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The album will include tracks ‘Free’ and ‘Flood’, already available to listen to on all platforms. Lotus explores themes of renewal and growth, showcasing the rapper’s evolving artistry. Simz’s 2021 release ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’ saw her win a Mercury Prize as well as Brit Awards, MOBOs, and an Ivor Novello. She also surprised fans back in 2022 with ‘NO THANK YOU’ whilst making an appearance in 2023 in Netflix acclaimed Top Boy show. She finally came back to the stage in 2024 with a performance on Glastonbury’s iconic Pyramid Stage.

On top of the release, the rapper is curating the Southbank Centre’s 30th Meltdown Festival in June with a lineup that includes artists such as The Streets, Ghetts, Sasha Keable, Lola Young, and Jon Batiste, with Simz closing the festival alongside Chineke! Orchestra. A show that sold out in minutes.

In a talk with Rolling Stones, Simz said: “Simz said: “I’m super excited to be the 2025 Meltdown Festival curator! My team and I are preparing eleven days of art, music, workshops and more. So many incredible artists have curated this festival so it’s a true honour to be a part of it. Thank you to the Southbank Centre for having me. Meltdown 2025 the Simz way is going to be epic. I’ll see you there.”

‘Flood’ served as the lead single and first taster of the sixth album ‘Lotus’. A press release describes the LP as an embodiment of “renewal and growth, mirroring her evolving artistry and the album’s thematic voyage through life’s intricate phases.”

The album opens with “number one girl‘’ the second single, released on November 22. Though the tone and balladic is probably unexpected for first time listeners after the initial release of “APT.”, it’s understandable that she would decide to release this as her second single – it shows who she is and what she is capable of. With lyrics such as “So what’s it going to take for you to want me? / I’d give it all up if you told me that I’d be / the number one girl in your eyes”, it perfectly sets the story that she’s going to tell should you listen to the album in order. The refrain of the song is a particular highlight, with the lyrics “The girl in your eyes” repeated in a high, wispy tone that reflects the longing feeling of the whole song perfectly.

The next two songs, “3am” and “two years” continue to set the scene of the toxic ex, reflecting her mindset. “3am” opens with the lyric “I just saw a red flag / Gonna pretend I didn’t see that.”, before building upon the guitar string melody with some bass and a catchy hook, “I just want it to be you”. The next song, “two years”, is decidedly slower pace, but opens up the recurring theme of trying to move on from her ex, but finding that “this love never dies”. A particular stand out lyric in this song is “I’ll always hate the fact that you ruined everybody after you”, which is an entire universal feeling anyone trying to move on from a relationship could understand encapsulated in a single lyric.

The single released on the same day as the album, “toxic till the end”, sets up the rest of the album by signalling the realisation that the ex in question was toxic. ROSÉ has referred to this ‘ex’ in interviews and playfully announces part way through the song, “Ladies and gentleman, I present to you the ex”. 

The album moves on to confident, upbeat “drinks or coffee”, which acts as the perfect bridge to the most upbeat track, “APT.” This single reached no.1 on the UK charts, creating anticipation for this album.  The following song is “gameboy”, still up beat, but lyrically melancholic, it refers to someone who acts like a good guy who took her love for granted. From “stay a little longer” with the longing for someone familiar to stay longer, even though they’re not good for you, to “not the same” with the acceptance of the inevitably of change in relationships, to “call it the end” where she is unsure of what to call her relationship anymore, “Do I call you an ex or do I call you my boyfriend? / Call you a lover, do I call you a friend?”.

“too bad for us”, an unusually long song, sounds like acceptance with lyrics like  “Now the roses don’t grow here / I guess that love does what it does” reflecting the lack of control. The album wraps up with “Dance All Night”,  upbeat but a little melancholic – the lyrics telling the story of what she would change if she could – “I would dance all night, not care about the heartache in my life”.

