Sorting through the week’s new singles and songs that have surfaced online over the last seven days, Jamie Skey (@jamie_skey) presents five songs you need to hear this week…
If cinematic-sounding seductress Lana Del Rey can be best described as a gangster’s moll, then, judging by his 50s-tinged, late-night laments, The Walkmen’s former singer Hamilton Leithauser could justifiably be her musical partner in crime. His latest single, 5AM, taken from his solo debut Black Hours, suggests the noir-tinged angst of a drifter with a history and a penchant for doo wop.
On his latest offering, the stunning Knock Out Ginger, Bristol-born London-based singer-songwriter Rob Bravery takes a diversion from his previously jaunty, Rufus Wainwright-vibes to weave a quirky, meticulously patterned soul-pop comforter fit for a king – the King of Pop, we hasten to add, thanks to Bravery’s way round a coolly hooky, falsetto-rimmed melody.
Though they hail from Sweden, thanks to the sinuous, funky basslines and swaggering beats on A Scene In Between, baggy-simulating indie-rock quartet Honeymilk sound like a smiley-faced flashback to Manchester’s La Hacienda glory days, albeit cut through with The Strokes-like suaveness and grit.
Last year, electronica collective Mt Wolf were packing out famous London haunts like XOYO and Heaven purely by word of mouth. Despite the buzz around them, the group inexplicably fell off the radar. Yet after a 12 month hiatus, they’ve reappeared with the beauteous Bon Iver-meets-Boards Of Canada of Red, which finds them where they left off, all starry-eyed lusciousness and hypnotic, laptop-derived beats.
Raving-mad siblings The Garden Twins have unleashed This Could Build Us A Home, the B-side to their forthcoming single Surprise. On it, the duo grab various styles that made the 80s a colourful and shamelessly gaudy era – ie hip-hop, post-punk, synth-pop and goth – by the lapels and drag them screaming into the future.
