Image from left: Babymorocco, Amour (True Panther), Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, “Southern Life (What It Must Be Like)” (Jagjaguwar), Advance Base, Horrible Occurrences (Run For Cover)
Welcome to our weekly music post, where we spotlight our favorite new songs and albums. Hop in the comments and tell us: What new music are you listening to?
Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, “Southern Life (What It Must Be Like)”
“Southern Life (What It Must Be Like)” is the second single from Sharon Van Etten’s upcoming album with her backing band, The Attachment Theory. It’s also the second song from the album that we’ve featured in this column, but what can we say? So far, this project seems like it rules. “Southern Life” has more of a guitar-forward post-rock-haze sound than the electronic-leaning “Afterlife,” but they’re both tied together by Van Etten’s propulsive vocals.
Sky Ferreira, “Leash”
Sky Ferreira’s first new track in two years comes from the soundtrack of Halina Reijn’s upcoming film Babygirl, an erotic thriller that stars Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson as a CEO and an intern in a relationship that’s several different levels of fucked-up. Is it an A24 release? You bet it is. Does “Leash” sound like an ’80s new-wave track filtered through the lens of 50 Shades Of Grey? It sure does. Do we love it because of, not in spite of, those things? Of course we do.
“London May” is the second single from Will Oldham’s upcoming album The Purple Bird, and it’s named after former Samhain drummer London May. Oldham’s music can vacillate between its punk roots and Americana-infused sound, but this is one of his more straightforward country tracks. The first single, “Our Home,” also had a more traditional country feel to it, and it’s a good vibe for Oldham; it feels like the sort of album he’s been waiting his whole career to make.
Babymorocco, Amour
Amour is a throwback to an early-aughts that never existed, an answer to the question, “What if the sexual politics of ’00s pop music were actually progressive instead of performative?” On his first album, Clayton Pettet, a.k.a. Babymorocco, brings hyperpop sensibilities to European house beats, creating a maximalist sonic playground. It’s music meant to be listened to when you’re crushed in a sea of people, helpless to do anything but go with the flow of the bodies around you.
It’s barely been a month since James Goodson, a.k.a. Dazy, released his last EP, IT’S ONLY A SECRET (if you repeat it), but he’s back with three new songs on I GET LOST (when i try to get found). As their similar titles and cover art imply, the two EPs feel of a piece with another, almost like two parts of the same project, but not quite. This time around, there are also some guest vocals from Mimi Gallagher of Eight on the track “The Crush.”
Advance Base, Horrible Occurrences
First we’re reclaiming nü-metal, now we’re reappraising soft rock. It’s been a weird year, folks. Horrible Occurrences, the new album from Advance Base, musician Owen Ashworth’s current recording project, doesn’t start subtly: “The year I lived in Richmond / there was a killer on the loose,” Ashworth sings on the first track, “The Year I Lived in Richmond.” The music might be low-key, but it serves mostly as a background for Ashworth’s incredible storytelling abilities. With Horrible Occurrences, he paints a picture of a town in turmoil, a place where everything always goes wrong and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
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