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New Album Release Fridays: Nilufer Yanya – ‘The Dealer’

March 4, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Painless’ (LP/Album) (Released on March 4th, 2021) (via ATO Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to enjoy an in-depth preview for one of the weekend’s most exciting stand-out’s in an eclectic line-up of exciting new album releases with yet another daily track on the blog, which makes sense because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘Painless’ is the second studio album to come from Nilufer Yanya, who is the daughter of two visual artists who have Turkish and Irish-Barbadian heritage, which is releasing today via ATO Records. What makes Yanya very interesting is how, despite growing up listening to traditional Turkish folk music and Classical music, she gravitated to guitar-based rock ‘n’ roll instead, and she learned how to play an instrument when she was just twelve years old. Yanya has spoken out in the press about the talent acquisition model that she experienced when she found fame via SoundCloud in 2014, how people have assumed that she makes R&B music due to her appearance and background, and the lack of diversity in modern music festivals across the UK, most recently, in a firm but fair interview with The Independent. However, Yanya goes for a different sound than you may expect and pushes some boundaries with a sound that I would describe as quite ‘loose’ and ‘restless’, as she incorporates a decent variety of influences including Trip Hop, Blues Rock, Neo-Soul and Progressive Jazz into her repertoire of releases. The 26-year-old West London-based singer-songwriter says, “Painless is a record that forces the listener to sit with the discomfort that accompanies so many of life’s biggest challenges whether it be relationship breakdowns, coping with loneliness, or the search for our inner self. It’s a record about emotion”, in the LP’s product description on the Rough Trade website. The bold and ambitious release is the follow-up to 2019’s ‘Miss Universe’ and a string of EP’s that were compiled to essentially form up her 2021 release ‘Inside Out’. Check out the latest single from it – ‘The Dealer’ – that was attached to the visualizer below.

“When I was writing this song, I was thinking about the transient nature of life and the cyclical nature of the seasons”, Yanya says of her final pre-release single ‘The Dealer’ that follows previously unveiled tracks like ‘Midnight Sun’ and ‘Another Life’, and she adds, “I find it interesting how we attach certain memories and feelings to different seasons and tend to revisit them time and time again, yet our lives move in a more linear motion and even when we feel like we are going back we never really get to go back anywhere. Musically speaking, it’s a bit more playful and relaxed”, in her press statement. Establishing a high tempo quickly and right out of the gate with a fuzz-laden series of blurred and dreamy guitar chords that are complemented aggressively by some clattering hip hop-like drum beats, Yanya gets right down to business by crooning “It’s been weighing on my mind/Seems to be with me all the time” and “I thought you were someone to rely on/Does sadness pick you to the bone?” with a lovesick tone as she continually contemplates her cyclical nature of her thought process. The instrumentation is fast, but frequent, as the track develops and the guitar-drum’s combo have a high-speed energy that allows the pounding break-beats and shoegaze-influenced basslines to have a few merticulous time signature changes that can appeal to the most avid fans of Prog Rock structuring while suiting the lushly harmonic and expansive funk-rock style of her vocals and instrumentals. Lyrics like “Patience, there she goes/Cadence, set in stone” show Yanya trying to break out of the self-centric and specific modes of thinking about a relationship, and the more straightforward refrains like “I miss the kind of patience that breaks your heart/Baby, it’s me that is taking us apart” have a rhythmic delivery, but they still cut to the root of the problem that has been plaguing Yanya’s mind throughout the verses. Overall, ‘The Dealer’ has to be one of the strongest singles that I’ve heard from Yanya because she sounds clear and confident, while addressing vulnerability, in her vocals. I also like the adjacent guitar hooks and the angular drum beats that sound cool and casual, while gently veering towards a retro 90’s-disco style in their groove-like repetition. If ‘Painless’ builds upon ‘The Dealer’, a purchase of the LP is a deal that is hard to refuse.

Pictured: Nilufer Yanya in a promotional shoot for her live Latitude Festival set (2017) (Photo via ReadDork.com)

Thank you for reading my latest post, and I hope that you enjoy the rest of the day knowing that your continued support is always highly appreciated from me! Moving forwards, there is a new weekly entry of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ lined up for you on Sunday, but I’ve got a short and sweet one in the works for tomorrow where we’ll be reviewing the latest single from a Los Angeles native all-female indie rock band known for their 2010 essential track ‘Undertow’. They have supported Harry Styles and Foals on global tours, and their single ‘Lilys’ was featured in the HBO TV series ‘Made For Love’.

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Way Back Wednesdays: The Charlatans – ‘You’re Not Very Well’

March 2, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Tim Burgess (Lead Vocals/Harmonica/Piano), Mark Collins (Pedal Steel Guitar), Martin Blunt (Bass Guitar) and Tony Rogers (Keyboard/Organ/Flute/Mellotron/Percussion) (2017) (Photo Credit: Andy Richardson)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to revisit one of the seminal sounds of the past for another weekly entry of ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ on the blog, which fits my goal of writing up about a different piece of music every day! If I’m being wholly transparent with you, I wasn’t quite born yet when the ‘Madchester’ or ‘Baggy’ mini-movements began here in the UK, and so it’s thanks to my Dad and the records that he used to play in the car that I really have as much significant knowledge about the time that I still do. Although not quite one of the most chart-bothering bands of the time, like The Stone Roses and Ocean Colour Scene perhaps were, The Charlatans are still an active rock group who boasts the mid-pandemic Twitter hero Tim Burgess as their ringmaster, who have released thirteen albums to date. A set-closer that was the opening track of their debut album, ‘Some Friendly’, released in 1990 – ‘You’re Not Very Well’ is just one of the recordings that helped their debut album to enter the UK Albums Chart at #1. Introduced to the industry by the visual programming wonders of ITV’s ‘The Chart Show’, a still-lamented show, The Charlatans have scored hits like ‘The Only One I Know’ and ‘Then’ that reached the Top 15 in the UK. Let’s see them perform it at Manchester’s The Ritz from 1990 below.

