Brutalligators – ‘November 4 2016‘
We’re almost a year on from the title of this song but it still remains as fresh and relevant as ever. Full of twinkly guitars and honest observations in a similar style to SN favourites itoldyouiwouldeatyou, it finds the North Herts band looking back over the concept of aging and how it really shouldn’t matter: ‘Forget about our cares and live tonight’; ’30 came around like lightning, I still feel young and I still frightened, I haven’t quite got the hang of growing up’. There are also elements of Modern Baseball in the way the band back up their views with a rousing statement of ‘Let’s forget about our cares and live tonight’.
The Spook School – ‘Still Alive‘
Now signed to Alcopop! Records (a perfect match if ever there was one), Glaswegian indie-rockers The Spook School have unveiled the first song from next year’s album, ‘Could It Be Different?’ Three minutes of perfect jangly pop music backs up the band as they look back over a failed relationship that took a dark turn. There’s a cathartic feeling in the way they sing: ‘You helped me grow thicker skin and now I know all your little signs’; and ‘It took far too long to say goodbye baby and I let you mess me around too many times. No more, fuck you I am still alive and I am not going anywhere with you’. The chorus is irresistible, especially when the whole band join in towards the end while the lyrics reminded us of Jeffrey Lewis or Los Campesinos! with the way they examine past mistakes. The Orielles – ‘Let Your Dogtooth Grow‘ The Orielles have signed to Heavenly Recordings and have an album out early next year, ‘Let Your Dogtooth Grow’ is the first single from the record and it finds them heading into a Mini Moog synth-tinged dream pop sound that has elements of Cigarettes After Sex. But, of course, they haven’t forgot the hooks and there are some charming moments The Sundays would be proud of. The song is all about how there are restrictions set by society of people of a certain age or type and how they want to get away from this… It’s very powerful and one you’ll want to listen to again and again. Human Pyramids – ‘Crackle Pop‘ ‘Crackle Pop’ is the first single to be unveiled from ‘Home’, the second album by Paul Russell from Axes’ orchestral chamber-pop project, Human Pyramids. Kicking off with strings and then big beats, it starts off like an Everything Everything instrumental before stop-start elements are added to the introduction. Things slow down around 90 seconds in and this is when the song veers into ‘Penny Lane’ territory with plenty of brass although post-rock rumblings soon take over in a joyous style. John Lynch’s kaleidoscopic video, inspired by the descriptions of what people with sound and sight synesthesia (a perceptual merging of senses) felt when they listened to the song, is also a wondrous spectacle. itoldyouiwouldeatyou – ‘Mourn’ We’ve referenced them earlier in this round-up but it’s always good to hear new music from itoldyouiwouldeatyou. A break-up song that looks towards the future, ‘Mourn’ opens with some gently catchy and mathy guitar hooks as Joey Ashworth starts wistfully recalling how: ‘We were friends in college. I don’t remember how we met’. As Luke Prosser’s trumpet comes in, Joey’s vocals become more fraught as he remembers the various moments of a relationship: ‘Ask before you touch me. For the love of God, make sure you touch me”. After making the decision to break free towards the end of the song, there’s a flourish of shouty emotion and big World is a Beautiful Place-esque clashes of instruments. It’s another important topic tackled by ityiwey with wit, style and riffs.Filed under: New music, Top 5s Tagged: alternative music, Brutalligators, Crackle Pop, Failure By Design, Failure By Design Records, Human Pyramids, indie music, indie rock, itoldyouiwouldeatyou, Let Your Dogtooth Grow, math rock, mourn, new music, November 4 2016, pop, pop music, pop rock, Still Alive, The Orielles, The Spook School
