Billy Nomates has shared a new song, ‘vertigo’, the final track to be unveiled ahead of the release of her second album, CACTI, out this Friday (January 13) via Invada Records. It follows previous cuts ‘blue bones’, ‘spite’, ‘balance is gone’, and ‘saboteur forcefield’. “i think vertigo scratches around the soul crushing apathy you can feel for achieving or feeling life’s big things…” the Bristol-based songwriter commented in a statement. Check it out below.
Dan Croll Announces New Album ‘Fools’, Releases New Song ‘Slip Away’
Dan Croll has announced his next album, Fools, with the new single ‘Slip Away’. The follow-up to 2020’s Grand Plan comes out on May 19 via Communion Records. Check out ‘Slip Away’ below, and scroll down for the album’s cover artwork and tracklist.
Fools finds Dan Croll stepping into the role of co-producer alongside Spacebomb’s Matthew E. White. “This album came at the end of a turbulent few years for me with the isolation of covid, a break-up, and the homesickness for all that I left behind to move to America,” Croll explained in a statement. “But whilst these were all challenging moments there were some moments of beauty and resilience that allowed me to get through it all. These songs document that tumultuous period that not only I but I’m sure a lot of others went through in what can only be described as a challenging moment in time.”
“I decided to go back once more to Richmond, Virginia, to work with Matthew E. White and the incredible musicians there,” he continued. “Each time I’ve been back I feel we grow and understand each other more and more, and there was a particular ease in capturing these songs that I hope comes through in the record.”
Commenting on ‘Slip Away’, he added:
I recently hit my five-year milestone of living in Los Angeles, and ‘Slip Away’ is about the fatigue and struggle I’ve felt over the past year. It’s frequently had me questioning how realistic it is to carry on living here, and whether draining my savings, living without healthcare, and being so far away from home/family is really worth it. I found myself on occasions fantasising about throwing in the towel and slipping away into a much simpler life, a life possibly even outside of the music industry. Having been in music my entire adult life, a part of me has wondered whether I could ever exist outside of it. A 9-to-5 job has always been something I’ve seen from the outside looking in, and to me, the structure and steadiness have always been so attractive. ‘Slip Away’ is about the lure of escaping to a simpler existence.
Fools Cover Artwork:
Fools Tracklist:
1. Slip Away
2. Talk to You
3. Friend of Mine
4. Red and the Green
5. Sunshine
6. Second Guess
7. Fools
8. Piece of the Action
9. Stephen
10. How Close We Came
Young Fathers Release New Song ‘Rice’
Young Fathers have shared another single from their forthcoming LP Heavy Heavy. Following previous offerings ‘Geronimo’, ‘I Saw’, and ‘Tell Somebody’, ‘Rice’ arrives with an accompanying visual directed by Austrian-Nigerian artist and filmmaker David Uzochukwu. Watch and listen below.
Heavy Heavy, the Scottish trio’s first album since 2018’s Cocoa Sugar, is set to drop on February 3 via Ninja Tune.
Everything But the Girl Detail New Album ‘Fuse’, Share New Song ‘Nothing Left to Lose’
Everything But the Girl have revealed the details of their comeback album Fuse. The band’s first studio album in 24 years is set to arrive on April 21 (via Virgin Music), and today, Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn have shared the album’s first single, ‘Nothing Left to Lose’. Check it out along with the album cover and tracklist below.
“Ironically the finished sound of the new album was the last thing on our mind when we started in March 2021,” Thorn explained in a press release. “Of course, we were aware of the pressures of such a long-awaited comeback, so we tried to begin instead in a spirit of open-minded playfulness, uncertain of the direction, receptive to invention’.
Watt added: “It was exciting. A natural dynamism developed. We spoke in short-hand, and little looks, and co-wrote instinctively. It became more than the sum of our two selves. It just became Everything But the Girl on its own.”
“After so much time apart professionally, there was both a friction and a natural spark in the studio when we began,” Tracey said. ‘However much we underplayed it at the start, it was like a fuse had been lit. And it ended in a kind of coalescence, an emotional fusion. It felt very real and alive’.
Fuse Cover Artwork:
Fuse Tracklist:
1. Nothing Left to Lose
2. Run a Red Light
3. Caution to the Wind
4. When You Mess Up
5 .Time and Time Again
6. No One Knows We’re Dancing
7. Lost
8. Forever
9. Interior Space
10. Karaoke
Watch Dry Cleaning Perform ‘Hot Penny Day’ on ‘Fallon’
Dry Cleaning stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last night (January 9) to perform ‘Hot Penny Day’, a song from their latest album Stumpwork. Watch it happen below.
Stumpwork, the follow-up to 2021’s New Long Leg, came out in October 2022. The band is currently on a world tour that will keep them on the road through April, with dates across the US, Canada, and Europe.
Daughter Announce New Album ‘Stereo Mind Game’, Release New Song
Daughter have announced their first studio album in seven years. The follow-up to 2016’s Not to Disappear and the 2017 video game soundtrack Music from Before the Storm is called Stereo Mind Game, and it will arrive on April 7. The trio of Elena Tonra, Igor Haefeli, and Remi Aguilella have today released the album’s lead single, ‘Be On Your Way’, alongside a video courtesy of Tiff Pritchett. Check it out below and scroll down for the LP’s cover art (by Kasper Florio) and tracklist.
In a note posted on the band’s website, Tonra described ‘Be On Your Way’ as “a story of love (of course), and of time, distance, missing and letting go. I have been trying to learn across the past few years to value the present moment more. I used to mourn the goodbye of a relationship before it had ended, and that created an overwhelming feeling of fear around loving someone. So i’m trying to be more accepting that things will last for the time they last for. To fully appreciate all the beautiful connections as they enter, and leave, my life.”
