"This is an unreleased song we recorded a while back that you might find interesting. Stay safe, stay observant and may God be with you" - Bob Dylan said on his YouTube channel presenting 'Murder Most Foul', a song about J.F. Kennedy's murder. Watch below.
'Persona Non Grata' is a first new Bright Eyes song in 9 years, a bagpipes waltz; Nadine Shah rejects the traditions of marriage and family and yet still longing for them on 'Trad'; Scottibrains released 'Aristorats', an energo-ambiental song devoid of genre; Highly Suspect's new song and video 'These Days' have a family dinner turned nightmare; UK post punk band Squid released a tense new song 'Sludge'; Anglo-Ugandan electro-percussion outfit Nihiloxica are back with another outstanding new track 'Tewali Sukali'; Deerhoof “wanted to express what it feels like knowing that the rebels are our only hope" on their new song 'Future Teenage Cave Artists'.
Norah Jones said she had heard Guns N' Roses' 'Patience', it made her feel good, so she covered it; John Legend in his new song 'Actions' says, more or less, he should practice what he preaches, on a trivia note, it samples 'The Edge' by David McCallum, which is the same track Dr. Dre sampled on his 2000 hit 'The Next Episode'; Eyes Without A Face is made of musicians that used to play metal and pop, together they make - goth synth, check them out on 'Cold Moon'; M.I.A. has released ‘OHMNI 202091’, her first new song in three years, on the 15th anniversary of her debut album ‘Arular’; 'Resiliencia' by El Búho and DJ Raff is South American traditional music plus electronica, a hommage to Chilean activism; 'March 13' by Ellis is a big and gentle piano song; soul band Black Pumas have turned Detroit proto-punk legends Death’s 'Politicians In My Eyes' into a smooth soul song; Danish singer-songwriter Oh Land sings about how she misses normal on her new song 'I Miss One Week Ago', Run The Jewels have released new track ‘The Yankee and The Brave’, an ear-attack.
Surprising or not, Bono made a nice song, 'Let Your Love Be Known', dedicated to the people fighting the coronavirus; Quelle Chris & Chris Keys dropped a jazzy underground rap song 'Living Happy' featuring Joseph Chilliams & Cavalier; psychedelic folk band Lord Buffalo released a dark and dramatic 'Dog Head'. Purity Ring deliver a batch of electro-pop with 'Pink Lightning'; Activity are cold, noisy and distant on 'Nude Prince'; Control Top released a dancey rock song 'One Good Day'; well, this is great in a funny way - a country and western band covered Limp Bizkit's 'Rollin''.
Duo Sama Dams (Sam and Lisa Adams) take a spot between art rock and garage rock with 'Not Gonna Lie'; instrumental project Eerie Gaits shared their tender song 'Saw You Through The Trees'; The Lickerish Quartet are just funny with their prog-glam rock song and video 'Lighthouse Spaceship'; 'X24' is a clockwork folk song by Kelora; Teyana Taylor shared a family-themed 'We Got Love', co-written by Kanye West; Lin-Manuel Miranda shared politics-themed cabaret song ‘I Have a Friend’; Brian Fallon shared a lovely Americana ballad 'Tender'; 'Lift Off' is a cool pop/free-jazz song by pop/soul artist Tom Misch and jazz drummer/producer Yussef Dayes; Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson is releasing a new solo album, and 'Personal Shopper' is a conceptual 10-minute prog epic announcing the summer LP.
Bristol singer/songwriter and Aldous Harding collaborator Fenne Lily released her first single 'Hypochondriac'; multi-disciplinary art collective Asian Dope Boys released 'Trance', an intense and erotic experimental performance piece exploring death and ritual, sonically between metal and electronic; 'Nomad' is the new single from the South Korean-Japanese family band Tengger's new album, about water's travel and their inner travel; Pizzagirl proves plenty can be done with a simple but catchy guitar line in 'Cape Canaveral'; nice groovy folk-rock in Johanna Warren's 'Part of It'; Thao & The Get Down Stay Down's 'Temple' is the first song Thao released after coming out as queer to her Vietnamese family; 'Fake Blood' is the first song by the alter-rock band Ghost Work.
