After 35 years in the game, English synth-pop duo PetShopBoys (comprised of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe) have just released their 14th studio album, Hotspot. The album was recorded primarily at the Hansa Studios in Berlin, which is where the duo has written most of their music over the past ten years. The record is the third and final in a trilogy produced by electro-pop titan Stuart Price (The Killers). While the previous two records seemed to stay in a similar lane, Hotspot does an exceptional job at introducing a little taste of all of the different flavors that keep PetShopBoys at the top of their game after so long in the industry. Despite the longevity of their career, the PetShopBoys have lost none of their edge, and they deliver in both their trademark wit and lyricism as well as a subtly diverse bag of tricks musically.
The PetShopBoys are more than a little deserving of some recognition on their ability to deliver another interesting album after 35 years in the game, and their time here has been anything but insignificant. Listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most successful duo in UK music history, they’ve acquired a staggering 44 UK top-40 hits as well as charting 12 songs on the US Billboard Hot 100. They’re also the fifth most successful act on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart of all Time, only falling behind acts like Madonna and Janet Jackson.
The album’s lead single, “Dreamland”, a collaboration with Olly Alexander of Years and Years, showcases the PetShopBoys’ sweet spot. While on the surface the track seems like an up-tempo electro-anthem that feels almost euphoric, it also subtly takes digs at both Brexit and U.S. immigration policies without laying it on with a heavy hand. In the track, Tennant imagines an idyllic land where everyone is welcome and where “you don’t need a visa / you can come and go and still be here”. The track feels both empowered and carefree at the same time and features a larger-than life disco-inspired chorus alongside an intense longing for true freedom.
Tracks like electro funk-pop number “Monkey Business” hit a little different. “We’ve actually written, almost for the first time in our career, a groove song” said Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe in a statement about the song. The lyrics themselves are as delightedly light-hearted and playful as the party track: “Bring me margaritas / Champagne and red wine / We’re gonna have a party / Where we all cross the line / I’m looking for monkey business.” “Wedding in Berlin”, a techno-wedding march mash-up, falls in the same vein. Featuring sections of Mendelssohn’s infamous march itself, it’s for the most part a one-liner (“We’re getting married”) but at the same time feels like it was created with some reflection in mind.
In a surprise twist for a group that has suggested we entertain the idea of banning the acoustic guitar, “Burning the heather” strips back some of the electro layers in exchange for, in an insane twist, what appears to be some lovely acoustic guitar parts (courtesy of The Suede’s Bernard Butler). Folky and fresh, the track is chock-full of deep and compelling lyricism and twinkling sound effects. It’s a refreshing reminder of the diversity of the duo (even if they don’t support the legality of all instruments featured).
Hotspot is out now and the Pet ShopBoys will begin a greatest hits tour on May 28th at the O2 Arena in London. Keep up with the duo here.
Brighton, UK act CIEL released the lead single “The Shore” off their upcoming album Movement, set to be released this Spring. “The Shore” gives the first glimpse of their dreamy alt-pop world with interwoven guitars, pulsing bass-lines, and intriguing vocal harmonies.
Lead singer Michelle Hindriks describes the song as “feeling stuck in your life and waiting for it to ‘really’ begin; yet at the same time, your realize it’s just an illusion and your life has already begun and you’re living it right now”. Continuing “losing the connection with that essence can feel extremely frustrating”.
Overall, CIEL’s sound is one that feels nostalgic while also being innovative. Bringing both these things together only adds to their mystique.
Psychedelic rock outfit The Lazy Eyes have just released the lead single from their debut EP. While it’s entitled “Cheesy Love Song,” it feels like anything but.
The four-piece Sydney-based group are just 18 and 19 years old but met at a young age at their performing arts high school and have already been playing together for 4 years. The group gained national buzz after coming onto Australia’s scene at the 2019 Bigsound festival. They present themselves as part of the “the second generation of Australia’s burgeoning psych-rock scene” and they left Bigsound as one of the breakout acts of the festival.
>While admittedly cleverly named, “Cheesy Love Song” feels like anything but. Gentle piano melodies dance around Beatles-esque guitar riffs and sighing harmonies before exploding into a warmly-textured pedal and synth-filled trip. It is psychedelic rock in its tenderest and purest form, but it still harnesses unpredictability and skillful execution and leaves the listener wondering what The Lazy Eyes will do next.
The Lazy Eyes are set to perform at Laneway Festival next month and plan to announce 2020 U.S. dates soon.
