Ready to soundtrack your weekend with some fresh tunes? New Music Friday is here, bringing you a dose of musical inspiration and discovery!
LEX GIBBON – LOVE TO HATE ME
Lex Gibbon makes empowering, playful pop infused with a serious message. Her recent single ‘Audacity’ was a prime example: a true story of Lex being intimidated by a random stranger, which highlighted the British Transport Police’s Text 61016 service.
There’s a power that comes with dictating your own narrative, and Lex has never sounded as confident as she does on ‘Love To Hate Me’. Its opening verse paints a scathing picture of the type of person who targets her on social media: old enough to know better with nothing positive going on in their life. But it’s the hook that really pops, a gleeful group singalong which declares that she just doesn’t care what you have to say about her. Listen HERE.
As with the majority of her songs, Lex has translated a personal experience into a song which offers sisterly advice and a hug of support to people going through similar experiences.
Lex says, “‘Love To Hate Me’ is a massive middle finger to all of the haters! It’s a message to anyone that may be receiving hate online, it’s hard to not get wrapped up in social media but it’s so important to remember that there is a big wide world out there and so many people who love you. At the end of the day there will always be some people who just love to hate.”
WILD RIVERS – NEVER BETTER
Never Better, the anticipated new album from Platinum-selling trio Wild Rivers—Khalid Yassein, Devan Glover and Andrew Oliver—is out today on Nettwerk Music Group. Stream/purchase HERE. In conjunction with the release, a new video for the title track is debuting today.
Co-produced by Wild Rivers and Gabe Wax (Soccer Mommy, Adrienne Lenker) and recorded in Joshua Tree, CA, Never Better reflects on the band’s past few years, as they faced burnout, mental health challenges and extended periods on the road, while also rediscovering the joy of making music together. Across these eight tracks, including previously released songs, “Backfire,” “Anyways, I Love You,” “Cave” and Everywhere I Go,” Wild Rivers is their most free and authentic self, as they return with a new level of confidence and an energized creative perspective.
The release adds to an already notable year for Wild Rivers, whose breakout single, “Thinking ‘Bout Love,” was recently certified RIAA Gold in the United States, following previous certifications in Canada (Platinum) and Australia (Gold). Additionally, the group will embark on an extensive headline tour this autumn – the UK & Ireland dates include Dublin, Glasgow, Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Cardiff and the o2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London. Full details can be found at www.wildriversmusic.com/tour
JIMI HENDRIX – ELECTRIC LADY STUDIOS A JIMI HENDRIX VISION
On September 13, Experience Hendrix L.L.C., in partnership with Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, is releasing Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision, a deluxe box set offering 39 tracks (38 previously unreleased) that were recorded by the new-look Jimi Hendrix Experience (Billy Cox on bass, Mitch Mitchell on drums) at Electric Lady Studios between June and August of 1970, just before the legendary musician’s untimely death the following month.
Pre-order Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision
https://jimihendrix.lnk.to/ELSAJimiHendrixVisionPR
In celebration of the forthcoming release, on August 8, the City of New York will be temporarily renaming the portion of West 8th Street between 6th Street and MacDougal Street JIMI HENDRIX WAY. This is the block on which Electric Lady Studios was built and still stands. There will also be a media screening event inside the studio that night. The official theatrical premiere of Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision will be on August 9 at Quad Cinema in Manhattan at 7:00 PM and feature a post-screening Q&A session with director and co-producer John McDermott, co-producer and president/CEO of Experience Hendrix, L.L.C. Janie Hendrix, and producer/engineer Eddie Kramer. The film is distributed by Abramorama and all confirmed worldwide theatrical bookings for the film can be found here: https://ajimihendrixvision.com/showtime
The project also includes 20 newly created 5.1 surround sound mixes of the entire First Rays Of The New Rising Sun album plus three bonus tracks [“Valleys Of Neptune,” “Pali Gap,” and “Lover Man”]. The Blu-ray includes the critically acclaimed, full-length documentary Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision. The film chronicles the creation of the studio, rising from the rubble of a bankrupt Manhattan nightclub to becoming a state-of-the-art recording facility inspired by Hendrix’s desire for a permanent studio.
