Todays Track: The Pet Shop Boys – “The Pop Kids”

November 4, 2019 — 1 Comment

I’m going west with a recent-ish track from iconic veterans for your Monday blog post!

Having received the BRIT Award in 2009 for Outstanding Contribution To Music and being named the most successful British dance duo of all-time, according to the Guinness Book Of World Records (I reckon The Chemical Brothers would have something to say about that!), Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, otherwise known as the ‘Pet Shop Boys”, have been on a tear since the early 1980’s by releasing hits – both mainstream and niche – left, right, front and center. They recently made a surprise guest appearance during The Killers’ headline set at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, as Brandon Flowers’ wanted to pay tribute to the British acts who have inspired him to make music. They’ve been particularly notable in the LGBT Community, with rumors of the two dating having been surfacing throughout their entire career. To be perfectly honest with you, I SHIP IT!!! I’ve never been a massive fan personally, but I admire and respect everything they have done, having brought joy and happiness to masses of people over the years. My Dad’s a massive fan, but I love a bit of “West End Girls” as a wind down on a night out. “Heart” and “What Have I Done To Deserve This?”, featuring Dusty Springfield, are also dance-floor classics. “The Pop Kids” is the leading single from 2016’s “Super”, their thirteenth LP release, released in April 2016.

“The Pop Kids” is a glittering 90’s disco-style floor-filler that feels like a stroll down memory lane for the two legends, making lyrical references to a strong relationship and an unhealthy lifestyle for two partners bouncing in different clubs and attending different club nights, which is always referred to in the past tense, with a simple verbal line of “I Loved You” proving to be one of the most emotional vocal performances provided by Tennant in the discography of the duo. The track also has musical elements of trance and dance-rock, as the vocals take momentary breaks for the Hacienda bassline and the new-wave synth beats, which break apart the overall themes of pop passion and nightlife in a past decade, when the narrators were younger. It proves to be a very effective track and one of my favourite songs to ever be recorded by Tennant & Lowe, although it only managed to reach #128 in the UK Singles Chart (I had no idea it went past 100 either!). “The Pop Kids” is a very 80s-esque track which is irresistibly funky and seems to have a good amount of heft behind it’s writing. It’s a thumping trip down memory lane that maybe should have been given more recognition, although the niche skew is a big part of the charm here.

Thank you very much for reading this post! I’ll be back tomorrow, as usual, with an in-depth look at a British female solo artist who produced the score for the recent series of BBC’s hit political crime series, “Peaky Blinders” and was nominated for this year’s Mercury Prize award for her latest album! If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: La Roux – “International Woman Of Leisure”

November 1, 2019 — 2 Comments

It’s been a long wait for 5 years but she’s finally back! It’s time for a Funky Friday post!

Yesterday, for me, was a very glorious day! It was a day that I had described to my colleagues as “the musical event of the decade”, according to myself, of course! That’s because it was finally the day which English Synthpop artist, La Roux, also known as Elly Jackson, released her first new material since July 2014’s “Trouble In Paradise”, a massively underrated piece of art led by a groovy, tropical vibe, with a sense of melancholy with each lyric. It remains, to this day, as my single favourite LP record of all-time. But, to be, honest, I wasn’t too interested in just hearing a song. Now that her former co-producer Ben Langmaid is not involved in the production process of the project at all, I was just overexcited to find out how she would completely reinvent herself this time around. Her third LP record, “Supervision” will be releasing on 7th February 2020 via Elly’s new independent record label – Supercolour Records!

After weeks of teasing with a clever futuristic secret-agent marketing angle, Jackson finally released the music video for her first new single at 7.30pm last night, titled “International Woman Of Leisure”. It’s very different to “In For The Kill” and “Bulletproof”, two big mainstream hits, but still excellent, which, rightly so, provided Jackson with her first breakthrough on a commercial level. The sound of “I.W.O.L” sits proudly between the funk-soul influences on “Trouble In Paradise”, but also a modern take on an 80’s new wave sound. The vocals are sassy, but they’re very catchy, with a narrative based on moving forwards after a break-up and embracing a new, vibrant life as an individual who doesn’t need a partner. “Oh, you want me to go on, that’s my pleasure” and “No, I don’t ever want to see your face again” are full of Jackson’s trademark style on her very first few tracks, but instead, they’re delivered with an effortless psychedelic groove behind them and a talent for harkening back to classic 60’s & 70’s synthwave riffs, while having a real sense of freshness, longevity and imagination to it. It took me a few listens to adapt to her new and original, although somewhat borrowed, style from her previous record, but it’s an incredibly rewarding banger that definitely has a market for it out there. Can we also talk about the last 48 seconds of the track? OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! The track takes a completely synth-based turn, with an ambient electro-pop section, which is a blissful channeling of disco and early 90’s synthpop. The video is also brilliant and very well-directed, with a good theme, complete with the aesthetics and the outfits. Overall, this is an absolutely triumphant return from La Roux and it’s already one of my favourite singles of the entire year so far. I LOVE IT and I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited for a new album. She no longer feels underrated and there’s no shame in being a fanboy over it.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Supervision” (February 7, 2020)

