FEATURE:
One for the Record Collection!
IN THIS PHOTO: Rina Sawayama
Essential September Releases
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LOOKING ahead to September…
IN THIS PHOTO: Sampa the Great
and there are a load of great albums due out. Starting with the week ending 2nd September, and there is a cracker coming. It is YUNGBLUD by YUNGBLUD. Go and pre-order it if you can, as Dominic Harrison is an amazing artist with a very bright future. NME conducted an extensive interview with him back in June. We learn more about the recording of YUNGBLUD:
“When it came to recording ‘Yungblud’, the commercial success of ‘Weird!’ – which has been certified Silver in the UK – afforded Harrison with the opportunity to “get in any studio, with any writers I could have wanted”. But when he started the album in LA last summer, the pressure of being surrounded by a big team quickly got to him; he instead chose to decamp to his London apartment, and work on the record with close collaborators Chris Greatti and Jordan Gable.
The album was eventually recorded at the capital’s legendary Eastcote Studios, which have been used by The 1975 and Arctic Monkeys in the past. It was here where Harrison teamed up with a fellow Gen Z icon, groundbreaking artist and actress Willow Smith – daughter of actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith – to work on collaborative single, ‘Memories’, which sees their soaring vocals blaze through industrial riffs. “She’s a wildfire spirit,” he says of his friend. “We couldn’t contain our energy together – it was bonkers, but we made a perfect match.” What were they doing to cause such chaos in the studio? Running laps around the vocal booth, naturally.
Working with Willow also enlightened Harrison to a similarity between the pair. “We started to realise that growing up in the public eye, like she and I did, is absolutely crazy,” he says. “But Willow is totally defiant. People need to realise that she hasn’t had it easy [in life], either. Yet she’s grown into a brilliant musician; I think she speaks completely from the heart, but she’s naughty, too. She’s got a bit of bite about her.”
Harrison is keen to explain how he has recently befriended other musicians that he has idolised for years. During lockdown, he was texting Grian Chatten – yet he understands that the reaction from the public towards his friendship with the Fontaines D.C. frontman will be one of surprise.
“All the BBC Radio 6 dads that hate me won’t like the fact that I’m in touch [with Fontaines D.C.]. But I think they are phenomenal. They’re very refreshing and are making exactly the type of music we need to be hearing now,” he says. “People wouldn’t expect us to know each other as we are completely different types of artists; it’s the same with me and Wolf Alice, too. There’s no tension between us – there’s conflict in fandoms instead.”
It’s almost a wonder that Harrison had time to record ‘Yungblud’, as he has been working on a bevy of extra-curricular projects over the past year. At the MTV EMAs last November, he acknowledged rumours that he’d auditioned to play Boy George in an upcoming Culture Club biopic named after the band’s 1983 hit, ‘Karma Chameleon’. Today, he won’t be pushed on details, but with a knowing grin, he hints that said film is “in the works”.
Looking at the week ending 9th September, The Amazons’ How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me? is an album that I would recommend you pre-order. A terrific band indeed, I am interested to see what their upcoming album will offer. If you have not caught onto The Amazons’ sound, I would suggest you pick up their forthcoming album:
“Following two huge Top 10 records and sold out shows across the globe, one of the UK’s most exciting bands, The Amazons, release their stratospheric, anthem-packed new album How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me? - on Fiction Records.
The third record is both a love letter and a rallying cry. Expansive, uplifting, sun-drenched singalongs produced by Jim Abbiss (Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Adele), and featuring co-writing collaborations with the likes of Maggie Rogers and Jamie Hartmann, find the Reading 4-piece emerging from the darkness of 2019’s Future Dust full of lust for life and post-pandemic hope”.
An album that might not get as much attention as it deserves, George Riley’s Running in Waves is one that you need to pre-order. Riley is an amazing London-based talent who I predict is going to be very big soon enough. There is something about her music that touches you deep. Last month, DJ announced news of Riley’s new project:
“George Riley has announced a new project, 'Running In Waves', and shared the first single, 'Time'.
Due to be released on 9th September via PLZ Make It Ruins, the full eight-track outing sees Riley once again working with Frank Ocean and Kali Uchis collaborator Vegyn.
