FEATURE:
Play It Again
PHOTO CREDIT: Freepix
My Favourite Single and Album of the Year So Far
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WE are into June now…
PHOTO CREDIT: Mick Haupt via Pexels
so I wanted to pause for a second and spend some time with my favourite single and album of the year so far. There are loads of albums and singles I have really been struck by. It has been a magnificent year so far for new music. There are those that have stood out from the rest, though. I am starting off with a single that I reviewed when it came out (and I sillily misspelled Iraina Mancini’s surname on part of the review, so I offer sincere apologies for that. I have corrected it!). The incredible Cannonball shot (sorry!) its way to my heart when it came out in April. A week before boygenius (the group consisting of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker) released their anticipated and celebrated debut album, the record. Both Iraina Mancini and boygenius’ work have received hugely and empassioned positive reviews! I wanted to delve into each, explaining why they are at the top of my list. I will do another feature at some point that unites the best of the rest. It has been such a strong and surprising year for music. Who knows what the next six months or so will offer up! Below are further details and praise for a magnificent single and wonderful album. They have come from artists who I have…
IN THIS PHOTO: Boygenius (Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers) photographed by Ryan Pfluger for Rolling Stone on 29th November, 2022, in Los Angeles, California
SO much respect for.
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SINGLE: Iraina Mancini – Cannonball
Release Date: 5th April
Label: Needle Mythology
Producer: Sunglasses for Jaws
Additional Production: Erol Alkan
Written By: Iraina Mancini/Simon Dine
Why It Is My Favourite:
I have been an Iraina Mancini fan for a while now. Her single, Undo the Blue, was my favourite of last year. She has repeated the same trick this year with the epic Cannonball! With elements of 1970s French music, together with some mid-1960s Psychedelia, and awash with her phenomenal vocals, I don’t see much being able to top this song! Signed to Needle Mythology, Mancini releases her debut album in August. Keep your eyes on her social media platforms for future news. A phenomenal live performer, be sure to get your ticket to see her live at The Lexington in London on 13th July. One of this country’s finest artists, I know that debut album is going to get a lot of love when it arrives. Cannonball (which was shown a lot of a love by BBC Radio 6 Music) is proof that she is one of the most original and fascinating artists in music. As a side note: check out her Radio Soho weekly show, as it is abound with Soul, Disco, Latin, Garage, Psychedelia, and so much more! Beautifully selected tracks from around the world.
PHOTO CREDIT: Iraina Mancini
REVIEWS AND PRESS:
“Iraina Mancini has shared his wonderful new single ‘Cannonball’.
The songwriter is already something of a 6Music favourite, with singles such as ‘Undo The Blue’ becoming huge favourites with hosts like Lauren Laverne. A retro-pop amalgam, Iraina seizes on the best aspects of the past, blurring those impeccable 60s and 70s influences with a touch of modernity.
Fresh signed to Needle Mythology – the label founded by author and broadcaster Pete Paphides – Iraina Mancini plays a packed out showcase at Central London hotspot The Social last night, stunning all those in attendance.
A full album is incoming, with new single ‘Cannonball’ online now. It feels like the lost theme to a 60s spy film, a kind of Modesty Blaize character updated for the modern era. A female-forward slice of action-packed pop, it was co-written alongside Simon Dine, and produced by Sunglasses for Jaws (with the redoubtable Erol Alkan on additional production).
The neat keyboard arpeggios in the background recall the Killing Eve soundtrack work constructed by Unloved, while the loping bassline is sheer McCartney. A psych-pop whirlwind, ‘Cannonball’ finds Iraina yearning for freedom.
She comments…
“I wrote ‘Cannonball’ about taking a chance in life and following your heart. It’s that moment where you meet someone or something and it knocks you for six! Your intuition kicks in and you’ve got to go with what it’s telling you. I really wanted to write something that grabbed people’s attention, I got lost in my head in an action packed, 60s stylish thriller film”.
“Earworm of the week? Most definitely. Single of the year? Quite possibly.
You know the moment when you hear that riff, that voice, that bass line, whatever it is, it stops you in your tracks, right? Well, that’s exactly what happened when I first heard Cannonball and having listened to it countless times since, my love of the track hasn’t diminished one iota, if anything I love it more, hearing little intricacies, clever dips and turns in the music and, of course, a great vocal by the song’s artist, Iraina Mancini.
Set against a swirling keyboard/synth background and effortlessly cool drumming, Mancini provides the perfect accompanying vocal, echoing shades of Wolf Alice and a refined Wendy James. The music is tinged with 60s psychedelia with a modern twist, an air of mystique and intrigue underpinning the track.
With the promise of a debut album to come and potentially a tour, trust me and get into Iraina Mancini now, she promises to be one of the sounds of 2023. Visit the website here for more”.
ALBUM: boygenius – the record
Release Date: 31st March
Label: Interscope
Producers: boygenius/Catherine Marks
Written By: boygenius (Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus), except Leonard Cohen, written by boygenius, HoJun Yu, and Leonard Cohen.
Why It Is My Favourite:
2023 has been hugely strong in terms of albums. Billie Marten’s Drop Cherries, Caroline Polachek’s Desire, I Want to Turn Into You, Jessie Ware’s That! Feels Good!, and Foo Fighters’ But Here We Are run fairly close in terms of quality and impact. I have been blown away by each of them! The combination of and chemistry between Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker is incredible! With exceptional production from boygenius and Catherine Marks, each song on the record gets under the skin and into your heart. You do not have to know anything about boygenius to fall for this album. Whilst a few others might have been higher-reviewed this year, but I think boygenius’ debut is the very best. Go and buy the album if you can, as it is well worth soms serious investigating! I look forward to hearing what the amazing boygenius produce next.
