Power-Pop

Scuzz Sundays: The Caesars – ‘Jerk It Out’

April 24, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Love for The Streets’ (LP) (Released on April 22nd, 2002) (via Virgin Records/Dolores)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for us to pay a visit to one of the old ghosts of Pop-Punk’s past with a new addition to our ‘Scuzz Sundays’ library, given that it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘Love For The Streets’ was released on April 22nd, 2002 via Virgin/Dolores as the third full-length LP effort for the Indie Rock band The Caesars, as they are most widely known, who were formed in Stockholm, Sweden in 1995. Therefore, as of this week, the record has just celebrated its 20th anniversary. It makes for a really great opportunity for us to remember ‘Jerk It Out’ – the band’s most well-known track – that was taken as a single from the album. Following one re-issue in 2003 and another, more wider, re-release in 2005 – ‘Jerk It Out’ became an international success as it reached #8 in the UK Singles Chart and #70 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. It is definitely one of those tracks that you have heard many times before, but you most probably have not heard it in ages or did not know who performed it because, admittedly, the group did not have much more impact on popular culture outside of their domestic market in the years after. The Caesars are also known by two other names, as they were originally known as Caesars Palace natively. However, they changed their name to The Caesars to avoid confusion with the famous Las Vegas-based hotel of the same name and, likely due to copyright, they are known as Twelve Caesars in Scandinavia. My head is spinning with confusion, so please do me a merciful favour and press ‘Play’ on the ‘Jerk It Out’ music video below.

‘Love For The Streets’ has actually been certified as Gold in sales in their native country of Sweden, and you may also remember their hit ‘Jerk It Out’ from a global advertising campaign for the old iPod models and the, now rather obsolete, iPad Mini products designed by the corporate tech giant Apple. An easy track to write about due to it being so straightforward, ‘Jerk It Out’ dives headfirst into the 00’s Garage-Rock revival trends with an outrageously catchy Keyboard/Synth hook that twists and turns ferociously, as the sharp yet undemanding Drums kick in and the spaced-out effects on the keyboard gives the track the swirling, dizzying vibe that has made it feel so memorable. The lyrics are incredibly laid back and clear cut, as hooks like “Wind me up, put me down, start me off and watch me go/I’ll be running circles around you sooner than you know” and “Because it’s easy once you know how it’s done/You can’t stop now, it’s already begun” convey the themes of perseverance and finding reward out of taking risks very evidently. A distorted organ sample and a gentle guitar solo, towards the end of the track, keep the mid-60’s Garage Pop quality from becoming too predictable, and the catchy lyrics are married to the unique Synth style fairly well. That is all there really is to write about the track because it is just a fun, but simple, piece of music that feels like it could have been recorded in 1966 by a Garage band in Ohio. It equally sounds like a rather basic band manifesto in writing a three-minute pop gem designed to be a hit in the charts, which doesn’t usually sit very well with me, but I give The Caesars the benefit of the doubt on ‘Jerk It Out’ because the track is well-produced in being filled with so many simple, but catchy, segments. While being pretty much the definition of a one-hit wonder, ‘Jerk it Out’ is still just good fun.

Pictured: Joakim Åhlund (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals), César Vidal (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar), David Lindqvist (Bass Guitar/Occasional Backing Vocals) and Nini Keller (Drums/Percussion) (2003) (Photo via ACharts.co)

I think I’ve ‘Jerked’ out however much I can handle (No, I do not mean it like that, Rude) musically on the blog today, but thank you for continuing to support the site every day. I’ll be back tomorrow as we begin the final week of April with the diverse voice of a Los-Angeles based vocalist and violinist currently signed to Stones Throw Records known for her electric blending of African music and futuristic R&B. Earlier in the year, she headlined the Stones Throw showcase live event at South By Southwest.

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Today’s Track: Flume (feat. MAY-A) – ‘Say Nothing’

March 19, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Palaces’ (LP) (Available from May 20th, 2022) (via Future Classic Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for me to contribute to what is hopefully shaping up to be a good weekend for you with Saturday’s track on the blog, given how it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! An Australian pioneer of the Future Bass genre during the 2010’s, Flume is the DJ/Producer of Harley Edward Streten who has topped the ARIA Albums Chart a few times over and he has reached Double Platinum sales in his home turf. He also won Best Dance/Electronic Album at the Grammy Awards in 2017 for his second studio album ‘Skin’. Those who are a little less familiar with the name of Flume may have heard remixes he has created for the likes of Lorde, Arcade Fire and Disclosure in the past. He has also worked with a whole host of Australian and international artists like Anna Lunoe, Chet Faker, Slowthai, JPEG Mafia, SOPHIE, Vince Staples and others on extensive collaborations throughout the years. Following up his well-received ‘Hi, This Is Flume’ mixtape that he released in 2019, as well as his Toro Y Moi collaboration hit ‘The Difference’ from 2020, ‘Palaces’ is his third canonical studio album that is set to arrive on May 20th via Future Classic Records. It has been in the works since Streten relocated to a coastal town in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales, where he says he “found inspiration from the flora and fauna surrounding him” there, and so he has been experimenting with field recordings of nature sounds and birdsong while producing his new full-length recording. The lead single ‘Say Nothing’ features vocals by the rising star MAY-A. Let’s give it a spin below.

