5 songs you should hear this week - w/e 30th March
Every day we play you a track that has just grabbed our attention. As soon as we hear it, we send it into the digital ether for you all to enjoy. Sometimes it's an exclusive, sometimes it's a favourite artist and, at other times, it'll be someone brand new. Here's this week's choice selection. Just click on the links to see the full Just Added playlist:
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Everyone Acts Crazy Nowadays
We began the week with a bang, and the first play anywhere of a new track from Unknown Mortal Orchestra. It’s the third track to be released from their upcoming new album Sex & Food (and follows Not In Love We’re Just High and the funk and fuzzy-guitar-filled American Guilt). Ruban Nielson’s sweet jazzy chord changes bring to mind Donald Fagan circa I.G.Y. which, anyone familiar with Lauren’s deep-rooted love for Steely Dan, will know is high praise indeed.
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – Shiggy
This track’s taken from the Pavement frontman’s new album Sparkle Hard - his seventh with the Jicks - which will be released 18th May and will also feature guest vocals from his former tour mate and alt rock queen, Kim Gordan (on a track called Refute). The new album was recorded in Portland, at the studio of the producer and brilliantly-named Decemberist Chris Funk. Shiggy's lyrics are typically enigmatic but, according to Stephen, the song's an “ode to underdogs everywhere, with bittersweet words of encouragement”.
Hayley – Bratt
We marked midweek with news that we’re celebrating Record Store Day 2018, at Spillers in Cardiff (established when wax cylinder was the format of choice, back in 1894). Hayley – who’s adopted the single name as her musical moniker – will be performing live in session for us on Friday 20th April, on Record Store Day Eve - before releasing Bratt on 7” (with the track My Wave, on the flip side). Haley says: “Bratt was intended to be sung from a teenage perspective, appropriating that unsentimental attitude while simultaneously looking back at yourself at that age, all of the insecurities that went along with it, letting go of your self-judgement on the past."
John Parish & PJ Harvey – Sorry For Your Loss
This song re-unites Polly Jean with her frequent collaborator and producer John Parish and pays tribute to Mark Linkous, who took his own life, back in 2010. Linkhouse released four acclaimed albums with Sparklehorse (with Parish producing 2001’s A Wonderful Life) and also collaborated with the likes of Tom Waits, David Lynch and Danger Mouse. After a life that featured addiction, rehab, chronic pain, and depression, the lyrics feel particularly poignant, as the pair say farewell to a friend: "I'm sorry for your loss of will, to keep the fire burning still. The sun never felt colder." This trackwill feature on Parish's upcoming album Bird Dog Dante, which is due out on the 15th June.
Khadja Bonet – Mother Maybe
Khadja (pronounced Kad-ya) is a singer-songwriter from LA, who performed at the 6 Music Festival in Glasgow last year. Her second album, Childqueen, will be released on 8th June. It was recorded over two years, between performances to increasingly larger audiences, and in studios scattered throughout the globe – from Paris, to Berlin, Amsterdam, London, Copenhagen, and even in hotel rooms in Barcelona and Brussels. The talented Ms Bonet wrote, recorded, and produced every element of Childqueen, from the string arrangements to the album artwork. And this first taste is delightfully slinky, with a message of female power at the core. She says: "Mother Maybe isn't about my mother, it's about the mother I may be. It's about a moment, a realization, in which I remembered how powerful women are in this world, that we create life, and I felt strong."
You can hear all the tracks via the Just Added Playlist
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