10 Singles, 2021/6

And another week has gone by. It's time for another singles roundup capturing some of the singles that have come by over the past days. What is so attractive is that listening to the different singles a host of musical genres come by, several of which I would not listen to generally speaking. A single can still stick out, sometimes even make me very curious about the album that is to follow. Not all singles make it, of course not, but in those cases they simply do not speak to me in any way or are so complex that I do not feel like investing the time. Next! Below you find once again, a cross-section of what is currently out there. If you want to you can even follow the singles by clicking on the link below and create your own personal experience. Let's go.

Winter. The Jacklights

On the day that the first cold front since 2012 is about to enter the eastern part of The Netherlands, I am writing about a song called winter, the single debut of The Jacklights on the new Red on Red label of Justine Covoult. Although I have to get used to the way of singing of Nilagia McCoy. She sings with a deep voice taking away nuances out of her voice to match the tough punkrock music The Jacklights play. That said, Winter is such a nice punkrock song. The guitars simply bristle from cold and the drummer is pounding away as it's the only way to keep warm. In the meantime sparks fly. Winter has a golden melody and just the right music behind it. All a three piece band can do and has to do, perfectly executed. Let the snow and ice come!

Beauty School Dropout. Kid Gulliver

A second recent Red on Red release is by Kid Gulliver. Also a band that has featured in the singles roundups in the last year. I am listening to this kind of mix between girl pop and punkrock for decades and can't help but wonder how it's possible to still come up with new songs in the genre. Now I may even able to do so, but what I mean is a song that closes in on perfection, that is simply alright in all possible ways. Like 'Winter', see above is and Beauty School Dropout is. Under three and a half minute of pure pop with a fierce bite. The way the instruments take care of the dynamics in the song is simply exemplary. Bass, drums when it is enough, the rest follows later in the song. The result is a tight song because of that drums and bass parts. I know there's a tight rhythm guitar in there as well but almost functioning as a bass guitar. The male - female vocal parts are great as well. Simone Berk and David Armillotti both have an interesting part and give the song something extra together. Perfect pop punk Beauty School Dropout is.

Dancer. Jazmine Mary

Jazmine Mary is a totally new name to me. So I had no clue as to what I was going to listen to. For those following my suggestion and listen along, you'll have noticed how different Dancer is. Slow, bare, lots of space between the instruments. Almost as this is a social distancing song of playing on 1,5 meter from each other. At the same time this alternative ballad is quite beautiful. There is a jazzy undertone over which Jazmine Mary is able to deliver her slow vocals. Everything around Dancer exhumes relaxed atmospheres, with an undercurrent that can't be determined really. Over the basis of a strummed guitar, one stroke per beat, other instruments move in and out of the song. A keyboard, a violin, a saxophone, while soft, percussion, so slow and wide apart, accompanies all, almost as a separate instrument. Having listened a few times to Dancer, the final element I would like to point to is folk. Of course this song is extremely slow, there are hints to the kind of new folk that was made around 2010. The way Jazmine Mary is able to mix all these elements in this interesting way, makes me interested to hear more in the future. Coming from New Zealand, I'm not surprised that the last name I wanted to mention was Reb Fountain. That majestic impressiveness is all over Dancer as well.

One Day. ViVii

ViVii, how do I pronounce the band's name VieVi or six, seven?, returns to these pages as well. One Day is a bittersweet single. Electronic sounds and beats open the song. The soft voices singing style of Emil and Caroline Jonsson allows for dreaming away on. The result is a kind of song that endears immediately. Faint traces of fellow countrymen Roxette's better known ballads make that One Day cannot go wrong. It's the kind of single that simply fits in easily. Sing along, dream along or just nod along. You will find that One day works for you. Although the guitar intro sounds a little like 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', the rest of the song does not. "When it all falls down, I'm ready to run", the two sing together. Whatever it is about to crash, it's not this song. There's nothing to be ashamed of in there, so no need to run on that account. As I wrote, bittersweet pop music doesn't get much better that this.

Valhalla. Skegss

Oh yeah! This is the kind of song that starts in a perfect way. The kind of chord progression on guitar that makes me prick up my ears immediately. The accented way of playing makes it even more perfect. What follows once the singing starts, isn't even that good. It seems to make no difference to me. Skegss has already captured me. Australian punkers Skegss surely has released a single that makes me extremely curious about its upcoming album 'Rehearsal' (26 March). Valhalla, having seen 'Vikings' I know what a great place it must be as all Vikings couldn't wait to go there, makes me want to hear more. As I wrote, Valhalla, and that is the puzzling part, isn't that fantastic a song, yet it fully works. Musically the band has a to clear sound on Valhalla to be called punk, the singing of Ben Reed is more like it, as it holds that rough edge within it. So has the attack of the instruments. All in all in comes closer to powerpop. Should 'Rehearsal' be filled with music like this, count me in.

