Featuring Kojaque, Rachael Lavelle, The Scratch, Future Islands, Yard Act, ØXN, Serpentwithfeet, Rory Sweeney, Ahmed With Love, EMBY, Curtisy, Elaine Mai, Soft Centre, Jordan Nocturne.
Today is New Music Friday, which means there’s loads of new songs in the world.
Here are 10 songs released this week I loved from my listening this week, along with fresh ones in the New Music section.
See the end of the post for the Spotify playlist featuring much more than 10 tracks released this week, updated weekly.
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1.
Rachael Lavelle
Travel Size
Rachel Lavelle releases the third song from her forthcoming debut album Big Dreams (November 10th), the escapist fantasy of ‘Travel Size’.
“When I wrote this, I wished for nothing more than to travel to Italy and eat large quantities of pasta and drink Aperol Spritz. ‘Travel Size’ is about wanting to leave but not being able to. Being here and imagining that you were there. Wanting to be changed for the better, by a time or a place… but wherever you go, there you are.“
Rachael Lavelle
“I just thought it was so funny that this song which starts so ethereally was about wanting to go on holidays – there’s a humour to Rachael’s music that I was instantly obsessed with, and it’s so full of thoughts I wanted the video to reflect that, to be full of strands of questions.
I wanted the video to trick you like the song does; here’s this beautiful ethereal image, here’s this beautiful ethereal song – but really the video was just born from the age-old question… What happens when an air hostess wants to go on holiday? And then Rachael is a huge superstar which made it so much fun and I got to mess around with visual styles and humour, all whilst using Nicole Scherzinger’s AD Open Door and Lost as primary references. It’s always such a huge honour when someone presents you with a song to visualise, and this song was so exciting because I’d never heard anything quite like it – so I got to move into this new visual territory and try to work out how far you can push realism. Everyone who worked on it is amazing, and I had the best time ever – also a huge shout out to the International Academy of Travel in Waterford for their incredible instructional videos.”
Director Anna Heisterkamp
Live Dates: Rachael will be touring as a three piece for shows around Ireland. presented by Homebeat:
23rd Nov – The Black Box, Belfast
24th Nov – Project Arts Centre, Dublin (sold out)
30th Nov – Mick Lally Theatre, Galway
1st Dec – The Record Room, Limerick
6th Dec – Prims Bookshop, Kinsale
7th Dec – Coughlan’s, Cork
8th Dec – Connolly’s of Leap, Cork
9th Dec – St Michael’s Church, Waterville, Kerry
Tickets on sale now via rachaellavelle.com
2.
ØXN
Farmer In The City
Whereas the pre-release singles from the Dublin doom folk band of ØXN has featured more of the sound of member Radie Peat’s other band Lankum, ‘Farmer In The City’ from the album CYRM out today, takes it queue from Katie Kim’s atmospheric songwriting, and across nearly 13 minutes brings the synthy sound of Samhain noise-rock magic to proceedings.
3.
Serpentwithfeet, Ty Dolla $ign, Yanga Yaya
Damn Gloves
Interesting to hear the alternative R&B artist Serpentwithfeet enlist Ty Dolla $ign for the lead single of new album Grip, out February 16th via Secretly Canadian.
Along with South African artist Yanga Yaya, Ty brings hooks to a still nicely weird R&B song.
“Damn Gloves” reveals the enchanted universe that celebrates and fosters the spirit and magic of Black queer nightlife at the heart of the new GRIP album. The visual directed by Micaiah Carter explores the space that surrounds the deeply intimate moments with a partner and the complex and delightful juxtapositions of physical closeness. Simultaneously, GRIP honors the communities that are nurtured within the walls of these intimate spaces and the monumental impact that they have on the lives of many people on the margins.
4.
Kojaque
Larry Bird
After the release of the breakthrough mixtape Deli Daydreams and debut album proper Town’s Dead, the Cabra rapper Kojaque is back with album two Phantom Of The Afters today.
