A New Wave: Choice Tunes of 2015 so far

 

"Best Of The Year So Far” lists: they’re always flying around this time of year. As inevitable as midgies or budget flights packed to bursting point with giddy sun-worshippers, and – in the opinion of some – just as irksome. Some who feel that you should keep your powder dry until December, once everything has come out; that it’s lazy, filler journalism. I have some sympathy for these points of view. However, I am compelled to bring you this playlist of the best sounds (available on Spotify) I’ve heard so far in 2015 – compiling together tracks which I’ve written about on here and ones which I should have brought to your attention but was too busy/lazy – because everything moves so fast  and so much stuff (crucially, so much good stuff) is released in a six month period that things do get played a few times then forgotten about, and others slip under the radar completely.

Press play below and you’ll hear ace music from AOIBTW faves (Tame Impala, Father John Misty, Monophonics, Cat’s Eyes), reliable old-hands (Paul Weller, Hot Chip, Laura Marling), impressive first-timers (Danny James Etc, Leon Bridges, Natalie Prass), career-best releases (Kendrick Lamar, Errors, Sufjan Stevens), independent spirits (Ela Orleans, Sacred Paws, Andy Gabbard), new projects (Bop English, Drinks, FFS), returning heroes (D’Angelo, Sleater Kinney), those building on the promise of successful debuts (Alabama Shakes, East India Youth, Django Django), and sooooo much more.

Personal highlights and tunes to keep a particular ear out for along the way? Young Guv’s “Ripe 4 Luv” is power-pop perfection, its approachability made all the more surprising and pleasing when you learn that the Guv is a fully-paid-up member of Fucked Up. 
Panda Bear’s debt to Brian Wilson has never been greater than it is on the gorgeous “Lonely Wanderer”, while The Weather Station are coming on Joni on “Way It Is, Way It Could Be”. If the idea of a modern-day Syd Barrett trapped inside the last third of mbv is a compelling one, then look no further than “March of Progress” by Viet Cong. 

Eaves’ over-earnest, Jeff Buckley-influenced LP did little for me, sadly, but “Spin” is easily one of my songs of the year: voice and acoustic guitar spun slowly into gold over five magical minutes. Pumped-up and dimed-out, both “Fatal Flaw” and, err, “Dimed Out” bode very well indeed for the imminent new Titus Andronicus album, and if Grimes has more where “REALiTi” came from then the second half of the year could well belong to her.

Binge, dabble, shuffle, and share with friends. New Favourite Songs and Artists are ripe for discovery here.

Percy Sledge: True Love Travels on a Gravel Road

My first exposure to "When A Man Loves A Woman" was Michael Bolton performing his No. 1 version of the song on Top Of The Pops in '91. Bolton, with his cascading, trapped-in-a-wind-tunnel hair and white shirt undone past the nipples, wailing every last note as if singlehandedly trying to will The X Factor into being. The TOTP crowd swaying their arms in time. My mum humming and swooning along. My balding dad watching on, simultaneously envious and bored. 

Based on this Bolton abomination and its presence on commercials and all manner of dubious love-related compilations, I wrote off “When A Man...” as phony, irredeemable schmaltz à la "I Just Called to Say I Love You" or "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You?", and dismissed Percy Sledge, the man who came up with the melody for the song and recorded the 1966 original, as some forefather of sap.

It was only years later when I read Peter Guralnick's book Sweet Soul Music where he refers to Sledge in the same terms as Elvis, Otis and Aretha and I bought the It Tears Me Up Rhino Records compilation that the penny dropped: of course he's that good, of course he is. Daaamn yooou, Bolton! 
Listen afresh to Sledge's "When A Man Loves A Woman" and one is blown away by the subtlety in the performance of both band and singer; the rises and falls in the song incredibly passionate and affecting, yet controlled, classy (and a clear "influence" on Procol Harum's monster "White Shade of Pale" released 13 months later). Of course this "holy love hymn" was the first US number one recorded at Muscle Shoals. Of course it was a UK Top 5 single on two separate occasions, twenty years apart. As Paul Gambacini said: "It never had a time. It was in a world of its own, so it was timeless".

