Ballad

Today’s Track: Nils Frahm – “O I End”

April 13, 2021 — Leave a comment

The bold Hamburgian Piano virtuoso who is anti-NFT and All Melody. New post time!

  • Pictured: Nils Frahm (in 2015) (Photo Credit: Joseph Okpako/Redferns/Pitchfork.com)

Good Morning to you – I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up on the blog for your track of the day, as per usual, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A German composer who has gained wide critical acclaim and sizable global success since the mid-2010’s, Nils Frahm is known for combining sensibilities of electronic music and ambient Jazz with his distinct slice of self-composed Contemporary Classical music. His elaborate set-up kit of a grand piano, an upright piano, Roland Juno-60, Rhodes piano, drum machines and a Moog Taurus synth are the tools at his disposal to help him convey emotions and thoughts through his brand of mostly improvised work. He’s hugely prolific, with close ties to similarly inventive modern composers like Ólafur Arnalds, Anne Müller and F.S. Blumn, through frequent collaborations. He also performs with Frederic Gmeiner and Sebastien Singwald as Nonkeen. If I had to flip a coin, it would probably land on ‘All Melody’ as being my personal favourite album of his, and I’ve been an avid follower of Frahm’s recordings for the last four or five years. ‘O I End’ turned out to be a teaser single for ‘Graz’, an album which Frahm recorded in 2009 that never saw the light of day until this point. He ‘surprise dropped’ the nine-track recording in appreciation of World Piano Day on March 29, and you can also put your name down to pre-order the vinyl release of ‘Graz’ due on May 21st via Erased Tapes, and it was mixed by Thomas Geiger. Let your anxieties dissipate with ‘O I End’ below.

A fun fact about ‘World Piano Day’ is that actually happens specifically on the 88th day of the year – and that has been determined to represent the 88 total keys on a Piano. In a press statement on the belated release of ‘Graz’, Nils Frahm had an ambiguous comment to make, and all he had to say was this: “Sometimes, when you hear a Piano, you might think it’s a conversation between a man and a woman”, continuing, “At the same time, it can hint at the shapes of the universe, and describe how a black hole looks”, concluding, “You can make sounds that have no relation to anything we can measure”, in his gently philosophical musings. He’s also been in the news lately for his stance against the digital art format of the NFT which is generating a lot of buzz in the business, saying “Some of my heroes like Aphex Twin are selling, sorry, crap for 130,000 bucks… It’s unforgivable to participate in something which is so bleak and so wrong” in his take on the popular digital format, which he seems to feel is much more of a fad, although I still can’t get my head around what the platform even is. In any case, these comments were a reminder to me on what Nils Frahm is all about. What keeps us coming back to his work is the sense that, in the emotive qualities of his practices, he has an artistic gift of composing music that gives me the feeling of time slowly dissipating, and the more superficial worries of the world becoming much less important through these subtle melodies. It’s a staple from his old bag of tricks that he manages to pull off, once again, on ‘O I End’, a track which sounds contemplative and downbeat. While direct contextual meanings are open to interpretations based on your own feelings and daydreams when you listen to the track, it gives me a feeling of looking back on the fragmented memories of my life. Paired with the rather dark track title of ‘O I End’, it makes me imagine an elderly character reflecting on his life while playing an improvised sequence alone at a piano. The rhythms are deep and soulful, as the washing waves of rolling Piano melodies calmly ease their way from one moment through to the next. The downtempo keys feel isolated, but schooled in a vintage Classical music training that also meets the spontaneity of instrumental Jazz music. It’s gentle, but raw enough to make you feel as though you may be intruding on a more personal experience of the auteur’s soul. It doesn’t really “go anywhere” in the traditional sense, but you could argue that it just doesn’t need to. This is just a well-paced, but soothing and still, moment of reflection.

  • Pictured: Nils Frahm in Berlin, Germany (2018) (Photo by Mustafah Abdulaziz/The New York Times)

There’s my musical musing for the day – but please don’t forget to check back with me here tomorrow, for a new entry in our weekly ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ feature where we throw back to the sounds of the past that have influenced the recognizable sounds of the present – or sometimes look back at old rarities that are simply a bit bonkers. The mood strikes me for tomorrow for a flash back to an early recording from a Welsh rock band who are colloquially known as “The Manics” and were a key figurehead of the Welsh Cool Cymru cultural movement in the 1990’s. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Lucy Dacus – “Thumbs”

April 12, 2021 — 1 Comment

Anyone up for a game of Heads Down, Thumbs Up? I didn’t think so. New post time!

