March 30th, 2022
single track, wildcardWildcard (week 13):
Wildcard (week 13):
Placebo – The Prodigal
Placebo are back with the eighth, and most accessible sounding album yet. Their first studio album in eight years’ time, Never Let Me Go was recorded between 2019 and 2021. It was preceded by the tracks Beautiful James, Surrounded By Spies, Try Better Next Time and ‘the fourth and final single’ Happy Birthday In The Sky. ‘Fourth and final single’? Does that mean that The Prodigal, which could grow into Placebo’s Bittersweet Symphony, would not be released commercially? Luckily, it doesn’t. Thanks to some attentive (and influential) music lovers, the record company just decided to make it the album’s fifth single as yet.
The Prodigal opens with a catchy string arrangement, which Placebo did not sample from a classic Rolling Stones track. Let’s just hope representatives of Queen & David Bowie won’t claim the strings halfway the song resemble the grande finale of Under Pressure.
All in all, The Prodigal is a wonderful, radio friendly single. Its orchestral backdrop and beautiful backing vocals give extra depth to the recognizable Placebo sound. As the album’s fifth single, it may seem to be the end of the campaign, but its only just beginning. This week, the band start a headline tour that’ll bring them all over Europe. Make sure not to miss it.
This week, Placebo’s The Prodigal will feature at the top of the Carte Blanche Music blog as our new Wildcard.
Recommended as well:
Beautiful James
Placebo – Life’s What You Make It
Follow Placebo on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify
In the Wildcards 2022 playlist you’ll 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.
werner's weekly
Werner’s Weekly (week 13)
This is Werner’s Weekly, your compass to new music that matters, containing the two most recent Carte Blanche Music Wildcards, and the best of the other new releases in alphabetical order:
- Estella Dawn – Buzzcut
(Wildcard this week) - Haley Ganis – Just Pretty
(Wildcard last week) - Darinka – How’s The View?
- Hedda Mae – Rhythm To Myself
- Maddy Jane – It’s A Lot
- Mamas Gun – Good Love
- Stumble Steady – Transducer
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: Bloc Party, Placebo, The Vaccines, and 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 trackElina Filice – Don’t Let Me Fall
Elina Filice – Don’t Let Me Fall
Elina Filice was born to Canadian parents, spent her formative years in Singapore, University years in Canada, and several years in Dublin. There, she founded her own record label. She’s now somewhere on the West Coast. 2021 was a busy, but successful year for Elina. Her sophomore EP Flight Risk was well received and streamed over 1 million times on Spotify.
Influenced by blues and spoken word, her music is soulful and melodic. New single Don’t Let Me Fall adds a certain danceability to the palette. It features funky guitar licks layered over an infectious beat, complete with an anthemic hook. Though dark and brooding, the song pulsates with manic, driving energy. The dark lyrics lament the weight of loving someone who is in a depressive decline. The song examines the tandem downward spiral of tangled mental health, and the terrifying pressure of someone begging you to save them.
Elina says: “We’ve all been in the situation or know someone who’s been in a relationship or friendship where someone is relying on you for their stability. It’s incredibly scary being stuck in a dark tango with someone who you care for but are unable to help. What they threaten to do if you leave them leads to a toxic and painful cycle.”
Follow Elina Filice on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify
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 trackSpecialists – I Got You
Specialists – I Got You
Specialists were formed in New York in 2017 by singer/guitarist Will Harden and bassist/producer Mikey Rotunno. As a duo, they composed works for bands of various sizes, across a multitude of genres. In the process, they evolved into a fully-fledged quartet, featuring Christian Hickey on drums and Pete Harden on keys. Their sound, a fine blend of funk, rock, R&B and jazz, is built around layered guitar and vocals, driving electric bass and a contagious groove.
The band currently have three albums out, and a fourth full-length effort is scheduled for release this spring. I Got You is the first single to be released ahead of it. With a more dance-oriented sound, it paints a neat picture of what to expect from the upcoming record. The disco bassline is a distinctive part of the song. It’s complemented with pop/rock verses, a slap bass chorus and EDM-influences. All ingredients to get you on your feet are present. Lyrically, the song is about Will and Mikey’s close and ever-growing friendship.
Follow Specialists on Facebook | Instagram | Spotify
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 trackMaddy – Dum Dum Dum
Maddy – Dum Dum Dum
Danish duo The Raveonettes are currently on a hiatus. They’re sadly missed. There’s good news on the horizon though, but let me start at the beginning…
After releasing a streak of songs during the last couple of years, Copenhagen-based newcomer Maddy realized she was in a personal crisis. She pulled the plug and booked a ticket to LA. There, she met Sune Wagner, one half of The Raveonettes. They wrote and recorded her new single Dum Dum Dum together. The whole song is built around a simple and raw bass line, without getting annoying for a second. Incredible.
Maddy, who was born Mathide Mikkelsen, says about the song: “The hook of Dum Dum Dum is basically just sounds but it’s also a melody that describes an escape from reality. I needed a song about what life is like when insignificant little things and thoughts feel excessively overmuch. Dum Dum Dum is for when your body and mind call for a break and a song for everyone to not always try and strive for perfection but just let go and enjoy the ride.”
After hearing these first fruits, it’s good to know Maddy and Sune created more songs together.
Follow Maddy on Facebook | Instagram | Spotify
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
Michelle Limanjae – Pluviophile Song
Michelle Limanjae is an Indonesian-born, Melbourne-based artist who writes, composes and produces her songs herself in her bedroom studio. She used to listen to ‘90s acts like Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Alanis Morissette, before moving into her alt-rock and pop-punk phase, listening to the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Linkin Park and Nirvana.