When news of Sledge's death to liver cancer at the age of 74 was announced yesterday, he was perhaps inevitably referred to as 'Percy Sledge of "When A Man Loves A Woman" fame'. While a legacy worthy of any singer, the song was only the spring-board in terms of Sledge's career, the first in a run of wonderful soul ballads described by rock critic Dave Marsh as "emotional classics for romantics of all ages": "I'm Hanging Up My Heart For You", "Warm and Tender Love", “It Tears Me Up”, his heartbreaking, brilliantly melodramatic tale of seeing an ex-lover walk down the street with a new man ("I can't stop cryin'...I feel like I'm dyin'!").

Sledge's voice perhaps lacks the true grit of Otis Redding or the honeyed sweetness of Sam Cooke, but he knows how to bring a song home. There is a sincere, heartfelt, grown-up quality to his instrument which really resonates, especially on his interpretations of meaty soul standards like "Love Me Tender", "Drown In My Own Tears" and "Dark End of the Street". His 1969 take on "True Love Travels on a Gravel Road", a "kind of jaunty" slice of country-funk popularised by Elvis, is my personal favourite.

Track of the Day: Veronica Falls - Teenage (2013)

“Teenage” by Veronica Falls is a perfect indie-pop tune. Actually, it’s just a perfect song, full-stop. It’s a gem, a peach, a 10/10. It came on my iPod on shuffle today and I couldn’t help but listen to it five times in a row. Like Big Star’s “Thirteen” or The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Do You Believe In Magic”, it so eloquently captures and recreates the butterflies-in-the-tummy, “possibilities are endless!”-ness of love’s young dream.

There are many highlights on the second Veronica Falls album, Waiting For Something To Happen ("Buried Alive", "My Heart Beats", the title track), but "Teenage" is The One for me. The fuzzy rush of the guitars and lines like “driving late of night, I let you listen to the music you like…then I drop you home” are so evocative as to leave you feeling nostalgic for adolescent experiences you maybe never even had.

Static Future: I've Seen the Future, the Future is Static

“Is this real love?” enquires Static Future frontman Gavin Marshall on the track of the same name.

The question is as much to himself as it is to the listener or his in-song lover. A thoughtful questioning and questing runs through much of this exciting Glasgow five-piece’s work: memory (buildings which played a significant role in the childhoods of the individual band members were depicted in their first EP’s artwork), lost loves and future dreams are all favourite preoccupations.

Multi-coloured shapes assembled to form buildings assembled to form an imagined city skyline form the cover of Assembly, the band’s latest EP. Musically, here, Static Future display a similar widening of perspective – the four tracks being their most ambitious assemblages of instruments and sounds to date; both a refinement and a stretching out of the nimble, hooky alt-rock which has earned them a loyal following and well-received support spots with The Band Of Holy Joy and St Deluxe.

 
If the lyrics are often tentative and reflective, the music is sure-footed, urgent, propulsive. Layered guitar parts tickle the ear, stab the gut and quicken the heart. Marshall’s scuffed croon is front and centre, and his growing confidence as a vocalist is such that he’s now backing up himself – his BVs bringing depth and a nagging insistence to the choruses of “Is This Real Love?” and “Sunday Suns”. Extended outros – propelled by bass and drums and inspired by 12” Disco edits absorbed on greasy Glasgow dancefloors – hint at the live set’s thrilling bongo and cowbell workouts. 

This is a band who play with their heads and hearts, while never forgetting the Franz Ferdinand maxim of “make music to make girls dance”.

This is a band who crash out in front of Stop Making Sense at 4am, and dream of late-night stalks down New York streets with Pepper LaBeija. 

This is better than (Casual) Sex.

This is real love.


Static Future shall be getting their cowbell on at The Record Factory on April 10th and Bar Bloc on April 23rd. Check their bandcamp for further details.

