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Werner’s Weekly (week 3)

January 13th, 2020

This is Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters, containing the two most recent Carte Blanche Music Wildcards, and the best of the other new releases in alphabetical order:

Overcoats – The Fool (Wildcard this week)
Harry Styles – Treat People With Kindness (Wildcard last week)
Beverly Girl – I’m Your Girl
Charmplay – Hurry
Pet Shop Boys – Monkey Business
Rat Boy – Victim Of A System
Set It Off – So Predictable

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: Ash, Circa Waves, Deacon Blue, Georgia, Halsey, Selena Gomez, Tame Impala, The Wombats, and many more.

single track

Oh Wonder – Happy

January 10th, 2020

In anticipation of their new album No One Else Can Wear Your Crown, London-based duo Oh Wonder release its fourth single. Happy is a tune that delivers what its title promises. Just listen to the opening piano notes, that fall like raindrops. Or the uplifting violins that grace the choruses, as if it were a Carly Rae Jepsen song.

The track describes a person who achieved the emotional maturity to wish their ex well. Rumour has it, Happy was inspired by the ex-girlfriend of Anthony West, one half of Oh Wonder. By now, Josephine Vander Gucht is his other half, both musically and in private.

The couple first attracted attention because of their unorthodox approach to releasing their debut album in 2015. They recorded and released one song a month for a year, eventually bundling them on a self-titled long-player. New album No One Else Can Wear Your Crown, their third, will be out on 7 February.

For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

indie | pop

single track

Elsa Birgitta Bekman – All ‘bout Love

January 10th, 2020

Elsa Birgitta Bekman made a good start in 2020. She released the EP All ‘bout Love, which bundles her singles Once In My Life, Desire Lines, and Waiting For You. The fourth song, the EP’s title track, is her new single. A beautiful and delicate song, that once again comes with a stunning video.

Bekman says about All ‘bout Love: “I wrote these lyrics in a pub on a Friday night. My friends had already left, and I should have gone as well, but I didn’t want to be alone. I was very in love at the time, but it wasn’t quite mutual. I hoped he’d change his mind, but he was still in love with his ex. We did date a while. For years, I cherished my love for him, hoping something would change. It didn’t happen.”

Elsa Birgitta Bekman is a Dutch singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, music video director/producer with French and Swedish roots. Nostalgia, escapism, romance and melancholy are returning themes in her music and the accompanying videos.

Recommended as well:
Elsa Birgitta Bekman – Desire Lines

For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

indie | melancholic | pop

single track

Charmplay – Hurry

January 9th, 2020

Dutch indie-pop quartet Charmplay are sure to be embraced by fans of Satellite Stories and Two Door Cinema Club. They produce the same kind of danceable pop-rock, which should go down well on radio as well as live.

Robert Been, Kaj van Hooijdonk, Eddie van Dongen and Laurens Huinder played their first gig was in a sold-out soccer stadium. This was the prize of a contest, for which Charmplay wrote the winning tune.

Recently, the band signed a record deal, enabling them to work on their upcoming debut album 20/20. I expect it to be released this year (duh 😉 ). Hurry is Charmplay’s great new single. It’s currently their only track that’s available on the streaming platforms.

For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

indie | pop | rock

single track

Beverly Girl – I’m Your Girl

January 9th, 2020

They don’t come any more eighties than this, and I love it. Beverly Girl use drum machines and synths to rebuild the pop era feel. The resulting sound includes elements of disco, soul, r&b and funk. For fans of The System, Janet Jackson, and The Brand New Heavies.

The Finnish trio features singer Yohanna (who changes her appearance with nearly every new track), Artur and Tracy. After releasing two hands full of singles, they’re now working on their upcoming debut album The Unstoppable Force. I’m Your Girl, which sounds like a 2020 version of Deniece Williams’ Let’s Hear It For The Boy, is the final song to be released ahead of it.

For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

electronic | indie | pop

single track

Rat Boy – Victim Of A System

January 8th, 2020

Rat Boy (Jordan Cardy’s alter ego) doesn’t keep his critical views to himself. He has the courage to stick out his neck. In that respect, the title of his new EP Government Vacation is self-explanatory. Musically, his driving cocktail of rap, rock, and grooves adds fuel to the fire.

