haha I was about to post just about this after reading the first paragraph!
My wife is a proper Southerner (Brighton) and I am a Midlander(!) from Kidderminster area. And she always calls me a Northerner because she knows I get defensive and declare her accusations are traitorous!
I hope they watched this before making Respect (but I sincerely doubt it): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3q3LEaK7_U
Also, she sounds far too much like Jennifer Hudson in that promo. Which is fine. But it's kind of TOO distinctly Jennifer Hudson, if you know what I mean.
Pig Feet is astonishing and deserves to be heard as wide and far as possible. The saxophone just taking off to highlight the rising anger and vitriol of the lyrics - it just absolutely slaps in every way.
Seen these guys a few times over the last couple of years and they always put on a wicked live show. Absolutely in love with this new track too and cannot wait for the album.
Agreed - love this line!
I also love this from Ramesses II:
'I’m like Nina in the jungle with diamonds, I'm a Black Panther knife to the neck of King Leopold', especially after reading about that evil twonk recently.
I really want to take this song in particular and teach it as a 'poem' to my English class whenever schools open up again...
No Particular Order:
Disq - Collector
HeadieOne x Fred Again - GANG
Jennah Barry - Holiday
Bonny Light Horseman - s/t
Deeper - Auto Pain
QuelleChris & ChrisKeysBeats - Innocent Country 2
Thundercat - It Is What It Is
Moses Boyd - Dark Matter
Mush - 3D Routine
Soccer Mommy - colour theory
Porridge Radio - Every Bad ....
Laura Marling - Song for Our Daughter
RAP Ferreira - Purple Moonlight Pages
Perfume Genius - Set My Heart...
Sister Species - Light Exchanges
Absolutely love all three involved in this thing! Jay Som was one of the artists I missed due to Covid so hearing more of her is always great. No Rome also rented out my old flat in London after I left so that's nice!
Nostalgia flashback time for me!
I bought this album from a short-lived record store in my hometown of Kidderminster (a small town in the middle of the UK that has no real musical heritage except for a few odd famous people who live 'nearby' such as Robert Plant). It was in a bargain bin of CDs for a fiver or less. I was introduced to a lot of stuff in that bargain bin through random purchases as a 14/15 year old whose parents view of music was firmly stuck in the 60s and 70s (albeit very good soul music), including Rilo Kiley, Daft Punk, Flaming Lips, Spinto Band, PJ Harvey and Nas.
I bought a lot just because of the cover and this was one of them. It was a strange, slow appreciation that grew as I listened to it. I used to listen to a lot of albums whilst gaming on my original XBOX system, with a lot of albums being stuck to games in my mind. This one vividly reminds me of Lord of the Rings:Two Towers & Tiger Woods PGA 2003 (these two games say a lot about 14 year old me).
It was full of these little strange stories that grew within me and it was one of the first albums where I began to cherish the stories within the lyrics as much as the music.
Also I was meant to see both of these artists during this lockdown period so this is absurdly annoying to hear this brilliance and not be able to see EITHER of them live as planned...
WELP this is something different. I THINK I like it a lot but I just feel like I'm waiting for something different to happen late in the song (when thinking of their previous stuff).
I still THINK I really like it...
This one came out earlier and is ridiculously aggro - https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/the-1975-notes-on-a-conditional-form-review-matt-healy-album-stream-a9523426.html
I'm digging this album (even though I want to listen to it outside a bar with a drink and mates) BUT I have to pedantically refute your claim it's the first quarantine album. White Denim released 'World As A Waiting Room' last month, which they wrote & recorded in March and April during lockdown. And 'Queen of the Quarantine' slaps.
Was meant to see Jay Som (in Brighton, UK) next week but she's cancelled the European tour with all this. It was already postponed from a few months ago and I feel like God just doesn't want me to see her live....
I live in Brighton and work at a school here. A couple of years ago, one of the office team who I talked about with music kept bugging me about a band that one of her old housemates was in. She kept telling me to check them out and come see them. I was lazy and rubbish so didn't do either. Of course they were Porridge Radio.
Then, all of a sudden, they were all over BBC6 Music and I freaking fell in love with them. The next two Brighton shows were sold out instantly and I had to go all the way to Wales to see them (well, I saw them at a festival in wales as part of a wider viewing spectrum, but still).
Can't wait for this.
Is no-one else a little creeped out by the Dog playlist advert? That man slow-dancing with his dog seems WAY TOO INTO IT. Strange support of a community Spotify....
Some stuff I very much loved this year such as Billy Woods, Rico Nasty & Freddie Gibbbs/Madlib but a lot I haven't got around to hearing!
Also, there's not much love for the British scene!
My favourites this year have been:
Dave - Psychodrama
Little Simz - GREY Area
Mostack - Stacko
YBN Cordae - The Lost Boy
Earthgang - Mirrorland
JPEGMAFIA - All My Heroes Are Cornballs (if this even counts as rap?)