This Week I've Been Mostly Listening To...

Ryley Walker – Primrose Green (2015)

Ryley Walker’s second album Primrose Green is set to be released at the end of March, less than 12 months after his debut, All Kinds Of You. For years beforehand, Walker had been involved in his local experimental free/noise music scene, but it’s as if this wonderful folk-rock just pours out of him. It feels effortless, unforced and – essentially – sincere.

It came as a slight surprise to me to find out that he was from Chicago, as many of his touchstones are British: the intricate finger-picking of Bert Jansch, the pastoral jazziness of John Martyn, the sympathetic piano trills of Nick Drake; Primrose Green’s sleeve seemingly nods to both Graham Nash’s Songs For Beginners and Van Morrison’s His Band and the Street Choir. Esteemed players from Chicago’s jazz and post-rock scenes provide backing on the album. Apparently, “primrose green” is a colloquial term for “a cocktail of whiskey and morning glory seeds that has a murky, dreamy, absinthian quality when imbibed, and a spirit-crushing aftereffect the morning after”. I find it wholly intoxicating.

Lower Dens – To Die In L.A. (2015)

Around the release of Lower Dens’ last album, Nootropics, lead singer Jana Hunter was referencing Kraftwerk’s Radioactivity, Fripp & Eno and Bowie’s production work for Iggy pop. These influences were detectable in electronic rock music that was admirably mean, moody and brainy, if often more interested in texture and atmosphere than tunes.

If the first single from their third full-length, Escape From Evil, is to be believed, Lower Dens have moved from the late 70s into the 80s in search of new inspiration and a different tone: “To Die In L.A.”, despite its title, is surprisingly light on its feet, with dancing synth lines and an ascending sing-along chorus (“Time will turn the tide!”). It's all-inclusive – as if they observed the commercial and critical love that greeted Future Islands’ open-hearted brand of art-pop and thought “we could do that”. It suits them.

Nev Cottee - If I Could Tell You (2015)

“If I Could Tell You”, with its mysterious extended intro, stopped me in my tracks when it came on the radio the other night. Nev Cottee has been affectionately described as the "Manc Lee Hazlewood" and there is undoubtedly something of the moustachioed master about his deep, warm voice. The backing (strummed acoustic guitar, hand drums, neighing horses, waves of massed vocals, piano and strings) and production here, however, more closely resemble that of a soft-rock re-edit such as you’d find on the ace AOR Disco blog site – with all the different elements stretched and spaced out, moving in and out of the mix. (Think also: Bill Callahan, if he ever swapped his wood cabin in the mountains for a trek through the desert with J Spaceman).

It makes sense that the 10-inch has just been released on Aficionado Recordings, who specialize in the kind of shimmering, Balearic sun-setters that waft out of tents in the early hours at Glastonbury. The lyrics, too, have a rueful, reflective, end-of-a-big-night feel about them: "Time will say nothing but 'I told you so'…we know the price that we’ll have to pay, but I want you more each and every day”.

Tropicalia – Ou Panis Et Circencis (1968)

 

Last month, I was down in Cottee's hometown of Manchester for the stag weekend of my future brother-in-law. It was an immensely enjoyable couple of days of bowling, bubble football, Phoenix Nights-style lounge acts, ludicrous waistcoats, and eating and drinking to excess. And while many of the guys were still in their beds recovering from the night before, I managed to fit in a Saturday morning scour of the record shops on Oldham Street. At the terrific Piccadilly Records, I picked up a reissue of Sleater Kinney’s Dig Me Out (an embarrassment of riches and hooks) and Tropicalia’s Ou Panis Et Circencis, a bonkers but brilliant collaborative album from 1968 with a cast-list that reads like a Who’s Who of Brazilian psychedelia: Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Tom Ze, Os Mutantes. Rolling Stone magazine in Brazil voted it No. 2 in their 100 Best Brazilian Albums of All-Time.