  • Pictured: Lucy Dacus in 2016 (Photo by Shelley Hiam/TheAustinChronicle.com)

Good Afternoon to you – My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s now time for me, yet again, to get typing up here for your daily track on the blog, as per usual, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Well, I survived the two-night binge watch and if there’s any other sleepyheads out there on this Monday, I’ve got a chilled out and stripped back track to share with you, although it’s none the less more haunting and intimate for that. ‘Thumbs’ is the latest that we’ve heard from the Virginia-born indie folk singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus, who was a founding member of the Boygenius trio with Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker, but she has released two of her own solo albums. ‘Thumbs’ is a track which has been a fan-favourite ever since she started performing it in 2018, and she’s finally released a studio edit of the piece via her Twitter account – along with a teaser for a new solo LP, which she’s been hyping up to her fans by randomly gifting a selection of 100 VHS tapes of this track to them. In Willy Wonka fashion, you could say that it’s the golden ticket of American indie rock music in 2021. She says the track was written about an experience that her friend at college went through in a meeting with their estranged father, and it follows 2018’s well-received ‘Historian’ album. Let’s check it out below.

The downplayed instrumentals and the subdued sound may take you by surprise, but each line of the recent single seems to be deeply responsible for bringing out a visceral emotional reaction for Dacus, who tells us that she wrote it in roughly 15 minutes during a car ride to a restaurant, saying: “Like most songs I write, I wasn’t expecting it. It made me feel weird, almost sick” in her new press release for the promotional tune. When you listen to the synth undertones below the ethereal lyrics, the story of a strange family reunion comes through very clearly as the sparse backing beats and the somber, not sullied vocals are very much left, right, front and center of the mix. Lyrics like “You hung up the phone, And I asked you what was wrong, your Dad has come to town” and “So we meet him at the bar, you were holding my hand hard” set up the angry moods of the scene. Instrumentally, flickering keyboard sounds and subtle minimalism make up the melody. Although it seems our narrator wants to form a closer bond with the father figure, there’s always something weird and “off” about the encounter, a sense of an awkward past getting the better of the situation. Lyrics like “He ordered Rum and Coke, I can’t have either anymore” and “Do you get the checks I send you on my birthday?” sell this internalized struggle as much, with the raw melancholy of “I would kill him, quick and easy” particularly raising eyebrows. It’s not all doom and gloom though, with lyrics like “I love your eyes, and he has them, but you have his” and “When we leave, You feel him watching, So we walk a mile in the wrong direction” talking about biology and blood bonds. “I don’t know how you keep smiling” also comments on the act of fake happiness and “putting on a smile”, while the finale of “You two are connected by a pure coincidence” and “You don’t owe him s**t even if he said you did” closing the door on this reconnecting. The narrative becomes real through the devastating details, and the impressively written track went well beyond my expectations. Dacus’ has a gift in this anecdotal style of storytelling, where the small specifies are more important in conveying the story than a clear-cut pop structure. A rough listen – but beautiful stuff.

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “Thumbs” (Single) (Released on March 9th, 2021) (via Matador Records)

That’s all for today – After two weekends of festive-themed posts based on Easter and WrestleMania 37, it’s time to go back to the comfort of our usual routine this week. I’ve got some more material for you tomorrow, that comes courtesy of a modern icon in contemporary Classical music. This German composer and record producer is based in Berlin, and he is known for uniquely combining classical and electronic music, with an elaborate set up kit that includes a Rhodes Piano, an upright Piano, a Grand Piano, a Roland Juno-60, drum machines and a Moog Taurus synthesizer, working closely with Olafur Arnalds over the years. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

WWE WrestleMania 37 Weekend Special: Peter Gabriel – “Big Time”

April 10, 2021 — 1 Comment

If the Big Ben clock tower fell on your head, it would hurt. Big Time. New post time!

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “So” (Album/LP) (Released on 19th May, 1986) (via Charisma Records)

Good Morning to you – I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Another year in lockdown has past – and so WrestleMania is “Back In Business” as their marketing tagline tells us. A two-night extravaganza of the ONE TRUE sport gives me perfect reasoning for a two-night spread of wrestling-themed posts on the blog for your entertainment and leisure, and so we start off with WOMAD’s Peter Gabriel with ‘Big Time’ – taken off his fifth album ‘So’ – released in 1986. The track was used as the theme song and marketing slogan of WrestleMania 22 in 2006, which saw John Cena defeat Triple H to win the WWE Championship in the main event. Elsewhere on the card, Rey Mysterio went over Randy Orton and Kurt Angle in a Triple Threat match to begin his first WWE World Heavyweight title run following the tragic death of Eddie Guerrero. The classic Hardcore match which saw Edge famously beat Mick Foley took place, The Boogeyman was booked to go over Booker T & Sharmell in Handicap action, and The Undertaker beat Mark Henry in a Casket Match to keep his then-Streak going. ‘Big Time’ was Gabriel’s second top-ten single on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #8, and it reached #13 on the UK Singles Chart. Let’s revisit the official music video below.

