March In Song

It’s been a weird month of dotting around here, there and everywhere and amongst great stuff like Hamilton, anniversary drinks, Bleachers and a school concert there were more things breaking/being cancelled/not quite going to plan than seems normal. Here were some great tunes that got me through the month.

• A Praise Chorus - Martha

  Covering Jimmy Eat World was a great call - fab version. Ice Cream And Sunscreen is an awesome track. (And I love the band name!)

• …Baby One More Time - Jack Black

  No matter how much credit he’s given, Jack Black isn’t given enough credit for his vocals or his ability to rock!

• Sawtooth - Ben Chatwin

  Scottish ambient techno? Love it.

• RAZE! - Urvanovic

  Moving away from the folkier stuff (I love indebted) the new album launches next month and if it’s anything like RAZE! it’ll be a great new vibe.

• Midnight Souls Still Remain - M83

  Nothing better than chancing upon a sixteen year old synth drone track that you’ve never heard and being blissed out by it and thinking it was new.

• PARTY ON MY DEATHBEAD - Hot Milk

  Seriously hard rocking!

• Hairband - Sean R. McLaughlin

  Heartfelt layering of the sounds that’s got a Frightened Rabbit vibe.

• I’m Just Ken from the Academy Awards 2024 - Ryan Gosling

  I think it’s crap that Barbie didn’t win more, and also crap that Ryan Gosling’s awesomeness is one of the major takeaways from the Academy Awards (not, you know, all of the women and the whole point of the movie)… but he did a blinding live performance that a lot of performers can learn from!

• Maybe I’m Amazed - Wendlo

  This couple make the most wonderful music. Their close harmonies have the ease of hours of practice together… and the rubber bridge sound on the guitar is so concentrated… their production makes you feel like you’re standing right there. (You Make My Dreams (Come True) is awesome and I Love You Always Forever made me think of Longwave 252 in the 90s).

• 4316 - Isobel Campbell

  Vocoder! Pulsating wave sounds! Bubbles! Lush vocals! Love it.

• 99 Days - Grace Yurchuk

  Someone else that I’ve only heard from Instagram, but once again sucked in by the songwriting in a short and hooked by the finished production.

• Automatic Love - Echo Machine

  (Is Fiction is pretty fab too).

• Stuck in Horror (Literally Anything) - Josephine Sillars

  I especially like the spoken word stuff over the rising beat at the end.

• Little More - Chiara Berardelli

  The choral opening going in to the sad, almost Belle & Sebastian/God Help The Girl sound is gorgeous.

• I Drink Wine - Adele

  It’s not a song that I normally listen to but a cover at the school concert blew my mind and I couldn’t help listen to it a few times more.

• Round Here (Counting Crows cover) - Noah Gundersen

  Cripes DM! The emotional delivery of this song is off the charts. Precision in honoring the original but with a glorious version that adds layers on Adam Duritz.

• Crown On The Ground - Sleigh Bells

  Oooft the compressed bass/drum/chords thing is so intense it cuts out thoughts!

• Cabaret - Self Esteem

  The BBC recording from Maida Vale that I loved the other month has been released as an EP - and Cabaret is a wildly good performance.

• Death - White Lies

  This song totally dropped from my memory until I heard it on a show - totally underrated!

• 1/2 Cappuccino - Kapa Tult

  Such a jolly tune!