Category: songs

[song] David Brewis – Surface Noise

acute.pop

Having already shared singles “Start Over” and “The Last Day”, David Brewis gives us another taster of his upcoming album with the jazzy avant-folk number “Surface Noise”. It follows the all-acoustic direction of his latest songs and sounds fresh and new yet unmistakably his.

He says the following about the track: “I read Surface Noise as a kind of tour around the east end of Sunderland, feeling dejected and windswept. The Astral Weeks influence is fairly explicit on this track, albeit tempered with a denser string arrangement and all played on top of a swung 6/8 rhythm which I probably first heard on John Coltrane’s version of My Favourite Things”.

The Soft Struggles is set for release on February 24 and would be out on the new record label run by David and his brother Peter (who perform also as Field Music), Daylight Saving Records (an amazing Thy Socialite! by SLUG released last Friday was the first release on it).

David will also perform three shows in support of the record. All the dates will feature a full ten-piece band with most of the players from the record — David himself, Peter (drums), Sarah Hayes (flute/piano), Faye MacCalman (sax/clarinet), John Pope (double bass), Field Music’s regular string quartet plus Eve Cole singing. Dates as follows:

May 5 – Howard Assembly Room, Leeds
May 6 – Customs House, South Shields
June 2 – Kings Place, London

Listen to the song below and pre-order the LP.

[song] Sløtface – Nose

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Now led by the group’s figurehead Haley Shea (ex-members Lasse Lokøy and Tor-Arne Vikingstad left the band earlier to focus on new passions outside the group), Sløtface return with another smasher “Nose”.

She now describes the project as a creative collective working with different musicians, songwriters and producers to explore what Sløtface can sound like. A truly exciting and intriguing prospect for fans of the band!

The song is released alongside the announcement of the new EP Awake / Asleep, scheduled for release on February 24 through Propeller Recordings. It would also include the previously aired singles “Come Hell or Whatever”, “Beta” and “HAPPY”.

Check out the track below and get it here.

[song] E. Björklund – På min cykel

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Swedish singer-songwriter Erik Björklund (known as the leader of Delsbo Beach Club and Blodmyren) has returned to Rama Lama Records with a new solo single “På min cykel” (On my bike).

An instantly appealing and melodic indie rock number, it is the first song taken out of his upcoming collection Låtar från en svunnen tid (Songs from the past) which is set for release digitally and on a limited CD on April 14.

Speaking of it, Erik says: “På min cykel” is about “the sense of freedom you get after a bike ride. I wrote this song instantly after coming home from a long journey by bike, recording it while still sweaty and a bit dizzy.

The record is called ‘Låtar från en svunnen tid” (Songs from the past) and as the title suggests it is a collection of older material, most of them over two years old and some way older than that. They are about the process of figuring out who I am as a 25-30-year old and new in the Stockholm underground scene. It is easy to get lost and forget who you really are. The lyrics deal with the slow therapeutic processing of a life with both bright and dark moments and facing those as you grow and are becoming an “adult for real”. It is also about a journey where I lost the joy in making music and finding my way back”.

Listen below and pre-order the release here.

[song] Teleman – Good Time / Hard Time

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With their new album Good Time / Hard Time arriving on April 7 on Moshi Moshi Records, UK trio Teleman is giving us another taster of what to expect — a slice of brilliant and groovy indie pop in the form of a new self-titled single. It follows the previously released songs “Short Life” and “Easy Now I’ve Got You”.

Elaborating on the track, the band says: “It’s a retrospective look at something that you can only achieve once you’ve passed through the storm. ‘Dark clouds gathered round but I grew so tall my head came out, now trouble seems far away’. Sometimes relationships are like addictions – they are compulsive and we get tangled up in them and keep doing it even though we know they are harmful. But the chorus is actually a celebration of the experience because it’s best to remember the good times”.

Stream below and pre-order the record here.

[song] M(h)aol – Therapy

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Having teased us already with the punchy single “Asking For It”, Ireland’s five-piece M(h)aol share another stunning cut “Therapy”.

M(h)aol live in Milan’22

It is taken from the group’s upcoming and highly-anticipated album Attachment Styles, set for release on February 3, and described as a record about social connection, queerness and healing. It follows their acclaimed debut EP Gender Studies, released back in 2021.

Describing the new song, vocalist Róisín says: “I wanted to write Therapy as a light-hearted addition to the album, dealing with a very real subject matter. It came from a conversation I had with a friend who was talking about a loved one not turning up to therapy, even though they were why she was in therapy, and I was thinking about people in our lives who are the reason we go to therapy and how we can often heal in spite of them”.

Listen below and pre-order the LP here.