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.
Welcome to 2023, everybody! 12 months of new music is always something to look forward to at the start of a new calendar year, and this week, we’ve actually gotten off on the right foot for once. This surely means that 2023 will be a successful and not-at-all-terrible year, right? Right!?
The good news is that the king of punk saw us through with the first great new album of 2023. Iggy Pop might be in his mid-70s, but he proved to be just as vital as ever on his 19th studio album, Every Loser.
Over on the singles side, plenty of artists decided to hit the ground running in 2023 with great new songs. Still, only eight tracks can make it onto this list. Here is all the best new music of the week, compiled into The Far Out Playlist.
Best new music, January 2nd – 8th:
The Lemon Twigs – ‘Corner Of My Eye’
New York psychedelic indie pop goofballs The Lemon Twigs are officially back in action. Brian and Michael D’Addario have returned with a brand new single, ‘Corner Of My Eye’. The track was originally recorded back in 2021, making it at least a full year or two old by this point.
Brian takes the lead, showing off his immaculate tenor range through sheets of brushed drums, luscious acoustic guitars, and a complete dream-like state. Anyone who keyed into ‘Beautiful’ from the Brothers of Destruction EP will surely see this as a worthy successor.
Mount Eerie – ‘Huge Fire’
Phil Elverum, the mastermind behind Mount Eerie, has released an absorbing new track called ‘Huge Fire’, marking the project’s first new music since 2019.
The slow-burning track kicks off with ethereal, disjointed guitar, which runs alongside effects-ridden drums and Elevrum’s brooding vocals revealing emotional scars. “Nothing but me and all this shattered wood I’ve been pulling,” he sings through the cascade of instrumentation. “Into a heap of flames and smoke, this is my life/ And by now I’ve lived long enough to know/ That nothing’s stronger than the blow.”
The Hold Steady – ‘Sideways Skull’
American heartland rockers The Hold Steady are back for another new LP. The Price of Progress will be the New York band’s ninth studio effort, coming on the heels of 2021’s Open Door Policy.
To preview the new album, the band has shared its first single, ‘Sideways Skull’. More post-punk-adjacent than the band’s previous work, ‘Sideways Skull’ mostly sees Finn abandoning traditional singing for more spoken word prose. It’s discordant and fuzzy, but there are enough classic rock references to harken back to the band’s roots.
Somebody’s Child – ‘I Need Ya’
Irish indie sensation Somebody’s Child have shared their brand new single titled ‘I Need Ya’. After teasing the song during live shows of late, singer-songwriter Cian Godfrey and his band have finally unleashed the soaring studio version.
The song drives with an intense beat that sets the pace for the forthcoming album, which is said to focus on Godfrey’s highly relatable fear of growing older. The positive energy channelled through the beat and accompanying music video is juxtaposed by the anxiety imbued in the lyrics and plaintive instrumentals.
JW Francis – ‘Going Home to a Party’
American jangle-pop rocker JW Francis is staring down the release of his latest album, Dream House, at the end of this month. We’ve already heard some killer singles from the new LP, including the goofy and charming ‘I Wanna Be Your Basketball’ and the wavvy ‘Dream House’.
Today, we’re getting what is probably the final single from the new album, ‘Going Home to A Party’. Retaining all the charming lo-fi dynamics of his past work, the new track also features some driving rhythms that have contrasted with the supremely chill atmosphere of the other Dream House tracks.
Black Belt Eagle Scout – ‘Nobody’
American indie rocker Katherine Paul, better known under her stage moniker Black Belt Eagle Scout, is preparing her third full-length album, The Land, The Water, The Sky. To preview the new LP, Paul has dropped her latest single, ‘Nobody’.
Overflowing with nods to post-punk, shoegaze, indie folk, and traditional Native American music, ‘Nobody’ brings a welcomed fresh perspective to the world of indie rock. While the diverse array of sounds might not be obvious on first listen, Paul is one of those artists that takes a few rotations to show just how enormously talented she is.
Storefront Church – ‘Pure Imagination’ (Gene Wilder cover ft. Circuit Des Yeux)
Hey, remember when Timothée Chalamet revealed that he was going to play Willy Wonka in a new movie? Well, Wonka is definitely still happening, so what better time to jump onto the media hype train for it? That’s what Lukas Frank, better known as Storefront Church, reckons with his new take on Gene Wilder’s classic from the 1971 adaptation Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, ‘Pure Imagination’.
To help him out, Frank has employed experimental pop queen Circuit Des Yeux. The cover isn’t actually being featured in the 2023 version of Wonka (as far as I know), but it is showing up on the new Storefront Church EP, The Covers. Chalk that up as a loss for our boy Timée but probably a win for Frank.
Peter Gabriel – ‘Panopticom’
Today, to observe the first full moon of 2023, former Genesis mastermind Peter Gabriel has uncovered the first single to preview his forthcoming album, i/o. It marks the singer-songwriter’s first solo music in seven years.
‘Panopticom’ hears the 72-year-old artist accompanied on synths by production mastermind and Roxy Music alumnus Brian Eno, who released an album of his own towards the end of 2022, FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE. Also appearing on the track are bassist Tony Levin, drummer Manu Katché, and guitarist David Rhodes.
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