Tyla’s new one is airy yet intense, icy yet burning hot. On “Chanel,” the South African singer matches Ian Kirkpatrick and P2J’s popping, skittering beat with a hypnotic hook: “You say you love me? Put me in Chanel.” Even if designer fashion brands aren’t your love language, you might find the track’s energy contagious.
The UK soul-pop singer-songwriter Celeste got a whole lot attention from the music industry when she was just starting out. In 2020, she won the BBC’s Sound Of 2020 poll and the Rising Star Award at the Brits. Her 2021 debut album Not Your Muse was a #1 hit in the UK, and it got a Mercury Prize nomination. Celeste was also nominated for an Oscar for “Hear My Voice,” her song for the 2020 film The Trial Of The Chicago 7. But now that she’s getting ready to release her sophomore LP Woman Of Faces, Celeste has had a very different experience with the business. She’s not happy about it.
Jennifer Walton has a distinguished pedigree in the realm of forward-thinking popular music. The London musician has drummed for the hyperpop bubblegum rockers Kero Kero Bonito and made music with the avant-garde rapper and producer aya, among other connections. On her debut album Daughters, Walton steps into the spotlight, and she makes the most of it.
Next Friday is Halloween, and it’s also the release date for the new Florence + The Machine album Everybody Scream. That should be fun! We’ve already heard the title track and “One Of The Greats,” and now Florence Welch has announced plans to hit arenas across North America next spring. If you’ve never seen Florence live, it’s a true spectacle. Her best songs sound huge, and she’s got the voice to deliver them. I don’t know if I would’ve expected her to headline arenas, but that sounds like a good night out to me.
She was a kid. That’s the first thing I think when I see the Sprained Ankle album cover today. It was probably the first thing I thought when I first saw that album cover in 2015. Baker was 19 years old when she made her debut LP, and she looked younger than that. The record came out shortly after her 20th birthday. (Baker herself turned 30 less than a month ago. Today marks 10 years since the release of Sprained Ankle.) The 19-year-old Julien Baker had done a lot of things. She’d been through addiction and recovery. She’d released an album with her teenage DIY band, and she’d toured house-show venues, with her dad in the car so that the kids in the group wouldn’t get in trouble for crossing state line without a chaperone. She’d almost died in a car accident. But still, she was barely more than a child.
Dave Ball, one half of the pioneering synthpop duo Soft Cell, has passed away. Soft Cell’s Instagram account confirms that Ball died peacefully at home in London on Wednesday. No cause of death has been reported. Ball was 66.
In May, Foo Fighters fired their drummer Josh Freese. Shortly after, they released a Minor Threat cover and an original song called “Today’s Song.” They hired Nine Inch Nails’ Ilan Rubin and then did a bunch of surprise shows at small venues in September. In October, they joined Bandcamp with a live EP of performances from those gigs, with proceeds going to charity. Now, they’re sharing a new track called “Asking For A Friend” and announcing a North American stadium tour with Queens Of The Stone Age, Mannequin Pussy, and Gouge Away (who were featured on the mixtapes Foos had at the pop-up shows).
Indie fixture Father/Daughter Records is celebrating 15 years of existence with the F/D Fifteen series, in which artists from the label are covering songs by other artists in the catalog. The latest installment comes from mui zyu, who delivered a haunting take on “Astral Plane” from Shamir’s 2017 F/D debut Revelations. What began as an indie-pop/reggae hybrid has been transformed into a shapeless, dreamy ballad that floats along a cloud, pierced partway through by searing electric guitar.
Earlier this year, SASAMI released her third album Blood On The Silver Screen. Today, she’s released a new version of “Just Be Friends” with Soccer Mommy.