I’m back. Did you miss me? Was off climbing Welsh mountains and then having non essential organs removed from my body. Don’t know about where you are but it’s windier here than a stag weekend Airbnb after the first night curry. Some flippin wicked tunes below for your delectation. Check it!!
Angelica Rockne – White Cadillac
Why we love it: The Californian singer-songwriter Angelica Rockne has just released her brilliant new single ‘White Cadillac’, taken from her forthcoming second album The Rose Society, which is due out on the 5th of May.
The follow-up to 2017’s Queen of San Antonio was recorded in a small studio in Nevada City, California in June, 2021 using Rockne’s longtime collaborators Jason Cirimele on guitar and bass, Cody Rhodes on drums and percussion, plus new arrival Patrick McGee, on piano and organ. It’s a winning combination.
Talking about the new single, Angelica Rockne says, “White Cadillac is a story about young love in all its passion and volatility. There’s a desire to escape, to find inner freedom out under a clear sky, somewhere no one else would care to be, a place to just exist and release the burden of trying to be a better human being. There’s a crossroads here—to resign and claim defeat, or to surrender to the present circumstance of unknowns.”
For all that ‘White Cadillac’ just glides effortlessly out of the cosmos, it remains a firmly grounded tune, a classic composition confirming Angelica Rockne’s growing maturity as a songwriter. (Simon Godley)
Legss -The Landlord
Why We Love It: It’s good to see London band Legss return with their new single ‘The Landlord’. It’s an instantly dramatic track which is not afraid to take surprising twists and turns. Sprawling and snarling it shifts from calm to chaos and back again. Lyrically the theme highlights the gap between artistic expression and historical pay-off, a theme that sadly seems to be a constant. The four-piece take inspiration from a plethora of literary and visual works as well as London’s urban landscape. Hence their music is varied and uncompromising. The vocal here is utterly heartfelt, moving from spoken to sung to a frustrated yet passionate bellowing, while sonically the music creates an atmosphere full of spectacle and shifting vibes.
Vocalist and guitarist Ned Green further expands on ‘The Landlord‘:
“It’s a product of privilege to presume you’re owed some sort of legacy. The balancing act of careerism and creativity leads you to this realisation, and that whatever you’re trying to achieve creatively is probably not going to have the lasting legacy you imagined for it. The structure of the song is representative of this, and that sense of fading idealism. I imagine it could be a maddening song to listen to, in that it offers up elements of potential song structures that could be quite enjoyable if isolated and extended. But this is how it feels: unsettled, fluid, scatty, disquieting. Landlords seem to be emblematic of this internal power struggle for ownership over your own life and creations. It’s also the name of a drink we all like, which is a good antidote to these sorts of realisations.”
Welcome back Legss. (Julia Mason)
THALA – You Had 2
Why we love it: The German dream pop artist THALA recently signed to the British independent label Fire Records and has just released her first single with them. ‘ You Had 2’, the press release tells us, “is addressed to a mostly-absent childhood figure – THALA transforms her pain into a tender letter of forgiveness, directed at both the subject and her own struggle. “I don’t feel like I owe you – anything, since you were never there to take care of me in the first place,” she sings, “needed your space, but I was just a kid.”
‘You Had 2’ is a confident debut offering from her new home in which THALA carefully balances vulnerability with controlled rage and absolution. Here she works through her feelings, resolving them and demonstrating that there is plenty of spirit and substance in her sound as she does so. (Simon Godley)
Motherhood – Dry Heave
Why we love it: We gave New Brunswick, Canada trio Motherhood 9/10 for last year’s album, Winded . New track ‘Dry Heave’ doubles down on their wild, surreal storytelling and electrifying presence with a frantic-paced package that starts a bit screamo and ends like surf rock. It’s part of a tour tape which will be released in spring and features a collection of songs from collaborators alongside b-sides and demos.
In the song, a person is walking across a bridge towards their home. They turn around and see that a giant, dark cloud has covered what used to be the river and the other side of the city. As singer Brydon Crain explains, “The cloud expands out over everything except a 2-kilometer circle on the edge of the river. Time backs up to the beginning and starts over, leaving our witness to live through all of history in the small clearing.” (Trev Elkin)
Henry Carlisle – I Float
Why We Love It: The Orielles Henry Carlyle has released his new solo single ‘I Float’. It had existed as a demo since 2020, but buying a synthesiser from Modema gave the track the form it needed. ‘I Float’ is an ambient meditative soundtrack, a response to the winter cold snaps that suddenly closed doors to the outside world. Henry explored more with the synth and as such created a sonic landscape that bends into the world of electronica. ‘I Float’ gives an expression of isolation in the winter months. However the track is layered with a mildly screeching reverbing guitar and thus this is not a melancholy track – far from it. It’s actually borders on dance music as the pulsating bets become more pronounced as the track progresses. Music to lose yourself in. ‘I Float’ was performed, engineered and produced by Henry and if employing creative coping strategies to deal with winter produces such beautiful music then it’s simply a win win for, not only Henry, but us the listeners.
Henry expands on the creation of ‘I Float’:
“This winter crept up on us. I started writing a lot of music on this synth I bought back in October. During dark evenings I built up an ambient track, ‘Prelude’ and when I finished that I realised it was the element ‘I Float’ had been missing. Through its many iterations, I struggled to get close enough to expressing the song’s idea until then.