The song 'Time' arrived this week, and comes with an accompanying visual directed by interdisciplinary artist Siam Coy. Check it out below.
This marks the latest in a fast stream of work by Riley. Earlier this year, her tracks 'Jealousy' and 'Sacrifice', which also feature Vegyn, landed to critical acclaim, building on the momentum of last year's breakout mix, 'interest rates, a tape' and her appearance on Anz's Ninja Tune anthem, 'You Could Be'”.
There are quite a few other albums due on 9th September that I want to direct people towards. One is Jockstrap’s I Love You Jennifer B. Go and pre-order this gem from one of this country’s most individual and experimental duos:
“London-based duo Jockstrap (Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye) release their hotly-anticipated debut full-length record I Love You Jennifer B via Rough Trade Records.
Jockstrap previously hinted at I Love You Jennifer B’s impending release with their previous singles ‘50/50’ and ‘Concrete Over Water’. Both of which were playlisted by BBC Radio 6 Music and were subject of universal acclaim at national and international press. The cosmic accompanying video for ‘Concrete Over Water’ was premiered at an exclusive screening at The Castle Cinema, Hackney, followed by another of Jockstrap’s iconic parties at The Glove That Fits.
Commenting on the impending album release, Jockstrap’s Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye said: “I Love You Jennifer B is a collection of Jockstrap tracks that have been 3 years in the making. Everything on it is pretty singular sounding so we hope there is a track on there for everyone and something that speaks to you and says ‘I’m a banger.’” Skye added of ‘Glasgow’ (their new single): “‘Glasgow’ is our coming of age, moving forward, long-distance, travelling, beautiful bosk, wonderful thicket song.” And Ellery said of the song’s subject: “Glasgow is a great city, perhaps my favourite in the UK! Only downside is that it’s so damn cold all the time.”
When Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye make music as Jockstrap, the process and result has one definition: pure modern pop alchemy. With their debut album I Love You Jennifer B, Jockstrap will cement themselves as one of the most vital young groups to emerge from London’s melting pot of musical cultures in years”.
Another terrific album out this week is Oliver Sims’ Hideous Bastard. A member of The xx, Sims is a wonderful solo artist whose music needs to be experienced by all. His debut solo album is guaranteed to win a lot of very positive and favourable reviews. If you can afford it, I would encourage you to grab a copy on vinyl:
“The debut solo album from Oliver Sim - vocalist and bassist of The xx, Hideous Bastard is a deeply self-confessional journey of fear and shame inspired by the queer horror films he loves. Oliver is joined by Jamie xx, who produces Hideous Bastard with an elegant touch, and Jimmy Somerville (Bronski Beat/Communards), an angel, who takes us to the heavens. Full of surreal pop sounds that escape into the ether and break free, Hideous Bastard is a bold and ambitious debut that sees Oliver explore his voice and his capacity to evoke emotion, melding masculinity and tenderness, beauty with a baritone”.
There are there more 9th September-due albums that I am going to highlight. All three albums are from amazing acts beginning with the letter S. Santigold’s Spirituals is an album that you definitely need to get behind and order:
“Spirituals is Santigold’s first full-length album since 2016’s 99¢, and was mostly recorded during the 2020 lockdown. “All of a sudden there I was with three small children out of school—just-turned-two-year-old twins and a six-year-old—I was cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and changing diapers from morning to night, with three little kids coming in and out of my bed throughout each night like musical chairs. I was losing touch with the artist me, stuck in a part of myself that was too small. I felt the other parts of me were shrinking, disappearing.”
Santigold struggled but succeeded in defining a space in which she could center herself and collaborate virtually with producers and contributors: Rostam, Boys Noize, Dre Skull, P2J, Nick Zinner, SBTRKT, JakeOne, Illangelo, Doc McKinney, Psymun, Ricky Blaze, Lido, Ray Brady, and Ryan Olson. “Recording this album was a way back to myself after being stuck in survival mode. It wasn’t until I made the space to create that I realized I wasn’t only creating music but a lifeline,” she says. California was on fire, we were hiding from a plague, the social justice protests were unfolding. “I’d never written lyrics faster in my life. After having total writer’s block, they started pouring out. I decided to create the future, to look towards where we are going, to create beauty and pull towards that beauty. I need that for myself, but it’s also there for whoever else needs it”.
