Hey Gigantic Gang,
Have you heard the good news? It’s the bank holiday weekend and have we got an awesome #NewMusicFriday blog and playlist for you! Check out all the best new releases you need to know as you kick back and relax over the bank holiday weekend.
ALBUMS
THE 1975 – ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’
Well, just when you thought The 1975 couldn’t get any bigger – they just went truly colossal with their highly anticipated fourth album ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’.
Epic in scale, Matt Healy and co. are clearly trying to create what they think is the White Album for the Spotify generation as the twenty-two tracks skip through genres, touching on anthemic rock, experimental electronica, dream pop and chamber choir intertwined with funk. If subculture is dead and music affiliation no longer exists, The 1975 feel at liberty to try they hand at virtually everything and so offer a little of something to absolutely everyone over 70 minutes.
“I think that the question on this record is: can the centre hold with all of this shit? Politically, economically, climate-wise – it feels like we’re getting under a lot of pressure. So there’s that on the record. And there’s also just a lot of personal stuff about me.”
Almost guaranteed to be the next UK Number 1 album, ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ is out now on Double Clear Vinyl, Double White Vinyl and CD - plus money saving Bundles are available too.
The 1975 tickets are currently available.
TIM BURGESS – ‘I Love The New Sky’
While life has slowed to a crawl for many, their choice of activities severely limited by the lockdown, The Charlatans singer Tim Burgess seems to be a constant flurry of activity hosting a non-stop series of insightful Listening Parties of classic albums with essential artists and now dropping his fifth solo LP ‘I Love The New Sky’.
A joyous expression of neo-psychedelia, Burgess delights with intricately woven melodies and expertly layered arrangements that capture the beauty and majesty of the great outdoors, a tremendous source of inspiration for this North Country Boy who wrote most of the album in rural Norfolk;
“In the middle of the countryside, with the nearest shop eight miles away. There are no distractions, and I guess that way things happen. I wrote everything on acoustic guitar, and the chords were really considered. The guitar lines would lead the melody, and the melody would inform the lyrics – just dreaming away with music.”
‘I Love The New Sky’ is out now via Bella Union and is available as Transparent Splatter Vinyl, CD and a combined money saving Bundle. Make sure you grab a copy!
Tim Burgess tickets are currently available.
INDIGO GIRLS – ‘Look Long’
It’s been quite a wait for fans of folk-rock pairing Indigo Girls, having last released an album five years ago. But finally, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers are back with stunning new offering ‘Look Long’ which invokes all the passion and emotion you would expect, marking it as a true highlight in their 40-year career.
This, their 16th LP reflects upon the background and beginnings in contrast to what America has now become; divided, unjust and angry under the inept watch of Trump.
“We had a house on a cove, in a rural area surrounded by farms, dirt roads, and woods. We had dirt bikes at the lake house in various states of functionality. We zoomed around the roads, both paved and dirt, without a care to any rules, and we discovered a series of trails in the woods that provided adventure and the much-needed privacy for childhood pondering and eventual teenage angst.
When I think back on the landscape and the folks I ran across, I think a lot about what was happening in society at the time, the social injustices that ran rampant, and how abstract it all seemed until I had the courage and freedom to question the ingredients of my environment.
I was a white kid of privilege, an interloper in this farming community, taken over by our weekend lake culture. But this community and many others like it had their own prejudices to come to terms with, and I could feel it as I aged out of my innocence.” – Amy Ray