Browsing Category album track
Sub-Radio – Emotional
In 2017, Washington DC band Sub-Radio set out to release a single a month for an entire year, but after putting out 6 of the 12 planned singles, they decided to go for a different approach. Releasing a single every month being too exhausting a process, they opted to release an EP instead. That allowed them more time to create a cohesive piece of work that they felt they didn’t have to rush to release, like with the singles.
In February, the sextet put out the first single off the EP: What We Are. Now, the entire Headfirst EP is out there. A collection of danceable pop rock songs, of which Emotional is my favourite!
For more great new music follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Shed Seven – Won’t Get Home Tonight
Late last year, Shed Seven released Instant Pleasures, their first album in 16 years’ time. Apparently, they recorded more than the 12 tracks on it, but instead of waiting another 16 years to put them out, they decided upon a Deluxe Edition of the album, adding ten tunes. Among them three remixes, three demos and four ‘new’ songs.
Won’t Get Home Tonight is the best of the new bunch in my opinion, with its driving rhythm, 80s power chords, double guitar solo and staccato drum accents, all crammed into 3’34. Very likable!
For more great new music follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Priest – Lost Lions
Priest is electronic-based indie-pop singer Camille Priest from Orlando, Florida. She first set her melancholic vocals to music on her Samurai EP in 2014. Further singles were collected on her eponymous debut album in 2016.
Her new EP The Lost Lions is out now. Four tracks, produced by David Kazyk, including stand-out track Lost Lions. More or less the EP’s title song, it sounds like a female Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark. Gorgeous stuff!
For more great new music follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
The Spectors – Dorothy
When Marieke Hutsebaut founded The Spectors in 2012, their demos soon caught the ear of former Editors guitarist Chris Urbanowicz. He produced the Belgian band’s self-titled debut EP (2014) and full album Light Stays Close (2015), two releases full of shoegaze and dreampop.
Their second album Ooh Aah Aah took three years to make. Three years that Hutsebaut used to experiment with different line-ups and to find the right musical touch. She says about that search: “Our main goal on this record was to step away from the heavy shoegaze and highlight our poppy side with a collection of catchy songs.”
Mission accomplished, as far as I’m concerned. Ooh Aah Aah contains short, snappy and sparkling songs with honest lyrics, in which Hutsebaut chronicles her life with Asperger’s. For me, Dorothy is one of the album’s highlights!
For more great new music follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
IAMJJ – China
Last year I featured You In My Arms by IAMJJ here already. A great track, that followed Bloody Future and served as a second introduction to this mysterious 24-year-old Danish singer-songwriter. After his third release (and first proper single) Homer, IAMJJ just put out his debut album Bloody Future.
IAMJJ played many of the album’s songs at showcase festival ESNS, in January, and one of the songs that immediately stood out for me, was China. It’s one of the highlights on the album as well.
For more great new music follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Victor Manuelle & Juan Luis Guerra – Quiero Tiempo
Spring is in the air, so why not starting to look out for the potential signature summer songs? I deliberately don’t use the term ‘summer hits’, for Carte Blanche Music isn’t about hits, just about great new music.
European radio stations are often not adventurous enough to play genres like salsa, bachata or merengue, not even in the summer. While there is so much to like! Hopefully, the worldwide success of latin songs like Despacito, Mi Gente and Échame La Culpa will give a boost to other (and more authentic) music in Spanish as well.
What can go wrong when two veterans join forces? Victor Manuelle, from Puerto Rico, has been scoring latin hits since the mid-90s and most recently featured on a salsa version of Despacito. Dominican singer Juan Luis Guerra’s career started ten years earlier. He rose to global fame in 1990 with Burbujas De Amor, which is currently (and criminally) absent from streaming platforms.
Manuelle’s brand new just-released album 25/7 features an incredibly sunny duet with Guerra, that would be a great soundtrack for the summer of 2018.
For more great new music follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Liza Anne – Panic Attack
Liza Anne Odachowski, the critically acclaimed Nashville singer-songwriter better known these days by her stage name Liza Anne, just released her third album Fine But Dying. An intriguing collection of songs, of which I already recommended the first single Paranoia. Album track Panic Attack is an equally honest song. In fact, honesty and/or openness appears to be the main theme of the album.
In Liza Anne’s own words: “Growing up, people would always say I was too happy to be depressed, or too social to have anxiety. In their eyes, because I was one thing, I couldn’t also be something else. I think we all exist in duality, though. I can be everything and nothing all at once.”
In a world where keeping up appearances seems to be the norm, we need more people like Liza Anne.
For more great new music follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Calum Scott – Give Me Something
Less than three years ago, Calum Scott auditioned for the ninth series of Britain’s Got Talent. He performed a cover of Robyn’s Dancing On My Own, that became a pan-European hit a year later.
Last week, the singer released his debut album Only Human. In my opinion, Give Me Something, which could have been a John Newman track, would make an excellent single!
For more great new music follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Jimi Charles Moody – Happy Song
As one half of British hip hop act Rizzle Kicks, Harley Alexander-Sule had his share of the spotlights, and he didn’t like it. That’s why at first, he didn’t conceal his identity when he continued his career as Jimi Charles Moody, and often appeared with a cloth around his head.
Three years in the making, he had now released his second EP Highbury. It contains the former singles Only You and Shame, as well as two new songs. Prolong The Pain is a heartfelt song like the ones we’ve come to know him for. But today, I’d like to recommend the other one: Happy Song.
Happy Song is a playful protest song pointed at his old record label, who had asked for a type of song that wasn’t sad, like his usual output. They kind of got what they wanted, but didn’t get to put it out. Now, Jimi Charles Moody has done so himself…
For more great new music follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Rae Morris – Dancing With Character
Do It by Rae Morris was Carte Blanche Music Wildcard in September last year, the month she turned 25. In February, she released her second album Someone Out There, including first single Reborn and Do It, as well as follow-ups Atletico (The Only One) and digital tracks Push Me To My Limit and Lower The Tone.
Saving the best for last, the British singer-songwriter closes her album with one of its highlights. The track Dancing With Character was written by Benjamin Garrett (Fryars) and Finlay Dow-Smith (Starsmith) and produced by the latter, who already worked very successfully with Ellie Goulding, Jess Glynne, Paloma Faith and many more.
Dancing With Character is not a single (yet), but very much worth 4 minutes of your time. A subtle, well-crafted song, that would stand out on many of today’s pumped up, beats-laden playlists.
For more great new music follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
