FEATURE:
The Beautiful Dozen
IN THIS PHOTO: Jessie Ware/PHOTO CREDIT: Jack Grange
Predicting the Mercury Prize Shortlisted Artists and Albums
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FOR this feature…
IN THIS PHOTO: Dream Wife
I am going to update one that I originally wrote a while ago now. The Mercury Prize celebrates the year’s best British and Irish albums. The shortlist of the twelve for the Mercury Prize FREENOW Albums of the Year will be announced on Thursday, 27th July. This year’s ceremony will be held at the Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith on Thursday, 7th September. I have listed albums I think could be in contention. There might some more obscure and esoteric albums that I have missed out, so forgive me if I miss them! Below are some superb albums from the past year from wonderful British and Irish artists. It is tough to call but, if I had to put three albums against each other that will be favourites, I would say Dream Wife’s Social Lubrication, Loyle Carner’s hugo and Jessie Ware’s That! Feels Good! will be the ones to beat. From rising artists to confirmed legends, it is likely to be another…
HUGELY strong and competitive year!
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Hak Baker – World End FM
Release Date: 9th June, 2023
Label: AWAL Recordings Ltd.
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/hak-baker/worlds-end
Standout Tracks: Windrush Baby/Bricks in the Wall/Run
Review:
“Hak Baker speaks the truth. The East London artist has built his army, with fans flocking to his shows. They’re a motley crew, too – jaded indie fans, burned out rap fans, discontented pop fans, each searching for something different. A deeply alternative voice, Hak Baker has something no one else has – songs, anthems hewn from his own life, delivered with an absolute, unfiltered sense of honesty.
Debut album ‘World’s End FM’ epitomises this approach. The genre-hopping influences are distilled into something unified and unique, rough-hewn tales of life on the fringes. It’s not afraid to get dark, but there’s humour too – on record, as on the stage, Hak Baker is irrepressible.
‘DOOLALLY’ is an immediate highlight, followed by the bold statement of community that is ‘Windrush Baby’. ‘Collateral Cause’ has a wistful, moving quality, something that in the wrong hands might become mawkish – not here, though, with Hak producing something with genuine empathy.
‘Bricks In The Wall’ merges indie songwriting with electronic production, a kind of Jamie T meets Pet Shop Boys brew. Deft pop music, it deserves to ring out of every radio in the land. Equally, ‘Full On’ is slick but still impactful, the chorus staying in your head for hours at a time.
A true statement of his capabilities, ‘World’s End FM’ is styled as a kind of alternative universe pirate radio broadcast. Songwriting at its most illicit, the punchy vocal on ‘Telephones 4 Eyez’ is offset by the anthemics of ‘Brotherhood’ for example, or the beautiful introspection of ‘Almost Lost London’.
Indeed, there is admirable breadth on display here. Even the skits are perfectly utilised – Kurupt FM’s MC Grindah comes along for the ride, but then so too does the wonderful Connie Constance. Closing with ‘The End Of The World’, this is an album that dares to push aside the bullshit, and give you the truth.
8/10” - CLASH
Key Cut: DOOLALLY
PJ Harvey – I Inside the Old Year Dying
Release Date: 7th July, 2023
Producers: Flood/John Parish/Rob Kirwan
Label: Partisan
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/pj-harvey/i-inside-the-old-year-dying
Standout Tracks: Autumn Term/I Inside the Old Year Dying/A Child's Question, August
Review:
“On Let England Shake and The Hope Six Demolition Project, PJ Harvey documented troubled times in the world; on I Inside the Old Year Dying, she presents a spellbinding world of her own. The album expands on Orlam, her epic poem about the coming of age of Ira-Abel, a young Dorset girl whose companions include the bleeding, ghostly soldier Wyman-Elvis and Orlam itself, a lamb's eyeball that serves as the village oracle. As complex as this sounds, there's a lightness to I Inside that's especially welcome following the scope of Harvey's last two albums. Like Orlam, I Inside the Old Year Dying weaves the old Dorset dialect Harvey grew up hearing into its songs, and the local idioms only heighten its bewitching strangeness. "Seem An I" takes its name from the Dorset phrase for "it seems"; lyrics like "Billy from the boneyard/Wrangled 'round the orchard" set the scene immediately (and set the tone for the beguiling and terrifying psych-folk of "A Child's Question, July" later on). Even when the language is obscure, the mood is clear when Harvey sings about "the chalky children of evermore" over church bells, brittle guitars, and booming drums on "I Inside the Old I Dying." When Ira-Abel is told "leave your wandering" in the clearing that follows the distortion and feedback ambush of "Noiseless Noise," it's apparent that something has changed irrevocably.
Harvey has excelled at mythical, intuitive storytelling on songs stretching back to "Sheela-Na-Gig" and "Down by the Water," and she continues that tradition with "All Souls," a creaking, tiptoeing "flesh farewell" that ranks among her eeriest work -- which is saying something. On "Lwonesome Tonight," she unites peanut butter and banana sandwiches, God, Elvis, and Ira-Abel's desire to grow up with a mesmerizing atmosphere that feels more real than some of her historically inspired music. The hallucinatory blend of folk, rock, electronics, and field recordings allows Harvey to venture deeper into the dreamspaces she's hinted at previously. She partially improvised the music with longtime collaborators John Parish and Flood, and the occasionally loose playing expresses the album's slippery relationship with reality perfectly. On "Autumn Term," spindly guitars, Harvey and Parish's twinned vocals, and a playground's worth of children blur together, capturing how Ira-Abel hovers between childhood and adulthood, past and present, and safety and danger. A processional beat barely grounds the hazy "A Child's Question, August," which alludes to Elvis' "Love Me Tender" with surprising poignancy. It's especially exciting to hear Harvey reintroduce electronics to her music, since she used them so vividly on To Bring You My Love and Is This Desire. "The Nether-Edge" is one of the album's finest examples of this, with a lulling, looping beat and whistling synths that sound like Harmonia reinventing the Wicker Man soundtrack. A triumph in its own right, I Inside the Old Year Dying's lively exploration is also a rekindling of something vital in Harvey's art in general. Though its whispers and shadows may not reveal everything, they're more than enough for a fascinating listening experience” – AllMusic
Key Cut: All Souls
ANOHNI and the Johnsons – My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross
Release Date: 7th July, 2023
Producers: Jimmy Hogarth/ANOHNI
Label: Secretly Canadian
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/anohni-and-the-johnsons/my-back-was-a-bridge-for-you-to-cross
Standout Tracks: Sliver of Ice/It's My Fault/Why Am I Alive Now?