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The album is mostly English, the only Korean being used in “APT.”, the title of which is a play on the Korean drinking game, 아파트, the Korean word for “apartment”. The song is a reminder of her status as one of the most well-known K-pop idols in the world, but also a bridge between her two main languages and identities as an Australian-Korean.

ROSÉ has referred to writing this album as therapy, and it truly does feel that personal. The sounds, lyrics and song order makes “Rosie” sonically cohesive, cathartic listen. She said she named her album “Rosie” because that is what her friends call her, and through listening to this album you’re given a glimpse of such a personal part of her life. Group members JISOO, JENNIE and LISA all took to Instagram stories to publicly congratulate ROSÉ. Given the chart success of her single “APT.” in the UK and her album already sitting at no.2 on the Korean Hanteo daily physical album chart (currently only topped by girl group, TWICE), the album is sure to rise up charts around the world in its first week of release. 

‘Emita Ox’ will be the follow-up to the band’s self-titled second album which was released last year to acclaim. According to a press release the upcoming LP sees them push “harder into heavy distortion and psychedelic dreamscapes”. The band co-produced the album themselves along with Alex Farrar who has worked with the likes of MJ Lenderman and Indigo De Souza. The production of the album demonstrates how the band’s tastes and influences have changed over the years, now being influenced by more progressive and experimental bands such as Swans and Black Midi. The group’s bassist, Mikaela Oppenheimer, said that “This album encompasses a lot of our inspirations. It also shows what we’re like as a trio, collectively.” 

The forthcoming project was recorded earlier this year in Asherville, North Carolina, with the band playing all the instruments heard on the record. The album sees the band’s contributions to the songwriting and production bleed into each other as well as being a showcase of their individual strengths as musicians. Drummer, Stella Wave said: “We map out all the sections beforehand, we like to write intricate parts that complement each other”.

She continued talking about how the songs on the album represent tough times for the band: “This album represents a period of time that’s very meaningful to us. The songs are related to things that we all know about, even if it’s not out on the table for everyone else. The songwriting and recording process was a very heavy time that I will never forget.” 

‘Three’ references the title of the album as it tells the fairy tale of a girl named Emita and her pet Ox. Singer, Helena Straight, said: “‘Three’ was written after I’d been in a creative rut that lasted a couple months. I wasn’t focused on getting any message across. My intention was just to write a full song, whether I ended up liking it or not.”  

The full track list and artwork for ‘Emita Ox’ is below: 

1. Float
   2. 0%
   3. Three
   4. Down My Life
   5. Knowing You
   6. Heavy Sleeper
   7. Footstep Misstep
   8. Courtesy
   9. Hiyeahi
   10. Bubble
   11. Everything We Do 

As well as releasing their new album later this year, the group are set to play a run of shows in the UK. They’ll be making their Debut in the UK, playing a set at the End Of The Road Festival later this month as well as playing Manchester Psych Fest and Edinburgh Psych Fest. They will then play two headline shows in London at The Windmill Brixton and The Shackwell Arms respectively. They will then take to the stage on a run of dates as support for American Football. You can buy the remaining tickets for their UK shows here.

Hello Mary’s full list of 2024 UK dates are below: 

Aug 30 – End of the Road Festival – Dorset, UK
Aug 31 – Manchester Psych Fest – Manchester, UK
Sept 1 – Edinburgh Psych Fest – Edinburgh, UK
Sept. 4 – The Shacklewell Arms – London, UK 
Sept 5 – Brixton Windmill – London, UK 
Sept 11 – Rock City – Nottingham, UK
Sept 12 – Barrowland Ballroom – Glasgow, UK
Sept 13 – Bristol SWX – Bristol, UK 
Sept 14 – Roundhouse – London, UK 

Our new album Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me is out October 18th!

