April

Despite albums being pushed back left, right, and centre recently, there's still been a fair few new releases that I've been interested in this month so thought I'd do a post with my thoughts on these as I haven't done one like this in a long time. I also apologise for the formatting in this post and hope it's not too annoying to read, I've tried everything to fix it but can't.

Future Nostalgia - Dua Lipa

Technically cheating a bit with this one as it was released on the 27th March, but I didn't get round to listening until this month. This album wasn't one I was particularly anticipating however I really enjoyed the first single 'Don't Start Now' when it came out so thought I'd give the rest a listen. This is the second full length album from Dua Lipa after her eponymous 2018 debut, which I've never actually listened to in full, however I probably will do so after enjoying this album so much. The stand out tracks for me on the album are 'Love Again' and 'Break My Heart', but I recommend listening to the album through a few times. 'Break My Heart' is especially good to dance to because of the clever sampling of INXS' 'Need You Tonight' which I think is instantly recognisable in the track. Away from the 'bigger' songs on the album, tracks like 'Pretty Please' with less instrumentation and the almost Lily Allen-esque 'Good In Bed' also fit in perfectly on the album, making it a varied but cohesive body of work. The most forgettable tracks would have to be 'Cool' and 'Boys Will Be Boys' which although I don't think should've closed the album, they are in no means bad. Although I dislike a lot of chart music, I love pop music that's just infectious fun which is exactly what this is. I often say 'I love good pop music'  as I stupidly don't know how to describe it but I'd definitely include Dua in this statement, along with artists like Marina and Charli xcx (to an extent). If anyone needs an album to dance to alone in their room then this is the perfect one with its well-executed disco infused sound.

Level of Concern - Twenty One Pilots

Although I find this trend of quarantine/corona songs being released at the moment a little bit naff, I was really surprised by how much I like Twenty One Pilots' 'Level of Concern', especially since they aren't a band I've listened to in about 4 years. Despite hating the 'quarantine' lyric in the pre-chorus- what does it even mean? I'm willing to overlook it cause the song's just a bit of fun (sorry I've been listening to a lot of music I'd just describe as fun this month so I'll try think of some synonyms). Although this track could definitely be seen as a little generic, and it would be understandable for some fans of the band not to like it, to me its just very catchy and quite vibey really for want of a better word. 

SAWAYAMA - Rina Sawayama

I hadn't heard of Rina Sawayama until a couple of weeks before this album was released, when I was looking at the artists signed to Dirty Hit whilst writing my last post on here. Then when the album came out I saw quite a few people talking about it on twitter so gave it a listen. Although I don't love every track on this album, the ones I do like, I really like. Highlights on the album for me have to be 'XS', 'Bad Friend', and 'Who's Gonna Save You Now?' One of my favourite things about the album is the ambitious blend of genres that mean you can have some tracks sounding very Britney and Chrisitna-esque,full of 00s nostalgia, and others with pretty heavy riffs most common in nu-metal. The track 'STFU!' in particular is very reminiscent of this and also of Poppy's 'BLOODMONEY' where a similar thing of blending bubblegum pop with heavier riffs was attempted (although as a whole I prefer SAWAYAMA to Poppy's 'I Disagree' as albums). The themes explored in the lyrics on this album are also interesting, where some tracks explore different parts of Sawayama's identity and problems she has faced in the music industry, and others, such as 'Paradisin'' throw you into the early noughties with the synths sounding straight out of a video game. I'm a little disappointed I'd never heard of Rina Sawayama before, especially since she's signed to a record label I follow on various social medias, but now I've heard this album, I look forward to hearing her future work.

Birdcage - Holding Absence

                                                 

I've followed Holding Absence for over a year now and have really enjoyed seeing them grow. I've seen a few people not enjoying their recent releases as much as the debut album, however this newest track is definitely one of my favourites from the band. Frontman Lucas Woodland described this as 'the most poppy track we've ever released' and the fact that they worked with Romesh Dodangoda on the track probably plays a part in why I love the track so much as he has worked with some of my favourite bands, like Bring Me The Horizon and Don Broco. I love how the track starts with Woodland's isolated vocals before the rest of the band start playing and then a similar thing happens towards the end of the track. The result is a very stylish tune from the band and I'm excited to hear how this band progress even further in the future.

There’s been other new releases I’ve enjoyed this month, a couple of tracks from All Time Low’s eighth studio album ‘Wake Up Sunshine’, the new Neck Deep single ‘When You Know’, a few tracks from the Strokes’ ‘The New Abnormal’, Enter Shikari’s latest album ‘Nothing is True & Everything is Possible’, and the latest single from Declan Mckenna, ‘The Key to Life on Earth’. You can check out all of these and everything else I’ve been listening to here.