The AIR-Award winning musician’s new album enlists guests like Damon Albarn, Caroline Polachek, Emma Louise, Laurel, Quiet Bison, Virgen Maria, Oklou and Kučka for collaborations this time around, and, speaking on the new Alt-Pop cut, Streten explains, “This song is about feelings of post-relationship clarity”, adding, “We wrote the song midway through 2020 while the pandemic was still pretty new. I was really excited about the initial idea, but it was only once I got back to Australia in early 2021 and linked up in the studio with MAY-A that the song really came to life”, in his press statement. Starting off with a blurring effect on the Synths that shortly expands with euphoric Bass and fractured Snares, MAY-A sets up the tone of the vocals with her lovesick croon of “As far as summer goes I’m not even close/To wearing you like clothes when nobody’s home” that feels a little nervous and unsettling, as the Drum and Bass sequences gains traction and sits at the rear view mirror when the pre-chorus comes in. The chorus itself has brooding and pulsating elements that doesn’t quite allow the Bass and the Drums to fully unleash just yet, with a lean structure held together by the polished Pop sound and the viscerality of the dark Synths. It materialises with MAY-A’s declarative croon of “Say nothing, If you don’t wanna say goodbye” that feels a little poignant, and it feels emotional, especially for what predominantly remains a Dance-Pop track. ‘Say Nothing’ shifts away from Straten’s Future Bass origins to acquire a bolder Drum ‘N’ Bass feel, especially in the concluding moments where it feels more aggressively percussive. Behind the decks, he plays with duality in the track by blending dissonant drums with slower chords and elegant vocals in the backdrop, a combination that shouldn’t naturally go together on paper, but it feels pretty cohesive enough due to the Pop feel that lies underneath the leaner, experimental structure. There’s a lot of intricate details in the melting pot of sounds, but it could also fit right in with pop heavyweight DJ’s like Calvin Harris or David Guetta as it feels Pop-oriented and very polished. For me, the ‘Pop Polish’ does feel a little by-the-numbers at times as the chorus doesn’t feel particularly psychedelic or ethereal, however, I feel the production flair would be appealing to many listeners of a more casual variety, although I personally felt it didn’t connect as well as the prior section. That nitpick aside, Straten shows that he’s an excellent producer again by mixing a wide variety of tones together in a way that works to create the overall texture and the songwriting feels more interesting than it may appear on the surface due to the fractured effects on the vocals and the twists on duality as a theme. Appealing to a mainstream audience while experimenting with the tropes of modern Pop, albeit to slightly mixed results on the latter in my opinion, there is laughably an awful lot you could say about the summer-ready ‘Say Nothing’.

Pictured: Flume with Toro Y Moi in the music video shoot for ‘The Difference’ (2020) (Photo Credit: Joyce Kim)

If you want to hear ‘The Difference’ that Toro Y Moi made to Flume’s sound, click here:

Flume & Toro Y Moi – ‘The Difference’ (2020) – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/06/06/todays-track-flume-feat-toro-y-moi-the-difference/

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

That brings us to the bottom of the page for another 24-hour period! Thank you for your continued support for the site, and please make sure that you join me again for ‘Scuzz Sundays’ tomorrow as we take a listen to something British from the 2000’s that was probably heavy enough to be played on the channel. It comes from an Alternative Rock band from Newcastle who were pretty beloved on the blog when they released their most recent LP ‘Nature Always Wins’ last winter. This time, we’re going to look at the retro incarnation of the band who are led by Paul Smith and their first studio album – ‘A Certain Trigger’ – was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2005.

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New Album Release Fridays: Charli XCX (feat. Christine and The Queens & Caroline Polachek) – ‘New Shapes’

March 18, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Crash’ (LP) (Released on March 18th, 2022) (via Asylum/Atlantic Records/Warner UK)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to look at one of this weekend’s new album releases which is so highly anticipated that it cannot be ignored with 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! It has been an interesting career trajectory for the Cambridge-born singer and songwriter Charlotte Emma Aitchinson to say the least, who began posting her videos to MySpace in 2008 (Ask your parents!), where she was scouted by a promoter who invited Charli to perform at urban warehouse gigs. She later signed to Asylum Records in 2010, where she had some pretty traditional and fairly mainstream Pop hits like ‘Boom Clap’, ‘SuperLove’ and ‘Break The Rules’ while also writing well-known singles for Pop heavyweights like Selena Gomez, Iggy Azalea, Icona Pop, Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello. She later became a pioneer of the emerging ‘Hyper Pop’ and ‘Bedroom Pop’ genres while gaining a lot of new fans in the alternative music community with universally praised releases like her 2020 lockdown EP ‘How I’m Feeling Now’ which she produced collaboratively with her fans in a span of six weeks while in self-isolation, a record that played with unconventional Pop structures and experimental electronic production in previously uncharted ways, and it was shortlisted for the 2020 Mercury Prize alongside appearing on year-end lists by Paste, Uproxx, NPR, The Guardian and Consequence Of Sound. Today, she fully leaves the major label Pop music world with her fifth studio album ‘Crash’, which tackles a deal-with-the-devil idea visually. Lyrically, she says that it explores the power of the femme fatale with inspiration from dark spirits and curses which follows the spirit of David Cronenberg’s 1996 film of the same title. Musically, we’re getting a bold fusion of 80’s/90’s power-pop and 00’s synth-pop with a hint of futuristic Bedroom Pop stylings that Charli says was inspired by Janet Jackson. On the BBC Radio 2 playlisted pre-release single ‘New Shapes’, she enlists the help of French Art Pop trailblazer Christine And The Queens and continually rising American star Caroline Polachek. Let’s take it for a drive below.

