FEATURE:
One for the Record Collection!
IN THIS PHOTO: Nadine Shah
Essential February Releases
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NEXT month sees…
IN THIS PHOTO: Jennifer Lopez
quite a few wonderful albums released. I wanted to focus on them. Recommend the ones that you should pre-order. Let’s start with 9th February. The first album to look out for is Chelsea Wolfe’s She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She. You need to pre-order this album. It is an amazing release from an artist who I don’t think gets as much credit and attention as she deserves:
“Chelsea Wolfe’s latest album, She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She, is a rebirth in process. It’s about how such a moment connects to our past, our present, and our future. It’s a powerfully cathartic statement about cutting ties, as well as an important reminder that healing is cyclical and circular, and not a simple linear process. As Wolfe explains, “It’s a record about the past self reaching out to the present self reaching out to the future self to summon change, growth, and guidance. It’s a story of setting yourself free from situations and patterns that are holding you back, in order to become self-empowered. It’s an invitation to step into your authenticity”.
There are a couple of other albums from the week that you need to check out. One of our best songwriters releases What Happened to the Beach?. The wonderful Declan McKenna. He is a a magnificent talent that I first came across a few years ago. His latest album is one that I am definitely going to check out. You might be new to his work, so I would suggest you check back his previous work first. What Happened to the Beach? sounds like it is another superb release from the brilliant Declan McKenna. Go and pre-order this wonderful album:
“Produced by Gianluca Buccellati (Lana Del Rey, Arlo Parks), What Happened To The Beach? marks Mckenna’s third studio album following 2020’s Zeros. The LP is an album that revels in both space and atmosphere and the tracks much looser”.
The last album from 9th February that you need to seek out is Zara Larsson’s Venus. One of the biggest Pop artists in the world, the new album from Larsson is well worth checking out. Maybe it is more for fans and those who already know about her work, though I would say that she is such a strong and interesting artist that it is very much for everyone. I am going to listen to the album, as I have a lot of respect for her work. She is a tremendous artist. You can pre-order Venus here:
“Swedish popstar Zara Larsson has gifted fans a divine gift, her new album Venus. The LP was preceded by two UK Top 40 singles, Can't Tame Her and On My Love with David Guetta”.
There are four great albums out on 16th February that I will recommend. You can check out everything out in February here. I think that IDLES’ new album, TANGK, is one that everyone should get. You can pre-order the album here. There is a slightly new direction and tone to this album. Perhaps more revealing and soulful than previous IDLES album, TANGK sees the band in incredible form. A band that have never dropped a step, this is a fascinating evolution. You will definitely want to get this album:
“TANGK is the righteous and vibrant fifth album from madcap truth-seekers, IDLES. Pronounced “tank” with a whiff of the “g” - an onomatopoeic reference to the lashing way the band imagined their guitars sounding that has since grown into a sigil for living in love - the record is the band’s most ambitious and striking work yet. Where IDLES were once set on taking the world’s piss, squaring off with strong jaws against the perennially entitled, and exercising personal trauma in real time, they have arrived in this new act to offer the fruits of such perseverance: love, joy, and indeed gratitude for the mere opportunity of existence.
A radical sense of defiant empowerment radiates from TANGK, co-produced by Nigel Godrich, Kenny Beats, and IDLES guitarist Mark Bowen. Despite his reputation as an incendiary post-punk sparkplug, frontman Joe Talbot sings almost all the feelings inside these 10 songs with hard-earned soul, offering each lusty vow or solidarity plea as a bona fide pop song—that is, a thing for everyone to pass around and share, communal anthems intended for overcoming our grievance.
TANGK is a love album—open to anyone who requires something to shout out loud in order to fend off any encroaching sense of the void, now or forever”.
One of the biggest and most anticipated albums of the year is Jennifer Lopez’s This Is Me… Now. At the moment, you can pre-save the digital version. It will be available on physical formats. For now, it is an album you can add to your library. One of the world’s most influential artists, Jennifer Lopez’s forthcoming album is among her most important. You can get updates regarding the album on Jennifer Lopez’s Instagram. It is almost a full circle moment regarding this icon. Pitchfork published an article about This Is Me… Now last year:
“Jennifer Lopez has shared more details about This Is Me…Now, her first new album in a decade, one year after she announced it. It arrives February 16. That same day, Lopez will release the accompanying This Is Me…Now: The Film on Prime Video, which is described as a narrative-driven reflection on her journey to find love. Watch teaser trailers below.