Review:
“ANOHNI’s vocal has always had the ability to resemble a tearful cry, to cut through and pull at even the coldest of heartstrings, regardless of her message - which, it should be said, is more often than not an important one. But here, on her first record back with ‘The Johnsons’ moniker for over a decade, it’s the sonically softer side that hits harder, somehow. That a key reference for ‘My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross’ is Marvin Gaye’s 1971 ‘What’s Going On’ may surprise some of her more arty, obtuse followers - but mere seconds into opener ‘It Must Change’ and it’s clear what ANOHNI, and producer Jimmy Hogarth were after. Her voice less an instrument here than vessel, atop a smooth soul backing her repetition of the song’s title intensifies, oscillating between mantra and plea. Similarly, as ‘Can’t’ reaches its gospel-adjacent crescendo, one hears the influence of the blue-eyed soul of childhood heroes Boy George and Alison Moyet. Sonically, it’s an easy listen for an artist who’s often embraced the abrasive: only ‘Go Ahead’ flirts with the sonically abstract as it combines an almost-punk guitar line with almost-pretty vocals. But these aural niceties - see the croon-like backing of ‘Sliver of Ice’ or warm closer ‘You Be Free’ - only allow for a more direct gut punch. As she repeats the line “You’re my scapegoat / It’s not personal” on ‘Scapegoat’, on an album that features a photo of LGBTQ+ rights activist Marsha P. Johnson on its sleeve (from whom ANOHNI took the project’s name way back when) and with that uncanny ability of hers to convey such emotion with her voice - that it is, in fact, personal is crystal clear. Expect to cry - then get fired up” - DIY
Key Cut: It Must Change
BC Camplight – The Last Rotation of Earth
Release Date: 12th May, 2023
Label: Bella Union
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/bc-camplight/the-last-rotation-of-earth
Standout Tracks: The Last Rotation of Earth/It Never Rains in Manchester/The Mourning
Review:
“Brian Christinzio’s bad luck is legendary. If you thought things would be looking up for the Manchester-based Philadelphian songwriter’s 2020 album as BC Camplight, Shortly After Takeoff; written on the back of a deeply traumatic battle with the Home Office, followed in close succession by the death of his father, then you’d be wrong. If that record deals with the aftermath of being cruelly ripped from a home, then The Last Rotation of Earth, deals more with the wreckage of a relationship, detailing the slow, emotional end of a nine-year relationship, amid a backdrop of addiction struggles and mental anguish.
It’s not going to shock you then when I say that The Last Rotation of Earth is pretty bleak in its themes and motifs. Each song glides past like pictures in a scrapbook detailing the downward spiral of a love affair, with lyrics that feel like overheard snippets of bitter arguments and heartbroken reflections into a bathroom mirror. However, Christinzio, always the eager-to-please performer at heart, can’t resist finding the humour in the wreckage. The record is peppered with odd little vignettes that manage to capture the mundane ridiculousness of it all. Arguments with his significant other on how to correctly pronounce Theroux, sit next to sudden, depressing revelations that come when you find yourself watching David Dickinson in a fleabag hotel.
But, as the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. And this is pretty incredible lemonade. The subject matter might be dark, but the melodies make this pure, hook-laden pop. Finding influences from the last 60 years of popular music, every song honestly feels like its own self-contained masterpiece. From the luxurious, Talk Talk-style sophisti-pop of ‘Kicking Up a Fuss’ to the lush, orchestrated strings and soaring emotional arrangements of ‘Going Out On A Low Note’ and the scene hopping audio-verité of ‘The Movie’, every track seems to fizz and glisten with uncontrolled creativity.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about The Last Rotation of Earth, though, is just how emotionally honest it is. This isn’t a story about redemption, or someone finding a new lease of life. No, like the aftermath of most relationships, this is a record about coming to terms with feeling shitty and trying to move on. Dodging any clumsy attempt at closure, instead the album elects to just fade out with a song called ‘The Mourning’. A quiet requiem, the ghostly piano and haunting string encapsulate both a crushing sense of despair and a need to move on. It’s a feeling that anyone who’s ever been jilted, ghosted, or unceremoniously dumped will know intimately. Most of the time, it’s all you have to cling on to” – Loud and Quiet
Key Cut: Kicking Up a Fuss
Dream Wife - Social Lubrication
Release Date: 9th June, 2023
Label: Lucky Number
Producers: Dream Wife
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/dream-wife/social-lubrication
Standout Tracks: Hot (Don’t Date a Musician)/Mascara/I Want You
Review:
“For a band that thrive on the thrill of a live show and the sort of emotional connection that only comes face-to-face, releasing their second album into the perfect storm of a time where neither was possible was a moment of heartbreak for Dream Wife. So it’s maybe no surprise in some ways to see ‘Social Lubrication’, their gripping third record, hit the reset button and aim to capture that live power and connection like never before. And oh, how they’ve delivered on that.
Opener ‘Kick In The Teeth’ is the perfect entrance, attitude dripping from Rakel’s vocals, and it instantly feels as in-your-face as is humanly possible. Solely produced in-house by Alice, this is an unfiltered and undiluted version of Dream Wife and is all the better for it. The record rips along at a ridiculous rate in its first half in particular, the tongue-in-cheek fun of ‘Hot (Don’t Date A Musician)’ sitting deliciously alongside the title track, where years of casual sexism and gender-influenced disses is turned into some sonic truth bombs. It is the sound of a generation’s patience running out to a soundtrack for the ages. Time’s Up indeed, so you better shape up or move along.