Charli XCX will be taking her alternative assortment of retro-futurist Pop sounds on the road for a tour of Europe and North America throughout the summer months, and her new LP record features contributions by Rina Sawayama, Digital Farm Animals, Oneohtrix Point Never and several more creatives. ‘New Shapes’ follows a simple story of a stale relationship where both sides are being manipulative, with lyrics like “I don’t know why I got a tendency to run away/Don’t know why I’m always pushing for a sweet escape” that set the scene with bright Synths and 808 beats that will remind you of freestyle girl groups like The Cover Girls or Company B, before a more complex narrative unveils where the narrator is fighting the urge to desert the relationship while feeling exhausted by it, with a cycle of mistreatment manipulating the narrator to feel like a different person while still succumbing to the sexual desire which they share for one another. There are two sides to every coin on ‘New Shapes’ seemingly, where the upbeat keys and the energetic Synth arrangements make it quite easy to overlook the frustrations of the narrator and the complications of their relationship. A strong and consistently high tempo makes the rhythm feel punchy, but the lyrics replicate something a little more mournful in balance. Polachek and Christine are there to play the role of emulating some emotional support from a girl of group friends, who are attempting to cheer Charli XCX up with a scene that may replicate how a group of girls always seem to go to the bathroom together (I went clubbing in my university days, and so that’s a trait I’ve noticed). Their verses are met by a similar soundscape of mechanical drums and reverb-drenched Synths while adding some additional voices to the track for more variety. It doesn’t feel quite as experimental as some of Charli’s other efforts and feels like more of a traditional ‘radio record’ to promote the album, but the blueprints of her wildly successful pandemic EP are still here. I always thought there was something a little different in Charli XCX’s ‘SUCKER’ days of more mainstream Pop where she dealt with overtly sexual content in very expansive ways with a punk attitude, and tracks like ‘New Shapes’ continue to add more nuance to that format. Overall, I think that ‘New Shapes’ is one of the best singles to introduce the more bolder and updated version of Charli XCX to newcomers or previous fans due to it’s accessibility and danceability. It may not feel quite as bold as the tracks on her lockdown EP, but it begs the listener to dance along with it while conveying a sense of urgency and immediacy that clicks together nicely, and that’s coming from somebody who is a little snobbish about this style of Pop music at the best of times. Charli is an extraordinarily talented young lady, and so it’s good that she finally has a platform to show what she’s truly capable of making as a performer and a producer. ‘New Shapes’ may not be her most memorable offering, but there’s something for everyone in here and it conforms to a more accessible Pop sound while not ignoring the experimental EP, and so ‘Crash’ looks more like smooth sailing to me.

Pictured: Charlotte Aitchison at the red carpet of the BRIT Awards (2020) (Photo by Joe Maher/Getty Images)

That brings us to the bottom of the page for another day! Thank you for taking a moment out of today to visit the site, and I’ll be back tomorrow to review another fresh new Pop-oriented single – this time coming from an Australian DJ/Producer who is recognized as a ‘Future Bass’ pioneer of the 2010’s with several Grammy Award nominations and ARIA Awards attention to his name. He reportedly chose his name after his favourite Bon Iver track – although his name is shared by a type of ravine.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Gossip – ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’

March 16, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Beth Ditto (Vocals/Piano), Nathan Howdeshell (Bass/Keyboard) & Hannah Billie (Drums) (2019) (via PR)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to start spreading the word on the street (or the internet) that there is another daily track on the blog in town as we go retro for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Formerly known as ‘The Gossip’ – Gossip were a Beth Ditto-led punk rock band from Arkansas who were originally active between 1999 and 2016 who were another name in a fairly familiar string of Garage Rock Revival sub-genre bands like The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s and The Hives who were also popular in the contemporary mainstream of the time. Exploring a mixture of indie rock, post-punk revival and dance-rock influences, they gained some breakthrough in radio charts popularity with their 2006 track ‘Standing In The Control’, a glitzy Pop-Punk number that reached the top ten of the UK Singles Chart and it has appeared on decade-end lists like NME’s ‘150 Best Tracks Of The Past 15 Years’ at the #34 rank on the list in 2011 and at #429 on Pitchfork’s ‘Top 500 Greatest Tracks Of The 2000’s’ list in late 2009. It was the lead single of Gossip’s third studio album of the same name released in 2006, which reached #1 on the UK’s Indie Chart and it has reached Gold status in the territory. Produced by Ryan Hadlock and Guy Picciotto, it was Gossip’s first album to feature new drummer Hannah Billie, of Seattle’s Chromatics fame. If you used to watch the British TV drama ‘Skins’ on E4, you would also know the track as it was proclaimed to be the ‘unofficial’ theme track of the programme as it featured heavily in promotional materials and it would be played on the DVD main menu’s of the series’ home release. Let’s remember it below.

