Further Listening:

5. Living Hour Are Well Worth Waitering For

It was back in July that Living Hour got everyone excited with news of their upcoming fourth album, Internal Drone Infinity, due out via a host of great labels in the middle of October. With that record and an extensive North American tour coming rapidly on the horizon, this week the Winnipeg-based quintet shared the second taster of the record, in the shape of their fabulous new single, Waiter.

Described by lyricist Sam Sarty as, “a song about people who wait”, in particular it focuses on Sam’s tendency to wait in past relationships, “I spent a lot of time waiting; waiting to feel something or to see what would happen”. The track finds Living Hour leaning into their heavier tendencies, the guitars low-slung and gutsy, blowing any perceptions of them being a dream-pop band out of the water. Amidst all the lovely noise, Sam’s vocals are their usual understated delight, as they find poetry in the lyrical outlines, “tell me where you think I oughta be, with this one body, and all it’s thinking”. Despite the themes of inertia, Waiter is also an ode to growing into your self-sufficiency, “a realisation I’ll always have myself. It’s a relief, like feeling that the wait is over”. The realisation really comes to bear on the closing line, “I came here alone and I’m headed out the exact same way”, freedom in life’s inescapable rule, we’re all just here for a living hour, and you could do much worse than to spend a bit of yours with this magical band.

Internal Drone Infinity is out October 17th via Keeled Scales / Paper Bag Records / Beloved Records. For more information on Living Hour visit https://www.livinghourband.com/.

4. Treat Yourself To Baggio & Lemonade

While South London and alt-country might not be two terms that seem like a natural match, Baggio are trying their best to make it work. Back in 2024, the many-headed ensemble released their latest album, The Dreadful Human Tangle, quite possibly a reference to just how many people were involved in making songwriter Ben Wyborn’s vision come to life. With a headline show at London’s Piehouse Co-Op later this month, this week they shared a new “Crasy Horse version” of The Dreadful Human Tangle’s closing track, Southern Comforts.

Discussing this version of the track, Ben notes, “it’s the highest up I’ve ever turned my distortion pedal”, resulting in a fuzzy slice of Americana that’s more South Carolina than South London. A fizzing celebration that Neil Young’s regular collaborators would be very proud of. The necessary contrast to the guitars bombast comes from the understated vocals, both Ben’s gritty bass and the contrasting backing, courtesy of Lilo’s Christie Gardner and Helen Dixon, all have a half dreamy, half-spoken quality, as they ask the songs recipient to, “place your trust in my West Country gut”, a line that was bound to speak to this Wiltshire native’s sense of home. It’s a fitting theme to conjure up as the song itself is a reflection on, “home, and trying to find it”, whether you’re seeking it in yourself, the world at large, or in falling in love. Reworking one of your own songs can feel like a fool’s errand, but Baggio have done it with such panache that it really adds something new, whether you know and love the original or are coming to it with fresh ears, this is a band that really deserves your time.

Southern Comforts (Crazy Horse version) is out now via Double Dare. For more information on Baggio visit https://bio.site/baggioband.

3. There’s No Mistaking Charlie Kaplan’s Talent

Bassist with Office Culture and the founder of the Glamour Gowns label, Charlie Kaplan has appeared on these pages in various guises over the last few years, including as a solo artist with last year’s excellent psych-rock opus Eternal Repeater. This week, Charlie detailed his fourth LP, A Hat Upon the Bed, as well as sharing the first single from it, No More Mistakes.

Discussing No More Mistakes, Charlie notes it picks up on a theme present in much of his music, “life when a parent isn’t there to look out for you any longer“. It seems to be dealing with the idea of responsibility and living without parental security, “my future is up to me, the trapeze has no net“. The lyrics feel deeply personal, and yet also conversely universal, the liberation and insecurity of knowing you’re one mistake away from potential disaster. Musically, the track is a delightfully fluid affair, from the choppy verses reminiscent of the sheer creativity of Measure-era Field Music through to the glistening strings and smooth flourishes of the chorus. While there’s a complexity to the finished product, there’s also something raw about it, as if the song is just pouring out of Charlie fully furnished and ready for the world’s admiring glances to come its way.

