Yorkshire songwriter Elanor Moss has released the new single ‘Catholic’, taken from her upcoming second EP Cosmic – out February 3 via Blue Raincoat Music. The track, which follows previous offering ‘Cosmic Memory’, was co-written with frequent collaborator Sam Griffiths of the Howl & the Hum and recorded in Brooklyn with producer Oli Deakin. Listen to it below.
Speaking about the track in a press release, Moss explained: “‘Catholic’ isn’t truly a song about being Catholic, or leaving the Catholic church… not really. It’s a song about grappling with your identity and realising you’ve relied on validation from others most of your life, whether that’s friends, family, or romantic partners. It’s also about realising you have the power to change and doing that. It’s cathartic to play and sing live, and I felt like I was tapping into something new in my writing. We tried recording it a bunch of different ways; acoustically, more lounge-y, slower… it didn’t feel right until it was big and loud. It was an interesting moment for me in my writing and sound. I wanted to be loud for once and see what it was like to be in an indie-rock band. I love it.”
Fran, the moniker of Chicago musician Maria Jacobson, has released the latest single from their upcoming album Leaving, which is out next week via Fire Talk Records. ‘God’ follows the previously shared cuts ‘So Long’, ‘Limousine’, and ‘Palm Trees’. Check out a lyric video for it below.
Quasi, the project of Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss, have shared the latest single from their upcoming album Breaking the Balls of History. Following previous cuts ‘Queen of Ears’ and ‘Doomscrollers’, ‘Nowheresville’ arrives alongside a music video in which a gorilla takes a hike through the forest in search of the band’s practice space. Check it out below.
Breaking the Balls of History is set to come out on February 10 via Sub Pop.
Why Bonnie have released a new song called ‘Apple Tree’. Arriving ahead of their North American tour, the track was described by band leader Blair Howerton as “a song about the parables we tell ourselves to make sense of things.” Give it a listen below.
Alvvays made their late-night TV debut last night (January 10), performing their single ‘Belinda Says’ on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Watch it below.
‘Belinda Says’ is taken from Alvvays’ latest album, Blue Rev, which was released in October. More recently, the band shared a music video for ‘Many Mirrors’ made by Stardew Valley creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone. In March, they’ll head out on a world tour in support of the LP, with dates across the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
SZA shared a new music video for her SOS track ‘Kill Bill’. The Quentin Tarantino-inspired clip was directed by Christian Breslauer and includes a cameo from Vivica A. Fox, who starred in Tarantino’s 2003 movie of the same name. It also features snippets of album tracks ‘Nobody Gets Me’ and ‘Seek & Destroy’. Check it out below.
One Step Closer have surprise-released a new EP called Songs for the Willow through Run for Cover. The three-track project, which features the previously shared song ‘Dark Blue’, finds the band reuniting with Eric Chesek, who recorded their debut album This Place You Know, as well as Jon Markson, who has recently worked on records by Drug Church, Koyo, and Soul Blind. Stream the EP and check out the music video for ‘Turn to Me’ below.
U2 have reimagined and re-recorded 40 of their songs for a new album, Songs of Surrender, which will be out on March 17. The LP is meant as a companion to Bono’s recent memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story. Check out a trailer for it, which previews a reworked version of ‘Beautiful Day’, below.
U2 teased the record via handwritten photocopied letters sent to select fans. One letter, signed by the Edge, read in part: “The fact is that most of our work was written and recorded when we were a bunch of very young men. Those songs mean something quite different to us now. Some have grown with us. Some we have outgrown, but we have not lost sight of what propelled us to write those songs in the first place.”
The Edge continued to explain that the project “started as an experiment” but quickly became an “obsession as so many early U2 songs yielded to a new interpretation.” He added: “Intimacy replaced post-punk urgency. New keys, new chords, new tempos and new lyrics arrived… Once we surrendered our reverence for the original version, each song started to open up to a new anthemic voice of this time, of the people we are now, and particularly the singer that Bono has become.”
The Coachella 2023 lineup has been announced. Bad Bunny, Blackpink, and Frank Ocean are set to headline this year’s edition, which features Calvin Harris performing as a sub-headliner. The festival will return to Empire Polo Club in Indio, California in the spring, taking place across two weekends: April 14-16 and 21-23.
