Further Listening:

5. Midlake Show Off Their Ghoulish Side

The biggest show I ever played in my previous life as a largely commercially unsuccessful musician was supporting Midlake at their show at The Irish Centre in Leeds. They’d just released The Trials Of Van Occupanther and, courtesy of their unmistakable single Roscoe, which, if memory serves, they played twice that night, were ready to go stratospheric. A lot has changed for the band since then, they’re two decade plus veterans, have a different singer and different priorities, as frontman Eric Pulido puts it, “we love one another. it’s still a challenge to carve out time with all that’s going on in our lives, but when we’re able to it’s a cherished experience”. Thankfully for them, and for us, Midlake recently found some time to spend together, and with producer Sam Evian, and the result is their sixth album, A Bridge To Far, which will arrive in November and was previewed this week by their new single, Ghouls.

While The Ghouls perhaps exist in all of our lives, Midlake’s own ones came from their personal realities, as Eric explains it is about, “everyone’s respective goals. The temptation to demonize the realities or challenges that exist and yet to face them head on and create something extraordinary”. Musically, The Ghouls seems to fit into Midlake’s post-Tim Smith catalogue, taking the band’s folk-rock roots and spinning them through a psych-prog lens. Here, their always gorgeous layered harmonies adorn a backing of punchy, snare-led drum rhythms, layers of distorted guitars and, particularly wonderfully, a tumbling piano flourish, which will surely delight fans of the band’s early work. Midlake’s music may feel slightly out of step with the pace of modern living, but then perhaps they always were. When the world prioritises instant gratification, they offer the slow burn, music that requires you to slow down and really listen, and when Denton’s favourite sons are playing, what else could you possibly want to do?

A Bridge To Far is out November 7th via Bella Union. For more information on Midlake visit https://midlakeband.com/.

4. Switch Off That Dry TV And Listen To The Cindys

Bristolian quintet The Cindys were my favourite track of the week back in July when they shared their brilliant debut single, Eternal Pharmacy. The brainchild of Jack Ogborne, aka Bingo Fury, The Cindys were born out of a love of classic jangling pop, with Jack joined by Naima Bock, Finlay Burrows, and members of Belishas. With their self-titled debut out in November, a transatlantic co-release between the excellent pairing of Breakfast Records and Ruination Records Co, this week the band shared the second taster of The Cindys’ sound, their new single, Dry TV.

Described by Jack as, “a straight down the line coming of age love song”, Dry TV finds Jack digging into teen nostalgia via, “snapshot moments that led up to a specific place and time”. The track was made on an 8-track cassette, most of it formed in the basement of The Cornish Bank in Falmouth, with Holiday Ghost’s Sam Stacpoole, the band channeling the cramped, claustrophobic nature as they looked to connect with the roots of their musical history. The result is an explosion of languid jangling and sing-speak vocals like Veronica Falls jamming with Galaxie 500, as Jack self-deprecatingly sings, “tomorrow I’ll be 21, it took me four years to write this song”. Jack has spoken of this track as a lightbulb moment for what The Cindy’s would become, “I think Dry TV is the beginning point for this band. All roads will somehow lead back to Dry TV no matter where the music goes in the future”. Listening to it now, there would definitely be worse places to start any journey.

The Cindys is out November 7th via Breakfast Records (UK) / Ruination Records Co. (US). For more information on The Cindys visit https://linktr.ee/thecindys

3. Who Knew Frog Bites Were So Potent?

The New York-based brainchild of Daniel Bateman, Frog have developed something of a cult following built largely around word-of-mouth sharing and the support of an awful lot of bloggers/writers in the less frequently visited corners of the internet. In recent years, there’s been a distinct swell in the bands notoriety, with 2023’s hiatus-breaking album Grog being particularly well received. Earlier this year, they shared the excellent 1000 Variations on the Same Song, a pre-cursor to the record they announced this week, The Count. The record finds Daniel embodying The Count, “a mysterious New Yorker turned piano man”, with a magnetic aura and a penchant for heavy drinking. Ahead of the album’s release, Frog shared the excellent introductory piece, Bitten By My Love Var. XI.

