Hello world,
Don’t miss out on this week’s FP Picks update cos it’s full of bangers fm This Is Lorelei, Arab Strap, Henry Coke & 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
Westside Cowboy – Pin Up Boys
Westside Cowboy recently dropped their new single Pin Up Boys, taken from the upcoming debut album It Goes On. The band state: “Pin Up Boys was written a year and a half ago using an acoustic guitar, a drum machine sample pad and some screwdrivers as drumsticks. It is by far the longest serving song on the album and the one that we have played the most live, which was a blessing and a curse when we came to record. After realising this song was set in its ways, we thought the recording should be a somewhat faithful version of the live performance.” The video was directed by SNL UK’s Jack Shep, who said: ”In the video we wanted to capture the band’s dynamism, through a spotlight. We follow this fixed, malevolent spotlight chasing our hero (played by the band’s mate, Will) as he tries to escape its gaze.”
This Is Lorelei – Billy Came Back
This Is Lorelei (aka Nate Amos) has announced his upcoming new album The Singer In My Band and the first taste of the record is Billy Came Back, about which Amos says: “Billy Came Back stewed for months before I picked up a guitar to work it out – I kept forgetting about it but it always came back. Finishing the song was the only way to get it to leave me alone.” It’s an infectious indie banger that memorialises the titular character in a local watering hole, singing his heart out. We quickly find out that “Billy doesn’t need to watch the screen / Because most every word and what it means”. We then find out about Amos’ deep affection for this character, who suddenly disappeared from his life back in 2022, leaving him pining to hear from this outsized character who has “a voice that sings for you and me.” An upbeat track with a lovely story – it’s on repeat here!
TVOD – Wet Brain
NYC art punks TVOD recently shared the single Wet Brain, taken from their upcoming album The Farm. It’s angular and fraught, sharpening the droning rhythm section with wiry synths and vocalist Tyler Wright’s propulsive, anthemic yells. Inspired by slacker rock and debuted at their SXSW performance, the new song is about “ruining relationships, concurrent hair of the dogs, and wishing you had never said that dumb thing to your now ex,” according to the band. “A post-punk tribute to Sixteen Candles.” The album explores themes with regards to power, hypocrisy, and a society that feels increasingly absurd, TVOD poking fun at authority while capturing anger, tension, and the collective unease of today.
The Healing Power of Horses – TOURNIQUET
The Healing Power of Horses defy pop expectations with the single TOURNIQUET, taken from their debut EP Summer Indoors (or outside wearing black), a direct and incisive slice of off-kilter pop and another clue towards where the duo might head next musically. The EP drifts like a transmission caught mid-air with songs that lurch, glide, and shimmer as if caught between memory and dream. Brittle rhythms crack against blown-out textures, giving way to moments of weightless melody that hover just above themselves. The tracks move through flashes of paranoia, mercy, and hope, flickering between the intimate and the uncanny, with each turn revealing something shiny, disorienting, and faintly heavenly.
Marmozets – Closer To You
Marmozets have shared the heartfelt anthem Closer To You which serves as a direct love letter from vocalist Becca Bottomley to guitarist, and husband, Jack Bottomley. An off-kilter, jangly, beautifully constructed ballad of sorts, it peels back the chaos that the band embody so well for pure sentiment and gooey-eyed intent. Becca states: “Closer To You started on an acoustic guitar during an improv session in the living room of Jack’s parents’ old house. The chorus came out of nowhere, but looking back, it clearly came from a very real place. Early on in my relationship with Jack, I wanted something so deep – more than I felt capable of offering, accepting, or even believing was possible. I wanted true love.” Great sentiment, great vocals – what a banger!
Arab Strap – Glamour Magick
Scottish alt-rock outfit Arab Strap confront pressure to look youthful on witty yet poignant new single Glamour Magick, taken from their upcoming album Half-Told Tales. “Glamour Magick is about the pressure to look youthful, and how far we might go to hide our natural selves,” singer Aidan Moffat explains of the track. “It started with a few things I use regularly in middle age – caffeine shampoo, whitening toothpaste, eye cream etc. – and then I wondered how much further I’d be willing to go.” The video follows a beard-stroking ASMR livestreamer – played by the band’s Moffatt – who dodges payment for cosmetic surgery, setting off a chain of cult-like rituals and events. Suddenly his serious cosmetic surgeon – with the band’s Malcolm Middleton playing her ginger wigged assistant – turns out to have a sideline in Satanism and whilst in post-op bandages, important parts of Aidan start falling off.
Basht. – Keira Knightley
On the track Keira Knightley, Basht. indulges in charged and reflective post-punk, detailing desperation and heartbreak. Vocalist and guitarist Jack Leavey states: “This song is about the desperate lengths people go to in an effort to save a relationship. “I’ll call you daily / hold you tightly / ring your bell like Keira Knightley” [a reference to the movie Love Actually]. It’s about a relationship I had that started off being incredibly exciting and loving but then slowly devolved into jealousy, desperation and resentment. “Our flirtations undeciding / I’m not sure if he’s just a friend / something’s different, why are you crying / is this about to end?” Sonically we wanted to push the dial out from what we’ve previously released and give people a new flavour of Basht. and a hint of what’s to come.”
Phoebe Green – There’s Always Someone Kicking The Seat
Phoebe Green announces second album Premature Nostalgia with lead single There’s Always Someone Kicking The Seat. The record was written and produced alongside her sister Lucy Green, a producer who goes by Elucyve and Phoebe states: “The album mostly explores my tendency to be extremely sentimental and attach value to every little thing – feeling nostalgic before a moment is even over and trying to control the grieving process by going through the motions prematurely in order to prepare myself.” Of the track, Phoebe says: “We wanted this song to feel extremely visceral, as though the listener is experiencing the story firsthand. It’s maybe my only proper break-up song, and Lucy really beautifully encapsulated the chaotic emotional journey sonically.”
Man/Woman/Chainsaw – Something Else to Give
Man/Woman/Chainsaw have shared the single Something Else to Give, taken from upcoming debut album Cannonball, and vocalist Vera Leppänen calls it “a song on love and disappointment.” She continues: “It talks about exerting yourself for someone who doesn’t reciprocate the effort. We wrote it kind of in a flash – the process felt very organic and intuitive; it immediately felt like the obvious closer for the album.” The track begins with confident drums, rumbling bass, and Leppänen’s expressive, conversational vocals. Soon we’re getting synths, strings, guitars and male backing vocals. It goes somewhere dynamic and dramatic, its delicate qualities combining brilliantly with well-timed blasts of aggression.
Henry Coke – I Want To Feel It In My Heart
Singer-songwriter Henry Coke has shared a beautifully emotive new single and states: “I Want To Feel It In My Heart is the envy of the feeling of faith, the desperation to feel free in its grace and simplicity. What is living worth if you don’t have a reason? It’s a call to be shown something in a void of silence. People seem to find peace in the silence, and it’s the longing to also feel that way, instead of feeling fearful of it.” The track is an examination of our shared human experience, our need to find belonging, and a collective sense of why we’re here. Coke’s towering vocals tell of “how easy it could be to kneel at a throne and give yourself away.” Accompaniments include guitars, pianos, and, in a nod to his upbringing, the harmonica of The Salvation Army.
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