Hello world,
Here’s your latest FP Picks update .. loads of great new music as always inc trx from Jamie T, Little Grandad, The Joy Hotel & lots more. If you like what you hear please follow and share this playlist, it helps us keep doing our thing by getting the algorithms on our side. Also please support the artists featured in any way you can!
Until next week
Helen (Futureproof) x
Jamie T – 3310
Jamie T recently announced his new album Ghosts (100 Days of Morning) with the anthemic single 3310, dominated by bold lyricism and lively guitars. Named after the classic Nokia brick phone, the track reruns Jamie T’s classic imagery of songs about drinking snakebite and the blurry hours between night and morning through a bittersweet indie-rock lens. The music video, directed by Rob Thorogood and shot at the seaside, captures that transient time where some are waking up for work or leaving for a morning jog, and others are just getting home from a night out. Jamie said of the album: “Everyone has a part of themselves they keep at arm’s length, even from the people they love. Ghosts to me is about seeing that version of yourself for the first time in a long time and trying to hold on to it. This album is me trying to find that again.”
Dragonflies – Setting Sun
Dragonflies (Dhani Harrison, Nigel Godrich) have shared the new single Setting Sun, with a gently propulsive bassline that carries the duo toward a chorus that Godrich has coined ‘angular pop music’. Harrison (son of the late George Harrison, he’s released a handful of solo albums and fronted the group Thenewno2) and Godrich (noted English producer/engineer known for collaborations with Radiohead, Travis, Beck, Air, Paul McCartney, U2, and many more, in addition to being a founding member of Atoms for Peace and Ultraísta) recently shared their creative partnership, having been friends for a long time. A press release states: “Godrich invited Harrison into his Brixton studio, where the two began building songs from tape loops while working quickly and instinctively. “It’s like one person throwing something in the air and the other person catching it,” Godrich says of their process.
Florence Road – 7563
Irish four-piece Florence Road have shared their single 7563 which pairs hook-laden guitars and soaring vocals, highlighting the melodic pop-rock alchemy the band have built their reputation on. They say of the track: “7563 is about feeling out of place, lost and confused. Not being sure of who you are. It’s about knowing that you need to break yourself out of it, feeling that something is calling at you to wake you up from this ‘bad dream.’” Kicking off with a soaring, anthemic intro, the single finds singer and guitarist Lily Aron admitting that “everything’s blue” before asking: “When will it end?” The band’s frenetic live performance has resulted in a sold-out U.S. tour throughout September, and sold-out headline dates across Ireland in November and December.
Gollylagging – Red Fish
Boston DIY quartet Gollylagging concoct a spellbinding arrangement of garage rock, indie folk, post-punk and, notably, hip-hop on their single Red Fish, offering a glimpse of their forthcoming debut Real Life. The band let the song effortlessly skate between their creative impulses. The guitar intro calls to mind Providence-born Deer Tick and their best head-nodding bluesy folk acoustic licks until the mix is beset with fuzzed-out electric guitars. It’s a playful tune that came together quickly and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Jake Regulbuto (vocals, guitar) states: “Red Fish is about a stretch of my life where I felt awkward in a lot of social interactions. I was getting the feeling that a lot of people are too focused on being cool. This song is a silly, sarcastic response to people like that.”
Mr Speed – It’s Easy
Mr Speed are a four-piece band from London, focussing on classic songwriting that takes cues from a lineage of American indie rock, power pop and Britpop. The last ten years of British alternative music have seen the rise and subsequent fall of sprechgesang stylings packed full of complex notions and ideals but Mr Speed aren’t interested in these highfalutin modes. They have just shared their infectious new single It’s Easy, with a focus on writing excellent and straight-forward classics. Bright and zippy melodic writing is paired with crunchy, duelling guitars — a boon for listeners rejoicing in the power pop renaissance of late. It’s Easy is the feeling of putting shades on to go to the shops.
Curiosity Shop – About A House
Latest single About A House from Edinburgh quintet Curiosity Shop is an affable and authentic testament to the undersung skill of keeping warm folk music cool. “You need to bear in mind in the studio that sometimes when things sound good, they sound good, and sometimes when things sound bad, they sound good,” Ruairidh Wallace, co-songwriter and guitar player of Curiosity Shop, tells BEST FIT. “But sometimes when things are bad, they just sound bad.” Curiosity Shop sound like a band that builds entire songs around their little musical inside jokes. Then agonising over which are truly funny, which are bad-funny, and which make no sense to anyone but them. The result is a light-footed, welcoming sound that uses minimalism to maximise the meaning of their occasional maximalism.
Little Grandad – Tiny Feet
Little Grandad have announced their anticipated debut album Speak Softly, Son with harmonic single Tiny Feet, which shows off the group’s sweet, close-knit vocal harmonies, and opens with gentle, hushed guitar before growing in intensity. The band are led by brothers Jack Lower (bass/vocals) and Harry Lower (guitar/vocals), who began sharing musical ideas after they both moved back into their family home after university. Discussing the band’s approach to songwriting, Jack states: “I think there is just a wider movement towards songs again. It’s like, we wanna tell you a story through this song, and that’s gonna be done with guitars.”
Ninush – Neighbours
Ninush (aka Nina Lim) has shared new single Neighbours, a novel yet complex work that feels warm, intimate and deeply relatable. Lim explains: “I wrote the song Neighbours after having moved back into my family home in the suburbs, it was inspired by a conversation I had with one of my best friends who lived down the road from me. It’s basically a love letter to the village I grew up in. I ended up teaming up with two other old school friends Freya James (Director) and Zander Hearn (Cinematographer) to make the music video, it was genuinely the most special thing getting to make something with 3 friends that completely understood my creative vision.” A real pro where strings are concerned, Lim has years of experience performing with Black Country, New Road, Jockstrap and Geordie Greep as well as an enviable list of arrangement credits, due in part to her studies at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music.
Possumwulf – You Can’t Kill My Love
A cajun twist on this latest release from Western Arkansas artist Possumwolf sets the mood nicely inside a blues infused backing groove. Initially set by a vamping acoustic guitar riff, an angst ridden vocal uses heavenly imagery in its lyric about painful love to great effect, while sweeping chords carry you along from their first entry. Rich choral backing vocals then give the track even more of an expansive sound and when the layered slide guitars come in, the song lifts again to new heights. An interesting mix of rootsy Americana and a rich layered production allow this record to stand out on its own – and why not I say!
The Joy Hotel – May Queen
After some time away from both releasing and performing, Glasgow’s The Joy Hotel make their comeback with the single May Queen. Already on their earlier material it was impossible to neatly sum up the band’s sound as influences ranged from Billy Joel to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, from shredding rock to gentle folk. Now, the list only grows more expansive as May Queen is high octane and hyper energetic, launching into a new era for the unit as they take modern existentialism in a suitably overstimulating yet glossy package. Upcoming album Consume is a richly textured, emotionally charged album from a band increasingly difficult to categorise — and increasingly difficult to ignore.
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