ICYMI #1 | This Week In Music News
In another difficult week for pretty much anyone with a pulse, it’s good to know that we can still rely on the power of music to get us through. That is, until it is inevitably outlawed, so just enjoy it while it lasts. This week, two black musical legends, one dead, one very much alive, gave us unexpected surprises the world probably doesn’t deserve, and fellow musicians reminded us just why we probably don’t.
Prince’s Music to finally be available on all streaming services
For almost two years now, the unrivaled back catalogue of The Purple One could only be heard on the exclusive ghost town that is Tidal, AKA Jay-z’s second biggest mistake after his adultery. But no more, as Warner Bros. have struck a deal with the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, Google play and others to make sure his game changing material is available for all to hear. According to The New York Post, this mass dissemination of his music will take place on February 12th, the night of the Grammy Awards. So now you have even more of an excuse than usual to steer clear of the Grammy Awards.
During his life, Prince was not fully behind the concept of internet streaming and had been notoriously stringent in his attempts to prevent his music from surfacing anywhere online. His take-down notices were so consistent and strict that I can’t even link you a song of his right now, but all that will soon change come February 12th.
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Mac De Marco announces new album and Vicar Street Date
Your favourite chain smoking, care-free cult hero is back with his follow up to 2015’s Another One. On Tuesday Mac De Marco announced his new album, Old Dog, will be released on May 5th, along with dropping two singles. It’s a semi-ironic title, because the tracks both show us he is capable of some unexpected ‘new tricks’ but also that he’s just as likely to stick to some of his traditional staples. True to form, the title track is a brisk, breezy, indie rock number that would provide a suitable soundtrack to any mid-day nap. It’s fellow release ‘My Old Man’, however, has Mac in Neil Young mode while subtly reinventing his sound. There are drum machines(!) and loop patterns with our gap-toothed jokester in a surprisingly reflective mood as he starts to realise that “uh oh, looks like/ I’m seeing more of my old man in me”.
More good news for Irish fans is that De Marco will be bringing his chill, laissez-faire vibes to Dublin soon as he announced a date in Vicar Street. It’ll all go down on November 22nd and it looks to be one the of the last stops on his recently announced world tour for the album. Get your tickets and make sure to bring plenty of cigarettes; the more you hurl at him, the longer the encore I hear.
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Read Andrea Cleary’s review of De Marco’s previous effort.
The industry reacts to the #MuslimBan
Unless you’ve spent the entirety of the last week with a blindfold on, your fingers in your ears while singing “la la la don’t wanna know” to yourself—and who would blame you—you couldn’t have missed the news of President Trump’s quite putrid executive orders. The worst of which was his decision to bar citizens from seven Muslim majority countries, including refugees, from entering the US. It’s being hailed as one of the most reckless and xenophobic pieces of US foreign policy legislation since the forced internment of the Japanese during World War 2.
The one bright spark was found the unprecedented solidarity shown in the global condemnation of these actions, with those in the music world following suit. The likes of electro-pop genius Grimes, Sia and friend to independent scene Bandcamp have all pledged to make sizable donations to the American Civil Liberties Union in the hope of getting the ban overturned. Plenty of high-profile musicians have also been quick to denounce Trump’s regressive order, including KT Tunstall, Tegan and Sara, Best Coast, John Legend, Win Butler, Bat For Lashes, Mark Hoppus, St Vincent , Rihanna and many, many more. While they all gave impassioned responses, leave it to an actual proper Christian Sufjan Stevens—perhaps the most empathetic man in music—to say it best:
“There really is no such thing as an illegal immigrant, for we are all immigrants and refugees in a wildly changing world that is dominated by superfluous boundaries built by blood and war. We all come from somewhere else…. Christ would be ashamed of us all”.
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Beyoncé announces pregnancy (with twins)
Yes you’re right, this is a not-very-newsworthy, Heat Magazine cover of a story. But its Beyoncé, and as such exists at the pinnacle of cultural significance. This week, of all weeks, we needed it. That announcement photo offered a brief distraction from the shitstorm that is the current geopolitical climate. Whatever about album drops, Beyoncé seems to be able to time her own pregnancies to perfection also.
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NEW RELEASES THIS WEEK
Father John Misty – ‘The Ballad of a Dying Man’
The world’s hairiest personification of post-irony has released his third single from his hotly anticipated album Pure Comedy. Like its title track, it’s another sparse, absurdist lament for our seemingly crumbling society. Who would dare laugh at this?
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Future Islands – ‘Ran’
The group may never give us another searing piece of electro-pop perfection like ‘Seasons (Waiting on You)’ but this is a solid first single to for their upcoming album The Far Field .
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Half Waif – ‘Frost Burn’
One of 2016’s best under the radar releases was Half Waif’s Probable Depths. While perhaps better known as the keyboardist for another one of last year’s scrappy underdogs, Pinegrove, Nandi Rose Plunkett’s other project deserves just as much recognition. “Frost Burn” is another fascinating marriage between hook laden sweetness and her more experimental innovations.
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Priests – ‘Nothing Feels Natural’
The title track from the bi-gender post-punk outfit’s latest release is slow burning doozie. What starts off as a feathery joy division evolves into a raucous noise of blistering, dreamy fuzz.
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