‘Social Lubrication’ is just as good when it slows down and takes its time, the beautifully romantic sense of how the little things are often the ones worth clinging on to of ‘Mascara’ in particular acting as the beating heart amidst the chaos. Lust is everywhere, from the thrashy ‘I Want You’ to the all-embracing ‘Curious’, a track that champions the diversity that runs through the very heart of what Dream Wife stand for. It all makes for an album that finally matches up to the reputation and explosive sound of one of the finest live bands of this generation. 5/5” – Dork
Key Cut: Kick in the Teeth
Loyle Carner - hugo
Release Date: 21st October, 2022
Labels: AMF Records/Caroline Records/Virgin EMI
Producers: Earl Saga/Kwes/Nick Mills/Jordan Rakei/Madlib/Rebel Kleff/Alfa Mist/Puma Blue/Zento/Loyle Carner
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/loyle-carner/hugo
Standout Tracks: Nobody Knows (Ladas Road)/Georgetown/HGU
Review:
“Loyle Carner possesses a charmingly languid rap delivery. While it works wonders reclined in the melancholic sweetness which crystallised behind the beat-backed lounge instrumentals on first two records ‘Yesterday’s Gone’ and ‘Not Waving, But Drowning’, as a listener you can’t help but wonder whether he’s got any more tricks up his sleeve. Fortunately, he finds his bite on the opening suite of third LP ‘hugo’. ‘Hate’, his most urgent track to date, finds its writer wrestling with himself as a scuttling bassline lurks beneath the surface: “I fear the colour of my skin / I fear the colour of my kin / I fear the colour that’s within.” It sets the scene for the LP’s exploration of the self - specifically his mixed-race identity - ignited after reconnecting with his biological father after entering parenthood himself. This introspection is investigated with some stunning lyrical turns. On the urgent ‘Ladis Road (Nobody Knows)’ underpinned by a glorious gospel sample he raps: “I reached the black man / He wouldn’t take my hand / I told the white man / He didn’t understand”. “I’m black like the key on the piano / White like the key on the piano,” he notes on ‘Georgetown’ before stacking it against the famous John Agard poem. ‘Plastic’ is all slinky-basslines and snapping drums before it becomes distorted and twisted into a sample snagged from a daytime TV broadcast which finds the presenter casually dropping a racial slur. Of course, the downbeat mood Loyle’s made his name with is mined on tracks like ‘Homerton’ which churns brass, piano and subdued backing vocals together brilliantly - however these moments possess more dimension when stacked next to tracks which shake up the formula. On ‘hugo’, Loyle Carner proves his willingness to take risks and it pays off. While it feels like we’re still waiting on a total knockout from him, his lyrical progress and appetite for new sonic territories on ‘hugo’ suggests he’s verging ever closer” – DIY
Key Cut: Hate
Jessie Ware – That! Feels Good!
Release Date: 28th April, 2023
Labels: PMR/EMI
Producers: James Ford/Stuart Price
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/jessie-ware/that-feels-good
Standout Tracks: That! Feels Good!/Free Yourself/Begin Again
Review:
“That! Feels Good! is an emphatic answer to 2020's What's Your Pleasure? in more than one way. The dialogue evoked by the titles translates to how Jessie Ware's fifth album relates to her fourth, as this moves the party into a bigger and more opulent disco with a laser focus on fevered physical gratification. Continuing to work with primary What's Your Pleasure? collaborator James Ford, Ware also pairs here with Stuart Price -- who reached out after helping Pet Shop Boys and Dua Lipa make other dancefloor bombs dropped in 2020 -- to assist in turning up the heat. Somewhat surprisingly, this set is considerably less electronic, more "Relight My Fire" than "I Feel Love." The dashing '70s flashback on the previous LP's "Step into My Life" was a kind of precursor to the wider use of robust brass and strings, and pianos skip and rollick through a few especially potent songs such as "Free Yourself" and "Begin Again." Ware and company cleverly twist tried-and-true lyrical themes present throughout the history of dance music -- rebirth, independence, communal celebration, the quest for release after being overworked and, of course, the desire for passionate intimate connection. Vocally, Ware has somehow found another gear, turning in her most commanding performances while having what sounds like a ball with her background singers. She isn't above supplementing her unmistakable smoldering and blazing leads with clear references to inspirations, recalling effervescent Teena Marie (again) and authoritative Grace Jones at points in the title song, and striking a pose like Madonna in "Shake the Bottle." The Ford and Price collaborations are almost evenly split and easily commingle, so it's only right that the producers each assist with a slower number. "Hello Love," modeled on lavish late-'70s soul with a warm zephyr from Chelsea Carmichael's saxophone, delights in an unexpected rekindling, while "Lightning," a spacious and pulsing slow jam, basks in a blooming romance. These two ballads don't have the feel of afterthoughts on an album fizzing with wholly liberated and exhilarating grooves” – AllMusic
Key Cut: Pearls
Mandy, Indiana - i’ve seen a way
Release Date: 19th May, 2023
Label: Fire Talk
Producer: Scott Fair
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/mandy-indiana/ive-seen-a-way-2
Standout Tracks: Love Theme (4K VHS)/The Driving Rain (18)/Iron Maiden
Review:
“Mandy, Indiana don’t make sense. Three Mancunians and a Parisian came together under a name inspired by Gary, Indiana—a Rust Belt symbol of post-industrial American decline—to make a sound that thrashes like an angry Hydra. Every time you think you have Mandy, Indiana cornered, they mutate again. You could call their music post-punk, electronic, or noise, but no single genre signifier satisfactorily conveys what they do. This is by design. Mandy, Indiana trade in chaos and severe contrasts. Their startling debut album, i’ve seen a way, is an unsettling catalog of societal ills that takes the form of a churning maelstrom.
Mandy, Indiana’s origins go back to 2016, when vocalist Valentine Caulfield and Mandy mastermind Scott Fair met at a Manchester club; the lineup is now rounded out by Simon Catling on synths and Alex Macdougall on drums. From the beginning—early singles like “Berlin,” or “Bottle Episode,” a standout from 2021’s … EP—their sound was a transfixing blend of violence and transcendence: dance rhythms knocked askew, corroded guitars and synths fed into the gears of malfunctioning machinery, Caulfield seething in her native French. i’ve seen a way partially aligns with the recent crop of adventurous guitar bands from England and Ireland, many of whom Mandy, Indiana have opened for, like Idles, Squid, and Gilla Band. (The latter’s Daniel Fox mixed half of i’ve seen a way, with Giant Swan’s Robin Stewart taking over the other.) Yet i’ve seen a way feels both more extreme and more accessible than some of their immediate progenitors.
Visual influences—Blade Runner 2049, the video game BioShock, the films of Leos Carax and Gaspar Noé—play an important role in the band’s music, and i’ve seen a way begins with a similarly filmic instrumental, “Love Theme (4K VHS),” a gorgeous piece of starlit arpeggiated synth. Like the best opening tracks, it feels like a curtain rising, but it isn’t long before the quartet sets up the first plot twist: The dreamlike song lures you into a nightmare world. At the very end of “Love Theme,” a beat gurgles to life, recalling the muffled reverberations you can hear while waiting to enter a club, and pivots into “Drag [Crashed],” a song that takes dancefloor catharsis and rewires it into an anxious hurtle headlong into crashing distortion and horror-movie drones.
Mandy, Indiana pull off similar tricks across the album, nodding to dance traditions but structuring rhythms too discomfiting for simple release. While the record’s underwater synths are often beguiling, its percussive backdrops are ferocious—between electronics and Macdougall’s drumming, songs like “Pinking Shears” clatter and heave as if trying to destroy everything in their path. “Injury Detail” flirts with a more direct groove, but it chokes and sputters. Within a single song, the band can seamlessly combine dissimilar moods and registers. “The Driving Rain (18)” is a neon-lit city cruise riding a robotic bassline, Caulfield rendered an Auto-Tuned alien above it, while “2 Stripe” uses haunting, distant screeches to bookend an emotive reprise of the “Love Theme” synths.
