Category Archives: New Music #

November 5, 2011 · 7:57 pm

New Music 26

I’ve written loads and loads of new treats recently, which is great. But theres also been loads of new songs from bands you might already know released. Here’s a celebration to some of them.

Starting with the wonderful, wonderful Coldplay and ‘Charlie Brown’ from their new album ‘Mylo Xyloto’ which is brilliant in my opinion. They write so many stunning melodies and this song is no exception.

Summer Camp have now released their debut album, ‘Welcome to Condale’. It’s everything I expected, super 80′s, electro, amazing melodies, and just a wonderful collection of songs. This is the title track, ‘Welcome to Condale’ and its great.

Another brilliant new album is ‘Ceremonials’, from Florence and the Machine. ‘Lungs’ was an epic debut and I wasn’t sure whether this album was going to live up to it, but its completely exceeded my exceptions. The amount of massive tunes on this album is astonishing. So many classics. I went to her album launch last week at Hackney Empire and everyone should most certainly be getting excited about her touring again.

Rachel Sermanni is such a talent. She is realising an EP soon called ‘Black Currents’ which has been produced by Communion’s Ian Grimble. This track ‘The Fog’ is taken from it, I think its lovely.

Jamie N Commons might be one of those ‘one to watch’ sort of artists. I like what he’s doing, its really different, a bit Johnny Cash. This is his single ‘The Preacher’

Fanfarlo made one really really great album and then they went away for what seemed like ages. But their back, with a different sound. This is so much more indie/electro, but that essence of great songwriting is still there.

I pretty much fell in love with Jonny Kearney and Lucy Farrell’s mini album ‘North Farm Sessions’. So stunningly beautiful. They have just released their debut full length album and I have pretty much fallen in love all over again. This song ‘Green Leaved Trees’ is the first single to be taken from the album.

I have already featured this track, ‘The Lion’s Roar’ from First Aid Kit, but I thought this video was so good that I also had to include it. The second album is out on January 24th and I am really looking forward to hearing it!

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October 7, 2011 · 9:04 am

New Music 25

Matt Corby has released a new song called ‘Brother’. It’s quite different from his old stuff, definitely heavier, but still a real good song. He has a new EP entitled ‘Into the Flame’ out in November.

I cam across this girl on Soundcloud, she’s called Abigail Washburn and reminds me a little of Sarah Jarosz. Have a listen and download this song for free.

One band to check out is Youth Lagoon. They are making hauntingly beautiful music which is causing a stir on hype machine etc. This song is ‘Bobby’, also check out ‘Montana’.

This is really gorgeous, its from Marissa Nadler and is a cover of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Winter Lady.

Florence and the Machine releases her second album ‘Ceremonials’ at the end of this month. I can’t wait, and the snippets we’ve had from it so far show that its gonna be good. This is ‘Shake it Out’.

I found this track from Armand Margjeka on a mixtape from another blog. Their sound is really nice, especially the tones of the voices in the harmonies. The song is called ‘Alive’.

Cold Specks was one of my New Treats a while back. I’ve posted this track ‘Holland’ before, but its now been released as a single with B-side ‘Old Stepstone’.

There is a really excellent documentary on the BBC about The Troubadour and specifically Carole King and James Taylor. Go and watch it here. And listen to this song, because its perfect.

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September 20, 2011 · 11:25 am

New Music 24

The new Bombay Bicycle Club album ‘A Different Kind of Fix’ is insanely good. One of the best albums of this year so far. This is Shuffle which is the current single from the album but you really must check out the whole thing!

A brand new gorgeous Lucy Rose song is out today, you can buy it on iTunes. It’s called Scar and features Jack Steadman from Bombay Bicycle Club.

A really beautiful song from Our Feathered Embers now! The single is to be released on October 3rd on handmade, hand stamped CD’s which will be sold at gigs and hopefully online too. They have a single launch at 93 feet East on the 3rd October too.

I am really in love with this little instrumental tune from Shura + Hiatus, you can download it for free too!

Another album I am loving at the moment is the new Grouplove album. Its a wonderful mixture of super happy pop songs fresh from California. The album is called ‘Never Trust a Happy Song’ which considering that all the songs on the album are remarkably happy, is probably one of the best album titles of this year.

And another great album that came out last week, the second from Slow Club. This is my favourite song from it so far. They tour the UK pretty soon, go and see them! Brilliant live band.

