A new week, a new list of blinding bangers. It’s Tracks of the Week.
Good Looks – Bummer Year
Why we love it: So impressed were we with ‘Almost Automatic’ – the opening track from Good Looks’ forthcoming debut album Bummer Year (due out on 8th April 2022 on Keeled Scales) and featured on our Tracks of the Week #168 back in January – when we heard the album’s imperious title track we just had to have them back again.
It is the third single to be taken from Bummer Year – the aforementioned ‘Almost Automatic’ and ‘Vision Boards’ were the first two – and it is equally as great as its predecessors. Here the four-piece from Austin, Texas ease off a little on the sonic gas as they reflect upon the deep-rooted political and fiscal divides that exist in their home country.
As frontman Tyler Jordan explains: “I couldn’t reconcile how these people I knew to be kind, caring and good could be swept up in the neo-fascist movement of Donald Trump. Here I was, deeply sad, partially because Donald Trump had just been elected president, and I was longing for the type of support and friendship that these folks had offered me in my teens.”
Jordan concludes by saying “who knows if it (Bummer Year) will change anything or win anybody over, but it made me feel better.” Go on, give it a spin or two. I can guarantee it will make you feel a whole lot better too. (Simon Godley)
Projector – Play Along
Why We Love it: Sinister, tribal drums suggest a human sacrifice is imminent, scuzzy guitars and repetitive synths underpin a trance like vocal and then monotone chanting gives the impression that there is a ceremony in progress, a gift to the gods. The battling male and female vocals, sparring and intertwinning add to the atmosphere of evil. In the best possible way. This has a more experimental feel, with subtle electronic elements but the melody is still as catchy as hell.
What they say: “the cognitive dissonance that allows you to feel like you are god’s gift whilst simultaneously feeling like a piece of shit. We liked the idea of a PROJECTOR song that sounds like it could have been co-written with an 80s sci-fi film composer.” (Jim Auton)
Green Gardens – Chosen For More
Why we love it: Green Gardens are back and in some considerable style too. The Leeds’ four-piece have just shared their new track ‘Chosen For More’. Recorded by Jamie Lockhart (Greenmount Studios, Mi Mye), the single is funded by Help Musicians and precedes a new EP arriving in April 2022.
‘Chosen For More’ comes to us as part of local record label Come Play With Me‘s long-running and most estimable singles club series; it is a split single, AA-side release and also features Sheffield’s Oh Papa, in collaboration with Elephant Arch Records.
Talking about the new single, Green Gardens say: “Chosen For More is about the frustration of being alive and not knowing why. I have no doubt it’s an entirely universal feeling, which also makes it one of the only things that every human being has in common, which is a rare but lovely thing to find. It can feel like there’s this giant online employee-of-the-month wall where everyone’s making the cut except you. Step away from it all. The wall’s on fire, but you’re not on your own.”
A stunning slice of songcraft, ‘Chosen For More’ smoulders and burns before finally igniting and lighting the way for Jacob Cracknell’s impassioned vocals and some gloriously spiralling guitar. (Simon Godley)
Panic Shack – The Ick
Panic Shack are back with another ace single ‘The Ick‘ lifted from their forthcoming Baby Shack EP. It’s an uproariously fierce garage rock belter, with bouncy baselines, serrated riffing and stompy drums, littered with withering laugh out loud Cardiff humour, “you do not shush me in the cinema!!” exclaims Sarah, riffing on the moment you realise a potential partner isn’t the one for you. As the band put it:
“‘The Ick’ is about that feeling you get when you’re dating someone and they do something that really turns you off. No matter how insignificant or trivial – the feeling is irreversible and it’s really not their fault. Something that shouldn’t be a deal-breaker but when you’re there staring your Ick in the face, there really is no coming back from it. Where their mere presence is enough to make you want to vom in your own mouth. You would rather run into oncoming traffic, whilst burning alive, than to spend a second longer in their company.
“It was written while we were on a little song-writing holiday we called ‘Tweak Week’ which ended up being more of five-day drinking binge in our quaint little holiday cottage. We were gossiping and laughing about past dating fails, sharing anecdotes and it just snowballed from there. Every lyric are actual things that happened to us and gave us major ICK! Someone really did shush Sarah in the cinema – if you can believe that!! (We can.)”(Bill Cummings)
The Derevolutions – Revive it
Why we love it: Boston duo The Derevolutions revive their 2014 hit ‘Bad King Kong’ and turn it inside out with the brilliant Revive it surfing the waves of surf rock, hip hop, funk, pop, psychedelia. Two stepping artful between playful instrumental runs and almost two-tone rhythm redolent The Go Team! and the melodic light and shade of Superorganism as they sing “we don’t want to revive it, we just have to survive it”.Crammed with joyous hooks and inventiveness this is a low key earworm! (Bill Cummings)
Jeanines – Any Day Now
Why we love it: Jeanines are back with single ‘Any Day Now’ the first teaser of a new album, a deliciously wistful two minute shot of jangle pop. Laced with choppy chords and dancing percussion enlivened by vocalist Alicia’s ethereal harmonies. At once pining and contemplative focusing on the hopes you utter just before sleep, before unfurling a catchy ‘la la la’ chorus. Redolent of c86 but underscored with an artful angularity and a knowingness that invested with a touch more breadth.
Jeanines began in Ridgewood, Queens. Alicia soon began working with her friend, musical polymath Jed Smith, and together they crafted the set of songs that would become the band’s 2019 self-titled debut. Alicia’s songs, brought to life by the arrangement and production courtesy of Jed’s encyclopedic pop knowledge. (Bill Cummings)
Elina Lee – Deja Vu
Originating from Sweden, now based in Cardiff 24-year-old Elina Lee’s debut single ‘Deja Vu’ is impressive. Plunging us into memories of past lovers with her delectable future r&b meets neu soul sound. Pulsing beats underpin this cut laden with Lee’s intimate musings of love and lust with potential romantic partners. “It’s about having a shared moment or experience with someone and moving on, but having this sensation in your mind that it never happened,” she says of her debut release. “It’s a sort of brain fog similar to the feeling of deja vu.”
“2 AM I think about you/4 AM you alright now?/5 I forgot all about you/Morning, you’re still on my mind,” she bristles over slinky keyboards growing into a repeated refrain that burrows its way into your head, lovelorn and filled with doubt in the early hours. It’s an intoxicating pop song that holds itself with a wealth of promise. (Bill Cummings)
