Durham pop-punk outfit Martha have returned with a new single called ‘Please Don’t Take Me Back’. It arrives today alongside the announcement of a 7” that will be released via Specialist Subject on June 24, featuring a cover of Allo Darlin’s ‘My Heart is a Drummer’ as the B-side. Check out the song’s accompanying video, directed by Sonny Malhotra, below.
Talking about ‘Please Don’t Take Me Back’, the band said in a statement: “The past was absolutely terrible. Don’t get us wrong, the present is also absolutely terrible, but that almost instantly becomes the past anyway, so we can quickly file it under ‘the past’. The really good news is that the future appears to have been totally cancelled by the loathsome politicians, oligarchs and CEOs hell bent on destroying the planet and all life on it, so we probably won’t have to put up with this garbage for much longer anyway. Please don’t take me back.”
They added of the video: “In a genuinely terrifying twist of fate, just before we were due to shoot the video, [band member] Daniel’s partner Steph unexpectedly went into labour a whole seven and a half weeks before her official due date. Daniel therefore does not appear in the video. If you look very closely you might see how low-key terrified the rest of us look, which sort of fits the tone of the song. Austin Ellis Bartle was born on the 21/10/21 and after a slightly bumpy start, is now a healthy, happy little fella.”
Martha released their third album, Love Keeps Kicking, back in 2019. It followed 2016’s Blisters in the Pit of my Heart and the band’s 2014 debut Courting Strong.
Andy Fletcher, founding member and keyboardist of Depeche Mode, has died at the age of 60. “Fletch had a true heart of gold and was always there when you needed support, a lively conversation, a good laugh, or a cold pint,” the band wrote in a statement. “Our hearts are with his family, and we ask that you keep them in your thoughts and respect their privacy in this difficult time.” No cause of death has been provided at this time.
Fletcher was born in 1961 in Nottingham, England, and his family moved to Basildon when he was a child. There, he met future Depeche Mode founding member Vince Clarke, with whom he formed a band called No Romance in China. After meeting Martin Gore, they formed a different group named Composition of Sound, changing their name to Depeche Mode in 1980 with the addition of Dave Gahan. Though Clarke departed the band following the release of their 1981 debut Speak & Spell, Fletcher remained an active member throughout their entire career, which spans 14 studio albums. Depeche Mode’s most recent LP was 2017’s Spirit.
In 2002, Fletcher launched his own record label, a Mute Records imprint called Toast Hawaii. In addition to his tenure with the band, he also had a career as a DJ. In 2020, Fletcher was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Depeche Mode.
“We’re saddened and shocked that Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode has died,” Pet Shop wrote on Twitter. “Fletch was a warm, friendly and funny person who loved electronic music and could also give sensible advice about the music business.”
Lol Tolhurst, drummer with The Cure, also paid tribute to the late keyboardist online, writing: “I knew Andy and considered him a friend. We crossed many of the same pathways as younger men. My heart goes out to his family, bandmates, and DM fans. RIP Fletch.”
Wilco have released their latest album, a double LP called Cruel Country. Spanning 21 tracks, the follow-up to 2019’s Ode to Joy is mostly comprised of live takes tracked at the Loft in Chicago – the first time the band has recorded live together in the same room since 2007’s Sky Blue Sky. “There have been elements of Country music in everything we’ve ever done,” Jeff Tweedy said in a statement. “We’ve never been particularly comfortable with accepting that definition, the idea that I was making country music. But now, having been around the block a few times, we’re finding it exhilarating to free ourselves within the form, and embrace the simple limitation of calling the music we’re making Country.” The singles ‘Falling Apart (Right Now)’ and ‘Tired of Taking it Out on You’ preceded the record.
Hyaline, the debut album by Ohio-born, Oakland, CA-based artist Maria BC, is out now via Father/Daughter (US) and Fear of Missing Out Records (UK). Following their debut EP Devil’s Rain, Maria BC recorded the album across their untreated apartment while living in Brooklyn, using tracks recorded directly into their phone and audio samples collected over the years alongside ethereal guitars and minimal percussion. The record features the previously unveiled tracks ‘Betelguese’, ‘The Only Thing’, and ‘Good Before’. “Let the world wash over you,” Maria BC said in press materials, “rather than try to pin it to one single thing.”