I haven’t yet raved about the new Laura Marling yet, but as expected, I am in love. She has gone more Joni Mitchell which I am so glad to see. This is one of my favourite tracks from it, and also the first track, The Muse.

And finally. You should be very, very excited to hear this EP. She is wonderful.

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August 17, 2011 · 5:36 pm

New Music 23

Feist has released a new song, the first single to be taken from the first album in 4 years, entitled Metals. I was a massive fan of The Reminder, released in 2007 and I don’t think I am going to be disappointed with her forth release either. ‘Metals’ is due October 4th and she also plays a date at London Palladium on October 17th. Listen to this gem from it, ‘How Come You Never Go There’.

My last New Treat was the magnificent Shura. I am totally in love with her sound and cannot wait until the EP release. A second track has been released with this lovely video, the song is called Fortunes Fool.

Birdy continues to melt my heart with this demo version of her own song, Without a Word. She is currently recording in LA. I hope it results in an album and I hope its as stunning as this song is.

This weekend I went to the Wilderness festival in Oxfordshire, which was lovely. On the Friday night I saw Rachael Dadd for the first time in the London Folk Guild Tent. She was wonderful, exceeded my expectations. She plays a lot around London, so definitely check her out. Last Monday she released a new album called ‘Bite the Mountain’. This song is from that album, its called Tower Tower.

I am currently listening lots to the the debut album by I Break Horses, which is released on Bella Union on Monday. Its called Hearts and is a gloomy, dreamy combination of pop and electro sounds. Think Beach House on a dark dreary day. This song is taken from the album and is called ‘Winter Beats’ and you can grab it as a free download.

A new Lana Del Rey song has been released online. Its pretty chilled, and not as good as Video Games, but I still don’t feel disappointed. I can’t wait to see what she goes on to do, I think she has the potential to be massive.

Last but not least, another artist I saw at Wilderness festival, the stunning Antony and the Johnsons. Antony headlined the Sunday night of the festival and played with The Heritage Orchestra. It was such a beautiful moment, his voice is flawless and I throughly enjoyed his feminist rants in between songs. This is the first song he played, taken from the new album, its the title track from the album, called Swanlights. After he played with this song it really stuck with me, the melodies are stunning.

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August 7, 2011 · 10:04 am

New Music 22

After a short break at various festivals I am back and I’ve got lots of exciting things coming your way very shortly. I’m gonna start with a regular post of some new music I’ve been listening to. Enjoy!

While I was away the Mercury Prize nominations were announced. I don’t think the list is as strong as last year but I am really happy that Anna Calvi has been nominated with her wonderful self-titled album. It has also brought my attention to the album by King Creosote and Jon Hopkins which I am rather liking at the moment. This is Bubble from the album Diamond Mine.

BalconyTV make lots of nice music videos with great bands on balconies across the world. Back in 2008 they introduced me to Mumford and Sons and they now have a massive collection of wonderful videos. This is a new one of theirs and its Nathaniel Rateliff, and some new material from him. I love Nathaniel’s music, his voice is incredibly soothing to listen to.

Roo Panes was my New Treat long ago and he has since played a gig I have put on and is in general catching more and more attention. And rightly so, his music is stunning. He will be releasing an EP soon and I think this song will be from it, its called I’ll Move Mountains.

I mentioned Bella Spinks a while ago, she has just made a rather beautiful video for her song ‘Words’. She gigs quite a lot in London and I can’t wait to check one out.

I can’t quite remember how I came across the Amazing Broken Man, but he’s stolen my heart anyway. Simply beautiful star-gazing music.

Bella Union signing Jonathan Wilson releases his debut album ‘Gentle Spirit’ on Monday. It’s definitely worth a listen, stunning. You can hear the whole album on Soundcloud but this is the last track on the album ‘Rolling Universe’.

And in case you haven’t already heard, Laura Marling has released a new song ‘Sophia’ to be taken off her new album out on September 12th. Its going to be such a stunning set of songs, cannot wait. This is Sophia, just incase you haven’t already heard it.

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July 13, 2011 · 3:59 pm

New Treat #48: Sarah Jarosz

When you listen to the music of Sarah Jarosz, its incredible to think that the mature songwriting and incredible musicianship comes from someone who is only 20. She sounds like she has been writing music for years and years yet she’s only on her second album. Sarah is from Texas and writes country/bluegrass inspired music with a perfectly fitting voice. Her first album ‘Song Up In Her Head’ is much more of a collection of delicate pretty songs than the second album ‘Follow Me Down’ which has more instrumentation and shows more bravery in places. I think Sarah is one of those people who will be around for many years to come.

