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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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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Scuzz Sundays: Razorlight – ‘In The Morning’

February 13, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Razorlight’ (Self-Titled LP) (Released on July 17th, 2006) (via Mercury Records)

Good Morning to you – If you have indeed joined me ‘In The Morning’ for yet another edition of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ on the blog, the weekly feature where we pay a visit to one of the ghosts of Pop-Punk’s past to see if they still send chills down our spines in 2022, which fits my theme of writing up about a different piece of music every day! An indie rock band from London with more line-up changes than anybody can shake a stick at, Razorlight were a mid-00’s pop/rock group who have gone through several rotations of members with lead vocalist Johnny Borrell tying the connections together as the sole permanent member. They are probably best known for crossover chart hits like ‘Golden Touch’ and ‘Wire To Wire’ that reached the top ten of the UK Singles Chart, along with ‘America’ which was actually a UK #1 hit for them. ‘In The Morning’ was another example of their most well-known material and it peaked at #3 in the UK Singles Chart as the lead single to be taken their second studio album – a self-titled effort, unusually for a follow-up release – that was released to a mixed reception from critics in 2006. The album did decent business, however, and Razorlight have since gone on to take some awards home from 2007’s Eska Music Awards, 2005’s Silver Chef Awards and the Muso Awards in 2005. Razorlight are still releasing new music today, although quite sporadically, with 2018’s ‘Olympus Sleeping’ being their most recent album release – which was their first in ten years. Let’s revisit ‘In The Morning’ below.

‘In The Morning’ has been certified as Gold in the UK to mark a milestone of over 400,000 copies to get sold commercially, and the associated album went straight to the top of the UK Album Charts, as well as reaching the Top 40 in countries such as Germany, The Netherlands, Ireland, Austria, New Zealand and more. What doesn’t raise their profile, however, is that it was nominated for ‘Worst Album’ at the NME Awards in 2007, a (dis)honour that went to Robbie Williams’ ‘Rudebox’, and I’ll leave it up to you to decide if that distinction was just a little bit harsh or if it was fair in your own opinion. Back to the task at hand, and it is clear that ‘In The Morning’ sets the tone for a hangover mood after a party that got out of hand, as Borrell croons lyrics like “The songs on the radio sound the same/Everybody just looks the same” that mix a shade of meta commentary while toeing a line between slightly reflective Pop and sultry Garage Rock with the simple mixture of the ramshackle Drum beats and the repetitious lead guitar hooks. Meanwhile, the then-26 year-old wistfully recounts the olden and golden days of young adulthood with the refrains of “Remember when you were young/You’d lose yourself” and “But then last night was so much fun” that he is perhaps a little too young to entirely relate to and make totally convincing, but the fact that the track has a slightly deeper meaning than what’s on the surface is a welcome breath of fresh air. Borrell recites his lyrics with a rock and roll drowse that isn’t far off his peers, with Franz Ferdinand and Maximo Park all coming to my mind, and he leads a chant-along verse with “Are you really going to do it this time?” that reaches out to festival crowds as the instrumentation builds upon its tension with a heightened sense of pacing. There’s not a whole lot else to say about ‘In The Morning’, but it’s certainly not a bad song by any stretch of my mind. It’s just a fairly average one, with little depth to the lyricism and nothing that makes them feel like they were doing something different to similar bands like Toploader and Hard-Fi who each scored chart hits at their time with their Pop/Rock hybrid sounds. You get the sense that Borrell is still a bit young for his reflections to come across as undoubtedly mature, but there’s nothing that offensive to it either. ‘In The Morning’ was simply fine overall, with simple and repetitive melodies that connect with mainstream audiences and the basic production is exactly what makes it a reasonably catchy tune that you can whistle along to. Razorlight won’t go down in the history books as a stand-out band, but there’s enough quality – within reason – as to not make it feel too outdated.

Pictured: Johnny Borell (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar/Keyboard/Piano), Reni Lane (Keyboard/Synths), David Sullivan Kaplan (Drums/Backing Vocals) and David Ellis (Lead Guitar/Bass Guitar) (in 2018) (Photo Credit: Andy Hughes)

That brings us to the end of another weekly installment of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ on the blog as we sleepwalk into another week of winter. Thank you for giving me a moment of your time today, and please catch up with me tomorrow as we kick the week off with an exciting single release from a familiar favourite of 2020 on the blog, who will be releasing her first album to be recorded in a studio in May via Grand Jury Music. She is a young bedroom pop singer-songwriter originally from Wichita, Kansas who will tour with Wallows this year. She has collaborated with TV Girl and Magdalena Bay.