ST LUNDI – LOVED SOMEBODY ELSE
St. Lundi is on a high as the September 20th release of his debut album ‘The Island’ approaches. With his recent singles earning a playlist as well as further support at Radio 2, plus a Track of the Week at BBC Introducing and ongoing features on ‘Love Island’, he is also making a big impact in the live arena. He was a hit during a run of outdoor shows as guest to the legendary Take That, instigating huge singalongs each night. His own shows are in demand too, with his solo UK andEuropean pop-up tour already sold-out. He has also confirmed a North American co-headline tour with Jake Thistle, his biggest full band tour to date in the autumn, and a 2025 North American pop-up tour.
Now St. Lundi causes another wave of anticipation for ‘The Island’ by sharing new music with ‘Loved Somebody Else’. Listen HERE.
An instant contender for his strongest song to date, ‘Loved Somebody Else’ is full of the strengths that fans are coming to love St. Lundi for. His lyrics are brave enough to articulate the vulnerabilities that come with being insecure within a new relationship. Yet St. Lundi’s love of soaring melodies and strident hooks takes the song somewhere else entirely, ultimately sounding more like a celebration than an expression of insecurity.
JAKE ISAAC – EVER YOURS
UK soul star Jake Isaac will release his new album ‘BENJAMIN’ on 25th October 2024. What’s in a name? The answer to that question is at once both simple and symbolic. The basic fact is that ‘BENJAMIN’ is Jake’s middle-name, but it represents something more significant that seeps through every moment of the album. It’s a record in which Jake shares the sides of him that, like his middle-name, are hidden from public view, with nuanced reflections on his family’s heritage, his spirituality, and overcoming the obstacles that have emerged throughout his life journey. Pre-save here
Jake says, “I feel like deep down I’ve waited a long time to make this album. An album that truly reflects my musical upbringing and other dynamics in my life that go beyond just the topic of romance.”
While Jake’s ambition was to go beyond themes of love, the album’s new music ‘EVER YOURS’ is romance personified. Yet it more than fits the concept as it goes deeper than the prototype of what a love song should be. It’s a song that exalts long-term love and commitment, and the feelings of reliance, healing, understanding, and salvation that come with it. Love remains a mystery in so many ways, but the positivity that flows from Jake’s feel-good vocal somehow captures its essence.
CHILD OF THE PARISH – LOCAL BRAGGING RIGHTS
Child of the Parish are on inspiring form ahead of the September 6th release of their debut album ‘Sweet Surrender’ Pre-save here. And that continues with the record’s latest single ‘Local Bragging Rights’. Listen HERE.
The track pushes Child of the Parish’s hallucinatory electro-pop to maximalist new heights. Its sonic contrasts are immense, with luscious, dreamlike vocal harmonies trading places with a towering chorus underpinned by dubby bass bass and ambient synth textures. Bringing the early 2000s indie-electro scene to the modern day, its positive sound initially masks a darker heart with lyrics exploring the cruelty of those early, defining teenage relationships.
Ben Vella says, “There’s a darkside to the lyrics, but then the music itself is weirdly upbeat. So you have a serious, sad topic dressed up in a glittery outfit.”
‘Local Bragging Rights’, ‘Swim With The Tide’ and ‘Alway The Fool’ collectively position ‘Sweet Surrender’ as an album of complicated moods, its themes dominated by uncertainties and bittersweet mixed emotions. And yet it sounds like bliss alchemised: early 2000s influences like M83, Tame Impala and Daft Punk, a touch of ‘80s nostalgia and throwback disco all filtered through a future-facing psychedelic haze.