The story behind 1990’s ‘Some Friendly’ is a well-documented one, since the record suffered from all sorts of production issues during the time of development. The recording sessions near Wrexham, Wales were awkward because ‘Burgess and buds’ fell out with the owners of the studio. The label executives were very keen on pushing them, and they wanted the band to record the album’s tracks despite them not having wrote many of them, and Burgess didn’t have the opportunity to stockpile songs beforehand. In spite of this, it still received great reviews from journalists and the record has been certified as ‘Gold’ in UK sales, and so that’s an achievement, whether it’s down to coincidence or raw fate is another dilemma. Opening track ‘You’re Not Very Well’ got the 90’s LP off to a start with prominent Organ stabs and repeating Bass hooks, with willful lyrics like “I don’t like all these sharks in the city/They don’t do much for me anyway” and “There’s that car that I used to swerve/This town traffic is knocking me over” that talk about how you can outgrow your surroundings while reflecting on the nostalgic moments that you’ve enjoyed within a certain area, as Burgess goes back and forth on his feelings regarding the people that he has met and the time that he has spent while growing up, with lyrics like “One step forward into mine/Faking pictures and opening doorways” and “Intervene and you privatise/Health is health and I don’t know about it” that each express anything but warm, sunshine-filled sentiments. There’s splashings of the slide guitar here and there to follow the Brit-Pop trends of the time while following an undercurrent of Funk as an influence. It is not necessarily steady on it’s feet as an overall piece, but ‘You’re Not Very Well’ is very pointed and it has a 1960’s Beat Groove with plenty of ‘Baggy’-ness and ‘Madchester’ elements to it that ensures that Burgess and his band-mates are delivering their instrumentation and vocals with a decent amount of cadence. An eclectic 90’s track that feels decent, if not particularly classic, which laid out a diverse, rhythmic framework for The Charlatans for decades to come.

Pictured: Tim Burgess performing with The Charlatans at Picnic In The Park (2019) (Photo by Rune Hellestad-Corbis)

If you are looking for some more catchy melodies by The Charlatans, then you need to look no further than my blog. Here is my take on The Charlatans’ 90’s classic ‘The Only One I Know’: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/04/28/way-back-wednesdays-the-charlatans-the-only-one-i-know/. You can also check out some of Tim Burgess’ solo work by giving ‘Empathy For The Devil’ a spin here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/05/29/todays-track-tim-burgess-empathy-for-the-devil/.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Some Friendly’ (LP) (Released on September 8th, 1990) (via Beggars Banquet Records)

That’s all of the time that I have got for now! Thank you for revisiting some ‘Baggy Brilliance’ with me today, and I’ll be back at it again tomorrow with new music from a ‘Post-Punk Poet’ who has often been featured on the blog before and she topped my ‘Best EP’s of 2020’ list that was published two years ago. She has toured with The Brian Jonestown Massacre across the UK and Ireland, and she has recently been working with Speedy Wunderground’s Dan Carey as her producer. She will finally be releasing her highly-anticipated debut LP record in June through Chess Club Records.

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Today’s Track: Mitski – ‘Love Me More’

February 28, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Laurel Hell’ (LP) (Released on February 4th, 2022) (via Dead Oceans)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get down to business as we leave the shortest month of the winter for a warmer March as we head into Spring by covering one of the most crucial releases of February for yet another daily track on the blog, given how it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! Dubbed as the “best young songwriter” of the US by The Guardian earlier in the past month, the Japanese-American singer-songwriter and producer Mitski has been raging up a storm domestically and internationally with her sixth studio album – ‘Laurel Hell’ – which she released to a healthy buzz and a positive reception on February 4th via the Dead Oceans label. Taking its title from a Folk term for being trapped in thickets of Laurel, an English name for common trees and plants of the Laurel family, that grow in the Southern Appalachian Mountains region of North-Eastern America. Her new album peaked in the top ten of the albums charts in the UK, Australia and Ireland, and it was the best-selling album in the US during its first week on sale, meaning that a wide variety of listeners heard Mitski’s dynamic take on nostalgic Disco, Synth-Pop, Indie Pop and Electronic Rock styles. I read a fascinating story that Mitski had to quit music to love it, as the record was originally reportedly going to be a stinker on deliberate purpose so that Mitski could finalise her current record contract and leave music peacefully, but that thankfully, didn’t turn out to be the case, and her vulnerable songwriting regarding topics like insomnia and mental weight went through many iterations over the last three years, with the record originally designed to be some form of an Avant-Garde Industrial Punk album, later becoming a softer Country album, before Mitski experimented with electronic production and the record was conceived in the final form that you can hear now. The final pre-release single was ‘Love Me More’ that you can preview below.