Across the album, Mandy, Indiana deploy terrifying, uneasy sounds—a palette they developed by utilizing field recordings and unusual approaches like tracking drums in a cave or capturing Caulfield’s screams in a Bristol shopping mall. “This is an album where heads butt and things clash,” Fair has said. “It’s supposed to be nasty, and to not work.”
And yet, it does. The various textures and shifts of i’ve seen a way are mesmerizing—down to the way that Caulfield presents herself more like another instrument than a typical frontwoman, leaning on her operatic training to produce vocals with an intensely textural heft. She sing-speaks, she murmurs, she hisses. Her approach often emphasizes the dichotomies of Mandy, Indiana’s music: “Peach Fuzz” is already a sideways, smeared take on dance music, and her punk yelps accentuate its visceral pulse.
You seldom need to know the actual content of Caulfield’s lyrics for them to resonate. Even if you don’t realize that “Drag [Crashed]” is about sexism and objectification, you can sense her fear and anger. Many of her lyrics deal with bleak themes—the climate crisis, or the West’s slide into fascism. Even a fairytale setting like “2 Stripe” looks toward revolution: The song’s final words translate to “Always remember/There are more of us than them.” In the end, on “Sensitivity Training,” the band gets there. While past songs like “Bottle Episode” used militaristic drums to depict oppression or war, the ragged march of “Sensitivity Training” ends the album with an uprising.
i’ve seen a way is a purposefully disorienting album: an idiosyncratic collision of familiar elements that blurs genres and defamiliarizes language. Yet it also settles into an unexpected balance. The music is abrasive, but in its most shocking moments, the band allows beauty to shine through the grime and static. In the album’s penultimate song, the whimsically named “(ノ>ω<)ノ :。・:*:・゚’★,。・:*:♪・゚’☆ (Crystal Aura Redux),” the rage and distortion fall away, allowing Caulfield’s voice and synths to peacefully float, as if ghosts were surveying the rubble left in their wake. i’ve seen a way might be the sound of someone sifting through ashes, but only in search of signs of a new world” – Pitchfork
Key Cut: Drag [Crashed]
Billie Marten – Drop Cherries
Release Date: 7th April, 2023
Label: Fiction
Producers: Billie Marten/Dom Monks
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/billie-marten/drop-cherries
Standout Tracks: God Above/Willow/Drop Cherries
Review:
“Billie Marten’s fourth album starts with a hum. A crystalline exhale that warbles across three minutes of softly strummed guitar and slowly swelling strings. The track itself is a demo, titled “New Idea” after the throwaway filename Marten had initially used to save it to her laptop. It’s a reset button and a palette cleanser. An invitation to unfurrow your brow and drop your shoulders. To listen. By the time her vocals roll in on “God Above”, you’re already caught in the slipstream of Drop Cherries – which, it quickly transpires, is no bad thing.
Since she was discovered as a Yorkshire schoolgirl on YouTube aged 12, Marten has made music rooted in English folk tradition. Her album before this, Flora Fauna (2021), took leave of that. Out went the bare-bones production and whispered words, replaced by noodling beats and left-field compositions. Now, on her fourth record and second since splitting from Sony, she does away with alt-rock experimentation and once again embraces the dulcet tones of her 2016 debut, this time in the name of love.
The 13 songs on Drop Cherries are vignettes of a relationship. Marten dials back her sound to paint tender, intimate moments using only strokes of orchestral watercolour. “Bend To Him” is a sumptuous, pure paean to the simple truth of loving someone. “I wash my sins in the water of his eyes/ And he hears me when I cry,” Marten croons against the song’s minimalist instrumental scaffolding, like draping a linen shirt over a washing line in the garden. It’s genuinely romantic. The production remains mostly grounded in folky naturalism, as on album highlight, the band-led “I Can’t Get My Head Around You” with its smattering of drums and Marten’s plain-spoken vulnerability.
Having an edge is hardly the point of an album like this, but a risk or two might have been welcome. “Imagine stamping blood-red cherries on to a clean, cream carpet and tell me that’s not how love feels,” Marten writes in the album’s accompanying press release. It’s a striking image, one that suggests a sense of physicality that is left unfulfilled in the music. Admittedly, though, one could argue: why would you want to disrupt such a flow?
Images of nature sprout across the record as Marten describes “two weeping willows throwing an arm to one another” and legs that “stick out like sycamore trees”. The album’s fruity title is, itself, a metaphor for loving someone. That sentiment is written all over this love-centred record: red and plump as a heart. Or a cherry” – The Independent
Key Cut: I Bend to Him
Lola Young – My Mind Wanders and Sometimes Leaves Completely
Release Date: 26th May, 2023
Label: Island
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/lola-young/my-mind-wanders-and-sometimes-leaves-completely
Standout Tracks: Stream of Consciousness/Annabel’s House/Don’t Hate Me
Review:
“Lola Young knows that it is all too easy to get swept up by a storm that is bigger than yourself. In 2021, the 22-year-old covered Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder’s ‘Together In Electric Dreams’ for the John Lewis Christmas advert, little over a year into her career – it provided Young with a significant exposure boost, but felt like more of a branding exercise than a memorable introduction to a new artist. With an expressive vocal that carries the Londoner drawl of her speaking voice, breathless comparisons to Adele and Amy Winehouse swiftly followed, alongside a nomination for the BRIT Rising Star award. Yet in the midst of a whirlwind of hype, and only a handful of moody, more subdued pop singles to her name, Young was still trying to carve out a fully-formed artistic identity of her own.
On her debut project, ‘My Mind Wanders And Sometimes Leaves Completely’, it’s gratifying to hear Young push her idea of pop beyond the spacey atmospherics of her earlier material – this is the overdue arrival of a completely credible new talent. Much of the 10-track collection was inspired by Young’s schizoaffective disorder diagnosis, a condition marked by intrusive thoughts – though it’s also about grace and the illusion of effortlessness. It can seem easier to stay guarded, she repeatedly tells us across 10 tracks, but Young commits herself to being undone, detailing the lessons she’s learned over buzzing, acid-bright electronics (‘Money’) and bleeding-heart pianos (‘Annabel’s House’).
Young’s lyrics often feel akin to oversharing on social media late at night: navigating the fine line between moving past the pain, and feeling it at full force. “This isn’t a stream of consciousness / This is more like a big fat fucking no one asked,” she exclaims with a heavy sigh on ‘Stream Of Consciousness’. This personal frustration at spilling over boundaries of acceptable displays of emotion defines much of this project; the inescapability of depression shadows ‘Pretty In Pink’, while ‘Semantic Satiation’ flowers into an arresting portrait of separation.
