The MOnday: 17.02.25
Plenty of new music, and some summer festival dreaming...
Listen to this
Lots more new music… Check my latest monthly playlist for lots more!
better joy - quiet thing
A celebration of understated, everyday love by better joy, quiet but firm and trustworthy. The crunchy riffs which open the song provide inescapable joy, and the track develops into a song of barely restrained excitement, with big choruses that seem to soar higher each time.
Jessie Reid - The Devil Calls
Laid-back and surrounded by a hazy, vibey curtain of sound, Jessie Reid delivers a punch nevertheless. ‘The Devil Calls’ is layered with acoustic and electric guitars, then elevated by skilfully placed piano notes and soaked in warm ambience.
Mallrat - Light hit my face like a straight right
This is an album worth repeat listens in different contexts so you can fathom out it’s many elements. On the surface, Mallrat purveys plenty of alt-pop but it’s quickly apparent that there’s a lot more besides, with liberal application of dark, cinematic elements. ‘Pavement’ stands out with the warbly rap backing pushing the song along in the face of glitchy vocals and crunch drum breaks; later tracks such as ‘Hideaway’ take on a well-suited DnB/breakbeat feel.
Queen Cult - Figure It Out
If you’re not familiar with the power-packed alt-rock sounds of Queen Cult yet, their newest release is a great place to start (and they’ve built a decent back catalogue too). Their sound is characterised by tight, punchy and gloom-enriched riffs and wonderfully ominous vocals — ‘Figure It Out’ feels unstoppable, unfolding inexorably from start to end.
The Lumineers - Automatic
The Lumineers stand out to me for their unequivocally honest, yearning appeal — every song is wholehearted and speaks direct from heart to heart. Tracks such as ‘Same Old Song’ and ‘You’re All I Got’ were already great companions, and collecting them along with plenty of new material (‘Plasticine’) has created a very special and immensely creative record.
Watch this
Yes, I know, yet another NPR Tiny Desk concert … they’re just so good though. An opportunity for a diverse range of artists to prove their live credentials in a uniquely intimate, supportive and unbelievably well-engineered setting. Here I’m highlighting their newest guest, Girl In Red (perhaps Norway’s best known contemporary singer-songwriter). She delivered a fantastically accomplished and celebratory set for NPR with so many inspiring moments (like the quick handclaps in the opening song ‘Phantom Pain’, or the normalising empathy of ‘Depression’).
Read this
Published yesterday, partly in an attempt to find hope in the face of interminably grey days, check out my festival recommendations. See you in the fields…
6 essential music festivals
What better time than a particularly cold, grey February (here in the UK anyway) to look ahead to brighter months and the chance to enjoy music outdoors in — slightly — warmer temperatures? Exactly. So here are a half-dozen picks to get you in the mood…
Don’t miss this week
Friday 21st Feb: Another packed day of releases to look forward to, including singles from Fold (‘In the Goodness of Time’), India Arkin (‘Metro Line’) and Innocent (‘Memory’) as well as a new album from The Murder Capital (‘Blindness’).