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Wildcards week 20 and 21
Well, wasn’t it quiet here the last two weeks? I was on holiday with limited access to internet. I did manage to keep the Carte Blanche Music playlist updated, however. So, for a quick overview of the best new tracks that were released during my vacation, please follow that link. And to make sure you never miss out on any great new music in the future, feel free to subscribe to it.
As you can see in the playlist, well-known and lesser-known artists just keep on dropping fine fresh tracks. And holiday or not, the very best of them continue to be chosen as Carte Blanche Music Wildcards each week. The past two weeks as well, although I had no chance to inform you about them. Let me set that straight. For the record, here they are:
Week 21: Welshly Arms – Down To The River
Cleveland, Ohio four-piece Welshly Arms, named after a sketch in Saturday Night Live, follow past singles like Legendary and Sanctuary with Down To The River. Delivered in their characteristic style, combining genres like blues, gospel, rhythm & blues and rock, this is a new banger, that sits somewhere halfway Imagine Dragons and Hozier. If you like what you hear, Welshly Arms’s second album No Place Is Home is highly recommended.
Week 20: Christine & The Queens feat. Dâm-Funk – Damn, Dis-Moi
Christine & The Queens’s break-through in Great-Britain and North America caused a little delay in recording their second album, but the first single off it was worth waiting for. Damn, Dis-Moi sounds like a Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis production from the late 1980s. Think Janet Jackson, for example. Janet’s dance moves also seem to have inspired the choreography in the clip for Christine’s damn fine new single. A welcome return!
As always, you can find all of this year’s Carte Blanche Music power plays in the Wildcards 2018 playlist.
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 19):
Ali Barter – Girlie Bits
Do you know the expression ‘kicking against the pricks’? That’s what Australian singer Ali Barter does on this single. It’s a tradition that goes back to powerful women in music in the ’70s and ’80s of the last century, but in 2018, the subject is as current as ever.
Ali Barter says about Girlie Bits: “It has nothing to do with body parts, it’s about the cage of what we expect of women: girlie guitar parts, girlie singing, hair; this idea of ‘femininity’ and how to fit within it. But women are not some gentle, watered down version of men. We do it our own way. We work really hard to write good songs and play great gigs – only to have people critique our clothes and the look on our faces, instead of the music.”
Girlie Bits was first released in 2016, but Barter’s label found a new distribution partner, that’s confident the song deserves a second chance. I agree the track is likely to appeal to a whole lot of people, women and men alike. And if you’re not into lyrics, but you’re a fan of Juliana Hatfield or Tracy Bonham (or Alex Lahey or Courtney Barnett, who are Australians like Barter), there’s a lot to like here as well!
This week, Girlie Bits by Ali Barter is the new Carte Blanche Music Wildcard, providing the song and its message with a well-deserved prominent platform.
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 18):
Hooverphonic – Romantic
Belgian band Hooverphonic started in 1995 as trip hop act Hoover, but they needed to change that name to avoid legal issues with the vacuum cleaner company of that name. Since then, the name of that company collected more dust than the devices that once made them famous.
Ever since the beginning, Hooverphonic has two constants: bassist/programmer Alex Callier and guitarist Raymond Geerts. Their choices for vocalists have always been outstanding, although most of them didn’t last long. After five female singers – Esther Lybeert (1995-1996), Liesje Sadonius (1996-1997), Kyoko Baertsoen (1997), Geike Arnaert (1997-2008) and Noémie Wolfs (2010-2015) – they tried some male vocalists for the first time on their 2016 album In Wonderland. But now, they’re back with their success formula, presenting their sixth front woman. One that the Belgians among you may already know…
17-year-old Luka Cruysberghs won The Voice Van Vlaanderen in 2017, where she was part of team Alex Callier, who happened to be one of the show’s coaches. She even sang the band’s Mad About You during the competition.
Romantic is the first Hooverphonic song with their new leading lady. A typically melancholic, orchestral pop song with ‘James Bond’ written all over it. Cruysberghs’s voice blends beautifully with Callier and Geerts’s symphonic backdrop. It once more underlines the duo’s great talent to find the right singer, time and time again. Let’s hope this trio will last for many years.
Hooverphonic is one of my favourite bands of all time. Listen to their Best Of album to hear why. Their new single Romantic is this week’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcard, all of which you can find in the Wildcards 2018 playlist.
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 17):
Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson – Bad Dreams
Apart from being an actress, Scarlett Johansson is a singer. Her first album Anywhere I Lay My Head, full of Tom Waits covers, dates back to 2008 and her most recent single Set It All Free made it into the Carte Blanche Top 2016.
In 2009, she teamed up with singer-songwriter Pete Yorn for the first time. They recorded a duet album, Break Up. Nine years later, they’ll follow it up with a new EP called Apart, to be released on 1 June.
First single Bad Dreams is more bombastic than the material on Break Up. It’s a great pop song, with more than just a bit of Fleetwood Mac thrown into the mix. In the video, directed by the notorious Sophie Muller, Yorn and Johansson go on a hallucinatory road trip.