Having recently had surgery to remove a cyst on her vocal chords, there’s now also a deeper, gravelly tone to Young’s voice than we’ve previously heard. Recorded as a freestyle, ‘Don’t Hate Me’ articulates the self-conscious shame of youth over booming drum kicks, as Young tames her vocal into both a growl and rasping lilt, her delivery resolute. At times, the track recalls the way the spare, stuttering beats of Lorde’s ‘Pure Heroine’ cut through the noise in the early 2010s.
‘My Mind Wanders And Sometimes Leaves Completely’ is about reflection, not total reinvention – there’s still time for Young to find the confidence to push her sound even further. “Lola, you need to chill out / I’m right here baby,” she whispers to herself on closer ‘Chill Out’. You get the sense of Young guarding her own fire, while finally inviting listeners to share in its glow” – NME
Key Cut: Semantic Satiation
The Murder Capital - Gigi's Recovery
Release Date: 20th January, 2023
Label: Human Season
Producer: John Congleton
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/the-murder-capital/gigi-s-recovery
Standout Tracks: Crying/The Stars Will Leave Their Stage/Only Good Things
Review:
“If you let the music do the talking, you’d have found their 2019 hype-stirring debut album When I Have Fears to be an incredibly structured and impeccably crafted body of work that was packed with originality. Its highlights were many and its delivery heartfelt enough to truly convey an emotional heft that is often missing from even the most sincere artists’ albums. Put simply, there was nobody doing what The Murder Capital did.
That said, heir new album, Gigi’s Recovery, is such a leap in songwriting and execution that it might as well not be the same band behind it. Where the first was terse and unwieldy, this one is open – even joyous despite its heavy subject matter.
The album is bookended by two short, potent ruminations on the notion of a fading existence, letting you know immediately what you're in for over the course of the record.
The album begins in earnest with “Crying”, where a spiralling, muscular rhythm meets McGovern's powerful vocal head-on. It's a tension the band explore throughout the album – unafraid to let McGovern carry a heavy burden, like the singers that inspire him, from Iggy and Jim Morrison to Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave. Just listen to what he does with the space on “The Lie Becomes The Self”. He completely owns it, occupies it, and imprints his rich, resplendent tones on what might be one of the lesser tracks in the hands of a lesser singer.
“Return My Head” is simpler in structure, and a return to the sound they cultivated so beautifully on the first album, and the title track offers the same visceral pleasures refracted through a stained-glass window.
The album's beating heart, “Ethel”, grows from a relatively staid beginning into a monumental crescendo of emotional drama. Its sonic makeup lies somewhere between David Bowie circa Scary Monsters and Iggy Pop’s “China Girl” – a kind of fraught, frayed, devastating art rock that uses heartbreak as a tool to inflict the most severe experience on the listener.
However, the song that most embodies the true spirit of the record is “We Had to Disappear”, which seems to shift at will before your keen ears. It's intense, and overwhelming, and powerful in the sense that it has a lot of classic rockisms – but it's also playful in its darkness.
The track that shows how far they've developed as a band is “Only Good Things”, which takes them very, very close to the sound of classic Tears For Fears, with its rolling rhythm and yearning vocal inflection. It's a wonderful tune, and offers a clue as to where they might be going next.
To combine so many seemingly disparate elements into one cohesive whole is impressive, but to do so having successfully navigated the pitfalls of hype, and of endless comparison, is tantamount to excellence. Gigi's Recovery is an excellent record, and The Murder Capital have laid the first real claim to Album of the Year” – The Line of Best Fit
Key Cut: Ethel
Arctic Monkeys – The Car
Release Date: 21st October, 2022
Label: Domino
Producer: James Ford
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/arctic-monkeys/the-car
Standout Tracks: There'd Better Be a Mirrorball/Sculptures of Anything Goes/Big Ideas
Review:
“Before news of The Car fully emerged earlier this year, Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders teased that the record “picks up where the other one [2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino] left off musically.”
“I mean, it’s never gonna be like [2012 AM single] ‘R U Mine?’ and all that stuff again, you know, the heavy riffs and stuff,” he said.
True to his word, The Car is yet again a world away from the Arctic Monkeys of old. Fans longing for a return to stadium-tailored choruses and catchy riffs after the cosmic lounge rock of TBHC need look away now. We’re even deeper down that rabbit hole and a million miles away from greaser-era Alex Turner, when his leather jacket and slicked back quiff allowed the band to truly catch transatlantic attention for the first time.
For the rest of us though, it’s a record that builds on the sonic palette of their last album, while making things more grander, colourful and cinematic. The result is some of the greatest songs of their career. Recent single ‘There’d Better Be a Mirrorball’ is a gorgeous heartbreak tale, with Turner’s croon telling of a “heavy heart” while gorgeous strings amplify the tune.
Elsewhere, ‘Sculptures of Anything Goes’ sees the band experimenting with drum machines and Moog synthesisers to conjure an imposing beat that isn’t entirely dissimilar to that which memorably ran through ‘Do I Wanna Know’. It’s nearly proof that the DNA of the band remains the same, no matter what the naysayers might think.
In fact, The Car actually allows TBHC to make more sense some four years after its release. Turner addresses the divisive reaction to that record as he talks of a “horrible new sound” on ‘Sculptures of Anything Goes’, but their determination to plough on with lounge-pop led sounds for a second album makes you think that this is the place where they always needed to be. TBHC, an undeniable curveball, was clearly no flash in the plan.
One resounding criticism of TBHC, however, was that it risked neglecting the musicianship of Turner’s bandmates, Nick O’Malley, Jamie Cook and drummer Matt Helders. The Car goes far in correcting that. Tracks such as ‘Big Ideas’ boast a full-bodied orchestral sound that will leave you wondering why they haven’t received the Bond call just yet, while ‘Body Paint’ is the most cohesive and united that the group have sounded in years.
All this, and the unrivalled ability of Turner’s songwriting to acutely fit a song’s mood. He speaks of how his “teeth are beating and my knees are weak” on the epic romanticism of ‘Body Paint’, while a reference to “the Business they call Show” on ‘Hello You’ seems to be Turner cynically turning the camera on his own life. There is also a late Beatles-esque journey into the surreal on stunning strings-led closer ‘Perfect Sense’ (“Richard of York: The Executive Branch Having some fun with the warm-up act...”).
