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Today I've bent my rules on singles considerably. Far more singles are released than I can ever keep up with, so a lot have been skipped for more recent ones that I really wanted to write on before I take my summer break. You will find only familiar names to this blog, who have announced new albums and/or released new singles. Some are utterly fantastic, so explore and enjoy!
No Joy. The Beths
Yes, The Beths are back with a new single, announcing a new album. 'Straight Line Was A Lie' has been announced for late August. With 'No Joy' the band meets all the expectations it set before. Despite the title the song is filled with musical joy. The band all but rams it down our throats. The Beths came into my life with a bang. Single 'I'm Not Getting Excited' also did everything it was not promising: it was ultimately exciting. Everything that followed was just spot on and so is No Joy. The Beths is one of my favourite bands I got to know in the 20s on a line with Wet Leg, a band with which I see some similarities where the music is concerned. Where the two singles of Wet Leg's second album both sound strained to me, The Beths has consistently kept a level of musicianship, that I have come to know as typical for New Zealand. With No Joy The Beths once again has put the hurdle to jump over, for itself and the competition, at a high level. Nearly world record height by now.
Album number four lies around the corner and Shame knows how to draw attention to its new work. Single Cutthroat comes in with a bang. After the starting chords the band goes off in a strong riff that keeps the work going in a way The Hives does only in its best songs. In other words, the energy simply flows out of Cutthroat. Shame rocks in a way I have missed on album 2 and 3. The album with the same name as the single is slated for 5 September. There's no telling whether the album will be just as energetic but the signs are quite hopeful with a single like Cutthroat. It is the kind of song that perhaps oddly enough does not need to be extremely good, because it holds equal amounts of positive energy, rock, dirt and everything else that keeps your attention. Like the little organ contributions, a great riff and a singer who dares to use all the different textures of his voice in one song. That is enough to spell hit; in another universe than my Dutch one.
In a singles post in 2020 I wrote "Danny Vera, the Middelburg bard, is not for me". That was in a week that, do coincidences exist?, also holds a post on a Shame single (see above). Today is another exception. After hearing the song on the morning radio show My Love likes to listen to before going to work, I jotted Morning Dawns Again down. Having listened to it a few times now, I know the song deserves attention. The reason is easy to identify. I'm remembered immediately of the early Chris Isaac hits like 'Blue Hotel'. That high-toned twangy lead guitar that brings together country and western, surf rock and The Shadows. Danny Vera holds his own though. He has a pleasant voice. It's not hard to acknowledge this, even if most of his songs are not really for me. Which is okay. As long as once in a while he releases songs like 'The Weight' and Morning Dawns Again, I find reason to write a little on one of his songs like today.
And another band that came into my life this decade with a bang. When I heard 'Literary Mind' for the first time, it sort of blew me away. The album 'Letter To Self' became my album of 2024, despite having been released on 5 January. With Descartes the band announces it's upcoming album 'All That Is over', 26 September. It is impossible to have the same effect as 'Literary Mind' had, that is a once in a lifetime achievement. Coming with expectations as well. (See my Wet Leg comment under The Beths above.) Descartes holds everything I expect from Sprints. The song comes in with a bang. It will be impossible to stand still at a live show. It's something to shout along to, the guitar work is fantastic and the level of energy is excruciating. I have no doubt 'All That Is Over' will be a great album also.
Incomprehensible. Big Thief
Another big name by now on this blog. I'll admit to not getting Big Thief before the last album with the long name. Listening to Big Thief's new single Incomprehensible I can only muse where were my ears before 2022? September is going to be a busy month as 'Double Infinity' will be released on the 5th as well. Incomprehensible is an indie rock song with a fast pace containing a lot of mystery in the sounds that accompany Adrianne Lenker's singing. All the guitars have these effects on them that somehow delay their sound and make them wobbly at the same time. The driving rhythm keeps the song tight at the same time. The combination works really well and only makes me very curious for what is to come. Something has changed though as the band has become a trio, as founding bassist Max Oleartchik left the band in 2024.
