The nostalgia at the heart of ‘Summer Of Now’, the final track from James Blake’s new EP, is something that we all seem to be yearning for of late. The track’s narrator repeatedly references the summer of 2015, in this context a happier, almost rose-tinted time, comparing themselves unfavourably as “the summer of now”.
Some moments on Slowthai‘s incendiary 2019 debut ‘Nothing Great About Britain’ saw the Northampton rapper take a much-needed breather from being the album’s in-yer-face master of ceremonies. Both the chopped-up sample-heavy ‘Gorgeous’ and ‘Original Pirate Material’-style ‘Toaster’ saw Slowthai reflect on the ups and downs of his tough upbringing, back when “responsibility [was] another chapter“.
In a few weeks, the Australian synth-rock veterans Cut Copy will follow up 2017’s Haiku From Zero with a new album called Freeze, Melt. Frontman Dan Whitford, now living in Copenhagen, wrote most of the new album, and he returned to Australia before the pandemic to record it with his bandmates.
James Blake has released a new track called “Are You Even Real?” Blake told Apple Music the track came out of initial sessions with the accomplished US writer and Mad Decent-affiliated artist Starrah. The cut, which was also written with help from Ali Tamposi, was completed at Electric Lady Studios in New York, Pulse Studios and Conway in the Los Angeles area and Blake’s home studio in LA.
Following up from his recent Rihanna-approved Skepta collab, “Papi Chulo”, Essie Gang’s Octavian has made his latest step towards his eagerly-anticipated debut album with a new summer-ready spin in “Poison”, featuring Santi, Obongjayar, and Take A Daytrip.
25 of our favourite tracks from the Playlists of 2019, including Bon Iver, Billie Eilish, Angel Olsen, Sharron Van Etten and many more. A big, big thank you to everyone who has supported the Playlist this past with purchases made at The Shop.
Here’s something weird! Billie Eilish is a 17-year-old pop singer with weirdo aspirations and with a massive online fanbase. Roma, on the other hand, is a slow, lyrical, beautiful Mexican art film about the life of a domestic worker who lives with a relatively wealthy family in Mexico City in 1970 and 1971.
James Blake’s solo career seems to be at a crossroads. His last album The Colour in Anything was a deep dive into the maximalist breakup music he had been focusing on since Overgrown, but his most recent single, “If the Car Beside You Moves Ahead,” was a return to some of the more colorful, club-focused music of his past.
James Blake gifted fans with a pre-Christmas present Sunday as the British singer released the studio take of his unadorned rendition of Don McLean’s “Vincent.”After frequently performing the American Pie song about Vincent Van Gogh in concert over the past year, Blake entered Los Angeles’ Conway Studios earlier this month to lay down the track.
