The 5 best songs of the week

Isa Gordon

I Wish, I Wish

Glasgow-based producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Isa Gordon releases a synthesis of an old folk song in a modern electronic hymnal vernacular.

‘I Wish, I Wish’ was released as part of Lost Map’s Postmap Club subscription service in January, but will also feature on Gordon’s forthcoming album 8Men on March 20th – which is said to be “a collection of traditionals and 20th century folk, punk, prog and metal covers rebooting the folk compilation in a brand-new musical language.”

“The lyrics carry a weight and the melody has that *something special*. The song is like a wee myth – a warning to young women to keep their pants on, narrating how a one-night stand played out in the mind, body, and spirit of our forlorn narrator. There’s an ever-relevant wisdom to this song. The melody’s got all these great leaps and spaces that give room to add your own expression and graces. It shows up on the collections of some of my favourite banshees: Jeanie Robertson and Lizzie Higgins. There’s also a sample of this tune in a Martyn Bennet track that’s really striking.”

Winged Wheel

I See Poseurs Every Day

The American experimental rock band Winged Wheel released their third album Desert So Green last week, that draws on American midwest emo, shoegaze, post-rock and kosmische experimental improvisation – reminding me at various points of Godspeed, Slint, TAGABOW, Mogwai with a restrained sound. It was my favourite album of last Friday’s releases.

It works best as a complete album but ‘I See Poseurs Every Day’ is one of the songs that catches my ear the most.

Peter Gabriel

Been Undone (Dark-Side mix)

The legend that is Peter Gabriel released i/o, a fine late career album from the artist in 2023, and this year, he will release the reflectively named o\i , an album that will be teased out monthly, on the full moon and new moon, and like its predecessor with Tchad Blake’s Dark-Side and Mark ‘Spike’ Stent’s Bright-Side versions of the same song.

The Dark-Side version of ‘Been Undone’ is first up, a classic fully-textured PG track – that came from a song called ‘Sit’ that Gabriel wrote in 1995 – the man can still write a hooky chorus.

The songs are a mix of thoughts and feelings.
I have been thinking about the future and how we might respond to it. We are sliding into a period of transition like no other, most likely triggered in three waves; AI, quantum computing and the brain computer interface. Artists have a role to look into the mists and, when they catch sight of something, to hold up a mirror.

These are my lumpy bits –i/o: the inside has a new way out and o\i: the outside has a new way in.

We are not, and have never been, the exclusively self-determining, independent beings that have been given the run of the world. We are something else, a part of nature, a part of everything and feeling a connection, shaking our booty and giving and receiving some love can help us find our place – and put a big smile on our faces.

Some of these songs are going to form part of the brain project that I’ve been exploring for a number of years, and some just make me feel happy. I hope you like them.

Peter Gabriel’s gig in Dublin in 2023 was top tier.

Robyn

Talk To Me

The Swedish pop auteur Robyn announced ninth album Sexistential on March 27th with two contrasting bangers – the IVF club rap banger of the title track and the more traditional eminent electronic pop of ‘Talk To Me’.

“I wrote it during the pandemic when there was no way to be physical,” Robyn says. “I like talkers, that turns me on.”

Sometimes, the most obvious thing is the right call – you see a new Robyn song you press play and enjoy on repeat.