Today’s Track: Courtney Barnett – “Rae Street”

August 21, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Things Take Time, Take Time’ (LP) (Available from November 12, 2021) (via Mom + Pop Records)

Good Morning to you! This is (a sleep deprived) Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up on the blog for another 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! The chances are likely that you’ve already heard about the Sydney-born indie rock singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett – because she is pretty famous, after all. If you haven’t, however, I would recommend checking out some of her backlog when you get the chance because she is rather cool. Her upcoming third solo studio album ‘Things Take Time, Take Time’ has been announced with a release date of November 12th, arriving through Mom + Pop in the US and Marathon Artists internationally. The new release marks a bit of a gap since ‘Tell Me How You Really Feel’ was released in 2018, but she did also work on a collaborative album with Kurt Vile from The War On Drugs, ‘Lotta Sea Lice’, which saw the light of day in 2017. Since bursting on the scene in 2015, Barnett has won the Australian Music Prize and received four wins out of eight nominations at the 2015 ARIA Awards. Barnett also took home the ‘Songwriter Of The Year’ prize at the APRA Music Awards in 2016, and she was nominated for ‘Best International Female Artist’ at the BRIT Awards in 2016. Her new album was created over a two-year period and has been promoted with a cryptic marketing campaign involving past pseudonyms and Barnett-related anagrams. She has been guided by co-producer Stella Mozgawa (The drummer from Warpaint) on this one, and she told KEXP that it is about “a particularly joyful time in her life”. Stroll to ‘Rae Street’ below.

The Vinyl Factory calls the new album “a finely woven collage of snapshots” and notes that it “dives into Barnett’s own psyche to explore love, renewal, healing and self-discovery”, and Barnett herself posted on Genius that “Some songs are letters that are addressed to my friends. Also myself. The entire album shows an exercise in patience”, but she has stayed relatively hush-hush about her proceedings apart from this, which is admirable in an era where, in some cases, most tracks from most albums have already been unveiled in some capacity before the release date is too near. An ode to mundanity and the cycle of modern living, ‘Rae Street’ finds Barnett mixing up her signature style of rambling, sarcastic and witty songwriting with a noticeably Americana or gentle Country influence, and it’s nice to see how her album with Kurt Vile has progressed her own solo style. She largely mumbles refrains like “Time is money, and money is no man’s friend” and “All our candles, hopes and prayers/Though well meaning, they don’t mean a thing” that comment on the unchanging elements of today’s society. There are a few knowing nods to the pandemic, with lyrics like “I’m just waiting for the day to become night” and she subsequently moves on to chatting about everyday tasks like changing the bed sheets and how the repetition of chores render them meaningless in the long term. It feels very conversational and does not place a huge emphasis on producing catchy beats, as Barnett goes for some more grounded guitar licks and a dose of reverb, matched up to some easygoing drums, in the process. You could definitely picture her making a coffee in the morning, and just unloading all of her observations upon you, and this definitely suits her style because she is a naturally likeable protagonist (if you will) to follow, and her mid-tempo delivery of the vocals are deadpan to a point, and this audibly elicited a few decent chuckles out of me because her humor shines through the songwriting. It didn’t shock me in any real way based on her name value alone, but I still thought this was a well-suited comeback. The tune plays to her strengths as a performer, but it still feels like a natural progression of her sound because there is more of a skew towards Country and Folk this time around, but it’s got the same languid and ambling sound that has made Barnett a high-profile name over the last half-decade. Time and money are no man’s friend, but Courtney is ours.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Lotta Sea Lice’ (LP) (with Kurt Vile) (Released in 2017) (via Matador Records)

That brings us to the end of the page for another day, and thank you very much for joining me today, as always. I’ll be back tomorrow for a short and sweet edition of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ where we remember some of the Pop-Punk sounds of the late-90’s through to the mid-00’s in memory of the now-defunct Scuzz TV. This week’s pick aims to be positive, and it comes from one of the biggest guitar bands of the time. This Michigan-based act was a brother and sister duo who rose to prominence in the Garage Rock Revival scene of the early 00’s with numerous notable releases. Their last three albums all scooped up a Grammy Awards win for ‘Best Alternative Music Album’.

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New Album Release Fridays: Villagers – “So Simpatico”

August 20, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for “Fever Dreams” (LP) (Released on August 20th, 2021) (via Domino Recordings)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke and, as per usual, it’s time for me to get typing up on the blog for yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! This is, of course, Friday – so that means a new crop of LP’s are available today via physical and streaming. New offerings from the likes of Lorde, Orla Gartland, Holy Holy, Jake Bugg, Angel Olsen and Deafheaven are making up a reasonably busy week for fresh music. The record that I’m looking forward to hearing, however, is ‘Fever Dreams’, the 5th studio album from Dublin’s indie folk favourites Villagers. I’m not very familiar with this quintet, at all, but I’m rather optimistic for it because of possibly the most old-fashioned reason of all – I really liked the singles, including the 7-minute epic ‘So Simpatico’, which BBC Radio 6 Music seems to have been hammering the life out of during the daytimes. The group will be playing in my nearest city, at The Junction in Cambridge, in October – and they have been known for winning the Choice Music prize in 2010, and scoring a pair of Mercury Prize nominations. ‘Fever Dreams’ was written and recorded over the space of two years, and it was mixed in the studio by David Wrench (The XX, FKA Twigs). The band’s leader, Conor O’Brien, says “I had an urge to write something that was as generous to the listener as it was to myself. Sometimes, the most delirious states can produce the most ecstatic, euphoric and escapist dreams” about the new record, which is performing well with critics. There’s currently an 84/100 score on Metacritic for this release. Check out the sampler below.