I bought an immaculate second-hand copy of Joan Baez’s Diamonds & Rust LP at Vinyl Revival and finally tracked down a copy of the album which pointed the way to the coked-up, world-humping supergroup that Fleetwood Mac would become: 1973’s Buckingham Nicks.

The Gospel Ayres – I Wanna Testify (1975) 

My find of the day, though, was a £3 bargain from Oxfam. The Gospel Ayres and their LP I Wanna Testify were new to me, but as soon as I saw the cover – name and title in bold coloured lettering; a mixed gender group with fantastically funky clothes and even funkier afros standing defiantly across a road (to the Promised Land?) – I knew I had to have it. Sometimes you just know a record is gonna sound great. And it does sound great: sure, certain tracks on the vinyl are pretty crackly, but, in some ways, you’d be disappointed if an old gospel record wasn't crackly - if it didn’t feel lived-in.

The Gospel Ayres' membership comprised United States Air Force personnel who were stationed at an RAF base in England in the mid-70s. Inspired by the secular success of gospel acts like the Edwin Hawkins Singers (of “Oh Happy Day” fame) and the Staple Singers, they built up a live following, performed on many TVs programmes and cut I Wanna Testify in 1975. The title track, currently the only one up on YouTube, features Sharon Hill on lead vocals and serves as a fine introduction to the album’s highly likeable gospel-soul-pop hybrid.

Monophonics – Strange Love (2015)

And now for some brand new soul… 2012’s In Your Brain by Monophonics is one of my favourite LPs of recent years. Its expert playing and production recall the soul and funk greats of the 60s and 70s, but it never feels like pastiche or like the band are going through the motions. It’s a fiery beast of a record. A diverse one, too - the James Brown-like yearning of tracks such as “Deception” rubbing up against phenomenal “I Wanna Take You Higher” highs like “All Together”.

The A-side of their new single, “Promises” shows that the ‘Phonics haven’t lost their touch – described by band members Kelly Finnigan and Ian McDonald as “a natural next step from our last record”, it “fits in the Psychedelic Soul pocket while also using elements of Reggae…kung-fu like horns, and a  shimmering 12-string acoustic guitar”. The B-side, “Strange Love”, meanwhile, feels like something new for Monophonics and might be even better – a take on the lavish Philly Soul productions of The Delfonics or The O’Jays, with a suitably melodramatic and romantic chorus: “my heart just won’t beat without your strange love”.

Sons Of Bill – Long Road To Canaan (2014)

Five-piece Sons Of Bill – hailing from Charlottesville, Virginia and including three brothers among their ranks – have been releasing records since 2006, but only very recently appeared on my radar when I noticed they had a song called “Lost In The Cosmos (Song for Chris Bell)”. Any act that makes reference to the Big Star legend and his I Am The Cosmos LP is gonna get my attention; that their latest and – by the looks of things – breakthrough album, Love And Logic, was produced by the former Uncle Tupelo and Wilco drummer Ken Coomer sealed the deal.

I’ve yet to hear the full album but “Long Road To Canaan”, featuring the dusty vocals of Leah Blevins, really moves me: a beautifully poised piece of alt-country, which resists the temptation to over-emote and over-complicate and comes up smelling of milk and honey.

Tame Impala – Expectation (2010)

New album imminent. Tickets for Barrowlands gig in September secured. “Expectation” most certainly in the air.

