It's been a very strong week! Artists featured this week include Chat Pile, Shame, Murgatroyd, Kelela, Jackson Mico Milas and Kim Petras.
THE BEST:
‘Tenkiller’ – Chat Pile
Creepy Oklahoma City rock band Chat Pile have only recently
released their debut album (which I loved! Check out my review here) and they’re
already back with new music. In fact, they’ve spent the last few months writing
the score for a movie – a dark low-budget drama titled Tenkiller.
This song comes off the soundtrack and it’s a typically sinister rock jam made
up of dissonant guitars and unnerving sprechgesang. There’s no anguished
screaming this time around, but things do still get pretty brutal around the
3:30 minute mark. The band have also released another song from the soundtrack
titled ‘Lake Time (Mr. Rodan)’, and it’s even more horrific (it’s a country song...).
‘Fingers of Steel’ – Shame
UK post-punk band Shame released their last album in 2021
(another album which I absolutely loved!) and they’re also releasing new music.
This new single ‘Fingers of Steel’ is set to appear on an upcoming album titled
Food For Worms, which frontman Sheen has described as ‘the
Lamborghini of Shame records’. ‘Fingers of Steel’ features the band’s signature
fidgety instrumentation paired with some passionate sprechgesang from Sheen
(yes, I’m loving the word sprechgesang this week). An accompanying music video
meanwhile features the band creating fake online accounts to hype up their
music.
‘Sundowning’ – Murgatroyd
New Zealand rock duo Murgatroyd have an excitingly noisy and
unique sound that’s somewhere between Idles and Mastodon in style. Their latest single 'Sundowning' opens with some
suspenseful guitars topped with what sounds like a woodblock (perhaps something eerier? A skull perhaps?) and some vaguely bluesy vocals, and then it builds up into an intense
chorus accompanied by some rapid-fire snare. We’re also treated to a sludgy breakdown
at the end of the track that plays out like some ominous monster trudging
through a swamp. The track comes off their new EP titled Sundowning.
‘On The Run’ – Kelela
R&B vocalist Kelela has been on a roll with these recent
singles. Her voice sounds sultry as ever on ‘On The Run’ and the production is mind-blowingly
good (those synths at the 3 minute mark give me Kaytranada vibes). A new album
is set to drop in February titled Raven – her first album since 2017.
‘Don’t You Think Of Me Once In A While’ – Jackson Mico
Milas
This is another beautiful song from London based singer Jackson
Mico Milas (check out the last single I reviewed, ‘The Bay Fire’, here). It
features more gorgeous jazzy pianos, accompanied this time by some folksy
guitars. Jackson’s vocals have a fragile faraway feel to them that’s truly captivating.
It comes off the ex-High-Highs singer’s new solo debut album Blu Terra.
THE WORST:
‘If Jesus Was A Rockstar’ - Kim Petras
There’s already a song in the charts about Jesus doing cocaine on a
night out. And now there’s this new pop song about Jesus stage diving and
getting kicked out of bars. Why are there multiple party anthems about Jesus? What
is this madness?