She is doing a tour of the UK in July, I highly recommend you catch her on some of these dates.

July 2011

14th- CCA Glasgow

16th- Civic Theatre, Bedford

17th- Greystones, Sheffield

18th- St. Bonaventures, Bristol

19th- Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich

20th- Bush Hall, London *Communion show*

22nd- Glee Club, Nottingham

23rd-24th- Summertyne Festival, Gateshead

Have a listen to this gorgeous cover of Radiohead’s ‘The Tourist’ from the new record.

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July 1, 2011 · 8:43 pm

New Music 21

Laura Marling has announced details of her third album ‘A Creature I Don’t Know’, it is to be released on September 12th and its sure to be fantastic. Have a watch of this for a little of what to expect. You can catch Laura at a number of festivals this summer including Cambridge Folk, Wilderness, Green Man, End of the Road and Camp Bestival. I also expect a UK tour around the release of the album.

Another band who have just announced details of a third album are Bombay Bicycle Club. After a fantastic debut with ‘I Had the Blues but I Shook them Loose’ and then a wonderfully folky follow up with ‘Flaws’ their third album looks to be somewhere between the two. This is Shuffle, which you can download from iTunes now.

And another band just announced an album, this time is the debut from Boy & Bear. I love this band and have written about them loads so am super excited that they are finally releasing an album. It’s called ‘Moonfire’ and will be released on August 5th, although this could be the Aussie release date so i’ll keep you updated if I find a UK one.

You can grab a free download of this Kyla La Grange song. It’s my favourite of hers so far. She continues to grow on me with each listen and I actually really really like this! Its called ‘I Could Be’ and its the b-side of single ‘Been Better’ out on Chess Club records on July 11th. On July 12th Kyla plays a show at the Lexington in London. She’s hotly tipped so get your tickets fast!

Lanterns on the Lake were my New Treat oh so long ago (well over a year now) when Hazel sent me some of their tunes via email. I thought they were wonderful and clearly some other people did too as they have since been signed to Bella Union and are getting lots of media attention. Their debut album ‘Gracious Tide, Take Me Home’ is out on September 19th on Bella Union. What a wonderful title. This song is ‘Almost There’ are you can get a free download of it as well as watching the wonderful video.

Lucy Rose is someone who I think is lovely. She has a new single coming out in August called ‘Middle of the Bed’ and this is the video from it. She is also playing a show at Cargo on July 5th. She seems to sell all her shows out so get tickets fast!

When I was chilling in the Crow’s Nest at Glastonbury, I was lucky to catch someone called Sweet Baboo who I had never come across before. He reminded me of a more playful Johnny Flynn. An excellent guitar player, good voice and wonderful, often quite hilarious songwriting. I think I’ll feature him as a New Treat soon, but heres a nice taster.

This is absolutely stunning Its from Birdy, who I believe is only 14 and is remanding a bit of a mystery at the moment. Despite getting request Radio 1 play and having Fearne Cotton as a fan. She is being pinned as the next Adele but I think this is nicer than Adele (although I am not a massive Adele fan anyway).

I also saw Sea of Bees play at the Crow’s Nest and loved them. I have posted about them before but feel I should put something up again, so this is Gnomes.

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June 12, 2011 · 9:12 pm

New Music 20

We are now up to 20 of these posts! It started out as a bit of a ‘music I am listening to right now’ sort of thing, and I guess thats what its still about, but its also hopefully things you might not have heard. Hope you have been enjoying this series, here’s somethings for you this week!

Florence is back! Well, a new album isn’t due till the end of summer. But this Buddy Holly video has been unleashed onto YouTube and its great, I hope this sort of thing influences the rest of the album. Its much more raw sounding, which I like.

The new Fleet Foxes album has been slowly growing on me, I am now listening to it a lot, and this is my favourite tune from it. Just delightful!

Beirut is back, i’ll be seeing him in Hyde Park with Arcade Fire on June 30th for the first time which should be really great (Mumford and Sons too!). He is releasing a new album called ‘The Rip Tide’ on August 31st, followed by Manchester and London shows as well as a headline set at End of the Road festival. What a great summer for Beirut fans! This song is called ‘East Harlem’, I like it a lot, its quite sparse and more chilled than some of the older stuff, but in a good way.

The new soundtrack from the film Submarine has been raved about a lot and rightly so. I think its better than the actual film. Its made up of original songs from Alex Turner. All the songs are lovely and chilled and I think may become quite an integral part to my summer soundtrack. This is ‘Stuck on the Puzzle’.