Although my previous post on Pickle Darling (Lucas Mayo), excepting a single with The Beths, was in 2021, when I receive news of new work I at least take a listen. Pickle Darling operates in the same space as Dutch electronic pop artist Moon Moon Moon. Tracks that are composed in the bed room or living room on a lap top where software programmes assist in recording and effects, together with all sorts of keyboards and rhythm machines that are connected to that laptop. Massive Everything to my ears sounds like this. Despite theoretically sounding emotionally aloof because of all the electronics used, in practice it is a warm song in which Pickle Darling manages to get all sorts of emotions across despite the electronics and the warm sound of the main keyboard. Even hiding his voice behind a vocoder or autotune does not get the emotions out of Massive Everything. Add the sympathetic melodies the other keyboards produce and you know why I like Massive Everything a lot.
The song that could not find its place on 'Kiss Your Friends', No Ninja Am I's latest album from the fall of 2024, is released on a far less than one year celebratory re-release of the album as a bonus track. Yes, it is rightly so released, as Quand Se Couche Le Soleil ("when the sun sets") is a beautiful track. Somewhere in the back of my mind the Air button is pressed, mainly because of the plopping bass sound. The acoustic guitar totally offsets that button though. Sander van Munster can sing and does so in a sleepy mood, as if he's already on holiday somewhere in France. The keyboard solo brings back the Air vibes immediately, and let that be a French duo. Sometimes songs fall between the cracks of the studio floor. With Quand Se Couche Le Soleil we can be very happy that it didn't get away. It is a beautiful song, gracing the re-release of the already very good 'Kiss Your Friends' no little.
Since 2019 the revived The Dogmatics can be found on this blog regularly and with the fiery You've Got What I Want it is no different. Let's start with the drums that just keep this 1 minute 37 seconds song going in the most urgent way possible. Not using the cymbals but ramming the song home on the snare drum in a sped up military march kind of playing. Some speed march You've Got What I Want is. The song has a 45 year, slow, history though, as Jerry Lehane wrote it after seeing a The Outlets show in Boston. Everyone forgot about it, until a live tape was found that contained the song. The 2025 version of the band, Peter O’Halloran (rhythm guitar), Jimmy O’Halloran (bass), Tom Long (drums), James Young (backing vocals) and Lehane of course, decided to record it for its first album since 1985 that will be released on 18 July. It shows that what is good ages well. The Dogmatics will be well into their 60s by now but sound like they are 20. You've Got What I Want is a great introduction to what is to come.
Wunderhorse is a band that gets it. Like in the old days, it releases a new single to celebrate going on tour again. I can only muse how bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Who, to name the four front runners of the British Invasion, were able to crank out single after single and album after album, while being on tour forever. It hasn't happened since, as bands tour behind one album containing ten to twelve songs and go on the road with it forever. Wunderhorse released The Rope and the song is a joyful, rock affair, that will bring a little extra delight during the live shows planned over the summer. I'm remembered a little of a song like 'Summer Of 69' combined with alternative rock from the 80s. the combination works really well.
It's only just over one year ago Been Stellar released its album Scream From New York, NY. and here is the band releasing a new single already. Breakaway fits in well with what the band presented on its debut. Breakaway is somewhere between alternative rock and emo. Singer Sam Slocum is not so much crying as showing his emotions in a both undercooled as well as lively way. The band follows him every step of the way, providing the exact right sound, from holding back to a wide ranging sound that appears to be everywhere I listen. With Breakaway Been Stellar puts new attention on itself, which is a very smart thing to do in a musical world where artists and bands are forgotten faster than I can click on Spotify. Breakaway seems to be just what the world needs right now. A little diversion from all the serious stuff going on in it. Breakaway offers the right dose of immersion.
Wout de Natris - van der Borght
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