Just Mustard have followed up their 2018 debut Wednesday with a new album and their first for Partisan Records, Heart Under. The record was produced by the band and mixed by David Wrench, and its title is taken from the lyric “the heart under its foot” that appears on the track ‘Sore’. “This album felt very blue to us,” vocalist Katie Ball explained in a statement. “There was sadness and sorrow in the album, and it felt like being underwater and under something very heavy. We let that influence the music, but it wasn’t a decision – it just naturally happened that way.” Ahead of the album’s release, Just Mustard shared the singles ‘Seed’, ‘Still’, ‘I Am You’, and ‘Mirrors’.
Liam Gallagher has issued his third solo album, C’mon You Know, via Warner Records. The follow-up to 2019’s Why Me? Why Not was previewed by the singles ‘Better Days’, the Dave Grohl-assisted ‘Everything’s Electric’,vand the title track. It was produced by Andrew Wyatt and features contributions from Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig and Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs. “It’s a bit peculiar in places, which is good: 80 per cent madness and 20 per cent classic,” Gallagher told The Sunday Times. “If you’re going to start doing stuff like that on your third album, it helps if there’s a bit of Covid about. Because if it doesn’t take off, and people go, ‘I’m not sure about this, it’s a bit weird,’ we can blame it on the virus and go back to the classic stuff.”
Dehd have dropped their latest LP, Blue Skies, via Fat Possum. The follow-up to 2020’s Flower of Devotion includes the previously shared singles ‘Window’, ‘Stars’, and ‘Bad Love’. To bring their vision to life, the band worked with mixing engineer Craig Silvey (The Rolling Stones, The National, Arcade Fire) and mastering engineer Heba Kadry (Slowdive, Bjork, Cate Le Bon) for the first time. “The record got more instrumentally complex, but there aren’t a million different parts going on,” singer/guitarist Jason Balla told SPIN of the process behind the LP. “Everything is built to add texture and support what’s happening in the vocals and the emotions that are going on there.”
Rosie Carney has returned with her sophomore album, i wanna feel happy, out today via Color Study. The 11-track LP follows the London singer-songwriter’s 2019 debut Bare as well as her full-length cover of Radiohead’s The Bends, which came out in 2020. “Once I started playing around with The Bends songs, I realised I was pretty capable of taking my music in whichever direction I wanted to,” Carney explained in press materials. “I’ve always been a fan of shoegaze, lofi, indie and classic rock music, I just didn’t think it was possible to combine those sounds with my own music. Besides Radiohead I listened to a lot of Big Thief, FKA Twigs, Foglake, Slow Dive, David Bowie to name a few while I was making my demos for this album.”
Companion – the Fort Collins, Colorado-based twin sister duo of Sophia and Jo Babb – have unveiled their debut full-length, Second Day of Spring. The 10-track record includes the promotional singles ‘How Could I Have Known’, ’23rd Street’, ‘Snowbank’, and ‘If I Were A Ghost’. Drawing inspiration from the likes of Gillian Welch, Alison Krauss, and Samantha Crain, the duo recorded the album in a Colorado barn with an all-female team. “It’s been 10 years since our dad died, and it’s taken 10 years for us to get to this point where we feel like trusting,” they commented in press materials. “We don’t feel drawn toward chaos or constant darkness, whether it was self-manufactured darkness or just bad luck. We both feel better. We’re not unhappy every day anymore. And this album is like that next step toward this new phase of life.”
Stars are back with their first album in five years. Following There Is No Love in Fluorescent Light, From Capelton Hill is out now via Last Gang Records and features the previously shared tracks ‘Pretenders’, ‘Snowy Owl’, ‘Build a Fire’, ‘Patterns’, and ‘Capelton Hill’. “I guess what ‘From Capelton Hill’ means to me is from memory, from the past, from a place that seems permanent but isn’t, and I think that that sense of impermanence is a big part of what’s in the record,” co-vocalist Torquil Campbell explained in a press release. “Capelton Hill is a place where things in my mind, in my life, they’ve never changed. And yet it will go.” Vocalist Amy Millan added: “This band has always been us trying to navigate what it means to be inside a life that is going to end. And we’re getting closer.”