The yellow, black and red graffiti-style cover artwork for the physical single release was designed by none other than Kim Gordon, the bassist of Sonic Youth. Meanwhile, the track itself was written as a response to the Federal Marriage Amendment, a highly controversial code of law that would have outlawed gay marriage across the US. With this theme in mind, the impassioned instrumentation and the reasonably soft, yet minimal and pulsating, lead vocals by Beth Ditto hit harder as a battle cry for empowered liberation than anybody who has ever felt constrained or marginalized may have expected from Gossip. Bursting out of the gate energetically with the unforgettable refrain of “Your back’s against the wall/There’s no one home to call/You’re forgetting who to call/You can’t stop crying” that boasts the core sentiment of denying the authorities’ will to make same sex marriage illegal, a process that feels alien today, which paves the way for Billie to hit her metronomic hi-hat snares and four-on-the-floor bass kicks with her ragged Punk-infused Drum parts, while guitarist Brace Paine contributes some vigorous bass lines and high-energy guitar riffs, that chug along to the distortion-drenched production of the thin and treble-enhanced range of melodies, to the equation. Ditto’s vocals earn a distinction among the wealth of other talents in the Garage-Rock revival business of the mid-00’s as they feel rather Bluesy, yet propulsive, with a smoky delivery on mid-chorus hooks like “You’ll live your life/Survive the only way that you know” and a commanding presence above the instrumentation that recalls the vintage Motown acts of the 70’s like Diana Ross and Ann Wilson in her wailing notes and her lengthily sustained filler phrases. The track also fits squarely into the DIY ethics of an underground Punk feminist movement of the 1990’s called the ‘Riot grrrl’ era in the way that Ditto’s band combine Punk music with Politics on this, probably, best-known single from them. ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’ feels like a natural blend between the two styles, and it creates a noticeable Disco edge too, as it feels impossible not to mindlessly nod your head along to the groove. It was unapologetically brash, and Ditto’s band were transformed from a clan of Dance-Punk disruptors to Pop phenomena in the process.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’ (LP/Album) (Released on January 24th, 2006) (via Back Yard Recordings/Kill Rock Stars)

That brings me to the end of another nostalgic throwback post on One Track At A Time, and I hope that you have a pleasant day, and thank you for showing your support for the site today. I’ll be diverting your attention back to brand new music tomorrow, as we review the latest single by a Grime-meets-Punk duo based in East London who have toured with hardcore rapper Nascar Aloe, supported Gallows at their comeback gig at House Of Vans in 2019 and were featured in a guest appearance on a BBC Radio 1 session by Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes presented by Annie Mac.

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Scuzz Sundays: The Pretty Reckless – ‘Make Me Wanna Die’

March 13, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Taylor Momsen (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar), Ben Phillips (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals), Jamie Perkins (Drums/Percussion) and Mark Damon (Bass Guitar/Acoustic Guitar) (2010) (Photo Credit: Music Hub – Fandom)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it is time for me to offer up another Scuzz Sundays post that you would probably not be prepared ‘to die for’, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! One of the most commercially successful female-led bands of the Mascara-dripping 00’s going through the 2010’s was The Pretty Reckless, who are still active regularly today. Led by Taylor Momsen, who was previously known for being a teen TV star in productions like ‘Gossip Girl’ and ‘Spy Kids 2: The Island Of Lost Dreams’ – as well as playing the child role of Cindy Lou Who in the Jim Carrey version of ‘How The Grinch Stole Christmas’ in 2000, the band have topped the US Album charts with albums like ‘Going To Hell’ and ‘Who You Selling For?’ and topped the US Rock Charts with fairly well-known singles like ‘Heaven Knows’ and ‘Messed Up World’. Momsen’s misfits last released ‘Death By Rock and Roll’ last year, which found her getting the chance to collaborate with legendary Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello for a track. ‘Make Me Wanna Die’ is instantly recognizable if you have seen the edgy comic book movie ‘Kick Ass’, which helped to bring actors like Chloe Grace Moretz and Aaron Taylor-Johnston some of their Hollywood stardom throughout the years since 2010. It was produced by Kato Khandwala, and it was the first track to be written for their debut album, 2010’s ‘Light Me Up’. It reached #16 on the UK Singles Chart, and it was initially described as a tragic love song inspired by Romeo and Juliet by Momsen.

‘Make Me Wanna Die’ is the first track that The Pretty Reckless wrote together as an ensemble, and it was based on a fictional story they created where the rough story of ‘Make Me Wanna Die’ tells the tale of a girl with a supernatural lover – a narrative which the vampire-loving Twi-hards of the 2010’s would have also loved – and her desires to be transformed into ‘one of them’ so they can both stay in love together, according to the Genius website. Starting off with some filter-like Mellotron flutes, Momsen sets the stage for her dark tale of lust and loss with her spoken-sung refrains of “Never was a girl with a wicked mind/But everything looks better when the sun goes down” and “I had everything/Opportunities for eternity/And I could belong to the night” that develop a brief backstory for her character. It’s nothing that feels rich in motive or Oscar-worthy performance, but it gets the job done. The verses represent a mix of angsty Grunge-enhanced Pop and stop-and-start Desert Rock, where the melodramatic lead guitar riffs are separated by short gaps and the jagged Bass guitar riffs complement the ‘Broken’ feel of the single’s emotional qualities. The chorus kicks in, with hooks like “Everything you love/Will burn up in the night” and “Every time I look inside your eyes/You make me wanna die” floating seemlessly above the Pop-Punk production. There’s also a little bridge where some overtly emotional Strings come in and there’s a short assortment of backing vocals that feel a little cheesy – for lack of a better term – but they provide some more variety to the track and ensure that it’s effect doesn’t ware so thin. Overall, ‘Make Me Wanna Die’ is a robust reminder of the days where guilty pleasure monster flicks like ‘Underworld’ and ‘Resident Evil’ were gaining some decent box office takings in the 00’s, as the lyrics complement the angsty yet dark tone of the creature features nicely and the looped percussion adds some little bells and whistles to the production. It feels a little bit overly theatrical at points for me, but it feels like a lot of fun nevertheless. It’s very inoffensive and harmless, although it wasn’t going to earn awards for innovation.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Light Me Up’ (LP/Album) (Released on August 27th, 2010) (via Interscope Records)

