New Music Monday #48

HÄXAN
by Ella Hooper
Album: In Tongues (June 28, 2013)

"Too hot to handle, too cool to taste." Ella Hooper finds herself two for two with the second taste of her upcoming solo debut as 'Haxan' places you under her spell with a smouldering undercurrent of gorgeous mystery. 'Haxan' is the right blend of darkness and sensuality, evoking images of the mystical, witchcraft and ritual. It's a further move into unexplored territory from Hooper and unsurprisingly she excels, finding what could become a niche in a genre seemingly left untouched since the glory days of Stevie Nicks' solo career. A stark  use of light and shade is presented in the song, breaking it up into three parts. It's when Hooper digs deep, embracing her low register in the darker, grungier "and of all your blessings" third segment she shines the most. "There was nothing real there, there was nothing to believe." Listening to this, you'll definitely be under Hooper's spell.  With the word that In Tongues will weave tales of the individual possessed, overtaken by the unknown and unseen forces, the one-two punch of previous track 'Low High' and now 'Haxan' sets the album up to be quite a journey. I don't think we'll soon forget it. 

Matt Bond gives 'Haxan' five Nick Cave's out of five... 

Here's To Never Growing Up

by Avril Lavigne

Album: TBA (TBA, 2013)

Now, I'm not going to totally bag out the future Mrs. Kroeger. Avril had it going on way back when, with her heavy eye-liner and pop-punk shtick. There's just something about 'Here's To Never Growing Up' that seems a little too... familiar? Could it be that the verses sound remarkably like 'Complicated'? Is it the lyrical content, unchanged thematically since her debut. We know... you can't, but you don't and you won't and you're all like, "woah-oh-oh-oh I'm thinkin' what the hell?" Stop Peter Pan-ing it, grow up a little and embrace the fact you're not half-bad as a songwriter. And go easy on the eye-liner. Emo is over. 

Matt Bond gives 'Here's To Never Growing Up' two Ke$ha's out of five...

 

Gentleman

by Psy (2013)

 

Deciding to not fall for the same trickery as 'Gangnam Style,' I streamed the audio of this piece of garbage before watching the video. That's right, as a song it is absolute trash. The K-pop phenomenon remains lost on me; generic techno beats, random smatterings of broken English. In a word, no. Just no. However, much like 'Gangnam Style,' the video is another story. Despite his penchant for treating women terribly, you've got to admit Psy throws in some mighty fine looking visuals to accompany his music. So I placed 'Gentleman' in here and not the new music video of the week section to make it pretty clear that this song sucks and it sucks hard. If you want to say mother fucking gentlemen, just say it. None of this "mother father gentlemen" business. With no viable dance craze to keep this one going, hopefully it will disappear very quickly... along with Psy himself. 

Matt Bond gives 'Gentlemen' one Dannii Minogue out of five...

 

    

NEW MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Further Still 

by Curxes

 

It's going to come as no surprise to regular readers that I adore this clip, but it shouldn't be for the reasons you may think. I mean, come on, you know I love this extraordinarily talented duo from the UK, but the reasons I love this clip? Oh there's so many things I love...images of taxidermy, vintage wallpaper, a glockespiel, a large man with a sandwich and in this clip I finally get to see the beautiful faces of Macaulay and Roberta performing their gorgeous track. The clip is as spookily delightful as the song and it's everything Curxes is; a little bit vintage and a lot amazing and breathtaking with tiny hints of terrifying. It's Curxes and it's perfect.

Jo Michelmore gives 'Further Still' five Bjork's out of five...