Thank you very much for reading this post! It’s almost time for another weekly themed Scuzz Sundays blog post, but first, I”ll be back tomorrow with an in-depth look at a lost 80’s track from a Scottish alternative disco duo who were known for their flamboyant clothing, sporting bows and polka-dots. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/ https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Beck – “Uneventful Days”

October 29, 2019 — 1 Comment

It’s been one of those uneventful days for me – Uni, work and deadlines has pretty much just been my entire life since September, but yet, I’ve been too busy doing that to write today’s post until the late evening. What’s going on with that? VOO-DOOOOO?

On a lighter note, it’s a gift from the universe to us all that Beck Hansen – the man, the myth and the dream mate I’d like to go for a night out with – is releasing a brand new album on November 22nd – “Hyperspace” – which is a science-fiction themed alternative pop/lo-fi album with the likes of Pharrell Williams, Greg Kurstin, Sky Ferreira and – oddly enough – Chris Martin from Coldplay (URGHHHHHH!!!!!! I HATE COLDPLAY!) on the guest list! I’m really looking forward to seeing how Beck completely reinvents himself this time with the follow-up to his 2017 re-break-out record “Colors”, which won the Best Alternative Music Album award at last year’s Grammy Awards. Beck has released “Hyperspace”, a pop-driven interlude with swirling synths and a darker texture of lyricism – as well as “Uneventful Days”, which is a single that he co-produced with Pharrell Williams. Talking about the collaboration with Pharrell to NME, Beck said: “was not expecting the songs to come out how they did. I was going in thinking of songs like ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’, y’know?” Beck said. “[Pharrell] felt very strongly that, spending a little time with me, that, ‘You need to be doing singer-songwriter type of songs’. So that was more of the direction we went in. I really tried to be less ambitious on the production on these songs, like to let them be simple and let them breathe. Pharrell is a master minimalist.”, so it sounds like Beck is confident that he’s found a match made in heaven! The music video for “Uneventful Days” is directed by Dev Hynes, a filmmaker and musician also known as Blood Orange, who’s released synthpop bangers of his own in several years, such as “You’re Not Good Enough” and “Charcoal Baby”, a synth-based tune dealing with depression.

Elaborating on the comments made by Beck to NME, “Uneventful Days” is a track that is very soft in context and it sounds very light on the ears. It kicks off with an ambient Jazz style, which sounds very cosmic indeed. Beck uses glistening guitar licks and spaced-out synth lines, with a focus on the vocals and the keyboard-driven melodies. Beck croons: “Uneventful days, uneventful nights/Living in the dark, waiting for the light”, later chiming in with “I don’t even know what’s wrong (the days without you)/Ever since you’ve been gone/Only ten minutes to go (leave me cold and alone)” over a bed of 80’s-style instrumental hooks and modern chart R&B, as the sound of the track progresses Beck forward as an artist, as he vocally reflects on the choices he’s made in his life and comments on the mundanity of everyday life, a vision of irony which becomes clearer with the Dev Hynes-directed video. The production work is electronic, but it’s also minimalist and quiet, it conveys a sense of Beck sensing a problem, but he’s struggling to make a head or a tail about the wider picture. Overall, I really like the composition on the track, as it feels mechanical and undeniably pop, as well as sounding very accessible to newcomers of Beck’s discography, although there is a slight tinge of a mainstream style in there, which I’m a little bit concerned about, but it’s reassuring to know that Beck’s behind the steering wheel of his own destiny as an artist – as usual. I can’t wait to hear the full record in a handful of weeks!

