We don’t get to as many gigs now we’ve hit middle age and have a child to look after, but this just makes the ones we do get my to all the more special (and a million thank you’s to our ever-supportive families). Here are the Top 5 performances – in no particular order –…
Featuring members of Heavenly, The Pooh Sticks and The Dentists, Swansea Sound have shared a fabulously festive single in ‘(I Wanna Wear A) Mirrored Hat Like Slade’ – It’s CHRISTMAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSS after all. Available digitally and as a special CD inspired a greetings car designed by Swansea artist Catrin Saran James, the song opens with line…
Inspired by Daniel Bateman’s toddler’s constant question of ‘Did Santa come?’ in the build-up to Christmas (Daniel says ‘Seeing the world through the eyes of your children makes it all very beautiful’ and we have to concur, our 3-year-old is very excited this year), Frog release a song of the same name ahead of the…
Swedish singer-songwriter Sofia Talvik has been writing Christmas songs for a decade and a half now and this year is no exception. With a tendency to focus on the darker elements of the season (come on, who doesn’t love a ghost story at Christmas), this year her song ‘AT Christmas’ is inspired by the dangers…
Swansea’s Baby Schillachi follow up their debut album ‘The Soundtrack’ with an ode to the haunting power of hymns and more menacing side of Yuletide. They also make no secret of the fact they have their eyes on next year’s John Lewis ad… Starting with evocative piano notes and a question of ‘Why am I…
Sharing management with The Strokes and following a recent support slot to Interpol, New York City five-piece Monobloc share new single ‘Take Me’. Inspired by Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, there’s a cinematic edge to its atmospherics as frontman Tim Waldron pleads: ‘I want to be your fool’. A mix between My Bloody Valentine and…
Norwegian indiepop supergroup Sunturns (Ola Innset, Einar Stray and Sjur Lyseid) share their third selection of festive anthems in ‘Christmas III’. While inspired by the season’s festivities, the song’s also look some of the more somber and sad moments that affect us all come 25 December… There’s a Ronettes-style introduction to the album opener ‘New…
Brooklyn-based Ciao Malz (Malia DelaCruz) releases her debut EP, ‘Safe Then Sorry’, via Audio Antihero on 6 December There’s a woozy alt-rock sound to the opening ‘Two Feet Tall’. Bringing back memories of Best Coast or Frankie Cosmos, this breezy piece finds Malia talking about how she’s ‘always reaching’ and how ‘I’ve been meaning to…
Manchester singer-songwriter Phoebe Green has shared ‘Precious Things’ ahead of a UK tour next April. Covering the ‘Obsessive, almost fan-like behaviour that we can exhibit in romantic relationships’. With elements of Imogen Heap and St. Vincent in its sonic orchestration, the song finds Phoebe embracing a big pop sound that offsets the vulnerability on show…
Melbourne five-piece Delivery have shared new single ‘The New Alphabet’ ahead of the release of their second album ‘Force Majeure’ on 17 January 2025 via Heavenly Recordings. ‘The New Alphabet’ finds the band delving into a post-punk sound, complete with scattergun riffs and wonky, scuzzy Cribs-esque interludes. The band say the song takes ‘on the…
Spectral Nights - alternative music, indie music, music reviews, new music, music blog 