Miley Cyrus – Flowers
The first snippet from pop juggernaut Miley Cyrus’ eighth studio album Endless Summer Vacation (out 10 March), you’d think by its opener ‘Flowers’ would be an emotional ballad. But just as the near-inevitable US Billboard chart-topper opines, “Started to cry / But then I remembered / I can buy myself flowers”, before the track turns into a brilliant upbeat disco-inflected tune.
Joesef – Didn’t Know How (to Love You)
Joesef dropped his silky-smooth debut today. Permanent Damage is a soul-pop ensemble of synths and sounds, with the Garthamlock-born singer delivering his exquisite vocals. Like Cyrus’ tune above on this list, ‘Didn’t Know How (to Love You)’ sees Joesef take the potentially sorrowful and turn it into danceable joy.
Circa Waves – Northern Town
Liverpool indie-rockers Circa Waves are another to drop an album today – Never Going Under being their fifth. As our review outlines, it’s a record with plenty to cheer about; and whilst it suffers from a case of being slightly imitative of others, it still has tunes that would get any festival tent bouncing. Ode to the band’s home region, ‘Northern Town’, is one such fist-pumping song.
poolblood – voyager
Toronto’s Maryam Said, who performs under moniker poolblood, has an album of their own. It’s a record that works through a deep amount of conflict and overcoming, ranging from elegance to moodiness in one sweep. ‘voyager’ falls into the latter half, in which Said’s influences such as Fiona Apple, Nick Drake and Title Fight all make their presence heard.
Ishmael Ensemble & Rider Shafique – Reasons
Bristol electronic jazz collective Ishmael Ensemble have announced a new EP, New Era, and offer lead single ‘Reasons’ as a powerful statement of intent. Featuring MC and lyricist Rider Shafique’s wise, winding words, it’s of course backed by a beautiful arrangement of sax and strings. It comes off the back of Ishmael Ensemble’s celebrated UK tour.
NOISY – RUDEBOY
whynow favourites NOISY give a feisty new tune in the form of aptly named ‘RUDEBOY’. With an air of Basement Jaxx, Fat Boy Slim and even some of the vocal oomph of Kasabian frontman Serge Pizzorno, it commences what’s set to be another glowing year for the lads from Worthing. And if listening to it gets you in a mood for a night out, that’s hardly surprising: NOISY are hosting their celebrated and sold-out club night Fast FWD To Friday tonight at Brighton’s Prince Albert.
FelixThe1st (feat. 8ruki) – LULLABY
Fresh from picking up his first MOBO, for Song Of The Year with ‘Own Brand (Baddie)’, West London’s FelixThe1st has recruited French rapper 8ruki to drop his latest tune, ‘LULLABY’. Typical of the 21-year-old, the track dips its toes in rap, trap and other experimental sounds and comes ahead of his debut album – details of which remain fairly secretive but tracks like this continue to increase the hype that surrounds it.
Tommy Lefroy – Worst Case Kid
One of our Ones To Watch For 2023, London-based Wynter Bethel and Tessa Mouzourakis are certainly off to a strong start with their latest release, ‘Worst Case Kid’. Taking their band name from the inspiration behind Pride and Prejudice’s real life Mr Darcy (19th century politician Thomas Langlois Lefroy, who broke Jane Austen’s heart), the pair have a brand new EP, Rivals, set for release on 10 March.
Enter Shikari – (pls) set me on fire
In 2023, we might find it tedious to still discuss the pandemic – and want to simply move on – but it proved a formative time for Hertfordshire rockers Enter Shikari; formative in that they barely played a note together for almost two years and almost deemed themselves to be finished as a unit. It wasn’t until their headline show at Download Festival Pilot that they recollected and resurged as a band once more. And now they have a whole new album with which to scream about: A Kiss For The Whole World, out 21 April. ‘(pls) set me on fire’ is its raucous lead single.
Belle and Sebastian – When We Were Very Young
Belle and Sebastian are the kind of band many have listened, yet each one thinks their indie for doing so, thinks they’ve somehow stumbled upon an untapped wealth of material few have heard. Thankfully, for all such people, they have a brand-new album out, Late Developers. And in the spirit of me thinking back to my youth, with its snobbish music habits and immature naivety, we’ve chosen ‘When We Were Very Young’. Oh so young indeed.