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Today’s Track: Wet Leg – ‘Too Late Now’

February 12, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Rhian Teasdale (Lead Vocals/Guitar) & Heather Chambers (Lead Guitar/Vocals) (Photo by Frances Beach)

Good Morning to you! This is your resident 24-year-old independent music journalist Jacob Braybrooke reporting for duty 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! If I quoted ‘Chaise Lounge’ to you in the street, the chances are that it would mean something to you if you already love your music and your radio. It is the name of the track that bought the Isle Of Wight indie rock duo of Wet Leg – Comprised of co-vocalists and co-guitarists Rhian Teasdale and Heather Chambers – to fame, having become a viral hit that earned millions of music video views and staggering streaming figures when it found an audience on the internet last year. The duo became as such when they studied at Isle Of Wight college together and became close friends, with the pair later signing up to Domino Recordings – the same eclectic label that has released material from high profile names like Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Hot Chip, Ela Minus, Georgia, Blood Orange and more. Nowadays, Wet Leg are being played all over the BBC with playlist rotation on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 6 Music, and they have also performed on ‘Later With Jools Hollland’ on BBC Two, in addition to being shortlisted for BBC’s ‘Sound Of 2022’ award. They also began touring the US in late 2021 and the two currently have their debut studio album – a self-titled LP – slated for a full release on April 8th. Let’s check out their single ‘Too Late Now’ below.

“It’s about sleepwalking into adulthood”, Teasdale writes about the guitar-oriented track, ‘Too Late Now’, in her press release, explaining, “I never imagined that my adult life would look the way it does and I guess this song reflects on some of the pressures and pulls of life. Sometimes I get really inside my head and everything can feel very overwhelming. I think this song is about accepting that life can feel a bit s**t from time to time. Maybe don’t indulge that thought too much though”, in her own words. I can totally relate to some of the themes discussed in ‘Too Late Now’, with on-point lyricism about social media like “I don’t need no dating app to tell me if I look like crap/To tell me if I’m thin or fat, to tell me should I shave my rat” that are softly sardonic, but they retain honesty and order despite their gentle humor, with the pre-chorus spoken word refrains making some important points about heightening your own expectations when you leave adolescence and life simply goes on instead of truly flourishing. Other refrains like “I don’t need no radio/No MTV, no BBC/I just need a bubble bath/To set me on a higher path” have a broader commentary on influencer or celebrity status, and how simple acts of kindness to yourself can have an impact on your enjoyment of life through the smaller and more profound actions that you make. The chorus is more hook-based, with the rambling sequence of “I’m gonna drive my car into the sea/I’m gonna drive downtown while looking pretty ordinary” going for a somber but uptempo vibe that neatly contrasts the melancholic vocals with some more optimistic melodies. Instrumentally, comparisons to The Maccabees or Porridge Radio are likely to surface as the on-nature lyricism is paired up to the tune of rich, yet raw guitar melodies and muted bass that retains a steady pace throughout the track as the drums gradually kick into a more aggressive gear and there’s a light reverb on the guitar effects that hint towards a more Emo-driven sound without ever entirely traversing into ‘Scuzz Sundays’ gear with the genres that we recall on the blog with each Sunday post, and I liked the new track overall for it’s mix of hazy disorientation and quotable lyricism with commentary that Wet Leg’s peers are clearly connecting with. It remains to be seen whether Wet Leg are truly the ‘next big thing’ or another in a tough line of near-success stories like The Ting Ting’s or The Noisettes during the 00’s. However, there’s certainly potential for their careers to keep taking off because there’s talent in here. Personally, I would say that ‘Too Late Now’ is their strongest yet.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Wet Leg’ (Self-Titled LP) (Available from 8th April, 2022) (via Domino Recordings)

That’s everything that I had lined up for you today. Your support for the site is hugely appreciated, as usual, and ‘Scuzz Sundays’ will be making its natural way to the blog tomorrow as we recall the ghosts of Pop-Punk’s past for another week. This time, we’re listening back to a mid-00’s hit from an English indie rock group who are best known for their UK top ten singles ‘Golden Touch’ and ‘America’, (a #1 hit), from 2006.

