The 20 best songs of August

Charli XCX

Guess (feat. Billie Eilish)

A month is a long time in the pop culture zeitgeist. You might well be sick of ‘Guess’ and its various mashups and remixes by now.

Me? I’m still loving this Bodyrox-aping electro house ASMR smash hit crossover. It feels like the Billie Eilish version is now the canonical version.

Two Shell, Sugababes

Round

Two Shell’s remix of Sugababes’ 2002 chart hit ‘Round Round’ has been one of the most anticipated remixes to be released in recent memory in some circles, and July, finally delivered the official vocal version, wiping out the previously-released robotic attempted stopgap.

Fontaines D.C

Favourite

‘Favourite’ is a song from the band’s fourth record Romance that finds the band at their most Whipping Boy-esque with a sound that feels like a /throwback late 80s Irish indie rock and ’90s UK indie touchstones like early Stone Roses.

It closes the record, and is a perfect example of the band’s ability to write a perfect understated classic pop song.

We reviewed Romance on the Nialler9 podcast.

Yaeji

Booboo

As premiered during a Boiler Room set, Yaeji’s ‘Booboo’ harks back to the body music of ‘Raingurl‘, including an interpolation of that track, but it actually goes harder than that breakthrough track.

It’s the first song since the artist’s more introspective 2023 album With A Hammer.

‘Booboo’ is just a club banger, albeit one that reflects on that breakthrough in 2017.

“i think with anything – a little breathing room, a little break – distance makes the heart grow fonder. with the overpowering attention that came from raingurl, i took a break from clubbing, dance music, and the underground scene, but in that time away from it all, it’s allowed me to gain new perspective and a deeper appreciation for it. this year is the 10-year mark for many of the parties my friends and i used to go to, so booboo coming out now feels like full circle moment. and with my closest friends—who i’ve witnessed grow as DJs and start their own labels, throwing parties & having fun, all while creating a radical and safe space, it’s been so fun being their cheerleader and now rejoining them in the club, front right! “

Yaeji tour dates:
September 6 at Festival Palomosa [ DJ Set] in Montreal, CA
September 21 at Outline Festival @ Knockdown Center [DJ Set] in Queens, NY
October 31 at Club To Club Festival [DJ Set] in Turin, Italy

GǼG

Bonne M

Japan’s GǼG (Monkey Timers and Keita Sano) take some crunchy synths and a late-era posthumous Queen classic and create some psychedelic edit magic on Optimo’s label, via their Anarcho Disco volumes 1 & 2.

Jarjarjr

Split Tongue

Cork producer and rapper jarjarjr’s new album Catch The Dusk (September 20th), sounds like a doozy so far with its live jazzy funk hip-hop style allowing Rob O’ Halloran to showcase his best flows.

“See I never was “Live at the Blue Note”
I never stepped foot in London Town
But I crept through the cracks, kept it underground
A laptop and some botched midi
And touched hearts round the world out of Cork city“

See also: ‘Last Call’ and ‘Sense The Beer Bought’

The Trip

I Need (Speed)

Full steam ahead dance music – house pianos, speed garage and soul vocals slammed together into one keeling-over Ibiza reality TV-referencing rave banger.

Jon Hopkins

Part v – Evocation

Jon Hopkins’ new album is obviously not supposed to be cut up into singles, being as it is a “a 41-minute electronic symphony,” and one long piece divided into chapters, with inspirations from ideas of “ceremony, spiritual liberation and the hero’s journey.”

Yet, ‘part v – evocation’ stands alone well enough with its insistent synthy drone and tribal drums, and offers a way into a journey of a record. The chapter features Ishq, Cherif Hashizume and 7RAYS.

Yacht

The Bubbles (Are Running The Bathtub)

Yacht’s new album called New Release was released a month on vinyl, and arrived last week digitally.

‘The Bubbles (Are Running The Bathtub)’ is a dystopian new-wave post-punk pop song that opens the record.

