Review of 'Pathology' by Trails and Ways

I’m glad Trails and Ways aren’t another depressing wannabe-Smiths indie band. I’m also depressed that it’s taken me until September to give this album a listen when it could have been fuelling my summer.

BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 4/09/2015: Macklemore, George Clanton, Battles and more...

As usual, I single out my favourite and least favourite singles from the last seven days. This week Slayer sing about getting stoned and Macklemore muses about mopeds.

THE BEST:

'It Makes The Babies Want To Cry' - George Clanton

Is this vaporwave? Chillwave? New wave? I don’t know the difference any more (I never knew). In any case, this new single from Brooklyn artist George Clanton is a hellload of fun. Shimmering synth stabs and distant vocals make for a sparkly eighties-inspired pop track complete with worn, bleary-eyed production. Let it wash over you like a wave, whatever –wave that may be.

'Cast the First Stone' - Slayer

Tuned down to drop-z, Slayer’s latest single is a ten-ton sludgy monster of a track that will rumble around your bowels. I’ve kind of got used to the metal veterans churning out identical breakneck thrashers year after year, so it’s nice to see the band trying something a little different (relatively speaking).

'Downtown' - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Eric Nelly

Lyrically it’s not as witty as ‘Thrift Shop’ – mopeds aren’t as funny as hipsters. However, the funky bassline and groovy agogo bells more than make up for this. Ryan Lewis has composed a killer beat here. I’m still warming to the flamboyant chorus, sung by guest singer Eric Nelly – its all a bit cheesy and theatrical. Still, US rapper Macklemore has definitely put together a fun pop song here, the constantly shifting instrumental keeping the listener guessing as to what will come next.

'Floored' - Priscilla Sharp

New York underground artist Priscilla Sharp provides breathy vocals over a glitchy electronic instrumental. The moments of silence are deafening and make for some serious suspense.

'FF Bada' - Battles

Also hailing from the Big Apple, experimental rock three-piece Battles tease the build-up to their new album La Di Da Di with a new characteristically-intricate instrumental, ‘FF Bada’, accompanied by some more foody artwork to drool over. Their last single ‘The Yabba’ struck me as a bit too noodly, but this new track seems to be just the right balance of complexity and cohesiveness.

THE WORST:

'Ain’t Nobody (Loves Me Better)' - Felix Jaehn ft. Jasmine Thompson

The Chaka Khan original was feelgood. This cover is depressing and Jasmine Thompson, whoever she is, sounds like she’s trying far too hard to be an Ellie Goulding clone.

Review of 'M3LL155X' by FKA Twigs

Accompanied by an artsy music video in which Twigs gives birth to rainbow ribbons in the back of a van amongst other surreal scenes straight out of Salvador Dali’s nightmares, this latest 16-minute EP sees the London-born experimental singer continuing to alienate pop fans in pursuit of her own weird and wonderful style. 

BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 26/08/2015: Boots, Deafheaven, Carly Rae Jepsen and more...

I single out the singles that made the biggest impression on me. This week Boots gets brilliantly bizarre, Deafheaven get darker and ditch the daintiness and Carly Rae Jepsen cuts the cuteness settling sadly for cookie cut crap.

THE BEST:

'Aquaria' - Boots ft. Angel Deradoorian

To a backdrop of jittery dark electronic sounds American producer/singer delivers this creepy yet alluring new song. Squelching bass and industrial clicks weave in and out of one another whilst Boots shifts from semi-rapping to groovy singing. I picture a handsome psychopath seducing his prey whilst listening to this. Cali rock singer Angel Deradoorian offers some brief female guest vocals.

'Brought to the Water' - Deafheaven

I find it very hard to feel happy when someone’s screaming at me. Deafheaven’s cheery approach to black metal on their last album Sunbather didn’t click very well with me for that reason – I need a bit of anger and gloom to accompany my shrieks and blast beats, otherwise it’s as confusing as watching Freddie Krueger in a rom com. This new track thankfully seems to be less happy and more in keeping with the evil metal spirit I’m used to. Eerie church bells kick off the track followed by a series of melancholy riffs. Admittedly, the mood turns happy half-way through the track, but contrasted against the gloomy opening it gives the band’s happier sound a new dimension.

'Juniper' - Amanda X

Philly all-female rock trio serve up this ode to unrequited love. Sour guitar melodies and an old worn production style reminiscent of The Cranberries adds to the tortured vibe of the song. Its an aesthetic that has me hyped for their upcoming EP, Hundreds and Thousands.

Listen to the track here over at Stereogum.

THE WORST:

'Watch Me' - Silento

Stop deliberately using slang that nobody understands! What the hell is a nae nae and why would I want to break my legs? I can’t dance to these instructions if I don’t understand any of them, and yes, I’m too ignorant to want to understand them.

'Your Type' - Carly Rae Jepsen

 ‘Call me Maybe’ and ‘I Really like you’ were both cute, but now the sugariness is starting wear off and Carly Rae Jepsen is starting to sound like a stale second-rate Taylor Swift.

