Language school: The MOnday 14.04.25
New music and other music-relevant things, including Amelia Coburn, For Nina, Foreign Love Language and ABNORM
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Amelia Coburn - Le Fabuleux Destine de Sandra
A French-language version of folk (and much more) artist Amelia Coburn’s most recent single, ‘Sandra’. There is a good reason for this — the “post-mortem revenge” song was written as a tribute to an amazing lady Amelia met in Paris. It’s a great piece of songwriting, featuring some beautiful vocal touches, and sounds even more dark and mysterious in this form.
For Nina - Hounds
Where have this band been all my life? I have to say I really love this track from the Dublin trio For Nina — a beautifully stripped back first 45 seconds giving way to a tightly controlled cacophony of perfectly judged discordance… you can read more of my thoughts on the song in the most recent DIY Neu Bulletin.
Foreign Love Language - It’s Only Fun
Foreign Love Language: the language of foreign love, or the plaintive cry of one for whom the language of love is out of reach? Doesn’t matter. The band have created here a huge bassline, tone-perfect vocals, wavery guitars… combined and mixed to form a broad, wide, deep track. And a really unexpected but deeply satisfying guitar solo near the end. Rock and roll certainly isn’t dead from where I’m sitting.
Sunday (1994) - Rain
A more evocative and atmospheric song would be hard to find currently; and the band’s imaginative use of instrumentation (from synth-choir opening to novelly-filtered guitars) is captivating.
Plus…
Also highly worth mentioning today: Chloe Foy’s ‘I Tried So Hard To Disappear’, LALA HAYDEN’s EP ‘viva venus’, and a two-disc, four-hour extravaganza of an album from Royksopp… it’s a huge project of “recordings and renditions, meant to capture the essence of [their] live shows bearing the same name” (check it out on the Bandcamp widget below).
Watch this
Abnorm are a captivating alt-rock trio from northeast England, led by vocalist Abbie Rose. Although they’ve been going since 2021, this video (to accompany the single and EP ‘GIANT’) is their first as a band. For the first half it follows the trusty band-performing-on-a-white-background format. That minimal approach provides a hard-hitting contrast to what happens next… without giving away spoilers, it gets a bit more messy. It’s a good example of a video which supports a song rather than taking over from it.
Read this
I haven’t posted many live write-ups since transferring to Substack (although I’ve written quite a bit elsewhere - see the Bylines page for links). Last week I wrote up two recent London gigs in one post: better joy and Bottlemoth, each one of my favourite bands at the moment. Read below:
Two gigs, one common thread of musical joy
Two gig reports in one post! You’re being treated dear readers. Or maybe it’s just a way for me to cut some corners. You can decide.
Don’t miss this week
As always, check the Release Tracker, but be sure not to miss these:
Wed 16th - A collaboration between the marvellously mellow Hohnen Ford and Birdy — the result, ‘A Lot To Give’: an atmospheric folk ballad capturing the spirit of fragile hearts with a lot to give
Fri 18th - no less than three EPs: dublon - ‘Nectar’, Fleur Rouge - ‘Wish You The Worst, and Jessy Fury - ‘Hollywood Forever’.
Don’t forget my: Release tracker | Monthly playlists | Subscriber chat