Thank you for reading this post! I’ll be back tomorrow, as usual, with a look at a new track from an English female solo artist who is also a poet, novelist and a playwright, most notably winning the Ted Hughes Award for her spoken word poem “Brand New Ancients” for her innovation in poetry in 2013! If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Alfie Templeman – “Used To Love”

October 25, 2019 — 1 Comment

Alfie Templeman is a 16 year-old singer songwriter from Bedford. He is the writer, producer, mixer and editor of all of his own indie-pop anthems and he is currently signed to the Chess Club licensing label. A few weeks ago, on October 3rd, he dropped his latest indie pop/electro-rock mashup, a track called “Used To Love”, which has been placed right on the A-list of the radio station that I’m currently working on as part of the management team for my studies at University, as we all seem to be fond of Templeman’s work so far, despite the fact that he’s still so youthful as an artist in his career. I have previously covered the title track of his latest 4-track EP release, “Sunday Morning Cereal”, on the blog. You can still read my thoughts on that track here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/09/23/todays-track-alfie-templeman-sunday-morning-cereal/

When comparing and contrasting his newest effort, “Used To Love”, with the style of the previous track, “Sunday Morning Cereal”, it has a noticeably laidback formula to it, even though the nu-dance influences of the previous track are still present. The synths and electronic instrumentation have been replaced with funky bass guitar licks and a more string-based arrangement of composition, which creates an overall sumptuous melody which draws you in to the moods of isolation and disconnection, creating an overall tone of falling out of love, which Templeman evokes through a heartfelt vocal performance as he repeats the lines of “I don’t wanna feel/Like you can’t talk to me anymore” and “I just wanna feel/Something that I used to love” with a tone that sounds passionate, but it feels very somber and doubtful in texture. He makes it sound like he doesn’t want the failing relationship to end, but he is not capable of maintaining the relationship after the partner caused a lot of harm and offence to him, which comes across very well for me, as I feel the engineering of the electro pop synths with the mixing of the acoustic instrumentation serves up a layout that sounds as cool as a dish of revenge best served cold. On the negative side of things, I don’t feel it sounds as experimental as “Sunday Morning Cereal” as it feels a little more radio-friendly in terms of the overall vibe, but it’s an interesting proposition to compare this new track to the older one, as the overall sound is more mature and well-polished, so it’s very nice to see that Templeman is starting to grow and evolve as a songwriting talent with a little bit more credibility, pushing forward in new ways. It is the perfect track for the daytime playlist of an alternative radio station.

Pictured: Alfie Templeman in a yellow-tinted photoshoot for Last.FM (2019)

Thank you for reading this post! I’ll be back tomorrow, as usual, with a look at a Jamican Rocksteady Reggae classic from 1969 by an guy whose backing band’s name you might find within a standard pack of playing cards! If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Butch & C.Vogt – “Desire”

October 17, 2019 — Leave a comment

If the spontaneous discovery of music, old or new, is one of your greatest desires, then you know what to do: like the Facebook page for One Track At A Time and give the blog a follow! It’s time for your daily post!

“Desire” is the new single by Butch & C. Vogt, two Latino electronic dance artists who are really blowing up, with this song in particular, on the international club scene. There’s not much information about the two EDM masters readily available on the internet, but they are currently signed to the Running Back indie record label. The track is a reworked rendition of a track by Andy Gibb, “Desire”, which was released in 1980.

“Desire” is a track that unifies several vibes and combines different flip sides of the EDM and IDM genres, as well as disco and synthpop-based influences, to a near-faultless degree of immediate sequencing and solid execution. The track evokes R&B, deep house, acid house, techno and world, all in one place by an effective clean sweep, created by the breakbeat-style engineering of the distorted vocal sections and the funk sensibilities created by the arrangement of the drum, dub and vocal melodies. It’s easy to see why the track has become so popular with a cult following in such a short span of time, as the track oozes charisma in it’s teases of bassline drops and the switch-up’s in the pacing and layout, as Butch & C. Vogt cleverly tease and trick you into expecting the ambient melody to reach a more heavy texture, but the melodies are pulled quickly enough to return you back to the infectiously groovy melodies of the record. The full version of the track comes in at a staggering length of 8 minutes, but if it puts you off a little bit, make sure you check out the radio edit so that you can still get an experience from this mega hit of a record! Overall, it’s a fantastic track that feels new within it’s genre and seems likely to become very influential in the next few years.

Pictured: Butch (left) and C. Vogt (right)

Thank you for reading this post! I’ll be back tomorrow, as usual, with an in-depth look at a track from an English indie rock/new wave/electro-pop group who, forgettably, won the Mercury Prize in 2007 for their debut LP record! If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every daily new post is up and like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Miami Horror (feat. Clear Mortifee) – “Luv Is Not Enough”

October 16, 2019 — Leave a comment

Luckily for you, a post a day is more than enough! Here is your Wednesday blog post!