This year’s WrestleMania is the 37th annual incarnation of the PPV event, and it takes place at the same site where it was supposed to be held last year before the COVID-19 pandemic tore those plans in half – and that venue is the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. As a result, this is the first time that any WWE programming for the last year will be taking place with a paying live audience in attendance, although to a limited capacity of around 25,000 fans. Tonight will see Sasha Banks defend her WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship against this year’s Women’s Royal Rumble winner Bianca Belair in the headline spot. Bobby Lashley (c) vs. Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship is also scheduled to happen tonight, along with celebrity Latin hip-hop star Bad Bunny finally putting some in-ring training to good use by battling The Miz & John Morrison with Damien Priest as his partner. Seth Rollins vs. Cesaro, and a Women’s Tag Team Turmoil match to earn a shot at the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles on night two makes up the undercard. Back to the matter at hand – ‘Big Time’ was an Art-Pop crossover success that told a narrative about a man from a small town with big dreams of achieving fame, and he grows to become larger-than-life. Paired with percussive bass guitar sounds and Funk-inspired rhythm guitar licks, Gabriel croons lines like “I’ve been stretching my mouth/To let those big words come right out” and “I’ll be a big noise with all the big boys” that form a satirical study on the basic human urge of success. It grows deeper on the chorus contextually, where lines like “I’m on my way, I’m making it” and “So much larger than life, I’m going to watch it growing” are paired with a triumphant female backing vocal and some off-kilter Organ segments. As the track progresses, the theme grows more mildly psychotic, as Gabriel’s voice becomes more highly processed and the groovy bassline gets more frantic, with drum beats that get slightly more rough-edged. This can be read as a social commentary of the economic consumerist boom enjoyed by those who had not been affected detrimentally by the policies of Margaret Thatcher, with a self-referential style of songwriting that gives lines like “When I show them to my house, to my bed/I had it made like a mountain range/With a snow-white pillow for my big fat had” an irreverent sense of humor. Overall, I rather quite like this. Groovy and full of instrumentally boastful attitude, it manages to sound mainstream enough without losing it’s artistic concepts. A ‘Big Time’ 80’s treat for those Synth-loving ears.

  • Pictured: Peter Gabriel performing in 1996 (Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns/RollingStone.com)

That’s all for today – but don’t forget to set a reminder on your phone to tell you that I’ve got more pro wrestling-themed content on the way to your eyes and ears tomorrow, for the second entry in this year’s two-night spread of new posts inspired by the ‘Showcase Of The Immortals’ that is WWE’s WrestleMania. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Way Back Wednesdays: U2 – “Sunday Bloody Sunday”

April 7, 2021 — Leave a comment

What do you say to Bono when he gives you flowers? I love U2. Time for a new post…

  • Pictured: Bono (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar/Percussion), The Edge (Lead Guitar/Synths/Backing Vocals), Adam Clayton (Bass Guitar/Keyboard) & Larrry Mullen Jr. (Drums) (2020) (Photo by Olaf Heine)

Good Morning to you – My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for our weekly throw back to one of the seminal sounds of the past that have influenced those of the present, and possibly the future to come, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to get writing up about a different piece of music every day! One of U2’s most outright political Rock tunes, ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’, released as the opening track and the third single from 1983’s ‘War’, their third studio album, it was largely notable for it’s connotations to Easter Sunday in it’s ending of the lyrics. Along with being well-received by critics and fans alike, this is a track which helped to propel U2 to reach a wider listening audience, and it became one of their most-performed and best-known tracks in the process. U2 are obviously mega-famous now, but, at the time, the two gut-punch of this track, along with ‘New Year’s Day’, made for a solid introduction to the Dublin rockers before the stardom set in. Although creating some controversy, the real subject matter of the track is the ‘Bloody Sunday’ incident of 1972 in Derry where British troops shot and killed unarmed civil rights protesters. Although a music video wasn’t shot, the 4-piece settled on this live performance to promote the tune instead.

Rolling Stone once declared ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ on their poll of ‘The 500 Greatest Songs of All-Time’ and, since it’s doing-the-rounds of the 80’s, it has been covered by over a dozen of different artists before – with the bunch including Lance Angelus, Electric Hellfire Club and Evergreen Terrace, to name just a few. Known for it’s vaguely militaristic drum beats, it’s melodic harmonies and it’s abrasive guitar sequences, the lyrics were written from the perspective of a third-person observer of ‘The Troubles’ period in Northern Ireland. Lines like “Broken bottles under children’s feet” and “Bodies strewn across the dead-end street” describe the violent aftermath of a pointless oppression, and lines such as “There’s many lost, but tell me who has won” and “When fact is fiction and TV reality” protest against the forthright and intentional damage of the tragic world situations that inspired it. The guitar riffs have a brittle feel to them, and the two-step drum beat introduces some ambiguity, yet the chorus is accessible and catchy fare. Along with the blame in refusing to accept violence as a resolution to political problems, the track speaks specifically about the hope of the Irish Easter Sunday uprising, with “The real battle just begun, To claim the victory that Jesus won” closing the track as a final repeat of the chorus is given some fresh context. Nods to human nature (“The trenches dug within our hearts”) and the role that it plays in resistance are here, while the addition of a String section towards the end (famously added by Irish Violinist Steve Wickham, who approached ‘The Edge’ at a ‘chance meeting’ at a bus stop) helps to give the track a nod towards classical Irish folk music. Overall, while there’s no denying that ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ is now a pretty ‘radio-friendly’ track by any means, it’s sometimes important to remind ourselves that these sounds are beloved, and that these kinds of artists – like U2 – have had so many hits coming off the back of it’s recognition. Enriched by core cultural messages, ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ still manages to pull it off to this day.

