Bridges – ‘Ghouls‘
A new signing to our friends over at Rose Coloured Records (order the EP here), Bridges combine the experimental nature of Manchester Orchestra with soaring Snow Patrol-style choruses. Ghouls is a toe-tapping anthem with visceral lyrics (‘My crack-weathered skin’; ‘My knuckles bleached white’) and atmospherics that can’t fail to leave an impression.
Tin Foil Astronaut – ‘Too Slow‘
Kent-based four-piece Tin Foil Astronaut are already a favorite with BBC Introducing and have shared stages with bands including Mini Mansions and Broken Hands. ‘Too Slow’ finds them veering into new territory with its combination of spaced-out psychedelia and jangly guitars bringing to mind the classic early ’90s sound of The Charlatans and ‘Screamadelica’ and then fusing it with hooks that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Gengahr record. It’s a song about trying to break free from the mundanity of modern life: ‘Wake me up just to tell me it was all a dream. Fell in love then you fell apart at the seams’.
The Black Fields – ‘One with the Violin‘
Inspired by Nick Cave, Arcade Fire and Scott Walker, Brighton-based indie rockers The Black Fields ‘One with the Violin is an ode to lost love: ‘My pen still writes your name and you know it. You’ve always been my muse, now let me be your poet’. It finds the band’s singer Ross Scarfield stating how ‘love will always go on’ with tenderness as he learns to let go and be happy for his former lover’s new life: ‘Are you still with that guy? The one with the violin? Well, I guess he’s alright. I guess you needed him’ and ‘I don’t mind that our ship has sailed. No one lost. No one failed’ being just two of the sentimental and affecting lines delivered with emotion before the song draws to a close amidst a wall of feedback.
The Orielles – ‘Bobbi’s Second World‘
The Orielles are one of 2018’s breakthrough bands and ‘Bobbi’s Second World’ – a song about a cat who has to experience two differing realities to become a lady, no less – finds them heading off into a bold and Funkadelic now direction. Inspired by northern soul music and maybe Nile Rogers but still packed with indie-pop sensibilities, the song has a hugely danceable bass line and enchanting backing vocals (‘What’s a girl to do?’) as the band ponder over their new feline friend: ‘I have questions about her existence’.
Deanna Petcoff – ‘Stress‘
Toronto singer-songwriter Deanna Petcoff unveils a happy song about sad things with ‘Stress’. Combining Rilo Kiley hooks with a classic The Pains of Being Pure at Heart indie sound, the song finds Deanna discussing the feelings that come alongside heartbreak when you go through a break-up: ‘You love me sometimes and you set me free’. When Deanna asks ‘What am I supposed to do with you?’ with so much emotion and power, you can’t fail to feel her desire to move on to better things.