Other albums out today:
Yama Warashi, Crispy Moon; Def Leppard, Diamond Star Halos; SEVENTEEN, Face the Sun; Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Emile Mosseri, I Could Be Your Dog / I Could Be Your Moon; HAAi, Baby, We’re Ascending; Slang, Cockroach; 700 Bliss, Nothing to Declare; Bruce Hornsby, ‘Flicted; First Hate, Cotton Candy; Murkage Dave, The City Needs a Hero; Total Slacker, ExtraLife; Your Old Droog, Yod Stewart; Steve Earle & The Dukes, Jerry Jeff; Alfie Templeman, Mellow Moon; Melissa Weikart, Here, There; Stacks, Love and Language; ELLES, A Celebration of the Euphoria of Life; CTM, Babygirl; VHOOR, Baile & Bass.
Angel Olsen has shared a cover of Bob Dylan’s 1964 classic ‘One Too Many Mornings’. Olsen’s rendition appears on the just-released soundtrack to the Apple TV+ series Shining Girls, which is scored by Claudia Sarne. Take a listen below.
Calvin Harris has enlisted Young Thug and Dua Lipa for a new song called ‘Potion’. The track is set to appear on Harris’ upcoming album Funk Wav. Bounces Vol. 2. Check it out below.
Speaking about the new album in an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Harris said: “I wanted the original essence and I want the layers and the grit and the dirt and I don’t want everything to be mixed perfectly. I want things to be too loud and I want things to be like, you know, I want things to be like Sly and the Family Stone when it’s just mixed on the fly.”
Harris previously teamed up with Dua Lipa on ‘One Kiss’ and with Young Thug on ‘Heatstroke’. “When I want to work with someone it’s because I think they have a unique voice or something that sort of speaks to me and I think, oh, I could, I could do something with this or something really good could come out of it and she’s one of those people,” Harris told Lowe, continuing:
And it’s a mixture between that and just someone that I get on with, that I know I’m going to have like a nice time in the studio with.…I want to have a good time, I don’t want to have any stressful, awkward experiences with people and I want to work with people that give me joy and pleasure in the hope that I can give that back to them as well and we can just have a great time, you know? It’s sort of all based around that and yeah, the voice is spectacular and I’ve got a mic that I like to use on her and I’ve got a little setting that I like to use on her. And I think the vocal for One Kiss is the best for me that she’s ever sounded. So I wanted to just like, I wanted to just recreate that, but right for this record.
Of working with Young Thug, he added: “I mean, there was only one person I wanted on this. And we chased him for a while. It’s the voice… but it’s the delivery as well and how does he think of these things and these flows and the way that he kind of weaves around the beat in a way that I could never, ever even imagine. And you know when you’re writing a song or you’re coming up with a hook or whatever, that’s one thing and you can imagine someone singing that. But sending him a beat or being in the studio with him when he’s recording and hearing the process and where he ends up at is just like, how? Like the brain is somewhere else, like his mind is that of a genius. It’s amazing to witness it and I’m so, so grateful to be able to work with him.”
Ray Liotta, the actor known for such films as Goodfellas (1990) and Something Wild (1986), passed away at 67.
Many actors, musicians, and other public figures took to social media to pay tribute to the legendary actor with over 120 film and TV credits. Talking about Liotta, Robert De Niro stated, “I was very saddened to learn of Ray’s passing. He is way too young to have left us. May he rest in peace.”
Seth Rogen, who also worked with Liotta, said, “I can’t believe Ray Liotta has passed away. He was such a lovely, talented and hilarious person. Working with him was one of the great joys of my career and we made some of my favorite scenes I ever got to be in. A true legend of immense skill and grace.”
New-York-via-Texas band Why Bonnie have announced their debut full-length, 90 in November. The album – which follows three EPs, 2018’s In Water and Nightgown and 2020’s Voice Box – arrives on August 19 via their new label Keeled Scales. Check out the Shelby Bohannon-directed video for the album’s title track below.
“I wanted to capture the bittersweet feeling of saying goodbye to the landscape that shaped you while still dealing with the anxieties of what lies ahead,” the band’s Blair Howerton explained in a statement. “Nostalgia always hits with a flash of disjointed memories – like speeding down the highway or sweating in the Texas heat.”
Why Bonnie recorded 90 in Novemberover a period of two weeks at Lazybones Audio in Silsbee with Tommy Read (Lomelda, alexalone). It includes the previously unveiled song ‘Galveston’.
