Sean Lennon – Bird Song_R2

Among her many hidden talents, Carrie Fisher was a delightful singer, though she rarely showed off her voice. With that in mind, here’s a musical collaboration you probably never saw coming: Sean Lennon and Willow Smith have made a haunting duet co-written by none other than Fisher. According to Lennon, he and Fisher wrote “Bird Song” together “years ago” — Fisher was a longtime friend of the family and even once performed a Yoko cover with the Plastic Ono Band — but was inspired by her death last year to finally record it. “Carrie and I used to stay up til dawn chatting and pontificating about life. They were my best moments. Anyway … we wrote a song about staying up too late and hearing the birds sing. Willow Smith is a prodigal angel and was generous enough to lend her golden voice to this little tune,” he writes. (Willow’s also been known to cover Sean.) After Fisher died, Lennon called her “one of the best and closest friends I’ve ever had in my life” and described her death as “the kind of loss that you never recover from,” comparing its personal emotional impact to that of his father John Lennon’s death.

Read the rest of this article at: Pitchfork

Soulwax – Missing Wires

Later this month, Soulwax will return with From Deewee, their first album in more than a decade. The 12-track effort was recorded in early February in just 48 hours at the electronic outfit’s Belgian studio. It’s said to be based on Soulwax’s Transient Program For Drums and Machinery show, which they took out on the road last year.

As a peek into the upcoming LP, the group has shared a new song called “Missing Wires”. A whirlwind dance number, it’s laced with belching synths, frenetic percussion, and even a touch of grooviness.

Read the rest of this article at: Consequence of Sound

Kevin Morby – Beautiful Strangers

Kevin Morby’s songs, like the mountains and valleys that populate them, are deep and majestic, stretching out in defiance of the world beyond them. But even compared to the woodsy anthems of Singing Saw, Morby’s great solo LP from earlier this year, “Beautiful Strangers” feels bold—hymn-like in its simplicity but urgent in its message. It’s a protest song, with all its proceeds being donated to Everytown for Gun Safety, and Morby uses the song’s six minutes to address issues plaguing the world: gun violence, the death of Freddie Gray, recent attacks in Orlando and Paris. As far as protest songs go, “Beautiful Strangers” is more “I Shall Be Released” than “Ohio,” a means of finding comfort in the face of fear. The atmosphere is gentle and meditative: quietly groovy percussion, crisp acoustic guitar, and born-again-Dylan backing vocals echoing Morby’s pleas for peace and solidarity. “If I die too young,” he sings, “Or if the gunmen come, I’m full of love.” His voice is calm but firm, transmitting his love to those who need it the most.

Read the rest of this article at: Pitchfork

The Drums – Blood Under My Belt

Since forming in Florida way back in 2009, the Drums have centered around the duo of singer Jonny Pierce and guitarist Jacob Graham. But Graham left following the Drums’ 2014 album, Encylopedia. When the group’s name came up earlier this year, around the time people were sharing their formative teenage albums, it wasn’t immediately clear if the Drums were still a going concern. Happily, the Drums are back, sadly minus Graham. “Blood Under My Belt,” is the first taste of “Abysmal Thoughts”, due out June 16 as the Drums’ first record for Anti-. The song hints at the reasons for Pierce’s new solitude through a deceptively sunny jangle-pop tune about heartbreak and regret. “I have changed,” he insists in his lofty, familiar coo. Although, the Drums’ aesthetic hasn’t changed, filtering the DIY-pop utopianism of Postcard Records through synth weirdness. It’s all snappy drum machines, trebly guitar, and sighing electronics, as Pierce pleads for acceptance but not quite forgiveness. He wraps up the song’s most devastating moment in its catchiest, repeating “I love you, I love you/I still do,” reaching his upper register on the final, drawn-out note. This is the Drums you know, and indeed, you’ll feel compelled to answer back that you love them too.

Read the rest of this article at: Pitchfork

Day Wave – Untitled

While The Days We Had, the debut album from Oakland low-fi wonder Day Wave (aka Jackson Phillips), won’t be out until May 5, the reasons to count the days keep growing. On lead single “Wasting Time,” Phillips employed a woozy guitar line to pine for escape, while its follow-up, “Something Here,” explores a more cautious optimism for things to come. With the release today of “Untitled,” Day Wave further makes his case as the new prince of dream pop. A buoyant bass line steadies Phillips’ sunlit guitar and string synths as he softly bemoans, “You don’t want to be here / but you always find your way down.”

“A lot of this record was written around the time of my first two EPs, but this song is one of the exceptions,” Phillips explains. “I wrote it just a few days before I went into the studio to record the album. I’m glad this one made it onto the final track listing, it’s one of my favorites.”

“Untitled” is Day Wave’s latest magic trick: turning boredom and longing into something serene and gorgeous. Go for a drive, put it on repeat and settle in as we wait for Phillips to conjure more from his exceptionally promising debut.

Read the rest of this article at: Paste