A Hat Upon the Bed is out October 10th via Glamour Gowns. For more information on Charlie Kaplan visit https://linktr.ee/ciwk.

2. Tristen Gets Through By The Skin Of Her Teeth

A self-confessed lover of unpopular music, Nashville’s Tristen has now decided, for her fifth album, to embrace it entirely. That record, fittingly titled Unpopular Music, was largely recorded at home with her husband and creative partner, Buddy Hughen, as well as guests as diverse as Wilco’s Pat Sansone and Vanessa Carlton. Tristen’s first album since 2021’s Aquatic Flowers, Unpopular Music will arrive at the start of November, and this week she shared the first single from it, Skin Of Our Teeth.

Described by Tristen as, “an ode to allowing dreams to change and calming the fiery furnace of ambition”, Skin Of Our Teeth is a rapid-fire indie-pop gem. Lyrically, the song seems to be a deliciously naive celebration of throwing yourself in feet-first, from the opening line, “we were on the run trying to be someone getting by the skin of our teeth”. Within all the pell-mell dreaming, there’s also a gentle thread of take-it-or-leave-it swagger, Tristen laying her cards on the table, “I won’t ever be scared to be an ordinary girl in a fake ass world, I do this for myself”, before heading to the repeated refrain, “what do you want? This is it”. The track combines the naturally laid-back quality of Tristen’s vocals, reminiscent of the effortlessly cool ilk of Basia Bulat or Jenny Lewis, with a contrastingly rambunctious musical backing. The song races by, all The Strokes-like drum pattering and the gentle angularity of Clap Your Hand Says Yeah, although that could be the similarity of their own excellent song’s title playing tricks on my ear. All in all, this single is an absolute hoot, a slice of breezy pop-perfection and one that suggests Unpopular Music might just end up being very popular indeed.

Unpopular Music is out November 7th via Well Kept Secret. For more information on Tristen visit https://www.tristen.com/

1. There’s A Real Pattern to adults Singles

A self-styled “fast silly indie punk band”, adults have been something of a feature on the UK’s DIY scene for a few years now. They first appeared on these pages eight years ago, but really took a leap forward in 2022 when they teamed up with Fika Recordings to share their debut album, for everything, always. Since then, the band have kept things fairly quiet, a split EP with Spank Hair aside, and other projects were explored, notably Joely Smith joining Darren Hayman’s latest band, New Starts, on their brilliant debut album. Thankfully, adults wasn’t on the back burner for long, the band spending time with co-conspirator Rich Mandell in various locations around South London as they set about being a lot more intentional in their recording process. The result is their upcoming second album, the seeds we sow are sprouting buds nonetheless, which they previewed this week with a new single Patterns.

Discussing their upcoming record, adults are quick to place it in the context of both life as they experience it and the music they love, they set out to, “gather together echoes of the songs and bands we love into deeply personal songs about growth, change, loss and love, set to the background hum of a world which wants to crush all hope“. All of which makes sense with patterns, “a pop song about death and everything which follows”, that sounds like a night out at a sweaty indie club, all dark corners, shimmering synths, and singing the sadness away. It’s certainly the most New Order they’ve ever sounded without losing any of the trademark yelping catchiness you’d expect from a band who say they, “continue the fight to write a song as good as the world’s best band, Martha”. The lyrics also seem to flutter between an enjoyable night out and a dark night of the soul. Repeated references to last orders pouring, and one-in-one-out queuing systems are peppered with hazy memories of past struggles, “with my knees grazed, down on our luck and your blood pressure raised or dropped, seems i forgot”, and the people who show up in those moments, “when i got upset you tried your best not to leave me to harden, a body there shouldered the burden”. This feels like a perfect next step; it’s everything you already loved about the band but pushed and stretched, more ambitious, more coherent, the sound of adults in full bloom.

the seeds we sow are sprouting buds nonetheless is out October 31st via Fika Recordings. For more information on adults visit https://www.sclubadults.co.uk/

Header photo is adults by Charlotte Florence