KATE KLEIN – STUCK
Kate Klein’s previous singles such as the electrifying ‘$erontinin pls’ have catapulted her to a wave of tastemaker discovery, including airplay from Jack Saunders at Radio 1 plus support from BBC Introducing and MTV. Now the London-based Italian artist powers forward with her latest new music single ‘STUCK’. Listen HERE.
‘STUCK’ finds Kate’s larger-than-life voice brimming with attitude, charisma and self-deprecating humour as she confesses to the chaos that surrounds her life. It’s an experience that many of us have been through: waking up on the bathroom floor with a banging headache, a list of regrets, and being too scared to see what messages were sent last night. But Kate isn’t one for self-pity and ‘STUCK’ is ultimately an empowering statement – you know you need to make a change and you can make it happen. Its sound is the perfect complement for its theme, a whirlwind of spiky alt-pop edge laying the foundations for an explosive grunge-aesthetic hook that will instantly force its way into your memory.
Kate says, “‘STUCK’ is about deciding to run away from your problems, but your anxieties insist on following you.”
ELLES BAILEY – 1972
Elles Bailey releases her latest new music, “1972,” from her upcoming album, Beneath The Neon Glow, out August 9th.
“1972” is a lively country-funk track inspired by the desire to embrace the present moment. Elles explains, “We live in a world where so much time is spent looking down at our phones or trying to capture an occasion through the lens that sometimes we forget to live in the moment. 1972 is joyful, almost tongue in cheek celebration of doing our best to live in the moment, perhaps like they did in 1972”.
Elles releases a vibrant, nostalgia-filled video that takes us back to the simpler days. The video features appearances from her friends and musical peers. Elles says “This video is a celebration of living in the moment, looking up, marvelling at nature, enjoying friendships, and being present! It was an absolute pleasure to have guest appearances from the fabulous Greta from Beaux Gris Gris and the Apocalypse, blues man Thomas Heppel, Miss Sparkles herself Demi Marriner, and the Queen, Miss Alice Armstrong! I actually wrote a lyric in the song that was inspired by Alice (‘I’ma put on my JaJo Glasses’), so it meant the world that she could be in the video too! The hugest shout-outs to Robin and Greta from Grow Vision for pulling this whole video together in a day! It’s the perfect accompaniment to the song!” Listen to ‘1972’ HERE
Elles and her top-tier band will tour with the new album in Autumn 2024, including a show at London’s Islington Assembly Hall on November 2nd. Following a jam-packed festival season in the UK and Europe. Elles will also be doing a UK In-Store tour of her new music to celebrate the album’s release in August. Tickets on sale HERE.
RAY LAMONTAGNE – I WOULDN’T CHANGE A THING
Ray LaMontagne – the celebrated Grammy award winner – today shares new music with his single, ‘I Wouldn’t Change A Thing’ – listen/share here. The track, releasing via the highly independent artist’s newly created label Liula Records, is the third taken from LaMontagne’s forthcoming, highly anticipated studio album, Long Way Home, out August 16th – presave/preorder here.
Additionally, last week LaMontagne shared a new video for ‘Long Way Home’, the previous single and the album’s title track. A somber, bittersweet rumination on times past, the video features visuals from his son Tobias and collage art by his daughter-in-law Bella.
‘I Wouldn’t Change A Thing’ sees LaMontagne reflect on his journey traveled, accepting the downs with the ups. “If I had the chance to turn back time // I could tell you this my friend // I’d do it all over again // I’d get right back in the ring,” he sings. The track’s jangly guitar strums are complimented by the sorrowful wail of a slide guitar and an easy drumbeat.
The core of Long Way Home reverberates deep into LaMontagne’s youth—at 21-years-old, in a small club in Minneapolis, he recalls seeing Townes Van Zandt perform live. A line from “To Live Is To Fly” has stuck with him ever since; Van Zandt sang, “When here you been is good an gone, all you keep is the getting there.”
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