Fizzy Blood – ‘Pawn‘
Unveiled ahead of support tour to While She Sleeps, Fizzy Blood’s ‘Pawn’ is a high-octane blast of fun-filled rock with riffs, hooks and even ‘la, la, la’ singalongs. While Heck and Refused could both be touchpoints, there’s also something altogether more grungey as the band sing about how: ‘It’s time to face the music, now you got the looks’.
Staycations – ‘Ophelia‘
A dream pop band from Cambridge, Staycations list the likes of The Cure and Gengahr as their influences and you can certainly hear this on ‘Ophelia’. However, they add in some more experimental math-rock moments among the jangly melodies as the song gradually build into a crescendo of drums and intense guitar work.
Ellie Bleach – ‘Duvet Day‘
Ellie Beach specialises in an alluring combination of slacker-Britpop and Mac DeMarco vibes. She sings: ‘Wake up at 4pm, stay in bed til I can’t stand the smell of my old breath’ and you can’t help but be transferred back to your teenage years when everything seemed so much easier. Ellie says the song is about not being interested in what anyone else is doing (of course, they’re not interested in you either) and has the feel of Courtney Barnett having more fun, albeit with cheeky synths in the final throes and some self-obsession: ‘I can hear the voices of my neighbours having conversations about me through the wall’.
Sleep Party People – ‘The Missing Steps‘
Copenhagen band Sleep Party People have released ‘The Missing Steps’ ahead of an album that has guest appearances from both Peter Silberman and Air vocalist beth Hirsch. It’s a song with a latter-day Radiohead style but with fairy dust sprinkled all over it. The lyrics are also suitably fantastical: ‘I’ll just fall in love with you’.; and ‘And the rain began to fall… it’s exactly like a dream’ being repeated in an almost singalong fashion.
The City and Horses – ‘Shades‘
Signed to Paper Garden Records, The City and Horses are getting set to release their fourth album ‘Ruins’ and ‘Shades’ is the first song from it. It opens with the lines ‘If all the girls are wearing headphones, how will they hear me singing Belle & Sebastian’ and it’s clear where frontman Marc Cantone’s influences lie just through this reference. The album is said to be all about a love triangle between Marc, his ex-girlfriend and his OCD and you can hear his anxieties and innermost thoughts bubbling over the sun-drenched pop hooks – especially when his tone changes and he starts to doubt everything about himself: ‘It’s better too I guess, cos they can’t see the way I dress. I look a mess’. We’d recommend this for fans of The Shins and Real Estate.
Filed under: New music, Preview, Top 5s Tagged: alternative music, Bandcamp, Cambridge, Duvet Day, Ellie Beach, Fizzy Blood, indie music, music stream, new music, Paper Garden, Paper Garden Records, rock music, Shades, Sleep Party People, soundcloud, Staycations, The City and Horses, The Missing Steps, YouTube