Did you spot my deliberate lack of intro last week? I bet you thought that was a mistake didn’t you?!? No, no, I very much just couldn’t be arsed to write one.
But it’s back, due to unpopularity and lack of demand, I’m waffling before the good stuff happens. Sorry.
There are some absolutely spiffing tracks this week, I should know, I’ve picked three of them. Let them all soundtrack your week. Have a ruddy bloody good one.
Sorry – Jetplane
Why we love it: because Sorry are definitely back to their weird and wonderful ways. For anyone who thought their early singles and the Twixustwain EP was some of the best stuff they’ve done then this is right up your alley. You “hooooot freeeeeaks”.
Wonky pop. That’s a fair description. They excel in taking lyrical snippets from other songs and injecting them into a drole and acerbic lyric delivered in Asha’s lethargic delivery over frantic, discordant beats and driving bass that is scattered up and down the frets.
Whether this transpires to be from a forthcoming third LP is yet to be determined, it has the feel of the bedroom, post-lockdown aforementioned EP with a close kinship to ‘Cigarette Packet‘.
Accompanied by another wacky video from FLASHA Productions, the regular video creator duo, Asha Lorenz of Sorry and Flo Webb. Sorry are on a headline tour from the 1st of next month, after supporting friends Fontaines DC in the States earlier this year. (Jim Auton)
Laura Fell – Blur The Line
Why we love it: because Laura is a master songwriter and this is another absolute beauty. Coupled with her unique and incredible voice ‘Blur The Line’ has some fantastic liquid arpeggio guitar and subtle Hammond organ weaving in and out. What really makes Laura Fell stand out from other singer songwriters is her ability to produce counter melody and cadence to her vocals away from the music, using her range to stunning effect.
This is the second single from her incoming new EP Talk It All Apart out on 16th May, and includes previous single ‘Outlines’ . She is currently recording her second LP that she hopes will be out early next year. She describes the single as “a song about the paths we don’t follow, and allowing our imaginations to play with ‘what if’s‘”. (Jim Auton)
Sasha Assad – La La London
Why we love it: because Sasha Assad has released another brilliant song that documents everyday life and living in the twenty first century as a young person struggling. Her lyrics are like a comedians observational comedy, coupled with a belter of a pop tune.
This is her first offering for 2025 and comes hot on the heels of her brilliant last EP Casablanker from last year.
It deals with the everyday problem of affording to live in our nations capital (England’s not Wales) and questioning why you’d bother as you’ll just be pissing your money down the drain. The sly La La Land/La La London to be both a dig and just musical phrasing is very clever. There’s also a nod to the New York sound of the early 00’s, a Strokes glossy, overdriven, futuristic guitar.
From the epic stable of Fierce Panda Records and the eagle eye of Simon Williams, Sasha has released several EPs over the past few years and it’s making a name for herself on the London circuit.
She says “This track is pretty much a diss-track to the city I call home – London. ‘La La London’ takes aim at all of the flaws of the capital city. It’s essentially three minutes of me moaning about damp housing, rental costs, the price of the underground – the list goes on. “It’s a song for the working class heroes of London.” (Jim Auton)
Lifeguard – It Will Get Worse
Why we love it: because Lifeguard may well have just released a new single called ‘It Will Get Worse’ but all indications are that everything is moving in the right direction.
The Chicagoan trio of Asher Case (bass, baritone guitar, vocals), Isaac Lowenstein (drums, synth), and Kai Slater (guitar, vocals) will release their debut album Ripped and Torn on Matador Records on June 6th – ‘It Will Get Worse’ is the lead single from it – and the band has also announced a full raft of UK, EU, and US tour dates, which will kick off in June, including dates in London, Brighton, Manchester and Bristol.
‘It Will Get Worse’ is an exhilarating blast of melodic guitar-driven rock that settles very nicely into a glorious groove, promising much for the future as it does so. (Simon Godley)
Nell Smith – Daisy Fields
Why we love it: because as heartbreaking as the background to ‘Daisy Fields’ is, listening to the song becomes a positively inspiring experience. Humming with a bright psychedelic pop sensibility, ‘Daisy Fields’ is the new single from Anxious, the debut album by Nell Smith, a posthumous release following Nell’s untimely death in a car accident on October 6, 2024. She was 17 years old and just starting out in her career in music.
