Aug 1: Week 31 of the year. Start of August and the start of Autumnal announcements as we get into the latter half of Festival season. This week, it’s the turn of the females. Hayley Williams returns with a surprise amalgamation of tracks, Wisp returns with indie-rock vulnerability, Blusher emerge victorious with electro-pop while we see a new band flourish with their debut.
EGO
Hayley Williams
After seeing their label agreements come to an end with Paramore with This is Why project in 2023, we see Hayley Williams take to her solo roots again after four years with a slurry of gloomy post-rock collection of songs uncovering topics such as love lost and companionship. With each track featuring a different artwork, the surprise drop encompasses Hayley’s knack in curating singer-songwriter classics – aswell as having the freedom of a successful artist in doing whatever the hell she wants. While the songs do not intertwine with one another like that of a ‘traditional’ record, it is nice to see the powerhouse behind Paramore return to the studio.
If Not Winter
Wisp
Elsewhere in the gleam of mood, Wisp quenches our thirst for another project after Pandora last year, which featured the ever-eclipsing standalone of Your Face. An intimate display of shoe-gaze stoicism, If Not Winter picks up where she left off in a far more intimate setting.
The New Eve is Rising
The New Eves
Everything about this band is one of both curiosity and disquiet. A busy-body of trad folk and Velvet-esque whimsy brings this Brighton quartet to life in a weird cult-like ensemble of sawing strings and roaring vocals that merely eclipse just what is creeping out of the back doors of the world of experimenting underground world of music. An intensity so raw, with a bleating to disarm, The New Eves are a new haunting sound befitting for any cult flaunting in the fields. Be it the folkish dystopia with Rivers Run Red or avant-garage rock take with Highway Man.
Honourable Mentions
House of El: Egyptian Cotton – Along with sharp Dirty Tricks and Say It Ain’t So, this lo-fi soulful blend of his latest release comes with an announcement for his upcoming EP, What If It All Fails? Prepare yourself: House of EL – multi-instrumentalist of Kieron McIntosh – is set to make waves this upcoming season.
Pistol Daisys: Honey! / Wolves – Earmarked as one of alt-pop’s most compelling acts, Pistol Daisys keep their momentum following Crying in Marseille with a double-header with a buoyant dance-rock powerhouse in Honey! and a brooding acoustic with Wolves – as they both shift narratives in a compounding relationship with villainy and distrust. Today’s release arrives ahead of the bands’ debut album expected October this year.
Marvin’s Revenge: Scrape – A gnarly sound with a post-punk grudge, Marvin’s Revenge return to the alternative forefront with Scrape; a first glimpse into the trio’s next upcoming EP, “Offer of Love” which is dropping in October. For fans of post-punk cult heroes The Murder Capital and Shame aswell as the darkening resemblance to Pixies which can’t be shaken, Marvin’s Revenge are looking to whip up the scene in spectacular fashion.
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