This Is Me…Now is a play on the title of Lopez’s third studio album, This Is Me... Then, which celebrated its 20th anniversary the same day she announced the LP last year. The new 13-track full-length includes a song called “Dear Ben Pt. II”—presumably a sequel to her 2002 song “Dear Ben” about her husband, Ben Affleck. The lead single “Can’t Get Enough” will drop January 10.
Lopez’s last album, A.K.A., came out in 2014. Since then, she’s released standalone singles with Cardi B and Skrillex, collaborated with Maluma and Lin-Manuel Miranda, and performed at the Super Bowl LIV halftime show with Shakira. She’s also stayed busy as an actor, starring in Hustlers, Marry Me, and Second Act, as well as hosting an episode of Saturday Night Live in 2019.
Revisit “Shakira and Jennifer Lopez’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Was a Dance Party With Purpose” on the Pitch”.
Before moving on to the final album from 16th February, I want to recommend Laura Jane Grace’s Hole in My Head. This is an album that you should pre-order. A wonderful and hugely powerful artist who is an incredible voice that demands to be heard, you need to pre-order this phenomenal album. It will be among the best released from the first couple of months of this year:
“Following the release of her debut album, Stay Alive (2020) and the At War With The Silverfish EP (2021), Emmy-nominated artist, author, musician, activist and Against Me! founder/songwriter, Laura Jane Grace, returns with Hole In My Head - her beautiful new album featuring eleven tracks that showcase her undeniable power as a songwriter and storyteller. The album features her most personal and emotionally gripping songs of her career - stripped down masterpieces like “Dysphoria Hoodie” paired with blistering distorted anthems like “Hole In My Head” and “Birds Talk Too,” tracks that demand the listener’s attention with an immediacy and urgency unlike anything Grace has written before”.
I will come to 23rd February’s albums soon enough. First, there is one more from 16th February. Paloma Faith’s The Glorification of Sadness is a tremendous album that sees Faith producing. One that is obviously very personal and meaningful to her, you will not want to miss out on it. Go and pre-order this stunning work. It sounds like it is going to be a hugely moving and remarkably affecting album. One from an essential and much-loved artist:
“The Glorification of Sadness is more than an album about relationships. The celebration of finding your way back after leaving a long term relationship, being empowered even in your failures and taking responsibility for your own happiness. It is Paloma's most personal album to date, drawing on her own experiences with Paloma acting as the anchor to direct a deeply personal narrative and album. This is the first new music from Paloma since the release of her fifth studio album Infinite Things in November 2020 and is the first time in her career where she has executively produced a record”.
There are a few albums from 23rd February that you need to check out. Allie X’s Girl with No Face is one that you will definitely want to pre-order. An artist that I have known about for a while but maybe not followed as closely as I should, Girl with No Face sounds like it is shaping up to be a wonderful album. One that I would recommend people investigate:
“Girl With No Face: Allie X’s fourth album, Girl With No Face, is a daring excavation of her identity. A maniacal journey into the mind of an artist who just spent three years in isolation, refusing any input as she became the solitary producer, writer and creative voice for the first time in her career. “This record documents an intense struggle for power and control – creatively, professionally, mentally and physically,” X explains. Inspired by the technology and hedonism of the early 80’s new wave scene, the album’s analog-leaning songs are a series of stark contradictions – retro in feel but ultra-modern in subject matter, pointed, unpredictable yet danceable, approachable while delightfully menacing. In short, Girl with No Face is completely orthogonal to the hyper-tuned, automated shapes that dominate today’s alt pop. “Instead of following any trends, I just wanted to indulge myself in all my favourite stuff this time. I wanted limitations. No plug-ins. I chose a bass synth, drum machine, string machine and embraced the shortcomings and grittiness of this old temperamental equipment. The result was something that felt messy, raw, and direct, which was really exciting to me.” Infused with early 80’s British experimentalism, with nods to The Human League and New Order, the album is a strident move away from 2020’s introspective and spare Cape God -- so much faster, more threatening. It’s not difficult to envision an industrial booted and black-eyed 80s subculture mouthing the German verses of “Weird World” and thrashing about to the relentless pulsing bass. Self-deprecation and the driest of wits lighten the aggressive mood of the record, especially in songs like You Slept on Me (a musical manifestation of the age-old tweet ‘Stop sleeping on Allie X!’) and Off With Her Tits (an upbeat satirization of some of Allie X’s more unsettling thoughts). Her signature deranged Disney-princess pop sensibility still manages to weave its way into most songs . “I always need a bit of camp,” says X, “it counterbalances the dark thoughts in a necessary way.” In the end, the multi-platinum songwriter enlisted the help of Justin Meldal Johnsen (Beck, M83, Wolf Alice). “The best comparison I can make is intentionally locking yourself in a room and sitting in front of a mirror staring at yourself. When everything is refracted through your lens you get high on the sense of power and control. But as you get to know yourself intimately, you see your own ugliness, your limitations, your pain. It’s terrifying and enlightening all at once. A total ego fuck.” - Allie X”.