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “War” (LP) (Released on 28th February, 1983) (via Island Records)

That’s all for today – Thanks again for embarking on my weekly ‘Time Machine’ trip to the history of music with me. I’ll be back tomorrow, as always, where you can join me again to see how the first new single from The Offspring in nearly a decade has shaken out… I’m actually looking forward to that quite a bit now.  If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Easter Monday 2021 Special: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – “Jesus Alone” (2016)

April 5, 2021 — Leave a comment

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for 30 years – this guy is a big deal. New post time!

  • Pictured: Poster for ‘20,000 Days On Earth’ (Dir. Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard) (2014) (Drafthouse Films)

Good Morning to you – It’s Jacob Braybrooke, I’ve got my morning Cappuccino coffee on the side, and that means that it’s also time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Wishing you a nice Bank Holiday Monday with another Easter-themed post from a music legend, albeit more loosely than yesterday. A more contemporary track, ‘Jesus Alone’, was the lead single from Australian Garage-Rock icon Nick Cave, for his sixteenth studio album with The Bad Seeds, entitled ‘Skeleton Tree’. The elevator pitch for that record probably sounded a lot like “Cave has always played with Death – and now he confronts it”, with the album being written and recorded about the heartbreaking death of his son. The album earned some absolutely rave reviews, heralded by his fans as a masterpiece of grief and loss. I can’t claim to have fully listened to, or even understood, everything that Cave has released. However, I know that he truly is a fascinating artist and that he’s one of those rare talents that are impossible to imitate – and so I have a lot of respect for the cultural icon. The album was released alongside a documentary film, ‘One More Time with Feeling’, a pseudo-sequel to 2014’s ‘20,000 Days On Earth’, which combined interviews and videos of Cave making the album. Let’s check out ‘Jesus Alone’ below.

‘Skeleton Tree’ was recorded over 18 months and saw Nick Cave experiment with Synth technology, which was a style of production that Cave had always shied away from prior, with the Avant-Garde music techniques and unconventional structures of songwriting leading Cave to say, “What happens when an event occurs that is so catastrophic that you just change”, on the accidental cliff fall of his 15-year-old son, Arthur. It makes for some gut-wrenching subject matter, and I’ve said that Easter is a loose theme for it’s opening track because it has something of a dual meaning, with Cave juxtaposing a call of goodbye to his Son, with a call for forgiveness and closure to God. Over the top of dissonant drum machine loops and synth-oriented rhythms, Cave cries out “You fell from the Sky, crash-landed in a field near the River” above the rumbling of the bass. It makes for a graphic image, with a tense and eerie atmosphere which draws from the cinematic and the expansive. The repeating bridge of “With my voice, I am calling you” sees a taut Piano melody enter the fray, with the instrumentation sounding fittingly fractured and broken in it’s off-kilter sensibilities. Lines like “You believe in God, but you get no special dispensation for this belief now” and “You’re a distant memory in the mind of your creator” see Cave move slowly towards a religious plea for help, although he’s hesitant to accept God as his savior because he simply wonders why his son was taken by Death, and not him. The ending, however, see Cave grow slowly, but progressively, into a more impassioned voice-over. “Let us sit together, until the moment comes” seems to be the cue point for this, as swelling Orchestral sections and Baritone musings represent a slow change in instrumentation and an all-important change of tone in the process. Overall, it’s probably not for everybody – with the delivery being a methodical and slowly revealing affair, and the subject matter hitting close to home. However, that makes it seem all the more urgent and all the more intimate, with the songwriting feeling deeply personal for Cave. Yet, we’ve all had the times when we’ve suffered loss, and it’s something that feels very distant for us to talk about, and we often deal with it ourselves and in our own ways. Therefore, Cave’s musing becomes a ghostly and beautiful affair, with the chilling and ethereal sound making for an otherworldly listen. Very personal, yet easy to connect with. You know – It’s simply just really good.

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “Skeleton Tree” (LP) (Released on 9 September, 2016) (via Bad Seed Ltd.)
  • Pictured: Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave playing on the Pyramid stage on day five of Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 30, 2019 in Glastonbury, England (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

That’s all for now – run along and enjoy your day off work. I’ll be back tomorrow with an in-depth look at some recent music from a Prog-Rock collective of youngsters who have already released one of the most highly anticipated albums of the year, earning praise on their way to stardom from publications like The Quietus, The New York Times, and The Guardian, often being compared to the 90’s act Slint. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Alice Phoebe Lou – “Dusk”

March 30, 2021 — Leave a comment

I was wondering what the opposite of “Dusk” was – It dawned on me. New post time!