“Love Me More went through the most iterations out of all the songs on the album. It’s been too fast, too slow, and at some point, it was even an old style Country song”, Mitski said of the single, which has been accompanied by an official music video that was directed by Christopher Good, re-uniting Mitski with the creative behind her ‘Nobody’ video from three years ago, and she concludes, “Finally, I think because we had watched The Exorcist, we thought of Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells’ and experimented with floating an ostinato over the chorus. As we steadily evolved the ostinato to fit over the chord progressions, we began to hear how the track was meant to sound”, in her press statement. Starting off with “If I keep myself at home, I won’t make the same mistake/That I made for 15 years” in the opening verse, Mitski begins to croon about her own experiences with finding a fulfilling relationship while embracing a bright stadium-friendly Synth-Pop sound that feels so futuristic yet nostalgic in its tone and delivery, and so a similar collaboration with The Weeknd or La Roux wouldn’t feel out of place for her at some point in the future. A glistening sequence of piercing, self-reflective lyrics like “I wish this would go away/But when I’m done singing this song/I will have to find something else, to do to keep me here” complements a scattered soundscape of early 80’s New Wave synths and skittering up-tempo drum machine melodies that fit the musical ballad style of the lyrics that find Mitski crooning dramatic lyrics like “I could be a new girl/I will be a new girl” and “Here’s my hand, There’s the itch/But I’m not supposed to scratch” as the harshness of the impending Synths see a melodic increase, while never quite exploding into a full-blown club anthem, and so I thought that Mitski paced her instrumentation nicely here. The chorus has a more commanding presence, as she frantically pleads lyrics like “Drown it out/Drown me out” with a demanding atmosphere as the gauzy Synths soundtrack her way to finding nourishment. The end product feels a little scattered to me, but the production is attentively polished for what counts as a fully independent release and she does a great job of valuing her personality above a strive to ‘just have’ a commercial hit, with thoughtful lyrics that maintain the 80’s Pop influences of the track while avoiding the more recycled tropes of the genre. ‘Laurel Heaven’ more like.

Pictured: Mitski Miyawaka in promotional artwork for ‘Laurel Hell’ (2022) (Photo by Ebru Yildiz/Yahoo.com)

That’s all for now! Thank you for tuning into One Track At A Time today, because your support is always very highly appreciated, and I’ll be back tomorrow to guide you through a refreshing single by a group of San Francisco-based shoe-gazers who will release their first new album in a long break of 10 years in March via Fire Talk Records.

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Scuzz Sundays: The Verve – ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’

February 27, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Richard Ashcroft (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar/Keyboard/Percussion/Kazoo), Nick McKabe (Lead Guitar/Accordion), Simon Jones (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals) and Peter Salisbury (Drums) (2008) (Photo via PR)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time to revisit one of the Pop-Punk ghosts of the late-90’s for another installment of ‘Scuzz Sundays’, as we remember what the Brit-Pop scene had to offer at the time for yet another daily track on the blog, since it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Active between 1990 and 1999 – with a reunion in the mid-00’s – The Verve fit squarely into the Brit-Pop movement that introduced bands like Oasis, Supergrass and Coldplay to the world at a nifty convenience. However, in 1997, they proved that rock music could get very emotional. Having appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, won an impressive number of BRIT Awards and issued one of the best-selling albums in UK chart history with 1997’s ‘Urban Hymns’, the band were able to reduce most of their fans to tears when the familiar sound of ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ was ringed out across the packed out stages of V Festival and Live At Reading. Ranked as #7 on Channel 4’s list of the ‘100 Greatest Number 1 singles’, the sombre sound of the single unintentionally captured the mood of the nation when the beloved Princess Diana died because it was released the very day after it had occurred. Featured on ‘Urban Hymns’, the single went straight to the top of the UK Singles Chart and it remains popular, having been placed at #78 on the ‘150 Best Tracks Of The Past 15 Years’ list that NME compiled in 2011. The music video carries on from the iconic street set-up of ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ as the beginning of the piece shows Ashcroft and his band-mates walking across the same street, with the events directly following the prior video. It’s nice to see a level of inter-connectivity there and we rarely see it now. Have a box of tissues at the ready and stream it below.

“Whenever we played that live, there would be rows of grown men crying”, Ashcroft said of the somber tone of the single, as per FreakyTrigger.co.uk, describing, “It was almost like these guys couldn’t cry when they needed to cry, but that song operated like a pressure valve for them and it was okay for them to cry at a big concert”, in an interview. Although often linked to a battle with recreational drug abuse, fans have also linked ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’, which was reportedly written in 1995, with the passing of Ashcroft’s father, with the sensitive lyrics like “And I hope you’re thinking of me/As you lay down on your side” and “Now the drugs don’t work/They just make you worse/But I know I’ll see your face again” sounding like they could have been drafted together in Ashcroft’s mind as he sat beside his father in the hospital ward, and so these lyrics really pack a hefty punch given the bleak subject matter and Ashcroft’s promise to be re-united with him in the afterlife. The instrumentation isn’t really ‘Scuzz Sundays’ by nature, with a subtle String section and a steady guitar riff leading the downtempo melodies of the track, but it retains enough of the core elements of Rock music to meet that categorization, for the lack of a better term. Ashcroft was mostly known for throwing in some elements of Neo-Psychedelia into his motifs, but ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ was more intent on dragging him back to the inescapable darkness of life on Earth. The chorus seems arresting and personal, with refrains like “If you want a show/Just let me know/And I’ll sing in your ear again” that references a slightly chemical-defined relationship with his dad while nestling the smaller sequences into a bleaker, larger narrative and Ashcroft illustrates a maze with a loss of direction as he conveys a mixture of confusion and exhaustion, with the most profound note of hope, with his emphasized vocals. Overall, I am one of the most cold-hearted people out there, and even I can feel a light touch coming out of the screen of my laptop when I hear ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ because Ashcroft pales back his ‘rock god’ style of persona for a new spin on Pop-Punk and Brit-Pop where he feels intimate and learning about the track’s authorized subject use, beyond the obvious associations of drugs or chemicals, can really improve your relatability with it. Chilled yet very somber – ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ is brutal enough to make a grown man cry.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Urban Hymns’ (LP) (Released on September 29th, 1997) (via VC/Hut Records)

That’s all for now! Thank you for checking out my latest weekly entry of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ today, and I’ll be back tomorrow to start off the new week as we remember one of the most crucial releases from February as we shortly creep into March. It comes from a Japanese-American songwriter who releases her music on the Dead Oceans label, and The Guardian named her as the “best young songwriter” in the United States when her latest solo album – ‘Laurel Hell’ – was released and quickly entered the top ten chart of the UK, the US, Australia and Ireland earlier in the month.

