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10 Greatest Songs of the Week: Yard Act, Grandaddy, bar Italia, Wings of Want, and Extra
Plus Future Islands, Charly Bliss, Woman Ray, and a Wrap-up of the Week’s Different Notable New Tracks
Oct 27, 2023
Welcome to the thirty fifth Songs of the Week of 2023. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, and Scott Dransfield, all helped me determine what ought to make the record. We settled on a High 10 this week.
Prior to now week or so we additionally posted interviews with Thurston Moore, Duran Duran, Viji, Alan Palomo, Indigo De Souza, Squirrel Flower, and others.
Within the final week we reviewed some albums.
Do not forget that we beforehand introduced our new print difficulty, Challenge 71 with Weyes Blood and Black Belt Eagle Scout on the covers.
That will help you type by the multitude of recent songs launched within the final week, we have now picked the 12 finest the final week needed to provide, adopted by some honorable mentions. Take a look at the total record beneath.
1. Yard Act: “Dream Job”
On Wednesday, British post-punk band Yard Act introduced a brand new album, The place’s My Utopia?, and shared a brand new track from it, “Dream Job,” through a music video. In addition they introduced some 2024 tour dates. The place’s My Utopia? is due out March 1, 2024 through Republic. Common Yard Act collaborator James Slater directed the “Dream Job” video. Take a look at the album’s tracklist and canopy paintings, in addition to the band’s upcoming tour dates, right here.
The place’s My Utopia? is Yard Act’s second album, the follow-up to their acclaimed Mercury Prize-nominated debut album, 2022’s The Overload.
The place’s My Utopia? consists of “The Trench Coat Museum,” a brand new eight-minute track the band shared in July that landed at #1 on our Songs of the Week record.
Like that track, “Dream Job” is much less post-punk and extra finds the band embracing an upbeat dance-rock vibe. It’s one thing frontman James Smith says carries throughout the entire album.
“The primary cause that ‘post-punk’ was the car for album one was as a result of it was actually inexpensive to do, however we at all times favored a lot different music and this time we’ve had the boldness to embrace it,” he explains in a press launch.
The press launch lists Fela Kuti, Ennio Moricone, and Spiller’s 2000-released single “Groovejet” as influences on the brand new album. Remi Kabaka Jr. of Gorillaz co-produced the album with Yard Act. The band additionally options bassist Ryan Needham, guitarist Sam Shjipstone, and drummer Jay Russell.
Smith says that “Dream Job” “seems like an apt introduction to the themes explored on The place’s My Utopia?—although not all encompassing. Partly, I used to be scrutinizing and mocking myself for being a moaning ungrateful little brat, while additionally making an attempt to handle how the music trade is that this somewhat uncontrollable beast that hurtles ahead unthinkingly and each single particular person concerned in it performs their half. Myself included, clearly. As with just about every part else going by my head final 12 months, looking for the suitable time to articulate the complexity of feelings I used to be feeling and the severity to which I used to be feeling them couldn’t be discovered – or accommodated, so as a substitute I attempted to seize it in a pop track that lasts lower than three minutes as soon as the fog had cleared a bit. It’s good and dangerous. I’m nonetheless glad that every part that occurred to me occurred.”
For the brand new album, Smith says he has reached deeper inside himself for lyrical inspiration, relying much less on the character research that populated the songs on The Overload. “You possibly can decide to the concept we’re simply animals who eat and fuck after which we die, and that’s tremendous,” he says. “However for me, creativity at all times appears to be the easiest way of articulating absolutely the minefield of what human existence is.”
Learn our print journal interview with Yard Act on The Overload.
Learn our rave 9/10 overview of The Overload. By Mark Redfern
2. Grandaddy: “Watercooler”
On Wednesday, Grandaddy introduced a brand new album, Blu Wav, and shared its first single, “Watercooler,” through a music video. Blu Wav is due out February 16, 2024 through Dangerbird. Aaron Beckum directed the “Watercooler” video. Take a look at the album’s tracklist and canopy paintings right here.
Grandaddy’s frontman Jason Lytle had this to say about “Watercooler” in a press launch: “Most of my relationships have concerned women who labored in workplace settings. This track is in regards to the finish of 1, or maybe a number of, of these relationships. Listeners may also discover the pedal metal on this observe and finally on many others from the forthcoming new album. It’s a primary for Grandaddy, and I couldn’t be extra thrilled about this truth.”