If that collaboration between Momsen and Morello sounds good to you, it is very convenient that it was actually covered on the blog prior to release. Check it out here:

‘And So It Went’ (feat. Tom Morello) – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/03/06/todays-track-the-pretty-reckless-feat-tom-morello-and-so-it-went/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Death By Rock and Roll’ (LP) (Released on February 12, 2021) (via Fearless Records)

That brings us to the end of another entry of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ on the blog. Thank you for showing your interest in the site today as your continued support is always highly appreciated – and I’ll be back tomorrow to give you a taste of the latest track from a Manchester-based Art Pop band who have covered tracks by The Prodigy and Disclosure and they have gained support from sources as varied as ITV Granada and The Guardian. They are probably best known for singles like ‘Can’t Stop’ and ‘Nobody Scared’ that have been receiving daytime airplay from the BBC Radio 6 Music playlist.

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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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Today’s Track: Jordana – ‘Catch My Drift’

February 14, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Face The Wall’ (LP) (Available from May 5th, 2022) (via Grand Jury Music)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and I hope that your eardrums are ready 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! A 20-year-old singer songwriter originally from Wichita, Kansas who I believe is based in Los Angeles, California – Jordana Nye is another in a long line of Bedroom Pop artists that has something unique to offer, and I gave her unanimous praise for her mid-pandemic singles ‘I Guess This Is Life’ and ‘Reason’ on the blog in 2020 when I discovered her. Her musical career began when her father, who was an organist at her local church, encouraged her to learn how to play instruments, and so she started on the Violin before picking up the Guitar, and she also went on to busk on the boardwalk of North Beach, Maryland when she was 13. Later, she released her debut album – ‘Classical Notions Of Self-Happiness’ – in 2019 that she entirely self-released and self-produced in her bedroom, and, in December 2020, she released a combination of two EP’s – ‘Something To Say To You’ – to essentially form up her second album. She has also collaborated with Magdalena Bay, TV Girl, Jordan Woods and producer MELVV and she will be supporting Wallows on tour in May 2020. Currently signed to Grand Jury Music, Jordana is back and she will release her next full-length LP, ‘Face The Wall’, on May 20th. She played every instrument on it by herself and it was co-produced by Cameron Hale (Claud, Khalid, Neon Trees). So far, her music has toed a line between a brevity of genres including Grunge, Lo-Fi Pop, Pop-Punk and Alternative Folk – but it has always been her notably playful personality and her gently philosophical style of songwriting that has stood out for me. On her Bandcamp page, her album’s listing has hinted at veganism, religion, upbringing and sexuality as themes to be explored on the record. “The album title has a few meanings to me”, Nye says in a press release, adding, “Mostly, it’s about not giving up. The wall can be anything in your way. The album is sort of a reminder to myself that I have to face those things, and I can’t take the easy route and turn around”. Check out the latest single – ‘Catch My Drift’ – below.

‘Face The Wall’ is Jordana’s first album to be recorded in a studio instead of her home, and she has solo headline shows planned to take place across the US in June 2022. Along with the music video for ‘Catch My Drift’, she says, “This song is about going back and forth with your feelings for someone when they make you question whether they are even reciprocated. The song is about realizing you shouldn’t be totally dependent on anybody, and that it’s a waste of energy”, in her press release. A natural choice for a single, ‘Catch My Drift’ is a catchy Pop-driven Punk number that, with its music video, transports you back to the mid-00’s where Pop-Punk reigned supreme with female artists like Avril Lavigne and Paramore’s Hayley Williams filling the air with care-free and commercial anthems about reasoned dismissals of ex-lovers, but Jordana doesn’t just pull the nostalgia card and she decorates the throwback with her personal commentary. I also love how she fills the video with a caricature of characters, like the bassist and the drummer, that are played by herself dressed in questionable outfits. It feels almost like Aphex Twin and the ‘Come To Daddy’ video by concept, and it definitely conveys her sense of humor in a fun way. It helps that the frenetic guitar riffs, with a water-tight bridge that reminds me of the 80’s and echoes the likes of Simple Minds or The Cure, are very catchy and fit the fairly light-hearted tone of the melodies. The Synths are fast and furious too, aiding the lyrics where Jordana croons hooks like “I hate to say I told you so/It’s no mistake to be alone” and “Do you catch my drift?/Are you picking up what I’m putting down” with the sense that she’s not holding her breath for wish fulfillment. There’s an excellent mixture of strength and vulnerability in her vocals and the propulsive bass and drums combo of the chorus wraps up her lovesick pain with a feeling of progression and moving forwards in personal matters. I certainly think that, if an act with a more known name or a higher profile released this exact same single tomorrow – like Taylor Swift or Olivia Rodrigo – it would get played all over the likes of BBC Radio 1 or BBC Radio 2. Therefore, it is a pity that she’s not one of them and she doesn’t quite have the same following yet. However, this is still a punchy and effortlessly likeable preview of the upcoming album that we can take pride in keeping to ourselves a little bit, although I really want for people to hear Jordana’s music and get the experience of hearing her voice. Every one of her tracks have been an absolute joy for me to listen to so far and I can’t wait to see how the new album shakes up because I strongly feel that Jordana is a real talent. Retro, accessible and intimate – ‘Catch My Drift’ is incredibly irresistible.