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Today’s Track: Metronomy – ‘Things Will Be Fine’

February 26, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Small World’ (LP) (Released on February 18th, 2022) (via Because Music)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and I’m here to add a music-related pleasantry to your weekend with another nice and simple 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! Today, we’re checking with the indie pop veterans Metronomy who have been surviving since the 00’s with a range of electronic recordings that have always been grounded and progressive, and they have made previous appearances on the blog with ‘405’ (feat. Biig Piig) and ‘Salted Caramel Ice Cream’ as they hold the status of being a safe pair of hands. A 5-piece led by Joe Mount, they have remixed countless artists including Kate Nash, Sebastien Teller, Lady GaGa, Gorillaz, Franz Ferdinand and more. You may have also heard several collaborations involving the likes of Robyn, Nicola Roberts, Spill Tab, Brian Nasty and Sorry that Metronomy have co-created over the past two decades. Following 2019’s ‘Metronomy Forever’ and last year’s ‘Posse: Volume 1’ EP – the Rober Awards Music Poll-winning band have just released their seventh studio album – ‘Small World’ – via Because Music. With a positive score of 74/100 on review aggregate site Metacritic, Metronomy describe the fresh LP as an exploration of peace, serenity and simple nature. It also features a new collaboration with Porridge Radio, and Joe Mount notes, “I’ve been remembering what it was like as a kid when I’d be sitting in the backseat of my parents’ car and they’d be playing their music and I’d think “this is awful”, but there’d be one or two songs I would like. I thought it would be fun to make that kind of album”, in the press release for the LP. The final pre-release single was ‘Things Will Be Fine’, that was accompanied by a retro-themed music video that was put together by Metronomy themselves and the directors of Thibaut Caesar and Juliet Casella. Let’s give it a spin.

‘Small World’ is a record influenced by the roots of the period of time that it was written and recorded in, meaning 2020 and the rippling effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and other news events, and Metronomy will be taking their new tracks on the road during a UK and Ireland tour that begins in April, with the band stopping off at locations in Dublin, Oxford, Torquay, Glasgow, Bristol and each of the normal other places. Plugging into live acoustic instruments and percussion, such as the gliding guitar notes that open up the track and the Bongo drums that add some cheerful melodies to the chorus, for ‘Things Will Be Fine’, the band focus on their hearts instead of their heads for the recent single and they bring the upbeat, quirky arrangement a new-found energy. Lyrics like “The sooner you tell someone, the better you will feel/So please, put your trust in me” touch upon the relief of discussing a complex problem with a loved one and mental health is a definite topic here, in this case. Other refrains such as “Just like the first time in that teenage misery/Yeah, I wish things were as easy” recall the brightness of the past and how life gets more intricate or cumbersome as it progresses, connecting to the overarching themes of the full-length album. It is a fairly basic and happy song in tone, but it plays into the conceit of unfettered hopefulness of seeing things play out when you worry and it’s difficult not to engage yourself in the joyful message, however generalised it may feel, that Metronomy seem intent on communicating when they leans towards nostalgic 80’s Dream-Pop and soft 70’s Disco for rhythmic inspiration, with sultry crooning from Mount as he states that his goal may be to “save the day” or “change the world” as he exclaims in the chorus. It admittedly does feel a little safe for my personal tastes and likely designed to fit squarely into the BBC Radio 6 Music playlist, but there’s a humble heart to the track and some radiant, firm pacing that broadly appeals with it. It feels like a great track to remind us that summer is on the way as we take a few tentative steps outside of the bitter, melancholic mood of the modern winter in the UK. ‘Things Will Be Fine’ retains their core values of the project while skillfully avoiding ‘twee’ categorization and teasing more mature directions for them as their collaborative career moves forwards. A simple and sweet, yet uplifting, single.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Metronomy Forever’ (LP) (Released on September 13th, 2019) (via Because Music)

Metronomy have been doing the rounds for quite a long while, and so they aren’t necessarily new to the blog. You can also check out how I felt about 2019’s ‘Salted Caramel Ice Cream’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/08/26/todays-track-metronomy-salted-caramel-ice-cream/. There’s also a post featuring 2021’s ‘405’ (feat. Bigg Piig) that you can visit here if you want more info about that track: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/10/09/todays-track-metronomy-feat-biig-piig-405/.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Posse Volume 1’ (EP) (Released on September 15th, 2021) (via Because Music)

That’s all for now! Thank you for checking out the latest post on the blog, as your continued support means a great deal to me, and I’ll be back tomorrow to turn to the dark side for another ‘Scuzz Sundays’ post, as we continue to broaden our horizons by mixing in some Post Brit-Pop with the US-based Pop-Punk bands of that specific timeline. We shall be revisiting a former 90’s UK #1 hit by Richard Ashcroft’s old group.

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New Album Release Fridays: Gang Of Youths – ‘In The Wake Of Your Leave’

February 25, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Angel In Realtime’ (Released on February 25th, 2022) (via Mosy/Warner Bros. Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, of course, and the time has come for me to talk about one of the weekend’s most fascinating new album releases with ‘New Album Release Fridays’ on the blog, which ties into my goal of writing up about a different piece of music every day! ‘In The Wake Of Your Leave’ marks the second appearance on the daily blog for the surprisingly good Southern Rock-influenced rock band Gang Of Youths led by the frontman David Le’Aupepe of Samoan and Māori heritage. These guys are from Sydney, Australia and they seem to be more well-known there – having won four awards at the ARIA Music Awards Of 2017 including ‘Album Of The Year’ and ‘Producer Of The Year’ alongside Adrian Breakspear for their second album, ‘Go Farther In Lightness’, that was also released that year. However, they have been gaining daytime airplay from Radio X and BBC Radio 2 in recent years, they have performed on ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ in the US and they have toured arenas in support of Sam Fender too, and so it seems to me that they have been gaining mainstream traction in the rest of the world in recent months. It may expand even more when the masses hear ‘Angel In Real Time’, Gang Of Youths’ third studio album, which arrives today. Announced on Twitter last November, the new LP tackles the subjects of grief and loss – as Le’Aupepe has sadly lost his father – as well as indigenous identity. Describing his father in a press release, he says, “My dad was a gifted and passionate gardener. It’s where he funneled a lot of his energy and sensitivity, and despite our humble economic status, we were always surrounded by beauty”. Let’s hear a song about the subject – ‘In The Wake Of Your Leave’ – below.

This has been shaping up to be a crowded 2022 for Gang Of Youths as they continue to sell out headline solo gigs, and of the heart-wrenching recent single that we have just seen above, the ringmaster David Le’Aupepe recalls, “I wanted to reflect on how I became dependent on grief for solace and inspiration”, explaining, “The cycle from numbness to acceptance to yearning plays a role in my approach to grieving my dad’s death. As a result, most of the time, I feel a bit futile as a person”, in his own words via press release. Featuring backing harmonies by the Auckland Gospel Choir, percussion from drummers from the Cook Islands and sweeping string arrangements by Tom Hobden, L’Auepepe sounds both self-lacerating and liberating on the fast paced and emotive ballad as he recites lyrics like “So, as you canyoneered from our world upwards and the angels take their place/I was the loser at your funeral/No emotion conveyed” to the sound of some free-wheeling guitar melodies and energetic drum backings, as he shifts through a story of accepting loss and the cycles of moving on from a heavy bereavement at a concise structure and speed. The vocal delivery in the verses feels a little more poetry-based, with urgent lyrics like “I was drawn out in vain/And the idiot I am just figured/In the wake of your leave/That I’d never hear from you again” that feel like they are being half-spoken with a winking eye as the vague sense of humor shines through. Sung against a crescendo of uptempo guitar riffs and a grandiose backdrop of backing vocals and strings, the chorus of “My hand on heart/It’s not a thing that I’ve been dreaming of/And it goes without my blessing” and “But it comes and goes/And shows me all I’m missing” provides a very triumphant response to the death of a close relative and puts a little focus on the person who is suffering from the event, instead of solely the father himself. Introspective in the songwriting, confronting difficult topics with a brave sense of personality, and conjuring up some excellent instrumentation that gives it the anthemic feeling that it strives for, what really – quite honestly – amazes me about ‘In The Wake Of Your Leave’ is how it takes a concept that is deeply relatable and quite appealing to the mainstream in a way, but it still manages to feel intimate and unique to Gang Of Youths, as the track does a good job of convincing me that only David L’Aupepe could have wrote the track as it feels so reflective and expressive of himself. Most of the bands who have released music that Gang Of Youths remind me of – like Kings Of Leon or Liam Gallagher – have often released material that simply feels a little manufactured to me and I have found tricky to relate to as an individual – so I can often take it or leave it. I’m glad to say that with Gang Of Youths, the former is the case. Overall, ‘In The Wake Of Your Leave’ is pretty bloody fantastic in my opinion. A track that has a fair share of influences that it wears on it’s sleeves and it feels like it is about the person who made it, as all of the most moving music does to me, while feeling like an authentic tribute to L’Aupepe’s lost father. An irresistible mix of Bruce Springsteen, 80’s Blues Rock and this more modern, cinematic incarnation of The War On Drugs that we heard on Kurt Vile’s bands’ recent album. This is a really great piece.

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/Percussion) (2021) (via PR)

As mentioned before, ‘In The Wake Of Your Leave’, is the second single from Gang Of Youths to earn a little bit of attention on the blog. You can check out what I made of ‘The Angel Of 8th Ave.’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/08/14/todays-track-gang-of-youths-the-angel-of-8th-ave/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘The Angel of 8th Ave’ (Single) (Released on June 15th, 2021) (via Warner Bros. Records)

That was all that I really had to say about Gang Of Youths today, and I hope that you enjoyed this week’s entry of ‘New Album Release Fridays’ on the site, as your support is always highly appreciated. ‘Scuzz Sundays’ returns in two days time where we’re going to revisit a Post-Britpop classic from Richard Ashcroft’s old band. Before then, I’ve got some more accessible music lined up for you tomorrow as we listen to one of the latest tunes by an established Electronic Pop group from Devonshire, England who have remixed many artists over the years including Lady GaGa, Franz Ferdinand, Goldfrapp, Sebastien Teller and Gorillaz. Their seventh album was released last week.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Pat Benatar – ‘Love Is A Battlefield’