The album’s title Blu Wav is a mash-up of “bluegrass” and “New Wave,” as the brand new album tries to mix the lyrics related to bluegrass waltz’s with the synthesizers and digital sounds of ’80s New Wave, with the latter being extra in Grandaddy’s wheelhouse. This happened when Lytle found a basic nation radio station whereas driving by the Nevada desert and heard Patti Web page’s “Tennessee Waltz” and puzzled what it sound like in additional of a Grandaddy type. “There’s an inordinate quantity of pedal metal [on the new album],” says Lytle.
In 2017 Grandaddy launched their comeback album, Final Place, which was their first album in 11 years, since 2006’s Simply Just like the Fambly Cat. Blu Wav is their first new album since Final Place, however they’ve been busy with archival releases since then.
Earlier this 12 months they launched Sumday Twunny, a twentieth anniversary field set reissue of their 2003 album, Sumday, which included Sumday: The Cassette Demos and Sumday: Extra Baggage, a 13-song assortment of rarities and B-Sides that was additionally launched individually.
In 2020, Grandaddy launched a twentieth anniversary reissue of The Sophtware Droop, which included a solo piano model of the album performed by Lytle.
Grandaddy have been on the quilt of Beneath the Radar’s very first print difficulty, in 2001, by which we interviewed them about The Sophtware Droop.
Grandaddy additionally options Aaron Burtch, Jim Fairchild, and Tim Dryden. The band’s Kevin Garcia handed away in 2017.
Learn our 2017 interview with Grandaddy about Final Place.
Grandaddy additionally contributed to our Covers of Covers twentieth anniversary album, the place they coated Metric’s “Blindness.”
We additionally interviewed Grandaddy for our twentieth Anniversary Challenge and you may learn that article right here. By Mark Redfern
3. bar italia: “worlds best emoter”
London post-punk trio bar italia are releasing a brand new album, The Twits, their second album of 2023, on November 3 through Matador. Yesterday they shared its third single, “worlds best emoter,” through a music video.
Beforehand bar italia shared the album’s first single, “my little tony,” through a music video. “My little tony” was considered one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its second single, “Jelsy,” through a music video. It was #1 on our Songs of the Week record.
The Twits shortly follows Tracey Denim, a brand new album the band launched in Could through Matador (it was the band’s first for the long-lasting label).
The band options Nina Cristante, Jezmi Tarik Fehmi, and Sam Fenton. The trio recorded the album over the course of eight weeks, beginning in February 2023. They recorded in a makeshift house studio in Mallorca, Spain. Marta Salogni blended the album.
Previous to Tracey Denim, the band launched two albums, an EP, and several other singles during the last two years on Dean Blunt’s World Music label. By Mark Redfern
4. Wings of Want: “Likelihood of a Lifetime”
British duo Wings of Want (Chloe Little and James Taylor) are releasing a brand new singles assortment, Life Is Infinite, on December 8 through WMD Data. On Wednesday, they shared two new songs from it, “Likelihood of a Lifetime” and “I Will Attempt My Greatest,” the previous through a music video. “Likelihood of a Lifetime” was our favourite of the 2 songs.
Of “Likelihood of a Lifetime” the band collectively had this to say in a press launch: “We’re craving for one thing deeper, wanting to leap off the conveyor belt of life and put together ourselves for the uncomfortable fact that we’ve by no means really recognized what it’s to reside. We aren’t claiming to have the reply, but when we will encourage a dialog or spark the listeners creativeness then we’re one step nearer to the realisation that there’s way more to residing than we will think about tangible.”
Life Is Infinite shouldn’t be a debut album, however as a substitute “collects collectively the formative tracks of their opening period,” in response to a press launch.
When it was introduced, the band shared two new songs from it—“A Gun in Each Residence” and “001 [Tame the War, Feed the Fire]”—in addition to a reside video for the previous track. “001 [Tame the War, Feed the Fire]” was considered one of our Songs of the Week.
Life Is Infinite consists of two new songs—“Manufactured from Love” and “Be Right here Now”—the band shared in August. The latter is not an Oasis cowl, however it did make our Songs of the Week record.
Life Is Infinite additionally options “Runnin’,” a brand new track the band launched in January that was considered one of our Songs of the Week, and “Select a Life,” a brand new track the band shared final 12 months that was additionally considered one of our Songs of the Week.
In 2021, Wings of Want launched the EP Amun-Ra.
