Spectral Nights big 2024 Spotify Playlist
We try our best to write about music we love, in the hope others may share this same passion for the artists we cover. Here’s a handy Spotify playlist featuring songs we’ve covered in 2024.
Maxïmo Park – ‘Favourite Songs’
Maxïmo Park have returned with new song ‘Favourite Songs’ and an extensive UK and EU tour for the autumn. An ode to the timeless power of pop music, ‘Favourite Songs’ opens with a line about Paul Smith’s best years being behind him but soon changes into a more celebratory tone as he decides to focus…
Bess Atwell – ‘Fan Favourite’
Bess Atwell has shared ‘Fan Favourite’ ahead of the release of new album ‘Light Sleeper’ on 24 May via Lucy Rose’s Real Kind Records. Produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner, the song is an ode to shared experiences and our strong connections to them. With swaying melodies and a bittersweet look at how sometimes these…
Van Houten – ‘The Tallest Room’ album review
Brilliantly named Van Houten have released ‘The Tallest Room’, a record seven years in the making. The Leeds band enlisted the ears and ideas of producer Alex Greaves (bdrmm, Bloc Party) to help and the result is an emotional snapshot of the band’s formulative years that also manages to look ahead to an optimistic future.…
Underground Festival Review, Gloucester – Saturday 30 March 2024
A sold-out crowd descended upon Gloucester for the Easter Saturday extravaganza that was Underground Festival – a three-venue pay-what-you-want event that celebrates and showcases the best in new music from the worlds of rock, pop, punk, indie, emo and beyond. We made a beeline for the Blackfriars venue as soon as the doors opened –…
Rosie Tucker – ‘Utopia Now!’ album review
Rosie Tucker’s fourth album, ‘Utopia Now!’, finds the talented singer-songwriter asking what an artist’s life looks like in 2024 – a time where people’s (especially trans) rights are being taken away because they’re deemed ‘different’ and capitalism rules over (almost) all. The album opener ‘Lightbulb’ is full of synths stabs and Rosie’s trademark stream-of-consciousness thoughts:…
Pillow Queens – ‘Like a Lesson’
Pillow Queens have shared new single ‘Like a Lesson’ ahead of the release of their third album ‘Name Your Sorrow’ via Royal Mountain Records on 19 April. With the band claiming the track was sonically influenced by Blur, R.E.M., Semisonic and New Radicals (all of whom we also love), it’s a breezy sound underpinning lyrics…
Wild Pink – ‘Air Drumming Fix You’
Wild Pink have made a welcome return with ‘Air Drumming Fix You’, a subtly powerful and sax-infused Antlers-esque piece that finds John Ross ruminating on the potential horrors of a VR world, ‘baby’s breath just like crème fraiche’ and how ‘the good life didn’t look like you thought it might’. With meditative melodies and an…
2000trees 2024 adds Los Campesinos!, Frank Turner, Bob Vylan, Cherym, Don Broco and more to line-up
2000trees – taking place at Upcote Farm near Cheltenham from 10-13 July – has added a number of new faces and returning heroes to its 2024 line-up. Don Broco join The Chats and The Gaslight Anthem as Main Stage headliners while Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls, Lonely the Brave and – perhaps most excitingly…
China Bears – ‘Easy Kill’
China Bears have shared ‘Easy Kill’ ahead of the release of their debut album ‘Participation Trophy’ (out via Fierce Panda on 12 July). Packed with Fatherson-style heart-on-the-sleeve sensibilities, ‘Easy Kill’ shares innermost thoughts about the power of (unrequited?) love against an anthemic backdrop of hooks, harmonies and heartbreak: ‘You bring out a side of me…
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