You can follow them on this trip the whole week long, for Bad Dreams is the new Carte Blanche Music Wildcard.
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 16):
Cute Mess – Untied
Honestly, I can’t remember the last Polish band that scored a pan-European hit. However, Cute Mess might soon pull it off!
Cute Mess are a young quartet, consisting of Mateusz Olechno, Kacper Witkowski, Franciszek Wojnarowski and Zuzanna Stępkowska, who’s voice sometimes reminds me of former 10,000 Maniacs singer Natalie Merchant. Untied is only their second single, and reflects upon the necessity to distance oneself from unhealthy relationships.
A great track, that I proudly present as this week’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcard. You can find all of them in the Wildcards 2018 playlist.
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 15):
Stars – Ship To Shore
Stars are a Canadian theatrical pop/rock band, which is active since the year 2000. Only last October they released their ninth album There Is No Love In Fluorescent Light, but Ship To Shore is a brand new track.
It’s a classic case of things being not always what they seem. Ship To Shore sounds like a light-hearted – even happy – summer ditty with its danceable disco-ish musical backdrop. Man, how I love those bold ’80s drums and synths!
But this electro-pop mask hides the true meaning of the song: it a remembrance of singer Amy Millan’s late friend, John Bil. A discrepancy that’s beautifully captured in lines like ‘You played me The Cure / Friday I’m In Love / It’s so good it hurts’.
This week, Stars’ Ship To Shore is the Carte Blanche Music Wildcard. All 15 of them (so far) can be found in the Wildcards 2018 playlist on Spotify.
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 14):
boy pablo – Losing You
An artist can work hard and make brilliant music, but still not succeed in building a career. Some hard working brilliant musicians however, get just that extra push their career needed. Like boy pablo, a Norwegian group of high school best friends, fronted by 19-year-old Pablo Muñoz. Last year, YouTube unexpectedly featured the video for their early single Everytime on the site’s ‘Recommended’ tab. The clip quickly racked up millions of views and now sits comfortably at 6 million.
Hopefully the time to capitalize that early success comes with the band’s new single. Losing You is another great slice of dreamy yet sunny pop, where Muñoz addresses his insecurities about a rocky love.
This week, Losing You by boy pablo is the Carte Blanche Music Wildcard, which means it’ll feature prominently at the top of the blog. For a glimpse of its predecessors, check the Wildcards 2018 playlist.
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 13):
Tiny Fighter – New Century
In 2016, Tim Spelman moved from Melbourne to Stockholm, where he joined forces with local singer Therese Karlsson to form Tiny Fighter. They are the perfect match, as they complement each other: Tim is good at starting songs, Therese has a talent for finishing them.
Now working together for only a year, New Century is the duo’s debut single. An indie-pop song with a bittersweet edge and a New Order-like bass line. It comes with a video that was shot entirely on a 360 degree camera. And although no special effects were added in post-production, filming it this way produced some stunning visual effects in itself.
New Century by Tiny Fighter features prominently on this blog for a week as the Carte Blanche Music Wildcard. You can find all of them in the Wildcards 2018 playlist.
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 12):
Echosmith – Over My Head
In 2013, American pop siblings Sydney (vocals/keyboard), Noah (vocals/bass) and Graham Sierotas (drums) broke through big time with their debut single Cool Kids. This worldwide hit appeared to be a hard act to follow, but Echosmith’s new single sounds like another smash to me.
Over My Head has an inescapable synth-driven chorus and bold drum beats. It is the first taste of their next album, which will be released this summer.
Next week, Over My Head by Echosmith is the new Carte Blanche Music Wildcard (all of which you can find in the Wildcards 2018 playlist)!
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 11):
BC Unidos (feat. US Girls & Ledinsky) – Take It Easy
In June last year, I wrote about Bicycle by BC Unidos (feat. Shungudzo). A week later, I made it Carte Blanche Music Wildcard, and it subsequently appeared among Your Favourites for four months in a row, ending 7th in the year-end chart. After this runaway success, the duo, consisting of Swedish hit composers Patrik Berger and Markus Krunegård, collaborated with the likes of Santigold, Carly Rae Jepsen and Charli XCX on their Bicycle EP.
Apparently, they had more great names in their Rolodex: their new single Take It Easy features US Girls, who appeared on this blog multiple times, and fellow-Swede Ledinsky, whose DonaldTrumpMakesMeWannaSmokeCrack was something of a cult hit in 2016.
The track somehow reminds me of Long John Baldry’s version of (Walk Me Out In The) Morning Dew (but I’ve got a vivid imagination). Anyway, it’s a modern soul song that deserves to be embraced by many radio stations, but most importantly: by you!
For starters, Take It Easy by BC Unidos (feat. US Girls & Ledinsky) is embraced by Carte Blanche Music as this week’s Wildcard (all of which you can find in the Wildcards 2018 playlist). As a result, the track appears prominently on top of this blog until next Wildcard Wednesday!
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.
