Further Listening:

5. You Might Want To Check For Full Moons Before You Go And See Sweet Baboo

Into his fifteenth year as a recording artist Stephen Black, aka Sweet Baboo, remains as busy and productive as ever. Back in January, he shared The Wreckage, his seventh studio album, an event marked by a mammoth solo tour, a two-month stint taking in everywhere from Glasgow to Falmouth. With his enthusiasm not dimmed by “single beds in small hotels and the challenges of motorway service station dining”, Stephen is heading back out for more dates in September, followed by a mammoth European tour supporting Teenage Fanclub. In the midst of that, he’s also found time to get back into the studio, and this week shared a brand new single, Werewolf At Night, along with its “peppy, sipping-tea-while-the-world-burns” B-side, Crumbling.

Originally entitled, Memories, before Stephen concluded, that “sounds too much like a West End show“, Werewolf At Night is a song about memories, “real memories, mis-remembered memories and made-up memories“, and how, “eventually they all get mixed up anyway”. After writing the track, Stephen was struck by how it reminded him of Serge Gainsbourg or Lee Hazlewood, “so we evoked the sounds of their records, with a splash of eighties keyboards for good measure“. While steering clear of the traps of horror inspired clichés, Werewolf At Night does seem to summon up some of the spirit of the genre, the whole thing seems to exist in the shadowy cloak of twilight, as the electronics arrive with a touch of Leonard Cohen in the 80s before swelling in intensity toward the glacial creep of Pale Green Ghosts-era John Grant. The longevity of Stephen Black is a testament to both his constant evolution and the quality of his songwriting, in years to come perhaps he’ll be filed alongside other greats of the underground, like Arthur Russell or Daniel Johnston he might never crossover to the mainstream, but for those of us his records do reach, he means the world.

The Wreckage is out now via Amazing Tapes From Canton. For more information on Sweet Baboo visit http://www.sweetbaboo.co.uk/

4. There’s A Real Buzz About Maija Sofia

Galway-born songwriter Maija Sofia appeared on these pages back in 2019 around the release of her ambitious debut album, Bath Time. Four years on Maija is set to return this September with a new record, True Love, which she’ll mark with a string of dates across the UK and Ireland. Ahead of those dates, this week Maija shared the latest single from the album, Telling The Bees.

Perhaps not the most traditional theme for a pop song, Telling The Bees is a song, “loosely about Rita of Cascia, a 14th Century Italian nun who became the patron saint of “impossible causes” as well as the patron saint of abused wives and heartbroken women”. Something of a unique saint, Rita is often pictured holding a skull, a leather whip, and roses and surrounded by honeybees, inspired by a legend that as a child she was swarmed by bees but rather than stinging her they caused her no harm. Maija ties this idea into another old tradition, the telling of the bees, whereby “it was said that when grief or tragedy befalls a beekeeper’s house, someone would have to go and gently tell the bees about the tragedy, otherwise the bees might sense the sadness and die“. Musically, Telling The Bees is as grand and imposing as its inspiration, as theatrical, almost Tom Waits-like pianos and loose pound-shop percussion collide with Maija’s keening vocals, capturing all the brutal majesty of the waves crashing against the walls of the 300-year-old coastal property in which it was written. On True Love, Maija seems to be almost exorcising her past, reflecting on the tumultuous quality of her early twenties, finding the magic in letting that go, and luckily for us all, documenting the experience for the world to enjoy.

True Love is out September 1st via TULLE. For more information on Maija Sofia visit https://linktr.ee/maijasofia.

3. Strawberry Runners Make A Break For The Front

The musical project of Emi Knight, Strawberry Runners have existed in one form or another since 2013, drawing early acclaim with both 2015’s tape Hatcher Creek, and one of my favourite EPs in recent memory, 2017’s In The Garden, In The Night. The journey to their debut album hasn’t been an easy one for Emi, after relocating to Philadelphia they went through a series of traumatic personal and familial events, experiencing breakups, a period of homelessness, and thankfully in the end the open arms of friendship and community. As Emi put their life back together, they began to regain creativity, inviting other musicians into their home for regular “song share” nights, and finding the inspiration to finally finish the tracks that would become their self-titled debut album. Recorded with co-producer, Michael Cormier O’Leary and a string of friends and collaborators, the album will arrive next month, and this week Emi shared the latest single from it, Breakup 2.

