Cate Le Bon has released a new single, ‘Moderation’, the second preview of her forthcoming album Pompeii. The track arrives with an accompanying video directed by Juliana and Nicola Giraffe of Giraffe Studios. Watch and listen below.
In a press release, Le Bon described ‘Moderation’ as “a nod to the daily dilemma of trying to curb inherited and novel habits, when you want to eat the moon, and an essay written by the architect Lina Bo Bardi in 1958 that continues to kick hard.”
Pompeii, Le Bon’s sixth studio album and the follow-up to 2019’s Reward, is out February 4 via Mexican Summer. It was led by the single ‘Running Away’, which landed on our Best New Songs list.
Momma – the NYC-based four-piece of singers/guitarists Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten, bassist Aron Kobayashi Ritch, and drummer Zach CapittiFenton – have announced their signing to Lucky Number with a new single called ‘Medicine’. Produced and mixed by Ritch, the track arrives with an accompanying video directed by Hailey Heaton. Check it out below.
“The two guitar riffs were written by Etta and Allegra about a year before we actually brought it to the full band,” Momma explained in a statement about the new track. “When we wrote the first verse, we realised it was one of the first times we couldn’t write about heartbreak – we were both in very loving relationships. We wanted to write about that feeling of just being addicted to someone, and how someone else’s company can really feel like a drug.”
Momma’s most recent LP, Two of Me, dropped in 2020.
Earlier this month, Sunn O))) announced they would be releasing a session they recorded for Mary Anne Hobbs’ BBC Radio 6 Music show at BBC’s historic Maida Vale Studios. The session took place in October 2019, towards the end of a long tour around the Life Metal and Pyroclasts albums, with Anna Von Hausswolff and her band accompanying them for the UK trek. Today, the band have unveiled a passage from Metta, Benevolence. BBC 6Music: Live on the Invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs, which features Von Hasswolff. Take a listen below.
Metta, Benevolence is due for release on November 26 via Southern Lord.
Jockstrap – the London-based duo of Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye – have signed to Rough Trade Records and shared their first single for the label, ’50/50′. Check it out below.
The announcement follows Jockstrap’s 2020 EP Wicked City, which was released via Warp and landed on our Best EPs of 2020 list.
Little Simz has premiered an original narrative short film, I Love You, I Hate You, which is out today in partnership with WePresent. The rapper stars in the 20-minute film, which was directed by Sam Pilling and written by Caroline Adeyemi based on a story by Simz. Her co-stars include C.J. Beckford, Shaniqua Okwok, and newcomer Sonia Ajuwa. Watch it below.
“I Love You, I Hate You is the story of abandonment,” Simz said in a statement about the film. “How trauma can affect us in our adult lives if never confronted. I wanted to make this film because I feel it’s a universal story that many people can relate to. It’s been incredible to work with a partner like WePresent (the digital arts platform of WeTransfer) who are so invested in telling stories like this. They understood and trusted my vision from the jump and had my back to create the film I set out to make.”
Little Simz’s latest album, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, arrived in September. Last month, she shared a Jeremy Ngatho Cole-directed video for the album track ‘I Love You, I Hate You’.
South East-London artist Kai Kwasi has shared a new single called ‘Cracks’. It’s lifted from his upcoming debut EP, Jahlila, which arrives this March via Play It Again Sam. Listen to ‘Cracks’, produced by Sam Breathwick (aka Shriiiink), below.
“I wrote ’Cracks’ following a conversation I had with Joy [Crookes] about the feeling of spiralling and how sometimes it can feel like comfort in familiarity,” Kwasi explained in a press release. “We played ‘Cut Me’ by Moses Sumney and talked about the lyrics in that ‘Might not be healthy for me but seemingly I need – what cuts me’. It was one of those moments where someone articulates something you’ve been feeling perfectly. One of those moments where you realise we’re all living such a similar experience and that you’re very rarely alone in whatever strange emotion you might be thinkin’ or feeling.”
Jahlila is named after Kwasi’s late grandmother. “My Nana was and still is a huge part of my life,” he said. “She taught me kindness and patience and always encouraged me to do what was best. She passed away a while ago now but i still find myself reaping the benefits of the seeds she sowed in life. My love for art, my appreciation for the small things, my friends, my taste in music and tbh my general outlook on life. She takes every step I take with me, a model for how life should be lived. I guess i’m naming my first project after her as a further excuse to celebrate her.”
elkyn, the moniker of Joey Donnelly, has announced his debut album: holy spirit social club set to arrive on March 18 via Curation Records. The LP is being previewed with the lead single ‘everything looks darker now’, which you can check out below. Scroll down for the album’s cover artwork and tracklist, too.
“This is about a rainy gig I played in Manchester,” Donnelly said of the new track in a statement. “I invited someone and didn’t expect them to show up and when they did I shied away from them for most of it. We had a big catch up over a cigarette outside but when I left I realised how much I missed them.”
holy spirit social club will follow elkyn’s 2020 EP beech.
holy spirit social club Cover Artwork:
holy spirit social club Tracklist:
1. change
2. found the back of the tv remote
3. fell
4. i was never in it
5. talon
6. everything looks darker now
7. change (reprise)
8. if you’re still leaving
9. last night
10. i don’t know the way from here
11. this is the end
12. it figures
Spoon have shared a cover of the Beatles’ ‘Christmas Time (Is Here Again)’ as part of Spotify’s annual Holiday Singles campaign. This year’s additions to the Spotify Singles: Holiday playlist also include covers and originals from the likes of Nao, Ashnikko, jxdn, Caylee Hammack, and more. Listen to Spoon’s version of ‘Chstime Time (Is Here Again)’ along with the rest of the singles below.
“Recording ‘Christmas Time Is Here Again’ was a group effort that pulled us away from rehearsals and quickly sent us down a turbulent path of what you might call the Christmas spirit,” Spoon’s Britt Daniel said in a statement. “And it’s our song with the most band members doing vocals ever – pretty sure I’m counting four. THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS IS OVER.”
Portland, Maine trio Weakened Friends have shared ‘Everything Is Better’, the final single from their upcoming album, Quitter – out this Friday, November 19 via Big Scary Monsters/Don Giovanni Records. Check it out via the accompanying video below.
Quitter, which will follow the band’s 2018 debut Common Blah, includes the previously released singles ‘Tunnels’ and the title track.
Irish five-piece Just Mustard have signed to Partisan Records and shared a new single, ‘I Am You’. Recorded at Attica Studios in Donegal, Ireland during lockdown and mixed by David Wrench (The xx, FKA twigs, Caribou), the track arrives alongside a visual created by Dylan Friese-Greene. Check it out below.
After playing some headlining shows in January 2022, Just Mustard will be joining Fontaines D.C. on their European tour next spring. The follow-up to their 2019 debut Wednesday is due to arrive next year.
