pop
SEE: Ellie Bleach brings the baroque to ‘He Bought Me Nikes’
LONDON singer-songwriter Ellie Bleach taps into the spirit of baroque pop on her latest and very fine self-released single, “He Bought Me Nikes”. With a voice like the finest smokey chocolate, she drapes contralto lyrics that bite over a churchy organ strain, which summons The Dixie Cups’ girl-group classic “Chapel of Love”; mellotrons, and harpsichords. …
MNRØ – I’m not running to you
Out right now is the debut single by Manchester singer-songwriter MNRØ, I’m not running to you, and it marks her out as something to watch out for in the rest of 2020 and beyond. Over bubbling electro beats, MNRØ lays down her expletive laden rejection of continually being used, and taking charge of her own …
TRACK: Arca’s ‘Mequetrefe’ is shattered-mirror futurism
XL RECORDINGS’ avant-pop futurist Arca has premiered a new track, “Mequetrefe,” ahead of forthcoming album Kick i, which XL is releasing next Friday, June 26th (with a vinyl press available from July 17th). Draped in stuttering, post-Squarepusher percussive stutter, AFXy cut-up and Arca’s disembodied vocal chanting, treated and filtered into a distant century, it’s out …
Track: Ian Skelly – Captain Caveman
Ian Skelly’s new album, Drifter’s Skyline, is set for release on July 31st. Skelly starts the countdown to his second, feature-length solo record with the release of Captain Caveman, a time-stopping, bubble-gum hit of comic book gobbledygook. Skelly says: “It came from an instrumental that Phil had figured out, so I threw some tongue-in-cheek, bubble-gum lyrics on it. It’s …
ALBUM REVIEW: Love, Death and Dancing – Jack Garratt
Jack reeks of vast genius and ecstatic potential yet proves himself the perennial champion of self-sabotage. I’d love to hear that scrapped album…
Album Review: Lady Gaga – Chromatica
Lady Gaga blasts us off to the land of Chromatica in her brand new album, released on 29th May 2020 via Streamline and Interscope Records. In this follow-up record to 2016’s country-pop hybrid Joanne, Gaga has truly returned to her dance-pop roots in a big way, not really seen since her 2008 debut The Fame. …
See: The Chills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Martin Phillipps
The Chills are one of New Zealand’s finest exports – born out of the inimitable Flying Nun Records era in the eighties and from a coterie of bands coming out of the small town of Dunedin. And like many antipodean bands that arose at that time, they shone so very brightly but burned out so …
Track: Lianne La Havas – Can’t Fight
Following on from the glorious Paper Thin we covered here on Backseat Mafia, Lianne La Havas is back with another taste of her forthcoming eponymous third album with a new track, Can’t Fight. Produced and co-written by Mura Masa, it talks of a struggling relationship. Of the track, Lianne says “You know it’s not good, …
Track: Will Joseph Cook – Driverless Cars’
Cook’s first release of 2020 comes in the form of a pop gem titled ‘Driverless Cars’, After dropping two new songs, ‘The Dragon’ and ‘Hey Brother’, last year alongside a string of intimate UK shows, including a sold out London Omeara performance. “‘Driverless Cars’ was a very dumb, literal way of trying to express a …
Track: Oh Wonder – Oceansize
Oh Wonder have thrown themselves creatively into these lockdown times, with their acclaimed ‘Home Tapes’ project. Oceansize is the fourth of the songs to be written, recorded and released under lockdown, and is , say the band, a direct reflection “on lockdown, and our consequent yearning for freedom, space and nature.” Oh Wonder are no …