listening2... 27/11/24
I've been listening to... #12 in the series
listening2… is a series of regular posts on what I’ve been, well, 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!
My most recent posts focussed on the wonderful Boia Festival in St Davids. You can find all those posts with videos and playlists at https://ziggyslament.substack.com/s/boia. This week, I’m back to my usual crate digging – and I’ve been listening to some excellent new and recent music over the last couple of weeks…
Listening2… #12: 28/11/2024
On this week’s listening2… playlist: Tracks from Goat Girl (not Goat!) ; from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’s excellent album, Cool It Down; from Big Red Machine and Taylor Swift; from The Bug Club’s 2024 album; from MRCY - their latest single; from the mighty Delines - together with a goodly number of bonus vids…
1. Goat Girl - words fell out
From their 2024 album, Below the Waste
I came across the band Goat Girl a few years back, around the same time I came across the Swedish psychedelic band Goat. Which could have been confusing, though they have little in common apart from having ‘Goat’ in their name - and being excellently dark and weird in their own unique ways…
Goat Girl are in that noble tradition of melodic post-punk outfits, rising to the top because of the inventiveness and wit of their songwriting, and a kind of ‘skuzzy’ sensibility that I really like. On reflection, Goat are also a bit skuzzy in a different way, so maybe there’s a link beyond the name after all - at least in my own addled mind (which is all that really matters where music is concerned).
Their 2024 album, Below the Waste, is full of strange corners, catchy melodies and dodgy rhythms (the good kind of dodgy!). The videos are strange and inventive. All in all it’s a thing of beauty. My favourite track from the album is this one, words fell out, but frankly they’re all good…
Note: Listening to Goat Girl took me back three decades to one of my favourite albums back then: the wonderful Become What You Are from Juliana Hatfield Three. See what you think of my comparison in the first bonus vid below.1
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Wolf
From their 2022 album, Cool It Down
Back in 2006, the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s album Show Your Bones was everywhere and Karen O was THAT voice! It seemed so ubiquitous that I was sure I had a copy of the CD somewhere! I remembered that wrong, but I certainly did remember Cheated Hearts with its joyful, generous video full of fans dancing, miming and playing along to the song. And that riff…! 2
Fast forward, and on a trawl through Secretly Store (https://www.secretlystore.com – the home of many vinyl gems) I found a bargain copy of their 2022 album, Cool It Down. The jangly, riffing guitar has been enhanced by soaring synths and a funkier feel, but the vibe is just as cool and Karen O’s voice just as good. It’s my album of the moment – one of those records that is a complete piece over eight excellent tracks. Definitely would have been an album of the year - if only I’d caught it when its came out a couple of years back! Any of the tracks would be a great selection, but I’ve chosen this one, Wolf, for its excellent video and storytelling:
3. Big Red Machine - Birch (feat. Taylor Swift)
From the 2021 album, How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?
Another record from Secretly Store, this album is the second from Big Red Machine.3 It followed on soon after Aaron Dessner’s work with Taylor Swift on her truly excellent lockdown albums, Folklore and Evermore (the records that turned me into an ageing Swiftie!), and you can hear their influence on a number of the songs on the album.
The band itself is a collaboration between Aaron Dessner (from The National) and Jason Vernon (aka Bon Iver), and this album features a fair number of guest musicians and singers - including Taylor Swift, Anaïs Mitchell, Fleet Foxes, Ben Howard and This Is The Kit, among others. Maybe because of this (for me) it feels a collection of songs – some of them admittedly great – rather than an album to listen to all the way through at one sitting.
Some reviews have said it’s overlong. I don’t necessarily agree; I think it’s a record from which you can pick any of the songs and enjoy them individually, or listen to one side of the double album and take in another at another time.
The songs are all really well crafted. On Birch (track 4, side 1) Taylor Swift takes on backing vocals to Justin Vernon’s lead and I think it really works.
4. The Bug Club - Cold. Hard. Love.
From their 2022 album, On the Intricate Inner Workings of the System
We’re enjoying the Welsh sunshine, eating Welsh cakes and listening to the brand new record from @thebugclubband Cos they’re Welsh, innit. From Deadsea Record's Instagram
Back in August, Chris from Deadsea Records posted a picture of an album cover (as he often does), with the intriguing caption above. It’s taken me a while to get round to listening to The Bug Club, but I can affirm that not only are they Welsh, they’re excellent too. Tilly Harris and Sam Willmett head up this band, and they’ve released… well loads of stuff including their most recent album, On the Intricate Inner Workings of the System. They might sound a bit Fall-ey, a bit Yard Act-ey, but they’re actually pretty originally weird. Sharp, tight and very, very funny – I love this album!
5. MRCY - Angels
New single, October 2024
Back in May, I featured the track Flowers in Mourning by MRCY – “my new soul obsession”, as I put it! I got their first album, Volume 1, on vinyl through the post (at long last!) a couple of weeks ago, and have been playing it ever since. It’s a glorious collection of tunes that sound like they could have been made anytime over the past fifty years, but utterly contemporary at the same time.
The band is led by producer Barney Lister and vocalist Kojo Degraft-Johnson, who met online during lockdown and then got together to work on these songs. Here I’ve featured their new single, rather than a track from the album, but it’s just as good.
And there’s an even bigger bonus treat for you below – a set, Live From The Mildmay Club, featuring four songs from the album – totally awesome!4
6. The Delines - Left Hook Like Frazier
From their upcoming 2025 album, Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom
And finally… the new single from the magnificent Delines - the foremost happy-sad, country-funk, love-and-grit, city-soul outfit in the world right now (allegedly!)
This is the taster for the new album coming in 2025, Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom, and it promises to be another cracker. They’re back on tour in the UK next year too – and see my adoring reflection on their June 2024 Oxford gig with all the Steve’s HERE.
Bonus track 1 – Juliana Hatfield Three - For the Birds from the album, Become What You Are. This record came out in 1993 and still sounds fresh and contemporary, which is, I guess, why Goat Girl’s sound took me back to it. When it came out, I loved it, and played it over and over. Juliana Hatfield is one of those pioneer artists whose later career also invites some serious crate-digging, so don’t be surprised to find more of her featured on Ziggy’s Lament…
Bonus track 2: Cheated Hearts from the 2006 album, Show Your Bones, by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Best bits: the kids at 1.25 and that riff at 1.30…
Bonus track 3 - Deep Green by Big Red Machine - some of the reviews of BRM’s second album indicated that it contained goodies, but was a bit sprawling and long. As I said above, I’m not sure, I think there’s a place for long collections of songs that you can dip into – like a set of poems or essays, maybe. It got me thinking, though, about the first album from Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon, entitled, well, Big Red Machine. I hadn’t heard it at the time of release (2018) and so decided to revisit. On first hearing, it’s startling. The beats and electronics have an experimental, alien feel and the voices meld, but not always in a comfortable harmonic way. It feels instinctually a more coherent piece that their second record. I need to hear more, but here’s the first track, Deep Green to get you (and me) started.
Bonus 4 - MRCY Live From The Mildmay Club. This is simply superb. Stick on your headphones and take 20 minutes out to soul-up your day!!! Probably the best music video on YouTube right now….
Tracklist Flowers in Mourning Lorelei California RLM plus a bunch of awesome interludes and instrumental renditions!!!