Sick Of The Blues is out today with a live video from our performance at Le Centre Pompidou in April 2024

EU/UK/US tour on sale Friday

So ready to share this with you! ☁️ pic.twitter.com/MfDfek5BZZ

— Porridge Radio (@porridgeradio) July 30, 2024

According to a press release the new project was inspired by burnout, the music industry, heartbreak, and band leader Dana Margolin’s increasing immersion in her craft as a songwriter and artist. A short-lived relationship for Margolin and subsequent heartbreak inspired the album which is seen in the single ‘Sick of the Blues’. She spoke about how this inspired the project: “A lot of this album is about a more frenetic and desperate kind of love. It is about completely losing my sense of self in one relationship, and the deep residue of insecurity and pain that lingered and clouded a new relationship.”

She continued talking about the new single: “‘Sick Of The Blues’ is about being heartbroken and taking back some joy, remembering that you’re the source of your own happiness, not someone else, even when you’re hurt and left with a hole in your heart. After being messed around enough, you just want to take back control. I just wanted to let it go, stop letting it consume me. I wanted simplicity, to have fun and remember everything good that could possibly happen. To love wholly, to not take anything too seriously. To have fun with my friends, to remove the tunnel vision and fall in love with my life again.”

‘Clouds In The Sky Will Always Be There For Me’ was produced by Dom monks, who has also worked with the likes of Big Thief and Laura Marling, and it was recorded in Frome at the beginning of this year. The band was invited to debut their new material following the recording sessions at a performance at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Margolin spoke about how the upcoming album felt like a breakthrough for the band: “It feels like the first time we’ve made something. It captured something about our friendship as a band and the way that we have learnt to play together. It’s taught me so much. Following your gut to the nth point, trusting your friends and their loyalty, trusting yourself to be able to fight with people properly and still come back together.”

The full tracklist for their new album is below:

1. ‘Anybody’
2. ‘Hole In The Ground’
3. ‘Lavender Raspberries’
4. ‘God Of Everything Else’
5. ‘Sleeptalker’
6. ‘You Will Come Home’
7. ‘Wednesday’
8. ‘In A Dream’
9. ‘I Get Lost’
10. ‘Pieces Of Heaven’
11. ‘Sick Of The Blues’

As well as announcing the new album, Porridge radio have shared dates for a world tour where they will be playing a run of dates in the UK during November. Tickets go on sale tomorrow (August 2nd) at 10am and fans can buy tickets here.

The full list of dates is below:

November 2024

18 – Nottingham, UK, Rescue Rooms
19 – Bristol, UK, Marble Factory
20 – Leeds, UK, Irish Centre
22 – Glasgow, UK, Òran Mór
23 – Newcastle, UK, Newcastle University SU
25 – Manchester, UK, Gorilla
26 – London, UK, Electric Brixton
29 – Margate, UK, Lido
30 – Brighton, UK, Chalk

According to Dork the producer’s new project marks a departure from the usual pop-oriented sound and a move towards something darker and more club oriented. According to Rolling Stone when discussing the new album in a statement Mura Masa said: “Curve 1 is ultimately a manifestation of an attitude I’ve been cultivating in my personal life; ignore everything. All the content, all of the attention economy, all of it. In doing that, the really meaningful and vital parts of what’s around you make themselves known and unignorable, demanding your energy.”

‘Curve 1′ is set to be Mura Masa’s first release as an independent artist via his own record label and he said that he “wanted it to be as free and anti-narrative as possible. Impressionistic.” He continued saying that “Music as entertainment has in many cases, to me, become very advertorial and excessively sentimental in terms of creating narrative around albums and artists. I wanted to strip this away as much as possible to leave room for the music to create its own meaning in the lives of people who form connections with it.”

It’s hard for me not to explain away the intricacies and ideas contained within these records after having theorised and tolled and executed them over the course of nearly three years, but I think it’s far more fitting of the album’s intent to say simply: listen to it in the dark.”

Curve 1 arrives August 23rd. ‘FLY’ is out now. Listen: https://t.co/tYPTQYVLTj pic.twitter.com/Nk6WKeiS2H

— xander (@mura_masa_) July 29, 2024

Leading up to this announcement of a new album Crossan has released a number of new singles including ‘Still’ back in March which saw British pop hero Griff provide vocals. He’s also released ‘We Are Making Out’ which saw him collaborate with yeule and he shared singles ‘rise/gimme’, ‘Drugs’, and ‘Whenever I Want’.