Pictured: Cover Art For “Luv Is Not Enough” – Single (2019)

Australians make the best Synthpop music! That seems to be one of the unwritten rules of the pop music industry of this current generation, as it’s been proven by groups like Cut Copy, MGMT and Empire Of The Sun. Another good example is Miami Horror, an Australian electronic pop group which was founded by Benjamin Plant, originally as a solo project, in 2007. I used to be a massive fan of Miami Horror and I would place them among my list of favourite groups following the hazy summertime blast of their debut LP record, 2011’s “Illumination” and the subtle synth poignancy of “All Possible Futures”, their second LP release in 2015. However, after a little string of releases that I felt were mediocre and weren’t very sure about, the band have somewhat slipped down my radar a bit in recent years. They are back after a short absence with their new single, “Luv Is Not Enough”, which is the lead single for a forthcoming yet-to-be-titled third LP currently set for release in 2020. The track also features the vocal talents of Clear Mortifee, a non-binary songwriter from the indie R&B scene. Is this the banger which catapults Miami Horror back into my all-time list?

Short answer: Probably, but with a little bit more work. The track has a very glittery sound, with clear 70’s disco influences and a super clean surface of electronic production work. The track has a very upbeat emotion, similar to “Restless”, the prior single, but with a quality that makes the layered synths feels more cohesive overall, which is provided by the simplistically retro-cut funk and the subtle references, in sound, to a few of the defining soul records of the 60s, created by the likes of Otis Redding and Sly & The Family Stone. The track channels a real disco energy and its infectiously groovy to nod your head along to as a very satisfying instance of pop-dance music. It lacks a little bit in the lyrics department for me, as I don’t feel as though Clear Mortifee really adds a whole lot to the track, with their vocals feeling a little bit generic in places. This is more down to the material she has to work with, as the lyrics are generally lacking a little bit in the department of playfulness. Overall, I would have liked the writing on the track to feel a little bit more unique, but it’s somewhat paling in comparison to the brave direction of the synthesized melodies and the blissfully calm tone created by the ultra-smooth electronic arrangements, which encompass a variety of genres popularized in the 60s, 70s and 80s, with the record ultimately sounding retro, but unique and original enough, at the same time!

Pictured: Benjamin Plant (Synths, Bass, Production), Joshua Moriarty (Vocals, Guitar), Daniel Whitechurch (Keyboard, Synths) and Kosta Theodosis (Drums)

Thank you for reading this post! I’ll be back tomorrow with a look at a fresh Latino dance jam that’s really blowing up on the international club scene! If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every daily new post is up and like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: The Moon Duo – “The World And The Sun”

October 9, 2019 — Leave a comment

I really should leave some Space between these cosmic-themed records on the blog!

Pictured: Cover Art For “Stars Are The Light” (2019)

What a lush and colourful piece of cover artwork! As the title and the name of the band suggests, The Moon Duo are a psychedelic rock duo who aim to write, produce and record music that is absolutely out of the world, filled by slide guitar rhythms and old-school funk sensibilities that are interesting and different to other bands in the crowded indie rock scene. Their latest release, “Stars Are The Light” is their seventh LP record and it was released on September 27th, with the duo currently signed to Sacred Bones Records! The album was mixed by Sonic Boom, co-produced by Heba Kadry and mastered for vinyl by Amy Dragon, with the tracking being completed by Larry Crane. The fabulous, vibrant cover artwork was designed by Ardneks. Seriously, this is one of my favourite album cover artworks in a long time, just look at the articulation and the genuis behind the offbeat hand-drawn style! The Moon Duo are made up of Sanae Yamada and Ripley Johnson, who is the sole guitarist of Wooden Ships. The two members decided to begin this project in San Francisco, back in 2009!

“The World And The Sun” is the third track on the new LP record, a track which has a very earthly and overwhelmingly warm feel to it. The track has a very groovy slide guitar rhythmn which adds a vibrant layer of psychedelia and a smooth line of synth melodies that sound like hazy waves washing down on a breezy shore, which makes the track ßound increasingly comforting to listen to. There is a level of repetition to it, but the beauty of the music that The Moon Duo are making is that it’s never tiresome, it just puts you in a settled mood. The vocals are somewhat blurred, which adds a unique sense of presentation to the track as an overall cohesive package. It sounds like it’s been influenced by the soft-rock style of Fleetwood Mac and the psychedelic guitar chords of Lemon Melon, but it still manages to set itself apart as it features a lot of different elements getting pushed in and out of the foreground and it also taps into a certain shimmering disco market that isn’t catered much for, at least in the mainstream. Overall, I feel this is a very well composed brilliantly engineered record.