Anxious is the follow-up to Where The Viaduct Looms, Nell Smith’s debut collaboration with The Flaming Lips that explored the works of Nick Cave. The new record includes three songs which were written in partnership with Canadian folk band Shred Kelly with whom she spent winter evenings writing in her hometown of Fernie, British Columbia, in 2022. Jack and Lily Wolter from Penelope Isles subsequently completed these songs and the rest of the works in Brighton in 2023.
Nell Smith was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire in 2007 before moving to Canada five years later. Her family have announced news of a special one-off live event at Brudenell Social Club in Leeds on 16th June to celebrate her life and work. The night will feature a documentary screening along with live renditions of Nell’s songs by Penelope Isles and friends.
The Nell Smith Memorial Fund set up by Nell’s family to honour her legacy and support emerging musicians has now reached $50,000. The fund aims to raise $100,000 and award $10,000 every year for ten years with profits from the release going directly into the fund’s corpus. More information on the fund can be found at Nell’s official website here. (Simon Godley)
Abigail Lapell – Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
Why we love it: because fortune favours the bold. The Toronto songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Abigail Lapell throws caution to the wind and takes on Tame Impala’s ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’ and her bravery pays off with a stirring version of the song.
First appearing on the Australian band’s album Lonerism, here the four-time Canadian Folk Music Award Winner Abigail Lapell strips back the original to just heavily distorted electric guitar and her powerful voice and the impact is immediate.
A perfect distillation of unrequited love, ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’ is taken from More Songs About Love, the extended companion to Abigail Lapell’s acclaimed 2025 JUNO Award Nominated album Anniversary. It arrives ahead of Lapell’s tour of the UK and Europe in May of this year. (Simon Godley)
Dewin – Syched Cas
Why we love it: Highly promising Welsh duo Dewin released ‘Syched Cas’ their debut single last month the first taste from west Wales record label, Fflach Cymunedol.
Jencyn Corp and Lefi Dafydd are Dewin who hail from the magical hills of Preseli they call their sound ‘wizard-pop’, idyoscrantic yet steeped in the sounds of lush landscapes, there are echoes of Love, Donovan early Pink Floyd and fellow West Walians Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci. ‘Syched Cas’ is a wonderful piece of pastoral psych flecked pop music woven with woodwind duo, organ, theramin, güiro, and colourful melodies. “i lan, i lan, i lan…” (“upwards, upwards, upwards”), they sing as dancing pianos, and wood wind decorate, and their heady entwined melodies spiral into the sky into a cloud of hooky choruses, playful, besotted and joyful yet underscored with the foreboding of climate change. It’s a moment of wonder.
Syched Cas, translates as ‘Nasty Thirst’ and is their first single under the guidance of producer Reuben Wilsdon-Amos. “The song’s themes of love and lust in the face of the modern world — its foreboding climate disaster, and the foretold future facing the young protagonists — reach a crescendo with the image of lovers laying beneath an oak tree, itself a symbol of longevity, and linking us to an ancient mysticism.” (Bill Cummings)
Raue – Are you bored yet?
Why we love it: California duo Raue (pronounced Roo-AY) recently released their new single ‘Are You Bored Yet?,‘ it explores the idea of “creative paralysis and fighting to stay creative for all the wrong reasons—and realizing how unhealthy that cycle can be.” This introspective track cycles through gauzy, grungy guitars, and raw and beguiling vocals that juxtapose feelings of numbness and emotional weight. Building with crushing riffing and crashing drums, into a tidal wave of a chorus that encapsulates these feelings of being stuck, evocatively.
Formed by powerhouse duo Paige Kalenian (she/her; guitar/vocals) and Jax Huckle (he/him; drums), they cite the likes of Billie Eilish and Deftones as an influence and we can hear that. On their upcoming EP too scared to explain, Raue chase an arguably irrational pursuit of music with unapologetic intensity. Paige describes the record as “vulnerability through a poem,” blending themes of emotional limbo and self-reflection. Paige adds, “I want listeners to feel like we’re unmasked—raw, relatable, and real.” (Bill Cummings)
