Further Listening – HERE

5. Eels Are Begging For You To Listen To Their New Record

Mark Oliver Everett, E to his fans, have been releasing music into the world for 35 years and counting, with 15 albums with his band Eels and a couple of solo ones before that. He’s written an acclaimed autobiography, Things the Grandchildren Should Know, made a documentary about his physicist father, and even had a cameo in Bill & Ted. So what else is there for him to say, where else can he turn for inspiration – “the great philosopher of our time”, Cookie Monster of course, and his famous quote, “Me no cry because cookie is finished. Me smile because cookie happened”. It’s from that E lifted the title of his new album, Cookie Happened, inspired by the idea that, “this will all be forgotten. But isn’t it still a beautiful thing it happened”. With the album arriving in October, this week Eels shared the first single from it, Cap In Hand.

Cap In Hand finds our protagonist shedding a life of denial and finally owning up to their mistakes, as E explains, “I wanted to sound kind of worn out for this one too, like someone who’s messed up their life but now sees the error of their ways and is trying to make amends with their tail between their legs”. While E jokingly suggests making, “sure you sound despondent on the first two tracks”, is every record label’s dream; it’s a shtick that’s worked for him and continues to on Cap In Hand. While Eels have always been a band who walk the line between melancholy and rocking, here he seems to hark back to the breakup-themed bleakness of 2009’s End Times, almost as if the protagonist on that record is looking back and realising his actions weren’t perfect, “before you I stand, a broken man who’s picking up the pieces”. Mixed in with the distinctly personal missives, there’s also a subtly collective message, a reminder that while we might feel alone in our feelings, we are rarely actually at the bottom of the well, a subtly political message held in the lyric, “see all the broken people, doesn’t make much sense to build another fence, when no one is knocking on the door”. Musically, sixteen albums in, Eels are probably best compared to their own output; however, the tumbling synths and subtly driving drum rhythms certainly wouldn’t sound out of place on a Grandaddy record. A sparkling, biscuity return, here Eels might sound more like the crash than the sugar rush, but you can’t have one without the other, and I for one am always glad Eels happened.

Cookie Happened is out October 16th via E Works / Play It Again Sam. For more information on Eels visit https://www.eelstheband.com/

4. Helmets Off, Armour On, The Hobknobs Are Ready For Battle

The Hobknobs, aka Lewsberg’s Arie van Vliet and The Klittens’ Yaël Dekker, appeared on these pages at the start of May when they shared their single Easier Listening, the first taste of their debut album Helmets Off. That album, and its, “honest attempt at honesty”, will land at the end of June, and this week the Dutch duo shared the latest taster of it, Enarmoured.

Discussing the inspiration behind Enarmoured, The Hobknobs suggests it, “is a song about war, but it’s not a protest song”, arguing that, “since we all have to go to war at some point in the foreseeable future, we think the only solution is to change what a war actually looks like”. That idea is laid out in the opening line, as Arie and Yaël sing in perfect unison over a skipping guitar, “let them go to war, let the war be gentle, let them fight a gentle war”. Throughout the song, they seem to touch on the futility of war through a somewhat surrealist spin, suggesting the soldier, “take their helmets off and bask in the sun” or, “touch their guns tenderly and hold them in their arms”. Reminiscent of Cate Le Bon and Tim Presley’s Drinks project or Anna Erhard, The Hobknobs seem to take a skewed view of the world around them, looking at the horrors and finding not rage but an almost comedic noir, as they sing at the end, “let them go to war, no one’s ever changed their mind ’cause of a song”. While The Hobknobs are probably not a band headed towards any sort of commercial breakthrough, they’re a reminder that sometimes creativity takes less obvious shapes, and the world is a much more interesting place for them being in it.

Helmets Off is out June 26th via 12XU. For more information on The Hobknobs visit https://thehobknobs.net/

3. Shannon Lay Expands Her Horizons

Shannon Lay has been something of a regular feature on these pages since the 2017 release of the brilliant Living Water, via Kevin Morby’s Mare Imprint. Shannon subsequently signed up with Sub Pop, and released two records: 2019’s exquisite August and 2021’s Geist, which both placed highly in my end of year lists. A 2019 covers album aside, things have been pretty quiet since then for Shannon, something that thankfully changed this week with both a new single, Horizons, and news of an upcoming album, Past The Veil, out at the end of July on her own All The Best label.