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Today’s Track: Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard – ‘A Passionate Life’

February 8, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Tom Rees (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar), Zac White (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals), Ed Rees (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals) and Ethan Hurst (Drums/Percussion/Unclean Vocals) (2021) (Photo Credit: Lily Brown)

Good Morning to you! I am Jacob Braybrooke and you’re tuned into One Track At A Time, as usual, where we are gearing up our ear’s engines 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 4-piece of Welsh Glam Rockers who are in love with the classic rock greats like T-Rex and AC/DC, Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard are another emerging band who have picked up support from all the usual places – like BBC Radio 6 Music, So Young Magazine, NME and more – over the past handful of years since forming out of lead vocalist Tom Rees’ bedroom in 2016. The band hope to continue finding their breakthrough when their debut studio album – ‘Backhand Deals’ – releases on February 25th via Communion Records. The band will also be performing alongside Sir Tom Jones, Stereophonics and Catfish & The Bottlemen at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium in June 2022. Known for critically acclaimed singles like ‘John Lennon Is My Jesus Christ’, ‘New Age Millennial Magic’, ‘You’ and ‘Double Denim Hop’, they have been making a name for themselves on the UK’s live touring circuit and they have, in a funny story that comes courtesy of DIY Mag, named “the re-animated corpse of Bon Scott” as their dream collaborator. Rees said of their impending debut album in September, “Backhand Deals is a practice in subverting the ideology of rock music as something that needs to be ‘brought back from the dead’. Rock should be about enjoying yourself honestly, whether that’s washing the dishes, sweeping the yard, or complaining about whoever got elected. Rock is a sweeping power, and is attributed to anyone who performs art honestly, from Lizzo feeling good as hell to AC/DC riding down a highway to hell. The honesty is the same, and the honesty prevails”. Let’s check out their latest pre-release offering – ‘A Passionate Life’ – below.

The band will be making their debut in the US at SXSW in March, and Rees says, “A Passionate Life was written about striving to be a better friend, and not spending so much time on myself”, about the new single in a press release, adding, “I think the world is always telling you to focus on you, which is the right thing to do a lot of the time, but it’s easy work. I don’t think I’ll ever change, but wanting to change feels like enough for now. We’re all surface level creatures and just the thought of wanting to be a better person makes me feel like I am”, to his notes. Exploring the ideas of principle and authenticity, Rees sings contemplative lyrics like “What am I gonna say, When all of these songs, Just melt away” and “I know that I should call sometime, Ditch this ruse, that I’m towing the line time after time” as he reaches out to some reliable friends for emotional support and good company, while the instrumentation boasts an engaging mixture of plodding Piano stabs and floundering guitar rhythms that play out steadily. The chorus, where Rees mixes a sense of sarcasm and humor to the tune of “Sex appeal, is just a product of fear” and “When am I going to reveal/This phony charm” that untangles the stereotypes behind what it means to be a ‘rock star’ in the mass media and leaves the listener behind to reflect on their own emotions or thoughts. It feels more restrained than previous servings of comforting 70’s-influenced Rock that we’ve heard from the band, but it makes great use of some Elton John-style keyboard melodies that manage to feel a little melancholic and the understated guitar riffs that underscore the integrity of the vocals with a neat sense of production. They also lean into the tropes of the genre to pull the nostalgia card, with a chorus of ‘La-La-La’s’ towards the end that feels like a clear nod to the likes of The Beatles and The Kinks from earlier, and in many ways, simpler times. Overall, it makes great sense for Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard to enlist the references of their greatest influences for a track that is solely about the meaning of togetherness, and it absolutely feels like one of those mellow tracks that will help you take things down a peg when you feel like your mind is full of traffic. Strangely sweet and pretty poignant.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Backhand Deals’ (LP) (Available from February 25th, 2022) (via Commuion Records)

Thank you for checking out yet another very unique post on the blog, and we’ll be revisiting some of the most seminal sounds of the past with another weekly entry of ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ tomorrow. The next pick comes from a 90’s band led by a former promoter of Anthem’s TNA/Impact Wrestling promotion who we’ve covered on the blog previously, and they are still presently active. They brought ‘Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness’ to our lives in 1995, a record which topped the US Billboard 200 album chart upon release straight away. You could say that they were ‘Smashing’.

