Posted on Friday 31st January 2020 at 15:45
Polica – When We Stay Alive
Described by DIY as “elegantly presented and at many parts a real tear-jerker,” Polica’s 5th LP, When We Stay Alive, is finally out and has definitely been worth the wait. Bulging with mysterious and euphoric synths, Channy Leaneagh’s vocals are the perfect complement and on opening track, Driving (which was the record's first single), Polica instantly make their return known.
Ghostly and echoing soundscapes continue across the rest of the record – most notably in Be Again where the Minneapolis band create an eerie and tense atmosphere with distant, flickering tones.
Buy your Polica tickets here.
SlØtface – Sorry For The Late Reply
Norwegian pop punk outfit SlØtface are back with the sensation Sorry For The Late Reply and it picks up exactly where they left off on 2017’s Try Not To Freak Out. Veering away from the ‘pop-punk’ bracket in favour of a more experimental offering, Slotface’s Haley Shea adds crunching vocals to the crashing drums and fuzz soaked guitars.
With unpredictable turns throughout, for example in Luminous, SlØtface have not reinvented themselves as much as they have developed their sound to deliver one of the most impressive records of the year.
Buy your SlØtface tickets here.
Drive-By Truckers – The Unraveling
Referred to as an “angry dissection of America’s fatal flaws,” rock veterans Drive-By Truckers are back with The Unraveling. The way Rosemary With a Bible and a Gun opens the record with a string-heavy arrangement could raise eye-brows about whether this is a new direction for the Georgia band, but as the album progresses it is evident that Drive-By Truckers’ sound is still there and sounding as authentic as ever.
Babies in Cages goes all the way back to 2018 – when bandleader and primary songwriter Patterson Hood revealed the lyrics on Instagram. Now accompanied by Springsteen-esque instrumentation, it is a powerful anthem that offers perfect commentary for the political state of the country.
Buy your Drive-By Truckers tickets here.
Sam Lee – Old Wow
Sam Lee’s stance within the world of folk music is invigorating. With guest vocals from Cocteau Twins’ Liz Fraser on The Moon Shines Bright and tales of birds (not metaphorical, but actual winged creatures), Lee paints pictures of the outdoors and stunning landscapes with baritone vocals and sleepy instrumentation.
Delicately struck piano notes, precise fleeting vocals and shivery strings add to Sam Lee’s allure across the full record, but Jasper Sea is where we are shown his brilliance most.
Buy your Sam Lee tickets here.
Torres – Silver Tongue
TORRES’ latest record, Silver Tongue, is a brilliant ensemble of 9 tracks clocking in at just over half-an-hour. Track 4, Record of Your Tenderness, starts as a harmonious, blissful vocal centric ballad before bursting into a synth-laden banger and this pretty much sums up Silver Tongue as a whole. It is a record that showcases TORRES’ signature sound that she has honed since the release of her 2013 eponymous debut.
Buy your TORRES tickets here.
Caribou – Never Come Back
Caribou, aka Dan Snaith, have released the latest single from their forthcoming LP, Suddenly. ‘Never Come Back’ is a “throwback dance single that will help you lose track of time and place in seconds” according to Consequence Of Sound and with lashings of dance euphoria and hypnotic keyboard loops, it is clear that Caribou’s new record will put Snaith back at the forefront of British dance music.
Buy your Caribou tickets here.
Listen to all of these and more in our 'New Music Friday' Spotify playlist:
