PICK OF THE WEEK
Clock Opera
In Memory (self-released)
Ah, this is nice: the kind of dreamy, shimmery euphoria-and-melancholy-all-at-once, sample-heavy stuff that characterises London four-piece Clock Opera’s work. The band is back after a three-year break with a crowdfunded second album, and In Memory, it says in the blurb, is their most intimate and personal song, albeit one that sounds a bit like waking up at 2am and the sockless hipster you played frisbee in the park with once last June is outside your house, pleading for you to be with him. But you know, in a good way.
Highasakite
Someone Who’ll Get It (Propeller)
Not to be hyperbolic, but you do feel that Highasakite are a milestone on the road towards The End Of Music As We Know It: they are described as “Nordic-noir-epic-electro-pop”, which the lay observer will note is every single genre at once, and hold the lofty title of being the only band to perform live on Made In Chelsea this series. There’s not much left to happen to music after this, is there? We’re done. This at least is a nice way to go out: brooding and anxious in the same way you feel when you go into an All Saints and realise they’re having a staff party and, oh god, someone wearing six leather jackets just locked the door behind you. Oh god.
Sundara Karma
A Young Understanding (Chess Club)
Remember when you were young and full of the yearning to escape this one-horse town with its single branch of Costa and get out there, to go to Leeds fest without a chaperone – mum, why don’t you trust me? Well, so does every single band in history. Sundara Karma are the latest to distil suburban disquiet into big-chorus indie-pop. A Young Understanding – and this is meant in the nicest way – is made to be performed to 20,000 people as they drink wine out of a bag while they wait for the real headliner to turn up.
Selena Gomez
Hands To Myself (Polydor)
Gomez has been releasing banger after banger lately, and Hands To Myself could easily be another one if it had any idea what it was. It feels like an entire album crammed into one sampler: starting with absurdly NSFW breathy sex chat, flirting with a Pixies riff, and then segueing into a novelty rap call-and-response bit. Ever open a YouTube video when you’ve got Spotify running, and the two songs mesh for a minute before you really notice? Well, Selena Gomez is doing that for a career.
Paul Heaton, Jacqui Abbott
(Man Is) The Biggest Witch of All (EMI)
What happened to the Beautiful South, we all wonder. Well, wonder no more: Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott are still vocalling together, and it’s more or less the same as it ever was. They’ve even repeated the Don’t Marry Her trick of drastically altering the lyrics to make them radio friendly, this time changing “bitch” to “witch”, which… which sort of makes even less sense than before. A shame because, climate-wise, the world is ready for a men are bad-themed banger. This just isn’t it.