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Today’s Track: HighSchool – ‘Frosting’

February 3, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Forever At Last’ (Released on November 1st, 2021) (via Dalliance Recordings)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, of course, and it is time for me to get typing up for yet another quick 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 trio who spent a long period of over 200 days in lockdown together in their native hometown in the suburbs of Brunswick, Australia – HighSchool are a new Melbourne Post-Punk trio who were formed during 2020 and they have resurfaced after a year of writing and recording an extensive body of work to decent acclaim, with recent singles like ‘Jerry’ and ‘New York, Paris and London’ gaining airplay on BBC Radio 6 Music courtesy of Steve Lamacq’s ‘The New Music Fix’ programming during the early hours of Friday morning each week. Comprised of Lilli Trobbiani, Rory Trobbiani and Luke Scott, the band produces reverb-drenched rock that encompasses between genres like Noise-Punk, Industrial Rock and 00’s Post-Punk Revival in their atmospherically gloomy, but also slightly wistful and textured sounds. Known for their subversive Goth imagery, HighSchool have been finding popularity on Bandcamp recently with the release of their debut EP – ‘Forever At Last’ – which was released on November 1, 2021 via the British-based record label Dalliance Recordings. Check out the single ‘Frosting’ below.

HighSchool recorded their six-track EP project with Archie Shannon from Floodlights behind the decks and it compiles each of their singles to date including ‘De Facto’ and ‘Sirens’, plus the title track and three more, some of which songs have demo versions that date back to late 2020 in terms of their development stages. Opening the short-form release is ‘Frosting’, a Shoegaze-influenced jam that I have been playing on repeat personally, as it reminds me of The Smiths in quite a huge way due to the bittersweet qualities of the emotions and the melancholic sound of the simple guitar strumming that is accompanied by some edgy Goth-rock imagery during the official music video, while it also feels more Lo-Fi than your average Post-Punk act, with some fuzzy guitar riffs that remind me of the DIY Pop music that’s been coming out of the New York psych scene courtesy of artists like JW Francis, combining the moody aesthetics with a softer side that allows the radiant Soft-Rock to lay some emotional groundwork for the swooning lyrics and the sense of longing that is created by Rory Trobbiani’s lead vocals in the delivery. Lyrics like “The second I saw you dance/I was waiting on a love I never knew” and “You can’t win the war if you don’t know who the enemy is” feel contemplative and recall the angst-ridden undercurrent of bands like The Fall in the mid-1980’s, and they’re backed up by a soundscape of textbook Post-Punk where the drowsing guitar effects and the nostalgic Synth riffs, along with a briefly fluttering String sample section, provide an emotive backdrop to support the industrial Bass rhythms that are looped underneath. It feels polished and tidy, but the lead vocals are delightfully slathered in Jangle-Rock guitars that distort the clarity of the nuanced lyrics. Such lyrics recall particularly intimate seconds of time from the past, such as “Can’t say I don’t miss holding hands/And chasing afternoons”, that create more substance for the emotive qualities, as opposed to replicating some of their contemporaries that have been etched into the ‘Indie Landfill’ classification that becomes difficult to break away from. While the music is most reminiscent of modern Pop-Punk and wry Industrial Rock, it almost continues the tradition of bands like Slowdive and DIIV by the creation of the melancholic soundscapes that contain pretensions of stylisation and visual art, but it is more warmly delivered and it aims to uplift Rory Trobbiani’s vocals from a mood of longing to a more nostalgic one. They already sound like a more experienced act than they probably are, and that sounds really great as their music mostly leans on the gloomy side without simply pointing at trademarks of the key influences. Fantastic instrumentally and beautifully performed.

Pictured: HighSchool (aka Lilli Trobbiani, Rory Tribbiani and Rory Tribbiani) (2021) (Photo Credit: Hector Clark)

That’s all for now! Thank you for checking out my latest post, and, for the first time of the year, we seem to have a truly stacked line-up of new albums vying for your attention from tomorrow onwards, and we’ll be selecting one of them as a neat sampler for our ‘New Album Release Fridays’ post tomorrow. We’ll be previewing the newest album from a Missouri-formed indie rock band whose heavy music has been featured in advertisements for Apple, NFL and Bose. They have supported acts like Phoenix, Vance Joy, Joywave, and Cold War Kids on tour since autumn 2018 onwards.

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Today’s Track: NewDad – ‘Say It’