Other acts on the bill include Björk, boygenius, Rosalía, Charli XCX, Christine and the Queens, Gorillaz, Sudan Archives, Burna Boy, Porter Robinson, Ethel Cain, the Chemical Brothers, Weyes Blood, Jai Paul, Blondie, Kaytranada, Alex G, Kali Uchis, Pusha T, Wet Leg, Kaytranada, Yves Tumor, Snail Mail, Rae Sremmurd, $uicideboy$, Yung Lean, MUNA, Domi & JD Beck, Magdalena Bay, Soul Glo, GloRilla, the Comet Is Coming, the Breeders, Knocked Loose, Sleaford Mods, the Comet Is Coming, Horsegirl, Doechii, SG Lewis, Noname, Fousheé, Romy, Flo Milli, IDK, Yaeji, EarthGang, the Linda Lindas, and many more. Check out the full lineup below, and find more info here.
Ugh was stuck in drafts 🫠
Register now for access to passes at https://t.co/qujCsdlTip. Presale begins Friday, 1/13 at 11am PT. Very limited Weekend 1 passes remain. For your best chance at passes, look to Weekend 2. pic.twitter.com/5zMQ4dJZHq
It wouldn’t be fair to call Every Loser a comeback album, but it is a return to the version of Iggy Pop the world knows and loves: gnarly, confrontational, and blisteringly intense. His career pivots offer ample proof that even the godfather of punk can get tired of rock n’ roll, and his most recent releases have traded ferocity for moody introspection, to mostly intriguing results. “I’m the guy with no shirt who rocks,” he said in a brief press statement announcing his nineteenth studio LP – less a proclamation than simple reminder – and the back-to-basics approach of Every Loser appears intended as evidence. And while the album has enough grit and hooks to be enjoyed in a straightforward manner – not to mention all-star contributions from members of Guns N’ Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, blink-182, and Jane’s Addiction, as well as what might be the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins’ final recordings – it also serves to reaffirm the complexity of Iggy Pop’s persona.
In both sound and concept, Every Loser is framed as a departure from the brooding, jazzy experiments of 2019’s Free, “an album in which other artists speak for me, but I lend my voice,” according to Pop. One of the most fascinating aspects of Pop’s career is the way he’s been able to simultaneously invoke and reinvent his signature aesthetic, including on the 2016 Josh Homme collaboration Post Pop Depression, and Every Loser finds him openly embracing the public’s perception of Iggy Pop. He speaks for himself this time, but it’s never quite clear whether he’s playing the part or playing into it. With the exception of ‘Modern Day Ripoff’, every sneering rocker is injected with some amount of sarcasm and sly self-deprecation, although just how caustic the tracks are meant to be is also up for interpretation. It’s why he can get away with opening the record with the line “I’ve got a dick and two balls, that’s more than you all” on ‘Frenzy’, a track whose freneticism is as direct as it is playful, or poke fun at the phenomenon of punk celebrity on a song featuring Travis Barker, or deliver a pensive ode to his adopted home of Miami by calling it “a beautiful whore of a city.”
It’s by treading the line between campy and sincere, between coarse attempts at modern commentary and clinging to the past, that the album manages to be more often exciting than merely serviceable. Pop’s collaborators have always shaped his work in specific ways, and by enlisting producer/guitarist Andrew Watt to helm Every Loser, he balances raw power with a polished, melodic sheen in ways that can occasionally feel toothless but are uniquely successful at matching Pop’s energy. One moment, he’s delivering a knowing and empathetic cautionary tale about addiction called ‘Strung Out Johnny’, then looks at himself with a dry sense of humour on a no-frills rocker featuring the line, “I ran out of blow a long time ago/ I can’t smoke a J, all my ducks fly away.” It’s a pleasure hearing Pop having this kind of fun again, but what takes it to the next level is how odd the results can be despite the album’s immediacy; ‘Morning Show’ is a boilerplate ballad rendered strangely affecting by Pop’s wearied delivery, while ‘Comments’ pairs gloomy post-punk with some ridiculously on-the-nose lyrics about selling out and social media.
Were it an attempt to strike the perfect balance between the various styles Iggy Pop has tried on over the years, Every Loser could have been a better record. But as late-career efforts go, it does more than simply prove he can still come out with a refreshing blast of energy, which is what the album might be remembered as. But listen to the closer ‘The Regency’, by far the most dynamic song on the record, one that bounces between melancholy verses and an explosive chorus in which Pop repeats, “Fuck the regency! Fuck the regency! Fuck the regency up!” It’s clear that even at its most raucous and entertaining, Pop’s music can still leave you feeling baffled and tense – yet there’s never any doubt that he can make some of his most twisted and powerful work just by being himself, whatever the hell that means.
