Another week, another fresh batch of music to spend your Friday morning listening to. It’s that time of the year again where the tracks which are likely to dominate this summer are slowly making their way to our ears. This week seems to see the beginning of that, with a new album from the brilliant Calvin Harris and tunes from the likes of Rudimental, Redlight and Clean Bandit. Also in the midst is a visual album from the archetypal rap maestro Jay-Z (which you will probably never see unless you have Tidal and who has Tidal?!), and another single from the flourishing Arcade Fire. Lots of new stuff, and lots of words below about the things which you should give a little listen to.
Calvin Harris – Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1
Following the success of ‘Rollin” and ‘Slide‘ as well as latest single ‘Feels’, I am convinced that Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1 will be the sound of this summer. With features from Frank Ocean, Travis Scott, Kehlani and Big Sean to name a mere few, it is likely to bring with it tunes which can be listened to on repeat during its entirety. ‘Slide’ has already formed a place in my own heart as one of the songs I’ll remember from summer 2017 and I’m probably not the only one; the big summer anthems which Harris churns out year after year cannot be underestimated. I haven’t even gotten properly acquainted with this album yet and I already know that I love it.
Also leaving this one here…
Arcade Fire – ‘Signs Of Life’
I’ve been desperate to write something about Arcade Fire since their burst back onto the scene with ‘Everything Now‘ a few weeks back, then second release ‘Creature Comfort’ arose, sounding like it had been plucked from an ’80s back-catalog, and that desire was solidified. Give me songs doused in electronics and I’m there. ‘Signs Of Life’ includes killer bass guitar and this time channels ’70s vibes with the use of backing singers which confirm Butler’s lyrics: “Looking for signs of life / Looking for signs every night / But there’s no signs of life”. The lyrical strengths of Arcade Fire are evident in this record and, if they continue to release tracks of this standard, we can expect big things from Everything Now.
Mura Masa feat. Damon Albarn – ‘Blu’
Mura Masa feat. Christine And The Queens – ‘Second 2 None’
Week after week the multi-faceted Alex Crossan, who has recently been dubbed the new Calvin Harris, releases yet another couple of tracks featuring major artists. Damon Albarn (lead singer of Blur and co-founder of Gorillaz) features on his latest, ‘Blu’, a late-night slow jam which still manages to stand out amongst this category. Meeting initially when doing work for the latest Gorillaz album, according to Crossan they later swapped demo material with Albarn wanting to be a part of ‘Blu’, a track originally written by Crossan for his girlfriend.
A second release this week features French electropop superstar Christine And The Queens, who puts her stamp on the track with vocals on every part of it by way of lyrics and also heavily manipulated stutters. The synth-driven record also features some nice use of steelpans and artificial flute which make up the main base of percussion, often muffled to make way for the heavy beat which dominates. In anticipation of Mura Masa’s self-titled and star-studded debut album on July 14th, these two tracks will fit snugly amongst other releases such as the massive hit ‘Love$ick‘ featuring A$AP Rocky.
Clean Bandit & Marina And The Diamonds – ‘Disconnect’
First performed two years ago at Coachella, the new Clean Bandit collaboration with Marina And The Diamonds has actually been a long time in the making and it does not disappoint. What we find is a melancholy song set alight by disco feels and made because of Diamandis’ stunning vocals. It charts the difficulty of love in modern life with the chorus (“Yeah, I need to take a breath / Yeah, I need to disconnect”) uttering all of our desires at times to want to disconnect from the ties of social media. The two artists compliment each other brilliantly on this record, so please do give it a listen.
Selected Other Releases
Albums
Astrid S – Party’s Over EP
Baio – Man Of The World
A Blaze Of Feather – A Blaze Of Feather
Doldrums – Esc
Jay-Z – 4:44
John Smith – Headlong
Kacy Hill – Like A Woman
LANY – LANY
Lapalux – Ruinism
Stone Sour – Hydrograd
The Acacia Strain – Gravebloom
The Japanese House – I Saw You In A Dream EP
TLC – TLC
Washed Out – Mister Mellow
Singles
Aine Cahill – ‘Angels & Demons’
Anna Of The North – ‘Someone’
Billie Eilish – ‘Watch’
Bruno Mars vs. David Guetta – ‘Versace On The Floor’
Bugzy Malone – ‘Bruce Wayne’
Chip feat. Ghetts – ‘Gets Like That’
Cosima – ‘Un-Named’
Dan Caplen feat. RAY BLK – ‘Flat Champagne’
Desiigner feat. Gucci Mane – ‘Liife’
Dusky Grey – ‘Call Me Over’
Hare Squead – ‘Flowers
Harper – ‘Bad Luck’
I Know Leopard – ‘Let Go’
Kideko – ‘Dum Dum’
Liam Gallagher – ‘Chinatown’
LOYAL – ‘Reset in Colour’
Lucy Rose – ‘Moirai’
Machinedrum feat. Rosie Lowe – ‘What Is This’
Matt Wills – ‘Virtue’
Metro Boomin feat. Offset & Drake – ‘No Complaints’
NEIL FRANCES – ‘Back To What I Know’
Noah Slee feat. Melodownz – ‘Lips’
OneRepublic – ‘Truth To Power’
Pompeya – ‘Domino’
Prince Fox feat. Bella Thorne – ‘Just Call’
Redlight feat. Liv Dawson & Kojo Funds – ‘I’ll Be Waiting’
Rudimental feat. James Arthur – ‘Sun Comes Up’
San Holo feat. James Vincent McMorrow – ‘The Future’
Saya – ‘Cold Fire’
SecondCity – ‘Kwelanga’
St. Vincent – ‘New York’
The National – ‘Guilty Party’
Tourist feat. Ardyn – ‘We Stayed Up All Night’
Whethan feat. Mascolo – ‘Good Nights’
Young Clancy – ‘Slo Mo’
Youngr – ”93′
YVES – ‘You Wanna Know’
This Week In Records: Playlist Edition
Follow our shiny Spotify playlist and all this musical newness will be right there in time for breakfast every Friday morning.
