Browsing Category single track
Ian Brown – Ripples
Ian Brown comes full circle with his new single.
After playing in a few other bands in the early 80’s, he became successful in the late 80’s as the lead singer of The Stone Roses – one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement. Their eponymous 1989 debut album contained the legendary single Fools Gold, a Top 10 hit in Europe and the US. Their follow-up album Second Coming was preceded by the single Love Spreads. A great blues-rock song, that was an ever greater hit in some territories, but eventually turned out to be less legendary.
After The Stone Roses broke up in 1996, Brown started a solo career, best-known for the singles F.E.A.R. and Be There, a collaboration with UNKLE. Last week, he released his new single Ripples, the title track off his upcoming new album (his first solo effort since 2009). Another fine tune, that brings back the Madchester feel musically, but with a vocal melody that mimics Love Spreads. A great way to sum up his musical journey.
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.
Wildcard (week 5):
Dua Lipa – Swan Song
I’ve got a weak spot for Dua Lipa. In my then radio show, I pronounced her ‘princess of pop’, the first time I played her first official single Be The One in 2015. For me, it’s still one of the best pop singles of this decennium.
In the years that followed, she released a self-titled debut album that spawned 8 commercial singles and a further 3 promotional singles. Also, she was the featured singer on hits by Sean Paul, Martin Garrix, Calvin Harris and Silk City. All of those tracks are present on the Complete Edition of her long-player, effectively making it her first Greatest Hits album. In the meantime, her live shows grew bigger, bolder and better. Dua Lipa is the full package.
Moving on to the next stage of her career, the singer just released a brand-new track. Swan Song is the title song of the forthcoming movie ‘Alita: Battle Angel’. Just like the movie, the video for the song takes place in a futuristic dystopia.
There is a Dutch touch to Swan Song: musician, composer and producer Tom Holkenborg (a.k.a. Junkie XL) wrote the full soundtrack to the movie. By consequence, he is also involved in this great single, which is the new Carte Blanche Music Wildcard.
In the Wildcards 2019 playlist you can find all of this year’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcards so far.
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.
Band Of Skulls – Cool Your Battles
Since forming in 2009, Band Of Skulls have released four studio albums, featuring great singles like Death By Diamonds And Pearls, You’re Not Pretty But You Got It Goin’ On, Himalayan en So Good. Two years ago, drummer Matt Hayward left the band, but this hasn’t stopped the remaining duo, Russell Marsden (guitar, vocals) and Emma Richardson (bass, vocals), from recording long-player #5. They enlisted Julian Dorio of Eagles Of Death Metal to play drums on the record.
This album, Love Is All You Love, comes out on 12 April and was produced by Richard X, who worked with everyone from Sugababes to Annie, Pet Shop Boys, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Goldfrapp. This explains the accessible, poppy sound of first single Cool Your Battles. The band call it ‘an anti-war cry for our turbulent times’. They continue: “All the energy we spend fighting amongst ourselves can be used to do something positive, something real. So don’t forget to go out, to fall in love and to feel alive.”
So if you’ll excuse me…
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.
Nilüfer Yanya – In Your Head
Although she’d been writing songs in her head since she was six, and on the guitar since she was 12, now 23-year-old Nilüfer Yanya only started sharing her tunes with the world in 2016. Since then, the UK-based singer-songwriter of Turkish/Irish/Bajan heritage garnered a loyal mass of followers. After a few EPs, including great tracks like The Florist and Thanks 4 Nothing, she just readied her debut album Miss Universe.
We’ll have to wait until 22 March for it to drop, but in the meantime, we can enjoy the set’s new single. In Your Head is as catchy as ever, but with considerably more guitars and energy.
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.
Piroshka – What’s Next?