Silverbacks

Something I Know

Silverbacks have announced their third album Easy Being A Winner, out on Friday 18th October through Central Tones/Cargo, and new single /video for ‘Something I Know’.

‘Something I Know’ is the latest track from the Irish indie-rock six-piece’s forthcoming album which references My Bloody Valentine, Guided By Voices and Stereolab as influences, after the recent, most excellent ‘Selling Shovels’, and the video for the Emma Hanlon-sung track, features dance choreography from an Indonesian troupe.

More on the album

George Clanton, TV Girl

Summer 2000 Baby

Baggy revivalist George Clanton teams up with indie-pop trio TV Girl on a Primal Scream ‘Loaded’ soundalike, and I can’t get mad at it. They also released ‘Take A Trip’.

Caribou

Volume

Caribou’s ‘Volume’ features a sample of the M|A|R|R|S’ 1997 UK number one hit ‘Pump Up The Volume’.

The song harks back to a formative time when a young Dan Snaith heard the song on the radio, and is part of a yet to be announced album rollout – with recent songs ‘Honey’ and ‘Broke My Heart’ released this year.

Caribou announces new album Honey, new single ‘Come Find Me’

“‘Pump up the Volume’ was the first time in my life I heard electronic music – sitting in front of the family stereo system listening to the top 40 countdown on the radio when I was a kid. It completely blew my mind – it sounded like something from another world. It’s stuck with me ever since – I always wanted to rework it in some way. I didn’t consciously think about it when i started working on my track but I think there’s something really nice about having gone right back to the very beginning in making this.”

Seefeel

Sky Hooks

The ambient experimental group Seefeel have returned with their first new music since 2011 on Warp Records.

‘Sky Hooks’ is on  Everything Squared, a one-off six-track mini-album released at the end of August.

EMBY, Charlie Boy Manson, Sputnik One

E’s Up

Manchester/Belfast MC EMBY and Manchester newcomer Charlie Boy Manson spitting on a wavey beat from Dublin-based producer Sputnik One beat on his label N-Face.

Kelly Lee Owens

Sunshine

‘Sunshine’ is the second track from KLO’s forthcoming album Dreamstate, after the song ‘Love You Got’ last month coinciding with news of the album on George Daniel’s new label, dh2, out Friday October 18th.

The Welsh producer does this kind of arpeggio-lead mostly instrumental jam really well, as heard on the 2020 album Inner Song, and ‘Sunshine’ takes things in a brighter dance pop direction.

Kelly has also announced details of her forthcoming UK and European tour including a Dublin gig at Button Factory on Monday November 4th and Belfast’s Limelight on November 6th.

JPEGMAFIA

I’ll Be Right There

JPEGMAFIA’s latest album I Lay Down My Life For You features this Jade ‘Don’t Walk Away’-sampling woozy rap tune.

JPEGMAFIA is set to play a 3Olympia Theatre show on 30^th January 2025, as part of his Lay Down My Life tour.

Effy, Mall Grab

iluv (vip)

A VIP mix (it means for Variation In Production always made by the original artists) of the producers’ original from February, essentially a faster beefier version of the euphoric electronic track.

Wastefellow

Haunt You Back

Diolmhain Ingram Roche is more recognisably active as the singer in the band Really Good Time of late, but he started out as the electronic producer Wastefellow, a project he returns to for the first release on the Patrúin label in four years.

‘Haunt You Back’ is the finest of the three tracks on the release, a bass and breaks fizzy production.

There’s also a fine long sleeve tee with funds going to Medical Aid for Palestinians and designed by Mel Keane.

Julie Dawson

Bottom Of The Pool

After collaborating with Jack Hamill aka Space Dimension Controller on ‘Silly Little Song’, it turns out NewDad singer Julie Dawson has made a whole album with him, that is called Bottom Of The Pool and is released on September 13th. The title track is a gentle meander into cool blue water.

The album central theme revolves around escapism, “reflecting Julie’s desire to create something entirely separate from her daily routine”.