A look at the key releases from the past month also featuring Jessica Winter, Oral Habit, needlework, Radiant Heart and more.
Words: Lloyd Bolton unless stated.
tall child – 'Somehow You Grow'
'Somehow You Grow' is the eloquent debut EP from tall child, a personal portrayal of survival in the 21st Century that delineates a hard-earned wisdom, set against the possibilities of personal growth. The sound takes cues from the likes of Rachel Chinouriri and Julia Jacklin but the lyrics present a entirely personal takes on disability, queer identity and mental health in a candid but poetic manner. Opener 'Stupid Body' is an earworm worthy of Liz Phair in its mixture of catchiness and deadpan humour – "You are the rot and the decay, you're such a fucking cliché". 'Oh Well, That's Life.' further shows tall child's ability to combine fun melodies with depictions of mundane struggles that veer toward the Kafkaesque, the line "I ran for the bus / I missed it and nearly got hit by another one" being one example, joyously squeezed in. The serious notes hinted at in these uptempo tracks are unravelled in the hauntingly evocative pair 'Orange' and 'Somehow You Grow', which give the collection its rich complexion and make for a well-rounded debut.
Folk Bitch Trio – 'Now Would Be A Good Time'
With their anticipated debut album 'Now Would Be a Good Time', Folk Bitch Trio lean into folk tradition while offering an unpolished account of navigating your early twenties through contemporary anxieties. The Melbourne-based trio of Gracie Sinclair, Jeanie Pilkington, and Heide Peverell invites listeners into the intimacy of a late-night conversation between friends, with candlelight flickering, wine half gone, and the sky beginning to bruise with morning. It is a debut dripping with irony and hollow with longing. Through acoustic arrangements and hypnotic harmonies, the album speaks to delusional romantics, overthinkers, the dark-humoured, and the daydream-prone. With tracks comprising, in the bands words, "dissociative daydreams and galling breakups, sexual fantasies and media overload", 'Now Would Be a Good Time' is folk music for people who laugh while falling apart, and who find relief in doing so.(Isabel Kilevold)
Read the full review here.
Wet Leg – 'moisturizer'
Immediately rocketing to #1, it is clear the popular appetite is still strong for Wet Leg's brand of irreverent pop indie. 'CPR' sets the tone, a fun romantic melodrama, while 'catch these fists' and 'mangetout' continue in this vein with askance looks at modern pop culture. Not an inch of this record is left to waste, as 'pillow talk' underlines. Each song packed with melodic detail, clever modern references and exchanged vocals. It is, however, this hard-fought density that begins to suggest uneasy relationship this record has with its indie rock reference points. It is easy to project, considering how stage-managed its production had to be. All the same, there is something about the buzzword-heavy lyrics and the squalling instruments aping the chaos of a grassroots indie band that feels a little too controlled. Certainly, the record does not shake our understanding of what an alt rock album could or should achieve. What we are left with, then, is a fun followup that continues to satisfy the Wet Leg idea without necessarily setting down anything the band will be remembered for.
Jessica Winter – 'My First Album'
Jessica Winter has long been a great singles artist, frequently putting out floor-filling singles and brief EPs over the past seven years. As the gravitas of the title suggests, 'My First Album' marks her leap into the longer format, 45 minutes of her mix of pumping tracks, dark humour and pop euphoria. The collection makes a good bid at the perfect party album structure, big moments like 'L.O.V.E.' and 'Worst Person In The World' offset moments to catch your breath off the dancefloor. 'Aftersun' is a clever all-inclusive holiday lovesong, lyrics toying with commitment to someone met at some Balearic hotel bar. Tracks like this are familiar as that knowing, ironic take on pop that has always underscored Winter's music, a motif that returns with a vengeance on 'Worst Person In The World'. While a good collection of songs, however, 'My First Album' lacks the great track or three that could really anchor the whole thing. The result is a fair effort at an all-out party album, but Winter's own track record suggests she could do better.
big long sun – whatever (whatever)
Finally getting the attention they deserve, the Brighton act prove themselves as masters of homemade weird pop have just put out new album 'whatever (whatever)'. The group are an 8-piece expansion of the inner world of Jamie Broughton, the multi-hyphenate artist responsible for writing, recording and performing the album from the safety of his 'Boudoir' studio. There are flashes of 2010s alt pop on 'to fold' and 'a casual dance between friends', while 'like a dove' feels more like a vision of some bizzare, outsider art blueprint of 'Abbey Road'. Typical of the big long sun idea, the resulting collection is unabashedly eclectic and radically DIY, even by today's standards.