Pictured: Jordana Nye in a photoshoot for the ‘Something To Say To You’ EP (2020) (Photo Credit: Jacob Clark)

If this post has inspired you to check out some of Jordana’s other great material, you can get started on her discography with my post about ‘I Guess This Is Life’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/11/10/todays-track-jordana-i-guess-this-is-life/. Alternatively, there’s another ‘Reason’ for you to check out her earlier work here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/12/07/todays-track-jordana-reason/.

Pictured: Jordana in an official photoshoot for ‘Something To Say To You’ EP (2020) (Photo by Grand Jury Music)

That brings us to the end of the page for another roughly 24-hour period, and I have little else to say than to thank you for taking some time out of your day to check out this music today. Feel welcome to come back tomorrow, where we will be listening to some fresh music from a South Carolina-born producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and graphic designer who is usually recognized as one of the pioneers of the Chillwave movement from the 2010’s. He collaborated with Flume during 2020.

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Scuzz Sundays: Boy Kill Boy – ‘Suzie’

February 6, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Civilian’ (LP) (Released on May 22nd, 2006) (via Vertigo Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to pay another visit to one of Pop-Punk’s ghosts of the past with yet another weekly entry of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ on the daily music blog, given that it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! During the heyday of Scuzz TV, many of the most regularly featured bands were American with stateside favourites like Fall Out Boy, Bowling For Soup and Green Day proving popular with the station’s executives, and so we’re spicing things up by looking at one of the British hopefuls to rival The Killers from the time, but it sadly didn’t quite work out that way for Boy Kill Boy – a Leytonshire native rock band led by Chris Peck, who released two albums before splitting up in 2008, citing a host of issues regarding their label and some disappointing sales for their second LP – 2008’s ‘Stars And The Sea’ – as factors to their downfall. It started out promisingly for them, with the band opening the Radio 1/NME stage at Reading and Leeds Festival in 2005 and headlining NME’s New Bands Tour in 2006, as well as getting lots of support slots for Feeder, Maximo Park, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Cribs, The Automatic, The Charlatans, The Long Blondes and more throughout the UK, US and internationally. Their debut album – 2005’s ‘Civilian’ – also managed to do decent business despite largely ‘meh’ reviews from critics, with the band developing a cult following and it simply went wrong when their label did not see this band as marketable due to their very classically influenced guitar rock sound – according to Peck in subsequent interviews – but they struck a chord with audiences. Boy Kill Boy’s most well-known single is probably ‘Suzie’ as it is also their highest-charting. It reached #17 on the UK Singles Chart, while other singles like ‘Back Again’ and ‘Civil Sin’ also reached the Top 50. The band also performed ‘Suzie’ on an episode of BBC’s ‘Top Of The Pops’ back at the time. Let’s catch up with ‘Suzie’ below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW5MkbexZsM

Lead vocalist Chris Peck started his own solo project when he teased ‘Riversong’ on YouTube in 2011 and keyboardist Peter Carr went on to play the keyboards in the backing band for Marina and The Diamonds in case you were wondering what happened to some of Boy Kill Boy’s line-up. They also reformed for two gigs at Oslo, Hackney, London in November 2016 to sold out sales and critical acclaim, but it’s unclear what has happened to them all outside of those few details. However, ‘Suzie’ represents the band at their peak period, with dimly dressed vocalist Peck squelching “This is not a movie, Things just ain’t the same as your favourite video” after the Synth-led intro that feels like The Killers. The Synths roll along suggestively, while the hyper guitars and drums boast a fast-paced workout with a feel that isn’t entirely commercial because the buoyancy feels quite ramshackle in delivery, and the vocals boast an unpolished sense of agitation, yet there’s some questionable accents put forth by Peck throughout the song when you listen attentively to his half Scottish and half Irish, somewhat laddish, type of croon at close attention. The structure feels catchy, with quick sections like “They said, don’t let me down again” being repeated a few times, as to wind up a live crowd and get them involved with the sing-along nature of the chorus, where Peck screams “Countdown to the disappointment” with a bitterness in his voice that is counteracted by the more blithe instrumentation where the keyboards are engaging and the Synths have a brightness to them. I enjoyed owning the full album for ‘Civlian’ when I was eight or nine years old – possibly younger – and when you listen back, it doesn’t feel outdated by a terrible amount as such. The issue is more that, at some points, you can hear them trying to recycle the laddish tropes of Kaiser Chiefs or The Ordinary Boys, and at some other times, you can hear Peck having a bash at being Maximo Park with his give-and-take live crowd-oriented delivery, and so you end up with something that feels like a re-hash of the tried-and-true tropes of peer groups from (around about) their contemporary time. That said, there’s a charm to the unpolished production with relatable lyrics about dealing with your own pessimistic spirit and how that shapes a relationship within that environment, as we all go through times like Peck’s issues with ‘Suzie’ where we think that things are going to be better than they really turn out to be. Moreover, there’s an anthemic quality to ‘Suzie’ that I feel, if we were living in a different world, could have put them more firmly on the map. As it stands, while some things aren’t quite as good as you remember them, ‘Suzie’ was certainly not a failure. It was just oddly sweet in knowingly fulfilling the London fashionista trends of 00’s ‘Indie landfill’ as the critics call it, rather than setting the world of guitar-driven rock alight for an extended period of time outside of initial success. It was only a slight disappointment.