The second of the trio comes from the amazing Sampa the Great. As Above, So Below is among this year’s most exciting and exceptional releases. If you can pre-order it, then you will definitely find much to love in this incredible album:
“The latest masterpiece is a celebration of family and heritage, taking inspiration from Zamrock, Zambia's fusion genre.
Relocating home to Zambia during the pandemic, Sampa sought to reconnect with a different side of herself, a side that is freer and closer in resemblance to the younger artistry she cultivated growing up in Africa. This process of discovery would become the gateway to revealing her highest version of self. Choosing to collaborate with creatives Rochelle Nembhard and Imraan Christian from South Africa, As Above, So Below introduces us to a 360 Sampa, unveiling her many sides for the first time. From the funny to the serious to the sensual, As Above is Sampa outside’s self, and So Below, is the Sampa within, together uniting to reveal the most authentic version of Sampa, without a mask, or role to play.
As Above, So Below is anchored by spoken word in Bemba. The record delves into Sampa’s memories of Africa, Africa’s relationship to the world and what womanhood in Africa means to the world. We are also introduced to the persona of Eve, the highest version of Sampa that speaks to all facets of her womanhood.
The musical styles of As Above, So Below reflect the hybridity of Sampa’s upbringing. Raised in Botswana (a different country to her birthplace in Zambia), and then going on to attend school in different countries again, Sampa picked up varied musical influences along the way. Each style has attached itself to her own musical encyclopedia, and finds a new mode for expression throughout the record”.
Rounding off 9th September is Sudan Archives’ Brown Prom Queen. An artist I have a lot of love and respect for, I can recommend this album. She is a simply stunning force in music. There is not much information about the album. This is what Rough Trade say about it:
“Natural Brown Prom Queen is Sudan Archives’ second album following her widely celebrated 2019 debut Athena. Over its 18 epic and ambitious tracks, Natural Brown Prom Queen shows a new side to Sudan Archives: Brittney Parks or Britt, the girl-next-door. On this album, Sudan explores themes of race, womanhood and family. Natural Brown Prom Queen features the singles “Home Maker” and “Selfish Soul”.
Let’s move onto the week ending 16th September, as this week boasts a few albums that you will want to investigate. One album that you will want to pre-order is Jesca Hoop’s Order of Romance. The creator of such gorgeous music, do not miss this one:
“Jesca Hoop returns with her sixth album, Order of Romance, a record that fortifies her position as one of the most striking and original voices in contemporary music. Order of Romance is Hoop's most intricate and finely balanced album to date, one that draws on classic song writing, recalling anything from Gershwin to Paul Simon, but creating something that is unmistakably, indelibly Jesca Hoop. It is a deep dive into craft.
In the summer of 2021, Hoop once again ventured south from her adopted home of Manchester to Bristol to team up with producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding), her collaborator for 2019’s Stonechild. This time additional assistance came from in Jess Vernon (This is the Kit) to arrange for a four-piece horn and woodwind quintet. Legendary drummer Seb Rochford lent his skills, John Thorne plays the bass and Chloe Foy and Rachel Rimmer were enlisted to deliver Hoop’s signature vocal arrangements. The result is a fruitful marriage of song craft and arrangement, brimming with a cinematic charm and lyrical wit that signify a new chapter full of new life for an artist who knows her mind, her heart and voice well enough to trust them in uncharted territory.
Order of Romance then is a complete work that demands close attention, an active listen, a filagree that’s apparent lightness of touch belies a serious intent. Themes of empathy and friendship, intertwine with a clear eyed and moralistic poetry on subjects such as gun control, religious and political cults, and climate change.
Order of Romance is perhaps ultimately an exploration of the endless balance act of being a ‘Human Being’, an approach and examination of some of the biggest theme and issues of our time through the doorway of the personal, a way finding meaning and some kind of faith in a world where so much is disconnected and discordant”.
