep & Rolling Green'

Really excited to share that the brilliant debut album from I See Rivers is finally out in the world! A while in the making, it's a triumphant record charting the several years of the band's existence so far, since meeting at university in Liverpool (though they're all originally from Norway). Loving it. The record was made in the renovated chapel StudiOwz with Owain Jenkins, Toby Couling, Alec Brits and Emilie Krogh Johannessen. 

On the record, the band explain that "preparing for and recording this album has been a really long process. Since this is our first full length album some of these songs were written while we were still in uni 7 years ago, while some of the songs were written especially for the album. All three of us write songs for the band and for the album we decided to write most of the songs individually. We wanted to explore how it would sound if we let our individual style come through in the writing and then making it sound 'like I See Rivers' in the way we produced the songs in the end. When we started recording the album we decided that we would have no boundaries and let the music flow in the direction it needed to." 

I SEE RIVERS · Grow And Go

Following recent singles How, Collide and Helios, the album arrives alongside the single release of Grow & Go, a track written during the university years, but finished up in the idyllic welsh countryside that the band have settled themselves into. On the track, the trio explain "the song is about waking up in a relationship that's gone stagnant without realising how you got there, standing on the edge of letting it go. It's about understanding that everything in life has an expiry date, and that there's beauty in that as it offers opportunities to grow and evolve amidst the sadness, grief and loneliness."

Listen to Deep & Rolling Green here.

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WATCH: BE GOOD - 'Dark Glasses'

"if there's someone out there could you make some kind of signal..."

As I usually work on Fridays, I can't help but feel a huge sense of impending doom (or is it just sleepiness) if I stay up late enough to listen to new tracks on a Thursday night. A week off last week meant getting to wait up for the new Dawes record once it was released - but not before having a little cry along to the new BE GOOD tune at midnight. I've mentioned more than enough times how much I adore this band, but really - how good is this new track?! That vocal effect at the end. Aaaah. Mixed and mastered by Kevin Tuffy and Gethin Pearson  - also really digging the video and those little snippets of central Oxford.

Over to frontman Ash Cooke with some words on the new track - "the words 'Dark Glasses' popped up a lot in the Patrick Melrose novels that I was reading during summer, and was definitely in my mind when we began writing this song which attempts to explore different ways we obscure ourselves in plain sight. For the artwork, we reached out to a photographer in LA (Jeremy Thomas Bryant) who had taken an oddly beautiful photo of a car full of rubbish. It somehow felt appropriate to the idea of the piling up of words and thoughts that we don't know how to share with other people."  

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WATCH: Red Moon - 'Dreamer'

Consider me more than a little blown away by the vocals on this one. I was intrigued by Red Moon on the release of her single Dogma earlier in the year, and new single Dreamer has left me stunned. Musically it is an epic track, a bold step from a relatively new artist, who recounts the likes of Sia and Imogen Heap as strong female influences in the early moments of her career. The track is taken from the upcoming EP Phase I:XI which is due on 9th October.

Raised in an artistic household in Nittedal, Norway, her mother and grandmother were both accomplished painters and an interest in music was sparked in childhood. Spending time between Norway and Switzerland, she attended a music academy, and has spent a lot of her adult life travelling the world in order to shape her own musical style. I really really like what I'm hearing.

Talking about the new track, Red Moon says "I consider myself a sceptic and highly curious semi-realist and this paradox is explored in the lyric's examination of the human condition; the constant struggle between despair and hope. Now more than ever, when the world can often feel its darkest, we recognise it is a privilege to be able to dream and have hope. The love and unconditional support of my mother was a huge inspiration for me when writing this song and this is echoes in the feeling of power and freedom I feel when performing it. Needless to say, this song is very close to my heart." 

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WATCH: Sophie Jamieson - 'Release'

"strewn on the beach or spinning round the city, oblivion never looked so pretty..."

I wrote about the long awaited and much welcomed return of Sophie Jamieson back in August and I'm delighted to share that she's got another track out now. Release is the second single and title track of her upcoming EP, due on 1st December. A delicately pulsing and almost trance-like wonder, Release shows us an artist at the top of her game lyrically, trying out a new style and relishing in it. There's a video below, filmed just after restrictions were lifted in London, showing the crowds in Soho. 

On Release, Sophie explains that "this song is a search for peace by any means necessary. I wanted to escape how I felt, to blur it and take the edge off it, to indulge in it and then leave it behind. It reflects the constant effort to balance feeling too much and feeling nothing, the desperate search for equilibrium that only ever ends in chaos." 

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