'Flodgin' - King Louie

His squeaky vocal inflections remind me of how my voice sounded when I was going through puberty, and I’d rather forget about that awkward phase in my life, as would we all.

THE BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 12/08/2015: Roisin Murphy, Foals, Aston Merryweather and more...

Once again, I round up my favourite and least favourite singles from the last seven days. This week, the chick from Moloko gets weird and the dude from JLS gets stupid. 

THE BEST:

'Evil Eyes' - Roisin Murphy

One half of the nineties dance-pop duo Moloko, Roisin Murphy delivers this new weird and wonderful solo track. It’s a sonic journey consisting of electronic bleeps, massive chord splashes and funky guitars accompanied by slightly-occult themed lyrics about love. The music video is a bit of a trip. What’s the chicken-eating scene all about? 

'Pet U' - Curl Up

Dedicated to his pet cat, this cute EDM instrumental from New York producer Curl Up combines shimmering guitars and vibrant synth stabs. The result sounds like something out of a brightly-coloured Japanese video game. A video game, I can only assume, containing lots of cats. Clearly Curl Up is quite fond of felines – his facebook profile picture even has him cradling one.

'A Knife In The Ocean' - Foals

Oxford rock band, Foals, have exchanged the groovy funk rock sound of their last LP for a more slow and brooding sonic feel. The reverb-drenched guitars make this track sound absolutely colossal. I picture myself standing on a cliff whilst listening to this, hearing it echo at me from across the void.  

'Real  Joy' – Fono

Get your Zoolander ‘Blue steel’ face on and start vogueing. The wavy detuned fifth chords make for perfect catwalk material. I first heard this song whilst being dragged round New Look so maybe that’s why all I can think of whilst listening to this is clothes and fashion.

'Hidden' – Chagall

Amsterdam-based singer and producer Chagall crafts this gloomy and atmospheric experimental pop song. The scary flecks of industrial electronica peppered throughout had me poised on the edge of my seat, half-expecting the whole thing to plummet into some freaky dark techno breakdown. I’m a little relieved it didn’t.

THE WORST:

'Get Stupid' - Aston Merryweather

It’s impossible to hate this song because it’s so stupidly feelgood. However, Aston Merryweather sounds so stupidly similar to Bruno Mars and the instrumental sounds so stupidly similar to Blurred Lines and the title sounds so stupidly similar to 'Get Lucky' that I can’t help but get annoyed by how stupidly derivative it all is. 

Review of 'Free Weezy Album' by Lil Wayne

‘Woo this that shit you didn’t want me on’ the Louisiana rapper opens the album with to the accompaniment of a soaring choral beat followed by some genuinely tight flows. For a brief moment I was genuinely excited. Lil Wayne seemed to have upped his game, finally scrapping the bland poppy beats and actually riding these beats instead slurring over them like a drunkard.

BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 29/07/2015: Disclosure, El-P, New Order and more...

It's that time of the week where I insult your favourite band accompanied by lots of broken Soundcloud links. Adjust your speakers and belt up.

 THE BEST:

'Moving Mountains' – Disclosure ft. Brendan Reilly

The UK house duo have slowed things down with this slinky electroballad featuring sexy r&b vocals from London singer Brendan Reilly. The whole song builds up to some tasty but smooth trap flavourings towards the end. I’m now pretty psyched for these guys upcoming sophomore album, Caracal. Check out the track here whilst it’s still available for stream (skip to 1:29:00 to listen).

‘Another Body’ – El-P

Master hip hop producer El-P has recently refrained from making beats entirely out of cat noises in order to deliver this epic instrumental set to appear during the end credits of the latest Fantastic Four film. It isn’t very hip hop flavoured, but still shows off the producer’s talents, composed of cinematic trumpets, fat strings and brooding layers of electronica. Let’s hope the movie lives up to it’s soundtrack and isn’t a pile of wank like the original Fantastic Four film (yeah I said it! Isn’t ‘pile of wank’ such a weird expression?)

'Get Up Get Down' – Mick Jenkins

I guess you could call this a party tune. The hook’s punchy and the beat’s pretty wavy. However, Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins still manages to drop some socially conscious rhymes in the second half, keeping hold of his witty personality and preventing himself from turning into another Drake clone.

'Crackula' – Pizza Tramp

‘What do you get when you cross a horrible Welsh punk band with zero editing skills and footage shot on a digital camera. CRACKULA.’ That video description alone has won me over.

THE WORST:

 ‘Throne’ – Bring Me The Horizon

Once a shitty metalcore band, Bring Me The Horizon have now decided to become a shitty carbon copy of Linkin Park. Too harsh? Life is harsh. Deal with it.

‘Restless’ - New Order

What decade is this? Out of the blue, eighties electro kings New Order are back with a new single. Unfortunately, it isn’t very good. Bernard Summer’s disinterested vocals always had a dark undertone to them, but here they just simply sound disinterested. Also where are the groovy synths? With its flat guitars and strings, the whole thing might as well be a modern U2 song.