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.
Not too shabby with the new music this week. Our Album of the Week went to indie-pop forerunner Weyes Blood and her dynamic new LP And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow. It’s not easy to beat out Neil Young & Crazy Horse as the best record of the week, but Hearts Aglow just managed to do so.
That wasn’t the only solid album out this week: Norwegian indie upstarts VEPS had an awesome debut with their first album, Oslo Park. There’s a little something for everyone this week: atmospheric space rock, grungy classic rock, and sprightly indie rock.
The singles world looked none too shabby as well. 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 15th – November 22th:
‘Nights in December’ – Tkay Maidza
It’s officially the Christmas season! The holiday gods have officially renounced American Thanksgiving and have moved right on to the yuletide season. Well, maybe not the holiday gods, but the music gods have certainly moved on. November is prime time to get in a Christmas carol before Mariah Carey swoops in and ruins it for everyone.
An ode to New York City during the holiday season, ‘Nights in December’ is an original track that looks to shed some new light on the traditional holiday song formula. Not Xmas-specific, but rather winter-themed, ‘Nights in December’ unfurls with some buzzy synths and light R&B rhythm. As always, it’s Maidza’s voice that sticks out from the track.
‘Strong’ – Romy and Fred Again..
Romy and Fred Again.. have come together in collaboration once again with the trance-inspired anthem ‘Strong’. The track comes in fresh two whole years after Romy – the co-singer and guitar of the xx – released her first solo single, ‘Lifetime’.
Back in January of this year, Romy joined Fred Again.. and HAAi for ‘Lights Out’. Now, she has once again begun working with Fred Again.., and ‘Strong’ is a “personal” song that explores grief and pays homage to the dancefloor-filling sounds of early 2000s euphoric trance.
‘One Night with the Valet’ – Tennis
American indie pop duo Tennis have returned with the announcement of a brand new studio album, Pollen. The LP will be the group’s sixth studio effort and first since 2020’s Swimmer.
In anticipation of the new album, Tennis dropped their first preview single, ‘One Night with the Valet’. Picking up where the music on Swimmer left off, the track leans heavily on the keyboard interplay that has become the group’s signature. Laid back and spacey, ‘One Night with the Valet’ shows that the Tennis sound still has its fair share of unexplored corners.
‘Found’ – Fucked Up
Canadian art punks Fucked Up are gearing up to release their sixth studio album, One Day, early next year. The most compact and immediate release the band has ever produced, One Day is all about raw energy and maximum impact.
We’ve already heard the album’s title track, and today, we’re getting a new preview of the LP with the track ‘Found’. With discordant guitar tones and anthemic scream-shout vocals, the song is as inviting as it is thorny. If you’ve never experienced Fucked Up’s unique take on hardcore, then ‘Found’ still has some soft entry points, even if Damian Abraham’s guttural wail is sure to keep the squares out.
‘Fingers of Steel’ – Shame
Shame have made their long-awaited return with their new single ‘Fingers of Steel’ from their forthcoming album Food for Worms. While the record’s title might conjure up macabre images, musically, the new single has a jangly indie throwback feel to it that adds a bit of zip to a dark winter evening, turning misty rain into a smoke machine.
As ever, somewhere amid the irreverent wit is a Brass Eye-like takedown of the status quo that is reflected in the James Humby-directed video for the song, which sees the band pulling 19-hour shifts to create fake accounts and engage in a bit of manufactured Shame promo. It’s a fun watch but filled with a prescient message, much like the music itself.
‘Buffy’ – Jenny Hval
Norwegian indie-pop proprietor Jenny Hvalchecked all the boxes in 2022. She released an excellent new LP, Classic Objects, put out a few singles, and generally gave fans more than they ever could have asked for. Everything at this point is all gravy, if indeed we were to get anything at all. As it turns out, we are getting something else: a brand-new single.
Not terribly far flung from the spacey tones of Classic Objects, ‘Buffy’ nonetheless has its own distinct identity. Kicking off with a solid minute of airy keyboard work, Hval lets that heady atmosphere carry over into the entire song. There are no drums and seemingly no additional instrumentation at all in the first two minutes of ‘Buffy’. For the final minute, we get a low-key beat that resembles Japanese koto music, pushing right into the eclectic sonic territory that Hval has mastered.
‘So Much Wine’ – Phoebe Bridgers (The Handsome Family cover)
Christmas covers have become an annual tradition for Phoebe Bridgers. In previous years, we’ve gotten renditions of contemporary Xmas odes like Merle Haggard’s ‘If We Make It Through December’ and Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘7 O’Clock News/Silent Night’ along with more traditional fare like ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’. Last year, we got a version of Tom Waits’ ‘Day After Tomorrow’, and now, we’re getting our yearly dose of Bridgers holiday tunes.
That’s because today sees the release of Bridgers’ cover of The Handsome Family’s ‘So Much Wine’. Dipping into more modern territory when compared to her previous covers, Bridgers leans heavily into the emo/country DNA of the original track. ‘So Much Wine’ brings in radiant harmonies and even some country fiddle to the track’s arrangement, the latter of which is provided by collaborator Andrew Bird, repaying his end of the bargain for having Bridgers appear on his ‘I Felt a Funeral In My Brain’.
‘Tales From Beyond’ – Italia 90
Italia 90 have shared the new single ‘Tales From Beyond’, taken from their forthcoming debut album Living Human Treasure, set to be released on January 20th on Brace Yourself Records next year. The album is highly-anticipated following a steady stream of single releases and EPs.
If ‘Tales From Beyond’ is anything to go by, then Living Human Treasure will be an absolute stormer of a record. It’s been recorded at the Echo Zoo studio down in Eastbourne with producer Louis Milburn and was tracked in just two days, with the band spending a further three days adding layers of complex instrumentation.
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