listening2: 11/6/25
I've been listening to... #19 in the series
listening2… is a series of regular posts on what I’ve been listening to. Tracks from my travels. New songs and music to explore further. Half forgotten tracks from my collection. Roadtrip gems. If you like this post, let me know or, even better, let someone else know!
It’s been a while since my last listening2… playlist as I’ve been working on some longer feature pieces on LGBTQ+ artists including an introductory piece to set the context HERE,
…and a two part feature on the 2024 TRAИƧA project, the first of which you can find HERE:
Listening2… #19: 11/06/2025
On my latest four decade spanning listening2… playlist: a track from the upcoming album by unrivalled veterans Suede, plus one from Paraorchestra featuring Brett Anderson and Nadine Shah. Then, a dip into the melting pot that is the wonderful world of North American indigenous and emigrant fusion; here featuring tracks from brilliant recent albums by Bizhiki and Leyla McCalla. There’s nostalgia from the archives with a track from Low’s 2001 classic album, Things We Lost In The Fire (plus an Alan Sparkhawk bonus) and a track from one of two newly remastered and released classic albums from the mid-nineties activist and festival collective, Heathens All.
1. Suede: Disintegrate
From the new album 'Antidepressants', out 5th September 2025
Suede is a band I’ve loved since the start. It’s over 40 years since their eponymous debut album crashed the Britpop party. Where Blur were Kinks-ey and Oasis were Beatles-ey, Suede were nothing but themselves. Their music snarled, I remember thinking, it was androgynous, uncompromising and utterly melodic. They’ve keep on producing excellent music since – and their 2018 masterpiece, The Blue Hour, is one of the bleakest, beautiful and complete albums you’ll find.
Suede released what they referred to as their ‘punk’ album, Autofiction, in 2022 (an excellent set that me and Phil saw them perform it at our teenage haunt, Newcastle City Hall), and now they’re preparing for their follow up ‘post-punk’ record, Antidepressants, to be released in September. Here’s their first single from the album: Disintegrate…
Take it all nice and slow Like those endless hot summers Like nature returned to dust We walk on polluted beaches feeling our bodies disintegrating, yeah
2. Bizhiki - Unbound
From the album ‘Unbound', 2024 on Jagjaguwar
Sometimes I come across something that is unlike anything I’ve heard before. ‘World’ and ‘Indigenous’ can come and go out of fashion in music circles, but I like things best when artists get experimental from inside their culture or cultures. This title track from Bizhiki’s album, Unbound, is a beautiful, intriguing fusion of electronica and ‘powwow’ singing, a millennia-old tradition among Northern indigenous American people from in and around the Great Lakes.
It’s unlike anything you might have heard lately, I wager, unless you’re familiar with the artists and traditions in question. At first listen, it washed over me a little, but then something caught me and I went back and got lost (in a good way) in the expansive beauty of the piece.
3. Leyla McCalla – Scaled to Survive
from her 2024 album 'Sun Without the Heat'
More Americana fusion with this one from Leyla McCalla’s album, Sun Without The Heat. It’s impossible to watch and listen to the beauty that comes out of America’s melting-pot heart without also thinking of how that government is now unleashing violence and deportations on its own population. McCalla’s parents were initially from Haiti, and have been activists, community leaders and campaigners for human rights in the USA. It reminds us that life is touched by both horror - and beauty… and full of heart rending contradictions…
4. Paraorchestra with Brett Anderson & Charles Hazlewood ft. Nadine Shah - Holes
Taken from the 2024 album, 'Death Songbook'
No apologies for another Brett Anderson track here.
Paraorchestra is, as described on their website: “a fearless collective of disabled and non-disabled musicians: a platform that pushes the boundaries of music-making to create art with passion and purpose.”
This album and performance project, Death Songbook, is a collaboration between Anderson and Paraorchestra around the theme of love, death and loss. It’s a set of classic tracks reworked by Charlotte Harding and with guest appearances from a range of artists alongside Brett Anderson and Paraorchestra founder Charles Hazlewood. This one is a particular favourite (a version of Holes by Mercury Rev) and I love the vocal interplay in this video between Anderson and Nadine Shah.
5. Low - Sunflower
From the 2001 album, Things We Lost In The Fire
This album was one of my favourites when it came out, almost a quarter of a century ago, and one I listen to again and again! That timeline seems so strange! When I pulled out and played the CD again last week it felt so instantly familiar and nostalgic – and Sunflower is one of those ‘album first tracks’ that is entirely iconic.
The Low story is a tragic one, Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker set up Low back in 1993 and released music for three decades until Mimi died with cancer in 2022. Alan Sparhawk is, however, still releasing music and I’ve included a track from his most recent album as a bonus below.1
6. Heathens All - One More Brighter Day
From the 1996 album, Songs from the Rising Heart
A few weeks ago I got talking to a woman in my yoga class at our local leisure centre in Pembrokeshire. It turns out she, Tina Bridgman, is a sing/songwriter, musician and singing teacher around our way. As we talked she also told me that, back in the mid-90s, she was part of a band – a collective called Heathens All. I didn't know the band, but remembered the Green activist and festival scene they were part of, and members of the collective (including Tina) went on to appear on a number of other bands – most notably Seize The Day.
Heathens All released a couple of albums back in the 90s which had disappeared into the musical vaults, but were recently remastered and released by members of the band. You can find out a bit more about the story of the albums on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/heathens.all
The two, Heathens All and Songs from the Rising Heart, are available on Bandcamp HERE: https://heathensall.bandcamp.com for a minimum donation of £7, with all proceeds going to 'World Central Kitchen' or 'Medical Aid for Palestinians'.
You can find the links below, together with a video (produced independently by a fan) that incorporates one of the tracks from Songs from the Rising Heart: the energetic, optimistic and danceably funky, One More Brighter Day!
Bonuses
Alan Sparhawk, one half of the duo that was Low, is still producing great music. His most recent release, Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles is out this week on Sub Pop. This track is great. Trampled by Turtles themselves are a band from the city of Duluth (where Low originated from) and they make a big, beautiful sound…
Hi Steve - some good sounds! I concur regarding the Low album - but feel I must comment on your Blur> Kinks: Oasis>Beatles - and Suede being 'nothing but themselves.'. I thought at times Suede were more Bowie than Bowie. Anyway, I just wanted you to know I do read it (smile). Let me know when you want another piece!!!!! Ziggy
Fair comment, Steve 😂 my own biases emerging there. Still I prefer Bowie any day to either the Beatles or the Kinks! And Suede are still producing good music 40 years on though! Oh, and a new piece is always welcome! 🙏