This week I’ve been feeling the need to mix it up, having listened to near enough nothing but Squid’s new album. So we’ve got some punk, R’n’B, pop and more on What’s Good This Week.
She drew the gun – Cut Me Down
First up, Liverpool’s She drew the gun share their latest single ‘Cut Me Down’, a scathing taste of punk-rock. With vocalist Louisa Roach continuing to be outspoken and completely unapologetic about it, the Merseyside artist fully commits to punk-rock, exchanging the alt-rock style of “Revolution Of Mind”, for a much grittier punk taste. Speaking about the influence behind ‘Cut Me Down’, Roach shared: “Resisterhood continued. Inspired by the Las Tesis protests in Chile which brought a new level to the idea of a protest song, where hundreds of thousands of women took to the streets and sang ‘The Rapist is You’. The police, the government, the judges, the system was not designed to look after women’s rights and it still does not, so I will have to fight ‘Deeper, faster, harder, cheaper, stronger, further smarter’ just to get even with you.”
Milan Ring – BS feat. Che Lingo
Next up is singer, songwriter, producer, rapper, guitarist, and mix engineer, Milan Ring. The multi-talented Australian is truly a force to be reckoned with and her global approach to R’n’B will surely earn her acclaim beyond Australia. Mixing R&B with neo-soul the flow to ‘BS’ sounds incredibly London, and when combined with London-based rapper Che Lingo, you’ll definitely be asking whether Ring is secretly a native of The Big Smoke. There’s a touch of Latin/salsa elements to ‘BS’ that further add to Ring’s global sound and makes ‘BS’ an enticing track to put on repeat.
Jelly Crystal – I Don’t Like Dancing
Stockholm’s Jelly Crystal wants to make one thing clear on his newest single ‘I Don’t Like Dancing’. A charming selection of synth-pop and big band melodies fill ‘I Don’t Like Dancing’ with the style and wit that comes from Swedish pop as a whole. Whether you dance along is up to you. But Jelly Crystal just wants to enjoy the rhythm. Speaking about the single, Jelly Crystal says, “It seems like I have no chance to create hits for kids, so this is for the rest of us. Especially for the really old people that have dance band music as their pick of choice. Also, I wanted to make it clear once and for all that I don’t like dancing, I just wanted to sound like a Swedish dance band.”
KALI – Too Tired
Taken from her recently released “Circles” EP, 16-year-old KALI shows just how seasoned she already is on ‘Too Tired’. The Cali native (real name Kali Flanagan) brings slacker pop to the table with bursts of sliding guitar riffs and her soprano styled croons, focusing on teenage fatigue and the fight to subvert expectations off constantly being on. Sounding like a collab between Beabadoobee and Snail Mail that’s had the reverb turned all the way up, ‘Too Tired’ will surely find KALI becoming a big name soon.
Lou Price – Love Can Pass You By
Bangor resident Lou Price, and member of previously featured Swimming Tapes, shared the lead single for his upcoming “Parkside Grooming” EP last week titled “Love Can Pass You By”. A personable piece of dream-pop with calming folk undertones, ‘Love Can Pass You By’ is everything you love from Swimming Tapes just slowed down a tad. Speaking about the track, Price shared: It’s probably the most personal song I’ve ever written; it’s about my mother, about our life and how I think it’s harder to love than hate. The easy thing to do is to hate on others, the hard thing to do is to love them anyway even if you don’t agree with their world outlook or opinions. Maybe it should have been called “Don’t Let Love Pass You By” but there you go.
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