Choose up our present print difficulty, Challenge 71, to learn our Happy to Meet You interview with Wings of Want. By Mark Redfern
5. Future Islands: “The Tower”
On Tuesday, Future Islands introduced a brand new album, Individuals Who Aren’t There Anymore, and shared a brand new track from it, “The Tower,” through a music video. Individuals Who Aren’t There Anymore is due out January 26, 2024 through 4AD. Jonathan Van Tulleken directed the attmospheric video for “The Tower,” which options the band on a seaside, by a lighthouse. Take a look at the album’s tracklist and canopy paintings right here.
Future Islands co-produced Individuals Who Aren’t There Anymore with Steve Wright, who additionally blended the album with Chris Coady. Future Islands is Samuel T. Herring (vocals, lyrics), William Cashion (bass, guitars), Gerrit Welmers (keyboards, programming), and Michael Lowry (drums).
Individuals Who Aren’t There Anymore consists of three beforehand shared singles. “Peach” was launched in 2021. “King of Sweden” got here out in 2022 and the band carried out it on The Late Present with Stephen Colbert. “Deep within the Evening” was shared in August through a music video and it was considered one of our Songs of the Week.
Tulleken, the director of The Tower video, beforehand labored with Herring on the current Apple TV+ sequence The Changeling, which Herring acted in.
In a press launch, Tulleken had this to say about directing the video: “Anybody who’s seen Sam on stage form shift together with his entire physique and voice from coronary heart wrenchingly tender to fantastically ferocious is aware of that he’s a really, magnetic, performer. This was no small cause why he was solid for a task in The Changeling the place he performs a fancy character who seems to be one factor while really one other. It was a task that will be no straightforward process for even essentially the most seasoned actor however Sam, making use of all his stage craft, charisma, smarts and pure empathy, completely nailed it producing a riveting efficiency. I cherished working with somebody who got here to appearing through this persona they’d constructed of their music. To then get to collaborate on a music video with the band was a delight particularly one which explores that duality of sunshine and darkish actually and metaphorically. Discovering that very same charming, haunting, efficiency however this time with the observe as script.”
The band’s final album was 2020’s As Lengthy As You Are, which made it to #17 on our High 100 Albums of 2020 record.
Learn our interview with Future Islands on As Lengthy As You Are.
In 2022 the band additionally shared a canopy of Wham!’s “Final Christmas.”
Learn our 2014 cowl story article on Future Islands. By Mark Redfern
6. Charly Bliss: “I Want a New Boyfriend”
On Tuesday, Charly Bliss shared a brand new track, “I Want a New Boyfriend,” through an amusing music video. They’ve additionally launched a courting web site of types in order that their followers can discover a new boyfriend (or girlfriend). Go to Bliss-Finder.com to satisfy the Charly Bliss fan of your desires. “I Want a New Boyfriend” is out now through Fortunate Quantity. The band’s Dan Shure directed the track’s video.
“I feel the most effective breakup songs are celebratory. Fortunately, a long time of courting the improper individuals has ready me to write down the emo, palm-muted breakup track of my desires,” explains Charly Bliss singer Eva Hendricks in a press launch. “I used to be in Australia when Dan had the thought for this video, so we needed to create a fictional Bliss Bar the place we may all be collectively for Pace Courting Evening. I purchased your entire clay aisle of our native craft retailer and had quite a lot of enjoyable making a miniature model of the set that we may all be inexperienced screened into. Dan is the world’s finest director and editor and did an unimaginable job pulling every part collectively. Please contact CB Worldwide for those who imagine you might be entitled to a brand new boyfriend.”
Charly Bliss additionally options Sam Hendricks and Spencer Fo.
In June they launched one other new track, “You Don’t Even Know Me Anymore.”
The brand new songs follows their 2019 album, Younger Sufficient, and 2019 EP, Supermoon.
Younger Sufficient was picked as our Album of the Week. By Mark Redfern
7. Woman Ray: “Harm So Unhealthy”
On Wednesday, London trio Woman Ray shared a brand new track, “Harm So Unhealthy,” which was recorded with Al Doyle and Joe Goddard of Sizzling Chip. It follows Status, a brand new album they launched in August through Moshi Moshi.
Woman Ray are Poppy Hankin, Iris McConnell, and Sophie Moss.