90 in November Cover Artwork:
90 in November Tracklist:
1. Sailor Mouth
2. Galveston
3. Nowhere LA
4. Hot Car
5. Silsbee
6. 90 In November
7. Healthy
8. Sharp Turn
9. Lot’s Wife
10. Superhero
M.I.A. has released a new song called ‘The One’, which is produced by Rex Kudo and T-Minus. Along with the track, the musician has announced that the follow-up to 2016’s AIM is called MATA. It will be released via Island Records, with which she has signed a new record deal. Check out ‘The One’ below, and scroll down for M.I.A.’s upcoming tour dates.
Talking about the new track to Zane Lowe, M.I.A. said:
I was in a really happy place. And I know that it was the pandemic, and kind of everything was hitting the fan, but I’d got to a place that was really happy. I did want to make that nice, happy record. Almost like the record that everyone wanted you to make when you made Paper Planes. Then everyone’s like, “Why the hell did you make Maya? That was such a depressing record.” In hindsight, it makes sense to people, but at the time everyone was like, “That’s the worst record in the world.” Now, I feel like, “Okay, well, you know that other record that everyone wanted? This is what it would’ve been.” I guess it is just about sticking to what you are and the truth. I think, at the end of the day, that is also what this record is about to me, is still trying to find truth. In a way, it’s kind of rebellious because everybody’s expecting me to put out that really havoc… Everyone’s expecting that, but it’s not, that’s not what it is. It’s about the battle of the ego versus you finding yourself and you finding the spiritual leader. Spirituality within, whatever form is given to you. I think that’s really interesting, when you think everything, you get challenged by the universe. And that happened to me. Really I’m just here to share that.
Of the new album, she added:
I think there’s a bit of a battle on the record. That there is a bit of a clash, but the clash is like your ego and spirituality. Those are the clashes. Because as a musician, you need some ego, otherwise you can’t do it. Also the genre of music that, genres I should say, is all very much like egocentric. It’s not like I’m an artist that came through gospel or something. For me, it was like to have that journey, and also, it was a significant time to discuss like Islamophobia…talking about wars in the Middle East, and things like that.
Last year, M.I.A. shared the song ‘Babylon’ as an NFT. She previously teamed up with Young Thug and Travis Scott on ‘FRANCHISE’, scoring her first No. 1 single.
M.I.A. 2022 Tour Dates:
Jun 1 – Stockholm, Sweden – Grona Lund
Jun 2 – Funen, Denmark – Heartland Fest
Jun 10 – Barcelona, Spain – Primavera
Jun 11 – Dijon, France – VYV Festival
Jun 12 – Marseille, France – Marsatac Festival
Jun 17 – Lyon, France – InVersion Festival
Jun 18 – Montendre, France – Freemusic Festival
Jul 8 – Oeiras, Portugal – NOS Alive
Jul 9 – Biscay, Spain – BBK Bilbao Live
beabadoobee has released a new single, ‘Lovesong’, the latest offering from her forthcoming album Beatopia. It follows the previously shared tracks ‘Talk’ and ‘See You Soon’. Check it out below.
“‘Lovesong’ is a song that I had bits written for since my second ever EP,” Bea Kristi explained in a press release. “The chorus was actually already written since Loveworm, I just didn’t have any chords to sing it with. It’s actually written in a really strange tuning that I forget. And yeah, it’s just another love song, another sweet love song. It was one of the last songs I recorded for Beatopia.”
Gordi has announced a new EP called Inhuman, sharing the single ‘Way I Go’. It’s out on July 15 via Jagjaguwar. Check out the Triana Hernandez-directed video for ‘Way I Go’ below.
“‘Way I Go’ is about the newness and the oldness of being in love. How it saturates and warms you, expands and transforms,” Gordi explained in a statement. “The video was filmed in one afternoon and features me putting my short-lived career as a swim instructor to good use, before walking around the streets of Brunswick in Melbourne in a dusty pink blazer I bought for $5 from the local Goodwill store.”
‘Way I Go’ follows ‘Wait’, Gordi’s collaboration with Troye Sivan. She previously teamed up with Alex Lahey for the track ‘Dino’s’. Her last album was 2020’s Our Two Skins.
Wilco have released their latest album, a double LP called 
Hyaline
Just Mustard have followed up their 2018 debut Wednesday with a new album and their first for 
Liam Gallagher has issued his third solo album, 
Dehd have dropped their latest LP, 
Rosie Carney has returned with her sophomore album, 
Companion – the Fort Collins, Colorado-based twin sister duo of Sophia and Jo Babb – have unveiled their debut full-length, 
Stars are back with their first album in five years. Following There Is No Love in Fluorescent Light, 
