FEATURE:
One for the Record Collection!
IN THIS PHOTO: beabadoobee/PHOTO CREDIT: Derek Bremner for DORK
Essential July Releases
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THERE are a variety of albums…
IN THIS PHOTO: She & Him
scheduled for next month (though release dates can change between now and July) that people should investigate and pre-order. The first week of albums to look out for is 8th July. One I am very excited about is Katy J Pearson’s Sound of the Morning. This is an album people should get. One of Britain’s finest and most original young artists, her album is going to win a wave of positive reviews:
“If Pearson’s extracurricular activities in recent months have shown that she can dip a toe into a multitude of genres -providing guest vocals on Orlando Weeks’ recent album Hop Up; popping up with Yard Act for a collaboration at End of the Road festival; singing on trad-folk collective Broadside Hacks’ 2021 project Songs Without Authors - then second album Sound of the Morning takes that spirit and runs with it. It’s still Katy J Pearson (read: effortlessly charming, full of heart and helmed by that inimitable vocal), but it’s Katy J Pearson pushing herself musically and lyrically into new waters. Written and recorded in late 2021 after a self-prescribed period of down time spent walking, going on daily cold water swims and “just chillaxing massively”, even the credits on Sound of the Morning profess a new thirst for experimentation from the singer. Joining Return producer Ali Chant on desk duties this time was Speedy Wunderground head honcho Dan Carey, who worked with Pearson on some of the album’s grittier tracks.
The slithering bass riff that underpins ‘Alligator’, offsetting its cathartic chorus is a case in point. “I was in such a bad mood that day because I’d had this huge E.ON bill to pay which was £500. I was on the phone to my dad, like, ‘Dad! I’ve fucked it!’” she recalls. “I walked into the studio and just burst into tears, and Dan was like, ‘Let’s just write a song’. We started writing this really jangly thing and that became the start of ‘Alligator’.”Perhaps the biggest surprise, meanwhile, comes in the tense, Carey-produced ‘Confession’. Written after a conversation with her mum sparked by the #MeToo movement, it’s an anxious rattle of a song that’s both abstract and painfully timeless.
Yes, in this specific instance, “it was a very long time ago when it happened”, but as the song’s repetition seems to suggest, it was happening then, and it’s happening now and it will probably keep on happening. “When I listen to that song, it’s abstract but it feels very personal and strong to me and hopefully to the women around me. I think that song has so much anxiety and tension in it because every day, women are faced with triggering aspects of things that have happened to us -especially in music, I’ll be going to a gig and there’ll be some fucking creep there,” she explains. “It’s completely universal for so many of us, and I’m glad I’ve got a song that represents that because, as I’m getting older as a person and as a woman, I want to sing about this because I’m fucking angry. It’s nice to have an angry and anunnerving song on my album.”That Pearson decides to follow such a dark sonic moment with the sparse, traditional folk lilt of ‘The Hour’ (penned in its stripped back form, she chuckles, because the acrylic nails she was wearing at the time didn’t allow for anything more complex) is typical of Sound of the Morning. It’s an album that’s as comfortable revelling in the more laid-back, Real Estate-esque melodies of lead single ‘Talk Over Town’ -a track that attempts to make sense of her recent experiences, of “being Katy from Gloucester, but then being Katy J Pearson who’s this buzzy new artist” -as it is basking in the American indie pop of ‘Float’, penned with longtime pal Ollie Wilde of Pet Shimmers, or experimenting with the buoyant brass of ‘Howl’, in which Orlando repays the favour with a vocal guest spot.
The record ends with a cover of ‘Willow’s Song’ by Paul Giovanni, taken from the 1973 soundtrack of The Wicker Man. Reinterpreted with a krautrock inflection, it might not have been from her pen but it’s a strangely appropriate way to summarise Katy J Pearson’s appeal: someone who takes classic, timeless ideas and spins them into new forms. It also leaves the door tantalisingly open for what’s to come -as she says herself, “I think it’s really nice to finish the album on something that isn’t mine but is still this ending moment -it’s like it’s saying, ‘What is she going to do next?”.
The second one from 8th July that is worth some money is Laura Veirs’ Found Light. The legendary and iconic American songwriter is readying her twelfth studio album. I would strongly encourage even the slightest fan of Veirs’ work to pre-order Found Light. It is shaping up to be one of her best albums to date:
“Found Light may be Laura Veirs’ 12th studio LP, but it also, in many ways, feels like her debut. If 2020’s My Echo - written and mixed just prior to her 2019 split from her longtime husband, her longtime producer, and the father of her two sons - was her divorce album, Found Light is about what comes after.
