Hi all,
Sorry for missing Futureproof Picks last week but we were enjoying ourselves too much at Sweden’s Future Echoes Festival (well worth a visit)! Anyway, we’ve got you a banging selection of new tunes this week fm St. Vincent, Swim Deep, Ladybyrd & lots more. If you like what you hear please follow and share this playlist, it helps us keep doing our thing by getting the algorithms on our side. Also please support the artists featured in any way you can!
Until next week
Helen (Futureproof) x
Blondshell, Bully – Docket
Blondshell has teamed up with Bully for the captivating new single Docket. Blondshell states “For me this is a song about splitting off from yourself. It’s about uncertainty when you’re in different environments all the time. In a way it’s about wanting to cope with distance and change but it’s also just a bit about being reckless … I had space on this song for another person and I kept hearing Bully’s voice on it. I’m a huge fan of hers”. Bully explains: “I think she is incredible and I was over the moon that she asked me to be a part of her song.” Blondshell‘s subtle New York drawl combined with Bully‘s country twang makes for a winning combination on this belter – loving it!
St. Vincent – Broken Man
St. Vincent is back with the exciting industrial rock anthem Broken Man taken from upcoming new album All Born Screaming and tells NME: “From the beginning of the song, it’s a slow-burn. The shape of the song is climbing the mountain, because it just grows and grows. There are essentially three drummers on the track: the first part is my programming, the second part Mark Guiliana comes in, and then at the very end of the track – just when you think it can’t get any higher – Dave Grohl comes in with this absolute reckless spirit and just takes it to the edge.” St. Vincent says of the album: “The record is black, white and all the colours in the fire, because it’s about life and death. It’s about what is to be alive and to embrace that agony and ecstasy.”
Been Stellar – Passing Judgment
NYC-based five-piece Been Stellar release their first single Passing Judgement taken from forthcoming debut album Scream From New York, NY. “We were finishing Passing Judgment in the midst of our first tour in the UK. Playing through it a bit differently each show, we were learning to look at the song from different angles. The recording feels live because of this process — there’s a chaotic feeling in the drums and bass that wouldn’t be there if we hadn’t finished writing it live,” vocalist Sam Slocum shares. “Lyrically I was thinking about why we judge the world around us, and how passing judgment on someone or something is usually rooted in being unsure in oneself.” Loving the gritty guitars and pounding drumbeat on this belter!
Ladybyrd – Open Cage
London based artist Ladybyrd explores ideas of emotional entrapment and feelings of confinement on this brash pop stunner. Searing guitars hold the tension well on its rousing chorus while she asks the world to lift her to a higher state of consciousness. With great dynamics throughout, the track goes low in the verses where the vocal’s reminiscent of Ms Del Rey before scaling the heights again in the chorus as the track’s full power comes to the fore. Reading the press blurb, seems after a chance meeting with Tom Cruise, Ladybyrd finds herself in good company collaborating with a Hollywood composer on an upcoming TV series. Going by the dramatic landscapes on this track, she should do well.
Coco and the Lost – communicator
This excellent indie pop banger from Brighton based half-Irish artist Coco and the Lost features some great moments. Rich horns sit perfectly within the musical arrangement over which a charismatic & kooky vocal performance doffs its cap to the Tom Tom Club’s Tina Weymouth at some points & like Lily Allen at others. This ridiculously prolific artist (says Radio X’s John Kennedy who had her perform at his Remedy night this month) has definitely got something great going on with her songwriting. Perfectly formed chord progressions keep the listener eagerly engaged as the track rises and falls in all the right places. As the first single (& title track) from her upcoming project communicator, due out this summer, this multi talented artist, who’s heavily inspired by films & makes her own visuals, is definitely one to watch out for.
Moss – Black Dahlia
Non-binary solo singer-songwriter Moss has shared infectious debut single Black Dahlia – a tale of betrayal, as symbolized by the black dahlia flower variant; & in particular self-betrayal & the overcoming of it. The track’s rich & jangly Johnny Marr tinged guitar arrangement sets the scene for Moss’s heartfelt vocal delivery, which conjures up comparisons to indie bands from back in the day like Aztec Camera, Orange Juice & The Sundays. Moss says of the release: “Black Dahlia, for me symbolises an evolution from being a bedroom musician, estranged to the music world, to now playing on stage & finding my place & family in Hull’s vibrant music scene over a six-year period. The record’s almost a diary entry into my life, as I got fed up with people taking me for granted & so I kept telling myself I need to ‘do it for YOU’”. It’s emotional, it’s fun & it’s authentic moss.
Adrianne Lenker – Sadness As A Gift
Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker recently shared the heartfelt country/folk single Sadness As A Gift taken from new album Bright Future. The LP has co-production from Philip Weinrobe, as well as contributions from Nick Hakim, Mat Davidson, and Josefin Runsteen. They worked on it at Double Infinity, a studio in the woods. “It felt like everyone’s nervous systems released,” she said about recording in the space. “Once we were IN the song, somehow we just knew. No one stopped a take. We didn’t listen back. I only listened after everybody else left.” Great songwriting on this beautiful, melancholic break-up track.
Swim Deep – How Many Love Songs Have Died In Vegas?
We’re loving the heartfelt new single from Swim Deep which is taken from their upcoming album There’s A Big Star Outside… Austin Williams explains: “How Many Love Songs Have Died In Vegas? is a song that’s been stitched together over a few years, a great melody made in a shed (like all the good ones are) that never found its song. Until Swim Deep’s Lord saviour Bill Ryder-Jones insisted we persist with it as it was ‘dead good’ … A song I wrote after pondering whether marriage was ill fated, and statistically doomed, just like my parents and all my friend’s parents’ ones seemed to turn out. An anxiety laced love song in which I deny all of those odds stacked against me and my wife, the best person ever.” A poignant, captivating track many can relate to.
Gemma Cullingford – Early Hours
New melancholic, dream-pop single Early Hours from Gemma Cullingford is taken from her upcoming EP The Komiza Project and is from the soundtrack of her new short film titled Home. Early Hours is one of a number of unreleased tracks co-written with Liam Capper-Starr in 2012, but Cullingford returned to the songs in 2023, tackling them from a new perspective and with a degree of hindsight. They have a special meaning for Cullingford, as they were inspired by family super 8 films from the 70’s and 80’s. She edited these into Home, her debut film which is out later this year. Beautiful vocals on this mesmerizing track.
BAD WITH PHONES – Don’t Talk To Me
BAD WITH PHONES (aka Manny), the enigmatic artist who spans genres with his shroomified blend of weirdo pop, rap, spoken word, R&B and indie-electro, makes a return following a two year hiatus to release new single Don’t Talk To Me. It’s tweaked out indie-pop-meets-electro-rap, propelled by scratchy post-punk guitars with an incredibly infectious psychedelic rap sermon of ‘blah blah blah’, yearning to escape from a trashed, early hours house party. The track comes from new album CRASH and following a devastating car crash, Manny states: “CRASH is a journey, each song plays a part in the buildup, crash and recovery. It’s like my sonic therapy session, I’m glad to get it out of my head and I hope people can relate.”
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