February 23, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Pat Benatar performing with Neil Girado in New York (2012) (Photo via Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)

Good Morning to you! I’m Jacob Braybrooke – and it’s time for you to sharpen your sword and pick your poison for yet another daily track on the blog, as we revive one of the most combative Synth-Pop hits of the 80’s for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’, given that it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music each day! ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot’ and ‘Heartbreaker’ were just two of the biggest hits that New York-born 80’s singer Pat Benatar – who had eight consecutive Platinum-certified albums over in Canada – graced our ears with throughout the decade. However, none of the four-time Grammy winner’s hits struck quite the chord that 1983’s ‘Love Is A Battlefield’ had done with mainstream audiences and, although I often veer into the Alternative side of music for most of my musical musings, it is still important for us to remember that some of the artists that we all like have enjoyed commercial success. Often producing her music with guitarist Neil Giraldo, who also became her husband in the process, Benatar has had 15 top 40 singles on the US Billboard charts and she has sold a reported figure of over 35 million albums worldwide. ‘Love Is A Battlefield’ represented her move from melodramatic rock ballads to more melodic pop, and, even now, it is often still used to represent the sound of the 80’s, having been used recently in the hugely popular TV series ‘Stranger Things’. Memorable for its music video, which saw Benatar playing a rebellious young girl who runs away from home, the single was ranked at #30 of VHS’ list of the 100 Greatest Hits Of The 80’s and it reached the #1 spot in several territories, including Australia and The Netherlands, as well as the Rock Tracks Chart in the US, shortly following release. Let’s revisit it below.

Written by Holly Knight and Mike Chapman, ‘Love Is A Battlefield’ was initially meant to be a mid-tempo ballad, but Benatar was the only one to really see potential in the track because the studio executives had originally disliked it. After a little bit of time monkeying around with husband/producer Neil Giraldo on the drum machines in the studio, they created the more electronic sound of the finished piece. You can still hear that the guitars are present, but it put a unique spin on rock ‘n’ roll music at the time and it was quite a large switch in sound for Benatar to make back then. Given that it went straight to #5 on the US Billboard Chart, however, it’s fair to say that her risk paid off nicely. Moreover, the lyrics are kept to the point with a self-explanatory nature, as the lead character feels scorned and scarred by love. Benatar keeps her vocal performance feeling dynamic, with a spoken opening refrain that battles with her cleaner verse, and some twisting effects in the chorus. Hook-based lyrics like “We are strong/No one can tell us we’re wrong/Searching our hearts for so long” prove that Benatar is capable of producing some decent, catchy lyrics. The soundscape consistently shifts, with the refrain of “You’re begging me to go/Then making me stay” leading the slower refrain in the bridge that keeps the emotive vulnerability of a ballad intact. You can definitely hear that it was originally going to be a ballad and see where the significant rewrites were made when you know the backstory, but that background also clearly has something to do with what makes the lyrics so punchy and what makes the instrumentation feel so strong. Going from slow and somber to angry and melodic, ‘Love Is A Battlefield’ was simply a great Pop song from the 80’s and the Synths suit her vocals in place of the heavy rock influences of her earlier work, and so it is no wonder that it became one of the 80’s most cherished recordings.

Pictured: Pat Benatar in a PR photoshoot for ‘In The Heat Of The Night’ (1979) (Photo via V13.net/Chrysallis)

That’s all for now! Thank you for enjoying another swift blast from the past with me, and I’ll be back tomorrow to take you through some more brand new music. My next pick comes from an Alternative Folk singer-songwriter from New Zealand who was spotted by Anika Moa, another Folk-Pop singer-songwriter from New Zealand, who asked her to support her that night after finding her busking outside of the venue that she was going to play at. She has since released music on 4AD, Spunk and Flying Nun, and her fourth full-length LP – ‘Warm Chris’ – is set for its release on March 25th, 2022.

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Today’s Track: Mighty Mystic (feat. Tyler Loyal & Sizzla) – ‘Far From Jamaica’

February 22, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Mighty Mystic performing at Winter Reggae Splash: A Bob Marley Celebration (2015) (Photo by David Alves)

Good Morning to you! You have tuned back into One Track At A Time and I’m Jacob Braybrooke, clocking in for the day as I take you through 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! Channeling traditional Reggae and Ska music elements with a Post-Punk twist, Mighty Mystic is the solo music project of the Massachusetts-based, but St. Elizabeth-born musician Kevin Mark Holness, who moved away from Jamaica and into Boston at the age of nine years old. He received a breakthrough when his 2006 single – ‘Riding On The Clouds’ – received radio airplay across the East Coast of the US, and he is also the younger brother of the current Jamaican prime minister, Andrew Holness. Since collaborating with peers like Shaggy and Lutan Fyah in his earlier days of creating music, he has performed on over 30 different tours and his career has spanned over two decades, with the veteran talent becoming a box office draw at live venues and a staple at national music festivals. He has released four studio albums, three of which have charted on the top 10 of the Billboard Album Charts in the US, and so he continues to find crossover success between genres and audiences on the global ‘World Music’ scene. Featuring Tyler Loyal and Sizzla, he’s decided to kick off 2022 with ‘Far From Jamaica’ – a new single that has gained over 50K streams across various digital music platforms so far. He will also be releasing his latest studio album – ‘Giant’ – on March 25th through VPAL Music. Give it a spin below.

