Chromatics
Light As a Feather
Chromatics have always been better at creating an intense atmosphere than saying something specific. It’s not a bad thing, though: on Light As a Feather, off their new surprise album Closer to Grey, the lyrics are simple and secondary, but the twinkling, hypnotic synth lines and woozy nocturnal beats will make you feel as if you’re in the meaningful closing scene of an arty film about your life.
Niall Horan
Nice to Meet Ya
“I like the way you talk, I like the things you wear / I want your number tattooed on my arm in ink I swear”. So begins Niall Horan – who now has a husky voice and ironed grey trousers – on his new single Nice to Meet Ya, which is a soft rock track about having a one-night stand. If the aforementioned collection of words don’t make you want to give up sex for ever, then please, have a listen and turn it up!
Ed O’Brien
Santa Teresa
During Radiohead’s headline set at Glastonbury two years ago, the story goes that they had to pause to tune their instruments, but everyone thought they were playing an obscure new track and started nodding and swaying along (it is true, I was there). The first solo offering from Ed O’Brien, Radiohead’s guitarist, is not quite like that – its lush ambience is very soothing – but if you close your eyes, it does also sound a bit like the noise your kitchen appliances make at night.
Lil’ Kim ft OT Genasis & City Girls
Found You
On the one hand – with its bouncing drum claps and looped whoops – the new Lil’ Kim track sounds a bit like what they might play in the background of a fake club in a 2000s movie starring Lindsay Lohan. On the other, it comes with a very odd video in which animated cyborg robots glide across a bubbling sea in speedboats. Neither of these things are good or bad, per se, but how much you like them will depend on how much you’re into Lil’ Kim in the first place.
Michael Stipe
Your Capricious Soul
If there is one silver lining about the fact that our beautiful Earth is hurtling towards mass destruction, every second of every day, like a flamethrower right before the gasoline lights, it is that Michael Stipe has come out of hibernation to release a song about it. It’s a pleasing, understated track, with subtle, droning synths and a slow build-up. Plus, all proceeds over the next 365 days go to Extinction Rebellion. Let’s hope we’ll last that long.