It all makes for one of their most accomplished and impressive records so far. They may no longer be the same wiry teenage upstarts who emerged from High Green, Sheffield, but why would they be? Seven albums into their career, here is a band comfortable enough to speed off in that titular car, leaving old sounds in the dust as they pursue something new. When the results are as good as this, who can blame them?” – Rolling Stone UK
Key Cut: Body Paint
RAYE – My 21st Century Blues
Release Date: 3rd February, 2023
Label: Human Re Sources
Producers: Rachel Keen (RAYE)/Mike Sabath/Punctual/BloodPop/Di Genius
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/raye/my-21st-century-blues
Standout Tracks: Hard Out Here./Black Mascara./Body Dysmorphia.
Review:
“Hello, it’s RAYE here. Please get nice and comfortable, and lock your phones, because the story is about to begin.” It’s a story we’ve all been waiting for with bated breath – a rocky few years fighting tooth and nail to free herself from the clutches of a record label limiting her potential have meant that RAYE’s latest album has been a long time coming. After the colossal success of ‘Escapism’ over on TikTok, it arrives to suitable fanfare – a legion of listeners finally recognising RAYE for her talents, which she exhibits in full force throughout the course of ‘My 21st Century Blues’.
A problem shared is a problem halved, and it undoubtedly seems that with every outpouring of distress and hurt, RAYE emerges lighter. It is, at times, a heavy listen – ‘Black Mascara’ is a furious, dejected retelling of being misled and having your trust ruined, to a tears-on-the-dancefloor beat. ‘Ice Cream Man’ sees her distinctive vocals shine as she navigates the strength it takes to be a woman – it’s at once heart-wrenching and wrought with pain but immensely empowering.
She never hesitates to express the true depth of her feelings, and at times the album is alive with writhing, ferocious emotions. Yet, in unleashing those experiences out into the world, the intensity of them is alleviated. She’s unstoppable on her latest offering, tackling every hardship that has befallen her of late and doing so with smooth, jazz-leaning vocals and slick beats. “There is no wrath like a woman scorned,” she declares on lead single ‘Hard Out Here’, and on ‘My 21st Century Blues’ she proves exactly that – RAYE’s wrath is scalding, laying waste to all that have stood in her way until now. 4/5” – DORK
Key Cut: The Thrill Is Gone.
Billy Nomates - CACTI
Release Date: 13th January, 2023
Label: Invada
Producers: Tor Maries (Billy Nomates)/James Trevascus
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/billy-nomates/cacti-2
Standout Tracks: black curtains in the bag/saboteur forcefield/vertigo
Review:
“Following the release of her self-titled debut in 2020, it was clear that Billy Nomates, the stage persona of Bristol’s Tor Maries, had hit a sweet spot between a modern take on punk and spacious synth sounds that grant her lyrics plenty of room to breathe. With her sophomore offering ‘CACTI’, Maries has taken her signature sound down a completely different avenue, reworking a place of instability into a dominant energy that grows in leaps and bounds as the record plays out.
Declaring that the ‘balance is gone’, that thumping bass paves the way forward on the opening track, carrying a disturbing intensity that sets the tone for the foundations of ‘CACTI’. If any even remained, all existing rules are out of the window; the record is in some ways a clean slate that cherry-picks its elements from the present, spluttering them onto a page of honest imperfection.
For Maries, the defiance and rebelliousness that we associate her with can only coexist with the complementary feeling of being “70-80% vulnerable as hell”. As the melancholy drum machines of ‘saboteur forcefield’ push the album forward, the song is characterised by this exact admission (“I know that nothing’s quite right / It’s just your instinct to fight”). The album seems to be a gradual realisation of this exact admission, toying between cohesive song structures on ‘spite’ and unpredictable, fragile composition: ‘roundabout sadness’ is hanging by a thread.
Title track ‘CACTI’ is a queasy offering of haunting, chromatic vocal layers that pinpoints the most exposed point on the record, set in the emptiness of “hostile [desert] sands.” Major keys swing back into action on ‘vertigo’, where Maries channels her inner and outer Shania Twain to produce the clear belter of the record.
Uncertainty remains the overarching tone as the album reaches a close, with the bittersweet, futuristic undertones of ‘blackout signal’ leaving the state of affairs on a knife edge with an abrupt end, tailing off with distorted background bellows from Maries. A reminder of the eerie, prickly sense of discomfort from which ‘CACTI’ was born.
‘CACTI’ is a whirlwind journey that encapsulates the present and not too distant past, probing different emotions and unafraid to discover new truths and confront reality in its blunt, topsy-turvy form. It’s a statement of intent from Billy Nomates, unbalancing sonic scales and weaving this into a force to be reckoned with. 9/10” – CLASH
Key Cut: CACTI
Sleaford Mods – UK GRIM
Release Date: 10th March, 2023
Label: Rough Trade
Producer: Andrew Fearn (Sleaford Mods)
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/sleaford-mods/uk-grim
Standout Tracks: UK GRIM/So Trendy/Tory Kong
Review:
“Last year my partner and I started the daunting process of opening our own bookshop with no money but an insurmountable amount of hope, exasperated by post-Covid existentialism and an overwhelming urge to remove ourselves from the shackles of the current political climate. Though it was never explicitly mentioned, we could tell that everyone around us thought it was a bad idea: how will you earn a living from that? was the default response to our news.
They had a point. In a world of screens, opening a bookshop during a cost of living crisis is possibly one of the most radical things you can do. Of course, they were right. We closed the shutters on our shop for the final time last week in a bittersweet denouement that saw our hope slowly dissipate into an enveloping fatigue. This is the sad reality of a society that only values art as a commodity: without any financial backing – be it from investment, arts funding, or daddy’s trust fund – the system is designed to make it impossible to thrive, ultimately leading to a collective moral lethargy.
Our vision for the shop was never capital but social prescribing: with close ties to our local music scene in Manchester, we saw first-hand the catastrophic socioeconomic consequences of the corporate takeover of the arts. Austerity-driven financial policies have led to an increase in unemployment and poverty, social exclusion and an increased prevalence of mental illness. We, perhaps naively, thought that hope and defiance was enough to elicit change, but the spectre of reality came crashing down on us when suddenly everything became about money, or lack thereof, until we eventually had nothing left of ourselves to give – neoliberalism won.
The lesson learnt here isn’t that hope is futile, but how nothing truly radical ever happens without it. Currently, the working class have nothing left in the tank but hope, and voices that haven’t been this loud since Thatcher’s destruction of trade unionism and working class communities. You only have to look at the Enough is Enough campaign for genuine change to feel palpable, with realistic options being offered to us after years of being told to expect nothing but capitalist realism.
