Wild Ones - Invite Me In (Ring Road Live Sessions)

This live take on 'Invite Me In' reflects the more thoughtful/introspective end of the current F-Word playlist. The recorded version can be found on Mirror Touch, which was one of my favourite albums of 2017.

End of year list with a difference

I thought I'd try taking a departure from the usual end of year lists format this year, having not done one since 2014 because:

A.) Florence + The Machine would have won everything in 2015, and that would have made for a pretty repetitive blog post

B.) 2016 was such a weird year it required a different approach.

So, 2017... 

I remember writing in my diary at the end of 2015 'Well, thank God that's over' or words to that effect, little knowing the horrors 2016 would bring, and indeed, 2017...

One last thing:

Because I didn't do a list in 2016, the rule I'm working to is: If it was released in 2017, or if it was released in 2016 but I didn't hear it until 2017 then it's OK to include it. 

Favourite article of the year to write (By me): Women and music festivals, again (The F-Word)

Perhaps this is a little misleading... It wasn't so much a case of 'enjoying' it as being gripped by a hurricane that wouldn't let me go until I'd finished it, 48 hours later. And it led to a whole series of posts on here as well, plus 7 fantasy festival bills I'd like to see.

Expect to read more on this issue, and related issues, in 2018.

Favourite article of the year (Not by me): What I learned from a year of dumpster diving in Australia (Medium)

You will be staggered by this... really staggered, and possibly inspired as well.

Favourite tattoo of the year: This one from The Studio in Manchester

Such a collision of difference reference points, and no one else will have one like it. Genius.

Favourite disclaimer of the year: Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, Duke of York Theatre, London

Favourite foul mouthed ear worm of the year:

A tie between St Vincent's 'New York' and Peking Duk/Icona Pop's 'Let You Down', both of which feature copious and enthusiastic use of the f word.


Favourite anti-Donald Trump song of the year:

Grace Mitchell 'Kids (Ain't Alright)' did it for me in the end, conveying as it does a real sense of bewilderment and 'What the fuck just happened?!'. That said, favourable mention (obviously) goes to Arcade Fire and Mavis Staples for 'I Give You Power', which they had the foresight to release on inauguration day.


Favourite double edged single of the year:

Natasha Kmeto, 'Pour Down/Free For Tonight'

Side A: Full on rainbow coloured lust on the dance floor

Side B: An equally killer dance anthem but with the underlying razorblade in the floss that it was a song pointing to the fragility of LGBTQI spaces

Favourite breaking artist of the year:

Overcoats.

The New York duo more than punched above their weight this year, with an impeccable debut album and strong singles. Their tours in the US are now headliner tours and are getting longer and longer. Let's hope we see them in the UK soon.

Most fully realised psychogeographic album of the year:

EMA, Exile in the outer ring

A dystopian postcard from the US mid west. 

Most eerily prescient album of the year:

This is a tie between Kate Tempest's Let Them Eat Chaos and Father John Misty's Pure Comedy. The former hinted, in various ways, at a number of societal factors that were all about to converge in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower disaster, whereas the latter clearly signposted the warning signs of a US that had just elected Trump president.


Favourite video of the year:

Georgia, 'Feel It'

Favourite 'Where the hell did that come from?!?' album of the year:

Kelly Lee Owens, Kelly Lee Owens, as signposted by Piccadilly Records.


Favourite gig of the year:

A tie between Gothic Tropic at The Castle Hotel as part of the Manchester leg of Dot To Dot, 26th May 2017 and Honeyblood at Gorilla, 21st December 2017 (review currently in progress, stymied by Christmas...)

Band to watch in 2018:

Pearl City

They provided strong support to Honeyblood at Gorilla on 21st December and are a Manchester duo who used to be known as Bernard & Edith and now appear to have renamed themselves after a mancunian Chinese restaurant. They sound a bit like Kate Bush fronting a dark wave band... Am expecting good things. 'Flames' is out now.

Albums of the year:

15) Wolf Alice, Visions Of A Life
14) Jesca Hoop, Memories Are Now
13) Bully, Losing
12) Rews, Pyro
11) Pink Milk, Purple
10) Zola Jesus, Okovi
9) Kelly Lee Owens, Kelly Lee Owens
8) Noga Erez, Off The Radar
7) Honeyblood, Babes Never Die
6) Wild Ones, Mirror Touch
5) Helen McCookerybook, The Sea
4) Gothic Tropic, Fast or Feast
3) St Vincent, MASSEDUCTION
2) Overcoats, Young
1) XX, I See You 

Songs of the year:

I have made a Spotify playlist of these songs, but Helen McCookerybook's most recent album is not available on Spotify so I have included a link to the song on YouTube instead.