He also helped co-write and produce a number of songs for other artists in recent years as well as his own music. Including producing global hit ‘Boy’s a Liar pt.2′ by Ice Spice and Pink Pantheress as well as co-writing the latter’s single ‘Turn It Up’. He’s also recently opened a creative hub in Peckham, London called The Pond which is officially supposed to launch next year.

Elsewhere Mura Masa is set to be playing a DJ set at Field Day 2024 in Victoria Park, London next month. Justice and Pink Pantheress will be headlining this year’s event.

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The new project is led by Bastille frontman, Dan Smith, and is described as a collection of songs that tell a story and intertwine the lives and wide worlds of startling women and men. It tells the story of various characters including poets, artists, scientists and characters from religion. The album is said to be fed by new collaborations, dazzling arrangements and a spirit of musical spirit that is hoping to open minds. Listen to Smith talking about the album below.

The album will be released in four parts leading up to the full release of ‘&’ in October. The first part of the project is out now and includes four tracks that introduce the record. The first track is ‘Intros and Narrators’ which sees Smith play fingerpicked guitar and “sets out the mission and tone” for the album. The next track, ‘Eve and Paradise Lost’, explores themes of blame and shame that women are made to feel “from the dawn of time.” ‘Seasons & Narcissus is described as “a curious, twisted love song between someone and their own reflection.” And the last track of part one, ‘Emily & Her Penthouse In The Sky’, is about the life of 19th-century poet Emily Dickinson and how her life has been framed.

The album is supposed to uncover the stories of people who have been misunderstood in myth, culture, and society, telling the stories of individuals who have been neglected by mainstream society. There is also a song that is inspired by Smith’s family, exploring the idea of how music is passed on through generations by showing how Smith is connected to his father’s poetry and his mother’s singing.

‘&’ (Ampersand) is described as “a collection of songs about looking out at the world, disappearing into other lives rather than into ourselves, and about the humanity that can crackle and shimmer as a consequence.”#

Fans can pre-order the group’s upcoming project from their official store. You can order the album in Vinyl and CD including different coloured vinyls as well as vinyl copies with hand printed ‘&’ collector’s artwork. There are also CD and Vinyl copies available which come with a signed art card.

The full track list and artwork for ‘&’ (Ampersand) is below:

Intros & Narrators
Eve & Paradise Lost
Emily & Her Penthouse In The Sky
Blue Sky & The Painter
Leonard & Marianne
Marie & Polonium
Red Wine & Wilde
Seasons & Narcissus
Drawbridge & The Baroness
The Soprano & Her Midnight Wonderings
Essie & Paul
Mademoiselle & The Nunnery Blaze
Zheng Yi Sao & Questions For Her
Telegraph Road 1977 & 2024

The first single from the album, ‘Solitude Of The Night Bus’ has been released with a music video to go with it directed by Dom Foster. The video follows Courteeners frontman Liam Fray on the number 17 bus going on a cosmic journey as the artwork for ‘Pink Cactus Cafe’ coming to life around him during the bus journey.

The band originally formed in Manchester in the early 2000s and this will mark their first album in over four years with the band’s last album ‘More. Again. Forever.’ being released in January 2020.

Speaking in a press release about the song, singer Liam Fray said that “This came at a time of real questioning. Things weren’t going particularly well. No confidence. No direction. I think that’s why – whisper it – it’s on the fun side. This is the new us. I’d previously worked with Ola [Modupe-Ojo] on ‘Hanging Off Your Cloud’ and, like then, there was just a magic in the room that was irresistible.”

He continued talking about how his uncle influenced the track: “It’s a summer breeze. But it’s a winter’s night. Either way, sometimes you have to block out the noise. My late Uncle Pat loved a whistle so it’s a bit of a homage to him. Get on the bus; headphones in; go your own way. It’s the feel good, imposter syndrome hit of the summer.”