A great alter-dance song 'I Was Gonna Fight Fascism' by Soccer96, a band by The Comet Is Coming members; Interpol frontman Paul Banks has formed a new band Muzz with Matt Barrick (of the Walkmen ) and Josh Kaufman (of Bonny Light Horseman) - shared a song 'Bad Feeling'; the other Walkmen member, Hamilton Leithauser has shared a song 'Isabella'; Berlin singer Sophie Hunger has a lovely new song 'Security Check'; Chromatics have shared a dark disco song 'Famous Monsters'; Courtney Marie Andrews shared a nice and pleasant song 'If I Told'; electronic producer Ital Tek got a child, moved to a barn and made a song ‘Deadhead’ about sleep deprivation; Bonnie “Prince” Billy got bouncy remixed on 'New Memory Box'; Dixie Chicks are back with 'Gaslighter', their first new song in 14 years; Jason Isbell released a great country rock single 'What've I Done to Help'; RMFTM have switched from electronics to post-punk on 'Eden In Reverse'; The Whitest Boy Alive by Kings of Convenience’s Erlend Øye released new single 'Serious', their first new music since 2009; Austra is back with an electro-pop smasher 'Anywayz'; Willie Nile vas visiting the family home when a line "a little bit of love goes a long, long way" hit him - 'A Little Bit of Love' was born; Gogo Penguin find the middle ground between post-rock, jazz and electronics on 'Atomised'; a great on-the-road song 'Late Jim's Lament' about being late by James Elkington; Osheyack has contributed original music to a new video installation by artist Shuang Li about mass-produced products as erotic objects; NY jazz group Onyx Collective got a hand (weel, actually voice) of art pop great Kelsey Lu for 'Where or When'; the title 'Come Back And Love Me<3' by the Hinds says it all; Butcher Brown's 'Tidal Wave' is about how jazz and rap came from the same soul.
Robert Plant has a new band Saving Grace, playing British folk, the latest song they did is a great cover of 'Everybody's Song' by Low, a true cover for a different song; Haim announce new album ‘Women in Music Pt. III’ with a single 'The Steps', accompanied by a great video made by Paul Thomas Anderson; RINSE goes solo - and post-punky - on his new single 'Tell Me Tell Me Tell Me'; David Berman (Purple Mountains, Silver Jews) collaborators Woods made "a gateway into dream and an escape from everyday reality" with 'Where Do You Go When You Dream'.
Quem Manda No Mic' by Angolan-Portuguese singer/rapper Pongo is an unusual ordinary song, the pop music's sweet spot; Shabazz Palaces released 'Fast Learner (ft. Purple Tape Nate)', their first new song in several years; Aalok Bala in an Andean artist who grew up in Queens but moved to LA five years ago, and it all can be heard on 'Sueño'; 'Rascal' by RMR is the strangest song this week where country meets trap, the video is even stranger; Jarvis Cocker's new band JARV IS... announced their debut album with a funky single 'House Music All Night Long'; Sex Swing delivered a sax-psych-noise song with 'Valentine's Day At The Gym'; Moaning have a simple song and a simple video - 'Make It Stop'; Etapp Kyle delivered a clockwork postcard from Ukraine with 'Nolove'; Kenny O'Brien made a lovely cover of The Waterboys' 'The Whole of the Moon'; Huntsmen have basically made a 21st century 'Planet Caravan' with 'God Will Stop Trying'.