In times of crisis we look to the arts for answers. It isn’t always the role of political music to come up with solutions, but nothing could be more urgent than the questions that Sleaford Mods pose: who will make contact with the anger and frustration that Jason Williamson articulates? Who can convert this bad affect into a new political project? Like the rest of us, Williamson is clearly at his wits end, but don’t expect an ounce of subtlety: like all of Sleaford Mods’ work, UK Grim is the sonic equivalent of the most satisfying fuck off to anyone who’s done you wrong. Their contempt is presented as a series of intrusive thoughts, chewed and spat out, like a more erudite version of the well-intentioned local weirdo mouthing off at the pub.
From scraps in supermarket car parks to normalising lockdown-induced insanity, Williamson satirises human emotion in a way that denotes the quintessential Britishness of using humour as a coping mechanism: every astute observation on the failings of UK politics is almost always punctuated by the kind of instinctual wit that comes naturally to the British working class: where else would you hear the term “B&M Goths”? Like all of their albums, UK Grim is a timely snapshot of modern British life under a never-ending Tory government, with lyrical themes remaining topical. The endemic rise of talky white bloke post-punk on the artfully minimal ‘D.I.Why’ is hilariously scathing and knowingly hypocritical: “not another white bloke agro band!” bemoans Williamson. These are working-class vignettes of contemporary British life. The sporadic references to social media portrays the inescapable hold it has on us, while the hard-hitting ‘Force 10 From Navarone’ features a similarly pissed off Florence Shaw.
Musically, UK Grim is stark and austere and without embellishment, but combines the melodic reach of their last album with the pulsing minimalism of the Austerity Dogs era. It angrily counters the corporate pop that forces us to be joyful, but it’s not without its own brand of optimism. Sleaford Mods paint a bleak picture of post-Covid Britain via poetic protest, but their outrage is underscored by love for the people and places around them, making it as much a celebration of individuals and idealists as it is an attack on ruling classes. UK Grim is darker and broader than past releases, but the Mod’s usual melodic prowess is sadly lacking for the most part, allowing for more focus on the ingenuity of Williamson’s vocal tirades. In the context of now, Sleaford Mods might sound like just another angry voice – but it’s an improbably hopeful one, that tells us it’s OK to feel fucked off. Why wouldn’t you be?” – The Quietus
Key Cut: Dlwhy
Jockstrap - I Love You Jennifer B
Release Date: 9th September, 2022
Label: Rough Trade
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/jockstrap/i-love-you-jennifer-b
Standout Tracks: Neon/Concrete Over Water/Debra
Review:
“Greatest Hits” is a sublime model of Jockstrap’s future-retroism. It feels opulent but easy to slip into, like a beaded Halston unearthed at a roadside thrift store. It may be draped in cinema strings, but the song is far from stuffy. Ellery and Skye are playing dress-up, nodding to Old Hollywood glamour and discotheque pomp. Their manner of digesting these references makes “Greatest Hits” feel fresh; it winks at the ’70s by way of the ’90s, and it mashes up biblical imagery with 20th-century pop stars and a certain queen of Versailles. The song title scans as wry self-commentary, while Jockstrap’s detailed production adds a contemporary edge and a flash of humor (especially with an incessant chirp that sounds like “baby daddy”). After releasing a pair of somewhat exhausting remix EPs and being diagnosed as “ironic” by a former teacher, Ellery and Skye now prove that they are fully capable of writing lustrous pop music: Even the abstract expressionist can paint photoreal portraits if the mood strikes.
“Glasgow” is actually Jennifer B’s greatest hit. It’s a thumping road ballad driven by acoustic thrums and Ellery’s violin, which arches like a comet. Sweet and rapturous, it is primed for a singalong—the track that could land them a slot at Glastonbury. Even if they are hacking a trail to the festival tents, Ellery and Skye remain freaky. Jennifer B’s best tracks thrust open-hearted melodies to the fringes of madness. “Concrete Over Water,” the album’s high-drama centerpiece, morphs from bedroom confessional to souped-up circus theme. Eerie vocal stabs pierce the song’s perimeter, giving the whole thing a whiff of satanic ritual. On “Debra,” Skye lays down a colossal Bollywood riff, technicolor streamers that sound like they’re shooting from a parade float. With its wavering, distorted mix and scrapbook construction, “Debra” shares DNA with Jai Paul’s glorious “Str8 Outta Mumbai.” The song also contains Ellery’s most concise and poignant lyric to date: “Grief is just love with nowhere to go.”
The album is teeming with sharp turns and fakeouts, but instead of abandoning them as on earlier recordings, Jockstrap loop around to complete each theme. The title track kicks off with clinical key jabs and bizarre spoken interludes (one line, “Shifting about in her goddamn crochet pants staring at God knows what,” is seemingly uttered by a robotic Hank Hill). But the duo build on this creaky foundation, layering processed vocals and a synthesized horn melody. By the song’s end, the landscape looks different, but we can trace the path that led there. On Jennifer B, plot twists play out like a delicious art school scandal. Just when you think these orchestra enfant terribles will stick to their notation books, Jockstrap scurry to the bridge and chuck every page into the Thames” – Pitchfork
Key Cut: Greatest Hits
Rina Sawayama - Hold the Girl
Release Date: 18th September, 2022
Label: Dirty Hit
Producers: Rina Sawayama/Lauren Aquilina/Paul Epworth/Clarence Clarity/Stuart Price/Marcus Andersson
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/rina-sawayama/hold-the-girl
Standout Tracks: Hold the Girl/Catch Me in the Air/Phantom
Review:
“Hitting while the iron was hot, Japanese-English pop star Rina Sawayama made a quick turnaround after 2020's breakthrough Sawayama thrust her to the forefront of the pop scene, refining her vision and making leaps in artistic maturity with Hold the Girl. Like similar moves by contemporaries Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish, Sawayama's drastic growth between albums -- both in sonics and emotional awareness -- is a thrill to behold. Shooting for the rafters straightaway, "Hold the Girl" launches listeners into this world without boundaries where swelling strings, a skittering beat, country-inspired twang, and a massive club chorus somehow sound like they always belonged together. Riding that energy, Sawayama drops listeners into "This Hell," an '80s-leaning gem inspired by Shania Twain that could have been a Gaga track, singalong chorus, electric guitar solo, and all. "Catch Me in the Air" -- are those seagulls and Titanic-esque flute flutterings? -- channels the Corrs and breezy Y2K-era guitar pop, flying through the clouds atop Sawayama's vocal acrobatics. "Hurricanes" takes that formula and adds a wall of guitar on a towering empowerment anthem fit for early-2000s Kelly Clarkson. The chest-pounding power ballad "Forgiveness" pushes her singing to stadium-worthy levels before the album swerves into darker territory on a quartet of standouts. The tortured "Holy" slowly percolates into a blissful techno-house anthem that finds Sawayama rising above darkness and disillusionment, declaring, "I was innocent when you said I was evil/I took your stones and I built a cathedral." Then, the caustic, industrial-lite "Your Age" puts Nine Inch Nails' anger and frustration through the grinder before the cacophonous "Imagining" fuses PVRIS' alterna-synth attack and Charli XCX's future-pop sheen with urgent alt-rock riffs and '90s house beats. After the skittering "Frankenstein" begs for relief from self-loathing and societal pressure, Sawayama allows a breather with the tender acoustic ditty "Send My Love to John" and the sweeping "Phantom," an autobiographical confessional that is as relatable as it is moving. This is one of those albums where each of the vastly different songs could be a hit and, no matter how many times it's been spun, a moment of pause is needed to fully absorb just how good it really is. Besting the already star-making Sawayama, the triumphant Hold the Girl is the sound of an artist taking their rightful place on the pop throne. Sawayama was born for this” – AllMusic
Key Cut: This Hell
Shygirl – Nymph
Release Date: 30th September, 2022
Labels: Because Music/Nuxxe
Producers: Sega Bodega/Karma Kid/Mura Masa/Arca/BloodPop/Vegyn/Danny L Harle/Kingdom/Cecile Believe/Oscar Scheller/Noah Goldstein
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/shygirl/nymph
Standout Tracks: Come for Me/Firefly/Poison
Review:
“As an archetype, the nymph was shaped in antiquity: these young girls would ensnare male wanderers with their enchanting beauty and insatiable sexual appetites. Calypso, obsessed with fulfilling her desires, held Odysseus prisoner on her island, forcing him to sleep with her in the hopes of winning his love. Hylas, fetching water, was dragged to the bottom of the well by a group of nymphs, never to be seen again.
