Further Listening:

5. Only A Fool Wouldn’t Want This Delivery

A five-piece hailing from Melbourne, Delivery emerged back in 2022 with their acclaimed lockdown-born debut album Forever Giving Handshakes. That record caught the ear of the always excellent Heavenly Recordings, who jumped at the chance to work with the band on their upcoming second album, Force Majeure, which is set to arrive in January next year. Ahead of the release, the band shared the latest taster of the record, in the shape of their new single, Only A Fool.

Described by the band as Force Majeure’s, “most uninhibited moment”, the band built on vocalist Lisa Rashleigh’s initial idea and gave everyone else, “free rein to do their thing“. The resultant track combines a glam-swagger with a slacker-stomp, as choppy guitars that wouldn’t sound out of place on an Elastica record meet Holiday Ghosts-like junkyard drum rhythms. Lyrically, the song seems to touch on ideas of falling into old patterns, repeating old errors, and breaking free from your instincts, “only a fool, makes the same mistakes”. The song ends in a deliciously unhinged fashion, the whole thing dropping down to just a rumbling drum rhythm before roaring back with, a snarl of bass, and a stab of proto-punk-inspired guitar chugging. Despite their era-spanning influences, there’s a distinct freshness to the music Delivery are making, and with Force Majeure they’re surely going to show they’re a force to be reckoned with.

Force Majeure is out January 17th via Heavenly Recordings. For more information on Delivery visit https://linktr.ee/delivery_lyf.

4. How Can You Not Like Dead Gowns

Hailing from Portland, Maine, Dead Gowns is the brainchild of the artist Genevieve Beaudoin. Working with co-producer Luke Kalloch, Genevieve spent three years from 2020 in, “various bedrooms, desacralized churches and old gymnasiums on or near islands in coastal Maine”, crafting the songs that would become the debut Dead Gowns record. That album, It’s Summer, I Love You, and I’m Surrounded by Snow, is set to arrive in February via Mtn Laurel Recording Co. and marking that announcement Genevieve shared the first taster of it, her new single, How Can I.

Described by Genevieve as the song that, “sets the scene for the entire record”, How Can I was written, “when I was in love with someone and couldn’t tell them”. By hiding her feelings from the world, Genevieve eventually found it eroded that connection, “I think that dishonesty led to a rot in our connection that was unrevivable”. Musically, the track brings to mind the likes of Lomelda or Tenci, as moments of still serenity slide into more dizzying chaotic moments, where the guitars become an urgent maelstrom and the drums a ticking, clattering behemoth. These moments when the noise springs forth are made all the more impactful because of the quiet moments that proceed them, like a splash of colour on a monochrome canvas. This sense of it suddenly all erupting out is present too in Genevieve’s lyrics, for the most part she remains sedate, putting off today what can be done tomorrow, hiding her feelings beneath a surface of calm, then with a sense of inevitability they pour out, “it’s just what I have to do on these nights when I’m in love with you”. Like the best music, here Dead Gowns sound delightfully human, with real emotions, delivered in all their complex messy reality, that will surely resonate with anyone willing to give this their time.

It’s Summer, I Love You, and I’m Surrounded by Snow is out February 14th via Mtn Laurel Recording Co. For more information on Dead Gowns visit https://www.deadgowns.com/.

3. Lucky Cloud Are Always Ready For The Holiday Season

The latest signing to the consistently brilliant Ruination Record Co. Lucky Cloud is the songwriting project of Chicago-based alt-country and experimental guitar phenom Chet Zenor. While Chet’s name might be new to you, he’s potentially entered your ears as a collaborator and touring guitarist with the likes of Squirrel Flower and Minor Moon, or under his instrumental moniker, Alta Vista. With a live band featuring Spencer Tweedy among others, Lucky Cloud are already well established on their hometown scene, and thankfully for the rest of us, are set to start spreading the news further afield with the release of their debut single, Vacation Again.