London rapper Jelani Blackman lives the usual life, judging by the lyric "I just eat, work, and then I swerve" from his new song 'Swerve'; avantgarde Mexican musician Nnux is both experimental and enjoyable in her new video 'Piezas'; Lady Gaga unveiled her first solo single in three years, disco-pop 'Stupid Love', with a Slipknot-meets-Klingon-meets-Avatar video; Jessie Ware has shared a disco-banger 'Spotlight' with a video set in Belgrade aboard the Blue Train, the private transport of former Yugoslavian leader Tito; some good country by Steve Earle & the Dukes about one of the worst mining disasters in American history in 'Devil Put The Coal In The Ground'; Gorillaz go Afropop in 'Désolé' ("sorry") featuring Malian star Fatoumata Diawara on vocals; Lovelorn combine goth and synth-pop in 'Around You'; Azusa is comprised by members of Dillinger Escape Plan, Extol, Sea + Air, and, as if that wasn't enough, they have Testament’s Alex Skolnick on guitar solo on 'Detach'; Stephen Malkmus has shared 'Shadowbanned', a psych-folk jam featuring Kim Gordon, Sharon Van Etten, Kurt Vile, Conor Oberst in video.
"We take the ugliest parts of the world and make them beautiful" - the free-jazz/hip-hop band Irreversible Entanglements say about their new song 'Who Sent You'; Ash Koosha has released a cool new video for his meditative and intense track ‘Dive’, Perfume Genius is back with "music to both fight and make love to" with 'Describe'; R.A.P. Ferreira goes into trippy, jazzy territory in 'Leaving Hell'; Nordic dark folk band Wardruna combine modern and traditional on 'Gra'; Body Count go political again on 'Bum-Rush'; P.E. mix post-punk and electronica on 'Pink Shiver'; Welsh producer and vocalist Kelly Lee Owens samples the sounds of glacial ice melting on ‘Melt!’ to impressive effect; similarly, Field Works turns the echolocations of endangered bats into ambient on 'Ultrasonic'; singer/producer Velvet Negroni released a hard-hitting, psychedelic R&B song 'Bagette'; 'Crunch' is a noisy indie rock song by Jordana; It Only Ends Once is an interesting blend of screamo, black metal, and post-rock; Injury Reserve continue their avant-rap path with 'Hoodwinked'; Dirty Projectors described their new song 'Overlord' as "Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’ for an Amazon Prime world”; White Stones go in psychedelic prog-death metal direction on 'Drowned In Time'; XL Recordings co-founder Richard Russell released a Ghostface Killah collaboration '03:15AM/Caviar'; Elder present their concept album about the lifespan of a civilization with 'Embers'; Disclosure go to the dancefloor with 'Tondo'; 'Sandwiches' by Gordi is a usual-sounding song, but there's a special kind of wormth to it; Methyl Ethel go into sympho-indie territory with 'Majestic AF'; The Magnetic Fields don't need much explaining with a song titled 'The Day the Politicians Died'.
"There's a lot of people and entities out there who are deathly afraid of a world that is less vanilla and more chocolate" - soul singer Zeshan B told the Fader about his new song and video 'Brown Power'. He explains further on - "but no matter what, I feel that no one - no matter how hard they try - will have the power to halt this 'caramelization' of vanilla and chocolate. Whether it be interracial marriages, business partnerships, artistic collaborations, elections, sports-people are slowly starting to embrace a more brown paradigm that is more inclusive, more dynamic and more accountable to the complexities of the human race". In the Adeel Ahmed-directed video, several politicians and celebrities like Hasan Minhaj, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Hari Kondabalu make cameos.
DJ and producer Andrew Weatherall, who unexpectedly died last week, has a new 12'' released under his name - 'Unknown Plunderer' is chill and danceable, with deep bass, a cool guitar riff, and a distinct dub sound. The b-side, 'End Times Sound', is even dubbier with more guitar and echoey melodica. Two remixes and more electronic and clubby.
ol #1 Dark Blue' by London band Caroline is nice, psychedelic folk floating on a violin; 'A Thousand Words' is some arty-pop by Jay Som; Pearl Jam released an animated video for their new song 'Superblood Wolfmoon'; Neck of the Woods play progy death metal on 'Vision Loser'; instrumental trio Vasudeva play psycho/post-rock on 'Breaks'; jazz-pop singer-songwriter and violinist Joe Kye advocates for immigrant families on 'Stick on Me', a great video to go with.