Found Light is a liberating collection of inquisitive and surprisingly assured snapshots of healing and personal growth, and her very first release with co-production credits. Despite the sadness and suffering that prompted these 14 graceful wonders, the result is a testament to the inspiration of independence, to shaping new possibilities for yourself even after great loss. It is a reminder that we are always capable of something more”.
Skip ahead to 15th July, and there are some great albums due this week well worth some time and money. One is beabadoobee’s Beatopia. The London-based artist’s second album follows 2020’s Fake It Flowers. She has posted short clips of each of the tracks, and it sounds like she is really excited for people to hear an album that is going to be ranked alongside the best of this year. Definitely go and pre-order a magnificent album from a very special artist:
“Critically acclaimed Beabadoobee returns with her second studio album Beatopia (pronounced Bay-A-Toe-Pee-Uh). Due for release on Friday 15th July via Dirty Hit, Beatopia is a fantastical yet deeply personal world that was formed in the imagination of a 7 year old beabadoobee and has been carried with her ever since.
Housing Bea's most impressive work to date, Beatopia marks a huge progression, in 14 songs she traverses fuzzy rock, classic singer-songwriter, psychedelia, midwest emo and outright pop whilst remaining undeniably herself throughout”.
An album that has accrued a lot of attention and press the past couple of weeks, Lizzo’s Special is released on 15th July. Do ensure you pre-order the album, as Lizzo is one of the finest artists around. I think Special is going to be her best-reviewed album. One that every fan needs to get a hold of.
A tremendous British Pop talent, Mabel’s About Last Night... is out on 15th July. Maybe you are not a huge fan of her work, but I think that her album will change minds and showcase just what she is made of! Go and pre-order it if you like what you have heard from her so far:
“About Last Night… is Mabel’s second studio album by English singer and songwriter Mabel. Mabel worked with artists such as 24kGoldn, Lil Tecca, Jax Jones, Galantis, Joel Corry on this album. A candid, positive and important voice in contemporary pop, the Brit Award winner’s new music emerged not just in the wake of a startling few years in the public eye, but through the life-changing lens of the pandemic. Right at the beginning of lockdown, Mabel and her dogs moved back in with her parents, she threw herself into dance classes, and channelled everything she missed (close friends, the big night out, young love, feeling unafraid) into this brand-new musical chapter. As she continued work on the record in the UK, US and between various lockdowns, Mabel first teased what she had been working on with first single ‘Let Them Know’ – an unapologetic anthem about dressing up with nowhere to go, and projecting confidence for anyone who needs it. Recent single ‘Good Luck’ distilled influences of house, heartbreak and female solidarity into perfectly realised pop – and the empowering song you need, when getting ready to go to the party of ‘Overthinking’. Pulling all these strings and tying them together is Mabel herself, with much more on the project to be revealed soon”.
Before picking up on a few more albums, there is another one from 15th July that I would guide people in the direction of. Superorganism’s World Wide Pop is going to be a colourful, busy and bright album from a music collective that always produce such interesting work. Five years after they first put music out, I think they are creating their very best stuff. Do yourself a favour and pre-order an album that is going to be truly must-hear:
“When the first Superorganism music surfaced in 2017, the group’s in-your-face aesthetic — a post-everything mishmash of psychedelic indie pop and fizzy, funky electronica — quickly began to resonate with the likes of Frank Ocean, Vampire Weekend, Jehnny Beth, Gorillaz as well as finding them legions of fans across the world. Superorganism now return with their second album; entitled World Wide Pop, it is their first new music since 2018’s self-titled debut. Superorganism have mutated and are now based around the core of Orono, Harry, Tucan, B and Soul but World Wide Pop also brings in an international set of collaborators including Stephen Malkmus, CHAI, Pi Ja Ma, Dylan Cartlidge as well as legendary musician and actor Gen Hoshino.
Blasting back with thirteen tracks that strike a balance between artifice and earnestness, between sci-fi silliness and existential intensity, World Wide Pop is a showcase for Superorganism’s newly deepened understanding of each other’s interests and impulses, the kind of creative convergence you’d expect when online friends start spending time together IRL (their debut was completed before the whole band had ever been in the same room at the same time)”.
There are three more albums I want to highlight. Moving into 22nd July, and Jack White’s second album of the year, Entering Heaven Alive, is due. Following on from Fear of the Dawn – an album that was quite edgy, eerie, and wild in places –, Entering Heaven Alive is going to be different in terms of sound and mood. Maybe a more tranquil and reflective work. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with on his fifth solo studio album. Keeping it on 22nd July, She & Him Melt Away: A Tribute to Brian Wilson is an album that interests me. Released the month after Wilson turns eighty, it is one that I am looking forward to. I would urge others to pre-order an album paying tribute to one of the greatest songwriters ever:
“She and Him, the acclaimed twosome of M.Ward and Zooey Deschanel are known for the stylish arrangements, sophisticated interpretations, and sharply drawn originals they have perfected across their exceedingly fruitful six-album, 14-year collaboration. Now, with Melt Away: A Tribute to Brian Wilson, their seventh full-length release, the duo has crafted a love letter to 60’s-era Southern California-inspired pop that stands on its own as a defining musical achievement.