The penultimate album you will want to get is Laetitia Sadier’s Rooting for Love. Go and pre-order the album. It sounds like it is going to be among this year’s most arresting and fascinating albums. I am definitely interesting in seeing what Rooting for Love has to offer. Laetitia Sadier is a truly captivating artist whose music always resonates and makes a massive impression:
“Over the course of her career, spanning three-plus decades, Laetitia Sadier has never shied away from the hard topics, or stopped advocating for the possibility of self determination and emancipation in the face of the powers that be, conscious or unconscious. This is an essential part of the foundation she co-built with Stereolab, showcasing her spiritual, scientific and sociopolitical inquiries. She’s continued this process with Monade and under her own name and as a writer/singer/and musician whose every album acts as a report on her journey of the self through time, space and the collective.
On Rooting For Love, the report is set alight by the heat of a turbulent world, collapsing institutions and Laetitia’s fully engaged process of expression as well as orchestration. The opening number, “Who + What” elucidates the central issue of the album: a call for a collective striving for Gnosis – an inquisitive outlook that will lend clues to the traumatised civilisations of Earth, allowing us to evolve away from millennia of alienation and suffering and towards the achievability of healing. The musical arrangements help to embody the layers of the issue, as with “Who + What”’s combination of organ, synths, guitar, bass, trombone, drum programming, vibraphone and zither, all working along intricate paths of chord and tempo changes. Leading from the inside is the implacable presence of Laetitia Sadier, herself interacting with a vocal assembly of men and women billed as The Choir. The regular reappearance of The Choir throughout Rooting For Love is a reminder of this music being one of a people in critical mass, in addition to an evolution that continues to deepen the rich harmonic fields in which Laetitia plays.
Whether drawing inspiration from Zen Shiastu training, or the lyrics of Véronique Vincent, (lyricist and singer for Aksak Maboul, and once upon a time, lead singer of the Honeymoon Killers), Laetitia faces the truth without flinching. The shadows, whatever stuff they are made of - individual and collective, present and ancestral - need to be recognized and acknowledged, because the more we heal within ourselves, the more undivided we become in the face of looming Neo-fascist/Neoliberal narratives polluting the inner and outer landscapes.
Alongside of her collaboration with Modern Cosmology, last year’s incredible What Will You Grow Now?, as well as her continued tours with a reformed Stereolab, Rooting For Love finds Laetitia back in the world, once again urging all our grounded inner alignment and heart power to make us better equipped for creating what’s to come”.
The final album that you need to pre-order is my favourite from February. Nadine Shah’s Filthy Underneath is one I will definitely be ordering. The first single from the album, Topless Mother, was my favourite song from last year. An artist whose music I hold infinite love for, I am excited to get a copy of Filthy Underneath. I would also urge everyone else to go and pre-order an album that will sit alongside the very best of this year:
“Nadine Shah releases her fifth album - Filthy Underneath on EMI North. The follow up to 2020's critically acclaimed Kitchen Sink and 2017's Mercury Prize nominated Holiday Destination.
Filthy Underneath chronicles a period of unprecedented turbulence in Nadine Shah’s life. And yet, the experience of listening to it is oddly life-affirming – a parade of ghosts spanning the entirety of Nadine’s thirty-seven years, moving with balletic beauty to the music that Nadine and long-time co-writer and producer Ben Hillier have created around them, with renewed emphasis on placing melody and movement front and centre”.
Those are the albums from next month that I think you will want to invest in. Some terrific selections including a big release from Jennifer Lopez, plus essential albums from IDLES and Nadine Shah. A busy and splendid month for music, there is plenty if choice for every music lover! I hope that there is something above that takes your fancy. I am really looking forward to hearing some of February’s very best. There is no doubt that it shaping up to be an…
INCREDIBLE month.