‘So Simpatico’ is “a song of devotion, whether to a person, the self, or the art of being” with a “struggle for authenticity is at its core”, according to O’Brien in his newest press release, and the sprawling Folk ballad comes accompanied by a visual narrative video which was directed by Rosie Barrett, which is matches the lush lyrics with a tale about a sad clown that learns to love himself again. A slow-burner with a story about rekindling a zest for life that has become mundane, ‘So Simpatico’ is a sumptuous combination of a Pop song about the essence of love, and a more cinematic affair which takes some Jazz-oriented cues from Kamasi Washington and Curtis Harding. The lyrics start softly, with a romantic set of sequences like “In the garden you’d lie/In the depths of my mind” that repeat throughout the tune with a dream-like nature. There’s some light percussion and organic strings added to the mix when the beat takes flight, with the use of a Glockenspiel and some floating Piano melodies giving the rich textures a deeper intimacy. The second half of the track uses an extended Saxophone solo and a more subdued mood to swell into an honest refrain from O’Brien, who sings, “The more I know” and “The more I care” as the airy sounds and the emotive instrumentation slows the pace down to a relaxing grind. The majority of the lyrics feel very blissful and light-hearted, designed to uplift the audience, but, to me, a few of the lyrical sequences feel a touch more sinister. There’s an eerie sense of discontent to O’Brien’s voice in the slower sections, but it helps to take his little character on more of a journey by the time that his track’s duration is up. A lovely track that never feels like it has dragged on, despite a long running time, ‘So Simpatico’ has some catchy lyrics and a fantastically emotive core that gives its, at times, “mushy”, songwriting some deeper substance. A blissful listen.

Pictured: Conor O’Brien (Lead Vocals), Tommy McLaughlin (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals), Danny Snow (Bass Guitar), Cormac Curran (Keyboard) and James Byrne (Drums) (2013) (Photo by Mark Nixon)

If you enjoyed the calm style of ‘So Simpatico’, there’s a good chance that you might like the other lead single from the band’s new album, which you can revisit on the blog here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/06/03/todays-track-villagers-the-first-day/

Pictured: Villagers in promotional artwork for ‘Becoming A Jackal’ (2010) (Photo by Rich Gilligan)

That brings us to the very end of the page for another 24 hour period! Thank you for getting this far with me, and I’ll be back tomorrow to add a little bit of spice to your Saturday with an in-depth review of some sparkling new music from a rather high-profile name and a critically-acclaimed one at that. This Sydney-born female indie rock singer-songwriter burst onto the scene in 2015, earned a nomination for ‘Best International Female Artist’ at the BRIT Awards in 2016 and released a collaborative album with Kurt Vile in 2017. A new solo album follows this November via Mom + Pop.

Scuzz Sundays: Velvet Revolver – “Slither”

August 15, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Contraband’ (LP) (Released on June 8, 2004) (via NRG and Pulse Recording)

Good Morning to you! You’re reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for a new weekly entry to our ‘Scuzz Sundays’ library, as we revisit some of the powerful Pop-Punk anthems of the past, while keeping in mind that it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A super-group who were active between the years of 2002 and 2008, Velvet Revolver was another one of Slash’s post-Guns ‘N’ Roses projects on paper, yet, the project also seemed to be largely more of a collaboration between Slash and Stone Temple Pilots upon closer inspection, as their line-up featured previous members of both Guns ‘N’ Roses and Stone Temple Pilots, with Wasted Youth’s Dave Kushner as the odd one out. In 2018, vocalist Scott Weiland abruptly left the band to rejoin Stone Temple Pilots, and later in the year, the rest of the band contacted RCA Records, their label, and asked to be released from their contract to allocate themselves “complete freedom to go through whatever process it would take to accomplish” replacing Weiland, but such a goal was never met. It was not entirely clear what caused the split, despite a one-off reunion show with Weiland taking place in 2012. In their time, however, the group initially earned decent praise from critics and their audience alike, notably toured with Alice In Chains, released two full-length albums, and, in 2005, they won the Grammy Award for ‘Best Hard Rock Performance’ with ‘Slither’. Give the trademark tune a spin below.