20) Grace Mitchell, 'French Becky'
19) Halsey and Lauren Jauregui, 'Strangers'
18) London Grammar, 'Truth Is A Beautiful Thing'
17) Rews, 'Miss you in the dark'
16) Daughter, 'Burn It Down'
15) Beth Ditto, 'Savoir Faire'
14) Wolf Alice, 'Beautifully Unconventional'
13) Bipolar Sunshine, 'The Scientist'
12) Noga Erez, 'Noisy'
11) Georgia, 'Feel It'
10) Honeyblood, 'Sea Hearts'
9) Lorde, 'Liability'
8) Wild Ones, 'Parathesia'
7) Helen McCookerybook, 'Big Brother'
6) XX, 'Replica'
5) Overcoats, 'Nighttime Hunger'
4) Gothic Tropic, 'Stronger'
3) Natasha Kmeto, 'Pour Down'
2) St Vincent, 'Los Ageless'
1) Miya Folick, 'God Is A Woman'

Wild Ones - Paresthesia (opbmusic)

I reviewed the album, Mirror Touch, on here a month or two back and this is still my favourite track from it.

Startling for all the right reasons.

"I'm not right...inside": Wild Ones' return with classic new album

Wild Ones by Jeremy Hernandez

US band Wild Ones are due to release a new album of sparkling slightly skewed electro pop at the beginning of October. The title, Mirror Touch, refers to the medical condition mirror touch synesthesia and to the "physiological experience of empathy. How can you know yourself when in public you become everyone else?" It's this sense of contradiction and disorientation that runs through the album.

From a musical perspective, the band grew up on Cocteau Twins and En Vogue, and this knowledge provides you with a good bit of context when it comes to approaching their sound. On one hand there is a dark synthy element to a lot of the songs but this sits alongside the more evident bouncy electro pop and R&B elements.

Opening track 'Paresthesia' is all crashing electro chords, heavy synths and insistent, nagging percussive urgency. Singer Danielle Sullivan's vocals are reminiscent of Visions era Grimes, and are similarly sweetly endearing. This is a very bouncy track but in an offbeat way; wonky pop at it's best, with a great hook and chorus. It's a real ear worm, not to mention being a strong contender for song of the year. Sublime, euphoric and blissful despite it's dark lyrics.

The synth led 'Do you really' is a less urgent piece, but has similarly great hooks and bridge. More Naked And The Famous or Metric than Grimes, it's very sing along to. It's followed by the bouncy electro pop of 'They're not me', and the emotive and sweet electro ballad 'Invite Me In', which seems a good cousin to our friends Overcoats and their more electro orientated work. The most recent single, the soft and gorgeous lullaby 'Standing in The Back at Your Show', is similarly lovely.

Perhaps the most subversive track here though (aside from 'Parasthesia') is 'Wanna be your man', which follows the sad piano, crashing drums and swooping guitar of the instrumental 'Night Shift'. This is a laconic slice of electro pop that comes across like early Sugababes via Blondie and is just too good. This is woman as sexual pursuer, the swaggerer, the aggressive one. It has all the hallmarks of a pop classic and sits nicely along recent works by Gothic Tropic and Overcoats.

It's followed by the big song with big emotion that is 'Love + Loathing', in which brooding verses contrast with the emotional explosion of the chorus."Infatuation is so hard to hide"acknowledges Sullivan. There is a similar urgency to 'Forgetting Rock'N'Roll', with its pounding drums, swaggery synths and blurred and disoriented backing vocals, all making for good post disco electro pop.

The album ends with the bouncy but lyrically outspoken, shouty chorus fuelled 'No Money', which is another slice of classic electro pop. "Another hundred billion dollars gets me closer to God" snarls Sullivan in what is a (probably) unintentional nod to Nine Inch Nails, a reference only enhanced by the excellent insistent and unyielding drums at the end.

A perfect wonky pop album then, intelligent and innovative, also catchy as hell.

Mirror Touch is out on Topshelf on 6 October

Dim the lights

Excellent new US electro pop band Wild Ones have put out a teaser from their upcoming debut Heatwave EP that promises great things. No video as yet, but you can hear it on Soundcloud.

The EP will be out in August.