Sunday 24 December 2023

Songs of the year, number 1: hemlocke springs ‘enknee1 (Official Lyric Video)’


If Florence + The Machine's 'Mermaids' reflects the voice of experience, Hemlocke Springs' 'enknee1' is very much the voice of innocence. Like 'Mermaids', it's a song that it's possible to take multiple feelings and meanings away from, and both are songs that get better with each listen.

The going... going... GONE! EP is my record of the year and 'enknee1' really is the sweet, dreamy heart of that EP. It's the combination of ease, charm and heartfelt emotion that makes it such a beautiful song. 

As I wrote in October when I was reviewing the EP, it would be easy to write the song off as a slice of charming childlike whimsy, but the initially disarming chorus increasingly drives the song, giving it a power beyond its initial beginnings. There's a real sense of the narrater feeling bewildered with the world, of not having got it figured out yet, and of wanting to look back to how she felt as a child. "Is there anyone? Anyone out there to love me? Anyone out there to care for?" she asks plaintively so that in the end it becomes a kind of hymn to the lonely, an anthem for the lost. 

Saturday 23 December 2023

Songs of the year, number 2: Florence + The Machine - Mermaids (Official Lyric Video)


'Mermaids' was originally intended to be finished and recorded as part of the sessions for 2022's Dance Fever album. When Florence Welch broke her foot (again...) during the first of two London O2 Arena gigs back in November 2022, she was forced to postpone the rest of the UK tour until February, during which time she managed to not only finish and record 'Mermaids' with Glass Animals' Dave Bayley, but also perform 'My Love' on Strictly Come Dancing in December, albeit sitting down and wearing a floor length dress to presumably hide her poor foot. 

From such serendipity are legends made. When 'Mermaids' was released in early 2023 it was teasingly trailed via a series of Instagram videos, including one of Welch striding about a churchyard, singing "England is only ever grey or green, the girls glitter, striding glorious and coatless in the rain" and another featuring her in the bath with a mermaid tail and fangs, singing angelically "I thought that I was hungry for love. Maybe I was just hungry for blood."

The song, when it arrived, felt like a five minute synth opera made up of distinct acts and moods, taking us from Welch's eerily high opening vocals to her reminiscences of her teenage and twenties drinking days in London (she has said that lockdown was a particularly difficult time to stay sober) to feral mermaids "Climbing the slats of Brighton pier" and turning English maidens into bloodthirsty hedonistic sirens. It ends with carnage on the dance floor. It was at once typically Florence + The Machine, but also strangely outside of anything Welch and the band have ever done before. It's a song that needs revisiting and, even then, we'll probably never entirely figure it out. Which is probably as it should be. 


Friday 22 December 2023

Songs of the year, number 3: Grace Savage | Lively Eyes | Official Music Video


Grace Savage's 'Lively Eyes' came about as a result of a request via Savage's Patreon account. It's a song that tells a true story of first love, lifelong friendship and loss, as explained in this review from Joyzine back in May. It's an incredibly touching and poignant slice of electro pop minimalism, with a soaring chorus that is very affecting. As a song it is timeless and should endure. 

Thursday 21 December 2023

Songs of the year, number 4: The Last Dinner Party - Nothing Matters


The debut single from 2023's finest up and coming band, The Last Dinner Party, is a deliciously hedonistic slice of nihilistic baroque glam and classical tinged pop. There really is nothing like this band and even the title of their incoming debut album (Prelude To Ecstasy, which will be released in February) signals a certain amount of grandiosity that they have no doubt earned. All power to them.

Wednesday 20 December 2023

Songs of the year, number 5: Noga Erez | Quiet - From the Film 'Heart of Stone’ | Official Video | Ne...


Written and recorded as part of the soundtrack to the Netflix spy thriller Heart of Stone, 'Quiet' sees Erez enter soundtrack territory, an area that her particular style of edgy electro pop doesn't seem an obvious fit for. The result is as unexpected as it is atmospheric: Think Wild West cowboy swagger meets James Bond atmospherics meets Erez's unique brand of assertive electro. It's as catchy as it is dramatic, as unyielding as it is atmospheric, as much of a headrush as it is a slice of glorious pop. 

Tuesday 19 December 2023

Songs of the year, number 6: Gazel - Unknowable


The first release for London based, British born Turkish artist Gazel since 2019's audacious (and criminally under reviewed) debut album Gazel's Book Of Souls, 'Unknowable' marks a tentative return for an artist who should have been capitalising on the artistry of her debut as 2020 began but who was, instead, stuck at home like the rest of us.

Gazel Algan played all the instruments, did all the vocals, designed the artwork and produced 'Unknowable' and the result is a worthy successor to Book Of Souls. It is brooding and magnificent, atmospheric and all encompassing, epic and majestic. It is to be hoped that there will be more releases soon.

Monday 18 December 2023

Songs of the year, number 7: Megan Black - Just For Fun


It was Ashley Stein who introduced me to the work of Megan Black. Black, along with Niamh Sunshine, was scheduled to perform at Edinburgh's Women In Music: It's Brutal Out Here event back in April, and Ashley spoke of her when I interviewed her and fellow organiser Gillian Morrison. "She's kind of what I imagine Janis Joplin would have been like to talk to, as a person?" she said, adding that Black was "an incredible artist."

I checked out Megan Black after I'd spoken to Ashley and Gillian, and found that Ashley had not in any way been exaggerating: Black is, indeed, up there with Joplin.

Initially a stand alone single released in November 2022, 'Just For Fun' was re-released in September as part of the flawless Full Circle (Part 1) EP.  It sits well alongside the other tracks on the EP, particularly assertive attention grabbing opening track 'MOTHER. SISTER. LOVER' and the magnificently titled 'Fuck You (You Stole My Youth)'. 'Just For Fun' starts as it means to go on with an impressive opening vocal and insistent guitars. It packs a lot of sound and fury, not to mention impressive vocal and guitar work, into just under three minutes and at the end you'll want to play it again. And again. And again.