Although some sites are giving pre-order dates of 2nd September, it seems the biggest album of the month comes out on 16th September. It arrives in the form of Rina Sawayama’s Hold the Girl. This is an album that everyone needs to pre-order. Sawayama is one of our finest and most innovative artists. Her second album is looking like it will equal or top the mighty SAWAYAMA of 2020. This is what Rough Trade write:
“Following on from her critically acclaimed debut SAWAYAMA, Rina Sawayama’s highly anticipated new record Hold The Girl sees Rina once again juxtapose intimate storytelling with arena-sized songs, creating another ambitious and original album to excite fans and critics alike.
Written and recorded over the last year and a half, Rina once again teamed up with longterm collaborators Clarence Clarity and Lauren Aquilina as well as enlisting help from the likes of the legendary Paul Epworth (Adele, Florence and the Machine), Stuart Price (Dua Lipa, The Killers, Madonna) and Marcus Andersson (Demi Lovato, Ashnikko) for their magic touch.
The product of Rina and these collective minds coming together is an album which melds influences from across the pop spectrum and is a bold and honest statement of Rina’s personal evolution; coming to terms with her own past and the jubilation of turning to the future”.
Although they are a band more under the radar, The Beths’ Expert in a Dying Field is an album that you need to have in your life! Go and pre-order it, as this is going to be a very special album indeed from the New Zealand band:
“On The Beths’ new album Expert In A Dying Field, Elizabeth Stokes’ songwriting positions her somewhere between being a novelist and a documentarian. The songs collected here are autobiographical, but they’re also character sketches of relationships – platonic, familial, romantic – and more importantly, their aftermaths. The shapes and ghosts left in absences. The question that hangs in the air: what do you do with how intimately versed you’ve become in a person, once they’re gone from your life?
The third LP from the New Zealand quartet houses 12 jewels of tight, guitar-heavy songs that worm their way into your head, an incandescent collision of power-pop and skuzz. With Expert, The Beths wanted to make an album meant to be experienced live, for both the listeners and themselves. They wanted it to be fun - to hear, to play - in spite of the prickling anxiety throughout the lyrics, the fear of change and struggle to cope.
Most of Expert was recorded at guitarist Jonathan Pearce’s studio on Karangahape Road in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa (Auckland, New Zealand) - and sometimes in the building's cavernous stairwell at 1am - toward the end of 2021, until they were interrupted by a four-month national lockdown. They traded notes remotely for months, songwriting from afar and fleshing out the arrangements alone, the first time they’d written together in such a way. The following February, The Beths left the country for the first time in more than two years to tour across the US, and simultaneously finish mixing the album on the road. That latter half felt more collaborative, with everyone on-hand to trade notes in real time, until it all culminated in a chaotic three-day studio mad-dash in Los Angeles. There, Expert finally became the record they were hearing in their heads.
Expert is an extension of the same skuzzy palette the band has built across their catalog, pop hooks embedded in incisive indie rock. The album’s title track “Expert In A Dying Field” introduces the thesis for the record: “How does it feel to be an expert in a dying field? How do you know it’s over when you can’t let go?” Stokes asks. “Love is learned over time ‘til you’re an expert in a dying field.”
The rest is a capsule of The Beths’ most electrifying and exciting output, a sonic spectrum: “Your Side” is a forlorn and sincere love song, emotive; while “Silence is Golden,” with its propulsive drum line and stop-start staccato of a guitar line winding up and down, is one of the band’s sharpest and most driving. “When You Know You Know” skews a bit groovier, pure pop and a natural addition to the band’s live set. “Knees Deep” was written last minute, but yields one of the best guitar lines on Expert. There’s a certain chaos across the 12 tracks, the palpable joy of playing music with long-time friends colliding with the raw nerves of pain.
Stokes strings it all together through her singular songwriting lens, earnest and self-effacing, zeroing in on the granules of doubt and how they snowball. Did I do the wrong thing? Or did you? And are we still good people at the end of it? She isn’t interested in villains, but instead interested in just telling the story. That insecurity and thoughtfulness, translated into universality and understanding, has been the guiding light of The Beths’ output since 2016. In the face of pain, there’s no dwelling on internal anguish - instead, through The Beths’ music, our shortcomings are met with acceptance. And Expert In A Dying Field is the most tactile that tenderness has been”.
