Singles, week 15

Week 15, we are looking Easter in the face already. The year is moving on rapidly. Time flies when you're having fun and listening to a bunch of recently released singles can certainly be fun. Some of the preselected ones you will not find in this list, as they were not made for me. Most of the ones below were, so let me share my thoughts with you.

We Shall Overcome. Dropkick Murphies

Talking about a nearly forgotten band. In the 00s I've watched several shows with my, then young son, on the balcony of Paradiso overlooking the wild crowd, spotting a few men who were only out there to hurt others. Looking from above the pattern was easy to discern. The music was one big Celtic punkrock party. Last year the band released a new record, that totally passed me by. Recently I noticed a single release, I've decided to put on the long list. We Shall Overcome is the traditional, spiritual song I thought of immediately. It used to be called negro spiritual when I was young. Can I still call it that today? I don't know. Dropkick Murphies in the video make a clear statement against all violence. Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King news clips are interspersed with Dropkick Murphies members playing and singing. The band proves it can celtipunkfy every song successfully. It is all there and still extremely nice to hear. In 2022 the band's treatment of traditionals is still great fun to listen to, despite having forgotten to do so for over a decade now.

Hey Hey Rise Up (feat. Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Boombox). Pink Floyd

8 April, circa 07.20 hours. My girlfriend turns on her radio and with a half ear I hear a huge guitar solo and then someone singing in a Slavic language. The guitar told me, Gary Moore from his 'Still Got The Blues' days. So what was it? Pink Floyd?! With a new track?! Led by a Ukrainian singer, the two remaining Pink Floyd members play a new song to support the refugee crisis, all thanks to Putin's War. So not Gary Moore but David Gilmour. A little less smooth in sound than he has sounded for years on end. Yes, I like the track. It's a bit weird of course, due to the language and voice. We have learned two Ukrainian words by now: "Slava Ukraina". They come by abundantly in Hey Hey Rise Up. Starting with the typical slow drumming of Nick Mason, the song sounds good immediately. Without hitting hard, he always gets this huge sound. The melody is better than anything I've heard by Pink Floyd since 'The Wall'. The guitar solo is, of course, impeccable. Gilmour can play, at 30 or 75, it doesn't seem to matter a lot. The question is, has the duo trumped up the song just for this occasion or is more underway? Iinteresting question. If it is as good as this, I can take another Pink Floyd album, with or without Roger Waters. Too bad that they can't even see eye to eye for making music together for a crisis like this.

Move On. Death Star Discotheque

Another dark, rocking track by Death Star Discotheque on the blog. The 80s are all over the song. It is easy to imagine Move On played by a synth pop band from the 80s, guitars changed for synths. Drums for a dry, lifeless drum computer. Death Star Discotheque lived through the grunge days as well and incorporated the two influences into one dark rocking track. The sound is dark and muddy, without losing grip on the whole. The opening riff is convincing, the band together setting the pace of Move On. The drumming is tight and in a hurry. The band certainly had to catch the last bus here. Within that tempo there's more than enough room for dynamics, making the song come alive. It all results into a calmer sounding middle section before the song is raced "till the end now", as Death Star Discotheque sings repeatedly. Another nice rock song as a notch on the guitar.

Beyond Your Eyes. Ghost Woman

For some reason Beyond Your Eyes playing started in the middle of the song. For a second I thought to have been listening to the debut album of Jefferson Airplane, 'Takes Off'. The guitar playing is straight out of the Kaukonen-Kantner book or The Byrds if you're more L.A. oriented. Ghost Woman is not making music for 2022 has to be the conclusion. Listening to Beyond Your Eyes gives me the impression that Evan John Uschenko, who is Ghost Woman, was born several decades too late. At the same time he fits in nicely with the likes of Amber Arcades e.g. and all those other artists and bands who have found their inspiration in 1960s psychedelia. Ghost Woman manages to sound extremely authentic, but is Beyond Your Eyes good? On the face of it, Beyond Your Eyes is a nice song. It appeals immediately to my 60s psychedelia liking. However, it is not better than what I already know and have in the home. Given the choice I would always go for 'Takes Off'. That album is a must have. It could be that upcoming album 'Ghost Woman' falls under that category too, I can't tell yet. The single is nice to have, not more but certainly no less so.

Xenarthran. Shearwater

'Jet Plane And Oxbow' lies six years behind us. Despite having the LP, I can't remember when I played it last. Years ago, I'm afraid. After all this silence, a new album is announced for June, 'The Great Awakening'. Xenarthran is the first single. What a slow and atmospheric delight it is. Jonathan Maiburg certainly has not lost his touch. Fans of a band like Midlake will certainly be able to find their way with Xenarthran (isolated mammals, that are hard to connect to other species, like ones living in Latin America and, I suppose, Australia). The single is a song, because there is a main melody. This may seem like an odd comment. The reason I'm mentioning it, that it would not take that much to make this what I call a non song. Swaths of music and sounds that come by, creating moods and atmospherics. Xenarthran has elements like it. Sounds that come and go like the wind. The rhythm section keeps it all together. It results in a wide-ranging song setting a melancholy mood, with a lot of inner beauty coming through. A nice return to form Shearwater shows with its new single.

