Essential Listening: This week’s best new music
Welcome back to Essential Listening, a place where we compile all the best new music of the week into the definitive tome of modern music: The Far Out Playlist.
Truth be told, it wasn’t much of a competition to find the best album of the week. Two Door Cinema Club managed to wrangle out a record filled with emotional (and thematic) ups and downs on Keep On Smiling. It’s not a record that will blow anybody’s socks off, but it certainly is better than the rest of the crop this week.
Oh, what to say about Yungblud? There was a debate going around the office as to whether we were being crotchety old men when we all universally detested the English singer’s latest album, the self-titled Yungblud. But then we realized that we truly were universal in our distaste, so if I were you, I would take a hard pass on Yungblud and its narcissistic drivel.
Over on the singles front, it’s been a relatively quiet week. Apart from a highly-anticipated return from Arctic Monkeys (more on that in a bit), this week was full of hidden gems, surprisingly catchy songs, and top-shelf new tracks. Still, only eight songs can make it onto this list.
Here are all the best new songs of the week, compiled onto The Far Out Playlist.
Best new music, August 29th – September 3rd:
Arctic Monkeys – ‘There’d Better Be a Mirrorball’
Arctic Monkeys have finally returned with the first taste of their forthcoming seventh studio album, The Car. The slow, brooding lead single is titled ‘There’d Better Be A Mirrorball’.
The track appears to preview yet another step from Arctic Monkeys’ indie rock roots. Where 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino took a turn towards piano-based, anthemic space-bound hits, ‘There’d Better Be A Mirrorball’ comes with similar energy, slow-burning violin sections and light, jazz-style drumming from Matt Helders.
Plains – ‘Abilene’
Indie folk troubadours Jess Williams and Waxahatchee are teaming up under the name Plains for a brand new collaborative album, I Walked With You A Ways. We’ve already gotten a preview of the LP with the pair’s first single, ‘Problem With It’, and now we’re getting a follow up in the form of the new song, ‘Abilene’.
More explicitly country-focused than ‘Problem With It’, ‘Abilene’ specifically mentions coffee shops and liquor stores drop you right into a setting of old-school Americana. Abilene is a small town in Texas, about 200 miles outside of Williamson’s hometown of Austin. With a certified twang that feels right at home with a classic tale of southern heartbreak, ‘Abilene’ sees Williamson take the reigns and deliver a wonderfully bittersweet ode to a calmer and quieter side of life.
China Steps – ‘American Life’
Going by the name of China Steps, there’s a wonky dynamism to the five-piece – who it must be noted are something of a supergroup – with members plucked from some of Leeds’ most eminent bands. Comprised of Thomas Barr, Ewan Barr, Matt Pownall, Stanley Braddock and Lachlan Banner, the members hail from Eades, Drahla, Van Houten and Genie Genie.
The band have dropped their debut single ‘American Life’, and it immediately pulls you in. Produced by Chris Mulligan of Manchester favourites W.H. Lung, the piece starts with a slightly disconcerting introduction that finds itself placed between Preoccupations and Gilla Band. However, this soon shifts as the guitars gradually cut through the mix, creating a brief drone before the electronic textures drop out, and the Barr’s and Pownall’s guitars deliver one of the finest riffs we’ve heard in a long time.
Alex Lahey – ‘Congratulations’
Alex Lahey is back with a grungy new single plucked from the depths of matrimony remorse as the singer refuses to forever hold their peace and makes an outcry to an ex after their wedding. Naturally, this is a moody and sludgy affair with a bristling bitterness woven into the guitars.
There is a hint of wallowing in self-indulgence when it comes to the pop-punk adjacent feel to the lyrics on display. However, the exultant irreverence of the moving-on guitar pulls it towards something a bit fresher. It’s not quite sweet enough to be bittersweet, but in the tune, Lahey has evidently reached the point where an acid state has been tempered towards apathy.
Sprints – ‘Literary Minds’
Dublin garage-punk heads Sprints have released a new track entitled ‘Literary Mind’ off the back of a highly-lauded Glastonbury set and a support slot underneath Liam Gallagher in Belfast.
‘Literary Minds’ is a great track with an energetic bassline that doesn’t let up, whilst the several layers of fuzzy guitars are reminiscent of the likes of Dinosaur Jr and Yuck. Chubb’s vocals, meanwhile, are indeed in the vein of Jehnny Beth, only slightly more melodic. It’s a track that leaves us in eager anticipation of where Sprints will head next.
Gorillaz – ‘New Gold’ (ft. Tame Impala and Bootie Brown)
After teasing a collaboration for the past few weeks, Gorillaz and Tame Impala have officially dropped their first song together, ‘New Gold’. Also features former Far Side rapper Bootie Brown, it’s a woozy and wonky electronic track that falls right within Kevin Parker’s established signature style. As the song alternates vocals between Brown and Parker, Gorillaz leader Damon Albarn doesn’t actually appear until the track is already half done. When he does, it’s in a bleary-eyed haze of funky bass and skipping drum beats.
With collaborations like this, it’s always a bit of curiosity regarding how heavily the featured artist is involved in the song’s production. That’s especially true for Gorillaz, who are currently thriving on guest spots and outside assistance to propel Albarn into the modern age. A song like ‘New Gold’ actually sounds much closer to a Slow Rush-era Tame Impala song, right down to the drum sounds and soft bed of keyboards that hand over the song’s arrangement.
The 1975 – ‘I’m In Love With You’
The 1975 have just shared the third track from their upcoming album Being Funny In A Foreign Language. News of the single, titled ‘I’m In Love With You’, arrives alongside new details of the UK and Ireland leg of their At Their Very Best tour, which is set to kick off on January 8th, 2023, in Brighton and run until January 30th, when it will conclude with a show in Belfast.
Part acoustic pop belter and part arena rock-ready fist-pumper, ‘I’m In Love With You’ is about as standard a pop single as one could expect from The 1975. That being said, the new track is catchy and summery in a way that’s impossible to hate. This is the kind of track that takes way more effort to shit on than is worth the trouble, so just sit back and enjoy the good vibes.
Swim Deep – ‘Little Blue’
Swim Deep have released a new single, ‘Little Blue’, alongside details of a forthcoming UK headline tour. The Birmingham indie group have released the track via their own label, King City Records, named after their 2012 debut single, ‘King City’. The new track’s instrumentals are heavily influenced by Caribou with an atmospheric tone that meets Austin Williams’ sentimental vocal delivery in a demure harmony.
‘Little Blue’ marks what seems to be a new beginning for the band with a more contemporary electronic sound. Where it may alienate fans of the band’s older material, Swim Deep will undoubtedly embrace a new generation of fans with this sound.
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