It’s a small miracle, I’ve nearly caught up with the singles round ups, not quite the end of May yet and here is the first part of the round up for May, with more to come of course…
wojtek the bear are producing some of the best songs of their career just now in my humble opinion, from the response track to Kylie’s Got a Crush On Us, the tongue in cheek kylie’s put a curse on us, through the self deprecating french blue to this, the third single to come from album, i don’t think you want to be here. This sympathetic tale of someone stuck in a time warp is glorious brass infused gently soothing indie-pop replete with soaring strings.
From gently soothing indie pop to Cure influenced goth/darkwave from Hurtsfall on the driving bass rhythm and soaring synths of the fervently impassioned Memento Mori, with lyrics confronting the fragility of life and the inevitability of death… “remember, remember…you have to die.” Despite the subject matter this is an emotionally uplifting track.
The new town referenced in Only When I Glow‘s melancholically alluring single This New Town is their home town, just up the road from me, , Polo Mint City aka East Kilbride with lyrics that read like a charmingly heartfelt love song to their roots in the town “in the up’s and down’s, and roundabouts in this new town,” the home of classic Scottish bands like The Jesus and Mary Chain and Aztec Camera, who I detect a reference to in the lyrics “with the hard rain…” The lyrics reference the underpasses from which their debut album, 40 years in the making, Underpass Kiss, produced by another local boy from Castlemilk, the legend that is James Grant, who also provides guitar and backing vocals on this beautiful track.
I’m stoked about a new album all the way from The Windy City. This is the second single from Ginger Quiff favourites Chicago’s The Claudettes forthcoming new album, Garage Glamour, the first album they’ve recorded with Rachel Williams, the vocalist who joined the band in 2023. (You Are My) Whole World is an immensely powerful and passionately soulful song, which has Rachel duetting with Blues legend John Primer, the two providing the perfect foil for each other’s ardent & stirring vocals. I don’t know how many times I’ve listened to this now, but as I listen … again… when writing this I literally have shivers up and down my spine such is the affecting intensity of this utterly beautiful heartfelt song
The first of two bands with suitably Scottish names, Beltur, pick up the soul baton from The Claudettes, sounding like a Scottih version of Hootie & the Blowfish come Gin Blossoms channelling the spirit of two of the soul legends, Sam Cooke and Ben E King, mentioned in the lyrics of their ebulliently uplifting summer anthem Another Sunny Day. The earworm of a chorus will have you singing this song in your head all day. Utterly glorious, just like the sunshine… And they must have been on a similar trip to wojtek the bear with the cover art…
The Girobabies may have played their final gig, but they’re not leaving us just yet with another excellent single from their brilliant B-Sides album Sunday Replacement Service, an album packed with so many songs that other bands couldn’t even hope to produce as A-sides. Ward 3 Room 2B is a epic stream of consciousness song with a reflective chorus packed with a wistfully emotive charisma.
All the way from Montreal Say It! from Taxi Girls is a punchy hook laden single that gives off a grungy punk vibe with the driving punk energy of The Ramones blended with the snarling attitude of Hole.
Everyone needs to go feral and feel The New Sensation. It’s time to get down and dirty and lose your shit to the relentless frenetic garage punk energy of Glasgow’s The Sankaras on this feverishly brash and breathless no holds barred assault on the eardrums.
The 99 Degree from Manchester create a gloriously sinister and sleazy psych tinged garage/surf punk melange with more than a hint of menace on Dolls. I’ll leave the last word to the band….“An ode to the tipping point of existentialism into nihilism. Cold facts leave no meat on the bones in the aftermath of a popular prescription painkiller. A covert SNRI wrapped in an opioid leisure suit. The millennial ‘mother’s-little-helper’. When it comes down to a hand full, beware the dagger in the dope-sick deal.”
Midland Railway follow up the role-playing game anthem, All Day Epic Warhammer with an equally addictive slice of spirited melodic punk vivacity with their “slightly nihilistic song about the struggles of existence..” Hair Song.
The esteemable Walt Disco are back with one of their most formidable and urgently powerful singles to date, Coup de foudre hits like a supercharged bolt of lighting creating an rush of pure adrenaline as the intensity of the songs bombastic arrangement pummels you into submission Jocelyn’s unique and instantly recognisable vocal matching the pure fervour and giving off a ferocious animal magnetism. A force of nature personified…
On the other end of the scale completely, but no less intense for it, is the welcomingly sparse arrangement of Venus featuring the equally unique vocal talent of Kohla, this is definitely a song for the long hazy days of summer, it’s one for lying down in the long grass and losing yourself basking in the glow of the sun and in the smouldering voice of Kohla
We had Beltur earlier, now it’s the turn of Gallus. I’ve no idea if Scotland have an “official” song for their return to World Cup football after nearly 30 years way, but all bets are off with the release of this perfect anthem, a joyfully raucous and rollickingly hard-rockin’ take on The Proclaimers classic Letter From America. Come on Scotland!
Night Caller may refer to themselves as “DEEPLY unserious Scottish punkx” on their Instagram profile, but as I’ve come to expect from the band, their singles are seriously fucking good, and Drip Dry is no exception. Vocally, Danny has a deeply resonant rock ‘n’ roll croon packed with yelps and screams a la Lux that top off the thunderously chaotically rowdy melee as the band comes together in a cataclysmic explosion of sound, that is as close as I’ve heard to reflecting their boisterous live shows.
The third single from the forthcoming new Trashcan Sinatras album Ever the Optimist/ With each single that has been released from this album, not to be too Melodramatic about it, the more optimistic I am about this being a classic Trashcan’s album that will stand shoulder to shoulder with their finest. I am always incredulous about why this band wasn’t huge the world over, they have consistently never ceased to delight throughout their esteemed career with melodies and arrangements to die for alongside strikingly poetic lyrics and clever wordplay. the album is available for pre-order now, so do your ears a favour….