‘Slither’ was released as the second single from 2004’s ‘Contraband’, Velvet Revolver’s debut album, and it reached the top of both the US Billboard Mainstream Rock and Modern Rock Charts, and it also reached #35 on the UK Singles Chart. The album found similar success, becoming a commercial success for Velvet Revolver by reaching the top spot of the US Billboard 200 chart and eventually being certified as Double Platinum by the RIAA in sales, alongside a score of 65/100 on Metacritic to indicate a mostly “generally favorable” reception from critics. ‘Slither’ became almost certainly their most well remembered single – a Hard Rock anthem which takes it’s strutting flair from 90’s Post-Grunge and 70’s DIY Garage-Punk. With a tight four-minute duration, the band encompass through a decent range of upbeat guitar hooks while throwing in some persistently crunching cymbal melodies and some harsher, more bitter bass riffs. Weiland gives the vocals a sinister, yet Soulful delivery that reminds me of Nick Cave and Iggy Pop, as he recites slow-burning lyrics like “Here comes the water/It comes to wash the sins of you and I” in the pre-chorus, and exciting lyrics like “Rape my mind and smell the poppies/Born and bloodied every single time” in the verse, where he surely does not mince any of his words with a lighter tone. I would say that I felt the singer was just a little at odds with the more melodic direction of the instrumentation and so he isn’t terribly well-suited for the harsh Grunge sounds that Slash seems to be going for, but I felt he added a nimble range of variety to the proceedings. On the whole, the track sounded a little bit generic, but I felt that it was perfectly listenable. The more Punk-influenced riffs have a real 70’s vibe to them, which I felt worked rather well, and the drummer does a nice job of counteracting Weiland’s slick, polished vocals with a more aggressive pallete of sounds. After a below-average month of quality for these Scuzz Sundays flashbacks, I felt Velvet Revolver got us back on track with their robust guitar work and their very ‘Scuzz’ sound. An enjoyable entry in their small, but compelling enough, discography.

Pictured: Slash (Lead Guitar/Talkbox), Scott Weiland (Lead Vocals/Keyboard), Duff McKagan (Bass Guitar), Dave Kushner (Rhythm Guitar) and Matt Sorum (Drums/Percussion) (2020) (via Gnrcentral.com)

That’s all for now! Thank you for reaching the very end of the page, and, if you enjoyed what Velvet Revolver had in store for us, then I think that you’re also going to enjoy hearing tomorrow’s selection, which was recently featured on KEXP’s ‘Song Of The Day’ podcast. It comes from a pair of very little rockers from Liverpool, England who really are young (I’m talking 12 and 14 years old) with a love for Johnny Ramone.

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Today’s Track: Gang Of Youths – “The Angel Of 8th Ave.”

August 14, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Total Serene’ (EP) (Released on July 15, 2021) (via Warner Music UK)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and it’s time for me to get typing up for yet another daily track on the blog, because it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A 5-piece Desert Rock group formed in Sydney, but now based in Hackney, Gang Of Youths are an indie rock quintet who appear to be a big deal in recent times. Their debut album, 2015’s ‘The Positions’, reached the top five of the ARIA Albums Chart in their native country of Australia, and, their follow-up, 2017’s ‘Go Farther In Lightness’, was nominated for eight ARIA Music Awards in 2017, gaining them wins for ‘Album Of The Year’, ‘Best Rock Album’, ‘Best Group’ and ‘Producer Of The Year’ on the night. On July 16, they released the ‘Total Serene’ EP with no prior notice, marking their first new music since that time four years ago. It also marks their first new music to be released with Tom Hobden, a former member of Noah & The Whale, as their new guitarist and violinist, replacing Joji Malani, who left the band in 2019. The new EP includes two original tracks and a cover version of Elbow’s ‘Asleep In The Back’ from 2002, which frontman Dave Le’Aupepe explained with, “We love Elbow and we thought it was thematically relevant”. Check out the self-produced new lead single, ‘The Angel of 8th Ave.’, below.

Gang Of Youth have also inked a deal with Warner Bros, in 2019, as the formerly fully independent artists continue to raise their profile, and Radio X have also granted ‘The Angel Of 8th Ave.’ national daytime radio airplay in the UK. Dave Le’Aupepe told Zane Lowe, “I started writing this about four years ago and we’ve done 15 versions of it”, adding, “It’s probably the only song that you’ll hear from us now that sounds remotely kind of what we sounded like the previous kind of six to eight years”, in an interview, as he teases a new path of direction for the band in the times to come. ‘The Angel Of 8th Ave’ is a heart-on-its-sleeve acoustic rock tune that promises new hope in it’s light-hearted approach. The track has a tight four-minute duration, with Le’Aupepe singing about the evolution on his love for his wife, Cort, as he reminisces over the past and looks for constancy, glad that he took the risk to find love again after a traumatic split-up with a former partner. Lyrics like “God, it was state of the art/You called each of my sorrows by name” reference a move to a new city as the catalyst for positive change in your relationships, and sings lyrics like “I wanna lay me down/and be lover of the year” with a slightly quirky tone to reflect on the long-standing love that he has found in a very celebratory way. The post-bridge towards the end, where he comments “Ah, there’s heaven in you now”, with Joy Division-leaning Synths intact, is a definite highlight in showing that Le’Aupepe has a defiant muscularity in his voice. To be brutal, a lot of this style of music can be very “take it or leave it” with me, and, in the past with Gang Of Youths, I’ve sometimes took the latter choice. However, I find there to be something irresistible in this mish-mash mix of Bruce Springsteen, The War On Drugs and The National that I really enjoyed. The strings add a cinematic flair to the equation, the drums roll along at a rhythmically speeding pace, and the bass guitar riffs trend towards Prog-Rock in an entertaining way. You can hear the influence of Warner Bros’ producers at some points, especially in the radio-friendly production, but the rest came across with honesty and integrity that was convincing for me. Filled with a varied pallete of influences, a broad style of poetic expression and a lovingly 80’s call-back of moods, ‘The Angel Of 8th Ave’ was a surprising delight for me. A real, excellent highlight of the band’s discography thus far.