Earl Sweatshirt - FEET OF CLAY
Wretch 32 - Upon Reflection
Agreed. It's almost 2020 and I can only listen to this song in one goddamn place?!
Do these artists not know that I jam to Spotify playlists I carefully construct in my car?
So much good stuff here that I can listen to in order to creep myself out this week!
I'd throw in as an honourable mention the work of Cristobal Tapia De Veer. He did the soundtrack to the sublime Utopia tv show, as well as The Girl with all the Gifts. His work is strangely beautiful and haunting in an unsettling way.
“God is using me — as humbly as I can put it — He’s using me to show off. Last year, I made $115 million and still ended up $35 million in debt. This year, I looked up, and I just got $68 million returned to me on my tax returns!”
Oh it's a good thing God is doing this instead of helping all them kids with cancer and their families. Or all the refugees of war or genocide. Or all of the people being discriminated against for their religion or sexuality or gender all over the world.
SERIOUSLY?!
Agree with a lot of points here. I actually really like the gospel sound and was quite excited by the opening track but then Kanye did some rap and made it all mediocre. Most irritating was his boasts and complaints. That line about his family starving made me literally laugh out loud. It's the sort of thinking that right wing rich plonkers use to hold onto their wealth, push away tax and forget the fact that people actually DO STARVE and ARE STARVING. It made me laugh and then made me sad that a person could go from being a voice of the little guy to a voice of the guys on top.
I literally had free tickets to see Dumb tonight but I'm FULL of cold and have a giant pile of marking to do from damn kids doing tests, so I had to pass! GODDAMNIT!
Nothing to do with this cover but the new building I work in has steps between each floor that means, as I run down them at a certain pace, it creates that 'In the Air Tonight' drum break pretty much perfectly.
I've seen them live twice this year and loved both times. Saw them at the start of the year in a tiny, canal-side bar at festival in East London as a music-biz friend of mine had to check them out for work. I loved it so much I got tickets for their tour and saw them in Brighton a month or so ago in a small pub and it was PACKED and boiling hot (with barely any ventilation) but they were awesome. Keep telling everyone I see to check them out live.
Also, if you like these guys, check out Lewsberg. Similar vibe but a little more post-punk and rhythmic (with a Dutch twang) with the vocals.
https://lewsberg.bandcamp.com/album/lewsberg
Robbie was SUCH A STAR here in Britain. When I was at school in the late 90s/early 00s, all the girls fancied him for a while and a lot of the boys wanted to adopt his swagger and style.
I remember when I was about 11/12, we did a Popstars (UK talent competition of the time) singing competition across the whole school and i'd guess that around 80% of the boys who entered sang Rock DJ. And when I say sang, they mostly 'rapped' the 'rap' bit.
For the record, I sang Jackson 5's 'I Want You Back' and made it to the final 'band' that was put together for the school. We did a few pop covers of bands like Hearsay (look them up and then forget about them), S Club 7, Robbie etc for school shows and assemblies. It was awkward as fuck but I loved it at the time.
This was one of my favourite songs when I was like 13 or 14; I had it on CD single (CD SINGLE!) and played it to death.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqwaHUVN65s
Really excited for the EP. I saw them in London not long ago and they were great live - very entrancing. I've got tickets for them in Brighton too and may catch them at Green Man if I have the time. Also, the singer has a shy-Chelsea Peretti vibe going and that is kind of awesome.
How come nobody else is outraged at Scott's comment that Elton John never wrote a great song after getting sober. Did he not see The Lion King and hear the Circle of Life?! Also a big shout out to 'I Want Love' and 'This Train Don't Stop Here Anymore'....
Can't wait for this guy to go away and just be happy with all his money without shouting absolute shite over half-decent jams. Also, I always love to watch him absolutely lose his bravado & fail at seeming philosophical on Hot Ones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HYEC_FlgAg
As a British kid who grew up in the 90s, I can honestly say I had no idea of Peter Frampton as a concept until I was a teenager. And even then, he was just a joke in Wayne's World. I've come to listen to a lot of 70s rock in the last few years (after a sudden & ongoing love affair with Todd Rundgren). Frampton was one who I've only just begun to delve into and I can see the enjoyment that so many must have had with his riffs and tone. Plus, I love Stevie Wonder as well, so I LOVE a good talkbox...
I'm not really all that familiar with the Streisand version but I know the Gladys Knight take inside and out, with every laugh, breath and drumbeat.
I used to sit and read/colour/draw at the kitchen table whilst my mom cooked/cleaned/chilled out growing up as the front room was Dad watching sports (which I generally avoided) and upstairs was my little brother being, well, a little brother. So, she'd put on her favourite records and this mainly consisted of a rotation of Diana Ross, Gladys Knight and Mary J Blige. 'The Way We Were' was a favourite and I must have heard that version a thousand times between the ages of 6 and 10.
It's a definite 10 for me.
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