April 6th, 2020
werner's weekly
Werner’s Weekly (week 15)
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:
- Roquemore – Blame (Wildcard this week)
- The Spitfires – (Just Won’t) Keep Me Down (Wildcard last week)
- Áslaug – In My Head
- Awolnation feat. Alice Merton – The Best
- Hope D – Second
- James Righton – Start
- Kakkmaddafakka – Moonshine
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: Pet Shop Boys, The Weeknd, Zuzu, 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.
single track
Spector – When Did We Get So Normal?
London-based band Spector are the bundling kind. They just combined their three most recent singles with one new track on the ‘Extended Play’ EP. And 29 April, they’ll release ‘Non-Fiction’, a compilation of their three most recent EP’s.
The fourth and final track to be taken from Extended Play is new single When Did We Get So Normal? Although it was written and recorded before the global crisis, current circumstances add a new layer to its lyrics.
Frontman Fred Macpherson: “We wrote it back when everything in life was starting to feel a little too repetitive and routine, which feels a long time ago now. It’s inspired by the pathos of spending too much time with the same people, getting bored of seeing, hearing and eating the same things as everyone else, looking in the mirror and realising your life is no longer the adventure it once felt like. I guess we’re all in the same boat now though. Even the sexy interesting people are staying in watching TV and waiting for packages. So maybe it’s a good soundtrack to the new normality. I’ll never complain about Cornwall again.”
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
Liza Anne – Bad Vacation
These are bizarre times. And in days like these, people need music for their entertainment. Nevertheless, many artists postpone the release of their new albums, because ‘it doesn’t feel right’. Luckily, there are artists like Georgia-born Liza Anne as well. She states: “It feels like a strange time to release music, but an even stranger time not to.”
Bad Vacation is her newest single. It’s a bold and frenetic track about the manic pain and joy of freeing yourself from an unhealthy relationship. Catchy, synth-driven and with a killer bassline. “Writing this song was a mental playground for me”, Liza Anne explains. “Turning pain into satire and imaging a hope-filled world with no ceilings. I wanted to bottle up that electricity that happens when you’re free of something taxing.”
Recommended as well:
Liza Anne – Panic Attack
Liza Anne – Paranoia
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.
cover, single track
Boy Azooga – U.F.O.
In March 1975, Irish-American cult singer-songwriter Jim Sullivan mysteriously disappeared outside Santa Rosa, New Mexico. His VW bug was found abandoned, his motel room untouched. Some think he got lost in the desert. Others think he fell foul of a local family with alleged mafia ties. And then there are those who think he was abducted by aliens.
By coincidence – or perhaps not – he had named his 1969 debut album U.F.O..
Fast forward to 2020. Boy Azooga are a Cardiff band I’ve been following ever since their debut single Face Behind Her Cigarette. They just released their cover of Sullivan’s album’s title track. Davey Newington of the band: “I was introduced to U.F.O. last year by Tom Friend in Friendly Records. It has become one of my favourite ever albums since. Hope we did it some justice!”
Recommended as well:
Boy Azooga – Face Behind Her Cigarette
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
Alex The Astronaut – Split The Sky
Split The Sky is Aussie singer, songwriter and storyteller Alex The Astronaut’s new single. It follows her former Carte Blanche Music Wildcard I Think You’re Great. Both tracks will appear on her upcoming debut album The Theory Of Absolutely Nothing.
Alex (full name: Alexandra Lynn), wrote Split The Sky from her experience of caring for someone close to her in a time of sickness. It was an overwhelming experience (“I wanted to go back to childhood joy and stop all this adult stuff from happening”, she says) but it was one that gave her a new perspective on life. “I think this song is also a message of hope. No matter what happens, you can go on to joy, happiness and calm – it just takes time.”
The song comes with a unique video, stitched together from footage from Alex’s previous music videos. Her solution to not being able to shoot a new clip amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
Recommended as well:
Alex The Astronaut – I Think You’re Great
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
AKA George – Bad For You
George Barnett (a.k.a. AKA George) releases one stone cold classic after another. His tracks are known for their driving rhythms, massive guitar hooks, punchy beats and solid vocals. Luckily, his electrifying new single Bad For You is no exception. It’s the title track off his debut EP, which is set for release on 10 April.
Although Bad For You is about relentless desire in relationships, it can also be seen as a coronavirus lockdown anthem. The lyrics could be perceived as a light-hearted letter from the virus itself. It comes with a homemade video that sees the artist offering some advice about self-isolating.
Recommended as well:
AKA George – Manic Machine
AKA George – Stone Cold Classic
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
Sondre Lerche – You Are Not Who I Thought I Was
Norwegian-born singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche has been living in New York City for over a decade. His upcoming album Patience (due 5 June) is his first since relocating to Los Angeles. Although it was recorded mostly in Norway, it’s as sunny as we’ve come to know from Lerche.
Funnily, he names a recently discovered love of ambient music as one of the inspirations for the album. I don’t hear that influence on his new single You Are Not Who I Thought I Was. It’s a real finger-snapper; a catchy and energetic indie-pop song that’ll bring out the sun.
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
Jealous Of The Birds – Ode To Fire
Jealous Of The Birds are back with a single that will slowly ensconce itself in your brain. Ode To Fire was produced by Marta Salogni (Björk, M.I.A.). The song is built around a soothing guitar melody, which appears to hint Indian influences. However, the track was conceived in Portugal.
Irish singer-songwriter Naomie Hamilton is the woman behind Jealous Of The Birds. She explains: “Ode To Fire was written during a solo trip I took to Lisbon, Portugal in the spring of last year. I’d burnt myself out and travelled there with the hope of clearing my head and recharging creatively. In the afternoons I explored the city by foot and then spent the evenings working on songs in a tiny apartment. While I was there I lived a pretty monastic existence, especially considering that I knew no one and couldn’t speak the language. The song expresses that despite how idyllic experiencing a new place and culture is, it can be difficult to fully relish in these things when one is geographically separated from one’s partner. Joy is often diluted when it’s not shared.”
Recommended as well:
Jealous Of The Birds – Blue Eyes
Jealous Of The Birds – Marrow
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
Bessie Turner – Donkey
Suffolk alt-pop artist Bessie Turner released her debut single Big Sleep in April 2017. Three years on, her new track Donkey is her eighth. It comes after Bessie overcame health hurdles, being diagnosed with sepsis.
Although the lyrics are rather dark, Donkey is a triumphant-sounding guitar-based tune. “It’s an observational song referring to the loss of a loved one and the chaotic time that went hand in hand with grief”, she comments. “About uncertainty and the fact that we actually have no idea what we’re really doing in life for a lot of it. (…) It’s about late, late nights and trying to lose your head. About desperation and finding peace.”
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 14):
Wildcard (week 14):
Roquemore – Blame
Nicolas Carette was the lead singer of Canadian band The Vasts. The past tense in this sentence does not apply to the frontman, he’s still very much alive. The band however has been disbanded. Carette will from now on be known as Roquemore.
On its Facebook page, Roquemore is described as ‘a beat-driven, baroque-orchestral rock project’. It was ‘born of a desire to recklessly reframe personal turmoil and world events’. Alrighty then… WTF?!?
I guess the best you can do is listen to Roquemore’s debut single, which is plain wonderful. Entitled Blame, it sounds like a cross of early Arcade Fire and Massive Attack. Expect tragic string arrangements, compact grooves and tormented vocals, but boy, what a beauty. Blame was engineered by Jean Massicotte, who worked with Bran Van 3000 and Patrick Watson before.
I truly can’t wait for more! Until then, Blame by Roquemore is this week’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcard.
In the Wildcards 2020 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.
