We may only be a week into 2022, but there’s already plenty of great music to dive into. From the return of Father John Misty – who teases upcoming fifth album ‘Chloë and the Next 20th Century’ with new single ‘Funny Girl’ – to a new release from Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Youth Sector’s political post-punk, there’s a host of exciting releases joining the NME Radio playlist this week.
Also joining NME 1 and 2 we’ve got a stellar song from Tierra Whack’s ‘R&B?’ EP, the ear-worm latest from New York collective MICHELLE, and another taste of the upcoming Alt-J album.
Check out what’s new on NME 1 & 2 below.
On the A List
Tierra Whack
‘Heaven’
Tierra Whack ended her 2021 with a potent reminder of her skill and versatility: three EPs, dropped a week apart: ‘Rap?’, ‘Pop?’ and ‘R&B?’. The opening track of the last of these releases, ‘Heaven’, is anchored by a resonant chorus: “Heaven has all my favourite people / I wanna go there / And do a show there.” Though the Philadelphia rapper is best known for crafting colourful microuniverses, this sobering, emotive song ranks high in her discography. – Karen Gwee
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
‘Trying To Find A World That’s Been And Gone’
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds are done with their next album, and ‘Trying To Find A World That’s Been And Gone’ is the first taste of it. Released while still a demo, this song could take a different shape in the future, but it already sounds complete, shifting easily from atmospheric to anthemic. – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
On the B List
Father John Misty
‘Funny Girl’
Waltz-ready ballad ‘Funny Girl’ is the first single from Father John Misty’s fifth album, ‘Chloë and the Next 20th Century’, out this April. Over lush woodwind and swooning strings, Josh Tillman sings wryly and romantically about a magnetic star and showbiz native who “knocked me out when you charmed the pants off Letterman”. – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
MICHELLE
‘Expiration Date’
New York collective MICHELLE’s latest single ‘Expiration Date’ is full of deceptively simple melodies and perfectly judged sonic flourishes. The third single off the five-piece’s upcoming album ‘After Dinner We Talk Dreams’, ‘Expiration Date’ is about what happens when a romance comes to term – the loneliness that descends when the last embers go out. – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Alt-J
‘Hard Drive Gold’
Are you sick of hearing terms like ‘NFT’, ‘cryptocurrency’ or ‘the blockchain’? So are Alt-J on this song ‘Hard Drive Gold’. “Don’t be afraid to make money, boy,” they chant on this tongue-in-cheek track from their fourth album ‘The Dream’, out next month. – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Amber Mark
‘Most Men’
Go ‘Three Dimensions Deep’ with Amber Mark, who will release her debut album later this month. The R&B singer-songwriter channels some deep pain on new song ‘Most Men’, an expression of heartfelt empathy for other women who’ve been done wrong by players and trifling men. – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
The Districts
‘Outlaw Love’
With ‘Outlaw Love’ The Districts add more vivid brushstrokes to their ‘Great American Painting’, their fifth studio album out next month. Cherry Glazerr’s Clementine Creevy contributes backing vocals to this song, which singer/guitarist Rob Grote says “is about reassessing the past and realizing how much of your perception is colored by your particular set of experiences and beliefs”. – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
On the C List
Bonobo
‘From You’ featuring Joji
Weaving understated vocal melodies through Bonobo’s liquid production, Joji melds seamlessly into producer Simon Green’s sonic universe on ‘From You’. Making this song, the woozy final single from the latter’s new album ‘Fragments’ out this Friday, Green said, “I remembered all over again how much I loved crowds and movement and people connecting with each other.” – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Big Thief
‘No Reason’
Big Thief’s upcoming album ‘Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You’ was recorded in four separate sessions in different places in the United States. The song ‘No Reason’ was created in the Colorado Rockies, and features mellifluous flute by the multi-instrumentalist Richard Hardy, whom the band sought out after they heard him playing in a nearby lookout tower. Another gorgeous track from a double album that’s no doubt full of them. – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Sinai Vessel
‘Best Witness’
In December Sinai Vessel, aka the Nashville-based musician Caleb Cordes, dropped a preview of his fourth album in the form of five demos. They include the track ‘Best Witness’, a quietly gut-wrenching song about friendship and care. “Sweet brother, can I call you?” he asks in a particularly devastating verse. “I’m not doing well / Can you state the obvious? / Will you say you love me still?” – KG
Listen: Soundcloud
The Micronaut
‘Curling’ featuring bernhardt
Looking forward to the Winter Games? No, not the Olympics in Beijing next month – we mean The Micronaut’s new album, ‘Olympia (Winter Games)’, which is itself a companion to 2021 full-length ‘Olympia (Summer Games)’. And as you may have guessed by now, every song on this chilly new record is named after a sport. ‘Curling’ features The Micronaut’s frequent collaborator Moritz Fasbender (billed as bernhardt). – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Sea Power
‘Green Goddess’
On ‘Green Goddess’, the latest single from Sea Power’s upcoming album ‘Everything Was Forever’, Jan Scott Wilkinson and Martin Noble celebrate “everything green from the Lake District to the New Forest”. “The places I love to be which are quiet and restorative,” Wilkinson said in a statement on the song. “There are dark and complicated things going on but sometimes it is good to forget this and go to the places and where you are happy.” – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Youth Sector
‘Is Blood’
Brighton five-piece Youth Sector fill their latest single ‘Is Blood’ with stirring post-punk guitar and effervescent synths – as well as an energetic critique of chest-thumping patriotism that ignores how empires are built on violence. Hear more from the art rockers when their new EP ‘Adult Contemporary’ drops February 18. – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music