Late winter with unlikely temperatures? Trees ready to bud and bulbs shooting out of the ground all at the same time. Some too late, others too early. Welcome to the too early spring of 2026 in a time in which we seem to be living 'Wag The Dog' for real. An important lesson from the past is that messianic dictators rather go down leaving no stone unturned. Unfortunately we have a few of them at the same time. Good luck to us all! In the meantime, here's another selection of 10 recent singles for you to enjoy.Queen-Size Life. Mountaineer
On route to the new album
Mountaineer releases a new single. What the previous single already
suggested, is shown here even more: this album came with a bigger
budget. The regular band setting is more in the background, while up
front a trumpet tries to steal away all your attention. Don't fall for
that trap! Queen-Size Life is a ballad, slow but extremely beautiful. It
is a song like Marcel Hulst already has a few to his name. This one is
just bigger, because of the trumpet(s), the strings and the angelic
background vocals that weave themselves around Hulst's voice full of
melancholy observations and more than just a hint of sadness. The cherry
on the cake are the few sparse and oh so slow piano notes closer to the
end. As I already wrote, I have heard a song like this from Mountaineer
before but never at this level. Two songs into the album, I can't wait
to hear more. A little more patience is called for before 'Country
Dragon' sees the light of day on 3 April.
Lise
Catharine is releasing her singles faster than I can keep up with. In
between my review of two weeks ago, there is also the single 'Ticket To
The Moon'. The Best Is Yet To Come is also a slow ballad with the clear
sheen of melancholy longing hanging over it. You can find the song
in a bare version on You Tube from 2022. In 2026 that guitar is still
there, but around it Lise Catherine not only plays with your mood and but also with your ears. All
sorts of atmospherics and treated vocals come by, turning the song into
something far more mysterious than just a woman's voice and an acoustic
guitar. What I arrive at, is that Kate Bush is all over The Best Is Yet
To Come, without it becoming a typical Kate Bush song from say 1981 to 1985.
For that it is far too itself. The best description is, The Best Is Yet To Come is intriguing song, while
pleasing at the same time.
Days Of Ash. U2 "You
have the right to remain silent, or not" opens the EP that U2 dropped
unexpectedly recently in the song 'American Obituary'. Let's face it, this is no
'Vertigo', the last U2 song that truly shook me. It is a song that
breathes life and that is more than I can say from any U2 song since
2005. I can be mistaken but I don't think I own a single U2 song since the
album holding 'Vertigo'. Now U2 albums and me is not, never has been a successful
combination. Even the two best of albums are too much of a good thing
for me. Listening to Days Of Ash, six songs short, I am not held back by
the length of the album and not by the quality of the songs. The EP is
not earth shattering but it is good and I'm glad to be able to say so.
With drummer Larry Mullen jr. back behind his drumkit the band is
complete again also. In 'The Tears Of Things' U2 does a Bowie. In
general, I notice that the band does not try to be bigger than itself.
The band lets the songs do the work and not the band work the songs.
Because of it, U2 comes down to earth and shows itself as a sort of
naked truth version of itself, unplugged without plugging out. I have to say that this is a U2
I rather like. Until very recently, I expected never to want to buy a
U2 record again. It looks like I have to change my mind.
Okay,
does anything really, really happen in Javelin? If I'm honest, no there
isn't. My ears tell me the same chords go over and over. Then why am I
so attracted to Javelin? I can't tell you from a technical, rational level.
Where the feeling side of things is concerned, the song makes me feel
warm inside. The way it slowly but surely becomes bigger, the way more
instruments and voices come in that change not so much the atmosphere of
the single as expand it, simply touches me. To find Kevin Morby on this blog, you have
to go back ten years to find a review by Erwin Zijleman. I have
encountered the name Kevin Morby for sure but never got into his music.
If you ask me to compare this song, then I arrive at The War on Drugs. Luckily, Kevin Morby does not draw Javelin out to seven or more minutes. This single pleases me no little. Album 'Little Wide Open' arrives in stores and online on 15
May.
Koneko featuring Liana Flores. Mei SemonesIn
2025 Mei Semones stayed in London with Liana Flores and her impressions
of that visit were turned into Koneko, where the two harmonise together.
Those who have read my reviews of the Japanese-American
singer-songwriter Mei Semones know what to expect. Koneko, her latest
single, does not make any move towards not meeting expectations. The
bossa nova and jazz is all over Koneko. If you ask the average person
where this song comes, 99.99% will answer Brazil. What is missing here
is the indie twist Mei Semones usually throws into a song, making things
far more confusing. This is a perfectly relaxed bossa nova tune that is
released to announce an extensive tour of North America.