Various Artists – Volume 1: The Music Scene Stands with Gaza
Bootlegged across a number of shows put on by promoter Falling Moon, 'The Music Scene Stands with Gaza' is a collection of live versions released to raise money for Gaza Soup Kitchen, a local charity in Gaza doing what they can to feed the besieged population while international food imports are blockaded by Israeli forces. The collection features unreleased rarities from Lou Terry, Baggio, MPTL Microplastics, Kaspar Hauser, Conus sp. Bent, jaffro and more, as well as live versions from artists including swelt, ava and Amelia Blackwell, plus an incredible Dear Laika cover of 'Moon, Don't Come Up Tonight', which does well to capture and reimagine the hair-raising disquieted jazz quality of Patty Waters. Most track choices feel somewhat incidental, but Hysterical Backslider's closer 'Feed Free Gaza' is an stream-of-consciousness ramble that addresses, with impressive nuance, the very creation of this compilation, the benefits and drawbacks of such projects and the wider culture of varying degrees of pro-Palestinian activism in the UK. Taken together, this compilation feels like a cross section, capturing some of the diversity and ambition of London's live music culture, commendably assembled for a desperately vital human cause. Download here.
Radiant Heart – 'Weep for Me'
Sheffield-based duo Radiant Heart released 'Weep for Me' in the searing heatwave a few weeks back, and this collection of songs was a perfect antidote. Tunes like 'Angel's Face' and 'All This Time' suggest no small debt to Sufjan Stevens' 'Carrie and Lowell' period, but show also the appreciation that it is the lyrical fidelity to the subjective that makes those kinds of songs so powerful. The ongoing exchange of lead vocal duties makes for a particularly sweet unfolding of across this record, and brings out the strong Belle and Sebastian undercurrent at work. 'Glory' is one moment particularly reminiscent of the best understated moments of the Scottish group. Additional production flourishes from Trust Fund complete the picture and make for an album that is instantly endearing but also full of unexpected corridors in which to get lost.
needlework – needlework
'needlework' is a bittersweet record of the York group, released as they announce their disbandment. With oblique deadpan lyrics over clashing shards of rhythm and melody, needlework recall in no small measure the more energetic moments of Bingo Fury, and would have sat well on a bill with London's MPTL Microplastics. Given the pressure to capture the definitive recording of this band in their untimely passing, it feels especially valuable that this EP renders their sound with the lurid brilliance it deserves. Having built a reputation in York with electric gigs fit between Sixth Form, the group have been forced apart by the forces of UCAS and the wider adult world, but this EP will linger in the memory as they inevitably go on to new projects down the line.
Oral Habit – 'Garage Frock!'
Brighton garage psych trio Oral Habit present a debut EP that captures their spirit of rock 'n' roll immediacy. The title track gnashes like prime Oh Sees, while closing pair 'I'm Free' and 'The Coast' feel almost Lou Reed in their strident looseness, making use of that liberated logic to produce pure expression, unencumbered by contrivance. "Love is easy, like the coast" is almost ridiculous in its simplicity, distilling the sound of mucking around on guitar on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Autocamper – 'What Do You Do All Day?'
The long-awaited debut album from one of Manchester's finest jangle exports of recent years is a tightly conceived thirty minutes that revels in the joy of getting your mates in a room and writing pop songs together. 'Red Flowers' has a brilliant longing quality, and a flute feature from The Pastels' Tom Crossley is a wonderful torch-passing moment, while 'Proper', 'Foxes' and 'Map Like a Leaf' are just a few shining examples of the riff-driven, classically melodic quality the band have mastered in an age where it feels like a dying craft.
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