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.
Pretty… pretty… pretty paltry this week for new music. Listen, the last month of the year isn’t the best time to drop new songs or albums. In fact, it’s actually probably the worst, unless that music happens to be Christmas music.
And wouldn’t you know it, there’s a little bit of holiday cheer to fill out this week’s Far Out Playlist as well. By the end of the year, I’m going to have to round up all the best holiday songs that were released this year. I’m putting it in writing now so that I can’t chicken out of doing it before the end of the year.
Still, there are only eight songs that can make this list. Here is all the best new music from the week, compiled into The Far Out Playlist.
Best new music, November 28th – December 4th:
Metallica – ‘Lux Æterna’
Heavy metal gods Metallica are back to announce their 12th studio album, 72 Seasons. The new album will be the band’s first studio project since 2016’s Hardwired… to Self-Destruct. Produced by Greg Fidelman, 72 Seasons will align with the precedent set by most of Metallica’s post-Black Album material by clocking in at over 77 minutes.
To preview the upcoming release, Metallica have released a brand-new single, ‘Lux Æterna’. Filled with breakneck rhythms and shredding guitars, the new single leans heavily on some of the band’s punk rock roots. Lars Ulrich’s bass drums sound a little too accurate to be natural, but Hetfield’s voice sounds like it’s in pristine condition.
Vulfpeck – ‘Sauna’
Vulfpeck is getting back together in an appropriately strange fashion. The funk rockers have announced their sixth studio album, Schvitz, which the group recorded in a sauna without telling anyone. If you think that’s weird, just wait until you hear that Wong’s parents named him after a Vulfpeck song.
To preview the upcoming album, the band have released the album’s first track, ‘Sauna’. An appropriate intro, considering the production of the LP, ‘Sauna’ is a Goss-penned tune that fits right into the keyboardist’s eclectic wheelhouse. Reminiscent of Goss’s ‘Smile Meditation’, ‘Sauna’ is powered by a light groove, nonsensical falsetto vocals from Stanley and Katzman, and itchy Wurlitzer piano from Goss that bounces off the thumping bass of Dart and the twinkling acoustic piano lines provided by Joey Dosik.
Gaz Coombes – ‘Long Live the Strange’
Gaz Coombes has shared a new single, ‘Long Live The Strange’, as the latest preview ahead of his forthcoming solo album, Turn the Car Around.
The soaring single is packed with positive energy brought on by high-paced keys layered with acoustic and electric guitar progressions. The Supergrass frontman offers his ever-youthful vocals to celebrate the “weird and wonderful” and a “reminder to embrace that at all times”. The track was written after he took his daughter Tiger to see Cavetown in Oxford in 2020.
The Waeve – ‘Kill Me Again’
Graham Coxon and Rose Elinor Dougall make a hell of a power couple. With their powers combined, we have the band The Waeve, a new art rock project putting the best of the pair’s musical machinations together.
‘Kill Me Again’ rests somewhere in between the lines of new wave, jazz, noise rock, and electronica. Coxon takes the lead vocal for the first verse, intoning about burning love and lunar distances as he compliments himself on tootling saxophone. When Dougall takes over for the second verse, a more prominent smouldering sexuality comes to the fore. That’s appropriate, considering how the song’s subject matter is very hot and heavy.
Divorce – ‘That Hill’
The Nottingham-based indie band Divorce have shared a new track entitled ‘That Hill’ ahead of the release of their debut EP Get Mean. The record is set to arrive this Friday (December 2nd) on the London record label Hand In Hive. A vinyl release is scheduled for early next year.
There are a number of influences across the record, notably the guitar tones of Big Thief’s Buck Meek as well as the indie-electronica/rock of the likes of LCD Soundsystem and Mitski. ‘That Hill’ incorporates them all into one potent that also helps Divorce carve out an identity for themselves.
Andy Bell – ‘Listen, The Snow Is Falling’ (Yoko Ono cover)
Ride guitarist and songwriter Andy Bell has released a dreamy cover of the Yoko Ono Christmas classic, ‘Listen, The Snow Is Falling’. The new cover is taken from Untitled Film Stills, the last of Bell’s recent trilogy of EPs, which was released last Friday via Sonic Cathedral.
Bell has deftly recaptured the sentimental, ethereal qualities of Ono’s original recording while stamping some of his own DNA into proceedings. The delicacy of his vocals is accompanied by shimmering guitar layers reminiscent of the shoegaze era. Where Ono’s version closes out with subtle slide guitar runs courtesy of Lennon, Bell brings in a perfectly prominent distorted lead solo.
Chubby and the Gang – ‘Violent Night (A Christmas Tale)’
London-based hardcore outfit Chubby and the Gang have released a new festive single titled ‘Violent Night (A Christmas Tale)’. The cut is featured on their upcoming double A-side release Chubby and the Gang presents: A Christmas. Featured alongside ‘Red Rag to a Bull’, ‘Violent Night’ is set for release on December 14th via Partisan.
Pre-pandemic, the rockers had already cultivated a devoted following. The release of their debut album, Speed Kills, won praise from The Rolling Stones and cemented them as the darlings of the indie press. 2020 took the wind out of their sails somewhat, but they’re back and bolder than ever.
Storefront Church and Phoebe Bridgers – ‘Words’ (Low cover)
With a few weeks passed since Mimi Parker of Low passed away, the breadth of her influence on music is becoming clearer than ever. A number of artists have taken it upon themselves to pay tribute by covering her songs, including Robert Plant and Jeff Tweedy. Today, we get another one with Storefront Church and Phoebe Bridgers taking on ‘Words’.
It’s hard not to get sentimental about a cover like this, especially when all the slow-moving weirdness that’s so typical of Low’s sound is ironed out to a beautiful and plaintive piano line. Bridgers is making a hell of a run as a featured artist these days, and when everything combines into one heavenly chorus, the emotion being felt is palpable.