In the week he turned 30, The Weeknd dropped 'After Hours', title song from his album of the same name, a slow-burning nightly record; Nnamdi released an unusual folk song 'Flowers to my Demons'; American soul/r'n'b veteran Swamp Dogg got some help from Bon Iver's Justin Vernon on 'Good, Better, Best'; Canadian dream-pop band Purity Ring shared a song 'Stardew' from their first new album in five years; Greg Dulli made a great sunny song 'A Ghost'; Pearl Jam go retro rock on 'Superblood Wolfmoon' experimentalists Horse Lords go reggaeton and make a cool video to go with 'People's Park'; Yves Tumor stays in the weird-pop lane with 'Gospel For A New Century'; underground rap legend Kool Keith released a collaboration 'Hallucinations' with duo Thetan; Sightless Pit, the new collaborative project of Lee Buford (The Body), Kristin Hayter (Lingua Ignota), and Dylan Walker (Full of Hell), have shared two new songs.
Irish singer Hilary Woods (some might remember her from the band JJ72) released 'Orange Tree', a lovely and gentle song, from her upcoming sophomore LP 'Birthmarks'. Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo releases 'Names of North End Women', his collaborative album with Spanish musician and producer Raül Refree, next week and he’s just shared 'Words Out of the Haze' producing plenty with just chimes and electronic percussion. German-Iraqi producer Boys Noize has released single 'Crush' featuring Rico Nasty. Czech electronic musician and queer activist has released 'Gossip' from her debut 'Fountain', produced using only her voice. Laura Veirs usually records songs after a process of editing and fussing, whereas with 'I Was A Fool' she grabbed her phone and "recorded this song as it wrote itself - it came out this way, completely formed and realized. I’ve released 11 albums, and this is the first song I’ve released that I recorded myself, in the moment, on my own"; it's about breakup.
Billie Eilish has shared 'No Time to Die', dark and dramatic, with orchestral arrangements by Hans Zimmer and classic Bond-style guitar by Johnny Marr. The grandiose ballad was written with her older brother Finneas. The movie hits theaters in April.
A few interesting songs (+videos) these days: Grimes shared music video for her new single ‘Delete Forever’, about the opioid crisis, the latest from her forthcoming album 'Miss Anthropocene' (out next week); New Zealand rockabilly queen Tami Neilson dropped 'Queenie Queenie', an anthem of empowerment for women; Azealia Banks dropped a bass-heavy/strings driven new song, a bilingual, English-Spanish 'Nirvana'; sister duo CocoRosie relives their roller rink memories on their new track 'Restless', from 'Put the Shine On', the band's first album in five years; Human Impact is the new band of Unsane, Swans and Cop Shoot Cop members, and they shared their new single. attitude-heavy 'Consequences' off their debut album (due 3/13 via Ipecac); Beirut-based experimental musician Sary Moussa is ambient and minimalist on his debut album 'Imbalance' (out March 6), as well as on the single 'In Praise of Shadows'; producer Tornado Wallace dropped a new video 'Midnight Mania', a psychedelic bit with 'Avatar'-like characters sexy-dancing, it's a step away from being too strange...