Pictured: David Le’Aupepe (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar/Piano), Jung Kim (Keyboard/Synths/Acoustic Guitar), Max Dunn (Bass Guitar), Tom Hobden (Violin) and Donnie Borzestowski (Drums) (2021) (via PR)

That’s all for now! Thank you very much, as always, for sticking until the bitter end with me. It’s ‘Scuzz Sundays’, as per usual, tomorrow, as we introduce another group of friendly new faces to the blog. Well, kind of. Tomorrow’s pick came from one of Slash’s post Guns ‘N’ Roses projects that was active in the 00’s. Despite having a failed relationship with RCA Records, they gained critical acclaim, they toured with Alice In Chains, and they won the Grammy award for ‘Best Hard Rock Performance’ in 2005.

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New Album Release Fridays: Jade Bird – “Now Is The Time”

August 13, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Different Kinds Of Light’ (Released on August 13th, 2021) (via Glassnote Records)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and it’s time for me to get typing up on the site for yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! I’m fairly confident that there is something for everybody hitting record shop shelves today. There’s The Killers ambitious new concept album, the well-reviewed new album from Jungle, the new release from the rapidly prolific US bedroom pop singer-songwriter Still Woozy, quirky Dub vibes from Pachyman (Refer back to Tuesday’s post for more on that), and new EP’s from A Certain Ratio and Bloxx to add to your streaming library or physical collection. However, I’m excited to find out how the Hexham-born indie folk singer-songwriter Jade Bird has grown since her self-titled debut LP release from two years ago. Bird has been given two or three go-around’s on the blog over the years, but that’s because I find her work to be interesting, and she’s the type of artist that I enjoy supporting. She attended the BRIT’s school in Croydon, where she earned a record deal at the age of 16. Since then, she has won ‘Best International Artist’ at the AIM Independent Music Awards in 2019, she has performed ‘Headstart’ on ‘The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon’ in the US, and she was the first artist to join Microsoft’s ‘RE: Surface’ series of virtual live-streamed gigs, and she has also been very supportive for black, LGBT and female artists in the industry. Her second album, ‘Different Kinds Of Light’, arrives today on Glassnote Records, which once again sees Jade Bird spanning Americana, Country-Rock and Southern Blues influences with her unique voice. The record has a 71/100 score on aggregate site Metacritic, which indicates that critics’ reviews are trending pretty positive, although it seems to be ever so slightly more of a mixed bag this time around. ‘Now Is The Time’ to give the sampler track a spin below.

“Now Is The Time is the only song to have me smiling and laughing listening to it back at RCA. We had the Bee-Gee’s in mind and soul, triple tracking the vocals and putting a load of chorus on the guitar”, Bird enthusiastically tells us via her press release, explaining, “It’s a big motivational anthem for someone I want to put my arms around or lift them in the darkest time. Given that I wrote it mid-pandemic, the sentiment to getting to the back-end of this hell is heavily felt now”, in her notes about how the track was influenced and developed. While the title track and lead single from the LP saw Bird gently control the mood of change with a low-lit voice, ‘Now Is The Time’ feels much like her older work in the more pop-oriented and uplifting tone. Although she’s singing to a lover that seems to be a bit down on their luck, the lyrics feel rather generalized, and so they can apply to an eclectic range of people’s circumstances. Lyrics like “If I had a penny for all your potential/I’d be left drowning in my mouthful of metal” add her trademark Sass to the vocal equation, while a more Coach-like message shines through the Sunshine Pop melodies and the Jangle Pop sounds, with lyrics like “Never have I seen a better day to get up/Doesn’t matter about the weather” that inspire the listener to face their demons. The production feels polished, yet unsullied by any electronic artifice, and that’s another really good thing. I feel the addition of an auto-tune effect would really distance me away from the vibrant personality that she shows already. I hate to say that I didn’t really hear the Bee-Gees influence coming through very strongly at all. However, as usual with Bird, the simple element of her voice really makes up for any generic faults in the songwriting. I really do love hearing her voice since, as I’ve noted several times on the blog, it makes her come across as distinctive in comparison to other modern pop and rock artists. Bird’s voice is very powerful, especially for someone with her young age, and it enhances her snappy lyrics very nicely, but she’s certainly accessible enough to attract more casual, mainstream ears to her albums because her acoustic instrumentation is very melodic, and her general themes are pretty basic, but still fairly relevant. To sum it up, it’s a lovely summer tune that has something to say to everybody. Truth be told, I felt it was a little formulaic, so I’m not sure if I would like it as much if Bird wasn’t the one singing it. However, that’s also a complement to the way that she infuses her music with an effective “no nonsense” vibe. In the same sense, if Confidence Man originally wrote one of Bjork’s tracks – it wouldn’t make sense. The direction naturally feels more mature than her first album, and she even looks older and more wise in the video, so it’s a delight to see that evolution taking place. Something for the weekend.

Pictured: Jade Bird in a self-titled album era cover shoot (in 2018) (Photo Credit: PR/Alice Burnfield)

If you want to keep up with some of Bird’s earlier releases, you can get a ‘Headstart’ on the blog here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/11/28/todays-track-jade-bird-headstart/. Or, if you need another reason to check out the new album from Bird over the weekend, get another taste with my review for the title track here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/06/05/todays-track-jade-bird-different-kinds-of-light/

Pictured: Jade Bird in a “Get To Know…” Interview Feature (in 2018) (Photo Credit: PR/DIYMag.com)

That’s all for now! Thank you for your continued support for the blog, and for reaching the end of the page! I’ll be back tomorrow for more where that came from. This time, we’ll be heading over to Sydney for the debut appearance on the blog from a 5-piece Alternative Rock group who seem to be quickly on the rise, who surprisingly released their latest EP – ‘Total Serene’ – with no prior announcement in July. The group’s first album reached #5 on the ARIA Album Charts in 2015, and the band’s second album was nominated for a large number of eight ARIA Music Awards, in 2017.

