Playlist: New Tunes (August edition)

Here we are again, with some more new tunes for you to open your ears up for. These songs have all been released in the last month or so - the majority this time are by artists nearer the start of their careers, but there are a few 'old timers' mixed in too.

I say this every time with the playlists, but I think there is something in here for pretty much all tastes, so try and give at least one or two of these a go. I had become pretty set in my musical ways for a long time, but opening up to the odd bit of new music does really freshen things up a bit.

1. Interpol: See Out Loud

Photo: Eliot Lee Hazel

Okay, so this one came out back in June, but I don't think I heard it until more recently. (new album, This Mirror Weighs A Ton comes out in late August). Neither Interpol's generally quite dark and clinical tones, coupled with Paul Banks' deceptively resonant vocals, will appeal to many. But it always has got me interested - and we have more of the same and that's no bad thing. In fact, despite the always oblique lyrics, this one is almost upbeat, with an almost jaunty feel until the music cuts and we get that trademark staccato guitar hammer. There is some really nicely layered vocal reprises as we fade out too...

(official lyric video)

2. Walt Disco: Coup de Foudre

Again, we are going back to a song that has actually been out a few months now, this time from Scottish art-rockers. And we get exactly that... some art and some rock; angular music with a hint of Franz Ferdinand and offbeat vocal delivery that lies somewhere between Billy McKenzie and Sparks - not too shabby though.

(official music video)

MY PICK OF THE PLAYLIST!

3. Blondshell: Heart Has To Work So Hard

Blondshell is the working name for indie rock singer Sabrina Teitelbaum, and this is the first single from forthcoming album Violins. It's a slow burn, a plodding beat with her voice almost pleading - it's a song about a broken friendship after all. It is a song that is broken into lots of frames; there is some very emo-esque orchestration that helps it swell really nicely, and it builds into something of an epic, with some hints of grunge. Then it stops. Abruptly.

(official visualiser video)

4. Julia Jacklin: Get Away From Me

Jacklin has been building a name for herself over the last decade or so, with this ode to a fractured friendship leading the way for her fourth album, The Gem, due out next month. It is a fairly simple, folksy song, but Jacklin's voice exudes power and I am getting some nice Rilo Kiley adjacent vibes, and that's no bad thing.

(official music video)

5. This Is Lorelei: Billy Come Back

Nate Amos had been guitarist in Water From Your Eyes since 2016, but reverted to an old nom de plume, This Is Lorelei, for 2024's Box For Buddy. And now he is back, with The Singer In My Band and the song Billy Come Back. I like it when someone I have never heard of reaches out and grabs me - and he does this with a brisk acoustic driven track, full of Americana and backing vocals by Al Nardo (Fantasy of a Broken Heart) and Nate's sister Sarah, which blend in beautifully, really rounding it out.

(official music video)

6. beabadoobee: Sun Has Set

Beabadoobee has really been tearing things up over the last couple of years with her infectious brand of poppy indie. And here we are with another great new tune, a little crunchier and rockier than what I have heard from her before, but as infectious ever.

(official music video)

7. Tricky: I'm Yours

Photo: yakub88 / Shutterstock

Veteran Bristol rapper Tricky, has partnered with the likes of Massive Attack and Martina Topley-Bird over the years, on his way to being one of the biggest names in British trip-hop / hip-hop. For this song (and new album) he has partnered with young singer-songwriter, Mitch Sander, a fellow Bristolian. It's breathy and ethereal, then the guitars crash in and the "I'm yours / You're mine" sounding more like a question, and with Tricky joining Sander for this bit, gives it almost an air of menace.

(official music video)

8. Westside Cowboys: Dobro

Now we bring you some Manchester rock courtesy of up and comers, Westside Cowboy, who are on the cusp of releasing their debut LP, It Goes On, on 21 August. Dobro is the latest single to pave the way for it, and I'm not sure what to think. I really like this one, but I am not entirely sure why. The parts - slow loping beat, slightly whiny and incessant hooky guitar line, and fairly flat (like paint, not out of tune) vocals - all seem to come together to equal more than they suggest, and for a song that doesn't really seem to go anywhere. Make of that what you will.

(official visualiser video)

9. Phoebe Bridgers: Lost Boys

It feels like Bridgers has been around for ages, having already racked up collaborations with Taylor Swift, The Killers, Shame, The National and Matty Healy - not to mention, her part in the all-girl supergroup Boygenius (with Julien Baker and . But it is actually less than a decade since her first single, Smoke Signals, and third LP Lost Boys is just around the corner. Here we find Bridgers whispering softly over a gently jangly guitar riff that sounds a bit like so many we have heard recently, and yet.. and yet, when the chorus kicks in, it lifts up into this delightfully soaring thing. The middle eight threatens to go into one of those power ballad key changes, but thankfully doesn't, and that chorus comes back in with even more heart. Then there is that ending - you will just have to listen for yourself...

(official music video)

10. Mike D: True Colors

Okay, we are into proper veterans territory now. When Adam Yauch tragically died in 2012, the Beastie Boys, an institution for thirty years, were effectively over. Since then, neither of the two remaining 'Boys' had released anything new - that was until Mike D put out What We Got in May. To much excitement, there is an album coming too, and this, third single to come out. Yes - some fuzzy keyboards and a great classic hip-hop drum loop; Mike's vocals are hazed into the background, there are squiggles of bass and keyboards strewn all over it. Welcome back.

(official visualiser video)

11. Afghan Whigs: My Lover

Photo: Royal Cream

Another beloved band of long standing, the Afghan Whigs have been resurgent since they got back together 15 years ago. There is more new music and a tour (yes please), including this, the third single from tenth album Soft Control. This is rapidly growing on me. I wasn't 100% sure at first - Greg Dulli sounded a bit like he was trying to do an Elvis, but the solid slab of guitar and those southern rock fills that build through the song, wins the day.

(audio only)