Pictured: Chris Peck (Lead Vocals/Lead Guitar/Rhythm Guitar), Kevin Chase (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals), Peter Carr (Keyboards/Synths/Backing Vocals) and Shaz Mahmood (Drums/Percussion) (2006) (Photo Credit: NME.com)

That’s all for now! Thank you for giving me a moment of your attention today, and I’ll be back tomorrow to kick off a new week’s worth of hyper-active blog posts, in daily succession, with a recent single by a non-binary rapper/producer from Philadelphia, Pensylvania who has been a member of Liberal Art, Third Eye Optiks and Indigold. They released their third studio LP, ‘CANDID’, on Les Fleurs Records last Wednesday.

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Today’s Track: Foals – ‘Wake Me Up’

February 5, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Yannis Phillippakis (Lead Vocalist/Lead Guitarist), Jack Bevan (Drums/Percussion) and Jimmy Smith (Rhythm Guitar/Keyboard/Synths/Production/Occasional Backing Vocals) (2022) (Photo Credit: Ed Cooke)

Good day to you, and thank you for gearing up for another daily upload on One Track At A Time. I’m Jacob Braybrooke and I’ve got another eventful daily track in store for you on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Typically, I only tend to have around 7% of my week’s energy left in me on a Saturday morning like this, and so a new track with the title of ‘Wake Me Up’ could be the caffeine pill that I need to keep me motivated today. It comes from the Oxford-formed rock band Foals, who are commercial heavyweights in the UK, who are led by Greek-born vocalist/guitarist Yannis Phillippakis. Foals won ‘Best Live Act’ at the Q Awards in 2013, as well as ‘Best British Group’ at the BRIT Awards in 2020, and they have toured internationally for over a decade. They also performed a surprise set at Glastonbury in 2019 and their discography includes a staggering number of 27 singles at time of writing. The last time we heard from Foals was when they released ‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1’ in March 2019 followed up by ‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 2′ in October 2019, which was Foals’ first album to reach the top of the UK Albums Chart, and it doesn’t feel like a gap of two years at all. Those bodies of work matched political and ecological themes against daring Dance-Rock and their trademark Indie Rock sound that made heavy albums like 2015’s ‘What Went Down’ hits in the mainstream. Last September, keyboardist Edwin Congreave decided to leave the band to pursue a postgraduate degree in Economics and, now as a trio, the rest of the band have been writing and producing their new album with Dan Carey (Sinead O’Brien, Black Midi) and John Hill (Carly Rae Jepsen, Bleachers) in Peckham, with the album due for a release at an as-of-yet undetermined point during 2022. Our first tease of it – ‘Wake Me Up’ – is below.

Described by frontman Yannis Phillippakis as “Our version of a dance or disco record” with lyrics which “transport oneself out of the oppression of lockdown and the bleakness of last year”, in a press release, ‘Wake Me Up’ is Foals’ first track since they lost a member to find them experimenting with different elements of Psych-Rock and revisiting the interlocking nature of the grooves and the guitars architecturally that have made Foals a household name in recent years, with Phillippakis concluding that, “With ‘Wake Me Up’, I just wanted to write a song about transporting yourself to a better, idyllic situation”, in his lengthy press statement. Kicking off immediately with a shimmering lead guitar riff that is met in the middle by an energetic drum section and some very intense percussion, Phillippakis awakens us with “I’m walking through a dream/I’m walking through the finest place I’ve ever seen” as the opening hook, encouraging the listener to make a swift return to reality after spending ages sitting at home due to the law’s enforcement. Punchy refrains like “I’m kicking down the doors, I’m climbing up the walls of the house that’s yours” keep the fiesty rhythm of the drum’s brisk cadence intact, while a later verse goes for more of a chant-along style with a light call-and-response format that will likely find large summer festival crowds repeating lines like “Deny your own expression, deny the things you now” and “I’m deleting all the codes, no I’m not that man you know” back at the band, with brief lyrical explorations of masculinity that add some nuance to the band’s musings of their experiences during various lockdown periods, with the ideas of independence and seeking your own path back to joy each coming through the most strongly throughout the overall tone of the new single. There’s an 80’s tinge to the Synth-enhanced guitar chords, and the upbeat lyrics are likely to relate to a wide crowd of listeners. Foals’ sound is certainly appealing to a lot of crowds including Radio X’s target demographics, football fans who play FIFA on their favourite gaming consoles, and large festival crowds who gather around for a good time for the weekend’s shows, and so I can understand why they have found popularity by connecting with various communities. Yanis’ voice is as powerful as ever on ‘Wake Me Up’ as he builds up a commanding presence through his vocals that don’t overlap the flexing style of the instrumentation all too much. Overall, I felt that ‘Wake Me Up’ sounds very solid. It’s not something that feels hugely original and it’s not unexpected from Foals, but the joyous vibe of a Disco ball with a flavour of good old rock and roll is welcome and it sounds cheerful, thus putting me in a good mood. I enjoyed the more Synth-driven electronic dance sound that was hidden in prior singles like ‘Exits’, and the 5-minute showcase of ‘In Degrees’ more specifically, quite a deal – but this dance-rock style is simply made more obvious by ‘Wake Me Up’ in my opinion. A fun and immediate comeback that carries their ‘greatest hits’ while feeling (just about) refreshed enough.