While it might be just another version of the familiar Frog sound, Bitten By My Love Var. XI is thankfully a particularly lovely one. The track is given an instant atmosphere by the wavering organs that seem to levitate in the background throughout, as they’re adorned by Daniel’s vocals, jerky piano rhythms, and the steady tick of the Lionlimb-like drums. The song is essentially a Vampiric love song, because why not? Daniel casts himself as a sensitive sucker, his vocals taking a falsetto flourish as he sings, “babe, you know it’s crazy I don’t see you that often. All I wanna do is take you back to my coffin”. Even if they down play their creativity with talk of writing 1000 versions of the same song, nobody does it quite like Frog. In a sea of similarity, they’re an island of intrigue, long may they ribbit!

The Count is out September 19th via Audio Antihero / Tapewormies. For more information on Frog visit https://linktr.ee/heyitsfrog

2. Insecure Men Are From Another Planet

Probably best known as the co-founder of Fat White Family, Saul Adamczewski introduced the world to his other side with the debut Insecure Men album back in 2018. Some seven years later, Insecure Men have come back to us all, with their upcoming second album, A Man For All Seasons, a record made on the back of, “a harrowing personal collapse”, which saw Saul, “spending months in a cupboard in Tulse Hill” experiencing severe psychosis and opioid addiction. After a phone call to his mother and the start of withdrawal, Saul began the painstaking work of rebuilding his life, and with it his creativity. With the album set to arrive via Fat Possum in November, this week Saul shared the first single from it, Alien.

In a year where retro-Americana seems to be having a real moment, unwittingly or not, Aliens seems to fall into that camp. As with acts like Tyler Ballgame and Dean Johson, here Insecure Men come all over 1950’s crooner, full of jangling, junk-yard guitars that The Velvet Underground would be proud of and Saul’s distinctive baritone burr. Lyrically, it taps into a rich vein of flawed romance, a sort of – here I am at my lowest ebb, take me or leave me – plea, “you, you’re an alien, I was born to be your lover I was born to be your man, ain’t that the truth”. Particularly lovely is the outro, where the vocals seem to shift up an octave before giving way to a triumphantly sad horn flourish. From the darkest depth, there would be a temptation to see this as a stunning recovery, which would be to miss the truthfulness of this record; this feels like someone coming out of the shadows, healing not healed, a turning point that’s every bit as beautiful and far more honest than presenting anything as the final destination.

A Man For All Seasons is out November 7th via Fat Possum. For more information on Insecure Men visit https://insecuremen.ffm.to/

1. Everything’s Coming Up Honeyglaze

2024 was a huge year for Honeyglaze with the release of their critically lauded second album, Real Deal, one of my favourite records of the year. The record was followed by the inevitable raft of headline shows, festival dates, and support slots with everyone from the Manic Street Preachers to Opus Kink. It’s Opus Kink, and their label Hideous Mink, that bring us the first new Honeyglaze music since Real Deal, as part of their A Hideous Collective compilation, a fundraiser for the Music Venue Trust and UK Artist Touring Fund, which features the likes of English Teacher, Katy J Pearson and Wunderhorse. Prior to the compilations release, Honeyglaze shared their contribution, Turn Out Right.

While it might not have appeared on Real Deal, Turn Out Right does seem to be cut from the same cloth, as Anouska explains, “its themes are similar to other songs on the album in that it’s a melancholy tongue-in-cheek, but ultimately hopeful”. While it could be seen as essentially a demo, the recording is nothing more than Anouska and a single acoustic guitar; the stripped-back style is perhaps all the song needs, the sense of being there in the studio adding to the intimacy of the lyrical message. Throughout, Anouska seems to be hoping for the best, singing, “maybe things will turn out right”, as a mantra to stay positive, which suggests she’s perhaps pushing a little too hard to make it come true. While she clings onto the familiarity of, “the lines on your face”, as an escape from the world at large, there’s a sense of things fading from view: “don’t bother to turn out the light, I’ll put my night vision goggles on and go”. A beautiful aside and a timely reminder if you hadn’t already realised that Honeyglaze truly are the real deal.

A Hideous Collective is out now via Hideous Mink Records / So Recordings. For more information on Honeyglaze visit https://honeyglaze.ochre.store/.

Header photo is Honeyglaze by Kalpesh Lathigra