The upcoming record sees contributions from various friends of the band including Aussie indie band DMAs, Brooke Combe, and Pixey. You can pre-order the albumn in various formats including CD, LP and cassette along with signed albums and heavyweight and various limited edition and coloured vinyls. All vinyl formats come with a bonus track. Pre-order or pre-save ‘Pink Cactus Cafe’ here.

The track listing for ‘Pink Cactus Cafe’ is:

‘Sweet Surrender’ (featuring Brooke Combe)
‘Weekend Shy Of A Feeling’
‘Pink Cactus Cafe’
‘Where Are We Now?’
‘The Beginning Of The End’ (featuring DMA’S)
‘Solitude of the Night Bus’
‘First Name Terms’ (featuring Pixey)
‘Lu Lu’
‘Love You Any Less’
‘Bitten By Unseen Teeth’

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Along with the announcement of the new album the group also told fans that they will soon be announcing dates for a UK tour this Friday (12th of July) in which they will play a homecoming gig in Manchester at a venue that they have never played at before. You can access the pre-sale for the tour by pre-ordering a copy of the album

Courteeners are getting ready for a string of big festival performances this summer, coming off the back of a set at Lytham festival. They are set to perform in Glasgow and TRNSMT Festival this Saturday (13th of July), followed by performances at Boardmasters on Friday the 9th of August and then they will take the stage at Victorious festival in Southsea on the 24th of August.

Despite giving birth to her daughter in the past few months, Waterhouse is not slowing down, and has also released a North America tour in support of her new album. Her tour begins shortly after the release of the album, and has support from Bully and Debbi Dawson.

The new mother and partner of Twilight actor Robert Pattinson, has noted the impact that motherhood has had on her and her music, particularly through her new single. ‘Supersad’ personifies Waterhouse’s exhaustion after caring for a newborn whilst simultaneously working on her career that has propelled in recent years, particularly after her song ‘Good Looking’ became popular on Tiktok.

So far this year, the 32 year old has been non-stop releasing singles, gaining her immense popularity and leading to a notable set at Coachella earlier this year, at which she sang the iconic Oasis song ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’. Her latest single, ‘Supersad’ has been a hit amongst fans, and joins ‘Faded’, ‘My Fun’, ‘OMG’ and ‘To Love’ on her new album.

On social media, Waterhouse has displayed her excitement alongside the album cover art, saying it “feels surreal to finally be able to bring this world to you that I’ve been living in for the past year”. The album cover holds an ethereal theme, and its name is inspired by the uniquely named cannabilistic spider, which is colloquially known as ‘sparklemuffin’, which Suki Waterhouse on Tiktok said she decided during a “manic episode” as it felt “hilarious, ridiculous, and wonderful”, which she told Subpop.

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When speaking to NME about her new album, Waterhouse said that she channelled her previous experience at V Festival in the early 2000s, saying “I really want to see her and know her again”, naming this album as part of her “bed rot era”.

Fans can pre-order her 18 track album here, and you can find tickets for her North America tour here. Alternatively, UK fans can watch Suki Waterhouse perform at All Points East Festival Sunday 18th August, where she is supporting Mitski. She will be accompanied by a whole host of performances from exciting artists such as Beabadoobee, Men I Trust, Ethel Cain, TV Girl and Sir Chloe. You can find tickets here and see the full lineup below.

 

 

 

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Favourite.

Out now. https://t.co/mDPoe2gyyS pic.twitter.com/DlExLjRAGT

— Fontaines D.C. (@fontainesdublin) June 18, 2024

The accompanying music video for ‘Favourite’ was directed by the band themselves and it documents a trip to Madrid. Madrid is a city quite personal to Fontaines D.C. as it is the birthplace of guitarist Carlos O’Connell as well as it being the city which the band used as a base for their first tour. The music video is very nostalgic as it has home childhood footage of all five members of the band all put together. Watch the video below.