Set to a perfect blend of fuzz and twang, Vacation Again finds Chet at the moment where a relationship is starting to unravel in front of his eyes, where the future looks blurry and the present has become a trudge. Chet seems to recognise the diminishing returns, where the only thing holding them together is a sort of co-dependent refusal to call it a day, “can you do the math? Cutting things in half, splitting hairs down to the scalp of both our aching heads”. As his thoughts jump into an imagined future, he seems to find nostalgia for a life he envisioned, even as the cracks are beginning to show, “is it such a loss? All the time I spent thinking one day we’d split the rent of our own downtrodden Humboldt apartment”. Even as the song progresses you see the optimism fade, the initial maybe becoming a maybe not as atop a backing of gutsy blue-collar Americana he repeatedly asks, “will we ever go on vacation again?” At its close the songs seem to almost overwhelm its protagonist, the lyrics giving way to a wordless chorus of howls and instrumental clatter, that breaks like a wave into a squall of gently fading feedback. This is thrilling stuff from a seasoned musician who sounds very ready for his moment in the limelight.

Vacation Again is out now via Ruination Record Co. For more information on Lucky Cloud visit https://lucky-cloud.bandcamp.com/

2. Richard Dawson’s New One Is A Real Grower

Since he first appeared in 2007 with the matter-of-factly named debut album, Richard Dawson Sings Songs And Plays Guitars, Newcastle progressive-folkster Richard Dawson has carved out something of a niche for himself in the UK music scene. Most recently he shared The Ruby Cord, the final part of a trilogy of sorts alongside 2017’s The Peasant, and, a personal favourite, 2019’s 2020. While often a fan of the complex, The Ruby Cord opened with a 41-minute track, “from the perspective of a seed”, for his next move Richard is set to dip his toe into the, “held back and soft“. The result is his upcoming record, End of the Middle, out via Domino in February, and previewed this week by the single, Polytunnel.

On the surface Polytunnel is a simple thing, a gardener quietly going about the calming business of sewing seeds, “building a new raised bed for spuds” and fixing the titular polyethylene structure. Yet in that typically Richard Dawson way, is that really what it’s about, scratch the surface and you get a raft of interpretable moments. There are suggestions of illness “could you manage a slice of toast, or a little bit of soup my flower”, of loss “it’s Karen who was always the green-fingered one, I don’t really know what I’m doing”, of perhaps not being long for the world, ready to head, “out the gate and up the lane”. As Richard puts it, “there’s possibly a lot of drama happening outside of the lines of the song…. Or not. It might just be a song about an allotment”. All this horticultural imagery is set to a suitably pastoral backing, with Richard’s unmistakable voice, and use of melody, set to little more than the fluttering hop of the guitars and the plodding, thoughtfulness of the bassier tones. A gorgeous reminder of what an idiosyncratic gem of a songwriter Richard Dawson is, the sort of one-of-a-kind songwriter that the music world would be a lot interesting without.

End of the Middle is out February 14th via Domino Records. For more information on Richard Dawson visit https://richarddawson.net/.

1. Any Day Is A Good Day For Listening To Renée Reed

A songwriter from Lafayette, Louisiana, Renée Reed was something of a feature on this site back in 2017 around the release of her debut album on Keeled Scales. Twelve songs of “dream-fi folk from the Cajun prairies”, the record was fascinating fusing the Cajun and Creole music she grew up surrounded by and her own musical discoveries. This week brought a pleasant surprise as Renée shared her new single, On A Good Day, the first indication of what to expect from her second long-player, which we’re informed will arrive next year.

On A Good Day marks something of a musical departure for Renée, while her previous material leant heavily on the guitar as her instrument of choice, here we instead find Renée at the piano, picking out bassy chords and the gentlest of high-end runs in a style not unlike Have One On Me-era Joanna Newsom. The sweet simplicity of the musical accompaniment is a perfect foil for the song it accompanies, a paean for love in its simplest form, “maybe it’s only a feeling you bring, like the weather whenever it turns into spring and the sun that always shines on a good day”. There’s a daydream-like quality to the whole thing as if Renée is allowing her mind to focus on the happy moments, and hide from the struggles on show elsewhere, she states, “it’s hard to meet you when I fall behind”, then allows herself to quickly move on to happier times, “I wanna dance, hold you in the heat of my hand”. A beautifully subtle return, On A Good Day feels like a new era for Renée Reed, hopefully one where this most intriguing of musical talents gets all the plaudits she so richly deserves.

On A Good Day is out now via Keeled Scales. For more information on Renée Reed visit https://www.reneereedmusic.com/

Header photo is Renée Reed.