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.
No Album of the Week this week. You know why? Because there weren’t any good albums this week. Boom! Suck it, everyone who released an album! Actually, there were a few halfway decent LPs, including new releases from Built to Spill, Santigold, and The Afghan Whigs. But for the most part, all is quiet on the album front.
That’ll definitely pick up next week. Not to spoil anything, but if I have my way, The Beths’ wonderfully catchy new LP Expert In a Dying Field will take AOTW honours. There will be some contenders for the title: Whitney’s Spark, The Mars Volta’s first new album in a decade, and the debut from Stranger Things star Joe Keery’s new band Djo. That’s not even counting new releases from the likes of Death Cab for Cutie, Rina Sawayama, Suede, and Marcus Mumford.
This week, a few new singles plus a couple of covers have filtered into The Far Out Playlist to make up a nice eclectic mix of music. 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, September 4th – September 10th:
Pixies – ‘Dregs of the Wine’
Pixies have released their hypnotic new single, ‘Dregs of the Wine’. The new track is the latest snippet to be released from their forthcoming album, Doggerel, which is set to be released on September 30th through BMG. Pixies’ new album is their first release since 2019 when they released Beneath the Eyrie.
Interestingly, it’s the first Pixies track to be co-written by Joey Santiago and sees Black Francis share the songwriting with his bandmate. In ‘Dregs of the Wine’, Black is reminiscing about the halcyon days of the past rather than fretting about what lies ahead, and it makes for a smouldering listen.
Björk – ‘Atopos’
Every time it seems as though the outside world is finally catching up with Björk, the Queen herself returns to remind us that nobody on earth actually sounds like Björk except Björk. The legendary Icelandic singer-songwriter once again proves this notion in the trippy first preview of her upcoming tenth studio album Fossora, the wonky and wonderful new song ‘Atopos’.
‘Atopos’ isn’t unpleasant to listen to, it’s just challenging in a way that a lot of Björk’s best work is challenging. If you’ve become bored with the traditional verse-chorus structure of most popular music, Björk has always been waiting to bring you into a completely different world. ‘Atopos’ is just the latest signpost in that ever-expanding world of Björk, and it’s a damn fine piece of work that continues to build her ongoing legend.
Ozzy Osbourne – ‘Nothing Feels Right’ (ft. Zakk Wylde)
There’s quite a bit happening in the world of Ozzy Osbourne right now. He’s leaving America, returning to his home country of England, and documenting it all in a new reality series. Ozzy also has a new album on the horizon, Patient Number 9, which will be his 13th solo studio album. The LP is chocked full of special guests, and today we’re getting a new preview of the album with longtime lead guitarist Zakk Wylde on the song ‘Nothing Feels Right’.
A little bit of polish doesn’t hold ‘Nothing Feels Right’ back from taking off into the land of majestic heavy metal. Instead of pummeling darkness, ‘Nothing Feels Right’ is more of a power ballad, taking off into the air as Osbourne commits to tales of sorrow and paranoia. Wylde unleashes a sterling guitar solo towards the tail end of the track, one that both stays true to his own style and brings in the classic influence of his forefathers like Randy Rhodes and Steve Vai.
Dry Cleaning – ‘Gary Ashby’
Dry Cleaning are now three singles deep in the promotional cycle for their sophomore album, Stumpwork. We’ve already heard and loved ‘Don’t Press Me’ and ‘Anna Calls From the Arctic’, and now we’re getting a third single to cherish before the album’s release at the end of October, ‘Gary Ashby’.
‘Gary Ashby’ continues Dry Cleaning’s embrace of more melodic elements of their music. The stylistic shift away from hard-edged post-punk and towards more dreamy alternative rock is looking more and more permanent as we continue to get new singles from the band. Not that it has to be true of all the band’s material: we’ll just have to see what Stumpwork has working for it when it comes out.
Brian Eno – ‘We Let It In’
Brian Eno has released his new ambient single, ‘We Let It In’. The soothing new track is a family affair as it features Eno’s daughter Darla on vocals, a move which complements her father’s deep delivery. Eno also makes a political statement in the visuals for ‘We Let It In’, which is a lyric video featuring the Ukrainian flag that shows his solidarity amid the conflict with Russia.
‘We Let It In’ is the latest snippet to be released from Eno’s forthcoming album, FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE, which arrives on October 14th through UMC. Interestingly, it’s the first album Eno has provided vocals for since 2005’s Another Day On Earth, and his voice has considerably changed in that time.
Dehd – ‘Sex and Candy’ (Marcy Playground cover)
Dehd are one of the most exciting young indie rock bands in America right now. With elements of old-school slacker rock like Pavement and hardcore DNA shred with bands like Turnstile, the Chicago trio can do everything from haunting ballads to frenetic surf rock without sounding ridiculous. But sometimes, you have to push the boundaries of ridiculousness to see where the line truly is.
That’s seemingly how the band got caught up performing a rendition of Marcy Playground’s post-grunge quasi-classic ‘Sex and Candy’ when they visited the studio of SiriusXMU. Emily Kempf’s beyond-low bray is uniquely suited for imitating the mumbled drawl of Marcy Playground lead singer John Wozniak, and Dehd step up with a mostly-faithful rendition of the track, give or take a few lyrical flip-flops.
Wet Leg – ‘Bad Habit’ (Steve Lacy cover)
Who better to pay tribute to Steve Lacy’s tongue-biting hit ‘Bad Habit’ than English indie rock duo Wet Leg? When the pair visited the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge earlier this week, they decided to bust out their own version of ‘Bad Habit’. Stripping the song of its slinky groove, the band decided to soup up the song as an anxious ball of energy, jacking up the tempo and leaning hard into Lacy’s lyrics of uncertainty.
Covers really are the most flattering gift that artists can give each other. Wet Leg themselves were gifted with one when tourmate Harry Styles took on their killer second single, ‘Wet Dream’. Now Wet Leg are in a power position to pay tribute to another up-and-coming artist. And so the cycle renews itself, over and over, amen.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – ‘Ice V’
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have dropped their newest single. ‘Ice V’ begins with the chaotic sound of a tape rewinding before launching into a repetitive riff and bouncing drums as Mackenzie repeats (in usual Gizz fashion) the words of the title track. His singing style also seems to bear the influence of hip-hop, which the band experimented with on their 20th album Omnium Gatherum.
Some krautrock-inspired riffs begin to dominate, calling back to the likes of CAN before Mackenzie’s flute can also be heard, directly reminiscent of the flute sounds heard on Murder of the Universe. A largely instrumental section takes over, incorporating funk sounds to the point that this section wouldn’t sound out of place, soundtracking a 1970s buddy cop movie or blaxploitation film.
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