January 24, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Julie Dawson (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar), Áindle O’Beirn (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals), Sean O’Dowd (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals) and Fiachra Parslow (Drums/Percussion) (2020) (Photo via PR/Fair Youth Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke – of course – and its time to dive headfast into another week’s worth of work and pleasure with yet another daily track on the blog to start it off, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A 4-piece indie rock band from Galway, Ireland who can always be relied upon to create a charming blend of melodic Dream-Pop and ethereal 90’s Shoegaze, NewDad have already received support from BBC Radio 6 Music – with ‘Blue’ gaining a spot on their daytime A-list last year – and BBC Radio 1 Indie Show presenter Jack Saunders to consistent results. Led by vocalist/rhythm guitarist Julie Dawson, the quartet are also comprised of bassist Áindle O’Beirn, lead guitarist Sean O’Dowd and drummer Fiachra Parslow. An 80’s-leaning group, they have cited Alt-Rock heroes like The Cure, The Pixies, The Smashing Pumpkins and Just Mustard in some interviews and, in an article with DIY Magazine, they expressed that Charli XCX would be a dream for them to work with, a fantasy link-up that I’d certainly like to see materialize. Last March, they released the marvellous ‘Waves’ EP via Fair Youth Records and they are due to follow it up on 9th February with their second EP – ‘Banshee’ – which is also due to arrive via the same label. It was co-produced with Chris W. Ryan and mixed by John Congleton (Phoebe Bridgers, Lana Del Rey) in Belfast. Later this year, they will be performing at All Points East, London and SXSW. They also have regular tour dates set for the UK, the US and Ireland in March and April. Let’s check out the opener and first single from the EP, ‘Say It’, below.

“Say It is about unrequited love, about when someone is with you but not really, it’s supposed to capture that frustration you feel when you’re giving someone your all and they’re giving you nothing in return”, Dawson says about the simple but relatable themes behind their latest single, adding about the EP, “This EP is definitely bigger, having more time in the studio definitely meant we got to experiment more and layer more into each track so there’s an overall bigger sound” in their press release. ‘Say It’ is yet another indie gem with a whimsical atmosphere that starts off with some guttural deep breaths before the guitars and the drums kick in for the opening verse, where Dawson recites lyrics like “You only want to make things right at night/But it’s not the same” and “Today you didn’t even look at me in the hallway/I know you saw me” as she taps into the rushing tensions that you feel emotionally in the midst of an unrequited affair. The chorus is also strong, with the simple hook of “So I don’t want to say it, ‘Cause you don’t want to say it back” that feels piercing in it’s clear cut nature. The pacing is quite upbeat, and it comes across like Dawson is venting her complications about her irritation and bitterness about her own handling of the situation and her romantic dreams that won’t pull their own weight either. She strikes a perfect balance between feeling whimsical and forceful, with ragged lyrics like “You just look down at your laces like your f***ing famous” amongst softer spoken refrains like “You just want to see me fall for you” that capture the mildly psychedelic warmth of the emotive guitar riffs that surround her vocals. The angular drum beats have a stark mood to them, while the more textured guitars give off a calming vibe that contrasts the restless frustrations felt about the topical one-sided relationship with a lighter ambient energy that becomes an endearing hint of what will be explored on the forthcoming EP project. Overall, ‘Say It’ is another solid single from NewDad that really showcases Dawson’s abilities of mixing strength and warmth together in her vocals and her bandmates’ abilities of blending anxious emotions with remaining feelings of hurt from their textured instrumental work. It’s also a track that appeals equally to lovesick teens or young adults as much as the parents who will hear the bands they used to love during a similar snap shot from their lives. Simply great stuff.

Pictured: NewDad performing a live gig at the Yes Basement, Manchester (2021) (Photo via EvenTheStars.co.uk)

If you liked the latest single from NewDad and you want to hear more, don’t feel ‘Blue’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/11/07/todays-track-newdad-blue/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Waves’ (EP) (Released on March 26th, 2021) (via Fair Youth Records)

That brings us to the end of the page and, just for your reassurance, NewDad have said that none of them are actually Dad’s before. Anyhow, thank you for showing your support as always for the site, and I’ll be back tomorrow to muse over some more melancholic music due to arrive on a larger project in February. This time, it comes from a Los Angeles-based Psych-Rock band whose guitarist is the son of David A. Stewart from Eurythmics and Siobhan Fahey of Bananarama. It is a very small world!

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Way Back Wednesdays: Death Cab For Cutie – ‘Information Travels Faster’