After making music for over 30 years, Lancaster, Pennsylvania’s The Innocence Mission has yet another hauntingly beautiful album to offer up to the public. The band, led by married couple Kerin and Don Perris, is set to release their twelfth studio album on January 17th via Thérèse Records. The alternative folk band’s newest project is eleven tracks long and includes a rich collection of instrumentation, with guitars, piano, pump organ, accordion, electric bass, melodica, drums, timpani, upright bass, mellotron, and an old prototype strings sampler keyboard all gracing the songs in clever and achingly beautiful arrangements in addition to Kerin’s unique and aching vocals and Don’s well-placed harmonies.
The album’s introductory track, “The Brothers William Said”, is one of the standouts on the album. Soft and sweet piano combined with Kerin’s airy vocals alone carry us through the first half of the song, and her beautiful lyricism could easily be mistaken for poetry. “The kindness of your face / Does not go unrecognized / Has not refused to shine / In this most difficult time” she sings, bringing hope and understanding to a song meant to shed light on those who are often misunderstood due to their quiet nature. “I’m drawn to titles that are phrases, especially ones that seem to be a fragment from a conversation. “See you tomorrow” is the phrase that turns the song around to possibility and hopefulness.” says Karen about the song that yielded the albums title. While the track starts off sparse instrumentally, it builds to include a myriad of beautifully arranged instrumentation before dropping back off to finish the way it started with solo piano.
“St. Francis and the Future”, like many songs on the album, deals with themes of change and the passage of time. In this track Karen sings of how a painting she viewed on a family trip with her children came to represent looming changes that she wasn’t ready to face. In “John as Well”, echoey vocal layering and heavenly background vocals flirt with the lead vocal as the song builds. This track, as well as “At Lake Maureen”, gently but firmly reminds us of the importance of getting to know the true selves of those around us and the necessity of being understood ourselves. The album’s conclusion, “Would be There”,is a twinkly blend of Karen’s light-as-a-feather vocals and skillfully arranged, thickly-textured sections skillfully building to the outro, where the album goes back to basics and ends the same way it started; with a charming piano outro that subtly lets the listener know that it’s time to slip back into reality.
If there is a time of year that leaves us longing for an escape, it’s now, trapped in the midst of another endless winter. Matt Messore has delivered the very portal to another world that we’ve been craving with his new bedroom-pop project Cathedral Bells and their debut LP, Velvet Spirit.
Messore recently traded in touring to set up shop in his hometown in Central Florida to record this ethereal DIY project in his bedroom. They just dropped their new single, “Disconnected”, a hypnotic track heavy with layer after layer of ethereal vocals and bright and shimmery guitar.
This dreamy track slowly and smoothly entangles the listener into an echoey lo-fi fantasy that will be sure to make you forget all of your pesky real world troubles. I personally get the urge to lie on the floor of a cool-toned, neon-filled room and stare at a disco ball for several hours. While that may seem like an oddly specific fantasy with major Euphoria vibes, so is this track. As the title suggests, it will leave you feeling almost disconnected from the real world as you become in danger of falling into a shoegazey alternate dimension that you may or may not ever pull yourself out of. Did Messore slip something in my coffee this morning? Guess we’ll never know.
Velvet Dreams is out everywhere on March 6th. Hide your disco balls, folks, and until then, check out “Disconnected”!
British Indie-Rock quartet CircaWaves have started out 2020 by hopping on the exciting bandwagon of experimental album release with their new 2-part album Sad Happy. The group is dropping their new record A/B style, with Happy premiering in January of 2020 and the Sad dropping in March.
In anticipation of the first part of the release, CircaWaves premiered the second single from the Happy side of their album on Friday with dreamy pop single “Move to San Francisco”.The single was released with a charming self-shot video of the four piece group quite literally frolicking around the Bay Area, the west coast haven that the song’s subject toys with escaping to with his partner. Romantic California imagery of everything from palm trees to dive bars pairs smoothly with the hopeful track.
The song employs warm and optimistic images of escapism and sunshine as vocalist/guitarist Kieran Shudall sings about freedom and the uncertainty that comes with it. “Oh I wanna live like this / For another dozen years / We could live so free” Shudall repeats throughout the bridge and outro, reminding us what it’s like to feel the temptation of getting lost in an idealistic world where running away to greener pastures can save a fading relationship.
With bright and shiny lead guitar and dreamy mellotron that would make Paul McCartney proud, this gold-toned single is a strong precursor to the upcoming album and a welcome break from this dreary January.