Picks of 2014

Albums (in alphabetical order)

Avi Buffalo – At Best Cuckold (Sub Pop)

Beck – Morning Phase (Capitol)

Blank Realm – Grassed Inn (Fire)

Morgan Delt – Morgan Delt (Trouble In Mind)

Lee Fields – Emma Jean (Truth & Soul)

Flying Lotus – You’re Dead! (Warp)

Goat – Commune (Rocket)

Honeyblood – Honeyblood (Fat Cat)

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings – Give The People What They Want (Daptone)

Damien Jurado – Brothers And Sisters Of The Eternal Son (Secretly Canadian)

Kelis – Food (Ninja Tune)

King Creosote – From Scotland With Love (Domino)

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – I'm In Your Mind Fuzz (Heavenly)

The Men – Tomorrow’s Hits (Sacred Bones)

Mutual Benefit – Love’s Crushing Diamond (Other Music)

Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire For No Witness (Jagjaguwar)

Linda Perhacs – The Soul of All Natural Things (Asthmatic Kitty)

The Phantom Band – Strange Friend (Chemikal Underground)

 PyPy – Pagan Day (Black Gladiator)

Gruff Rhys – American Interior (Turnstile)

Sinkane – Mean Love (City Slang)

The Soundcarriers – Entropicalia (Ghost Box)

St. Vincent – St. Vincent (Republic)

Timber Timbre – Hot Dreams (Full Time Hobby)

Ty Segall – Manipulator (Drag City)

Sharon Van Etten – Are You There (Jagjaguwar)

The War On Drugs – Lost In The Dream (Secretly Canadian)

Jane Weaver – The Silver Globe (Finders Keepers)

Wild Beasts – Present Tense (Domino)

Young Fathers – Dead (Big Dada)

Reissues/Compilations

Syd Barrett – Vinyl Reissues (Harvest)

The Brothers And Sisters – Dylan's Gospel (Light in The Attic)

Can – Vinyl Reissues (Spoon)

Bob Carpenter – Silent Passage (No Quarter)

Jackson C. Frank – Jackson C. Frank (Earth)

Lavender Country – Lavender Country (Paradise of Bachelors)

Life Without Buildings – Any Other City (Tugboat)

Modest Mouse – The Lonesome Crowded West (Glacial Pace)

Pissed Jeans – Shallow (Sub Pop)

Various – Country Funk II (Light in The Attic)

Various – Too Slow To Disco (How Do You Are?)

Tracks (by artists not included in Albums)

 Ryan Adams - Feels Like Fire (Pax-Am)

Amen Dunes - Lonely Richard (Sacred Bones)

BC Camplight - Just Because I Love You (Bella Union)

Blueprint Blue - Rattlesnakes (Italian Beach Babes)

BRONCHO - Class Historian (Dine Alone)

Bully - Milkman (Chicken Ranch)

Eagulls - Possessed (Partisan)

Ex Hex - Don't Wanna Lose (Merge)

Fatima - Do Better (Eglo)

Future Islands - Seasons (Waiting On You) (4AD)

Ibibio Sound Machine - Let's Dance Yak Inek Unek (Soundway)

Jungle Fire - Firewalker (Nacional)

King Tuff - Eye of the Muse (Sub Pop)

Parquet Courts - Instant Disassembly (Rough Trade)

Paws - Owls Talons Clenching My Heart (Fat Cat)

Jessica Pratt - Back, Baby (Drag City)

Pink Mountaintops - Ambulance City (Jagjaguwar)

John Southworth - Ode To The Morning Sky (Tin Angel)

Stephen Steinbrink - Now You See Everything (Melodic)

Taylor Swift - Shake It Off (Big Machine)

Todd Terje - Delorean Dynamite (Olsen)

Twerps - Consecutive Seasons (Chapter Music)

Tune-Yards - Water Fountain (4AD)

Ultimate Painting - Ultimate Painting (Trouble In Mind)

Jessie Ware - Tough Love (PMR)

Listen to the full Tracks of 2014 playlist here

Gigs

 Goat @ SWG3 (28th Sept)

The National @ Usher Hall (10th July)

Jack White @ SSE Hydro (18th Nov)

The Horrors @ ABC (26th Sept)

The War On Drugs @ ABC (8th Nov)

Sharon Van Etten @ Art School (25th Nov)

Avi Buffalo @ Broadcast (6th Oct)

British Sea Power @ Liquid Room (6th April)

Angel Olsen @ Stereo (9th June)

Static Future @ King Tuts (13th Feb)