November 29th, 2019
single track
The Heavy – Last Man Standing
The Heavy only released their fifth album Sons last May, but since then they put out three brand-new songs already. Last Man Standing follows Put It On The Line and Everything I Got. It’s another horn-tinged, electro soul-based, funk-infused track.
The British rock band doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Lucky us!
Recommended as well:
The Heavy – Fighting For The Same Thing
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
single track
Stereo Honey – My Darkness
British quartet Stereo Honey have a way with anthemic pop/rock. On their new single My Darkness, they bring their sound another step forward, expanding it to cinematic proportions. Think pounding drums and drawn out guitar notes on a bed of synths. Producer Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers, Kylie Minogue, Ocean Colour Scene) did a great job there.
My Darkness is taken from the band’s upcoming third EP Ladders To The Sun, out on 6 March 2020. It also features previous single You Are A Monster and three new songs. The EP will explore themes of apathy, mental health and death.
More new Stereo Honey music is in the works, with their first full album due to follow at the end of 2020.
Recommended as well:
Stereo Honey – Through The Dark
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
single track
Alma – Bad News Baby
Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. Therefore, I’m always hesitant to claim I ‘discovered’ an artist. I like the idea of artists discovering themselves. But If there are two acts in recent years that were very early on my radar, its Dua Lipa and Alma.
The latter’s debut single Karma was record of the week in June 2016 in my then radio show Carte Blanche. A great combination of deep house, r&b and pop. The Finnish singer-songwriter and rapper didn’t only stick out because of her neon yellow hair, but also because of her soulful voice and punk attitude. Her second single Dye My Hair would eventually provide her with her deserved break-through.
Since then, things went quickly. Alma worked with everyone from French Montana and Tove Lo to Icona Pop and Charli XCX. To be quite honest, most of her recent singles weren’t my cup of tea. But on Bad News Baby she’s back in form. It’s a pop song with an edge, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s good news, baby!
Recommended as well:
Alma – Dye My Hair
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
single trackCirca Waves – Jacqueline
Circa Waves – Jacqueline
In recent years, most radio stations banned guitars from their airwaves, consciously or not. As a consequence, numerous bands that started out as rock acts, softened their sound. Less guitars, more synths, poppier melodies. Who could blame them?
Circa Waves are one of those bands, and the change brought grist to their mill. Their concerts are one big party, just like their recent recorded output. The band’s single Jacqueline is further testimony of that. A new stand-out song in their repertoire, it’s a fun track to sing and dance along with.
Jacqueline is the first single to be released off Circa Waves’ fourth album Sad Happy, which will be out on 13 March 2020.
Recommended as well:
Circa Waves – Be Somebody Good
Circa Waves – Different Creatures
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
album track
Nasty Cherry – Brain Soup
How many bands with their own Netflix documentary, less than a year after they came together, do you know? Meet Nasty Cherry, a four-women band handpicked by Charli XCX at the start of 2019. ‘I’m With The Band’ is a six-episode series that follows her protégés.
Nasty Cherry’s first EP Season 1 collects three out of the four singles the band put out so far. The 6-track set is completed by two new songs and an interlude. I like EP opener Brain Soup the best. A track that sounds like it was produced by Prince – which is technically impossible, obviously. Also check Fuck Modern Love!
Recommended as well:
Nasty Cherry – Live Forever
Nasty Cherry – Win
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
single track, wildcardWildcard (week 48):
Wildcard (week 48):
Sebu – The Secret Is Out [Lucas Vidal Arrangement]
Armenian-American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer Sebu Simonian may not be a household name (yet). But I’m sure you know some of his music. As a commercial jingle writer, he co-wrote a demo for a cola ad. It was called Safe And Sound. When it got rejected, he formed the band Capital Cities and released the single independently. It became a worldwide hit, and the cola brand came back around to license the song for an ad after all.
Now, Sebu has his first solo single out: The Secret Is Out. A song with an equally impressive story. He says about it: “Engrossed by news about wars in the Middle East, I learned more about veterans struggling with PTSD. I decided to tackle the unconventional topic. (…) The animated music video depicts a female war veteran suffering from PTSD. She returns to the comfort of her home and the arms of her loved one, but can’t escape visions of war. It is directed by Italian animator Marco Pavone.”
The song itself features a prominent beat and fierce synth bursts, with beautiful strings on top, courtesy of Lucas Vidal. A great companion to the current autumn weather, The Secret Is Out by Sebu is this week’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcard!
In the Wildcards 2019 playlist you can find all of this year’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcards so far.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
single track
Handsome Poets – Giant
Handsome Poets are a Dutch band. In the Netherlands, everybody recognizes their hits Sky On Fire and Dance (The War Is Over) from the first notes. They’ve played all the big festivals in their small country.
In new single Giant, singer Tim van Esch looks back on how success becomes part of your life. “Success can make you feel bigger than you really are.” He continues: “I always wanted to be Robbie Williams. Experience taught me not to take myself too seriously. All of those expectations… pretty exhausting 😉. I now go onstage with a different feeling. Not with the idea I have to be the giant, but just the way I am.”
Giant by Handsome Poets is a fine pop song, with Britpop influences throughout and an Oasis-like vocal delivery.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
single track
Hazel English – Shaking
Now this is confusing… A singer-songwriter based in California, born in Australia, but whose name is Hazel English… She came to prominence in 2016, releasing two hands full of singles. These were compiled on her 2017 double-EP Never Going Home/Just Give In. And then, things got quiet.
But now, English is back with a hypnotizing, catchy song, drenched in ’60s grooves and psychedelia. She wrote Shaking with Lana Del Rey’s touring guitarist Blake Stranathan, and producer Justin Raisen (Charli XCX and Sky Ferreira, among others).
“Shaking presents the promise of spiritual awakening as a kind of seduction in order to lull the individual into false truths about themselves and the world around them”, Hazel notes, of the track’s narrative. “It’s meant to be a playful, tongue-in-cheek song so mostly I hope people get some fun out of it.”
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
single track
Wonderluxe feat. Cultra – Daffodils
Artists who prefer to start their careers in anonymity, whether or not hiding behind masks, are a thing of all times. Apparently, Wonderluxe has chosen this path as well. We know hardly any more about him, than that he’s from Melbourne, Australia.
Daffodils is his debut single, sung by the equally obscure singer Cultra. Led by an irresistible piano line, this fun and cheeky affair is a refreshing salute to big beat raves. At the same time, it’s incredibly radio-friendly. The song is co-written by Paul Brandoli, who wrote 7 Australian club #1’s in the past years. Don’t be surprised if that tally rises to 8 any time soon.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
werner's weekly
Werner’s Weekly (week 48)
This is Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters, containing the two most recent Carte Blanche Music Wildcards, and the best of the other new releases in alphabetical order:
- Deacon Blue – City Of Love (Wildcard this week)
- The Mowgli’s – Fighting With Yourself (Wildcard last week)
- Anna Sofia – No Fun
- Hayley Kiyoko – L.O.V.E. Me
- MarthaGunn – Heaven [2019 Version]
- Ride – Jump Jet
- The Lottery Winners – Little Things
Click the links for more info and listen to each of the tracks via the Werner’s Weekly player below.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist. Also added last week: Blossoms, Leonard Cohen, Nada Surf, Paul McCartney, and many more.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