The penultimate album from this week I want to point you in the direction of is Whitney’s Spark. You may not be conscious of Whitney, but they are an act that you need to follow. Spark is an album that should be in your mind to pre-order:
“Julien Ehrlich and Max Kakacek could hear the staggering differences in the songs they were writing for their third album as Whitney, Spark —the buoyant drum loops, the effortless falsetto hooks, the coruscant keyboard lines. They suddenly sounded like a band reimagined, their once-ramshackle folk-pop now brimming with unprecedented gusto and sheen. But could they see it, too?
So in the ad hoc studio the Chicago duo built in the living room of their rented Portland bungalow, a shared 2020 escape hatch amid breakups and lockdowns, Julien and Max decided to find out. Somewhere between midnight and dawn every night, their brains refracted by the late hour and light psychedelics, they’d play their latest creations while a hardware store disco ball spun overhead and slowed-down music videos from megastars spooled silently on YouTube. Did their own pop songs—so much more immediate and modern than their hazy origins—fit such big-budget reels? “We’d come to the conclusion we weren’t going to be filming Super 8 videos to this stuff anymore,” Julien remembers with a grin. “How about something more hi-fi, cinematic?” When the footage and the tunes linked, Julien and Max knew they had done it, that they’d finally found Whitney’s sound.
Spark reintroduces Whitney as a contemporary syndicate of classic pop, its dozen imaginative and endearing tracks wrapping fetching melodies around paisley-print Dilla beats and luxuriant electronics. What’s more, Whitney reduces three years of extreme emotional highs and lows into 38 brisk but deep minutes, each of these 12 tracks a singable lesson in what it is they (and, really, we) have all survived. The recalcitrant ennui of opener “Nothing Remains,” the devastating loss of “Terminal,” the sun-streaked renewal of “Real Love”: However surprising it may sound, Spark is less a radical reinvention for Whitney than an honest accounting of how it feels when you move out of your past and into your present, when you take the next steps of your lives and careers at once and without apology. Spark maintains the warmth and ease of Whitney’s early work; these songs glow with the newness of now.
Listen closely, and you’ll notice frequent references to smoke and fire throughout Spark, itself a double entendre for inspiring something new or burning down the old. Max and Julien were indeed in Portland for the Fall of 2020, when smoke from nearby fires choked the city at record levels. It was terrifying and tragic, but they pressed on. “We found a way to live while the world was burning/Real life was caving in,” Julien sings almost merrily during “Back Then,” an anthem for finding out what’s on the other side of hardship.
In these dire days, scientists speak increasingly of serotiny, an evolutionary miracle that causes some trees to release seeds only amid a season of fire. That is how Spark often feels— Whitney’s circumstances were so fraught on so many levels that they hung “the past...out to dry” and began again, finding a fresh version of themselves, their relationship, and their band after the blaze. Max and Julien are back in Chicago now, sharing a cozy walkup with a little studio, where they’re already building songs for the next Whitney album. They’re both in happy romances, too. Now that they let the past burn, everything is new for Max and Julien. Spark is not only Whitney’s best album; it is an inspiring testament to perseverance and renewal, to best friends trusting each another enough to carry one another to the other side of this season of woe”.
Let’s round off the week ending 16th September with Suede’s Autofiction. Boasting a great title and cover, the ninth album from the legendary band is going to be a must-hear. Even if you are not a major fan of theirs, go and pre-order this mighty work:
“Suede return with their ninth studio album Autofiction. As Suede began work on the songs that would become Autofiction, they decided to go back to basics. In a move that recalled their most formative days, Brett Anderson, Mat Osman, Simon Gilbert, Richard Oakes and Neil Codling schlepped to a rehearsal studio in deserted Kings Cross to collect a key, hump their own gear, set up and start playing.