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Today’s Track: Pip Blom – “Keep It Together”

August 7, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Pip Blom (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar/Percussion), Tender Blom (Lead Guitar/Synths), Gini Cameron (Bass Guitar/Keyboard) and Gini Cameron (Drummer/Backing Vocals) (2021) (via PR)

Good Morning to you! I’m Jacob Braybrooke and now is the time for me to deliver yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! I’ve got new music coming your way from Pip Blom, a 4-piece Indie Pop-Punk band from Amsterdam, The Netherlands – who were named after their frontwoman. Pip Blom seem to be incredibly popular, and over the last four years or so, have been making huge waves on the UK’s festival circuit, including three performances at Glastonbury Festival in 2019. They have been getting support across the board from radio stations like BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 6Music, and music publications like Rolling Stone, NPR, Double J and Brooklyn Vegan. They will also be performing in some locations, like The Portland Arms in Cambridge, later in the year for the government’s ‘Revive Live’ scheme. Their debut album, ‘Boat’, reached the top spot of the Independent Album Breakers chart in 2019, and now, the follow-up, ‘Welcome Break’, is set to arrive shortly, on October 8th via Heavenly Recordings – the same UK indie giant which is also home to the likes of Baxter Dury, Raf Rundell and The Orielles. ‘Keep It Together’ whilst you spin the lead single below.

“A very important thing of all the tracks is the dynamic between Tender’s and my vocals”, Pip Blom described in a press statement, referring to her own brother and the band’s lead guitarist Tender Blom, adding, “In the chorus of ‘Keep It Together’ we sing two completely different bits, but it works really well. Tender did a lot of singing for this record, mainly for the choruses and bridges. I really like how, with this bridge, you’ve got this whole choir of the two of us singing in different keys. It gives it a very dreamy vibe that is nice after the powerful chorus” to her notes. The sibling dynamic and the familial synergy are enough to give the melodic hooks a boost on the track, which finds Pip singing about exhaustion, and trying to get an uplift of energy from some source, a relatable theme for us all. Lyrics like “Can’t beat these feelings and change it to being new/Do you feel it, don’t believe the hype” stand out from the pack in the verses, while the chorus is filled with more positive cues like “I don’t have to win everytime”, while the instrumentation pulls from Brit-Pop influences with the Baggy ‘Madchester’ sounds with the subtlety of the raw vocals and the fuzzy, lightly distorted guitar hooks. Although the vocal delivery carries some fatigue and draining, the Jangle-Pop hooks are light and breezy, giving the melodies a summer time feel that carries the momentum of the Power-Pop chorus along at a maintained flow. There’s a touch of Hop Along or Lisa Prank to the more Grunge-inspired chorus where the DIY Punk production leaves it’s mark, and the overall 80’s vibes fits the themes of the music video perfectly. These 80’s sounds made me think of The Sugarcubes and Supergrass, where the tightly crafted guitar hooks embrace Brit-Pop and Dance music to a noticeable level. Overall, I felt this was an enjoyably breezy slice of Indie Punk mixed with an accessible Pop touch. There’s nothing here that suggests anything that entirely re-invents the wheel for me, since I felt the vocals and guitar mix was a little generic, but I certainly felt a good chemistry between each of the band members and there’s an engaging variety of influences that they add to the cauldron in here. It feels great for the typically bizzare mid-August weather, here in the UK, where there’s a radiant warmth, but also a little rain, which keeps us all indoors. Crowd-pleasing Pop.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Welcome Break’ (LP) (Available from October 8, 2021) (via Heavenly Recordings)

That’s all for now – and thank you very much for the support, as always. ‘Scuzz Sundays’ is the plan for tomorrow, as per usual, with a new entry to the library that marks the debut appearance on the blog for one of the few Pop-Punk bands of the era that haven’t been remembered for the feature yet. The band were from Los Gatos, California, they have released eight studio albums to date, remain active in the present day, and the Nu-Metal band seem to have gone through many line-up tweaks.

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New Album Release Fridays: Mr. Jukes & Barney Artist (feat. Kofi Stone) – “Check The Pulse”

August 6, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “The Locket” (LP) (Released on August 6, 2021) (via The Locket Records/Virgin)

Good Afternoon to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and it’s finally time for me to, like always, get typing up for another daily track on the blog, because it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! We’ve reached the end of another long working week, and so it’s time to unpack one of the weekend’s biggest new album releases. Kanye West is dominating the headlines this morning for his still unreleased LP, ‘Donda’, which is meant to be released today, with fans making lots of memes in the process. Alternative options come from the likes of Ty Segall, Laura Stephenson, Fredo, Ishmael Ensemble and Nas. However, the new release that I have been pining for is ‘The Locket’, which was originally delayed to August 6th when it was initially set to arrive last month. ‘The Locket’ is a surprising collaborative album between Mr. Jukes, the solo side project of frontman Jack Steadman from Bombay Bicycle Club, and the East London-born MC Barney Artist, who first popped up in 2012 with his ‘BAEP’ EP. The two got together for this joint venture when Steadman stumbled across Barney on Spotify, and he was never forgotten since. The title of the record refers to memories of more cheerful times, “We fill a locket with memories we protect and don’t forget to keep it round your neck”, Jukes & Barney both said. The record has gained positive reviews from critics, with Sean Kerwick of DIYMag.com writing, “A fantastic collection of tunes that encompass everything from bangers to slow jams that leaves you hoping Mr. Jukes and Barney Artist’s schedules continue to align” in their review. Time to ‘Check The Pulse’ below.