Pictured: Ripley Johnson (Guitar, Engineer) and Sanae Yamada (Vocals, Synths)

Thank you for reading this post! I’ll be back tomorrow, as usual, with a look at a track from a legendary hip-hop group who broke up in 2007 due to creative differences, but they returned to the stage together in 2013 and began a studio comeback in 2014. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog and like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Etienne De Crecy – “Am I Wrong?”

October 5, 2019 — Leave a comment

The wrong thing to do is miss out on a gem like this and the right thing to do is to like and follow the blog! It’s time for your Saturday blog post!

Pictured: Étienne De Crécy (French DJ/Producer)

Today, I’ve been listening to “Am I Wrong?” a track from Étienne De Crécy, a French DJ and Producer who specialises in the House genre and ambient dance music of the IDM category. It’s a very niche and alternative EDM track which I found on my automated recommendations list on Spotify. I’ve personally not heard of Étienne De Crécy before, but after undertaking a bit of research, I’ve heard that he’s been doing a little bit of a Richard D. James since the very late 90’s by releasing music under numerous different titles, including the likes of Superdiscount, Mooloodjee and Minos Pour Main Basse. In 2001, he released “Am I Wrong?” as a single from his second LP, “Tempovision”, which was accompanied by a 3D animated video directed by his brother, Geoffroy de Crécy, who also directed the 3D animated videos for the rest of the singles off the LP. It has become a cult classic in the European club scene and it reached a peak position of #44, just outside of the top 40, in the UK Singles Chart.

It’s a pretty weird and over-the-top video, right? It doesn’t particularly do justice for a song that is otherwise a pretty exciting jam. It’s a very enjoyable track because I like the distorted vocals and the bassline that sounds twisted and funky, almost riotous, but it remains fairly controlled in it’s main execution. The track creates a good excuse for you to just switch off, although it’s just a reworked sample of Millie Jackson’s “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want To Be Right”, a smash hit from 1974. It feels like a cynical representation of pop music from the 70’s timeline, taking an influence in style from Aphex Twin’s ambient melodies, but the electronic instrumentation crackles as the lyrics snap around the peaceful tone of the pulsating snares, to create a feeling that is relaxing and comforting to listen to. Overall, it’s still an interesting track and a record that’s been meshed together well in terms of the composition and ambient style of the pop-filled rhythm, even if I feel the ending is a little bit abrupt as the drum beats just end without a smooth fade or a slow, but coherent, transition. It also sounds like an effective foreshadowing for 00’s dance hits led by a synthpop revival movement, such as Spiller & Sophie Ellis Bextor’s “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)” and Modjo’s “Lady Hear Me Tonight”, although this is a record that’s a lot more niche and a bit less straightforward in it’s execution.

Pictured: Cover Art For “Tempovision” (2001)

Thank you for reading this post! I’ll be back tomorrow with a brand new weekly edition of my special themed Scuzz Sundays series of blog posts! If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog and like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Missy Elliott – “Throw It Back”

September 27, 2019 — Leave a comment

Welcome to the blog! I’ve written your daily post, so I’m going to throw it back at you!

Pictured: Cover Art For “Iconology” EP (2019)

Having been recently inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame, being the first female Hip-Hop artist to ever do so, Missy Elliot has been paramount to the US Hip Hop scene for a good reason over the last 20 years or so. Elliot’s contributions to the development of film-making artistry within music videos is second to none. Elliot has also won 5 Grammy Awards in her career and she is reportedly the highest selling female hip-hop artist of all-time. It’s no pressure for Elliot then as she makes her return to the world of music after going on an indefinite hiatus since 2005’s “The Cookbook” LP. On August 23rd, Elliot released “Iconology”, a five-track EP which explores the variety of genres which Eliot has covered as an artist and rolls them into one neatly wrapped gift with a little bow on the top. The EP release came out of nowhere, with no promotion beforehand, as a surprise drop. “Throw It Back” is the lead single, which has received significant airplay on BBC Radio 6Music.