Produced by M.Ward and mixed by Tom Schick (Wilco, Norah Jones, Iron and Wine), Melt Away: A Tribute to Brian Wilson is the pair’s first in six years and features an abundance of smartly chosen Wilson / Beach Boys compositions, some universally beloved and others a little less familiar. All of them though, whether ingrained in your soul or hearing for the first time, share a flair for the dramatic. Ward and Deschanel bring their uncanny communal musical instincts to these pop-noir confections and re-imagine them for these times.
The inviting, twangy album opener, Brian Wilson and Mike Love’s “Darlin’,” (from the Beach Boys 1967 album Wild Honey) sets a high bar that She and Him meets throughout. The duo’s devoted take on “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” is especially revealing. Most wouldn’t consider touching the stone-cold classic, yet they lean into it with unabashed joy. Elsewhere, the band’s sublime version of Wilson’s mournful “Til I Die” is a three-minute and 22 second marvel. Deschanel’s spectacular vocal turn on the criminally overlooked Wilson solo cut “Melt Away” transforms the original’s lush, string-heavy treatment into a post-modern folk-pop gem. Other highlights include the surf-rock throwback “Do It Again,” featuring vocals from Brian Wilson himself (!) and the graceful “Please Let Me Wonder,” a long-treasured Wilson album cut. Finally, the Beach Boy’s timeless “Don’t Worry Baby” might be the album’s centerpiece and most affecting track. M.Ward’s earthy, laconic lead vocal layered over an exquisite arrangement feels organic and completely new – just like this album, a stunner in every way”.
There are actually two more albums I want to put your way. Sports Team’s Gulp! is an album that a lot of fans will be pre-ordering. They are one of our most exciting bands. It seems like they are on top form on their latest L.P.:
“Britain’s most exciting breakthrough band of recent years, Sports Team, release their second studio album Gulp!, via Island Records. The first taste of Gulp! came last night as Clara Amfo premiered the band’s new single ‘R Entertainment’ as her Hottest Record in the World on BBC Radio 1. Gulp! follows Sports Team’s 2020 Mercury Prize nominated debut album Deep Down Happy, which charted at #2 in the UK’s Official Charts, achieving the biggest vinyl sales for a debut British artist in 2020.
Signposting a bold and ambitious new era for the band, Sports Team explain that ‘R Entertainment’ explores “The packaging down of all human experience into entertainment, prompted by the infinite scroll through social feeds and the manic formlessness of the images we are hit with every day. Graphic news interrupted by ads for season 17 of The Bodyguard, news as a rubbernecking, passively waiting for the next drop of horror as we flick through recipes.”
Sports Team are Alex Rice (lead vocals), Rob Knaggs (rhythm guitar + vocals), Henry Young (lead guitar), Oli Dewdney (bass), Al Greenwood (drums) and Ben Mack (keyboard + percussion). Formed in 2016, the band released two EPs Winter Nets and Keep Walking! before sharing their debut album Deep Down Happy in June 2020 to widespread critical acclaim, praised by The Times for their “indomitable spirit and a refusal to take things too seriously” and The Guardian for their “sharply observational lyrics skewering the mores of suburbia”. Sports Team’s vivid vignettes of modern Britain and inspections of the follies, foibles and frustrations of youth have earned them an impassioned fanbase, a real community who come together at the band’s infamously electrifying live shows”.
I am going to end with the standout album from 29th July. Maggie Rogers’ Surrender is going to be sensational! I think it will receive some of the best reviews of the year. Go and pre-order a very special album that you really will want to hear:
“Grammy Award-nominated artist / producer / songwriter Maggie Rogers new album, Surrender, released via Polydor Records. Co-produced Kid Harpoon (Florence + the Machine, Harry Styles) and Rogers, Surrender is the follow-up to Heard It in a Past Life, Rogers’ massively beloved 2019 debut album, which entered Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart at No. 1 and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Praised by the likes of NPR, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, TIME Magazine, and many others, Heard It in a Past Life landed Rogers a nomination for Best New Artist and went on to amass over one billion combined global streams”.
There are other great albums out next month that I have missed and you may want to check out. It is up to you. I have chosen a few particularly good ones that I feel most people will want to get. The albums above just go to show what quality is coming our way…
THROUGHOUT July.