I Will Let You Know (feat. Greg Hawkes). Abbie Barrett

Yes, let's rock out some. Although I Will Let You Know is a bit like a time machine, the single is oh so nice. With former The Cars member Greg Hawkes on keyboards, the song holds some very nice authentic sounding organs. The choice to have Hawkes on board is not such a strange one, as The Cars as I got to now them in the late 70s are not far away on Barrett's debut single on the Rum Bar label. I Will Let You Know holds that post punk new wave vibe combined with the 1960s influences the bands from the late 70s brought with them. Like that Farfisa organ Hawkes plays. As thin as a reed in sound, yet so prominent among the tight, punky guitars it fights with for center place in the song and winning. The vocal melody of the song is sheer fun. The duh-duh-di-duh-duh vocals only adding to the fun. It was my turn to let you know about this single. If the quality of it is anything to go by, the EP coming in May is something to look out for.

Talk. Beabadoobee

With Talk Beabadoobee releases a second single of her upcoming album 'Beatopia'. The song combines quite a few different elements. First there is the innocent girl way of singing Beabadoobee presents here. This gives Talk a certain mood. The innocence is belied by the punky choruses. Not to speak of the solo guitar that really talks dirty to us. There's no innocence involved there. This guitar has seen it all. The same goes for the bass guitar. It plays all these wisecrack little runs all through the song. In the verses it is much more than a rhythm element of Talk. The bass is leading where the rest follows it. Until the lead guitar goes full out that is and even then listen to what that bass player does. The combination of these elements make that Talk stands out, as singles should. If Talk shows anything, it is that innocent girls can go a long way musically too. Of course, I'm sure you have heard it all before in the past 30 years, but can you deny Talk is an extremely nice addition to what is already out there?

Your Love. Ry X

Your Love is the total opposite of Talk. Ry X presents total introspection. Two Canadian artists came to mind immediately City and Color and Patrick Watson. The three can each present a song that is, from the moment that you put it on, there's nothing else in this world left to do but listen. To the highish voice, to the slow music, to the music that comes in pauses only. Your Love has a beat, but so slow, it's almost impossible to count to it. Trying to count makes me lose everything else the song contains. Which would be a great shame. Ry X is called Ry Cuming in daily life and is from Australia. He releases records since 2010. Your Love is my first one, although I faintly remember a single from a while back, that did not make it to these pages. Your Love is and the reason to me is clear. Ry X falls into that line of singers that, for me, started with 'Grace', Jeff Buckley's famous album. Every once in a while a singer is added to this line of singers, despite Buckley's shoes being impossible to fill. No one has made an album like 'Grace' since. I doubt Jeff Buckley would have, to be honest. Your Love exhumes a beautiful, melancholic mood. Ry X captured it in an almost modern classical way. There's too much going on musically to call the song bare. The fact that I'm inclined to call it that, tells you how full of good taste Ry X worked here. Beautifully done.

Great Art. Maxïmo Park

Maxïmo Park returns to WoNoBlog with a new single called Great Art. No, whatever the band does, it will never get over the first song I got to know by the band. 'Apply Some Pressure', remains the best postpunk song, perhaps ever. With that out of the way, let's focus on Great Art, as it is not in this weekly line up for nothing. The, now, trio presents a nice punky-Britpop single. The dynamics are at work in the way this band is so good at. Holding back and present the audience with the release, allowing them to erupt. The guitar is seriously present, with some strong chord pounding. Melodically the song is strong as well. Paul Smith swings while singing and when he is able to do that, a better Maxïmo Park song is always the result. Great Art holds it all and shows to me that Maxïmo Park is indeed in a better form than in most of the 2010s. Great Art has power, underscoring the "banging on my door" Smith sings about, and melody. Together they are unbeatable.

Tragic Endings. Tamar Berk

'Start At The End' is the title of Tamar Berk's upcoming new album. The reason why 'Tragic Endings' may be the title of the album's first single. Personally I disagree. It's best if I do not know the ending and rather be unprepared. The single however is most welcome. Tamar Berk presents a single that sounds like a long lost track from the 1990s. It rocks in exactly that nice kind of way. 2022?, well, only as release date. Musically it could not be further removed. The chord progression, the sound, the vocal melodies all come from 25 to 30 years ago. The nice thing to Tragic Endings is that it is up with the best of the songs from the era. The release in 2022 could not be more deserved. The more I listen to the song, the more details come forward. A piano, an organ, another harmony. Tragic Endings is an incredibly rich song, that ought to be played on many a radio station. It is that good and pleasant to listen to. Among the alternative rock a great pop melody is hidden making Tragic Ending an extremely good song. The tragic ending of Tragic Endings should spell hit, huge, in my book.

Wout de Natris