Following recent singles featuring Wiki, Biig Piig and Gotts Street Park, ‘Larry Bird’ is a flight feverdream and a scene-setter for the album.
A full European, UK and Irish tour has also been announced, including Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Galway, Limerick and Kilkenny.
5.
Jordan Nocturne, Ready In LED
Over & Over
The prolific Northern Irish producer Jordan Nocturne’s latest drops on Cormac’s Polari label with three tracks, lead by the neon synth-disco of Over & Over’.
Jordan Nocturne on the release and meeting Cormac;
“I first encountered Cormac about 15 years ago when I was a resident at an after-hours queer party called Yello and he was a regular guest. Many years later we bonded over high energy house and disco. I thought it was a nice touch to pay homage to those times, and there’s another tip of the hat to Belfast party starters Ponyhawke who have carried the mantle for diverse and inclusive dancefloors in Belfast here in 2023. The lead track is a collaboration with a Ukrainian artist, Ready in LED and it had Polari written all over it. Olya is a superstar and I’m very excited to be working with her.”
6.
Yard Act
Dream Job
I found a lot of Yard Act’s first act quite annoying, but with each release on album two, the Leeds band have shown themselves to grow musically to a reaching greater heights, that matches James Smith’s spoken vocal style.
“‘Dream Job’ feels like an apt introduction to the themes explored on Where’s My Utopia? – though not all encompassing. In part I was scrutinising and mocking myself for being a moaning ungrateful little brat, whilst also trying to address how the music industry is this rather uncontrollable beast that hurtles forward unthinkingly and every single person involved in it plays their part. Myself included, obviously. As with pretty much everything else going through my head last year, trying to find the right time to articulate the complexity of emotions I was feeling and the severity to which I was feeling them couldn’t be found – or accommodated, so instead I tried to capture it in a pop song that lasts less than three minutes once the fog had cleared a bit. It’s good and bad. I’m still glad that everything that happened to me happened.”
Yard Act’s James Smith
The band’s second album Where’s My Utopia? is out March 1st 2024 on Island. They play Dublin’s Vicar Street on March 20th.
7.
Future Islands
The Tower
Classic Future Islands vibes on their new song to coincide with the announcement of a new album People Who Aren’t There Anymore.
8.
Elaine Mai, Soft Centre
The Moment
It’s the surprise return of Irish producer Elaine Mai on ‘The Moment’ with vocals from London singer Jodie Nicholson aka soft centre.
The track paints a vivid picture of a hazy room filled with dancers, where past memories and present moments collide. It’s about the poignant juxtaposition of ‘then’ versus ‘now’, and the emotional tug-of-war you can feel when confronted with a familiar face from the past.
Look out for a couple of remixes of Elaine’s music coming soon.
9.
Rory Sweeney, Ahmed With Love, EMBY, Curtisy
Loose Lips
A quadrumvir of all that’s good in Irish and Northern Irish rap producer collaborations at the moment. This reminds me of some of the prolific tuff that The Alchemist, MIKE and WIKI are coming up with at the moment.
10.
The Scratch
Cheeky Bastard
“He won’t stop singing Champagne Supernova.”
The Scratch keep things quick and heavy on the latest song from their James Vincent McMorrow-produced album Mind Yourself, that drops next Friday.
“Cheeky Bastard is cheekier than Anne Doyle reading the Six ‘o’clock news in a pair of trackies. And if it doesn’t get your hips swingin’ like two balls in a hanky there’ll be wigs on the green I tell ya. Scallibalucci baby YEEHAW”.
The cheeky video by Sophie O’Donovan is a hoot.
Watch the documentary about the album:
Nialler9 Weekly Playlist
Nialler9 New Music Playlist
For more extensive Irish and new music coverage, hit up the Irish section for individual track features
For this and more Irish songs, follow the Nialler9 New Irish Spotify playlist.