TOUR DATES:
(Two Door Cinema Club support)
Jan 17 – Columbiahalle, Berlin, Germany
Jan 18 – Docks, Hamburg, Germany
Jan 20 – Carlswerk, Cologne, Germany
Jan 21 – Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Jan 23 – Olympia, Paris, France
Jan 24 – Den Atelier, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Jan 26 – TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht, Netherlands
Jan 27 – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium
(UK 2020 tour)
March 27 – O2 Academy, Glasgow
March 28 – Keele University SU, Keele
March 30 – The Tramshed, Cardiff
March 31 – O2 Academy, Leicester
April 2 – The Waterfront, Norwich
April 3 – O2 Academy Brixton, London
April 4 – Liverpool Uni, Mountford Hall, Liverpool
Today is incredible. We made it to Friday, it’s the second weekend of the new year. Whatever trials and tribulations we have experienced in the last few days, we made it through the week and things are looking up! So now it’s time to celebrate, and we see no better way than with the transfixing sounds of Joshua Tree-based The Adobe Collective‘s new album All The Space That There Is.
“Carousel” reels you into the tranquil sounds of the band, while “Blind” begins a bit more frantically, and carries more energy with it. It is here that we realize the album is largely going to be a love piece, with relatable twists and turns and a reliable smooth as honey soundscape, regardless of how much the tempo and instrumentals vary. “To Ourselves” further proves this point, occurring at the pace of a 60s rock track. And that guitar? It melts our souls. But then when “You’ll Never Tell” sets in, it brings with it more of an old western vibe instrumentally, confrontational and beautiful in its message.
“Warm To Me” feels like a beach in the summertime, and we’re pretty sure that was on purpose so we’ll just leave it at that. (Ok we lied. Listen to it if you want to bring that chin up a bit, truly.) “All I Know” follows with more of a quick country clip, a simple and fun song you could certainly dance to. “Sky Starts At The Ground” leads with whirring guitars, and is perhaps the song most likely to be placed in a successful romantic comedy. (So do that.)
“Shine On” is a heavy song lyrically. As positive as it can be in its chorus’ message, the verses take shots at discussing life’s pitfalls. It’s bittersweet in its existence, highly relatable, but perhaps not the song to play at a party. “Taking Time” brings your heart rate back down, well-harmonized and beautifully framing the album, prepping you for the final track “So Happy That It Hurts.” The song’s title is endlessly uplifting. The song is slow, concerted, with very little melodically spoken words, blending into the instrumentals as though all are one, largely. Fragmented in its disposition, it is the perfect way to wind down from something so tragic, beautiful, and inspiring. In that way, it gives us time to reflect on the fragments that make up the whole.
On December 13th, Irish-Canadian collective The Orange Kyte unveiled their latest offering, Carousel. Resplendent in nature, the album is a well-rounded ball of energy, bringing the band’s specific brand of psych to the masses without missing a (literal) beat. Impressive reverb, charming percussion, and a rock mentality drive this album from the start with upbeat tracks “Masquerade!”, “The Modern Dar Saints”, easing into the more moderately paced “Distractions”. The song itself feels like a mild distraction, melancholic in sound, but is just as gorgeous as its predecessors.
“C.O.P.” picks it back up, injecting a certain amount of surf rock influence into the guitar. “Little Death Balloon” also operates quickly, though you almost expect it to come in with more of a My Chemical Romance-leaning rock ballad sound. Nope, it’s very 60’s and very alluring. “Demonstration Garden” is the leisurely track to follow, a song best suited for the background of your next dinner party. “Sea of Love/Ocean of Hate” comes in frantically, a true toe-tapper if ever there was one.
If the saxophone intro in “Infinity Rope” were any indication that the gorgeous climax of an 80s rom com were about to take place, we wouldn’t be surprised. The song itself is one of our favorites on the album, so definitely take a moment to appreciate its layers. Though “Downfall” has a very heavy title, the soundscape is light, experimental almost in nature. The opening sounds very other-worldly, and constant whirring in the background makes it all feel very technical and almost futuristic as well.
“Captain Ron” keeps the party going, slowing the pace a bit in the middle of the track, so that your heart rate can revert to its normal pace in time. So much excitement in one album is a lot to handle, but is an absolute pleasure to experience.
Eyedress‘ new video for “Jealous” visually matches its audio counterpart, as it is equal parts west coast surf/skate rock and 60s-inspired psych, all culminated in a video that brings with it a very specific vintage appeal. It looks like a Nirvana throwback, 90s MTV vibes and all. As Eyedress plays guitar up and down the coast, we also witness some rad boarding skills, brah. 😉
We’re fans. Even the jackets make it feel a bit less wintry around here.