Pluviophile Song is only her second single, but it sounds really self-confident. It’s a feel-good song with catchy hooks, combining jazzy melodies with rock instrumentation.
Michelle explains: “This song is simply about myself as a pluviophile, how I find joy and peacefulness on rainy days. I’m expressing my enjoyment through a fun, heavy and playful music arrangement in this song.”
Follow Michelle Limanjae on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify
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 trackmxmtoon – Sad Disco
mxmtoon – Sad Disco
With over 1 billion streams and more than 2,5 million TikTok fans, mxmtoon reaches many people. She likes to use this platform to express her feelings about subjects close to her heart. LGBTQ+ rights, the increasing violence against Asian Americans or mental health for instance.
She started her career five years ago with dreamy pop songs and introverted lyrics. So far, the prolific artist released eight EP’s, 35 singles (partly as featured artist) and an album. Her sophomore long-player Rising is on its way and will be out on 20 May.
Sad Disco is the second single to be put out ahead of it. The track has mxmtoon looking back on her previous work and analysing her own growth.
“I was 17 years old when i wrote my song Prom Dress”, she explains. “Four years later, I sat and listened to it, wondering if the lyrics and ideas still resonated with my now 21-year-old self. I decided that it did, and it also didn’t. I’d grown up since I wrote that song and realised I wanted to make something that felt current to my individual. Sad Disco was the resolution to that desire. A song built with the same bones that Prom Dress was made from, but more reflective of the growth I’ve experienced in my own life since. It’s a song meant to make you find joy in the quiet, to emulate that feeling of being alone in your bedroom, blasting music through a pair of headphones in the middle of the night. In a way, it feels like an answer to the girl who wrote Prom Dress in the first place. Serving as a reminder that she isn’t stuck on the floor with tears streaming down her face forever, but that she’ll grow up, and the loneliness she sometimes feels won’t define her. She can still choose to dance and have her own ‘sad disco’.”
Recommended as well:
No Faker
Follow mxmtoon on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify
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 trackMother Culture – Shitty Four Chord Pop Song
Mother Culture – Shitty Four Chord Pop Song
Mother Culture is the brainchild of Aussie brothers Darcy and Spencer Ward. They describe themselves as ‘ya sisters favourite band from South-East Melbourne’. The duo works entirely independently, writing, performing and producing everything you hear from their home studio.
The brothers draw from a wide range of musical influences to create their own bombastic blend of indie rock, psychedelia and pop. In an interview with Forte Magazine they say about that: “We’re sort of the combination of indie, pop, rock, psychedelia. I guess you could say we’re ‘deep space pop rock’.”
Following last year’s great single Drawing From Design, their new single is even better. Not for the faint of heart, it’s just a tad explicit. But in their own words: ‘Fuck it, no one gives a shit’. At least, I hope so, for if you do, you deprive yourself of a fantastic tune. Okay, it’s called Shitty Four Chord Pop Song, and technically, that’s exactly what it is. Meanwhile, however, it’s an excellent pop/rock song that’ll sound great on your radio station (if only you dared) and in your playlist. The chords are staccato and absolutely accessible, especially when accompanied by the infectious ‘la-la-la’ vocals.
Radio stations that are brave enough to program this shit will certainly do their listeners a favour. The ones that don’t aren’t worth their salt.
Recommended as well:
Drawing By Design
Follow Mother Culture on Facebook | Instagram | Spotify
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
After Arden – Dance Floor
After Arden consists of two vocalists and a producer. The trio may be Brighton-based, but its members Jessica Rose Dralet, Hedda Røste and Florian Brey are originally from France, Norway and Germany. They relocated to study music in the UK, where they met. After discovering their shared love of catchy melodies, acoustic guitars and vocal harmonies, they decided to start a band.
Everything you hear from After Arden is written, recorded, produced, arranged, sung and played by the three musicians. Their inspirations range from country to blues, rock to pop and funk to soul music. Obviously, their songs are a mix of these genres, but their magic trick is the addition of a pinch of Scandipop. The first name that crossed my mind when listening was American trio Wilson Phillips. They were most popular in the early ‘90s with hits like Hold On, Release Me and You’re In Love.
Following their debut single We Are On Fire, After Arden just released their sophomore effort. It’s called Dance Floor, but there’s not a beat to be heard. This is another sophisticated pop tune. True, there is room for some electric guitars around two thirds of the track, but only to turn this ballad into a power ballad. A job well done.
Dance Floor is about two people who have loved each other for years, but have failed to express it, out of fear of losing what they had. It’s a song about wanting to move on from childhood love.
Follow After Arden on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify
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 12):
Wildcard (week 12):
Estella Dawn – Buzzcut
New Zealand-born, US-based Estella Dawn McGee is an independent songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer. After releasing 20 tracks in the past four years, she’ll put out her first full-length album this spring. It’ll contain 14 brand-new tunes and the first single off it is out now.
Buzzcut is a sophisticated, self-produced modern pop song with touches of neo-soul. The delicately swinging musical backdrop is very well executed. The real treat however is Dawn’s voice, which is front and center in the mix. She has a large range, which is fully deployed throughout the song. By layering the vocals they even gain eloquence.
Lyrically, Buzzcut holds an empowering message. She explains: “This song is about holding your shape when embarking on a new relationship, an encouragement to stay true to your own authentic flare. To have someone be so enthralled with you that they would adjust themselves to better suit what they thought you wanted.”
If you like Dua Lipa (count me in!), you’ll love Estella Dawn.
Buzzcut is the new Carte Blanche Music Wildcard. This means it’ll feature prominently at the top of the blog for a whole week.
Follow Estella Dawn on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify
In the Wildcards 2022 playlist you’ll 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.