Described by Shannon as, “a reminder to be authentic”, Horizons is something of a celebration of our own individuality, as she explains, “we all have a unique perspective and that’s what makes this whole experience so interesting. I love art for that reason; it is someone’s view of the world on display”. While much of Shannon’s previous work seemed to lean into folk and acoustic guitars, here we get a different side, Horizons propelled forwards by burbling synths and rich ringing piano, bringing to mind the likes of Dana Gavanski or Naima Bock. Even Shannon’s vocal feels a little different here; it feels like it has been dropped down in the mix, presenting less as a storyteller and more as part of an instrumental whole. Through her words posses a confident softness, cocooned by the slowly unfurling music, protected from the world at large and able to sit in their distinctive feelings. It’s fitting for a song that seems to be full of simple revelations and being true to your emotions, “no need to dry your sad eyes, no need to hide your big smile, they need you down here, we need to feel the ways we feel, and feel and feel”. Shannon Lay has always been a deep-thinking songwriter, yet here she seems to have leaned into her emotions, letting her authenticity shine and guide her music on a truly exciting new path.

Past The Veil is out July 28th via All The Best. For more information on Shannon Lay visit https://www.shannonlay.com/

2. Guiding Light Cast Off The Shackles

Now, many bands write songs before they have lyrics, but Guiding Light took it one step further. The instrumental members of the band had already written the songs before they even had a singer. It was with backing ready to go that they approached Elise Cook to sing, and thankfully she already had some lyrics looking for a home. The result of that perfect coming together was their debut EP, released back in 2024. Two years on, the Austin-based band took a somewhat more traditional approach, with everyone working together, melodies written alongside the music as they formed the songs that would become their upcoming record, Fear On My Own Time. With the album set to arrive in August, this week the band shared the first single from it, Shackled By Lust.

As an introduction to Guiding Light’s sound, Shackled By Lust places them firmly in the artsier corners of the DIY scene; to me it brings to mind bands like Sauna Youth or Terry, a kind of lo-fi art-college punk that surely exists anywhere creative spirits gather with no money men to tell them to do it any different. The track flies by, barely two minutes of jerky guitar jangle, pattered primal percussion, and yelping, angularly energetic vocals. What exactly are the lyrics about? Honestly, I’m not entirely sure, but they certainly sound urgent, lust and heartache delivered with the sort of youthful intensity that’s the only fitting accompaniment to ping-ponging hormones. Beautifully out of kilter with the prevailing musical winds, Guiding Light feel like a band who are doing things entirely their own way, and there are few things in music more exciting than that.

Fear On My Own Time is out August 21st via Post Present Medium Records. For more information on Guiding Light visit https://guidinglightatx.bandcamp.com/

1. No Time For Reelin’ Squirrel Flower Is Just Getting Going

It would only take a glance at my end-of-year polls to know that I’m a huge fan of Squirrel Flower. Her last three albums have all appeared towards the top of the list, and 2020’s I Was Born Swimming was top of that year’s pile. By Ella Williams’ prolific standards, the three years since the release of Tomorrow’s Fire represent something of a rare period of release date calm. There’s been an awful lot of touring, a few standalone collaborative singles and a live album celebrating ten years of Squirrel Flower, so I’m certainly not suggesting she’s been slacking off, but it was still a cause for much rejoicing this week with news of her sixth studio album, Say A Prayer To The Gods of Getting Going. That record is coming in August via Polyvinyl, and marking the occasion, Ella shared the first single from it, Reelin’.

Recorded first in Ella’s native Chicago, and then reworked in Asheville (where else) with Wednesday-producer Alex Farrar (who else), Reelin’ is perhaps then something of a revelation for musician and producer alike, as they lean away from the noise and into the essence of the song. Ella recalls how, “he was encouraging me to lean into this ethereal, yet grounded, spacious yet textured folk music that’s so true to the early days of Squirrel Flower”. Here, that presents as a timeless folk song for modern ears, as 12-string guitars, droning accordion and, for possibly the first time since school music lessons, a recorder! It’s a bold decision for an artist who has always flittered between melody and noise to lean so heavily onto the gentle, and the inspiration of a lifetime spent listening to wonderful women like Joni Mitchell and Linda Ronstadt. “It felt like a breakthrough”, as Ella puts it. Lyrically, Squirrel Flower has often been a songwriter in transit, a musician in love with the pull of the road, so it’s striking here how settled and domestic Reelin’ feels. The song opens with Ella gazing from a window, “drink my coffee, do my chores, trash on Sunday, boy in the yard”. It could almost feel idyllic, were it not for the impending spectre tapping her on the shoulder telling her it’s time to go, “when I’m thirty, I’m gonna have a husband and a garden and a plan, and good intentions and good credit, ’til bad things call me back again, call me back again”. It’s as if we find her torn between the life she’s building and the toxic/intoxicating pull of past thrills, “oh mama, I didn’t miss him, but he’s reelin’ me back again”. In a world that seems full of voices demanding to be heard, sometimes it takes something quieter to cut through. Squirrel Flower may have turned the music down, but for those willing to lean in close, it might just sound more compelling than ever before.

Say A Prayer To The Gods of Getting Going is out August 21st via Polyvinyl Records. For more information on Squirrel Flower visit https://www.squirrelflower.net/.

Header photo is Squirrel Flower by Alexa Viscius