PHOTO CREDIT: Matt Grubb/The Guardian
REVIEWS AND PRESS:
“From their Nirvana-inspired Rolling Stones cover shoot, up to the recent announcement of their UK shows, the supergroup have been dominating the social media feeds of excited fans for months. Now, their debut album – aptly titled the record – is here in all its poetic, cutting glory; and it’s been entirely worth the wait.
The product of three bright musical minds with an enviably close connection, Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus continue to bloom under their wry moniker. Following on from their debut self-titled EP released in 2018, the record is an unfiltered love letter to true friendship and intimacy in its many guises. Across twelve tracks, the trio extrapolate on everything from nearly drowning in the sea (“Anti-Curse”), gushing over genuine infatuation (“We’re In Love”), to unexpectedly long and meaningful road trips (“Leonard Cohen”). It’s the latter that arguably started it all.
“If you love me / you will listen to this song,” muses Dacus in the opening line of “Leonard Cohen,” recalling the real life moment that Bridgers asked her bandmates to listen to “The Trapeze Swinger” by Iron & Wine in their car. Clocking in at nine and a half minutes, the epic duration meant that Bridgers missed their turn off, but Baker and Dacus didn’t mention it until it was too late, because she was so engrossed in the music. This motion-picturesque, yet ridiculous moment is the lifeblood of the record, deftly summed up by Dacus’ line: “It gave us more time to embarrass ourselves / telling stories we wouldn’t tell anyone else / you said ‘I might like you less / now that you know me so well’”.
Shame is a potent emotion that can skew perspective and shrink a narrative, but boygenius’ direct-yet-tactful dynamic and genuine off-stage friendship means they transgress this. “I want to hear your story / and be a part of it” the trio of harmonious voices sing on demo-like opener “Without You Without Them,” and what follows is a collection of life-affirming, sometimes joyful, occasionally crushing poetry about that.
Their narratives are often eccentric, ambiguous and deeply personal, but their universal veins of frustration, revelation, growth and unfiltered feelings – both platonic and romantic – permeate the record. Whether Dacus is delivering poetic ruminations on “True Blue” (“When you don’t know who you are / you fuck around and find out”), or all three songwriters are “feeling like an absolute fool about it” on “Cool About It”, they’re underscored by the band’s trademark patience, grace, and deadpan humour. Only someone like Baker could get away with writing a bop about a near death experience in the sea on “Anti-Curse,” only someone as dry as Dacus could sing the lyric “and I am not an old man having an existential crisis / in a Buddhist monastery / writing horny poetry” on “Leonard Cohen,” and only someone like Bridgers could deliver the line “you called me a fucking liar” with such tenderness on “Emily I’m Sorry.”
What truly sets the record apart from its predecessor is Baker’s input of genuinely 'sick riffs'. Whilst they were present on the EP (“Stay Down,” “Salt In The Wound”) on the album they really propel things forward and kick in at all the right moments, fully fleshing out boygenius’ sound. Indie anthems like “$20,” “Not Strong Enough” and the superb “Satanist” contrast well amidst the softer moments on “Revolution O” and closing track “Letter To An Old Poet.” This considered instrumentation allows the vocals of each songwriter to shine through consistently.
It goes without saying that there are songs that listeners will instantly take to on the record, and others that will require more patience, but “Satanist” is one of the former. “Will you be a satanist with me?” asks Baker, “Will you be an anarchist with me?” Bridgers propositions, “Will you be a nihilist with me?” questions Dacus – all irresistible invitations that can’t be refused even after repeated listens. This rebellious spirit, one that encourages listeners to mess around, make mistakes and quite literally take the wrong route, is what makes the record such a bright and brilliant listen”.
“Five years is a long time, long enough for a band to wander, reunite, and find themselves on a different plane. Such is the case of boygenius, the indie supergroup of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker. When the trio first joined forces in 2018, it was to bash out an EP over the course of four days, releasing the results on Matador. Everything about The Record, the full-length debut delivered a half-decade later, is more deliberate. Boygenius spent a month cutting The Record, releasing it on Interscope to great fanfare in March 2023. The leap to the majors certainly reflects how the profiles of Dacus, Baker, and especially Bridgers have been elevated since the boygenius EP, a rise aided by each of the three releasing strong, distinctive albums in its wake. What's remarkable about The Record is how these three idiosyncratic songwriters consciously decide to subsume their quirks within a group voice. Individual traits haven't been erased so much as they've been sanded so they can fit neatly together. The unified front gives The Record shape and heft, qualities apparent from its twin openers: "Without You Without Them" highlights their spectral harmonies, while "$20" drives home an offset riff that's quintessentially 1990s. Much of The Record feels like a conscious throwback to the spirit of 1993, blending the dreamier and noisier aspects of alt-rock, feeling equally at home with the bittersweet strums of "Leonard Cohen" and the walloping hooks of "Satanist," not to mention how "True Blue" and "Not Strong Enough" land squarely in the middle of this spectrum. Collectively, boygenius feels heftier and hookier than Baker, Bridgers, and Dacus do on their own, and this collective instinct towards immediacy pays great dividends: it's bracing to hear such introspective singer/songwriters embrace the pleasures of a united front”