Browsing Category single track
Club Drive – Satisfied
After coming to the scene with their debut EP Dangerous, in 2016, and subsequent singles Spare Time, Voyager, International (all 2017) and WDYD (earlier this year), Club Drive’s new single Satisfied is only their sixth release.
Club Drive are a Hertfordshire synth-infused guitar pop trio, consisting of Aaron Trowbridge, Tommy O’ Malley and Christian Murphy, and Satisfied is easily their most satisfying (did I say that?) single, so far. Its pulsating rhythms are built around funky guitars, tantalising drums and luscious vocals. Cleverly crafted and nicely produced, it sounds like the Justin Timberlake song that JT himself forgot to deliver, recently. If you’re looking for a catchy, rocky synthpop banger, look no further!
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 Charts.
Cesare Cremonini – Possibili Scenari
Around the turn of the century, Italy was under the spell of a hugely successful band: Lùnapop released only one album, …Squérez?, but sold one and a half million copies of it. In Italy alone! I still adore their debut single 50 Special. Alas, in 2002, frontman Cesare Cremonini officially announced the dissolution of the group. He has since pursued a successful solo career.
In 2017, Cremonini released his 6th solo album Possibili Scenari, which proves his songs are still as catchy as ever. Italy never stopped loving him, rewarding his latest long player with the platinum status. Ahead of the singer’s ‘Cremonini Live 2018’ tour, he releases the title track off Possibili Scenari as his new single. A song that will grow on you!
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 Charts.
Leoniden – People
This week, German band Leoniden will share their second album, Again. Leading up to the long-player, brothers Lennart and Felix Eicke, Jakob Amr, Djamin Izadi and JP Neumann already released the singles Kids, River and Alone. New single People makes it four in a row.
Finger snapping, hand clapping, a killer chorus over a house piano, untameable energy… it’s all here in another poppy rock song you can dance to.
After Leoniden’s sophomore debut album, the band started their own record label, won the New Music Award in their home country, played a lot of gigs and toured with Franz Ferdinand. I’m curious where their new material will bring them!
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 Charts.
Jealous Of The Birds – Marrow
Northern Ireland’s Naomi Hamilton, a.k.a. Jealous Of The Birds, appears to have been experiencing a period of inspiration and productivity in recent times, leading up to the release of her EP The Moths Of What I Want Will Eat Me In My Sleep, only last summer, now followed by the announcement of her forthcoming EP Wisdom Teeth, on 1 February 2019.
Marrow, built on a soothing guitar melody that accompanies Hamilton’s angelic vocals, is the first single off her new EP. A sweeping rock song that shows off her multi-dimensional talents.
Hamilton explains: “Marrow is my attempt to articulate what it’s like to be a human being navigating one’s inner and outer worlds. After I graduated university a year ago, I became much more resolute about chasing a life in music, art and travelling. To me, this song captures that sense of striving for authenticity in all its colours and forms, whether that’s in love, in one’s career, or in one’s spirituality. I think it also taps into this idea of the individual versus the collective, and the ways we assimilate what’s happening for us on a personal level with all the chaos and intensity of the world at large.”
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 Charts.
Apre – Backstreet
Charlie Brown and Jules Konieczny are two songwriters, producers and multi-instrumentalists from London, who form alternative electro-pop Apre. They first met at the Chess Club, where they were allowed to use the back room to start making songs and rehearsing their creations live.
Hot on the heels of two EPs (The Movement Of Time and Drum Machines Killed Music) they released in only a few months’ time, they just shared their new single Backstreet. Apparently, the two aren’t thinking of slowing down any time soon.
Starting off with vocals over a simple piano melody, the listener is immediately drawn into the song. The smoothly flowing chorus, which is sung by Brown and Konieczny together, could have been part of a song by British band Jungle.
Apre’s breakthrough can’t be far away!
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 Charts.
Wildcard (week 43):
Isaac Gracie – Show Me Love
Isaac Gracie’s record label released six singles off his self-titled debut album (one of them being former Carte Blanche Music Wildcard Silhouettes Of You). Five out of those six were down-tempo tracks, effectively positioning the artist as a balladeer. James Bay, who signed to the same major company, got the same ‘treatment’. A shame, for both artists have more rock in them then those singles gave them credit for.