January 19, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Benjamin Gibbard (Lead Vocals/Piano/Rhythm Guitar), Nick Hammer (Bass Guitar/Keyboard/Organ), Jason McGerr (Drums/Percussion), Dave Depper (Lead Guitar/Synths/Occasional Backing Vocals), Zac Rae (Keyboards/Guitars/Backing Vocals) (2021) (Photo via UpsetMagazine.com)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it is time again for us to remind ourselves of how old we all are with another installment of ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ on the blog, not neglecting that it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Known for their very description-defying variety of instrumentation and the idiosyncratic voice of frontman Benjamin Gibbard, Death Cab For Cutie were a surviving Alternative Rock band from the commercial ‘Indie Boom’ of the 00’s who have achieved plenty of good attention, both critically and commercially, over the last handful of decades. They actually got their name from a track originally written by Neil Innes and Vivian Stanshell for The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band partially created for The Beatles’ film ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ of 1967, and the outfit who took that name have since found their material being used by film and TV productions like ‘Twilight’ and ‘The O.C.’ in their own right. Early albums like 2005’s ‘Plans’ have been certified Platinum, but the band have continued to release a steady stream of quite well-liked releases as recently as 2018’s ‘Thank You For Today’ during their lifetime. Three of the band’s most high-charting singles, however, were found on 2001’s ‘The Photo Album’, a record that was their only full-length album to feature drummer Michael Scorr. To mark two decades since it initially arrived, Death Cab For Cutie have digitally released a 35-track remastered edition of the album with all of the usual suspects – cover versions of the likes of Bjork’s ‘All Is Full Of Love’ and The Stone Roses’ ‘I Wanna Be Adored’, studio outtakes, unreleased tracks, rarities and UK-exclusive B-sides that was released digitally on October 29th but will be availalble physically on Vinyl in Spring 2022. The rework includes an alternative version of fan-favourite track ‘Information Travels Faster’, so we’re going to hear the original below.

Another alternate version of the album was released in the form of a limited edition extended play titled ‘The Stability EP’ that appeared briefly in early 2002, containing bonus tracks from the original version of the album and Japanese versions of ‘The Photo Album’ as well. Beginning with the powerful refrain of “I intentionally wrote it out to be an illegible mess/You wanted me to write your letters, but I’d rather lose your address” as the sultry mid-tempo tones between the treble-assisted lead guitar riffs and the low-end angle of the bass guitar melodies create a poetic opening for Gibbard to recite some heartfelt lyrics above a bitter mood. The band provide a steady backing for him as he croons hooks in the bridge like “Sewing circles are not solely based in trades of cloth/There’s spinsters all around here taking notes, reporting on us” as he pens a letter to an anonymous contact to say farewell. It is left ambiguous as to what the lyrics are truly about, but there is a solemn refrain in the chorus of “As information travels faster, in the modern age, as our days are crawling by” that teases a deeper meaning between how we communicate with other contacts and how we find it difficult to communicate what we really mean to say when we’re not face to face, which feels like a near-precursor to the true social media days that came shortly after the album was being released. Released at a pivotal point of their career where it was time for the band to decide if they should quit their day jobs to pursue music full time, it moulds some atmospheric Piano-based backdrops to Gibbard’s desires to use pre-modern methods to correspond with others. Although it doesn’t quite hit me emotionally, we definitely get to hear how Gibbard’s mind works with the interesting themes of the lyrics and the technical instrumentation used by the rest of the band to pull off the poetic backdrop well. A compelling track that was written about a memorable topic that the younger generations may never experience.

Pictured: Benjamin Gibbard recording ‘Life In Quarantine’ at home (2020) (Photo Credit: KEXP.org)

Although we have never covered any of Death Cab For Cutie’s traditional output before, the lead talent of Benjamin Gibbard has enjoyed a revolving door of posts on the blog, including his mid-2020 quarantine single ‘Life In Quarantine’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/04/25/todays-track-benjamin-gibbard-life-in-quarantine/ and the late summertime-fueled Tycho collaboration ‘Only Love’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/10/02/todays-track-tycho-benjamin-gibbard-only-love/

Pictured: Benjamin Gibbard performing a live acoustic solo set (2018) (Photo Credit: Roberto Ricciuti/Getty Images)

That’s all for now! Thank you for corresponding with me today, and I’ll be back tomorrow as we nearly get through to another weekend with a post concerning the underground sounds of today. My next pick comes from a self-described “North Georgia Cat” who was introduced to music by the Alternative Rock circuit of the Scuzz Sundays life span – the likes of Sublime and System Of A Down – by his older brother.