After her incredible collaboration with Lizzo on the track “Tempo” from earlier this year, it’s very pleasant to see Elliott continuing to produce very colourful music which has a very exciting sound. The influence from the all-out brashness of “Tempo” is noticeable on “Throw It Back”, but it’s a track that also features plenty of referential nods-and-winks to Elliott’s previous classics and it sounds like a relatively pleasant stroll down memory lane through it’s 4 minute duration. It’s hard to deny the energy and flow which Elliot has fashioned into the production work and the electronic instrumentation of the track, but it feels slightly outdated and the lyrics feel like a retread of old schemes. The problem is that hip-hop is going under a big repositioning at the moment and it’s moving a little bit past some of Elliott’s work in the 00’s in terms of it’s political context and influential structure. As a result of this, it’s difficult to find where a nostalgia track like “Throw It Back” fits into the equation. It lacks the immediate impact which tracks like Little Simz’ “Offence” and Sampa The Great’s “Final Form” have mastered earlier in the year, so “Throw It Back” feels like a tired formula in comparison to some of those tracks. The track isn’t necessarily bad and it’s fun in places, such as Elliot’s amusing shots at social media: ” I did records for Tweet before y’all could even tweet” and her mildly interesting shots at her influence on the hip-hop movement of today: “I raised all these babies, call me Katherine Jackson.”, but the bass thumps feel a little bit out of time and the rhyming scheme is a little bit simplistic. Overall, it’s a track which sadly doesn’t leave much of an effect. It sounds quite generic and it feels lacking in inspiration. Sorry Missy, but I think you need to up the “Tempo” just a little bit more. However, it won’t damper her career very much as records like 1997’s “Supa Dupa Fly” are still legendary releases that have, and will always, shape the very landscape of hip-hop music as we know it.

Pictured: Missy Elliott being inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame (2019)

Thank you for reading this post! I’ll be back tomorrow with a look at a new track from The Comet Is Coming’s new EP, “The Afterlife”, which is a small companion piece to their incredible LP, “Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery”, which was released in March by the Impulse Records label! Also, make sure you visit the blog on Sunday to read the latest of my special “Scuzz Sundays” themed posts! If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Bon Iver – “Naaem”

September 16, 2019 — Leave a comment

I can’t hear crying, but I feel like I might start crying due to annoying tech issues with my laptop! Oh well, let’s cheer ourselves back up with your daily post!

Bon Iver is a very recognisable name in the mainstream. It is the indie folk brainchild of Justin Vernon, who combines his talents with a rotating crew of band members. I was first accustomed to Vernon through a single called “Heavenly Father”, the soundtrack for “Wish I Was Here”, a 2014 drama film which explores the Jewish faith. Bon Iver’a most popular record is 2016’s “22, A Million”, which is the group’s third LP. It gained huge international acclaim and a wide range of award nominations. In August 2019, Bon Iver dropped the follow-up, “I, I”, an LP which explores the amalganation of a combination of genres explored in the three previous records. “Naeem” is the new single, which I recently discovered on BBC Radio 6Music as part of the A-List part of their playlist.

“Naeem” is a track that has a very calm and light atmosphere. Vernon opens the track with: “All along ’em I can hear me/I go for the caste/I fall off a bass boat” to a gentle, ambient piano melody. Vernon continues to utter soft vocals while a guitar and a horn subtly adds another layer to the track. The chorus kicks in as Vernon raises his pitch with: “I can hear, I can hear/I can hear, I can hear crying” to a bed of synths. There’s also a shout: “Crying”, which feels like a mimick of the electronic sound. The vocals depict our narrator struggling with voices in his head, with a blend of soft-rock and electronic pop that creates a collage of synthesized beats and organic percussion. The vocals build up in pace to a fast bridge as Vernon croons: “There’s someone in my head/Tell them I’ll be passing on/Tell them we’re young mastodons” to a combination of upbeat piano and horn melodies under a range of synthesized chords. The ending is a repeat of the chorus before female vocals fade out the track with: “Crying”. It’s a very dynamic track overall, which combines the sounds explored on the last three LP records to create a blend of music that sounds like the finale to these albums. It’s not particularly accessible at first, but it’s a rewarding listen once you’ve persevered and connected with your brain to work it. It’s a good single and I think the video with the interpretive dancer in an empty hall is a great representation of the lyrical context.

Pictured: Cover Art For “I, I” (2019)

Thank you for reading this post! I’ll be back tomorrow with an in-depth look at a new track from a male solo artist who was once the face of an old Swiftcover TV advertising campaign! If you liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every daily new post is up and like the Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/