The band collectively had this to say in regards to the track in a press release on Bandcamp: “‘Harm So Unhealthy’ was written through the pandemic, after I was engaged on writing our third album and nonetheless deciding what the texture of it will be. Initially I assumed {that a} extra digital/home impressed sound could be match for us, and with ‘Give Me Your Love’ and ‘Harm So Unhealthy’ demoed, we visited Al Doyle and Joe Goddard’s studio close to Brick Lane to flesh them out. They have been an incredible match for the songs, and we cherished enjoying with their mountains of uncommon synths. Though our album ended up being extra reside, I feel you may nonetheless hear the beginnings of our disco inspiration on this observe.”
Ben H Allen (Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective, MIA, Belle & Sebastian) produced Status.
The album consists of “All people’s Saying That,” a brand new track Woman Ray shared in February through a music video (it was considered one of our Songs of the Week). In 2021, the trio shared the album’s closing observe, “Give Me Your Love,” which was produced by Joe Goddard and Al Doyle from Sizzling Chip and was additionally considered one of our Songs of the Week. When Status was introduced in April they shared one other new track from it, “Maintain Tight,” through an amusing music video. “Maintain Tight” was once more considered one of our Songs of the Week. Could noticed the discharge of the album’s subsequent single, “Up,” as soon as once more considered one of our Songs of the Week. Then shared one other new track from it, “Love Is Sufficient,” through a music video that includes the band wearing black fits performing the track by the River Thames in London.
Additionally in 2021, they shared a canopy of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s 2001 track “Homicide on the Dancefloor,” through a music video.
The trio additionally took half in our twentieth Anniversary Covers of Covers album, protecting HAIM’s “One other Attempt.”
Their earlier current album, Woman, got here out in 2019 through Moshi Moshi.
In 2020 we posted a mini-documentary on Woman Ray, the place we visited their house studio. Watch the James Loveday-directed movie right here.
Additionally learn our My Firsts interview with the band from 2019.
Woman was the follow-up to their 2017-released debut album, Earl Gray (it was our Album of the Week and #3 on our High 15 Debut Albums of 2017 record).
Learn our Happy to Meet You interview with Woman Ray and take a look at our unique photograph shoot with the band. By Mark Redfern
8. Every little thing Every little thing: “Chilly Reactor”
Yesterday, British art-rockers Every little thing Every little thing introduced a brand new album, Mountainhead, and shared its first single, “Chilly Reactor,” through a music video. They’ve additionally introduced some UK tour dates. Mountainhead is due out March 1, 2024 through BMG. Equipment Monteith directed the “Chilly Reactor” video. Take a look at the album’s tracklist and canopy paintings, in addition to the tour dates, right here.
Every little thing Every little thing options frontman Jonathan Higgs, Jeremy Pritchard (bass, keyboards), Michael Spearman (drums), and Alex Robertshaw (lead guitar, keyboards). Mountainhead is the short follow-up to 2022’s Uncooked Knowledge Really feel, which was an album created with the help of articial intelligence (AI). Robertshaw produced Mountainhead together with his manufacturing associate Tom Fuller.
Explaining the themes behind the album and its title, Higgs had this to say in a press launch: “In one other world, society has constructed an immense mountain. To make the mountain larger, they need to make the opening they reside in deeper and deeper. All of society is constructed across the creation of the mountain, and a mountain faith dominates all thought. On the prime of the mountain is rumored to be an enormous mirror that displays endlessly recurring pictures of the self, and on the backside of the pit is a huge golden snake that’s the primal worry of all believers. A ‘Mountainhead’ is one who believes the mountain should develop regardless of the associated fee, and regardless of how horrible it’s to dwell within the nice pit. The taller the mountain, the deeper the opening.”
Of the brand new single, Higgs says: “‘Chilly Reactor’ is about striving for a complicated future and exponential progress at the price of our personal private worlds and psychological wellbeing. Lives lived by screens and isolation, resulting in disconnected and impassive reactions within the type of symbols.”
Learn our My Firsts interview with Every little thing Every little thing for 2022.
Take a look at the fourth episode of our Beneath the Radar podcast, the place we converse to Jonathan Higgs.
Learn our COVID-19 Quarantine Examine-In interview with Higgs. By Mark Redfern
9. Lila Blue: “Changeling”
Indie singer/songwriter Lila Blue is about to return subsequent month with their fourth full-length album, Candy Pea, out November tenth. Taking its title from Blue’s childhood nickname and delivery flower, the album meditates on coming of age, therapeutic, and transformation, tracing their path from childhood performer to fully-formed singer/songwriter. As they clarify, “I felt like I’d been writing to an ‘different,’ with out realizing that ‘different’ is the particular person I wished to turn out to be. I’ve been actualizing my very own therapeutic, manifesting the particular person I’m at this time.”