Hopefully, Isaac Gracie can set the record straight with his new material, and especially the tracks that are being put forward to promote these new tunes. His first new song makes me hopeful. Show Me Love is an up-tempo affair, with a structure out of the (streaming) book: after a short intro, it kicks off with the track’s title, and continues with verses and choruses that are equally catchy. After just over 3 minutes, it’s all over, making you long for more.
It’s early days, I know, but with more songs as strong as this one, the future looks bright for Isaac Gracie. For starters, Carte Blanche Music shows him love by choosing his new single as this week’s Wildcard. As a result, Show Me Love by Isaac Gracie is always only a mouse click away…
In the Wildcards 2018 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 Charts.
Noémie Wolfs – Let Me Down
Three years after leaving Hooverphonic and two years after releasing her wonderful solo album Hunt You, one of Belgium’s most talented voices, Noémie Wolfs, is back with a new single. Let Me Down is new in every respect. Produced by Yong Yello, a young producer from Antwerp, it has a completely different sound than her previous material. Fans of Portishead or fellow-Belgian Selah Sue are sure to like this.
The singer says about this transition: “I had this idea to combine my kind of pop music with oldskool hip-hop drum loops. Yello was the ideal person to try and make this work, since he has a background as a beatmaker. (…) The violins you hear in the intro of the song are samples that we found on old and shady records from the forties and fifties. It was very cool to work in that ‘cut and paste’ kind of way.”
Lyrically, Let Me Down is the story of two opposites. She’s in it for the tease, he’s in it for the ride. Wolfs: “I like to write about strong women who take control, mainly because I’m just like that. I don’t see Let Me Down as an autobiographical story, but there are lots of elements in the story that I can relate to.”
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 Charts.
Only Yours – Everlasting
Only Yours are a Toronto-based four-piece, that make electronic pop music, combining dreamy elements with high energy parts. Led by acclaimed songwriter Lowell Sostomi, the band released a few singles and an EP in 2016 and 2017. Now, they’re ready to unleash their debut album Overrun, which is set to come out in 2019. Put together with the help of a dream team, it was produced by Joe Chiccarelli (The Shins, The White Stripes, Morrissey), engineered by Leon Taheny (Arcade Fire) and mastered by Emily Lazar (Beck, Haim, Coldplay, Brandon Flowers).
Following the album’s first single Doubts, Only Yours just shared their new single Everlasting. Sostomi: “Like gripping sand, the tighter your clasp, the faster it falls. When you intuitively feel something slipping away, you can’t help but cling tighter to it. I wanted to convey a desperate energy in Everlasting, a vibe that feels smooth and calm on the surface, but eventually festers and builds up into a chaos.”
The track features a sax performance by Destroyer’s Joseph Shabason, which helps to accentuate exactly that.
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 Charts.
FIDLAR – Can’t You See
L.A. band FIDLAR (which is short for ‘Fuck It Dog, Life’s A Risk’) have their third album coming up. Almost Free will be let loose on 25 January 2019. It was produced by Ricky Reed, who worked Twenty One Pilots and Phantogram before. Singer/guitarist Zac Carper says about the record: “A lot of the vibe was, ‘Well, why can’t we do that? Why can’t we have horns? Why can’t we have key changes? Why can’t we have a harmonica loop?’ It was about taking the ceiling off. Having it be limitless. Ain’t no rules.”
The long player was preceded by the singles Alcohol and Too Real, and the album announcement came with third single Can’t You See. The track appears to signal a change in musical direction for the band, that used to be a punk outfit. Can’t You See is much more easy-going and has more of a funky blues feel to it. It even features a fair amount of piano.
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 Charts.
Fyfe & Iskra Strings – Gold
Fyfe is 27-year-old singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Paul Dixon, and Iskra Strings is violinist James Underwood’s group of string players, who enjoy making music together regardless of genre. Earlier this year, the two combined forces on the Fyfe & Iskra Strings EP 1.
Ahead of a second EP of original material, expected later this year, they just released a new collaborative single: Gold. Effortlessly incorporating elements of the electronic and classical worlds, it’s a pop song with a silken edge.
Fyfe says about the song: “Gold was conceived whilst thinking about the idea that flaws are beautiful too. I’d heard about the Japanese technique of repairing pottery called “kingsugi”, where gold is applied in the repair on the cracks. This not only restores but often elevates the beauty, creating something even more precious and most importantly unique. Gold applies this to a relationship.”
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 Charts.
