single, album and live review

FOREVER ALWAYS

PETER COTTONTALE FT. CHANCE THE RAPPER, DANIEL CEASER, REX ORANGE COUNTY, MADISON RYANN WARD AND YEBBA.

PETER COTTONTALE

‘Forever always’ is a collaborative masterpiece featuring up and coming young artists and songwriters. Seeing all these artists together on one track you may not know what to expect, personally I thought it would sound too mashed together to include these popular names, but their different voices blend perfectly over the dreamy keyboard, jazzy guitar and church like choir. 

LET ME DOWN

JORJA SMITH

FAMM

‘Let me down’ by Jorja Smith featuring Stormzy is a song that hit me like a tonne of bricks. When I first heard this song her silky vocals had me melting and when I read further into the lyrics I wanted to cry, you can hear her emotions while she sings these words. Stormzy fits perfectly into the track, you know when someone just throws a rapper into their song to get more recognition (*cough* ‘Girls like you – Maroon 5 *cough*), but he adds to much emotion and context to the track.

WHEN THE PARTY’S OVER

BILLIE ELLISH 

DARKROOM/INTERSCOPE RECORDS

Billie Ellish released an abundance of music this year. ‘When the party’s over’ is my favourite of the five releases this year. The piano mixed with her breathy vocals and harmonies meant that the simplicity of the song hit with so much raw emotion, which left her stand out voice to tell the story perfectly. This is a single that is so incredibly well written both lyrically and instrumentally, the song doesn't sound empty even though there is just the piano, vocal and the harmonies. Whenever I hear it I'm in complete awe of her, the range of her voice is insane and her lyrics are sang so seamlessly, she makes me incredibly jealous.

HINDS AT THE MILL BIRMINGHAM

The 17^th of November had been one of the most boring days I’d had for a long time. Towards the evening I saw a band had posted on twitter asking if anyone in Birmingham had a drum rug they could borrow, no one had replied so I messaged them saying they were more than welcome to pop round and grab mine to use, thinking nothing of it. 

About half an hour later they messaged back asking if I could drop it off at seven and in return they would put me on the set list, it’s half past six and I’m literally still in my pyjamas. 

I got ready quicker than I ever have and thankfully got there before it started looking a worse for wear if I’m honest. It was pretty busy when we walked in, the crowd was a mixture of people from all age groups and judging from their outfits all different walk of life. You had teenage girls standing next to middle aged men in leather jackets both equally excited for the music to start. 

I hadn’t yet had the chance to listen to Hinds new album so I felt almost rude being there, I just prayed they would play some of their older songs or that no one would notice I didn’t actually know any of the newer lyrics. The atmosphere they bought even the second they walked onto the stage was immense, the crown absolutely loved them, their beautiful Spanish accents and the absolute passion they had for the music was infectious and everyone was dancing and jumping around the whole show.

The third song they played was ‘Chilli Town’, a song of the album I have listened to and LOVE! The Madrid garage rock vibe of the band is predominant in this track, shouting their lyrics while still perfectly harmonising with each other, so talented.  A cover of ‘Spanish Bombs ‘by’ The Clash broke up the middle of their set, their cover was brighter than the original but bought a tonne of attitude with raspy shouting vocals.

They are extremely tight and clean when performing; they all know what each other are doing and when they’re going to do it.  Their stage presence was immense and the crowd loved it, especially when one of the guitarists threw herself into the audience and crowd surfed for approximately 5 seconds before she went down and was pulled back on stage by security. 

I have listened to Hinds new album since and will definitely be buying tickets to see them next time they tour.

COURTNEY BARNETT

TELL ME HOW YOU REALLY FEEL

MILK!, MOM+POP RECORDS, MARATHON ARTISTS

Courtney Barnett released her fourth album in May of this year; 'tell me how you feel' is comprised of beautifully human lyrics and painfully relatable quotes. The album oozes personality and feels more exciting than her previous albums. With stand out songs such as ‘Nameless, Faceless’ and ‘I'm not your mother, I'm not your bitch’ talking about gender inequality and the changes she's faced as she's grown as an artist. Barnett also manages to talk about common, small struggles that have been written about before in a way that sounds fresh and new, it's impossible to not relate to her lyrics. 

The first song on the album is called 'hopefulessness' starts the album with a dark droning guitar riff, under Barnett's moaning voice talks about venerability and hate. The track immediately shows that this album is a whole different vibe compared to her earlier music which many thought had cemented her genre. 

I can’t lie, I don’t like any of Barnett’s earlier music. This album is the only one I’ve listened to completely and absolutely loved.  It goes against everything you’d expect from her whilst still bringing her sarcasm and frustration into the lyrics.  The best line on the entire album comes as a quote from a review of a previous album, “he said ‘I could eat a bowl of alphabet soup and spit out better words than you, but you didn’t and you're kidding yourself if you think the world revolves around you”. Barnett delivers her negative lyrics alongside upbeat chords and melodies giving the album a blissfully sarcastic charm.

The ‘Nirvana’ influence is clearly heard through her instrumental, described as indie and psychedelic rock, though the album as a whole has a much more relaxed vibe. When I first heard this album I had to just sit and listen to fully appreciate it, listening to every lyric to hear her brutal truths. 

My advice if you haven't listened to this album, or even if you have, is to go to the PitchFork youtube channel as Barnett performed the entire album in order at their festival last summer. Watching her play the tracks live gives the album a more rock n roll flavour. Watching her standing centre stage playing lead guitar along to the tracks and getting deep into the music is different as when I, at least, listened to the album on Spotify I imagined her sitting on a sofa singing along while others played. 

'Tell me how you really feel' is one of my favourite albums this year and made me appreciate Barnett's voice in a way I haven't been able to before.