They’ve already shared the album’s title observe and one other new single, “There’s a Drought,” and on Tuesday they adopted with one other launch, “Changeling,” premiering with Beneath the Radar.
“Changeling” coats Blue in stress and simmering shadows, with snaking strings and elliptical guitar strains encircling the observe’s centerpiece—Blue’s passionate vocal efficiency. Their vocals stretch, howl, and soar, feeling glassy and longing as they attain for the excessive notes whereas remaining wealthy and resonant of their decrease register. Even with a comparatively subdued and acoustic instrumental palette, the observe has a way of galloping momentum, with Blue’s lyrics tumbling out in a confessional rush up till the observe’s final moments.
In the meantime, their lyrics discover equally confessional territory, coloured by Blue’s embrace of their identification as a non-binary and queer particular person. The observe displays on the discord between Blue’s internal self and their bodily actuality. They sing, “Typically I really feel like a changeling / There’s a spirit in my pores and skin / That comes from the insides of one other / That I’ve by no means lived in, by no means lived in / My tongue is dipped in shadow / Wherever I spit darkness comes / I’m the alternative of a maker / I’m, I’m the undone.”
Blue explains of the observe, “‘Changeling’ got here out by studying and being deeply impressed by Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi and Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov. Each had characters who have been navigating sensations of shifting by the world in our bodies which didn’t really feel like their very own; a pores and skin which contained a number of selves, and never all of these selves benevolent to the flesh they needed to reside in. As somebody who has moved by dysphoria their entire life with out phrases for it till not too long ago, and has at many junctures felt as if my physique and self are worlds other than one another, these tales planted a seed that finally grew to become ‘Changeling.’”
Candy Pea is out November tenth through MOXE. By Caleb Campbell
10. Chelsea Wolfe: “Whispers within the Echo Chamber”
On Tuesday, Chelsea Wolfe introduced a brand new album, She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She, and shared a brand new track from it, “Whispers within the Echo Chamber,” through a music video. She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She is due out February 9, 2024 on Loma Vista. George Gallardo Kattah directed the “Whispers within the Echo Chamber” video. Take a look at the album’s tracklist and canopy paintings, in addition to Wolfe’s upcoming tour dates, right here.
The “Whispers within the Echo Chamber” video was filmed in Colombia. Wolfe had this to say about it in a press launch: “This video seems like a love story between myself and my sleep paralysis entity, who, for the sake of this video, represents a peaceful internal voice chopping by psychological chatter and anxiousness to assist information me in direction of a extra genuine path. From the inward to the outward, this entity reveals me the expansiveness of recent prospects, if solely I’ll take the primary tough steps.”
She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She consists of “Nightfall,” a brand new track Wolfe shared in September.
For the album Wolfe labored on songs together with her common collaborators—multi-instrumentalist Ben Chisholm, drummer Jess Gowrie, and guitarist Bryan Tulao—after which producer Dave Andrew Sitek acquired concerned in early 2022. Shawn Everett blended the album, which was mastered by engineer Heba Kadry.
Of the album, Wolfe says: “It’s a report in regards to the previous self reaching out to the current self reaching out to the longer term self to summon change, progress, and steerage. It’s a narrative of releasing your self from conditions and patterns which are holding you again with a view to turn out to be self-empowered. It’s an invite to step into your authenticity.”
Wolfe’s most up-to-date solo studio album, Start of Violence, was launched in 2019. In 2022 she labored on the soundtrack for the A24 movie X.
In 2021, Wolfe shared a brand new track impressed by Marvel Lady, the fittingly titled “Diana” (which is the superhero’s birthname). It was taken from Darkish Nights: Dying Steel Soundtrack, which is a soundtrack to the DC Comics sequence Darkish Nights: Dying Steel, and got here out through Loma Vista. Wolfe additionally voiced Marvel Lady in some on-line animated shorts linked to the soundtrack. “Diana” was considered one of our Songs of the Week. By Mark Redfern
Honorable Mentions:
These songs virtually made the High 10.
Black Honey: “Lemonade”
HEALTH: “ASHAMED (OF BEING BORN)”
The Kills: “Wasterpiece”
serpentwithfeet: “Rattling Gloves” (Feat. Ty Dolla $ign)
Right here’s a useful Spotify playlist that includes the High 10 so as, adopted by all of the honorable mentions:
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