From the jump, Shygirl, the south London rapper, DJ and pop star otherwise known as Blane Muise, has explored frank sexuality through lyrics that are anything but coy. “You wanna fuck fast, I’m into it/ You wanna play rough, I’m into it/I want more,” she deadpanned on 2016’s Want More, her no-nonsense vocals playing off against collaborator Sega Bodega’s scattered, tactile production.
Viewing Shygirl’s debut album as a tongue-in-cheek reappraisal of the maligned mythical figure is tempting. Take opener Woe. In it, a chorus of strange, high-pitched voices emit from the void, luring with their siren call before snapping into something more threatening: repetitive electronic ticks and clicks mimic a reptile circling its prey. “You just love to hate, and you do it so well,” she sings as cinematic strings swirl, calling to mind the high-budget productions of pop songs written by powerful women dealing with vulnerability. Think What It Feels Like for a Girl by Madonna or White Flag by Dido – both of whom Shygirl and Sega Bodega cite as influences.
Strange sonic creatures also emerge from the depths on Come for Me, a mutant reggaeton stepper produced by Arca (who, in a neat coincidence, explored similar themes with artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen at Berghain last year). Coochie (a bedtime story) is a queer ode to you-know-what over a trap beat, with melodies that climax at the hook. Poison is a champagne-soaked blog-house anthem about a toxic relationship, replete with a raucous accordion hook and club-ready bass squelches. Missin U, an eerie rap interlude on jealousy, cuts like a jilted lover’s knife. Here, Shygirl goes full vengeance mode.
In a 2019 interview, Shygirl admitted to being a “late bloomer” who devoured fantasy books as a kid – not for nothing the introverted moniker. London’s underground club scene has always made space for introverts who thrive on the anonymity of fantastical worlds – whether releasing music under secret aliases or physically concealing identities altogether.
While Shygirl is now more comfortable in the spotlight, she still uses these personas as a means of expression. As a DJ, producer and burgeoning pop star, she is adept at inhabiting different characters to express her own multiplicities and contradictions. Booty calling every guy in her phone book in the verse, then dreading being alone in the chorus? Sure. The queen of sex bangers contains multitudes – or perhaps it’s just called being human. The Classics could never” – CRACK
Key Cut: Woe
Ezra Collective - Where I'm Meant to Be
Release Date: 4th November, 2022
Label: Partisan Records
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/ezra-collective/where-i-m-meant-to-be
Standout Tracks: Victory Dance/Ego Kilah/Live Strong
Review:
“Ezra Collective have long been the London jazz scene’s de facto party band, but their second album is a sophisticated step up. Its 14 tracks ponder their place in the world, and find these five instrumentalists standing on the shoulders of their forefathers: a song called Belonging follows snatches of a phone conversation with the film director Steve McQueen; there’s a nod to Damien Marley’s Welcome to Jamrock; and starting No Confusion, the voice of the late Nigerian drummer Tony Allen intones: “I’m playing jazz my way.”
As are Ezra: their ever-expanding vocabulary – always heavy on afrobeat, dub and the young sounds of London – includes riotous salsa, UK funky, what sounds like the brass backbone to South African gqom and some seriously impressive genre blends in the league of Little Simz. The mellifluous vocals of chameleonic rappers Kojey Radical and Sampa the Great wrap around their music, serpentine-like; singers Emeli Sandé and Nao sparkle respectively on Siesta (recalling MJ Cole’s Sincere) and the cosmic devotional Love in Outer Space. Ezra Collective show off not just their intuitive playing, but their knack for songwriting.
The result is an exceptional album that centres joy and community, radiates positivity and youthful abandon, and could well be the one to cross over to the big league” – The Guardian
Key Cut: Siesta
Little Simz - NO THANK YOU
Release Date: 12th December, 2022
Labels: Forever Living Originals/AWAL
Producer: Inflo
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/little-simz/no-thank-you-3
Standout Tracks: Angel/No Merci/Heart on Fire
Review:
“Blending a history of gospel, soul and rap, NO THANK YOU cuts and shifts, showing her irrepressible force and talent. On Gorilla, there’s a Jurassic 5 bassline with a jarring, performative flow. It’s a mash of orchestra and choir all against the negativity hidden and explicit. Simbi's vocals hang on every word, a monotonic flow, considered, lax and assured; it catches you.
The pensive Broken spotlights how someone can survive the pressures of being in the industry as a Black artist. Both love of others and self-love emerges throughout as an ointment, where in Silhouette, the line ‘Your insecurity won’t break me down’ binds together with the comforting, soulful refrain of ‘Time will heal you’. A combination that confronts dealing with naysayers and supporting those adjacent to you.
Recognising your self-worth is the vision emerging from every track and Little Simz does. 'When you men have your daughters, you’ll see how important I am', she notes on Sideways. Little Simz is an interrogator, a motivator and above all an unstoppable force and says 'No, thank you' to feeding the corporate thieves in an industry where ‘honesty isn’t normalised’” – The Skinny
Key Cut: Gorilla