Victim Of A System is the EP’s new single. On it, Rat Boy enhances the aforementioned formula with infectious horns and a pinch of ska. Another track that screams for the volume to be pumped up.

For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

hip hop | indie | pop | ska

single track, wildcard

Wildcard (week 2):
Overcoats – The Fool

January 8th, 2020

Brooklyn duo Overcoats consists of Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell. With their new single, The Fool, they complete their transition from a folk band to an electric pop/rock outfit. As a result, the single is a powerful anthem, both musically and lyrically. The song contains a strong message of empowerment, independence, and self-determination. In the video, this message is represented by the pair shaving their heads, making it both a bold statement and a bald one.

Mitchell points out: “We wrote it based on ‘The Fool’ tarot card. It signifies taking a leap of faith and jumping into the unknown. Conceptually, it felt like the beginning of the project. We wiped the slate clean and decided to jump. That’s why the video includes the footage of us shaving our heads. We’re ‘The Fool’, and we’re taking our leap.” .

In the United States, The Fool was released in September 2019. Other parts of the world, like Europe, only follow now. Great timing. Overcoats are really useful in this time of year. With its tarot reference, it’s only logical The Fool is this week’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcard!

In the Wildcards 2020 playlist you can find all of this year’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcards so far.

indie | pop | rock

single track

Set It Off – So Predictable

January 7th, 2020

Los Angeles-based rock band Set It Off follow their recent album Midnight with a project named After Midnight. Although the exact tenor of the concept hasn’t been revealed yet, my guess would be that it contains unreleased material from the Midnight sessions.

Just before Christmas, the band released After Midnight (Part 1): the track Catch Me If You Can. And now, Cody Carson, Zach DeWall and Maxx Danziger follow it up with an even stronger tune. So Predictable holds all of the Set It Off trademarks. Catchy guitar riffs and choruses: check. A driving rock instrumentation: taken care of. Bold electronic elements: yes sir. An overall feel-good vibe: hell yeah!

Whatever the After Midnight concept may hold, I like it already!

For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

indie | rock

single track

Moviestar – Iron Forest

January 7th, 2020

The first word that came to my mind when I read Moviestar’s bio, was ‘pretentious’. But undeniably, this band dares to stand out from the crowd, and that can only be a good thing.

Let me explain the pretentious part. The trio claim to originate from the distant future, and to have ‘landed the spaceship Moviestar in Norway’. Also, the characters call themselves Infinity Vik, Anaconda and The Octopus Goddess. Next, they call their music ‘sci-fi rock’, comparing themselves with bands like Television, The B-52’s and LCD Soundsystem. And finally, they call Infinity Vik ‘a female incarnation of David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and James Brown’. Based on this information, I think you’ll agree this all sounds more than a little bit pompous.

Having said that, I think a band should first and foremost be judged by its musical output. And even though the lyrics of their new single Iron Forest play with the space theme all over again, I can only conclude that they get away with it. It’s an intriguing and captivating track, which sits somewhere between Twin Peaks (the TV series) and Björk. It certainly makes curious for their next album, which they named The Curse And The Currency Of The Twenty-First Century.

For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

indie | pop

single track

Pet Shop Boys – Monkey Business

January 6th, 2020

Legendary duo Pet Shop Boys, who scored hits in the ‘80s, ‘90s, ‘00s and ‘10s, just entered their fifth decennium. They do so with new single Monkey Business, which features a prominent bassline. This makes it sound funkier than they usually do. As soon as the vocoder drops in, the Daft Punk comparison is complete.“We’ve actually written, almost for the first time in our career, a groove song”, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe say of the track.

Following Dreamland (feat. Years & Years) and Burning The Heather (feat. Johnny Marr), Monkey Business is the third single off their upcoming 14^th album. Entitled Hotspot, the long-player (out on 24 January) is their third in a row to be produced by Stuart Price.

For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

electronic | pop

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Werner’s Weekly (week 3)

Oh Wonder – Happy

Elsa Birgitta Bekman – All ‘bout Love

Charmplay – Hurry

Beverly Girl – I’m Your Girl

Rat Boy – Victim Of A System

Wildcard (week 2):
Overcoats – The Fool

Set It Off – So Predictable

Moviestar – Iron Forest

Pet Shop Boys – Monkey Business

Wildcard (week 4)

Werner’s Weekly (week 4)

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Wildcard (week 4)

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