New Music Weekly #22 | Rostam, St. Vincent & U2
New Music Weekly is your one stop shop for new releases in the world of music each and every week. From the best of the best, to some of the rest, Mark Conroy is here to give you the low down on what you might have missed. This week: Rostam, St.Vincent, U2 and more…
Rostam ‘Half Light’
Former Vampire Weekender Rostam is set to release his debut solo album Half Light on September 15th and during the week he dropped its title track. Another delicately ornate pop tune, ‘Half Light’ the song is spacious and intimate in equal measure.
St Vincent ‘Los Ageless’
After ‘New York’ St.Vincent offers us another ode to an iconic American city, but as the title suggests, ‘Los Ageless’ is a more sardonic and bittersweet effort. Annie Clarke clearly doesn’t share the same love she has for the big apple “The Los Ageless hang out by the bar/Burn the pages of unwritten memoirs” she laments. Sometimes disco infused pop, sometimes prince-like symphonics, the fiery track is decent but may be trying to do a little too much.
U2 ‘You’re the Best Thing about Me’
After a lengthy delay to their new album Songs of Experience – one that was attributed to the election of Donald Trump — U2 finally drop it’s lead single ‘You’re the Best thing about Me’ and it’s spectacularly inoffensive. Full of predictably guitar lines and a forgettable chorus this an All That You Can’t Leave Behind b-side that will pass you by instantly.
Sza ‘Quicksand’
Sza quickly became the new darling of hip hop when she released the excellent Ctrl earlier this year. Now she’s dropped a new song for the soundtrack of the HBO show Insecure. Featuring her sultry and sensual delivery that is now her trademark, ‘Quicksand’ is no afterthought. It’s a trap influenced guilt trip about the trials of infidelity and it’s rather good.
Sam Smith ‘Too Good At Goodbyes’
Sam Smith is an Oscar winner, which is a really depressing fact, but his new song isn’t all that terrible. Rather, its quite passable. This doesn’t make the fact that he won an Academy Award for a bond song you couldn’t hum if your life depended on it any less unfair, but this song is ok. It’s a weepy ballad with a bit where the choir comes in about where you would expect it would.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX8-YzMKZhQ
Mount Kimbie ‘Delta’
Electronic artist Mount Kimbie dropped a new album entitled Love What Survives and it features the likes of King Krule and James Blake. Of the new tracks, ‘Delta’ is the standout, a dazzlingly disquieting instrumental with a killer drumbeat. Its final stretch builds to something that might soundtrack a seedy rave that anyone could get into.
