Our tour of Southampton’s classiest eateries continues, this week bringing This Week In Records to you live from Portswood’s Trago Lounge. If you’ve ever desired plentiful yet startlingly dim light fixtures, more mirrors per metre of wall than can be found in my entire house, and a bizarre assortment of rustically-tinged bric a brac whilst eating rather enjoyable chicken ciabattas and undercheesed cheesy chips, it’s certainly a little more hospitable than McDonald’s, especially if you’re using its free WiFi late on a Thursday evening to write some nonsense about music with an expanding cast of colleagues eager to pen their own segments. If you’d like to recommend your Southampton-based establishment for next week’s Wessex Scene-encroaching festivities or simply see your upcoming release featured on this page, then let us know by emailing us at [email protected]!
Two Door Cinema Club – Gameshow
If Kirsty Young would let me gently tweak the rules of Desert Island Discs in such a way that would allow me to take eight albums instead of eight tracks with me into the abyss, the delightfully concise and perky Tourist History – the 2010 debut from Irish trio Two Door Cinema Club – would certainly nab a spot. Although through the Beacon era and prolonged silence that followed I remained in slight denial at their “maturity,” however joyous the brassy bits of ‘Sun’ were, the band that faces us today is one that seems altogether more confident in its new angles. Out with uptight quirkiness and in with slicked-back hair and Bee Gees pastiche, third album Gameshow may be following polarising singles – reviews right here – but I know I won’t be alone in scouring the web for a way to sneak into the sold-out tour that now lies ahead.
The Vamps & Matoma – ‘All Night’
Tropical house, as you may well know, is a scourge on the face of music today, garishly existing in a dimension where everything’s viewed through a washed-out prism as people sip oddly fruity cocktails from hollowed-out pineapples in slow motion. Matoma and Becky Hill, however, drew me into a (thankfully marimba-free) trap over the summer with ‘False Alarm,’ one of the best pop songs of the year. With Hill’s excellent performance at Union Southampton’s Freshers’ Ball last week now a wonderful memory – “I hadn’t fucking heard of him,” she said that night in reference to how their collaboration came to be – and her own track ‘Warm’ due on Monday, her Norwegian colleague’s joined The Vamps for some disregard of both the autumn in which we live and the things that made his biggest production to date whatsoever endearing.
Kings Of Leon – WALLS
Speaking of bands going on tour, Kings Of Leon sprung a surprise last night by announcing five arena shows that seem to dare not tread south of Birmingham. (Read into that what you will about their upcoming festival plans.) Fortunately, there’s a new ten-track collection with which we may console ourselves, led by exactly what you’re here for: “anthemic rock storytelling with catchy choruses.”
Maroon 5 feat. Kendrick Lamar – ‘Don’t Wanna Know’
A SCOURGE, I SAY. This piña colada sheen is getting almost as ridiculous as Kendrick Lamar verses on arbitrary pop rec…
Oh.
Dusky – Outer
Whenever a new name crosses my inbox, it’s typically quite easy to decipher the useful information from the subject line. For Dusky, whose Wiley-featuring ‘Sort It Out Sharon’ was the track in question, expectations of mildly humorous grime with a Rizzle Kicks-leaning pop hook couldn’t really have been further from the truth. The cavernous, bone-rocking techno that appeared has, however, been one of my guiltiest pleasures over the summer, and Outer‘s full release brings more collaborations (‘Long Wait’ with Solomon Grey, ‘Spruce’ with Pedestrian, ‘Swansea’ with Gary “Probably Recorded His Vocal In A Car” Numan) around a track called ‘Runny Nose.’
Far East Movement & Marshmello feat. CHANYEOL & Tinashe – ‘Freal Luv’
Marshmello’s ascent from fireside companion to stateside festival staple over 2016 has been rather odd to observe, especially through the primary medium of Snapchat. After early material like a ‘Where Are Ü Now’ remix began to ripple across SoundCloud, his apparent desire to be heard and not seen around early releases vanished quickly, breaking from allegations of actually being Skrillex by strutting around in a deadmau5-emulating LED-slathered mask and tight-fitting white clothing. Now, his brand of aural Jägerbombs – briefly intense, moderately sickly, tediously repetitive, easily capable of slipping to something inferior if you’ve been exposed to enough – is finally being picked up by established acts, serving here as the lead single for the ‘Like A G6’ crew’s upcoming record Identity with a side of Tinashe being quite good as usual.
Selected Other Releases
Albums
Bell X1 – Arms
Conor Oberst – Ruminations
Douglas Dare – Aforger
Jagwar Ma – Every Now & Then
Jamie Lidell – Building A Beginning
JoJo – Mad Love
Katie Melua – In Winter
Moby & The Void Pacific Choir – These Systems Are Falling
Powell – Sport
Rebecca Ferguson – Superwoman
Souls – Release
The Game – 1992
The Naked And Famous – Simple Forms
Tom Chaplin – The Wave
Zeds Dead – Northern Lights
Singles
Alex Clare – ‘Gotta Get Up’
Alex Vargas – ‘Higher Love’
Aquilo – ‘You Won’t Know Where We Stand’
Avenged Sevenfold – ‘The Stage’
Baauer feat. Chaki Zulu, KEPHA, JB, kZm & PETZ (YENTOWN) – ‘Night Out’
Crystal Fighters – ‘Good Girls’
Daughter – ‘The End’
Emeli Sandé feat. Jay Electronica & Áine Zion – ‘Garden’
Enter Shikari – ‘Hoodwinker’
Fais & Afrojack – ‘Used To Have It All’
Franz Ferdinand – ‘Demagogue’
Hardwell feat. Jay Sean – ‘Thinking About You’
Illy feat. Anne-Marie – ‘Catch 22’
Jimmy Eat World – ‘You Are Free’
King Charles – ‘Find A Way’
Machine Gun Kelly & Camila Cabello – ‘Bad Things’
Macklemore feat. Ariana DeBoo – ‘Drug Dealer’
Michael Bublé – ‘The Very Thought Of You’
Parson James – ‘Sad Song’
Pia Mia feat. Syph – ‘On & On’
Rhys Lewis – ‘Waking Up Without You’
Saint Motel – ‘Born Again’
Seeb feat. Jacob Banks – ‘What Do You Love’
The Veronicas – ‘On Your Side’
Tove Lo – ‘True Disaster’
VANT – ‘Peace & Love’
Wiley feat. Devlin – ‘Bring Them All / Holy Grime’