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Glow” (LP) (Released on March 19th, 2021) (via Self-Released)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s finally time again for me to get typing up for your track of the day on the blog, since it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! One of my latest discoveries is Alice Phoebe Lou – an originally South African singer-songwriter who is now based in Berlin, Germany. Lou was included on the shortlist of nominations for the ‘Best Original Song’ award at the Oscars in 2017, when her track ‘She’ from the biopic drama film ‘Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story’ broke out. Since 2019, she has also remained active in her side project – Strongboi. She’s new to me, but she’s been around for a little while – and so far, she has released three studio albums and three EP’s. Love has always been a topic that she’s willingly shied away from, until now. Her latest LP – ‘Glow’ – was self-released on March 19th, a collection of mellow tracks that compares and contrasts her experiences of romance and relationships. She describes the record as a “crooner” and “Mostly love songs, sprinkled with a Punk/Grunge number here and there” and that, when writing the album, she “realised that instead of making people think, I wanted to simply make people feel” that she posted on her website, and she self-directed the video for ‘Dusk’ on a retro VHS. Check it out below.

‘Dirty Mouth’ is another solid single from the album, and I contemplated writing about that track as well. However, I’ve ultimately decided to write about ‘Dusk’ since the coin would probably land on that cut if I flipped one, in being my favourite track from the new 12-track project. As you could tell from the music video – it’s very raw, unedited and not very polished, intentionally. Love is intense, but it doesn’t always work out perfectly either. Lou wrote of the track: ” I spent more time alone than I ever had”, “I shaved my head. Had an Ego death. Fell in love. Had my heart broken. I was a raw little mess. And that was what I wrote about” in her press release. An ode to a friendship that is slowly blossoming into something more, ‘Dusk’ feels laidback and easy-going. Honeyed production and sultry vocals are the key qualities of the scene, with lyrics like “She told me she gets lonely, When the sky changes from day to night” and “That’s when her Demons come say ‘Hey’/Dusk is always harder for my baby” dancing atop a shuffling drum beat and a playful, progressive Jazz melody filled with subtle Horn sections, and a less restrained Saxophone solo near the end. A steady rhythm paves the way for the main hook, where Lou croons “The world, The whole wide world/But the world don’t matter, When we’re looking at each other” as the electric keys give it a lightly catchy edge. Befitting it’s recording process, vinyl crackles make the production seem late-night and lounge-like. I think the track would really resonate with listeners who may usually go out dating, but have been trapped inside due to the pandemic, and left to their devices to reminisce about the trials and errors of their past. It feels romantic, yet in a day-dream sense of a mild, harmless fantasy. I really enjoy her voice too because it sounds distinctive and a little unusual – this gives her a sense of unique identity. Overall, this is a solid track that personifies the saying of ‘Simple, But Effective’ for me. I can certainly see the appeal of her, and I can’t really think of any flaws I had with it. Soulful and sweet, it’s coming from an intimate space.

  • Pictured: Alice Phoebe Lou performing at Rudolstadt Festival (2019) (Photo via WikiMedia Commons)

That’s all I’ve got time for today! We’ll be taking a break away from the new music finds tomorrow, however, for a new entry in our ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ feature which spotlights the seminal tracks that still hold some power today. We’ll be crossing over into Novelty territory this week – as we revisit one of the strangest tracks to ever reach the Top 20 of the UK Singles Chart – back in 1996. It comes from a Northern Irish DJ who has performed under several alias over the years, including his most famous moniker of Yomanda. There’s also Celine Diablo, Subway and Working Class Hero. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: CLAUD – “Guard Down”

February 25, 2021 — Leave a comment

A new ‘Changing Of The Guard” for this young lofi pop superstar. Time for a new post!

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “Super Monster” (Released on February 12, 2021) (via Saddest Factory Records)

Good Afternoon to you – my name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time again for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog since, as always, it’s routinely my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Previously writing and performing their own music under the pen name of ‘Toast’ with the release of their debut EP in 2018, Claud Mintz is a trendy, new bedroom pop indie musician who comes from the suburbs of Chicago, Illonois. The 21-year-old singer-songwriter, who identifies as Non-Binary, has become better known for their vibrant blue-and-green neon dyed haircut (Colours permitting) along with the recent success of their singles ‘Gold’, ‘Soft Spot’ and ‘Cuff Your Jeans’, which were lifted from their debut LP, “Super Monster”, which was released earlier this month on the Phoebe Bridgers-owned record label, Saddest Factory Records. I love the attention that Mintz puts into their cover artworks, with a hand-painted animation style that looks wistful and eye-catching in their coloring palettes, and I’ve been playing a few of their tracks on the radio between the past few weeks. Their latest single is ‘Guard Down”, and it was co-written by Cameron Hale and Mary Weitz. Check out the animated music video below.

