New Music Weekly #20 | Car Seat Headrest, Ariel Pink, LCD Soundsystem
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: Car Seat Headrest, Ariel Pink, LCD Soundsystem and more…
Car Seat Headrest ‘War is Coming (If you want it)’
If you’ll remember a while back, the music of Car Seat Headrest ended up on the soundtrack for Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why, and by the time front man Will Toledo got around to seeing the show, he wasn’t happy about it. On Twitter, he called the show “kinda fucked” and told writers not to “tell kids how to turn their miserable and hopeless lives into a thrilling and cathartic suicide mission”. New single ‘War is Coming (If you want it)’ seems in part to be a response to this. The track is a warping, bass heavy effort that seeks to reach out to as opposition to scandalise those suffering from the “Lure of suicide”.
Ariel pink ‘Feels Like Heaven’
Ariel Pink is known for subversion and fourth wall deconstruction in his music, but even when he’s being conventional, he can still strike gold. ‘Feels like heaven’ sounds like it too, and begs to be played on that ethereal plane. Pink evokes the spacious pop soundscape of 80’s groups like The Psychedelic Furs and adds a celestial chorus that shines like the pearly gates themselves.
LCD Soundsystem ‘tonite’
With each passing single off of their upcoming comeback album American Dream LCD Soundsystem have dived further back into their own past. ‘Call the police’ and the title track evoked the wistful dance anthems of both Sound of Silver and This is Happening. Their latest release ‘tonite’ sounds like some of their earliest work, a slow builder with a skeletal, repetitive beat at its core and some typically self-aware begrudgery at the state of today’s music culture.
Alvvays ‘Pimsoll Punks’
Alvvays’ 3rd single from their upcoming sophomore album is a little more forceful than the first two, but the dreamy pop-rock remains just as pristine. ‘Pimsoll Punks’ may well be as close as a group like Alvvays will get to making a punk song in that tempo is incrementally more ‘up’ than usual, but the guitars still chime, and Molly Rankin’s put downs of a negative lover remain endearing.
The War on Drugs ‘Up All Night’
We’ve already gotten half of the The War on Drugs newest album A Deeper Understanding via the singles, and unless the other half is left-field mix of ska, reggae and nu metal, chances are it’s shaping up to being one of the best rock records of the year. ‘Up all night’ is another searing uplifter, it’s euphoric latter section dazzling in it’s distorted optimism.
Grizzly Bear ‘Wasted Acres’
Grizzly Bear’s new album finally arrived this week and the atmospheric track that opens proceedings is certainly the best of the material we hadn’t already heard. The cinematic string work and the leisured pace lull the listener into the densely sonic sumptuousness of the album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euoFIHEk1z4
Amber Mark ‘Heatwave’
Amber Mark’s Heatwave is delicious throwback dance number that you don’t really hear anymore. It’s a kinetic samba influenced stormer bursting with energy.