Pictured: Foals performing a live set at All Points East Festival, London (2021) (Photo Credit: Emma Swann)

That leaves me with nothing much left to write other than to thank you for checking out my latest blog post as I finally draw my musical musing of the day to a natural conclusion. ‘Scuzz Sundays’ is back tomorrow, as always, however – and we’ll be remembering a guitar-oriented rock band from Leytonshire, East London for this week. They only released two albums before splitting up in 2008, but they developed a strong cult following that still praise them to this day and they opened up the Radio 1/NME stage at Reading and Leeds Festival in 2005. Although disappointing second album sales and a lack of label marketing led to a short lifespan, they re-united for two gigs in Oslo, Hackney, London in 2016. They also performed on ‘Top Of The Pops’.

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Today’s Track: Bloc Party – ‘Traps’

January 8, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Alpha Games’ (LP) (Available from April 29th, 2022) (via BMG/Infectious Records)

Good Morning to you! As you expected – this is Jacob Braybrooke, and thank you for spending a few minutes of your weekend by visiting the site for yet another daily track on the blog, given that it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Those of you who grew up in the 2000’s will probably remember when Bloc Party got their big break by sending BBC Radio presenter Steve Lamacq and Alex Kapranos (of Franz Ferdinand fame) a demo tape of ‘She’s Hearing Voices’ in 2003, and, since then, the band have scored multiple UK Top 10 album releases, UK Top 40 single chart entries and sold their way to a global tally of over three million albums worldwide as of 2012. Known for blending vivid elements of danceable House music and urban Electronica into their crossover-friendly brand of Punk-oriented Indie Rock music – Bloc Party are returning with their sixth studio album, ‘Alpha Games’, which is set for a release date of April 29th, 2022 via BMG/Infectious Music. The follow-up to 2016’s ‘Hymns’, the long-awaited new album by the Kele Okereke-led project is the first to fully feature new band members of Louise Bartle and Justin Harris who replaced the long-standing members of Gordon Moakes & Matt Tong by joining the group’s ranks in 2014. The comeback single – ‘Traps’ – is currently on the BBC Radio 6 Music daytime playlist and, as you may spot when you stream it, was noticeably produced by Adam Greenspan and Nick Launay who have produced music for Nick Cave, IDLES and The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s before, as the band dig into the archives of Bloc Party’s sound to recapture their roots with a modern twist on ‘Traps’. It follows solo releases by Okereke. See how it sounds below.

“From the moment we wrote ‘Traps’, we knew it had to be the first thing people heard from this album”, says the ringmaster Kele Okereke on the new single from this futuristic iteration of Bloc Party, explaining, “Playing it in soundchecks on our last tour before it was finished and hearing how it sounded in those big rooms and outdoors”, in a press statement as the band prepares to support the album on tour in the UK and Europe later during the new year. Mixing predatory lyrics with spinning instrumentals that connote a feel of horror, and the frenetic music video of ‘Traps’ showing Okereke performing in an adrenaline-fueled dance floor captures this dark tone. Reciting threateningly flirtatious lyrics like “You’re not making it easy for me, Strutting round here in those pum pum shorts” and “You’re so maverick, you’re a bit of me/You can get it anytime you want” over the top of some chugging bass guitar riffs and an angered pace on the drums that shows a return to Bloc Party’s popular dance-rock sound in the verses, but they are met with a sinister undertone that feels as though Bloc Party are adding their take on the Post-2020 punk sound that bands like Fontaines DC have found popularity through establishing where the lyrics are sardonic and the dance influences are quite aggressive. The chorus feels more familiar for casual Bloc Party fans, with some earworm hooks like “But you’re headed to a trap/Meet me in the boom boom room” that definitely feel playful. The track certainly has an aura that feels edgy and unusual to it as an overall modern pop/rock piece, however, and the lyrics seem to comment on masculine manipulation and the advances that some women probably have to deal with in a night club environment, and so it feels progressive for the band by mixing the new and the old, in terms of Okereke’s vocals and Bloc Party’s sound, in some exciting ways. I am not completely convinced the execution is totally on-key however, as lyrics like “There you go-go/Looking like a snack/Cute like Bambi” and “Lick, lick, lickety split” feel a little questionable for my liking. That removed, I felt like this was a fun and daring return from the band who bring some exciting guitar riffs and some intriguing new Post-Punk influences to their repertoire, although some of the songwriting stuck the landing a little roughly for me. Still, it flew by entertainingly enough and I’m quite interested to see what the new members of the group bring to the full album release.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Silent Alarm’ (LP) (Released on February 2, 2005) (via Wichita Recordings)

Funnily enough, not at all long ago, we revisited the previous incarnation of Bloc Party when we covered ‘Helicopter’ for Scuzz Sundays. Check it out here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/11/07/scuzz-sundays-bloc-party-helicopter/.

Pictured: Kele Okereke (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar/Electric Piano/Samples), Russell Lisack (Lead Guitar/Samples/Programming), Gordon Moakes (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals/Keyboard/Synths/Glockenspiel) and Matt Tong (Drums/Percussion/Occasional Backing Vocals) (2014) (Image via whenthegramarphonerings.com)

That’s all for today, but ‘Scuzz Sundays’ is back on the docket for tomorrow as we remember one of the, sadly, few female-led groups of the trashy era of commercial Pop-Punk music forms. This Welsh rock band brought Cerys Matthews to mainstream fame in the late-1990’s and they were key pioneers of the 1990’s Cool Cymru music movement. They also performed at the opening ceremony of the 1999 Rugby World Cup on October 1, 1999 in the Millennial Stadium situated in Cardiff. I’ll find you there.

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