Speaking about it, Brett Anderson said: "Autofiction is our punk record. No whistles and bells. Just the five of us in a room with all the glitches and fuck-ups revealed; the band themselves exposed in all their primal mess." First single ‘She Still Leads Me On’ is the track that reconfigured what the album could be. A beautiful song written from Brett to his late mother. As its title suggests, Autofiction is one of Anderson’s most personal records yet. Reflecting on the process of writing acclaimed works of memoir Coal Black Mornings and Afternoons With The Blinds Drawn helped Brett get a newfound perspective on himself as a performer and singer in the public eye, much of which has bled into the lyricism of Autofiction”.
Let’s move to the week ending 23rd September. There are a selection from this week that I want to underline. The first, Beth Orton’s Weather Alive, is an album that you certainly will want to pre-order and make part of your September collection:
“Through the writing of these songs and the making of this music, I found my way back to the world around me – a way to reach nature and the people I love and care about. This record is a sensory exploration that allowed for a connection to a consciousness that I was searching for. Through the resonance of sound and a beaten up old piano I bought in Camden Market while living in a city I had no intention of staying in, I found acceptance and a way of healing.” - Beth Orton
Many musicians turn inward when the world around them seems chaotic and unreliable. Reframing one’s perception of self can often reveal new personal truths both uncomfortable and profound, and for Beth Orton, music re-emerged in the past several years as a tethering force even when her own life felt more tumultuous than ever. Indeed, the foundations of the songs on Orton’s stunning new album, Weather Alive, are nothing more than her voice and a “cheap, crappy” upright piano installed in a shed in her garden, conjuring a deeply meditative atmosphere that remains long after the final note has evaporated.
“I am known as a collaborator and I’m very good at it. I’m very open to it. Sometimes, I’ve been obscured by it,” says Orton, who rose to prominence through ‘90s-era collaborations with William Orbit, Red Snapper and The Chemical Brothers before striking out on her own with a series of acclaimed, award-winning solo releases. “I think what’s happened with this record is that through being cornered by life, I got to reveal myself to myself and to collaborate with myself, actually”.
There are four more from this week I want to mention. One album that we do not have a load of information about is Christine and the Queens’ Redcar les adorables étoiles. We do know a lot about the new album. He is a sensational and always-evolving artist. This new album is one you should not let slip you by, as it is guaranteed not to disappoint:
“Redcar is only the beginning. This is all an opera. It will take some time to unveil, the same way it is unveiling to Redcar, as he acknowledges his crazy freedom. Angels and stars, the sovereign verb, the heart at its centre. Redcar is not really there to affirm anything but the need to say who we are and what we pray for every day”.
A few more worth checking out. Go and pre-order Maya Hawke’s MOSS. The upcoming album from the incredible actor and songwriter is one you will want in your collection. I could not find too much information about it, but Wikipedia do provide some details:
“Moss is the upcoming second studio album by American singer-songwriter and actress Maya Hawke, set to be released on September 23, 2022. It is the follow up to her positively received debut album Blush (2020).
On June 29, 2022, Hawke announced Moss alongside the release of the first single "Thérèse". "Thérèse" was inspired by a Balthus painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art called "Thérèse Dreaming". Hawke has identified with the girl in the "Thérèse Dreaming" painting "who in my head is me" in the track. Hawke cited Taylor Swift's album Folklore (2020) as an inspiration for the sound of Moss.
According to a press release from Mom + Pop, Moss serves as "Hawke’s meditation on rebirth and acceptance".
Release
Moss is set to be released on September 23, 2022, in digital download, streaming, CD and vinyl LP formats. An exclusive release of Moss will be available from Urban Outfitters as a translucent pink vinyl LP. A translucent orange LP is available from Maya Hawke's official website”.
The penultimate album due on 23rd September is Tim Burgess’ Typical Music. Burgess always releases such interesting music, so you will want to pre-order. It is going to be quite the listen:
“Has there been a busier musician over the last two years? A more prolific artist? More creative? More heroic?