Bruised And Blooded. Seether

Time for some harder rock. Seether is a band from Pretoria, South Africa, formed in 1999. Bruised And Blooded is the second single from the album 'Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum'. It starts with a distorted bass guitar playing on its own before the band comes in on full force. The nice thing is that Seether knows where melodies belong in songs, so there is more than enough in the single to enjoy. The wall of guitars and the clear, super dry drumming sound familiar, think Therapy? e.g.. More in general Foo Fighters is the band to mention. Seether works in dynamics in a great way, even coming close to overdoing it towards the end of the song when the bass part returns before Bruised And Blooded is brought to its grand finale. Summing up, there are hundreds of songs like Bruised And Blooded, but it's certainly one that deserves its time in the spotlight here. It totally works.

Disappear. Chantal Acda

Dutch singer working from Flanders Chantal Acda returns to this blog with a new single holding everything between her own previous work, The Walkabouts and and a mix between 1970s psychedelic folk and symphonic rock. Disappear is a nearly seven minutes outing she takes her listeners on. There was nothing holding her back anymore to go all out. To explore where a musical idea could take her instead of where it should, had she followed rules, expectations or internal constraints. It results in a musical adventure.

Disappear is the first song released from her upcoming album 'Saturday Moon' (26 March). Allowing "rules" to go can be scary. I can imagine that Chantal Acda worried whether she was on the right way towards her new album. Judging by Disappear she made the right decision. The way the folk singing of the late 60s and early 70s is combined with experimental music and sounds and the clear, firm drumming all over the song, gives the singing a firm grounding. The guitar solo is almost Jorma Kaukonen in his Jefferson Airplane heyday. And, I might add, the band Trees I discovered late last year. Of course Disappear sounds far more modern, but Trees played music along this path 50 years ago. A seven minute single, it's been a while, I think. Especially the way it's allowed to sink into sheer madness at the end. Quite intriguing.

The Knife, The Knife, The Knife. '68

1968, 53 Years ago. This duo has named itself after the year after the year the Summer of Love took place, the original one. The year in which the major bands of the day left flower power behind and went back to what they were got at or got good at, like The Rolling Stones. This '68 is a duo from Atlanta, guitar, drums, voice, by now a normal band set up and not a curiosity like The White Stripes were when they started in the late 90s. 20 and some years later it is hard to surprise in this duo set up. The songs need to be outstanding to make an impression and it is here that The Knife 3x runs a little short. This is partly made up by the force of the song and the enthusiastic playing but not enough to stand out. Live the song may work as the bands "step(s) aside to let the audience sing along". There's enough going on to amuse the listeners. '68 isn't afraid to let the song crash in on itself before coming back at full strength. The Knife 3x may speak to that audience after all.

All You Ever Wanted. Rag'n'Bone Man

When I heard this song on the radio for the first time I thought 'who is this'? I couldn't believe it was Rag'n'Bone Man, as All You Ever Wanted is so far removed from what went before. Giel Beelen was still doing the morning show on 3FM when he was relentlessly pushing Rag 'N' Bone Man. It's that long ago in other words. Come 2021 there's this pop-laden uptempo rock song that is released to the world. Everybody loving 'Human' must be in utter and total shock. Now I never really got into 'Human', so I'm pleasantly surprised by this new single. Surprised I am because this single is more The Killers of 2004 than 'Human'. Now somebody has to be a The Killers nowadays as I have stopped following the band in the late 00s already, so why not Rag'n'Bone man? This single is earpleasing everytime it comes by. Would I buy it? Now that may be another matter. The radio is just fine here, spreading this joyful burst of energy.

Headwalking EP. Peenoise

Peenoise, what kind of a name for a band is that? I immediately heard myself peeing and the sound it makes. It turns out that three brothers Anglisised the family name of their mother (Pinoy). The music on this EP is as strange as the bandname at first glance appears to be. Music from Belgium quite often holds experimental elements and Headwalking, the debut EP of Peenoise, is no different. Opening song 'Again' is still fairly traditional. In fact listening to it a few times, I can write that I like the song. Out of the at times abstract sounds and the dull singing, melodies are brought forward that stick. Should you, after listening, have the impression 'Again' is an adventure, you better brace yourself for 'Can I Disagree' and 'The Party'. All musical conventions are set aside, if not thrown out of the window, to unleash the experimental mode. At this point I'm still deciding whether it takes more time to get used to it or that any investment of time is also a waste of that time. Let me put it this way, Cesar, Gilles and Titus have done their utmost to hide the song, that is hidden away somewhere in 'Can I Disagree', extremely well. 'The Party' is not unlike Frank Zappa at his weirdest and is more a soundscape than music. With the final song the Headwalking EP comes back into, alternative, music. 'Requiem For A Milkman' is a weird title and as weird as the music is. You may think that after 'The Party' any music is welcome, and I can't disagree with you there, but this song is more than just that. It shows that the three brothers are able to make a song that intrigues. With fairly modest means they make an impression. Slowly but surely the song fleshes out and becomes a song more and more. Let's settle for the conclusion that Headwalking is an interesting introduction to Penooise.

Wo.

Listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g