July’s listening mood moved between the immediate new releases, the returning artists and the freshly remembered – new music alive with possibility and older songs returning to warm my heart.
There were records about escape, devotion and the strange afterlife of love; songs that sought refuge in distortion, ritual, movement and fantasy. From the subterranean romanticism of Boy Harsher and the spectral folk of Radie Peat, to Haruomi Hosono’s playful transmission from another world, these are the tracks that accompanied me through the month.
Mermaid by Sade
Rediscovered playing a game in the car, Sade is not known for instrumentals but this contains the elegance and magic of the creatures in their most elemental form.
The Price of Houses by Olana
Deeply relatable to anyone feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis, this is humorous and almost evocative thematically (although not sonically) of Talking Heads. I swear, I’ll never leave the house.
Testosterone in Blue by Alex Cameron
Taken from AlCam’s much anticipated new album Late to Set, the song moves through alpha male mythology in the way only he can. It’s a rhapsody in any colour, rev it up like a Chevrolet.
Girl, Intentions by Freak Slug
Inspired in part by Girl, Interrupted, Freak Slug’s Girl, Intentions begins in psychic disorder and fights its way towards self-possession. The vocal moves across scuffed guitars with an insouciance that never quite conceals the turmoil beneath.
locket by she’s green
Minneapolis five-piece she’s green make shoegaze that resists disappearing entirely into the fog and haze of one too many guitar pedals and too much vocal ‘verb, a pitfall of so many bands of the genre. Taken from their new EP swallowtail, there is sweetness here, but also the uneasy feeling of something held a little too tightly.
Jeans by Boy Harsher
Boy Harsher call Jeans their country song, although its open road remains lit by their trademark cold synthesisers rather than outlaw headlights and pedal steel guitar.
Love & Communication by Cat Power
From The Greatest, one of the greatest, by one of the greatest.
The Dark Side of Town by Grant McLennan
I was recently reminded of this song and the solo record, being more familiar with The Go-Between's back catalogue rather than band members' solo works. More than three decades later, it remains a perfect example of McLennan’s gift for giving emotional clarity and intensity to life’s dimly lit corners, a true bastion of great Australian songwriting.
Note of Mothership by Haruomi Hosono
Released on his 79th birthday, Note of Mothership introduces Yours Sincerely, Haruomi Hosono’s first new album in seven years. The Yellow Magic Orchestra co-founder treats age not as a retreat but as another excuse to assemble electronic detail, elastic rhythm and extraterrestrial mischief.
We Will Not Be Lovers by Theo Bleak
A beautiful cover of one of my favourite songs by The Waterboys that I highly recommend crying to, many times if you wish.
The Rebel Outlaw by ESCAPE-ISM
ESCAPE-ISM are the “found-sound-dream-drama” of Ian F. Svenonius and Sandi Denton who have been touring out here lately with Kirin J. Callinan. A truly cool duo and if you can see them play, you should, if not for the music, for the colour coordinated tailoring and electric presence.
Brickhouse by Angel Eyes
Manchester newcomers BRICKHOUSE make an unruly entrance with their debut single, gritty noise-pop and grunge textures you’d expect from a Northern band emerging from a cold landscape.
Right Now by Basia Bulat
Revisiting Right Now in its Bouquet Version, Basia Bulat pares the song back to reveal the resolve at its centre. Her voice has always possessed both brightness and grain, capable of sounding triumphant and wounded within the same phrase.
Still I Love Him by Radie Peat
For her first solo release outside Lankum and ØXN, Radie Peat turns to a traditional song discovered in the Irish Traditional Music Archives. Still I Love Him is as painful as it is beautiful as it explores intense loyalty.
Solitude by Fraternal Twin
Returning after almost a decade, Fraternal Twin sound less restored than beautifully weathered. Solitude, the first single from forthcoming album Halo Fell Forever, occupies the border between chaos and peace.
Headfirst by Nina Winder-Lind
Best known as a member of Brighton folk-punk collective The New Eves, Nina Winder-Lind approaches Headfirst as a declaration of existence. Winder-Lind has called it “an animal song”, and that instinctive quality is its strength.
I Wish (featuring The Maes) by Julia Jacklin
Julia Jacklin writes to her younger self on I Wish”, the closing track from forthcoming album The Gem. Joined by Elsie and Maggie Rigby of The Maes, she arranges the song as a delicate three-part lullaby.
Take Me to Sunrise by After
Take Me to Sunrise captures the hour when a night out becomes something less definable: euphoria beginning to soften, exhaustion turning strangely romantic.
Sounds We Cannot Hear by Protomartyr
Protomartyr return with Sounds We Cannot Hear, the first glimpse of their forthcoming album Hotel Usona. Produced by Dave Fridmann, the track builds from Joe Casey’s mordant observations into a vast group crescendo, as if some buried frequency has finally become audible. Hard, heavy and here for it.
Ghost of Love by David Lynch
Given that I have been watching, in instalments, David Lynch’s INLAND EMPIRE, Ghost of Love has been on the stereo as well as the projector. Is it weird to miss someone you never had the pleasure of meeting?
Listen to the full playlist with more winter warmers from Yoko Ono, DMA’s, Jack Frost and Doublespeak.