'Ohio' is a live favourite by King Princess; Moon Destroys have Mastodon's Troy Sanders on their psychedelic new song 'Blue Giant'; Myrkur go for strange, albeit easy-listening mix of Nordic folk and dream pop on 'Leaves od Yggdrasil'; Bay Area rapper The Jacka was killed in a 2015 shooting at 37 years old, and 'Can't Go Home' is his collaboration with Freddie Gibbs, coming out on his first posthumous album; Johanna Warren goes for simple and pretty on 'Bed of Nails'; Justin Bieber released a nice song 'Intentions' with a great message; The Strokes are back, drumless, with 'At the Door'; Poet laureate Simon Armitage launched a band LYR, mixing poetry, jazz and post-rock; Napalm Death released their first new songs in four years - an original 'Logic Ravaged by Brute Force' and a Sonic Youth cover 'White Cross'; I Break Horses go spacey psychedelia on 'I'll Be the Death of You'; Figazi people have a new band Coriky, much more laid down on 'Clean Kill'; Nigerian guitarist Mdou Moctar follows his last year's great 'Ilana' with a song 'Ibitlan', equally groovy and rich; Caroline Rose wrote 'Freak Like Me' because "I’ve always wanted to write a pretty song with the word ‘vomit’ in it"; Drain play just some straight punk-metal from California on 'Sick One'. Listening to all of these takes an hour or so, take that time, it's worth it!
Guardian made a selection of best new music coming from Australia for February. 'Carry You' closes the final episode of Tim Minchin new series 'Upright', it's sang by Missy Higgins, a lovely ballad. Cable Ties play punk rock in 'Sandcastles', and, as the G suggests - "in rock music, if you’ve got a good riff, hook or chorus then repeat, repeat, repeat". Alex the Astronaut has a fun pop-rock song in 'I Think You’re Great'. (G)oldie Archie Roach remade some of his old stuff, giving 'Tell Me Why' more joyful atmosphere. Montaigne is a Eurovision contestant with 'Don't Break Me', who is expected to make it big soon, Sia style. Hayley Mary has a powerful pop song in 'Like A Woman Should'. #1 Dads have a funny band name and a somber, piano-driven song 'Freedom Fighter'. 'On My Side' is a chamber-folk song by singer-songwriter Lenka. A funny moment: punk-rockers The Chats sing about - venereal disease in 'The Clap'. Rockers Kingswood sound best ever on 'Bittersweet'.
Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien has released 'Shangri-La', a dance rock song from his debut solo album 'Earth', coming in April, signed EOB; Cabane is a Belgium musician and photographer releasing his solo debut album 'Grande Est La Maison', with Will Oldham singing on the pretty 'Take Me Home'; Horseneck includes two former Will Haven guitarists and Chelsea Wolfe's drummer, they play sludge/post-hardcore on 'Pen15'; Jon Hopkins released a piano and violin heavy 'Scene Suspended'; Le Couleur on 'Concorde' sang an ode to the airplane; Chester Bennington 1990s band Grey Daze remade their song 'Sickness' with Helmet frontman Page Hamilton lending his guitar; Noah Reid does US-rock on 'Honesty'; folk singer Aoife O'Donovan catches attention with the first line "The water is a glaze like loneliness at ease with itself" on her new song 'Night Fishing'.
Some great songs today: Moses Sumney takes a sweet spot somewhere between soul, folk and electro on 'Conveyor', latest song from his double debut album 'græ'; Bat for Lashes plays a stripped-down cover of 'The Boys Of Summer'; free jazz meets afro-pop on 'No Mas' by Irreversible Entanglements: just a nice dream-pop song 'The Absence of Bird' by the Swedes The Radio Dept; some original gangsta rap on 'The Ruler' by Drakeo; the Voidz continue to have fun + be cool + avoid getting ridiculous on two new songs - 'Russian Coney Island' and 'All the Same'; simple and fun video for '3 Tearz' by Danny Brown and Run the Jewels; Swedish dream-pop artist I Break Horses go ethereal on 'Death Engine'; Makaya McCraven’s dreamy reimagining of Gil Scott-Heron’s 'I’m New Here'; Basia Bulat made 'Already Forgiven' based on the sound of strong wind; James Elkington plays lush orch-pop on 'Nowhere Time'; the Colombian-Canadian singer Lido Pimienta goes latin-synth pop on 'Eso qeu tu haces'; KennyHoopla is halfway between Bloc Party and A-ha in his 'how will i rest in peace if i’m buried by a highway?//' video; Spanish quartet Melenas play disco shoegaze on '3 Segundos'; Indonesian solo sympho-black metal project Pure Wrath is seeking truth and peace at 'Children of the Homeland'. Plenty of songs, dedicate an hour to listen to all of it...