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New Album Release Fridays: Orlando Weeks – ‘Big Skies, Silly Faces’

January 14, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Hop Up’ (LP) (Released on January 14th, 2022) (via PIAS Recordings)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for the long-awaited return of ‘New Album Release Fridays’ for the first time since the new year got off to a natural start as we start to celebrate the year’s strongest new releases as they arrive, not forgetting that it is tied in with my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! This week sees new album releases from the likes of OUTLIER label founder Bonobo (More on that tomorrow), Odd Future collective rapper Earl Sweatshirt, Liverpool indie dancefloor fillers The Wombats, a new album of refreshing covers by Cat Power and more. Our subject for this week, however, is ‘Hop Up’, the brand new album by Orlando Weeks that has been released via PIAS Recordings today, and it has already been gaining a positive reception from critics. You may know that Weeks was the frontman of The Maccabees, a soulful indie rock band that earned a cult following that seemed to grow steadily with each of their releases throughout the mid-2000’s and 2010’s. The Maccabees won the Ivor Novello Award for 2013’s ‘Pelican’ and their 2015 album ‘Marks To Prove It’ went straight to the top of the UK Album charts. He also wrote and published a book, ‘The Gritterman’, in 2017. It has only been two years since the release of ‘A Quickening’, his first full-length solo album release that tackled the emotions and anticipation that he had experienced during imminent parenthood as his first child was born. Weeks notes this weekend’s follow-up LP – ‘Hop Up’ aims to fill in the gaps of where we left off on the previous record as he writes about the anxieties and excitement of his new-found fatherhood. The album also features a hearty stew of good-sounding collaborators, as ‘Hop Up’ was produced by familiar blog favourite Bullion and it features artists like Willie J. Healey and Ben Reed too. Our first taster of the album, ‘Big Skies, Happy Faces’, also includes additional vocals from Katy J Pearson. Let’s put on a smile below.

Giving us more context into ‘Hop Up’, Weeks explains about the new LP by penning “It started with the idea of wanting to fill in some of the blanks that I felt I had left with ‘A Quickening’, but quite quickly it turned into something broader. The choice was always to take the more positive and uplifting sounding step. Perhaps it shouldn’t have, but as an approach it felt surprisingly novel to me”, in his press release. After his tour was halted in 2020, Weeks decided to go straight back into the studio and found himself in a reflective mood while co-producing Lo-Fi pop singles like ‘Big Skies, Happy Faces’ from the new album in question. Building on the themes that ran through his last LP effort while alleviating the tension that pervaded his last solo release, ‘Big Skies, Happy Faces’ allows us to see the brighter side of parenthood as he ponders lyrics like “No stopping the sky/High as it’s wide” that finds Weeks experiencing new ways to navigate his own way to the light despite the subject matter still feeling a bit cynical and self-loathing to Weeks. Lyrics like “My mind against my better thinking/Know the feeling but wonder why” stretches his voice to optimistic heights as his tale of being self-exultant when the inevitable tensions creep in. Feeling ostensibly late-80’s in the Synth Pop instrumentation and the shimmering keyboard sequences that blend with his vocals, Weeks layers up some elements of Dream-Pop that productively glorify his vocals while he lyrically captures the feelings that he wrote about in the specific time period and complex emotional state with a sense of soulful radiance and moral-driven positivity that still manage to feel ethereal while feeling breezier than Weeks’ previous output. Pearson’s backing vocals are subtle, but they feel warm and contrast the melancholy of Weeks’ slightly eerie pitch quite nicely. While it isn’t super melodic, it manages to feel quite cheerful in tone as the electronic textures feel neatly woven into the fabric of the moods. All in all, it is a positive assessment of burgeoning parenting that acknowledges the anxieties of the scenario while feeling upbeat enough to convey the strong sense of love that Weeks’ felt in the moment. It works better if you have the context of ‘A Quickening’ in your mind, based on my assumptions, but it feels like a natural step-up from the sound he founded on that record. A successful follow-up that denies the dominance of distress.

Pictured: Orlando Weeks in a photoshoot for a DIY Magazine feature (2018) (Photo Credit: Emma Swann)

If you’re looking for high quality with the rule of comparison, then you need to look no further. Look back at my thoughts on ‘Safe In Sound’ from 2020’s ‘A Quickening’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/05/18/todays-track-orlando-weeks-safe-in-sound/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘A Quickening’ (LP) (Released on June 12th, 2020) (via PIAS Recordings)

That brings us to the end of the page for another day! Thank you for sticking with me on the blog today, and I’ll be back tomorrow, as aforementioned, to test out a recent single release from the new LP also being released today by Brighton-born electronic trip hop producer Simon Green (Who you may know as Bonobo) who has worked with an exhaustive pack of guest vocalists including RHYE, Nick Murphy and Jamila Woods.