Tim Burgess – as self-effacing a band leader, solo star, label runner, repeat memoirist and all-round caffeinated can-do kid as you’ll find – would certainly shrink from the latter accolade. “A hero??” he’d likely mutter with a shake of his boyish mop. “For playing some records?” Yes, Tim, we would say that. And not just because with the May 2020, mid-lockdown appearance of I Love The New Sky, his fifth solo album, he undauntedly pushed on with releasing an album that brought much-needed sunshine to a world enveloped in gloom.
Over the course of the first year of the pandemic, Tim’s Twitter Listening Parties were a lifeline to many. At a time when the world shut down, we all retreated indoors, alone, and cancelled gigs were the least of our worries, the North Country Boy’s idea of utilising social media to unite us round a digital turntable was inspired. Meanwhile, Burgess was writing. And writing. And writing. From September 2020 to summer 2021, ideas poured out of Burgess. He’d been encouraged by Simon Raymonde, boss of his record label Bella Union ¬– and, of course, a former Cocteau Twin. He applied a musician’s logic: if you can’t tour your last album, write a new one. Then, when you can tour again, you’ll have two albums’ worth of songs to play.
Well, now, arguably, Burgess has three albums’ worth of songs to perform live. Typical Music is a 22-track double, a blockbuster set of songs that are as expansive and diverse as they are rich. As fun as they are funky. That embrace heartache and love. That run the gamut, from ABBA (in the shape of guest vocalist Pearl Charles, whose own brilliant Magic Mirror album is the sound of the magic Swedes doin' disco) to Zappa (free-form studio experimentation is go!)”.
Let’s finish off this week with WILLOW’s COPINGMECHANISM. It is hard to believe that this will be her sixth studio album! An artist that a lot of people still do not know about, go and rectify this by pre-ordering her new album. She is a wonderful artist who is so prolific and consistent:
“Willow returns with her sixth album. The new album follows swiftly on from last year's lately I feel EVERYTHING. That album blended a resurgent '00s emo and pop-punk sound with Willow's alt-RnB and hip hop roots, but CopingMechanism is more focused on the heavier side of her sound”.
There are a couple of albums due on 30th September worth your pennies. Pixies’ Doggerel might share the title with a recent Fontaines D.C. album (which I would have thought they’d have wanted to avoid!), but it is going to be very different indeed. I would encourage people to go and pre-order a gem from an iconic band:
“The iconic Pixies forged an influential path for alt-rock during their first era, while their post 2004 reunion has seen them alchemize more sophisticated dark arts - a return which has them add another three UK Top 10 albums to the three they achieved on their first run. Now as fired up as ever before, Pixies release their eighth studio album Doggerel via BMG, including lead single ‘There’s a Moon On’.
Doggerel is a mature yet visceral record of gruesome folk, ballroom pop and brutal rock, haunted by the ghosts of affairs and indulgences, driven wild by cosmic forces and envisioning digital afterlives where no God has provided one. And all the while, right there on the news, another distant storm approaches”.
The final album I am going to suggest you is Shygirl’s Nymph. One of the most amazing artists you will hear, go and pre-order an album that is sure to leave its impression on you! She is going to release a lot of albums through her career:
“Experimental pop artist Shygirl releases her debut full-length album Nymph via Because Music. The 12-track album was created with a close-knit group of friends and previous collaborators including Mura Masa, Sega Bodega, Karma Kid, Arca and Cosha along with the producers Noah Goldstein, Danny L Harle, BloodPop, Vegyn and Kingdom. Nymph reveals Shygirl’s inner self-reflection in experimental vocal tones and deconstructed dance melodies and exhibits a new level of intimacy and emotional depth in her songwriting. Simultaneously asserting her power and freedom and yet still longing for love, she delivers us lyrical harmonies and catchy hooks telling stories of relationships, sexual desires and romantic frustrations. Over lush production, Shygirl brings us on the journey of what intimacy is like for a woman who’s seen as ‘too hot to handle’, someone sought after and overlooked at the same time. Shygirl’s melodies intertwine with the sounds of bassline, garage, dancehall and hip hop, all seamlessly flowing together like an artful ribbon dance”.
There are other albums you might want to get in September. I have chosen those albums that I particularly like and think will satisfy your tastes. I hope that they do. It is clear that there are many wonderful albums coming out during…
SUCH a busy month.