“It’s about floating on through, not being present, doing what you’ve got to do. In a sense, it’s about living a minimal existence until you feel well enough to thrive again.” (Julia Mason)
néomí – i could never leave
Why we love it: The Surinamese / Dutch folk-pop singer-songwriter néomí has just released her new single ‘i could never leave’. It is the final instalment from her eagerly awaited EP, after, following confidently in the fresh footsteps of last year’s highly-praised debut EPbefore.
Speaking about her latest release, néomi says “‘i could never leave’ is a track that lies very close to my heart. I think this song comes closest to my feelings than any other at this point. Every time I hear it or play it, it brings me back to this one love I had. I couldn’t go, I couldn’t move, I wanted to but also didn’t want to. It’s hard to describe but those who know this feeling know what I mean. It’s about a relationship shifting, like a big force, like stars falling in the sky. Self-development, acceptance but also grief at the same time. I really enjoyed the process of creating this song as well, together with my friend Will it was very natural and went so quickly because the story was just so clear and came flowing out of me. It didn’t need much time or thinking. It felt raw and honest, and I hope it comes across that way because it’s true.”
With its gentle, ethereal arrangement, ‘i could never leave’ is a delightful stroke of contemplative elegance coming to us with a promise of how much more there is to come from néomi. (Simon Godley)
Guilty Party – Lemonade
Why we love it: Guilty Party make a splash with their debut single the first of batch of songs recorded with producer Gethin Pearson, Cardiff. A big hearted rock song that laces huge riffs and bouncing airy percussion, with personal girl/boy vocals that chart diaristic lyrics, into an explosive, fists aloft singalong chorus, the soundtrack for a big night out and regretting it in the morning. They say: “Lemonade’ follows two would bes on a night that could be, endless pre-drinks, come ups, comedowns and middle ground. You can get lost, found and hit the floor, but you’ll wake up in good company – maybe with something to sip on for the hangover.”
Formed at the turn of 2023, Guilty Party (Jen, Dan, Ceris and Ty) put their weekend playbook to music; it’s a bittersweet anthemic beginning from Guilty Party whose modern rock/pop sound is infused with a personality, fun and hooks that offer shades of Paramore. Promising. (Bill Cummings)
LAVEDA – Troy Creeps
Why we love it: New York City duo – LAVEDA – have recently unveiled ‘Troy Creeps’, the fourth track to be taken from their awaited second album ‘A Place You Grew Up In’. Rooted by insistent drum, chirruping synths and slacker guitars, twitching with anxiety before flooding forth with excitement, it unfurls from introspection into a shimmering anthemic chorus riven with fantastic scorched guitar licks, it’s a mightly impressive piece of subtle dream pop that intersects their twin influences of Broadcast and The Cranberries.
Said to embody “a long night spent alone with your thoughts” according to vocalist Ali Genevich, bandmate Jake Brooks adds of how the track earned its unconventional title:
“When I made this demo I had just moved to a small apartment in Troy, NY. You could always hear everyone’s conversations if they were outside on that street. People were screaming at each other about something while I was recording so the name stuck.”
Tapping into all the angst and anxiety that accompanies coming-of-age during bleak and uncertain times, the new record evokes a range of themes: from the loss of innocence to the struggles of coming to grips with reality. Genevich explains:
“”A Place You Grew Up In” is like a time-capsule in my memory. 2020 and 2021 felt like adulthood had crawled out from a dark cave somewhere in the woods to slowly flood my mind with 24/7 anxieties. It began with the pandemic, then Jake’s mom who had been battling stage four cancer got worse. She passed on New Year’s Day 2021. There was a lot of grief paired with drinking. Many days felt monotonous, though some were filled with writing and demoing.” (Bill Cummings)
Honey B Mckenna feat JXE – Lofi Hip Hop Beats
Why we love it: South Wales pop star and DJ, Honey B Mckenna returns with her new single ‘Lofi Hip Hop Beats’ featuring collaborator Joe, aka JXE! With an evocative synth laden atmosphere and chilled beats, Lofi Hip Hop Beats, is a sweet and dreamy, laid back, pop anthem that harks back to the days when trip hop beats intersected pop melodies, inventive and hooky. there’s an infectious dreamy quality here as Mckenna, ruminates evocatively on negative feelings and offers affirmations, as she floats into a cloud free of anxiety and self doubt. It also features a popping contribution from non-binary East London rapper JXE. Impressive slice of knowing bedroom pop. It shows another side to Mckenna’s artistry and we are impressed!
“I’ve been sat on this track for a while, as I’d initially written it with a mind to have someone else record it, and when it came to me eventually writing beyond the chorus hook, the meaning of it changed several times – from a generic breakup song to being an introspective look at my tendency to wallow in negative feelings, and how I’ve been able to break free from that in recent years! Musically I was very influenced by the later Gorillaz albums, also Sylvan Esso, and there’s a bit of 90s trip hop Portishead-y-ness coming through – I kept hearing Tom’s Diner & Little Fluffy Clouds on the radio around that time.” (Bill Cummings)