Paramore's front-lady Hayley Williams has a solo debut album coming out in May, and she announced it with 'Simmer', a subtle exercise in how to draw the line between wrath and mercy; Scottish folk, Hindustani classical music and jazz make great companions on 'The North Carr' by James Yorkston, Suhail Yusuf Khan and Jon Thorne; U.S. Girls does some almost-religious rock at 'Overtime'; 'I Can’t Read 97' is an acoustic version of David Bowie's 1980s song by his short-lived hard-rock band Tin Machine; Porridge Radio reinvent the Pixies’ loud-quiet-loud trademark on 'Sweet'.
A nice punky song 'M1A1' buy the Gorillaz, featuring slowthai and Slaves, with the cartoon band members showing up in the video; Nicolas Jaar revived his Against All Logic alias and has shared a song 'Alucinao', a collaboration with FKA twigs, song is tagged as "grimeton" (probably a portmanteau of "grime" and "reggaeton); Peter Bjorn And John released a jazzy pop song 'Drama King'; old school hip-hop house is full again - Method Man and Redman feature on a Gang Starr remix of 'Bad Name'; producer Daniel Avery and Nine Inch Nails synth wizard Alessandro Cortini have announced their new collaborative album with a new song 'Illusion of Time'; Royde Da 5'9'' proves he's in fine form with 'I Don't Age'; “Murderfolk” artist Amigo the Devil has released a new Tom Jones cover 'Delilah', on banjo; underground rapper Aesop Rock is back with a new single 'Rogue Wave'.
There are: uplifting and smooth 'Show You' by CJ Fly; a powerful punk song 'Breeze' by The Men, written on a lunch break; The National collaborator Eve Owen presented her debut album with ‘So Still For You’; These New Puritans have reworked their song 'The Mirage' adding a children's chorus; Saudade - a collective including members of Deftones, Bad Brains and Cro-Mags - shared 'Lions', a synth-pop/screamo jewel; Berlin band Hope sing about anorexia on 'Shame'; Jah Wobble and Mark Stewart (of The Pop Group) teamed for 'A Very British Coup', an anti-Brexit song
“In the near future, It would be exciting to be able to rewrite ads as freely as is depicted in this music video while wearing such a device and wandering around the city” - director Daito Manabe explains the new video he made for 'Terminal Slam', the latest track from Squarepusher's new album 'Be Up a Hello'. In the video, the advertisements that inundate Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing are visually disrupted by a pair of augmented reality goggles. A good song, also.
American queer rapper Zebra Katz has released 'ISH', the latest single from his debut album 'Less is Moor', coming out in March. 'Ish' is a dark and industrial hip-hop, whereas his first single 'IN IN IN' was a dark ballroom anthem. Apart from the two, Zebra Katz also released the song 'Lousy', the moodiest of the three. The album expands on themes around sexuality. It features an array of collaborators including Shygirl, S. Ruston, Sega Bodega, Tony Quattro, and Torus.
Justin Bieber released his new single 'Get Me', featuring Kehlani; a good straight pop song. His new album will be titled 'Changes', and it comes out February 14.
On their split single King Khan and The Sadies each recount the same debaucherous, hallucinogens-enhanced night; 'Celeste' is a single from the first album brothers Brian Eno and Roger Eno made as a duo; 'Turn the Bow' by Local H is just some Pink Floyd-esque rawk; Rosalia makes plenty with just some hand-clapping, flamenco guitar and her voice in 'Juro Que'.
'Canada Flow' by the critically acclaimed rapper Amillion The Poet, featuring Canadian singer Jnè, is a heartfelt Joey Breeze production, coupled with witty lyricism by the former professional basketballer - "instead of buying Amazon we should be saving em/ instead of pouring Bahamas mamas should be praying for them".