That clip was giving me a few shades of Peter, Bjorn & John’s “Young Folks” from 2006, a track that I cherish – by the way. In a recent press release, Claud Mintz spoke further on the emotions behind the track, noting: “When I wrote this song, I had just found out somebody I had feelings for started seeing someone else, and my immediate response was to convince myself I didn’t care, even though I did”, elaborating on it’s production, “The verses and chorus sort-of make fun of how I keep myself closed off, but my rap towards the end of the song is a super honest stream of consciousness”, in their set of notes. Mintz wastes no time to get to the vocals in the track, almost immediately springing: “I haven’t seen you since the summer, We’re getting further from each other” off a psychedelic drum loop and a few guitar licks, before the melodies take a pop-driven shape where Mintz recites lines like “I’ve been staying Chicago, but I’m coming back tomorrow” and “You’re seeing someone, I’m not though/And that feels really awful” as the eclectic backing beat allows some whimsy and fun to burst through the heartbreak, but hopeful, nature of the lyrics. The hook of “Don’t let your guard down” keeps the mood simple, but upbeat. The rap section, where Claud poetically recites similarly lyrics over the top of a distorted vocal effect and a slight tempo decrease, catches me off-guard a little, but it keeps the pace flowing and diversifies the tone a little. The end is more effective, where Mintz is left to croon “Nothing like a New York summer” to their own device – that being a simple acoustic guitar strum. Very much aimed towards a Young Adult audience, I think that Taylor Swift is a fair comparison to make, but I also think you’ll like this if you’re fond of Clairo or Arlo Parks too. It’s not really the most experimental sound, but I think it works nicely. I think that’s because Mintz really writes the track with a ‘human touch’ – it feels warm, sumptuous and comforting, and that makes it tug your heart strings and relate to the subject matter. It’s not the most original sound, but it’s pleasant to listen to, and, for me, that makes it a top-tier 3:26 minutes of heartfelt Pop. It’s lovely.

  • Pictured: Claud Mintz in a recent press shot to promote “Super Monster” (2020) (Photo by ID Magazine)

That’s all folks! Another week is quickly flying past me – but there’s still time to select another pick for the “New Album Release Friday” feature tomorrow. This week’s spotlight is shined on the fairly obvious choice, as we take a deep dive behind the story of a young artist who’s been absolutely hyped to the hills with their new album, which releases tomorrow. Seeing support from KEXP’s Live At Home series and endorsement from Paramore’s Hayley Williams, this 25-year-old Alternative Folk self-producer is known for being a former member of Boygenius in addition to her solo work. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Cut Copy – “Like Breaking Glass”

February 13, 2021 — Leave a comment

Still got a lot to give – or becoming a carbon ‘copy’ of prior greatness? New post time.

  • Pictured: Dan Whitford (Lead Vocals/Keyboard/Rhythm Guitar), Tim Hoey (Samples/Lead Guitar), Ben Browning (Bass Guitar/Occasional Backing Vocals) and Mitchell Scott (Drums) (2020) (via Twitter.com)

Good Morning to you – I am Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s finally time again for me to get typing up on the blog for your daily diary entry of record sifting, because it is routinely my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! As like many of you probably were, I was introduced to Australian Synth-Pop 4-piece Cut Copy by “Zonoscope”, their beloved third LP record that won the awards for “Best Dance Release” and “Artisan Award for Best Cover Art” at the ARIA Awards in 2011, when it was released, although I know their second LP effort, “In Ghost Colours”, also earned critical acclaim and commercial success back in 2008. Their latest album release, “Freeze, Melt” saw the light of day back in August, and this sadly went to my backlog of-sorts after gaining a mixed reception. I’m caught up on this release now, however, and I found it to be interesting. The tracks were written over the span of three years in Denmark by Dan Whitford, and the recent project was conceived to be a departure from Cut Copy’s previous ventures into Psych-Pop and into Ambient music instead, with Whitford claiming the more introspective style of sound to reflect his experience of life in Scandanavia. Check out their single, “Like Breaking Glass”, below.

“In the beginning ‘Like Breaking Glass’ started out as a completely different track”, said Cut Copy’s front-man Dan Whitford on this specific track, who later added, “I never managed to finish it, but when I came back to it the next week there was something about that beat that felt compelling” after Whitford saw himself “mucking around in the studio with just a drum beat and an acid bassline” in the week prior. He wrote the track on top of this melody, and the single was born. It certainly feels different to the pop-oriented percussion of the band’s recent output, with lighter drum melodies and delay effects to the guitar which give proceedings a noticeable difference, with a more textured sound that reflects some of the sounds explored on their earlier material. An established act now, Cut Copy are headed in a fresh direction that, thankfully, doesn’t feel very predictable or formulaic, even if it’s lacking a slight punch of visceral qualities. The soundscape makes me think of Depeche Mode, with Whitford calling lines like “With the light, there is darkness/That runs right through” and “Every violent breath hurts, so I know I’m still in love” above whimsical synth sequences and crashing sets of drum machine beats. The chorus represents the cue point for a choir-like sequence of assorted, light synths to crash through the scene, with Whitford’s vocals of “Every heart beats now, It beats like the sound of breaking glass” splicing these reverb effects into a slick arrangement. The vocals evoke a slight edge of Post-Punk revival music to me, with a low-pitched croon that reminds me of Editors and White Lies. These feel a little at odds with the rather upbeat moods, but they also suit the unsuspected layering of the electronic instrumentation as a whole. While a little short on memorability, my attention was captured by the slight veering into Cut Copy’s past, while the larger emphasis on the songwriting keeps their flair relatively exciting, and, at points, I honestly think this is a very stunning piece of work.

