6 albums you need to hear this week
With music from Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke, The Amazons, PinkPantheress, Sunday (1994), Chaos In The CBD and Sleep Token
In the age of streaming, it’s never been easier to listen to new music — but with over 60,000 new songs added to Spotify every day, it’s also never been harder to know what to put on. Every week, the team at Rolling Stone UK will run down some of the best new releases that have been added to streaming services.
This week we’ve highlighted records from Chaos in the CBD, Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke, Sleep Token, PinkPantheress, The Amazons and Sunday (1994).
Sleep Token – Even In Arcadia
A month before they headline Download Festival, alt-metal’s newest and biggest stars deliver a record that expands the dimensions of their mysterious world and takes it to the next level. Our three star review explained that “what’s holding Even In Arcadia back, is the sense on so many other songs that they need to find space for traditional heaviness. Understandable, perhaps, from a band about to confirm themselves as Monsters Of Rock on Donington’s hallowed turf, and you could argue it fits with a theme of discovering the dark side of paradise. But, at best, the pattern of only layering in guitars halfway through songs seems unimaginatively formulaic. At worst, it feels downright disjointed.”
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
The Amazons – 21st Century Fiction
The title of this fourth album from The Amazons may talk of fiction, but the themes explored by frontman Matt Thomson – including the concept of unfulfilled promise when you’re on the cusp of your 30s – are all too real. They’re tough ideas to tackle, but songs like the Americana twinged ‘Love Is A Dog From Hell’ show that these battles can be transformed into musical greatness. This record, instead, shows that existential crises never sounded so good…
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Chaos In The CBD – A Deeper Life
Over the past decade, brothers Louis and Ben Helliker-Hales have performed under the Chaos In The CBD to deliver their jazz-flecked deep house sound to audiences across the globe. But it’s this debut album that proves to be their finest hour so far. The duo show off those aforementioned sounds that they’re rightly known for, but blend in vocals for the first time (including offerings from grime legend MC Novelist) and add touches of R&B, soul and much more besides for a record that proves to be as kaleidoscopic as it is irresistible.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke – Tall Tales
It could hardly be a better meeting of minds: Electronic producer/ambient don Mark Pritchard teams up with Thom Yorke for a sonic journey that veers between ethereal soundscapes and darker prog-flecked moments. Pritchard, a face well known to Radiohead fans (he remixed the band’s ‘Bloom’ in 2011), is an perfect foil for Yorke’s vocals – as shown on the haunting soundscapes that back up the singer’s falsetto on ‘The White Cliffs’. Elsewhere, ‘Back In The Game – complete with one of the trippiest music videos we’ve seen in a while – carefully treads the line between being brilliant and down right terrifying. It’s an uncompromising and, at times, unsettling listen, but Radiohead devotees will no doubt find it worth their time.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Sunday (1994) – Devotion
This second EP from Sunday (1994) sees the transatlantic trio building on the dreamy alt-pop and vintage visuals that defined their first offering and made them such an exciting prospect.
‘Silver Ford’, the EP’s standout, sees the duo offering up ethereal and hazy soundscapes as they ruminate on the idea of “trading a colourless life of loneliness for a sun-kissed world where love writes the only scripture.”
“A wild-hearted companion to our first. Each song converses, conspires, or is a continuation of one that came before,” say the group. “Which basically means they’re connected. You have to figure out which ones and how. Answers on a post card.”
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
PinkPantheress – Fancy That
On this latest 9-track mixtape, PinkPantheress is on a mission to show that you’ll pigeonhole her at your own peril. That’s evident in the wide-ranging samples and interpolations – Panic! at the Disco, Jessica Simpson and Basement Jaxx to name but a few – and the kaleidoscopic production of figures including Oscar Scheller and indie revivalist/Charli XCX producer The Dare.
Speaking on the project PinkPantheress says: “Announcing this tape marks a huge milestone for me as an artist, this feels like the most tied together project i’ve applied myself to as an artist and for my fans who have been with me for years, I hope they can hear the signs of growth in me as an artist.”
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
And one to check out…
f5ve – SEQUENCE 01
This debut offering from rising stars f5ve blends hyperpop with more traditional J-Pop sounds for a mix that’s chaotic, catchy and bound to grab your attention. The pulsating ‘Underground’ is an anthem in the making while ‘UFO’ is an otherworldly pop gem. Off the back of this debut, you’d expect J-Pop fans to lap them straight up. Global domination awaits.