Handpicked new tunes released today: Wyvern Lingo, James Blake, !!!, Brién, Sufjan, Future Islands & more
Friday is release day and here’s the first things that caught my ear while listening to new singles today.
Wyvern Lingo – ‘Don’t Say It’
Caoimhe Barry , Karen Cowley and Saoirse Duane are back with a tease of album two, which the band recorded in Berlin between 2019 and 2020 before lockdown interfered.
‘Don’t Say It’ is a song that is informed by their R&B/funk roots, capably spun in a style that feels fresh for the band, more confident and tightly arranged while also harkening back to their very early music.
They say the song “is about an inevitable and reluctant end, where the reasons to stay are deeply rooted, but the reasons to leave are becoming harder to deny.”
James Blake – ‘Are You Even Real?’
“Are you for real?” Piano, orchestrals, electronics and emotion. I really like where James Blake is at right now. Could do with a few big sonic workouts though.
Brién – ‘Sundried’
Brand new on Soft Boy Records from the Belfast producer Bríen – a track from a forthcoming EP out July 24th. Sounds like Kean Kavanagh on the hook of this late-night, early morning vibe.
Sufjan Stevens – ‘America’ / ‘My Rajneesh’
Two new songs from Sufjan’s forthcoming album The Ascension on September 25th. These two long tracks (10 minutes plus) are textured return to the sound of The Age Of Adz, though so far not as busy. Perhaps coming after the album he made with Lowell Brams (the titular Carrie and Lowell), we may expect more ambient and drone stylings in the music to come but these two songs were written during the sessions of Carrie and Lowell.
‘America’ unfurls with the memorable line “don’t do to me what you did to America.” ‘My Rajneesh’ meanwhile a B-side is a fingerpicked folk orchestral tune that erupts in choral flight and into a much bigger vocoder-assisted production.
!!! – Do The Dial Tone
Never a bad time to drop in some !!! punk-funk hedonism into your playlists. This track has a Bicep-esque rhythm and is from a new dancefloor-centred EP Certified Heavy Kats out on July 24th.
Gemma Dunleavy – ‘Stop The Lights’
After last week’s brilliant ‘Up De Flats’, Gemma Dunleavy drops her full EP today.
Future Islands – ‘For Sure’
Let’s be honest, this sounds like any number of Future Islands songs but still, it’s nice to dip into their emotive synth-pop if you need a soundtrack that makes you feel like you’re running to save someone’s life who is stuck down a well.
Planningtorock – ‘Jam Fam’ (Chanel Slow version)
Big ’80s synth vibes from gender-queer artist Planningtorock on Chanel? EP out July 22nd. This is the sound of anticipating a weekend.
