The 5 best songs of the week

Léa Sen

lvl1 – HOME ALONE

London-based French artist guitarist, singer-songwriter and producer and mixer Léa Sen has featured on tracks with Joy Orbison, Sampha and Vegyn in recent years, but it’s the artist’s solo material is equally as worthy as those electronic collaborations.

‘lvl1 – HOME ALONE’ is indicative of Sen’s more acoustic singer-songwriter style, with dashes of experimental pop production appearing as the song develops.

The song is the first of a wider release, yet to be announced on Partisan Records.

“Home Alone” is about my worst flaw that is also my best quality—my ability to dream with no doubt. It’s brought me incredible highs and, at times, left me stuck in a prison of the worlds I created in my mind. I can feel like I’m flying above reality one moment and falling behind the next, caught between daydreams and ambition, love and limerence. Being a wild dreamer lets me shape new realities through music, but no one’s there to pull me back when life calls. It’s a contradiction I live with every day—a blessing and a curse.”

Squid

Cro-Magnon Man

English art-rock quintet Squid’s third album Cowards was just released. ‘Cro-Magnon Man’ is a foreboding take on their sound, spindly and eerie with vocals from guitarist Louis Borlase alongside Clarissa Connelly, Tony Njoku and Rosa Brook.

Anika

Hearsay

Annika Henderson aka Anika is the British Berlin-based artist who has a new album called Abyss out on April 4th this year on Sacred Bones, from which this Pj Harvey-esque rock track struck a chord with me.

Anika has announced a full European tour for this spring including shows in London, Bristol, Manchester, Leeds, Belfast, Dublin and Brighton.

“This song is about media moguls – about the power of the media, whether social, tv or beyond – we are as much under its spell as we ever were and some nasties are exploiting it for their own gains. Parasites feeding off the blood of the public — PJ Harvey inspired for sure.”

Anika.

Anika plays Whelan’s Dublin on May 3rd.

Biig Piig

9-5

The genuinely long-awaited debut album 11:11 from the Cork/Spanish/London artist Biig Piig has arrived.

We interviewed Biig Piig over five years ago, and it’s been a long path of EPs, singles and collaborations since then. 11:11 arrives after 2023 debut mixtape Bubblegum and single releases for ‘Decimal’, ‘Watch Me’ and album opener ‘4AM’, and short films that are being rolled out along with the record.

‘9-5’ is yet another strong melodic single in the Biig Piig canon.

Biig Piig plays Dublin’s 3Olympia on Monday February 17th.

Joe Armon-Jones

Kingfisher (feat. Asheber)

The South London jazz pianist, songwriter, bandleader and producer Joe Armon-Jones is a founding member of the Ezra Collective, and will release his first solo record in six years, All The Quiet (Part I) on March 28th, with part two following on June 16th.

The expansive dub-influenced shuffling jazz of ‘Kingfisher’ is the lead single from the record, which also features Greentea Peng, Wu Lu, Hak Baker and Yazmin Lacey.