New Music Weekly #9 | Bitch Falcon, Big Thief and Feist
New Music Weekly is 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; Bitch Falcon, Big Thief, Feist, and more…
RAC ‘This Song (Ft. Rostam)’
“Featuring Rostam” following a track name has fast become one the most instantly recognisable seals of approval in modern music. The former Vampire Weekender turned super-producer has floated through projects, leaving his indelible mark of quality on all, whether it be an excellent album with Hamilton Leithauser or on one of the best tracks of last year, Ra Ra Riot’s ‘Water’. His newest collaboration is with polish producer RAC, and it calls to mind the deliciously dotty electronic work he was making a few years back. Rostam also lends his subtly emotive vocals, singing lyrics about the nostalgic bonding power of a shared musical experience.
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Nite Jewel ‘The Answer’
Nite Jewel usually make songs that sound like the 80’s but were recorded in the early 90s. While her previous material was an interesting mix of smooth synth and low key lo-fi, ‘The Answer’ has a crystal clear, bigger sounding production. It’s a minor pop treat, drenched in neon that, like a fluorescent street sign, can illuminate any dreary setting. The album Real high, is set to be released on May 5th.
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Bitch Falcon ‘Syncope’
Another Dublin three piece, another thunderous new single. Bitch Falcon’s latest is all bite. The swagger of the Sleater-kinney vocals suit the hard-hitting grungy riffs and the heavy metal chutzpah of the song. Its frenzy is fitting for a group with a name as arresting as this. This city is getting noisier by the week, and I like it.
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Kevin Morby ‘Come to me Now’
In the lead single to Morby’s upcoming fourth album City Music, the shaggy haired songwriter may sound like he’s at peace, but really, taking a load off is the only thing he can do. He’s aloof to the point that he can’t sit still, as he waits for the return of whomever will crack “the fortress of his heart”. ‘Come to me Now’ has the all the one-note yet deceptively powerful melancholy of Springsteen’s ‘Streets of Philadelphia’. This is, until the song’s euphoric last minute in which the drums get some purchase and the words shed some light. The person he’s looking out may never return, but Morby can take enough solace in the fact that that they were ever there in the first place.
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Big Thief ‘Mythological Beauty’
Just last year Big thief released the rather good and cockily named Masterpiece, an album of deeply felt and atmospheric indie folk. This week they already announced that its follow up Capacity will arrive on June 6th. Its Lead single ‘Mythological Beauty’ also dropped. Musically it’s the gently sung and gorgeous simplicity we have come to expect of them. Lyrically, however, it tells a loving but disconcerting tale of maternal bonding. Troubled memories are weaved half formed: ”You held me in the backseat with a dishrag, soaking blood with your eyes/ I was just five and you were twenty-seven / Praying ‘don’t let my baby die’” It’s obtuse and grisly, but the emotion is what brings it all into focus.
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Feist ‘Century’
Feist is not the waif-like whisperer some might peg her as, and she wants you to know it. Along with the feisty (Ed note – wahay) ‘Pleasure’, new single ‘Century’ shows how her new left turn is shaping up to be a darker take on the echoed sounds of the Sun Records Pop of the ‘50s and 60’s. Jarvis Cocker’s involvement here may be a bit of a hindrance, but the tracks jaunty belligerence speaks for itself.
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