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Today’s Track: Strawberry Guy – ‘Sun Outside My Window’

January 11, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Sun Outside My Window’ (LP) (Released on October 29, 2021) (via Melodic Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, obviously, and it’s time for us to take a breath of fresh air and explore some fruitful textures (since I am infamous for these pun-filled intro’s) 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 is easy for us all to feel a little down in the dragging January season, but one artist is likely to make you appreciate the bright rays of sunshine that make the outside world feel warmer than it probably is during this cold time, and one of these recordings for me is ‘Sun Outside My Window’, a recent single from the Liverpool-based solo singer-songwriter Alex Stephens who releases his music as Strawberry Guy. He is new to me, but I’ve read that Stephens started to gain popularity on SoundCloud for tracks like 2018’s ‘Without You’ before he attracted the Gen Z crowd to his work by gaining steam on TikTok. In fact, 2019’s ‘Mrs. Magic’ has been used on over 70k videos on the video-based social media platform, meaning that he’s garnered millions of views for the Lo-Fi track. Since then, Stephens has played the keyboard on tour with Halifax dance-punk sensations The Orielles and fellow Liverpool outfit Trudy & The Romance. Citing icons like David Byrne, Erykah Badu, Claude Debussy and Henry Mancini as his favourite artists, Stephens’ goal, it seems, is to upturn people’s perceptions of what ‘Bedroom Pop’ really needs to be. His debut LP – ‘Sun Outside My Window’ – was released on October 29th, 2021 via Melodic Records. Best known for signing Working Men’s Club who have been a fixture of the Synth-Punk scene for a few years, the label is an emerging organisation that boasts lesser-known talent such as W.H. Lung and Michael A. Grammar in their ranks. Let’s check out the title track of the record below.

Alex Stephens (aka Strawberry Guy) wrote and recorded the imminent album over the span of two years by himself, and he says, “It’s about seeing the simple things in life and them making you happy. I remember this day when I was really down… looking out the window, the sun beaming in it was beautiful, it made me want to go outside – it was simple but made me so happy in that instance”, about his new work in a press release. Hitting the ground running with the simple refrain of “I can feel a change coming again/You tell me I’m wrong, is it all pretend?” in the first verse, Stephens unleashes a quiet crescendo of succinct Strings and delicate Percussion to create an intimate soundscape that blends 70’s romanticism with breezy keys that effectively mimic a short burst of birds perching on a tree or a wave of butterflies fluttering past an old country Garden on a radiant morning. It feels relatively straightforward, but there’s plenty of depth when the uncommonly rich groove of the lush vocal intonations and the whimsical horns lead the chorus. The smooth harmonies, the soft melodies and the vulnerable lyrics create a mellow and humble instrumental that feels gently agreeable throughout, while the vocal performance of Stephens is dominated by a laidback Nasal voice that complements the light symphony of the wistful melodies. At the same time, the wide-eyed lyrics of Stephens that contain refrains like “But I see you there, You’re looking at me/And I feel so free” and “I can sense a shift coming from you/I guess you now know, was it ever true?” are very contemplative in tone and hint towards a light conflict with a love interest, although he keeps it ambiguous as to whether there really is something going deeply wrong or not. It adds a slightly darker texture to the vocals than the positive mood that his more advanced Piano playing implies, but the dream-like qualities are never lost by the contrast and that feels like a clever choice. The complete package is housed within that ‘Slacker Psychedelia’ framework that Mac DeMarco or Trunky Juno are well-known for toying with, but it feels more steady and his vocals seem a little more distant. There’s an air of The Flaming Lips to the light musical-type influences too, but the golden hour Brass outroduction and the gentle swell of Strings around Stephens’ Mellotron clicks owes more to impressionism in style. It’s not the clear-cut shape of the scene that makes the track feel realistic, but the details of the production and the easily relatable connection to the lyrical material that colour the scene of this track. Overall, I’d say that it makes me think of Fleet Foxes but, instead of feeling like a comforting folk orchestration fit for the autumn time, it feels more pastoral and spring-time in style and texture. A great track overall that, while unlikely to feel entirely new, is refreshing, and has the strength of some gorgeous arrangements to it.

Pictured: Alex Stephens (Strawberry Guy) with his ‘Taking My Time To Be EP’ on Vinyl (2019) (Photo via Twitter.com)

Thank you for reading my latest post, and please feel free to join me for something different tomorrow as we welcome a new ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ post to the site, where we’ll be remembering a golden Funk, Soul and Jazz band from far before my 23-year-old stint on this planet, although it will tie into a recent release thanks to a ‘Greatest Hits’ compilation release from November. A funk band like no other, their 1973 LP record ‘The World Is A Ghetto’ was Billboard’s best-selling album of that year.

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