Talking about the video bassist Conor Deegan has said that explores what shaped each band members: “This video is a reminiscing of the past; of each other’s childhoods we didn’t know. To see people we know on an intimate level as adults in the tender ages of childhood, we explore where we came from, and who on some level, still are.”

He added that he wanted to pay tribute to those that the band love: “I would like this video to serve as a way of honouring our friendships, and moving from that, the relationships we hold dear. Our mothers, fathers, siblings, aunties and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers. Those who we still have, and those we have sadly lost. We haven’t lost that connection to each other, and are not afraid to come of age again, holding on to romance in a sometimes trying world.”

The Irish Band’s upcoming album is set to be released on the 23rd of August via XL Recordings, which will be their first release on this record label and their first with producer James Ford. They will be hoping to build on the success on the band’s last album ‘Skinty Fia’ which reached number 1 in the UK and Irish album charts and saw them receive various accolades including “International Group of the Year” at last year’s BRIT Awards.

The forthcoming album is set to be Fontaines D.C’s most ambitious record formed by ideas that have been brewing from the five members since their last release. The first single, ‘Starbuster’, was written by singer, Grian Chatten, after experiencing a panic attack in London’s St. Pancras train station and sees Chatten almost rapping in most of the song. The ideas for the new album came to fruition when the band was touring the US and Mexico with the Arctic Monkeys as they shared music with each other that they had been listening to, very different from the usual sounds we normally expect from the Dublin five piece.

The band will be playing a huge UK and Ireland headline tour later this year in support of Romance and you can get your tickets here.

The tracklist for the album is:

1. Romance
2. Starburster
3. Here’s The Thing
4. Desire
5. In The Modern World
6. Bug
7. Motorcycle Boy
8. Sundowner
9. Horseness is the Whatness
10. Death Kink
11. Favourite

The new single off the album ‘God Made Me Feet For Dancing’ sees the London Jazz collective collaborate with acclaimed London singer Yazmin Lacey. The release of the latest single from the upcoming album was accompanied by a music video which was directed by Tajana Tokyo, who has also directed videos for Beyonce and Janelle Monae, and it really captures the joy and positive energy and unity around dancing on a night out. watch the music video below.

The single matches the title of their forthcoming album ‘Dance, No One’s Watching’ which was written throughout 2023 as the band was touring the world, and it documents the dance floors they saw globally. The second single off the album ‘God Gave Me Feet For Dancing’ highlights the the joy of these dancefloors and calls on listeners to embrace dancing.

Speaking on the release of the new single drummer and bandleader Femi Koleoso commented on the Church’s influence on the band’s view of dancing saying that “Myself, Ife, and TJ all grew up in church, and it played a massive role in how we view the purpose of dancing. Dancing is bigger than just the club space. Dancing is a community thing, dancing is a spiritual thing, and ‘God Gave Me Feet For Dancing’ is like a window into that element of Ezra Collective for the five of us. There’s a story in the Bible that talks about ‘David dancing before the Lord’, and that’s always been something that has inspired me. So, ‘God Gave Me Feet For Dancing’ is meant to look at dancing in a more spiritual capacity, like it’s our God-given ability to shake away the badness of life and dance instead.”

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The London bands last album ‘Where I’m Meant to Be’ was released to an amazing reception, winning them the 2023 Mercury prize award, making them the first jazz act to win the award in its 31 year history, with the band giving a breath-taking performance of ‘Victory Dance’ and drummer Femi Koleoso giving a magnificent winning speech, really putting the jazz band on the map. This then saw the band sell out huge shows performing at the likes of the Hammersmith Apollo and the Royal Albert Hall.

The first taste of Ezra Collective’s upcoming album, ‘Ajala’, which sees some afrobeat instrumentation, was released in April and is titled after Nigerian Journalist, Olabisi Ajala. Talking about the title Femi Koleoso said that “‘Ajala travel’ is slang for someone that can’t sit still. It’s the way a lot of people would describe me, but for me it’s also what a great drum beat does, it’s what great music does to me, it means I can’t sit still and I just want to move. Ajala is all about that movement.’