Although written initially with no intention for it to be shared, Breakup 2 is a rumination on the hard conversations that come at a relationship’s end, yet as Emi explains it starts somewhere different, “I’d been having these dreams where I was in situations that made me feel so small and spineless…I realized I was having those dreams because I knew something was off in that relationship but I was resistant to ending it“. Emi’s vocals arrive with a half-spoken quality, before soaring into the pop-tinged chorus, “am I so low? Sometimes I say yes when I wanna say no, let’s take it slow we’ve got all day and I’ve nowhere to go”. The musical backing is delightfully playful, the lightly processed vocal, adorned with skittering propulsive percussion, keyboard flourishes and the more earthy tones of the lead guitar line. While it might be a song about a relationship ending, more so it is a song about personal growth, “I realized there was no clarity or satisfaction I could gain from thinking about the past or blaming someone else for what went wrong. I just knew that moving forward I had to listen more closely to my intuition“. In following their gut and digging into their past, Strawberry Runners are hitting new heights, a sparkling surface with real depth beneath that hints at a debut album that might just be very special.

Strawberry Runners is out August 25th via Duper Moon Records. For more information on Strawberry Runners visit https://linktr.ee/strawberryrunners.

2. Raveloe Can’t Wait For That Autumn Rustle

Named after a town in George Eliot’s Silas Marner, Raveloe is the moniker of Motherwell-born, Glasgow-based songwriter Kim Grant. Having emerged back in 2020 with the excellent single, Abalone, Raveloe made a real statement of intent with the release of one of my favourite EPs of 2021, Notes and Dreams. Since then Kim has been touring around Scotland and beyond, as well as working on new music, the first taster or which arrived this week in the shape of her new single, Rustle In The Leaves.

Record with producer Paul Gallagher, Rustle In The Leaves was written a number of years back and inspired by a conversation Kim had with her therapist while dealing with severe anxiety, “anxiety is a protective reaction to a potential threat, inherited from long ago when a rustle in a bush could be a predator and we had to be on high alert…I learned to see my sensitivity as something not to be ashamed of and part of me”. Musically, the track instantly feels like Raveloe is stretching her musical palette, the light flutter of the acoustic guitar adorned first by a scattering of piano notes before they are lost to waves of luxuriant strings. What really lifts the track though is something much simple, the wonderfully atmospheric percussion, it’s little more than a steady pulse of the bass drum at first, accompanied by a textural shaker, then when it needs it the most comes the snap of an almost military snare, an acidic slash through the other instruments syrupy richness. At the song’s close, it doesn’t so much snap shut as gently fade away, although no album is yet promised it’s hard not to feel this track must be part of some wider whole, it feels like the first chapter of a story, the first step on a journey which might just take us somewhere incredible.

Rustle In The Leaves is out now via Olive Grove Records. For more information on Raveloe visit https://www.instagram.com/raveloemusic/.

1. Pearla Is Reaching Out To Everyone

Back in February, Nicole Rodriguez, aka Pearla, made quite the splash with her critically lauded, and fantastically titled, debut album, Oh Glistening Onion, The Nighttime Is Coming. Released via Spacebomb Records. Since then Pearla have gone on to perform high profile slots at both SXSW and the Luck Reunion festival, held on Willy Nelson’s ranch, and Nicole is about to take her band on the road, sharing stages with the likes of Kacy & Clayton and A.O. Gerber. This week Nicole shared the first new Pearla material since her debut album, in the shape of the stand-alone single, Get In Touch With You.

Discussing the inspiration behind the track, Nicole suggests Get In Touch With You is about, “trying not to lose yourself in another person…the push and pull of wanting to be around someone and also trying to stay grounded in yourself”. The track finds Pearla celebrating their “funny and lighthearted” side, Nicole noting how “to me that’s what it feels like when you strike that balance… being present with your own honest heart and the people you love at the same time”. The playfulness is definitely present in the musical backing, channelling the likes of Esther Rose or Lucinda Williams into Nicole’s own take on Alt-Country, there’s a punchiness to the snare-heavy rhythm, cutting through the strutting guitars and the swells of knowingly retro-tinged organs. If the music has a certain confident swagger, it’s a perfect match for the lyrics, Nicole embracing her own needs while not slamming the door in the face of others, “will you come in, just don’t rearrange my things when you go, I’ve gotta get in touch with myself, get in touch with you”. The work of an artist who seems restless for success, Pearla’s already impressive year just hit a whole new high.

Get In Touch With You is out now via Secretly Distribution. For more information on Pearla visit http://www.pearlamusic.com/.

Header photo is Pearla by Tonje Thilesen