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “Freeze Melt” (LP) (Released on 21st August, 2020) (via Cutters/The Orchard)

That’s all for now – I’ll leave you to enjoy the rest of your weekend in peace and quiet… As if! I’m referring to a new entry of my weekly Scuzz Sundays post making it’s way to the web tomorrow, as per usual, and this week we’re going loosely with the Valentine’s Day theme with a track that feels like an ode to the happy singletons out there! It comes from a fine Finnish gothic rock band who had a successful run during the 1990’s, and they played their final live show on New Year’s Eve in 2017 as a part of their annual Helldone festival. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Frances Forever – “Space Girl”

February 11, 2021 — 2 Comments

Bjork. Natalia Dyer. Anya Taylor-Joy. All of those are out of this world. New post time!

  • Pictured: Frances Garrett in a live performance for WERS 88.9FM (2018) (Photo by Ayo Oladeji)

Good Afternoon to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s back to the drill again as usual for me, because it’s time for another daily music diary post on the blog, and that’s because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A fresh 21-year-old singer-songwriter, Frances Forever isn’t really a group per-say, but is instead the project of Frances Garrett, who is currently based in the Boston area of Massachusetts and identifies as Pansexual, meaning they go by the pronouns of Them and They. They studied at the Clark University in Worcester, and they self-released their debut EP, “Pockets”, in 2018. This has made them a red hot commodity for Mom + Pop Records (Courtney Barnett, Beach Bunny, Orion Sun), who have now signed them up. From what I can understand, “Space Girl” has become something of a viral sensation on the TikTok platform (Sorry, I’m a bit of a noob when it comes to that app), and this has led the track to garner over ten million streams on apps like Spotify and Apple Music, as well as landing a neat place on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative music chart in the US. Take a gander at the tune for yourself below.

There has been no word on an upcoming full-length album release from Garrett to follow up yet, but it’s possible this track’s success may not have even been imagined by it’s creator themselves. That’s because they simply released “Space Girl” as “a cute gay song to help people forget about the real world for a bit”, according to Garrett’s social media pages. Since then, we’ve been treated to a reworking of the single that features Chloe Moriondo as a guest vocalist, and both of these artists seemed to really enjoy working with each other on this. Going back to it’s original form – however – I think that is you’re a fan of artists such as Clairo and Sidney Gish, of the same “Bedroom Pop” ilk of Lo-Fi Rock, as it were, you’ll find a lot to like here – like I did. It’s a refreshing blend of Dream-Pop and Indie Pop, slapped with a cosmic silliness that makes me think of The Orielles. It has a cool vibe, with a soulful lead guitar melody that captures a somewhat Disco aesthetic with a touch of Sci-Fi. The hooks of “Space Girl, show me the stars/You know, the galaxies are my heart” and “Girl, are you a Cancer/Cause you make me cry/When we kiss/Or dance in the sky” play on horoscopes with good observation, and they are delivered with long vocal harmonies that make them feel good-hearted and sincere emotionally. The lyrics also speak to the themes of daydreaming and loving what you cannot have because you’re consumed by fantasy, using the analogies of astronomy and love being a little tragic to an almost performative extent. Garrett invokes this cliche in a way that very gently pokes fun at romantic love songs, but their recognition of these feelings on homosexual youth culture somewhat authenticates it, where refrains like “Space Girl, I saw a lunar eclipse/Looked like how I feel about your lips” are mildly humorous, but they are delivered with a light gentleness that sells an element of truth and deep feelings. The drums are rooted in the DIY aesthetics, with a grounded tone that sits in mid-tempo and the repeated strumming of the rhythm guitar never gets exhausting because it’s matched by the lyrics quite smoothly. Overall, what I really like about this track is that it is a legit LGBT community track, but you might not really know that. Instead of deliberately catering to a market, that element just feels like a part of the narrative instead. The backing band, who are a little restrained, give this a natural feel with the sugar-coated instrumentals, and there’s a slight edge of Dance music to the proceedings too, as a way of keeping it’s repetition fresh. While not sounding totally original, it’s very pleasant. While I”m sort-of crossing my fingers that the masses don’t catch wind of Frances too much so that bigger labels may want to control and dilute the sound, I still feel Frances has a definite aura of coolness. Overall, this is just lovely.

  • Pictured: Frances Garrett in a recent PR shoot (2021) (Photo via Audrey Cannon/Facebook.com)

Thank you very much for checking out the blog today – and your eyes are very much appreciated! Join me again on the adventure of crate-digging discovery tomorrow for a quirky new entry to our “New Album Release Fridays” feature. We’e going to be taking a peak at the fourth studio album to come from a London-based Art-Rock band who met at the Edinburgh College Of Art in 2009, and their track “Waveforms” made it’s way onto the soundtrack of the colossal open-world video game, “Grand Theft Auto V” in 2013. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

New Album Release Friday: Foo Fighters – “Waiting On A War”

February 5, 2021 — Leave a comment

What is Jackie Chan’s favourite Rock band? The Kung-Foo Fighters. It’s new post time!