“The aim is to bring hope to people after the maddest year”, Barney & Jukes write about ‘The Locket’ in their press release, and they will be bringing this positive energy to stages in Manchester, Brighton, Bristol and London later in the year. ‘Check The Pulse’ brings Kofi Stone, a close friend and frequent collaborator of Barney Artist, to the party, and he told the press, “It was a pleasure to link up with my brother Barney and go back-to-back with him, also, Mr. Jukes is a wizard on production. This one’s got a real nice bounce to it, looking forward to playing it live” in his own statement. It is bouncy indeed, with a East Coast Hip-Hop synergy that calls back to A Tribe Called Quest and The Jungle Brothers to me, since there’s a clear chemistry between Barney and Kofi as they rap fast lyrics to the tuneful sound of a very Soulful sample and a Psych-tinged instrumental beat composed of Vinyl scratches and a crawling bass guitar riff. Lyrics such as “Drillin’ the bars, feelin’ the lyric when I’m spittin’ this fast” respond to music and memory, while lyrics like “Slithering snakes wanna get into your business/Wanna get into your brain” are a reminder to ignore bad influences and those most critical of your work as a creative. It’s got a very feel-good sound, but the relatively mid-tempo pace is very slick and smooth, filling the left-field indie Pop vibes with something more reminiscent of 80’s Boom-Bap rap and sharp rap beats that gleam brightly above the underlying warmth. There’s also not really a full chorus of-sorts, but the samples and the melodic backing vocal harmonies keep the influences sounding engaging. We’ve heard Steadman dabble in sampling a little bit during his time as the leader of Bombay Bicycle Club, but this project gives him the space he wants to fully flex those production muscles. I also want to point out how his smile adds a lot to the performance video. This is a songwriter who clearly loves writing and performing his music with a genuine passion, and his sparkling smile lit up the room in there. He provides a fantastic platform for the solid cohesion between Barney and Kofi to really get across, too, as they fluidly bounce water-tight lyrics seemlessly against one another at a great flow, and with superb chemistry. Overall, I felt that ‘Check The Pulse’ was an utterly joyful listen from the beginning to the end, and it’s a very enjoyable tune that could really brighten up your day in a time where we’re all looking for fun distractions, expertly mixing Jukes’ Indie production with decent Hip-Hop material, and all topped off by the love for the music which the three artists have.

Pictured: Mr Jukes (Jack Steadman) & Barney Artist at CHALK, Brighton (2021) (Photo via PR)

That brings us to the end of another post for the day! Thank you for your support once again, and please feel free to join me again tomorrow for some more brand new music from a big-name artist! Tomorow, we’ll be listening to some brand new music from an Indie Punk 4-piece from Amsterdam who played not one, not two, but THREE performances at Glastonbury in 2019! Signed to Heavenly Recordings, the band have been praised by publications like Brooklyn Vegan, Double J and Rolling Stone. Their debut album ‘Boat’, made it to the top spot of the Independent Album Breakers Chart.

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Scuzz Sundays: The Hives – “Tick Tick Boom”

August 1, 2021 — Leave a comment

Not based on the musical of the same name from Jonathan Larson. It’s Scuzz Sunday!

Pictured: Per Almqvist (Lead Vocals, Piano), Niklas Almqvist (Lead Guitar/Keyboard), Mikael Karlsson (Rhythm Guitar/Organ), Christian Grahn (Drums) and Johan Gustafsson (Bass Guitar) (2020) (via PR)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and it’s time to revisit one of the Pop-Punk anthems of the past for ‘Scuzz Sunday’, not forgetting that it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘Tick Tick Boom’ marks the, very explosive, second appearance on the site from The Hives. The sharp suited Swedish Garage Rock 5-piece revivalists from the mid-2000’s have built a reputation for themselves as one of the best live Rock acts, according to music critics, and they made a claim to that fame with the release of their 2005 live DVD, ‘Trussels In Brussels’. ‘Tick Tick Boom’ was the opening track and lead single for 2007’s ‘The Black And White Album’, and the track was voted in at #99 in the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2007. It also reached #41 on the UK Singles Chart, and has been used as the theme track for WWE’s ‘Survivor Series’ pay-per-view event in 2007. You may have also heard it from the movies ‘Jumper’ and ‘The Nut Job 2’, along with several video games including ‘LEGO Rock Band’ and ‘Dirt 4’. As a side note, my mother is celebrating her 48th birthday today, and she reads the blog every single day as well as liking the Facebook posts, so a very special shout-out goes to her today. If you wish to leave a comment to wish her a lovely day as well, I don’t mind one bit. But, for the moment being, let’s get back to the task at hand. Set your detonator to ‘Tick Tick Boom’ below.