Featuring in-house production by Holness and his backing band that was recorded at Surefire Studios in Boston, later being mastered by Tim Phillips at Mercury Sound Studios in New York City, the 13-track project of ‘Giant’ has been produced with guest contributors such as Jared Bonvino and his own fellow brother Stephen Holness. The development of ‘Far From Jamaica’ allowed Kevin Mark Holness to work with two legends of his national music scene, and he notes, “From when I was a kid growing up and listening to Reggae music I’ve always been a fan of Sizzla, so when I spoke to him about the idea of us doing a song together and him saying yes and actually doing it, it was a dream come true, and on top of it, the song came out even better than I had imagined”, in his press statement. Together, the three acts have conjured up a distinctive track boasting lyrics like “Got to get out from here, far from here/Lost in a foreign land” and “Ten thousand miles away, far from Jamaica” that bring a harsher quality to their catchy melodies under the surface. The lyrics discuss the deeper conversation of Jamaican people working away from home to provide for their families back at home, with half-rapped lyrics like “Well, if the snow no kill me/Then the stress a go do it” and “Freeze my finger, not to mention my feet” that talk about the harsh living conditions that the Jamaican immigrant community persevere through to make a living, and the physical toll that long hours take on your body and how these experiences drain you emotionally, with the vocals speaking openly about these issues with a candid outlook on the matter. Moving on, the vast instrumentation mixes a shimmering Drum beat and a traditional Reggae instrumental with some slightly aggressive guitar melodies and a wobbling groove of Bass to create catchy melodies that are sharp, and complement the very serious tone of the lyrics without diving head-first into entire ‘doom and gloom’ for the situation by making the overall message feel relatable and entertaining. Overall, ‘Far From Jamaica’ is a solid single that doesn’t whisk you away to the shoals of Kingston, but that is the point. Instead, it gives you the grit and realism of the daily grind with a very flavoursome Reggae twist.

Pictured: Mighty Mystic performing a live set at the Boston Freedom Rally (2017) (Photo by Jason Hanney)

Thank you for checking out the blog today, and I’ll be back tomorrow for another entry in our ‘Way Back Wednesday’ feature, where we’ll be reminding ourselves of one of the biggest rock ‘n’ roll hits from the early 1980’s, as it is sometimes important to do so. The track was recorded by a New York-born four-time Grammy Award winner who has had 15 Billboard Top 40 singles and she has had eight consecutive platinum albums in Canada. Married to guitarist Neil Giraldo, she recorded the track that is still her biggest hit in several countries with the writers Holly Knight and Mike Chapman.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Jurassic 5 – ‘Concrete Schoolyard’

February 16, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Charli 2na, Cut Chemist, DJ Nu-Mark, Akil, Zaakir & Marc 7 (Date n/a) (Photo by Paul Natkin/WireImage)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has arrived for me to take you on a ride in my musical DeLorean as we pay a small tribute to one of the seminal sounds of the past for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ on the blog, which fits my theme of writing up about a different piece of music every day! Comprised of MC’s Charli 2na (Charles Stewart), Akii (Dante Givens), Courtenay Henderson (Soup aka Zaakir), Marc 7 (Marc Stuart) and DJ’s/Producer’s Cut Chemist (Lucas McFadden) and DJ Nu-Mark (Mark Potsic) – Jurassic 5 were actually a six-piece crew who came out the Los Angeles venue of Good Life and they were trailblazers on the global hip-hop scene, both critically and commercially, throughout the late-1990’s and the 2000’s. They were very much known for being old school and proud of it, with their lyrics mixing braggadocio rhymes with simple tributes to the art form of Hip-Hop and street poetry itself. There were no over-produced auto-tune melodies, no blatant money-waving, obvious misogyny, no outrageous grand-standing and just a sprinkling of swearing – but they simply packed out live sets throughout the UK and the US by encouraging a live crowd to get on their feet and interact with them, with most of their success coming directly from good word-of-mouth and a mixture of sought-after EP releases, to start off with, that were initially only available through Import in the UK. They had hits including ‘What’s Golden?, ‘The Influence’ and ‘Quality Control’ that made the likes of Charli 2na and Cut Chemist household names. Their highest-charting single in the UK is ‘Concrete Schoolyard’, which reached #35 and it was taken from their debut self-titled album released in 1998, but it also appeared on the self-titled EP release from a year prior. The Jurassic 5 logo’s that you can find on the front cover of the EP and the album were designed by Charli 2na himself, and NME named the album as their 9th best from 1998. Let’s play on the ‘Concrete Schoolyard’ below.

Although they offered something fresh to many listeners of all backgrounds, Jurassic 5 decided to call it ‘Quits’ in 2007 shortly after releasing their fourth studio album – ‘Feedback’ – citing creative differences as the reason, yet they returned to the stage and recorded some new material for a reunion during 2013 and 2014, and each member of the band has continued to release new music individually. As for ‘Concrete Schoolyard’, the core ethos of their message was “Let’s take it back to the concrete streets/Original beats from real live MC’s” as they aimed to provide their freshest Hip-Hop sound yet. At the time, Hip-Hop was decidedly either Dance Pop-oriented or Grunge-influenced in terms of visceral production, and so Jurassic 5 naturally decided to keep it simply by incorporating thick and floating Piano chords into their backing beats on ‘Concrete Schoolyard’ with a kick drum beat that makes the soundscape feel warm, but making for a slower tempo than a typical Hip-Hop release where elements of Soul and Baroque can peek in. It is melodic enough, however, with a final breakdown that increases the danceability of the recording. Refrains like “Playground tactics/No rabbit-in-the-hand tricks/Just that classic rap S**t from Jurassic” also provide a clear sense of clarity as the Alternative Hip-Hop collective make it their mission statement to disregard sleight of hand tricks or conform to pre-conceptual trends and place a larger emphasis on their influences instead. In conclusion, on ‘Concrete Schoolyard’ – which was reportedly recorded with Dave Matthews of all artists – Jurassic 5 were admittedly good and they were a much-needed breath of fresh air. There was no tropes and no tricks, just good old-fashioned MC’s with a solid sense of slight satire which was a clean cut above the rest.