Pictured: Cover Art for “Medicine At Midnight” (LP) (Released on February 5, 2021) (via RCA Records)

Good Morning to you – Wherever you are. My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! It’s New Release Friday – and this week’s clan of album releases include long-awaited efforts from The Staves and The Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. There’s also ‘Legacy’ from Femi Kuti & Made Kuti (the sons of World music legend Fela Kuti) for the more hardcore listeners. Don’t forget the new outings from The Weather Station and Black Country, New Road too. Meanwhile, this week also sees the release of the tenth LP from a band who – although I generally just hate ‘Mainstream Music’ as it were – I think are too huge and popular for me to blatantly ignore. You’ve probably heard of Foo Fighters before – They’re pretty famous. They only have album sales of over 30 million units and twelve Grammy Award wins, including the nod for “Best Rock Album” four times, after all. The new record, “Medicine At Midnight”, was originally supposed to see the light of day in 2020, but this was one of those albums which were pushed back into 2021 because of the butterfly effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This LP follows the release of 2017’s “Concrete and Gold”, which led the group, led by the former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, to their award for Best International Group at The BRIT Awards in 2018. In what suprised me, through a basic search on Google, the reviews seem to range from fairly mixed to pretty unkind for this release, although I think there’s no question that it will sell very easily to a large audience and it will see, at least, decent success commercially. Let’s check out their latest single – “Waiting On A War” – below.

In a press statement to promote the new album, Grohl explained in his own words that the songwriting style for “Waiting On A War” was influenced by a bizzare conversation with his daughter, writing: “Last fall, I was driving my daughter to school, and she turned to me and asked, ‘Daddy, Is there going to be a war?’. My heart sank as I realized that she was now living under the same dark cloud that I had felt 40 years ago”, and he sat down to write the track that very day. Grohl starts out with a somber tone, as he sings: “I’ve been waiting on a war since I was young, Since I was a little boy with a toy gun” over the top of an acoustic guitar beat, and he strums away with the question of “Is there more to this than that?”. A light String melody pushes to the centre of the next section, where Grohl sings: “Fell in love with a voice on the radio” as the tempo steadily increases. The hook of “Just waiting for a war for this and that” represents the cue point for a more fiery temper, where Grohl repeats the opening verse, before going for a more sweeping chorus of bigger guitar melodies and fast drum beats that truck along to the faster vocals. There’s a sense of anxiety and stress to the rest of the track, as a crescendo of sprawling electric guitars and melodic bass guitars introduce the more stadium-sized sound that Grohl’s long-serving band are known for. The sound feels very established, with Grohl’s voice powerfully commanding the eventual key changes of the track, and bringing the anthemic mood to the table. This aspect of the track is perfectly solid. However, where I can nitpick flaws from this piece are within the lyrics. The rev-up of the guitars sound celebratory rather than anguishing, but the lyrics themselves came across as fairly flat to me. There’s nothing wrong with them, per-say, but they feel rather safe and the tuneage feels lacking in a progression of sound for the band. What I mean to say is that it just seems much like ‘Foo Fighters’, and the rather commercially-driven production of the track just felt strangely impersonal and quite underdeveloped for me, with power-ballad sounds that do the job, but the delivery feels rather pedestrian and unremarkable for me. That said, I felt it has the quality of urgency that it’s title implies and if you’re an existing fan of Foo Fighters, you would probably like how the chugging along of the guitars capture that arena-sized concert vibe you’re likely after. I’d just be hard-pressed to find it converting the more cynical to their cause, that’s all. Overall, I think this one is perfectly “fine” – if unspectacular. It fails to expand the Foo Fighters sound in a way which feels interesting for me, but the masses of Grohl’s fans would probably enjoy the security of it’s safety. Decent, if not their most rejuvenating.

Pictured: Dave Grohl (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar), Pat Smear (Lead Guitar), Nate Mendel (Bass Guitar), Chris Shiflett (Backing Vocals) & Taylor Hawkins (Drums/Percussion) (2015) (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

If you’re a part of Grohl’s legion of fans, you’re probably already a fan of “Monkey Wrench” too. As part of my Scuzz Sunday series of weekly Emo-Rock and Pop-Punk throwbacks from days gone, you can read my thoughts on the defining track here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/10/18/scuzz-sundays-foo-fighters-monkey-wrench/

Pictured: Cover Art for “The Colour and The Shape” (Released on May 20th, 1997) (via Capitol Records)

And – with that – another week has flown by. A new entry into our Scuzz Sundays canon arrives at the same place and time in roughly 48 hours from now. In the meantime, please feel free to join me again tomorrow for an in-depth look at an indie singer-songwriter who gets his second go-around here on the blog. A comedy music performer and storyteller from London – this guy has managed to clock up 26 Glastonbury appearances and he’s taken two successful shows to the valued Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He’s also shared the stage with the likes of Ed Sheeran, Loyle Carner and Billy Bragg. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/