Metronomy
Wedding Bells
Scratch beneath the titanium coating and Metronomy’s Joe Mount is fast becoming the ice-tronic Fred off First Dates. Once, he sang about Love Letters like a chillwave Supremes, now he’s escaping his best friend’s wedding to hide in a garden, likely amid rumours of a paid bar. Brilliantly, he does it while playing his Boys of Summer joker; every musician gets one voucher per career allowing them to rip off Don Henley for one surefire smacker. Ding-dong.
Grimes & i_o
Violence
Grimes, because she is Grimes, plans every song on her new album to represent a different embodiment of human extinction taken on by an anthropomorphic goddess of climate change. Because nothing will ram home the implications of global warming like watching it dance in a bodysuit wielding a sword. So, if last year’s We Appreciate Power was about humanity being wiped out by AI, the glacial synthpop of Violence presumably represents us drowning in a rising tide of Chvrches records.
Foals
The Runner
Barely have we bet our firstborn on Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1 bagging the Mercury prize when Part 2 arrives. Set in the aftermath of Part 1’s environmental meltdown, the new record’s second single envisions a wasteland ruled over by a funky android Royal Blood. Relentless orders to “keep on running” suggest less Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, more Paula Radcliffe beyond lavatory, but it’s Foals, it’s massive.
Francis and the Lights ft Bon Iver & Kanye West
Take Me to the Light
Give Francis Farewell Starlite credit, the Drake producer will go to such meticulous lengths to cover up a duff R&B tune it would put a podcast-worthy serial killer to shame. Force nine AutoTune, more glitches than a Boris Brexit, and the ultimate distraction tactic, AKA Kanye appearing alongside Justin Vernon, who’s fast becoming the Rick Astley to Ye’s Dave Grohl.
Squid
Match Bet
The latest proponents of what no one’s calling crank-wave, avant-punks Squid are raising awareness of the dangers of repeated exposure to Sonic Youth’s Washing Machine. The (real-life) protagonist of Match Bet is such a Thurston stan he has developed a gambling problem and thinks he’s mates with the Queen. Compiling his batshit ramblings into a motoric yelp is inspired aversion therapy indeed.