Oh Land was the lady to see at this years Great Escape. I went to see her but couldn’t find the venue, which is a shame, she could be big news in the future. This song is incredibly catchy. She reminds me of a mixture between Lykke Li and Ellie Goulding.

Stealing Sheep have just released a new EP called ‘I am the Rain’ its lovely, you can listen to it on Spotify if you like. I like this band a lot. Heres a little video from when they recorded the EP in Abbey Road Studios.

The Staves completely blew me away at Bushstock, really beautiful stuff. I’ve been listening to their EP a lot, its beautiful. I hope they record something else soon so I don’t have to keep repeating the same 3 songs over and over.

I am going to end with a clip from the epic performance Arcade Fire gave at Coachella this year. I have watched almost their whole set now on youtube and it just seems EPIC. So excited to see them in Hyde Park this summer and then again at Benicassim in Spain. Incredible live band! This is the wonderful ‘Mountains Beyond Mountains’ from The Suburbs.

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May 26, 2011 · 3:36 pm

New Music 19

This is Louise of Louise and the Pins playing new song Bell Jar. Simply stunning! They were wonderful at the Joe Bloggers night at Dingwalls last week, it was great to have them play. Really looking forward to what comes next from these ladies.

I missed Rachel Sermanni at the Great Escape which I was really gutted about, especially as I was informed it was stunning. This is a new song and it is wonderful as usual. I really hope she released something soon!

Nathaniel Rateliff was on Jools Holland this week, they only showed one song on the Tuesday show but I’m hoping they’ll show another on the Friday show. This is a different song, this is from the Secret Sessions and its called I Am. Check out some of the other secret sessions, they also have Marcus Foster, Emily and the Woods and Alex Winston.

As the Marcus Foster session is so great, I’ve posted that here too.

I went to see Jonny Kearney and Lucy Farrell on Monday night at The Slaughtered Lamb. I first fell in love with them when I got there EP early last year, you can see my very old and very swoony 5/5 review here. Jonny did a solo song on the night called ‘Dixons Street’. He wrote it as part as a tenancy agreement when he moved into a new house in Newcastle. Its very amusing but his songwriting talents truly shine through.

Another band I missed at The Great Escape is Dark Dark Dark. There album Wild Go is excellent, go out and buy it. The best song is Daydreaming, which I have posted before, but this is a nice acoustic version from Watch Listen Tell.

Matt Corby in a field. I don’t know what the songs called but its rather lovely in the setting.

I saw Hurray for the Riff Raff last night at The Magpie’s Nest and thought they were great. It was just a fiddle player and her singing last night but this is a bit more built up and reminds me of Dark Dark Dark.

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May 18, 2011 · 9:24 pm

New Music 18

I recon everyone is fully aware that there are a few new Bon Iver tracks doing their internet rounds which has made everyone VERY excited. Including myself. He has also announced a UK tour for later this year. I love the new stuff but it just doesn’t beat ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’. But then again, what does?

Cloud Control are my new favourite band. Incredible live! This is an acoustic version of Gold Canary. Their album comes out on May 23rd in the UK. Grrrrreat.

The new Emily and the Woods EP ‘Eye to Eye’ came through the post a few days ago and its fair to say I’ve fallen in love. I highly recommend that you go and buy it right about NOW from here. One of the songs from it is ‘Steal his Heart’ which is the super sweet video below.

Sarah Jarosz is apparently a new favourite of Mumford and Sons. She looks like Regina Spector, but her music is of a much different vain. Its very country, and also a little Americana and a little pop too. Very catchy stuff. You can grab a free download of ‘Annabelle Lee’ here. And have a listen to this gorgeous acoustic session.

I went to see the stunning Anna Calvi yesterday. She blew me away, as she usually does. An incredible guitarist, singer and performer. She is going to be around for a good while I recon. Supporting Anna was Grouplove. They were also really great. An incredible amount of energy on stage, looked like they were having A LOT of fun. They’re playing lots of festivals this summer, including Glastonbury, so definitely catch them if you can. This is Colours.

I love Mechanical Bride and both this song and video are stunning. Looking forward to hearing what the album will sound like.

And I am going to leave you with something which pretty much blew me away the first time I heard it. Charles Bradley has spent most of his life living on the streets and struggling to make a living as a musician. Now, aged 63, he is releasing his debut album. His live performances are completely on another level to other performers these days. Watch this and see.

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