Late in 2018, Miki Berenyi, KJ ‘Moose’ McKillop, Mick Conroy and Justin Welch (members of British indie bands Lush, Moose, Modern English and Elastica) launched their first collaborative single as Piroshka. Everlastingly Yours immediately struck a chord. What’s next, you ask? Well, their debut album Brickbat is scheduled for release on 15 February. But first, they put out a new single.
Aptly titled What’s Next?, the track is a euphoric guitar pop song, which recalls The Cranberries, in a good way. Berenyi explains: “The lyrics are inspired by the shock and fallout regarding current political upheavals – how this finger-pointing and rage and blame are so damaging, how we need to get back some kind of solidarity if we possibly can because the divisions between us are playing into certain people’s hands.”
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.
Blaenavon – Catatonic Skinbag
I first heard Blaenavon (pronounced bline-av-un) play by surprise, during the Eurosonic Noorderslag showcase festival in 2014. In my notes, I describes them as a ‘psychedelic teeny wave band’. By the time they released their debut album That’s Your Lot, in 2017, they sounded much more sophisticated.
Since then, things have gone quiet around the band. Two weeks ago, in a brutally honest note, singer Ben Gregory explained why: he had been hospitalised after incurring a stress-related breakdown. During his recovery, he and the band recorded their second album Everything That Makes You Happy, which Gregory says is ‘about suffering, guilt, love, family and overcoming trauma’.
Catatonic Skinbag is the long-player’s first single. A fierce comeback, that reminds me of Ash (a band I like very much).
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 Revivalists – Change
Change has always been one of my favourite tracks off The Revivalists’ latest album Take Good Care, and the New Orleans octet just released it as their new single.
Change is a vibrant pop soul song, that sounds like a modern Motown recording.
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.
Jealous Of The Birds – Blue Eyes
Judging by the singles off it, Jealous Of The Birds forthcoming EP will be great. Wisdom Teeth (available on 1 February) was preceded by the lovely single Marrow, and now, Blue Eyes is released as the second teaser.
Blue Eyes is a more full-on pop rock song, with funky bass and chunky guitars. On top of this groovy backdrop, Naomi Hamilton a.k.a. Jealous Of The Birds sings of the incomparable rush of a new sexual attraction with the owner of the titular ‘Blue Eyes’. The chorus, especially, is very strong, with it’s repeated ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah’.
The singer explains: “There’s something powerful to me about femininity being self-reflexive as opposed to being expressed through the male gaze. I tried to translate that grit and sass by going for heavier instrumentation, funky bass lines and pop vocal melodies. Honestly, I just want to make the listener dance and feel good. Out of all the songs on the Wisdom Teeth EP, this was perhaps the most musically direct and enjoyable to record.”
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.
Model Depose – Bombs Are Falling
It looks like Model Depose enjoy the silence. After their EP’s Untitled (2011) and Nightwatch (2013) they spent another three years to finish their debut album Splitting Light. Since then, another three years have passed. But… a new album is expected ‘in 2019’ (which potentially means ‘at the end of the year’). Luckily, the Dutch electronic pop band just put forward the album’s first single.
Bombs Are Falling is further proof of their profound love of Depeche Mode. It was the first song the band ever wrote, but they re-wrote it to suit their contemporary style. The song is inspired by a personal experience with the stress that might remain after having been in a war zone.
Bombs Are Falling is the first in a string of singles. The next one can be expected in March, after which Model Depose will release a new track every month. You do the maths… fat chance we’ll have to wait for that new album until next Autumn.
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.
Alice Merton – Learn To Live
A year and a half after her break-through single No Roots, and exactly one year after I saw her promising performance at showcase festival ESNS, Alice Merton delivers her debut album Mint. Next to No Roots, her singles Lash Out, Why So Serious and Funny Business are present, so it’s definitely worth your time.
The first song you’ll hear when you listen to the album is Learn To Live. A great track, with the same kind of thumping bass line as the one that made the German singer a star in the rest of Europe. This is Alice Merton in mint condition, ready for the rest of the world!
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.