A fun fact for you is that two different music videos for ‘Tick Tick Boom’ used to circulate Scuzz and Kerrang, including the museum-themed, surrealist take on the track that you have just seen above my text, however, there’s an alternative video which is a staged, choreographed live performance of the track from The Hives, part of which was displayed in a Nike/Finish Line commercial. As for the track itself, the popular quintet aim for the charts for a fun Pop-Punk tune built on frenetic guitar riffs and neat Drum riffs, with recognizable lyrics like “I was alright/You come taggin’ along” and “I was right all along” that don’t seem to make much of an impression in terms of having any significant meaning, but it sounds catchy and rhythmic. The chorus is notable for the sound effects of a literal bomb explosion, which was the call of the producer – Dennis Herring – to be included on the track, and so it’s obvious that he wanted to really go to town on the general namesake of the single nearer to the time that it was being written. The chorus adds punchy hooks like “I got my eye on the score/I’m gonna cut to the core” and “It’s too late/It’s too soon” that all have a fairly loud delivery, while the tight, breakneck Bass guitar chords and the light Sonic modifications of the vocals were based on the same formula that had carried them a fair distance towards commercial success in their career’s peak time. Although fairly unimpressive, this was a fine effort. The sound effects would probably come across as cheesy to some, and these lyrics said nothing to me, but I felt the speedy Garage-Rock beats, the subtle electronic blips and the enthusiastic vocal performance added up to a decent level of engagement with the sound, for me. I could definitely picture this one being some good fun on a packed festival floor, although it’s difficult to argue the core ingredients of the sound are very typical for The Hives and didn’t reinvent the wheel at all. Still, it’s a fun track that, in some ways, went down like a bomb going off.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘The Black and White Album’ (Released on 9 October, 2007) (via Polydor Records)

If you’re still wondering whether The Hives have been a part of a feature on the blog before, then I ‘Hate To Say I Told You So’. Give that previous post a look-in here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/03/08/scuzz-sundays-the-hives-hate-to-say-i-told-you-so/

Pictured: The Hives performing for Rolling Stone (in 2012) (Photo Credit: Dave Wood/YouTube.com)

That brings us to the end of the road for today, and here’s to another year of happy existence for my mother. Thank you for your continued support in making it this far, and please feel free to join me again tomorrow for the start of another week of new music recommendations. Coming up tomorrow, we will be looking at a Parisian electronic dance music producer who has enlisted the help of Bakar, Mac DeMarco and Juan Wauters for his debut album, which is out now on Ed Banger Records and Because Music. He was one of four members from the Electronica group Club Cheval.

Today’s Track: Iron Maiden – “The Writing On The Wall”

July 31, 2021 — Leave a comment

I’ve got two tickets to see Iron Maiden, baby. Come with me Friday. It’s new post time!

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Senjutsu’ (Available from September 3rd, 2021) (via Parlophone Records Ltd.)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s finally time to shake up your Saturday with an intriguing track on the blog, because it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Iconic purveyors of all things audio-visual Metal, Leyton’s gods Iron Maiden are making a bold comeback with the highly anticipated release of their seventeenth mainline album, ‘Senjutsu’, a Samurai-influenced record which releases on September 3rd via Parlophone Records. This will be their first new material in six years, and a highly-anticipated entry in the library of a pioneering group whose career has spanned across 40 releases, including albums, compilations, EP’s, live albums and remix albums. According to data from MD Daily Record in 2021, Iron Maiden have sold over 200 million copies of these releases globally. It is bizarre, then, to think that Iron Maiden never seem to get a great deal of radio or television support for their new releases, and I only got the memo about ‘The Writing On The Wall’ due to my uncle making a post about it on Facebook. He is an absolutely huge fan of this new one, by the way. Let’s check it out for ourselves below.

Lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson teamed up with former Pixar executives Mark Andrews and Andrew Gordon, along with director Nicos Livesey and other animation studio Blinklink to create the detailed video for ‘The Writing On The Wall’ that finds Eddie (The band’s mascot) being converted into a 3D audio-visual nightmare. Fitting collaborators for a band whose 1982 LP, ‘The Number Of The Beast, was voted as the ‘Best British Album’ by the public in a poll related to the Diamond Jubilee ceremony of Queen Elizabeth II in 2012. I’ve read from a few critics that ‘Writing On The Wall’ sounds a little different for Iron Maiden, although I’m not knowledgeable enough to make too many comparisons myself. The party starts off with an Acoustic element created by the mid-tempo Spanish guitar riffs, before the sneering delivery of Bruce Dickinson’s vocals swoop in for forceful lyrics like “Now we are victorious, we’ve become our slaves” and “A land of hope and glory building graveyards for the brave” that drives the main riffs to a more intense delivery. The layering of the different instruments is cohesive and detailed, with the distinctive bass guitarist joining the fray for a Southern Blues feel towards the chorus. Later in the seven-minute affair, we get a beautifally controlled lead guitar solo, and the Drums kick into a higher gear as Dickinson sings “Have you seen the writing on the wall?” and “Can you see the riders on the storm?” for the final repeat of the chorus. The pacing of the track nicely mimics the ‘rider of the storm’ who is the protagonist of the high-budget Metal epic, with careful layers of Drums and Bass gradually building in a methodical way as the guitars gradually start charging to the home stretch of the ballad. It never feels too frenetic, and it feels like more of a rock-oriented Country track on steroids for the most part, but there is a beautiful control to the technical production of the ballad, and the fantastical elements of the narrative manage to still come across as fairly original and inventive enough to satisfy both die-hard fans of their discography, and those, like me, who require a re-introduction to the band’s modern style. On the whole, this is a wildly enjoyable new single that takes Metal down some interesting avenues, while also providing solid entertainment for their pre-existing fanbase. As sturdy and robust as the long-served longevity of the story of ‘666’ still being the Number Of The Beast.

