Welcome, new faces, to This Week In Records. I’d like to pretend that there’s lots of new music demanding your pre-freshers’ attention today, however the fun is really on the way next week – BANKS, Bon Iver, Craig David, Pixies, Slaves, etc. Today, we’re going to break from our usual structure to pay a bit more attention to today’s new songs as we prepare for those album festivities, although if there’s anything we’ve missed or you’d like to see your upcoming release featured on this page, let us know by emailing us at [email protected]!
The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk – ‘Starboy’
This Week In Records and mornings don’t particularly go well together (which you may well know if you’ve ever read a thread in which we’ve complained about artists not putting things online at midnight), so when Nick Grimshaw is on air and we’re in a position to actually pay close attention to the content of the broadcast, he really shouldn’t go around baffling us with dreams of new music from Daft Punk. Fortunately, ‘Starboy’ is more than just a dream – the lead single from the upcoming album from Abel Tesfaye of the same name, it’s less Starboy Nathan and more the sort of brooding jam about flashy cars, drug-dusted tables, and falling Brad Pitts that you’d expect after his Beauty Behind The Madness-addled 2015.
Lido – ‘Murder’
Allow me to place some words here so I may return to them come the year’s end and tell you that I told you so: Lido’s debut album will almost certainly melt your face off in the greatest way fathomable. The 23-year-old Norwegian producer, perhaps best known for his work with on-off girlfriend Halsey and his plethora of remixes of folks like The Weeknd, alt-J, and Bill Withers, is two weeks shy of baring Everything, and its second cut depicts the breakup that crafted the album in a typically mind-blowing fashion. This coming Thursday, he’s to play his first ever show in the UK at the London Fields Brewhouse. If you, unlike me, are not a fool with prior engagements and an inability to make the logistics work for a 500-capacity show you’ve been waiting three years for, tickets are only £8.25.
Goldroom – West Of The West
“I wanted to make songs that sounded like early 2000 collaborations with [French disco artists] Fred Falke and Alan Braxe. Use a lot of live bass, make it funky,” says Josh Legg, an American producer who has quietly built a following under the Goldroom banner in recent years. “I thought if I could write traditional rock/pop songs with that production, I’d have something really special.” Whilst our review doesn’t quite describe his full-length bow West Of The West with quite such words, it’s certainly a record with a capability for sophisticated grooves that look to that French touch and further beyond with nostalgic spectacles.
Will Joseph Cook – ‘Sweet Dreamer’
Will Joseph Cook wasn’t blessed with the most flamboyant of names and it’s quite easy to think of him from afar as another twentysomething with an acoustic guitar moping about life’s tribulations, but don’t let this put you off – those guilty of tepid meandering through their moping sessions don’t get signed by Atlantic Records, support Everything Everything, or get their debut release proper (the tongue-in-cheek delight of ‘Girls Like Me’) played out all over BBC Radio 1. Once you grow accustomed to the sheen of the stars and stripes that has evidently rubbed itself all over his Kentish voice, there’s a lot to enjoy in his writing and general grasp of melody, and the uplifting, anthemic pop/rock-tinged ‘Sweet Dreamer,’ premiered on Annie Mac’s show last night just minutes after that Weeknd track was crowned her Hottest Record, may just be his most immediately memorable (and imminently successful) track to date.
Nevada feat. Mark Morrison & Fetty Wap – ‘The Mack’
Remember that time someone asked for a tropical house rendition of Leicester’s biggest R&B one-hit wonder of 1996 with a verse from Fetty Wap thrown into the sickly concoction?
Yeah, us neither.
Selected Other Releases
Albums
Airbourne – Breakin’ Outta Hell
Billie Marten – Writing Of Blues And Yellows
Billy Bragg & Joe Henry – Shine A Light: Field Recordings From The Great American Railroad
Boxed In – Melt
Bruce Springsteen – Chapter And Verse
Jahméne – Unfathomable Phantasmagoria
My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade / Living With Ghosts
Nimmo – Room 5 Sessions EP
Passenger – Young As The Morning, Old As The Sea
Shawn Mendes – Illuminate
Tritonal – Painting With Dreams
Trolls OST
Vangelis – Rosetta
Warpaint – Heads Up
Singles
Alex Clare – ‘Tell Me What You Need’
Armand Van Helden – ‘Wings’
Aston Merrygold – ‘I Ain’t Missing You’
Bad Sounds – ‘Wages’
Bishop Briggs – ‘Be Your Love’
Bon Jovi – ‘Labor Of Love’
Boston Bun feat. Loreen – ‘Get Into It’
Bloc Party – ‘Stunt Queen’
Danny Brown feat. Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul & Earl Sweatshirt – ‘Really Doe’
David Guetta, Cedric Gervais & Chris Willis – ‘Would I Lie To You Baby’
Green Day – ‘Still Breathing’
How To Dress Well – ‘Can’t You Tell’
J Hus – ‘Playing Sports’
Keane – ‘Tear Up This Town’
Kings Of Leon – ‘Walls’
Klangkarussell – ‘Hey Maria’
Leonard Cohen – ‘You Want It Darker’
LION BABE – ‘She’s A Lady’
Liv Dawson – ‘Reflection’
Mahalia – ‘Silly Girl’
Mullally – ‘Wonderful’
NERVO feat. Timmy Trumpet – ‘Anywhere You Go’
NxWorries – ‘Lyk Dis’
Pixie Geldof – ‘Sweet Thing’
Regina Spektor – ‘Older And Taller’
Rizzle Kicks – ‘Cooler Than This’
Slaves feat. Mike D – ‘Consume Or Be Consumed’
Sting – ‘50,000’
Tchami & MALAA – ‘Prophecy’
Teddy Mac – ‘You Make Me Feel So Young’ / ‘Quando Quando Quando’
Tempa T – ‘Not A Rocker’