Window Loop. PostmanPostman?
What is this rapper who has gone out of style over twenty years ago
doing on a French label?, I wondered when I read the announcement in an
email. Luckily for Ukranian singer-songwriter Kostiantyn Pochtar
('Postman' in English) I read beyond the title, because what I am
listening to is an interesting singer-songwriter song. Postman worked on
his new record in the Polish mountains. Window Loop is on the one hand a
song that has a traditional build up. Kostiantyn Pochtar sings and is
accompanied by an acoustic guitar played in a muted way. Slowly more
enters, an electronic beat, a bass, some kind of synth and an electric
guitar playing one chord stroke, leaving space and time before the next chord. Later on crackling enters giving the impression
of an old 45 that has been abused a few times too many. Postman always
keeps the lid on things. Window Loop is not exploding, things move
underneath the surface here. More is underway. EP 'Phantasma' is set for
release on 17 April.
New
Zealand singer-songwriter Vera Ellen is back. Her album 'Ideal Home
Noises' still comes by regularly in my home and car. It is one of the
better albums coming out of New Zealand this decade and one of the
best subtoppers all over. With Gayfever Vera Ellen is delivering once
again. She manages to attract with her way of singing and talking and
everything in between the two. The music both supports and decides to go its own
way in the right moments, creating two interesting moments at once.
Yes, I can multitask as I am able to follow both paths at the same time.
Gayfever is reassuringly Vera Ellen and yet is more exultant. The
extras in the song are almost overdone for a Vera Ellen song (as I know
them). They are not, this is what musical richness sounds like. The video
though is quite weird but no less surprising. Her new album, ‘Heaven
Knows What Time’, is released on Flying Nun on 1 May.
Me And My Shadow. Fini TribeFini
Tribe formed in 1980 in Edinburgh during the postpunk era. The six
piece band recorded during the years 1982 - 1987 and is re-releasing its
output forty plus years down the line. The single Me And My Shadow is
typical for the time. There's little light let into the music, if any.
The singer puts on the deadest voice he is capable of (not very, I'm
afraid). The rhythm is almost machine like. Forty years before AI could
be asked to produce such a mechanic beat. The two guitars and the
keyboard take care of the melody, of course stocky and in a
straightjacket with an extra pull on the wraps. The song works though,
exactly because of how the guitars and keyboard play off each other. The
single was recorded in a session when most of the boys were still in
secondary school. Taking this fact into account, the single is quite
alright. Album 'The Sheer Action of Fini Tribe: 1982-1987' was released
on 11 February.
Sweetiepie. The SophsIt has been a
while since I listen to a Violent Femmes song. Even my favourite album
'Hallowed Ground' has not been put on for quite some time. The Sophs
could have fooled me, if Sweetiepie had been released as a long lost
Violent Femmes song. The only thing that would have put a little doubt
in my mind perhaps, is the fact that the song does get a poppy feel,
where the band of old always had some darkness around it at the time.
Sweetiepie is an uptempo country-rockabilly song with a moutharp and
all. The Sophs play with the rockabilly sound like it should, with the
little moments where only the drums keep up the song and rhythm before
everybody joins in again. This song is just big time fun, let's not
mince any further words on it.
Carved Skull. Abrasive Trees We
have to go back to the Covid years to find Abrasive Trees on this blog.
With a new album under way, as yet unnamed but slated for May, the band
around Matthew Rochford releases a new single called Carved Skull.
Yes, the music is almost as dark as the title suggests. No, this is not
death metal, not even close. I would put the music somewhere between
symphonic rock and 1980s doom and gloom without moving into postpunk.
So, expect a deep bass and a drums that pounds the skins and layers upon
layers of guitars that all together take their time to play the song
home. The mood is created and drawn out. Listening to the intro I'm even
remembered of the way Sadeness integrated Gregorian singing into pop
somewhere around 1990. Monks have gone mostly out of fashion, but their
ghosts hover in Carved Skull. Jay Newton (guitars, backing vocals),
Matthew Rochford (vocals, guitars, synth) and Will Tyler (drums, bass,
backing vocals), assisted by Ben Roberts (electric cello) and Yunala
Songweaver (backing vocals) create a mood that is somehow befittingly
sacred for the second quarter of the 21st century.
Wout de Natris - van der Borght
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