Pictured: Bruce Dickinson (Lead Vocals/Piano), Steve Harris (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals), Dave Murray (Lead Guitar), Adrian Smith (Keyboard/Backing Vocals), Janick Gers (Rhythm Guitar/Unclean Vocals) and Nicko McBrain (Drums/Percussion/Occasional Backing Vocals) (2021) (Photo via PR)

That’s the end of the road for today, and thank you again for your continued support for the blog. We’re doing it all over again tomorrow with another new entry in our ‘Scuzz Sundays’ line-up of revisiting the Pop-Punk anthems of the past. This week’s catchy pick marks the second appearance on the site from a famous Swedish Garage-Punk Quintet who have become acclaimed by critics as one of the genre’s top tier live acts. In 2005, they issued a live concert DVD to make the claim – ‘Trussels In Brussels’.

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New Album Release Fridays: Billie Eilish – “Lost Cause”

July 30, 2021 — Leave a comment

This is ‘No Time To Die’ for the masses of the Bad Guy’s fans out there. New post time!

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Happier Than Ever’ (LP) (Released on July 30th, 2021) (via Interscope Records)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and it’s finally time for yet another 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! Although I mostly cover the Alternative and Electronic varieties of music here on the site, I felt that US Dark-Pop sensation Billie Eilish was just too popular for me to ignore, and, to tell the truth, I rather liked what she did on her ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’ record. Flash forward to two years from that time, and, the follow-up, ‘Happier Than Ever’, which comes from Darkroom Records, Eilish and her brother Finneas’ subsidiary of Interscope Records, has made its way to shop shelves today. To be honest, though, it really doesn’t feel like two years and I think that’s because Eilish has stayed in the consciousness of the mainstream between that time. The earlier album was such a huge hit and, in this day and age, it’s very common for pop stars to release a new single every six weeks or so because it operates like a fast food business, and I’m aware that Eilish has released singles like ‘Therefore I Am’ and ‘Everything I Wanted’ in the said interim, as well as composing the theme track for the upcoming James Bond film, although, given the amount of delays the studio has given that movie because they want the big bucks at the box office, I strongly suggest that ‘Plenty Of Time To Die’ would have been a far more appropriate title for that project. Check out the taster single ‘Lost Cause’ below.

Other than ‘Happier Than Ever’, I have to digress that it looks like slim pickings for me elsewhere. Other new offerings include the new record from Bleachers, yet another side project of pop’s busiest producer Jack Antonoff. Erasure have been preparing for the release of their remixed re-release of ‘The Neon’ today, and Bristol’s Yola takes a ‘Stand For Myself’ on her new second LP, as its title depicts. Back to the task at hand, Eilish sings about a toxic relationship and how damaging these situations can be for young people, while flipping the gender stereotypes on their head again, on ‘Lost Cause’. Counteracting the strong R&B influence of the chopped-up Drums with the Emo/Goth atmosphere of the glitchy counter-melodies, Eilish sings dramatic lyrics like “I sent you flowers, did you even care?” and “I used to think you were shy/But maybe you just had nothing on your mind” that are honest and playful, while Finneas shines behind the boards with a minimalist Trap beat and some harrowing Synth riffs that keep the sounds rolling with a nice balance of melody and darkness. The chorus introduces a soft guitar groove to the blend of R&B and Pop-Punk, as Eilish sings anthemic lines like “You ain’t nothing but a lost cause” and “I know you think you’re such an outlaw” in her typically low-pitched voice that skews more towards a whisper than an actual croon. Overall, I quite enjoyed this. The biggest reason being that Eilish could have easily turned this into a generic screamer of a teenage Pop track, but she didn’t, and she goes for something much more understated and austere instead. One of the gripes that I had, however, was also with the vocal tones. In some cases, the quiet bridge towards the end especially, she sounds a little more like she’s bored and also rather uninterested in the song, with some poorly filtered distortion effects, and I ultimately think the act of ‘Billie Eilish’ is more of a duo, with Finneas, than casual listeners may have picked up on. Otherwise, I felt this was certainly above-average in comparison to other modern mainstream artists who are never far away from chart success. That’s largely in part to her toying around with gender politics, and simply because I felt the song itself was pretty catchy. There’s more of a ‘night life’ style to this one, with some playful instrumentation and a slight Blues influence that makes the self-indulgence of her attitude come across organically enough, and that makes it quite charming. She doesn’t look particularly “Happy” on that album cover, however.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’ (LP) (Released on March 29th, 2019) (via Interscope Records)

That brings us to the end of the page for another 24 hour period. Thank you for your continued support, and please feel free to join me tomorrow for something that’s also a little rare to make an appearance on the site. We’re listening to some brand new music from one of Metal’s top names, whose discography has grown to a staggering number of 40 LP releases – including albums, live albums, EP’s, and Compilation CD’s.

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