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Showing posts with the label First Aid Kit

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The Music Observer 10: Looking back at 2022 [Albums]

on December 23, 2022

2022 Album Alela Diane best of Dictator First Aid Kit Joan Shelley retrospective Tove Lo William The Conqueror Wyldest Yumi and the Weather

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Glastonbury 2022: Some standout moments

on July 03, 2022

Big Thief festival First Aid Kit Glastonbury Holly Humberstone IDLES live music Olivia Rodrigo Sam Fender Wet Leg Wolf Alice

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First Aid Kit: Fireworks

on February 12, 2021

duo First Aid Kit folk IWD roots Swedish

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New release horizon scanner:

11/1/25 - Rosie Gault: Dim lights
29/1/25 - Dictator: Middle of the road (EP)
7/2/25 - Arliston: Disappointment machine (Album)
28/2/25 - Hachiku: The joys of being pure at heart (Album(

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Wolf Alice + Matt Maltese: UEA LCR, Norwich [Live]

Saturday night marked a live performance I'd been waiting for since April last year, from a band that have made a huge impact on me over the past 12 months. So I walked into the cavernous LCR with high expectations, but also with full confidence that Wolf Alice wouldn't let me down. It was a shame that I only caught the last few songs of the support set from Matt Maltese (due to unexpectedly early stage times) - I enjoyed what I saw. He and the rest of the trio were very skilled, present in the moment but relatively mellow, and provided a good base to ease the audience into the evening. Matt's a great pianist and has a very good voice, too - a smooth baritone. He ended his short set with an engaging performance of 'As The World Caves In' (throwing in a surprise by skilfully beginning it with a snippet from the Succession theme ). It's a moving song, and it was a thoughtfully delivered performance, capturing attention and holding it to the last note. Then, Matt ...

Music Observer: June & July '24 highlights

Falling behind is becoming a bit of a habit it seems… no matter, the music remains as good as ever! Here are a few of the songs which most impacted me in June and July. Both were very strong months for new music (yielding 72 and 60 songs for my lists, respectively), and so this selection was again very hard to narrow down… The full playlists are linked here . JUNE Catty - I Wish I Gave You Hell Here's what I wrote about this song for DIY's Neu Bulletin : "For the first few seconds of CATTY’s latest single, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’re hearing a straightforward, fuzzy and fierce pop/rock song; there's an unsettling fade in, gently menacing vocals, and chugging power chords. But CATTY takes it much further, mixing in masses of colour and liberal sprinklings of surprise. There’s an organ and a piano appearing in the mix, well-judged vocal effects, pace changes and silences galore - plus a “woo-hoo” motif made for top-volume crowd singalongs. The result is an i...

IDLES: TANGK [Album]

This is the closest I've come to doing a reaction post: I wrote most of this during my first listen through this, the second album from IDLES. In summary, I think I was right to be excited about this one ... 'TANGK' is described by the band as being made in love, and all about love; an "album of beauty and power" . Love isn't always fluffy and cuddly, or sweet, or gentle, or even, necessarily, happy. And that's what Joe Talbot, Mark Bowen, Jon Beavis, Adam Devonshire and Lee Kiernan have discovered and attempted to translate into words and music here. The record starts with twinkling piano, the beating of a drum, grinding shimmery guitars. There's a sense of sense of ominous approach. We're in for a beating, maybe. But, then, Joe's voice comes in surprisingly gentle and strangely soothing. This is 'IDEA 01', and through it IDLES return to old-fashioned storytelling. It might be my favourite track from the album. The use of the throwawa...

The Howl & The Hum: Same Mistake Twice [Album]

I last saw The Howl & The Hum (in the previous incarnation) in January 2022, when I also had the honour of chatting in person with Sam Griffiths . He told me then that a second album was coming and explained that there were only "vague ideas" being worked on at that point. Sam explained he wasn't sure if the album would be a 'Human Contact 2', something about Covid, or a record which would "encapsulate the future that's been stolen from us in a sense." Since then, a lot has changed. That band is no more, but TH&TH has continued nevertheless. And the promised album is now with us. 'Same Mistake Twice' has turned out to be a complicated, varied exploration of Sam's (and our) anxieties, particularly around image and what others think of him. In that sense — the way Sam is disarmingly open — TH&TH is continuing in a typical vein. But where 'Human Contact' felt at times jittery and even a little dark (though incredibly bea...

The Music Observer 10: The top EPs of 2024

Here's the Music Observer top-10 EPs of the past year... THE MUSIC OBSERVER 10: EPs Amistat - a moment in the sun Ber - Room for You Bored Marsh - Idiot Girl Scout - Headache Hannah Grae - Nothing lasts forever Holly Humberstone - Work In Progress Loupe - Flaws of a Circle Nieve Ella - Watch it Ache and Bleed renforshort - clean hands dirty water She's In Parties - Puppet Show To read all the details, and see who received an honourable mention, please visit my Substack site: musicobserved.substack.com Please subscribe - it's free, takes a moment and you won't miss any posts in future :-)

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