SINGLES
BIG JOANIE - Happier Still (Kill Rock Stars)
by Tim London
Guitar solo of the week. Fill your heart with joy. Starts with the chorus, ends with electronic hum. Speeds up, slows down. Drummer plays standing up. No vikings going on about hate and grroar. Fucking ace.
CHRISTINA AGUILERA - Cuando Me Dé la Gana (Sony Records)
by Tim London
Sexy pop star makes old man friendly world music track in a noisy, virtual taverna, somewhere on a film set in Hollywood. The singing is absolutely ripped out and the guitars would do a Wim Wenders American film soundtrack justice. ‘Wooooiw!’ as one comment on Youtube has it. Yes, really.
SUEDE - 'She Still Leads Me On' (BMG)
by Jay Lewis
After the gothic grandeur of their last album ('The Blue Hour' - 2018), Suede have promised that their forthcoming 'Autofiction' will be a 'back to basics' affair. According to singer Brett Anderson it's their 'punk record... the five of us in a room, all the glitches and fuck ups revealed.'
Of course, late career bombast and well sculpted press quotes should be treated with a huge amount of scepticism, but Suede really have made their most unvarnished and direct record in quite some time. 'She Still Leads Me On' is a delightful taster of what to expect. A poignant tribute to Anderson's late mother but delivered with that mix of big hearted sincerity and inescapable swagger that he does so very well. A very welcome return to Suedeworld.
BRYDE - Algorithms (Easy Life)
by Jay Lewis
Imagine a popsmart Laura Marling fronting The National when they're at their anthemic best, and you have an impression of how captivating this record is.
Bryde (Sarah Howells to her family), is an award-winning singer-songwriter from Wales (her debut was shortlisted for the Welsh Music Prize), and Algorithms is filled with beguiling and burning imagery that - along with the profound video, will stay with you. A fabulous record.
SIERRA FERRELL - Give It Time (Rounder)
by Ancient Champion
Hearing Sierra Ferrell so often sounds like you've tuned into an AM station while heading along some misbegotten highway. Beautifully rendered and there's the danger, an arcane by design country piece. She has the sound of one of those country singers getting their start in a Nashville parking lot on the backs of their aging F150s. Ferrell is in the UK on tour right now, but possibly mainly sold out I think. Sierra Ferrell is not to be missed.
JUNGLE - Good Times/Problemz (Jungle4eva)
by Tim London
I defy you to watch this and not fall in love with the youngest generation of young adults. There’s something very super-modern about Jungle’s consistently jolly, heart warming Soul Train/Benniton promotional videos and tunes. No war. Only love and fun.
SARAH KLANG - Belly Shots (Pangur Records)
by Jay Lewis
Klang's first new material since her post-pandemic re-evaluation ('Virgo' - 2021), is a country-tinged comedown, a confessional tale following a rather intimate drinking session. It's also rather tender, reflective, and lovely.
Gothenburg-born Klang won the Swedish equivalent of a Grammy (they're called Grammis!) for her debut album ('Love In The Milky Way, 2018) and has gone on to describe herself as 'The Saddest Girl in Sweden' which is possibly too self-critical, reflective? unflinchingly honest? Yes. Instead, just think of a more contemplative Katy J Pearson and you'll understand what a very rare find Klang is.
DEEP THROAT CHOIR - 3AM (Bella Union)
by Tim London
I like a choir. Disappointingly, the choir here seems to be the lead singer, tracked and sampled. Or perhaps she has lots of sisters. Just checked. She has! Around 25 of them. It IS a choir. Silly me. And a pox on modern production. Or is it, that they just sound so alike… Very London, where people are indistinguishable, in their neat trainers and snow white trackies on their way to a job in a literary agency. Now I’m getting sniffy.
YOUNG MAN IN A HURRY - Water Wave Emoji (Coach House Records)
by Lee Paul
Young Man in a Hurry (and a cast of stars it has to be said) that I can't be bothered to list. Oh all right (Macie Stewart, Ben LaMar Gay, Emma Hospelhorn, Tim Daisy, Teddy Rankin-Parker & Nick Harris & Matthew Lee Baron and Matthew Boulton-College) This is a brilliant piece of ambience. But most brilliant the reverb swamped trumpet. Then again, how would that be on it's own? Water Wave Emoji pulses, is indicative, embraces and reflects our culture, this time, in ways that you have yet to hear. Sensational really. Lay back and wonder. I wonder what they look like.
ALISA AMADOR - Timing (Youtube)
by Ancient Champion
Alisa Amador 'won' the coveted Tiny Desk thing and is it any wonder. There is a clip of her forthcoming Tiny Desk performance where she double times on the guitar while the guitarist plays a few keyboard notes. There is just gorgeous warmth in her lyrical songwriting, a gaiety. A Sound of Positivity when unsure as we can be. Timing is authentically genuinely written in that classic songwriting mode in a Tilbrook and Difford mode... Hope she can make it to the UK soon. If it helps, good exchange rate now.
Other Materials
PAVEMENT - Harness Your Hopes (Domino)
by LamontPaul
"Show me a word that rhymes with Pavement and I will kill your parents and roast them on a spit." California country boys with time on their hands. Carry on as they did before. Get old. Why the open mics are full of people covering Nirvana when, if only the surface was scratched.
SEX PISTOLS - God Save The Queen (Warner)
by LamontPaul
Sure enough, here it is. I wasn't going to bother with this, this weekend, but... Then I needed it for an editorial piece and having not listened to it in an age, found it sounding pretty brilliant. Then I read Afua Hirsch in the newspaper about being invited onto to TV for as a seriously puerile debate stooge and considered the continuing establishment bigotry and here it is. Wondered how far we haven't come. And with all that the Sex Pistols sound really wonderful and five minutes old, not nearly the 50 years old as I feel or whatever, 60. It's a fresh record this weekend.
ESSENTIAL INFO
Main Image: Big Joanie from by Sam Keeler
