It's mostly rock this week with a dark electropop song thrown in there too. Artists featured include Black Country New Road, Luna Honey, Alvinos Zavlis, Doctor Payne and Krooked Tongue.
THE BEST:
‘Chaos Space Marine’ - Black Country, New Road
Chaos space marine? Warhammer fans, I see. I collected Warhammer
figurines for like a week when I was 10 years old. I’m sure you’d like to hear
many more fascinating stories from my youth, but for now let’s talk about this new
BCNR single. The zany 7-piece rock band only just dropped their debut album earlier
this year and they’re already throwing new material at us. Isaac Wood’s vocals
don’t sound quite as unhinged here and the instrumentation isn’t quite as dissonant,
but they’re still sporting a pretty unusual sound here. The violins and pianos are a lot more prominent. The vocals even get a bit
Bowie-esque.
‘Intervention’ – Luna Honey
Halloween is around the corner, so let’s bring on the creepy
songs. This track is the work of experimental rock band Luna Honey. It comprises
of wailing guitars, eerie strings, a moody driving bass riff, witchy vocals and
effects-slathered drums. The result is
enjoyably nightmarish post-punk track. It comes off the band’s new album Ballast,
which features an array of unconventional instruments including ‘pitch-shifted
harmonica, Marxophone, prepared piano, scrapyard finds, and unloved vintage
drum machines’.
‘Darkness’ – Alvinos Zavlis
‘Darkness’, as the title suggest, is another dark and creepy
song. ‘I used to sleep on my own and not feel alone’ sings the UK-based
Cyprus-born singer/producer over a soundscape of gloomy synths. Distorted
muffled vocals add to the unsettling atmosphere and I love the clickety snare
sound and weird loopy bass.
‘Guilt’ – Doctor Payne
This carnivalesque rock track is the work of alt rock outfit
Doctor Payne (formed by Brighton singer/producer Marlon Payne). It features a
unique mix of fuzzy distorted guitars and cascading theatrical pianos. Despite packing
in lots of twists and turns, it still makes room for a killer catchy chorus.
‘Swarm’ – Krooked Tongue
‘Fuck you til your brain hurts, while they drink
champagne’. Lovely imagery! This Bristol-based band certainly aren’t
subtle. On top of delivering some amusingly vivid lyrics, they also lay down
some deliciously thicc distorted guitars. Vocalist Oli Rainsford meanwhile has
a fantastic voice. The brief falsettos during the hook really add to the
infectiousness.
THE WORST:
‘Boyz’ – Jesy Nelson ft. Nicki Minaj
The ex-Little-Mix-member's latest single is surprisingly un-catchy, plus I feel like there
are way too many pop songs about wanting to get with ‘bad boys’. Stop glorifying
toxic men. I won’t even get into the blackfishing controversy. Just an
all-round problematic song.