Stereo Mind Game Cover Artwork:
Stereo Mind Game Tracklist:
1. Intro
2. Be On Your Way
3. Party
4. Dandelion
5. Neptune
6. Swim Back
7. Junkmail
8. Future Lover
9. (Missed Calls)
10. Isolation
11. To Rage
12. Wish I Could Cross The Sea
Meg Baird Shares Video for New Song ‘Ashes, Ashes’
Meg Baird has shared the latest single from her forthcoming record Furling. It’s called ‘Ashes, Ashes’, and it follows earlier cuts ‘Will You Follow Me Home?’ and ‘Star Hill Song’. Check it out via the accompanying video, created by Rachael Pony Cassells, below.
Discussing the visual, Cassells said in a statement: “I have been thinking about the relationship of fire to water. Sometimes they resemble one another, it’s hard to tell if we are burning or drowning. Smoke blinks tears to eyes; fire eventually brings the rain. California, Australia, inferno, flood. We came of age in a very different time, when the cycles of fire to water were gentler. They did not frequently destroy the homes of our friends and families. I remember flying into SFO in 2020 the day the morning skies were midnight. Dark and red. I landed to a text message from Meg. Preempting my panic, she assured me that while it looked like the end of the world, and is surely symptomatic of the end of many eras, the fog was pushing up the wildfire smoke allowing us to breathe in the dark.”
Furling is due for release on January 27 through Drag City.
The New Pornographers Announce New Album ‘Continue As a Guest’, Share Video for New Single ‘Really Really Light’
The New Pornographers have announced their next album, Continue As a Guest, which will be out on March 31 via their new label home Merge Records. First single ‘Really Really Light’ was co-written with Dan Bejar, who does not appear elsewhere on the album. Check out its Christian Cerezo-directed video and find the album artwork and tracklist below.
To make ‘Really Really Light’, the band’s Carl Newman repurposed a Dan Bejar song originally written for 2014’s Brill Bruisers. “Part of my process throughout the years has been messing with things I never finished,” Newman explained in a statement. “I really liked Dan’s chorus, and for a while I was just trying to write something that I felt like belonged with it. I was thinking of the Aloe Blacc song ‘The Man’ which interpolated the chorus from Elton John’s ‘Your Song’ and thought it would be fun to interpolate a song that no one knows. Not trying to sound like Aloe Blacc, just doing some interpolating of my own. It became a game of writing a verse that felt like a part of the same song. In my mind, I was striving for a little Jeff Lynne–era Tom Petty, a classic go-to.”
One of the songs on Continue As a Guest, ‘Firework in the Falling Snow’, was co-written with Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz. The 10-track LP also features contributions from saxophonist Zach Djanikian. The New Pornographers’ last full-length was 2019’s In the Morse Code of Brake Lights.
Continue As a Guest Cover Artwork:
Continue As a Guest Tracklist:
1. Really Really Light
2. Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies
3. Cat and Mouse with the Light
4. Last and Beautiful
5. Continue as a Guest
6. Bottle Episodes
7. Marie and the Undersea
8. Angelcover
9. Firework in the Falling Snow
10. Wish Automatic Suite
Public Image Ltd. to Compete to Represent Ireland at Eurovision With New Single ‘Hawaii’
Public Image Ltd. are back with a new song, ‘Hawaii’, which comes alongside the news that they will be competing to represent Ireland at the 67th annual Eurovision Song Contest. The song “is dedicated to everyone going through tough times on the journey of life, with the person they care for the most,” John Lydon said in a statement. “It’s also a message of hope that ultimately love conquers all.” Listen to it below.
Public Image Ltd. will compete against Adgy, Connolly, Wild Youth, Leila Jane, and K Muni & ND in a televised performance that will take place on February 3 on The Late Late Show. PiL’s most recent album was 2015’s What the World Needs Now…. According to a press release, they will be releasing a new LP this year.
Belle and Sebastian Announce New Album ‘Late Developers’, Share New Single
Belle and Sebastian have announced a new album titled Late Developers, which will be released this Friday, January 13 via Matador. It contains material recorded in the same sessions as the band’s last album, 2022’s A Bit of Previous. First single ‘I Don’t Know What You See In Me’, a co-write with Pete ‘Wuh Oh’ Ferguson, arrives today with an accompanying Andrew Litten-directed video available to watch exclusively on Facebook. Check it out here, and find the album’s cover art and tracklist below.
Speaking about the new track, frontman Stuart Murdoch said in a statement: “I was bicycling across Scotland last summer, listening to a mix of this song. It was written and produced for us by our friend Pete ‘Wuh Oh’ Ferguson. As I listened to it, I felt lucky to be the first person to get to sing this song. I let my voice swoop and soar in ways that it maybe hasn’t before. And as I continued through fields of gold and green I allowed myself to forget it was Belle And Sebastian, and pretend it was the latest hit on some random radio station. All music is escape, and perhaps we managed to escape a little further than usual with this unexpected tune. Thanks Pete!”
Late Developers Cover Artwork:
Late Developers Tracklist:
1. Juliet Naked
2. Give A Little Time
3. When We Were Very Young
4. Will I Tell You A Secret
5. So In The Moment
6. The Evening Star
7. When You’re Not With Me
8. I Don’t Know What You See In Me
9. Do You Follow
10. When The Cynics Stare Back From The Wall
11. Late Developers
