New Music Weekly #17 | Alvvays, Charli XCX & The Killers
New Music Weekly is here! Welcome to your one stop shop for new releases in the world of music each and every week. From the best of the best, to some of the rest, Mark Conroy is here to give you the low down on what you might have missed. This week: Alvvays, Charli XCX, The Killers and more…
Alvvays ‘Dream Tonite’
The unabashedly pleasant dream pop of Alvvays continues to result in unassuming earworms. While the first two singles off their upcoming sophomore album Antisocialites aren’t quiet the anthems of adolescent love that ‘Archie, Marry Me’ was, the quality of the tracks are still undeniable. ‘Dream Tonite’ is an airy serenade, one that never leaves first gear because its already floating off the ground by the time it starts.
https://youtu.be/ejdHdP7J8RQ-
Converge ‘Eve’
The cult metal-core act haven’t released any new music since 2012 but this week Converge announced a new album and gave us two new singles to boot. ‘I Can’t tell you about Pain’ is good, but the near 8 minute ferocious symphony of ‘Eve’ is the standout. The track is like a movie score for a film set on a particularly picturesque day as you face oblivion itself. The violent catharsis of the vocals works and counterpoint to the soothing atmosphere of the music that surrounds it.
Alex Lahey ‘Every Day’s the Weekend’
Alex Lahey’s effortlessly catchy rock is like a cheesy grin that you can’t help but reciprocate with another cheesy grin of your own. After last year’s stellar EP B-Grade University, she’s finally about to give us her debut album, I Love You Like A Brother, and the first single is yet another colourful carefree bop about the joys of idle living.
Charli XCX ‘Boys’
Charli XCX latest single is a sumptuous delight. Much has been made, and with good reason, about the adorable A-List featuring music video that re-defines both the male gaze and traditional notions of masculinity but the hooky-laden sweetness of her new single will sink its sugary teeth into you in no time.
https://youtu.be/mPRy1B4t5YA-
The Killers ‘Run for Cover’
Now that Arcade Fire have decided to make music that would be played at depressingly dancefloors somewhere in the Bahamas during monsoon season, we need to get our heart-on-sleeve rock anthems from somewhere. The Killers’ new singles have been… quite solid. ‘Run for Cover’ is a bit of a rush that reels back the years. Featuring Brandon Flowers trademark, romantic idealism – I think his lyrics never made much sense – the tracks blistering sincerity is hard to resist.
Jessie Ware ‘Midnight’
Jessie Ware’s latest finds the soul in soul itself. While ‘Midnight’ may take it’s time getting to the hair raising chorus, it’s well worth the wait. In past efforts, Ware has always sounded like she’s in complete control, but here she let’s loose. The piano stomps as our singer lets her emotions take over completely: “Don’t let me fall through/Now that I need you” she sings in explosive fashion.
Cara Delevingne ‘I feel Everything’
Here’s a game. Before listening to Cara Delevingne’s new track and apparent tie-in effort for her new Sci-fi epic Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, try and guess what it will sound like, because I promise you, you will be wrong. What we hear is a (not very) sultry lounge effort that wouldn’t be out of place in a by-the-numbers biopic of a 1940’s crooner. Which is, of course, the first thing you think of after watching a ridiculous Luc Beeson space opera. So connecting the dots isn’t easy and Delevingne’s delivery has all the conviction of an automated response from a train station ticket machine so there’s isn’t even much point to the song existing in the first place.
https://youtu.be/qmV5MW_XAtg-
