The Big Indie Playlist: This week’s best new music
This week The National reissued the same sad song for the 59th time, this time featuring Pheobe Bridger in a bid to heap more corduroy misery on a new genre of would-be disquieted fans, and yet again, it’s great. You can’t beat those sad dads when it comes to melancholy melodies and broody toplines. But aside from that big release, there is plenty more for us to sink our teeth into for this week’s playlist.
As we sit in the fallow patch between the onslaught of festival bangers and moody winter efforts, it seems music is allowed to get experimental. Part of the beauty of the modern zeitgeist is that without a dominant trend, bands and artists have been set free to offer us up a smorgasbord of delights, and that is exactly what we’re about to indulge in.
From the growl of an old Tom Waits live cut to The Lemon Twigs’ comic and brilliant new effort, there’s plenty to fill your spring within this collection. King Krule also make a notable return, and Angel Olsen proves that the songs that didn’t make Big Time are anything but off-cuts. There were some cracking LPs released this week, and these singles promise that plenty more lie ahead.
Check out our collated list of this week’s best new music below, and find a playlist where we’ve wrapped them all up at the foot of the piece. Enjoy…
The new songs this week:
The best new folk songs:
The Tallest Man on Earth – ‘Looking For Love’: The Tallest Man Earth is one of the finest folk acts on the planet, and his latest release is the biggest step away from that area that his modest stride has ever made. With a few more experimental flourishes weaving their way into ‘Looking for Love’ there is a marked difference to his new sound, but the same old bone-shuddering sincerity still cuts through with that humanised thrill akin to the look a toddler gets when they sink their teeth into a lemon wedge. (4.5/5)
Angel Olsen – ‘Forever Means’: The fact that this was a rejected cut from Big Time proves the brilliance of that record rather than revealing that this track was left wanting. ‘Forever Means’ is a luscious drift into the ether as Olsen croons like she is simply gazing out of a rain-streeked window and you’re a happy neighbour listening through paper-thin walls. (4/5)
Jenny Lewis – ‘Psychos’: ‘Psychos’ is the sort of track that makes songwriting seem easy. It has a lovely rolling melody, pretty instrumentation, and a catchy hook, all neatly arranged on the same page. Music doesn’t have to be difficult or ground-breaking to engage us, and Jenny Lewis proves that with toe-tapping aplomb.
The best new indie songs:
The Lemon Twigs – ‘Every Day Is The Worst Day Of My Life’: It’s rare that a song genuinely makes you laugh out loud, but this track, which the band happily told me is about perseverance, certainly grabs a hearty chuckle. Juxtaposing the comically doom-laden title is a lilting riff that conjures the image of a crying clown. This is a refreshing new take on ‘The Fool On The Hill’. (4.5/5)
Gengahr – ‘In The Moment’: Gengahr are no longer newbies on the indie scene, but their blend of saccharine sounds is a combination which still provides joy. Of their dreamy new track, ‘In The Moment’, they say it “celebrates the late hours without inhibition, where dreams lead and tomorrow lingers.” Gengahr’s fourth album, Red Sun Titans, is released on June 9th. (3/5)
King Krule – ‘Seaforth’: After a three-year absence, Archy Marshall has finally returned to releasing new music under his King Krule alias. Over the last decade, Marshall has made himself an inimitable figure in British music, and ‘Seaforth’ is a heavenly way of teasing his new album, Space Heavy. The track is named after the Merseyside town he now calls home, and on the track, he tussles with his new life since beginning fatherhood. (4/5)
The National ft Phoebe Bridgers – ‘Your Mind Is Not Your Friend’: The combination of The National and Phoebe Bridgers is a dream for every sad boy and sad girl on the planet. After years of people yearning for this collaboration, it’s finally happened on ‘Your Mind Is Not Your Friend’, which is taken from The National’s upcoming album, First Two Pages Of Frankenstein. While Bridgers is only on backing vocal duties, the juxtaposition of her delivery with Matt Berninger’s doesn’t disappoint and provides the required tonic. Furthermore, they have also worked together on the as-of-yet unreleased ‘This Isn’t Helping’. (4/5)
Speedy Ortiz – ‘Scabs’: After half a decade away, Speedy Ortiz have announced their return in splendid style with their new single, ‘Scabs’. The raucous effort is their first track to feature longtime touring members Audrey Zee Whitesides on bass and Joey Doubek on drums. While they might have brought in new members, their anthemic touch is still shining bright on the new release. (3.5/5)
The Goa Express – ‘Good Luck Charm’: Burnley’s The Goa Express are a group firmly on the rise, and their shiny new single, ‘Good Luck Charm’ is further proof they are one of Britain’s most exciting emerging bands. The new release, which arrives via Communion Records, takes inspiration from the noise-rock and Britpop eras with dense, thrashing guitars and a violent rhythm section. Now, hop on board The Goa Express before it departs for superstardom. (4/5)
The best new alternative songs:
The Bug Club – ‘Out In The Streets’: Caldicot, Monmouthshire might not be known as a hotbed of emerging rock ‘n’ roll, but The Bug Club are undoubtedly one of the best alternative bands breaking through today. With wry humour proving to be their calling card, they offer up music with a humanised, hungover energy, and their latest everyday tale is another rugged gem. (4/5)
Jessie Ware – ‘Begin Again’: Jessie Ware has shared the feelgood, ‘Begin Again’, the track is the latest cut from her forthcoming album, That! Feels Good. The disco anthem is produced by frequent Arctic Monkeys collaborator James Ford, and was conceived over the lockdown period, a time when none of us could get to a dancefloor. “Frustrated yet completely focused, we set about writing in a new – and unnatural – way over the internet,” Ware said of the song in a press statement. (4/5)
Romy – ‘Enjoy Your Life’: The XX’s Romy Madley-Croft has continued her ascent as a solo star with the new single, ‘Enjoy Your Life’. In a statement, Romy revealed she sampled Beverly Glenn-Copeland, who can be heard on the chorus, after watching him perform in Stockholm. Madley Croft was touched by the line, “My mother says to me ‘enjoy your life’”, which provided a foundation for her song, and made her think about her late mother. A summer essential. (4.5/5)
The Orielles – ‘Tableau 002’: Manchester-based siblings The Orielles are an impossible band to pin down. On their new track, they are flexing their avant-garde leanings, and sound like a completely different outfit to their earlier selves. The electronic track appears on their forthcoming EP, The Goyt Method, which they say “was birthed from our interest in cybernetics, improvisation and experimental electronic music”. The EP is released on May 26th through Heavenly Recordings. (3.5/5)
Goat – ‘Seu Sangue’: The strangest band around are back, and they return from their weird realm with a stunning new effort whisked up from the ether of primordial time. Birds chirp wildly as the ominous music plays, and then their peculiar chanting begins. What does it mean? You’d be better off asking Ron Burgundy to define ‘diversity’, but, as ever with Goat, we’re enamoured by the energy of it. (4.5/5)
Dudu Tassa and Jonny Greenwood ft Rashid al-Najjar – ‘Ashufak Shay’: This week, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood has announced his debut collaborative album with the Israeli musician Dudu Tassa, and shared their lead single, ‘Ashufak Shay, featuring Lebanese singer Rashid al-Najjar. The Middle Eastern-influenced track operates in a different musical realm from anything he’s made with Radiohead, and shows the full breadth of his neverending artistry. (4/5)
Jonathan Wilson – ‘Marzipan’: Perhaps best-known for his production work with the likes of Father John Misty, Laura Marling and Dawes, Jonathan Wilson’s own music has the liberated feel of a songwriter putting music out purely for the love it. His studio skills punctuate this song with flashes of ear-grabbing creativity, but it’s the way it suddenly breaks into a choral refrain that really swings this towards a triumph. (4/5)
The best new rock and punk songs:
The Linda Lindas – ‘Too Many Things’: American teenage punk rockers The Linda Lindas have released their first new song of 2023, ‘Too Many Things’, and they continue to prove people wrong who write them off because of their age. Of the new track, the band explain how it was inspired by touring the world last year before returning to America for their studies, and the accumulation of stresses which they used as motivation to write, ‘Too Many Things’. (3/5)
Chappaqua Wrestling – ‘My Fall’: Brighton lads Chappaqua Wrestling continue their strong career start with a rugged piece of rocking assurance. Mixing pop sensibilities with grungy sounds to create a sound that it both catchy and edgy, ‘My Fall’ showcases the attitude and aptitude of the band. It’s a track set to ring out over festival grounds this summer. (3.5/5)
The best new live / remastered / unreleased songs:
Arthur Russell – ‘The Boy With the Smile’: Arthur Russell was so creative that he barely bothered to release most of his work, simply opting instead to move onto the next avant-garde area where his muse had wandered. This makes for an odd mix and constant drip-feed of releases from the late re-issue hero. The latest is a sparse experiment in synthesised sounds that proves oddly haunting. (3/5)
Bob Dylan – ‘Watching the River Flow’: Ahead of the physical release of his forthcoming concert film, Shadow Kingdom, on June 2nd via Columbia/Legacy, Bob Dylan has released a new live version of ‘Watching The River Flow’. The track was released as a standalone in 1971 and was re-imagined with a wistful flourish for the new release. (3.5/5)
Tom Waits – ‘Jitterbug Boy – Live’: Oh, what we wouldn’t give to see Tom Waits grovel away beautifully in some underground venue that stinks of stale stout. His voice is a marvel, not just in terms of its unique character but also in how controlled his genuinely excellent singing is, which comes across live seamlessly. This is a thing of strange, honeyed wonder. (4.5/5)
Blaze Foley – ‘Clay Pigeons’: This is one of the most beautiful folk songs ever written being performed with tear-jerking fragility by a late master of his dogeared trade; need we say more? Dubbed ‘The Duct Tape Messiah’, this patchworked urban cowboy’s legend is as mythical and convoluted as the serpentine path he wove through America. Here, you can hear every mile. (5/5)
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