See the New Music section for full selection of tracks and albums featured this week.
1.
Jockstrap
Concrete Over Water
Jockstrap have always been a weird outfit. Every time I drop into the profile of London duo of Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye, I’m never sure what to expect but it’s usually pretty out there.
By contrast, ‘Concrete Over Water’ plays it straight sonically if not arrangement-wise. Along with its rich visuals, it feels like song written for a operatic stage show, a part of of a whole with twists, turns and stops baked in. It’s a delightful oddity that sounds like little else, other than the wildly dizzying Jockstrap themselves.
The song is from a forthcoming debut album on Rough Trade.
2
Billy Woods, El-P, Breeze Brewin
Heavy Water
Go read Dean’s review of Aethiopes because he’s nailed it.
As does this Youtube review: Billy Woods and the Harvest of Generational Trauma.
3.
Lizzo
About Damn Time
Listen, it’s just nice to hear Lizzo doing her self-love thing well without trying too hard to make a hit happen like ‘Rumours’ felt like. Sometimes you need a reset.
While ‘About Damn Time’ is a fine return, musically it’s playing it safe with polite -enough disco-funk.
The new album Special is out July 15th.
Be yourself Lizzo, that’s what the people want.
4.
Phoebe Bridgers
Sidelines
A new Phoebe Bridgers song written for the new TV adaptation of the forthcoming Conversations with Friends show, which drops May 15th. It’s a sweet, gentle song with a slightly smaltzy analogy about finding someone to give your world meaning.
I’m not afraid of anything at all
Not dying in a fire, not being broke again
I’m not afraid of living on a fault line
‘Cause nothing ever shakes me, nothing makes me cry
Not a plane going down
In the ocean, I’m drowning
Watch the world from the sidelines
Had nothing to prove
‘Till you came into my life
Gave me something to lose
Bridgers plays Fairview Park this summer. This is her only song of this year.
5.
Niina, Lolo The Great
miss u
Niina is a relatively-new UK electronic producer who debuted the wispy ‘Miss U’ featuring Lolo The Great this week.
The track operates on a base of day-glowing rhythms and vocal hooks, that builds to rhythmic synth-assisted passages with vibes of Mura Masa, Elkkla and Georgia.
6.
Just Mustard
Mirrors
Ahead of the release of their second album Heart Under on Partisan Records on May 27th, the Dundalk alt-rock band Just Mustard dropped a song called ‘Mirrors’, which I’m sure I heard at last year’s live gigs.
The song is a bit mellower than the band’s normal industrial-leaning characteristics.
Loads to come on the live front for the band this year.
7.
Syd, Lucky Daye
CYBAH
The Internet’s Syd’s new solo Broken Hearts Club dropped last Friday, and this taut funk pop song is centre to the album’s appeal. With Lucky Daye on support, it’s a beaut.
“The album is about a relationship I had that ended in my first real broken heart. It almost felt like I joined a club because all of my friends went through similar experiences. It was like a rite of passage. I started writing the album on the relationship when I was in love. You’re really getting the whole journey from the beginning to the end. I want people to find it beautiful. It’s super vulnerable, sentimental, and it’s soft. There’s touching moments and a couple of dark moments.”
8.
Nailah Hunter
Forest Dark
Nailah Hunter is a harpist, vocalist, and composer living in Los Angeles. ‘Forest Dark’ is the artist’s latest song on Leaving Records, and it’s a daydreamy tonic.
It teases an album to come later in the year.
“Forest Dark is about lost love and quiet longing, calling forth the feeling of a full moon shining through the tallest trees in an ancient wood. It was a new and exhilarating process working closely with producer Brogan Bentley on this track. He sampled and resynthesized the harp parts I wrote for the piece to create a new sound world, and the addition of Max Kaplan’s tenor sax added another layer of richness and soul.”
Nailah Hunter
9.
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Emile Mosseri
Green To You
American composers Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Emile Mosseri have a two-part collaborative album for which part one – I Could Be Your Dog (Prequel) – was released last year. The theremin-featuring ‘Green To You’ is from part two – I Could Be Your Dog / I Could Be Your Moon, is due out in May on Ghostly.
“In our collaboration we talked about the idea of needing a catalyst, or inspiration coming from a reaction to something. Like when you think you hear a friend say something, and they said something else, but what you thought you heard was actually something that you wrote, that you generated, and had a clear channel to grab it because your sense of self didn’t get in the way.”
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
10.
Oscar #Worldpeace, Kojey Radical, ayrtn
Ya! Remix
Kojey Radical jumps on this remix of Tottenham rapper Oscar #Worldpeace’s ‘Ya!’ from last year.
Nialler9 New Music Playlist