Pictured: Charli 2na & Krafy Kuts in a PR shot for ‘Adventures Of A Reluctant Superhero’ (2019) (Photo via Last.FM)

That’s all for now! Thank you lots for checking out the blog that I’ve been working on today, and I’ll see you again later as we break down some more brand new music. Tomorrow, we’ll be listening to the album announcement track from a brand new artist who is based in London but originally hails from Calabar, Nigeria. He does a lot of interesting things with Afrobeat and his 2020 EP ‘Which Way Is Forward?’ landed a spot on my Top 5 EP’s list of that year, and he’s recently collaborated with Little Simz.

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Today’s Track: Toro Y Moi – ‘Postman’

February 15, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Mahal’ (LP) (Available from April 29th, 2022) (via Dead Oceans)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has arrived for me to virtually hand-deliver yet another daily track on the blog to your letterbox, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! We start the day with ‘Postman’ – a track that my mother is bound to enjoy since parcels are her thing. This is the new single from the South Carolina-born producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and graphic designer Toro Y Moi (aka Chad Bear), who is typically recognized as a figurehead for the Chillwave and Synthwave genres from the 2010’s, but his music also toes the line between a brevity of genres including Noise-Pop, Hip Hop, Post-Disco, Psychedelic Soul, Bedroom Pop, Ambient House and Alternative Rock. He has supported the likes of Ruby Suns, Phoenix and Caribou on tour and he has performed his single ‘Ordinary Pleasure’ on Ellen’s talk show. ‘Postman’ has been released as a double single that also includes ‘Magazine’ which features Salami Rose Joe Louis as the featured credit. These two singles are leading his new album ‘MAHAL’ that explores his Fillipino descent and it will be releasing on April 29th via Dead Oceans – the same label as the likes of Mitski, Shame, Khruangbin and Bright Eyes. The new record is a generous 13-track collection which includes contributions from Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Ruban Nielson, Sofie Royer, The Matson 2 and Alan Polomo (of Neon Indian). Let’s pay his ‘Postman’ a visit below.

‘Postman’ and ‘Magazine’ are the follow-up singles to 2019’s ‘Outer Peace’ – Bear’s sixth studio album. He also collaborated with Flume on ‘The Difference’ during May of 2020, a collaborative single that scored a Grammy nomination and it was used in a global Apple AirBuds advertising campaign. Channeling his inner Bootsy Collins with ‘Postman’, Bear lays out some slinky Psych-Soul beats and some low fidelity Funk grooves that are accelerated by some breezy percussion, like the rattling Tambourine melodies, and the more melodic, driving Bass melodies. Aside from some occasional electronic yelps that sound amusing in how comedically processed they are, the vocals are pretty spacious. Lyrics like “Just another bill today/Just another bill to pay” are direct and to the point, while the repetition of questions like “Mr Postman, did I get a letter?/Did I get a postcard” reflect on the good old-fashioned anticipation that you experience while waiting for an inevitable arrival of a piece of post, a time that we’ve all been through. The last verse, however, features a more emotive lyric of “Mama wrote a letter/A Long time ago/Then she hit her head/God bless her soul” that implies that something more dark is occurring beneath the surface, albeit in a playful way when mixed to the slow rhyming scheme of Bear’s vocal delivery, followed by the glitched outro that feels slightly futuristic by heading towards indie computer music in the brief sequence. Bear clearly leans into how post is a little non-existent in our modern day and age to create some fun and give his track a feel that is both nostalgic and a little progressive. We get a strong grower overall that is a little bizzare, but in a good way, because the composition is frisky and the repetition builds on you with a few repeated listens, and it is the kind of track that can annoy you by getting stuck in your head at work all evening – and that’s coming from my personal experience – thus becoming a catchy little ear-worm. I really liked it with subsequent listens, and I’ve enjoyed quite a lot of Toro Y Moi’s music in the past since it has an air of ‘Almost Pop’ to it where he has a knack for structuring catchy chords and writing high-spirited hooks by directing a decent diversity of various influences, yet it is within his Lo-Fi and Minimalist production that really controls the pace. It has also been a long time since we’ve heard some new solo material from him in comparison to most other artists these days, perhaps, too – and so it feels like a welcome breath of fresh air to hear from him again on ‘Postman’. An engaging and quirky letter of revival and return.

Pictured: Toro Y Moi with Flume in a PR photoshoot for ‘The Difference’ (2020) (Photo Credit: Joyce Kim)

If you want to hear how Toro Y Moi’s style meshes with Flume, you can gauge ‘The Difference’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/06/06/todays-track-flume-feat-toro-y-moi-the-difference/

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘The Difference’ (Single) (Released on April 30th, 2020) (via Future Classic Records)

That’s all that I have time for today, but I hugely appreciate your support by checking out the blog every day, or for the first time today, as you continue to spread the love to the site this Valentine’s Day despite it being finished. ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ is lined up for tomorrow, where we’ll be revisiting a classic of the Hip-Hop genre of the 1990’s by the Alternative Hip-Hop collective who made Charli 2na a household name.

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