The Sunday Surf #3

This is the 3,000th post on Breaking More Waves. That’s an awful lot of writing. Probably around three quarters of a million words. There’s been rushed rants in my work lunch break, late night outpourings of love for songs written when most reasonable people are getting ready for bed, early morning keyboard bashing before breakfast and compositions knocked off on laptops whilst on long (and short) train and coach journeys. In that time I’ve also posted 37,500 tweets and 640 pictures on Instagram and still managed to have a full life outside of the world of the internet. 

So now I'm at 3,000 I'd just like to say a quick thank you to every single person that has ever visited this blog, even if you only came here because of a Google image search for a popstar in the bath. I could say it's because of you that this blog keeps going, but that's a lie. It's because of me that this blog keeps going. I bloody write the thing. 

Now without further ado, here is this week’s Sunday Surf. 3 songs that you may or may not have heard – but hopefully you’ll find something here of merit.

Emily Burns – Take It Or Leave It

Over the course of 3,000 posts I've featured 4 different singers named Emily. Emily & The Woods, Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo, Emilie Nicolas and this one. Emily Burns first surfaced here in 2013. Take It Or Leave It shows her musical progression with a beautiful piece of modern chiming electronic pop that finds Emily standing at a relationship crossroads. Is it going to be just friends or is it time to become lovers? Either way, it’s delightfully pretty sounding and Breaking More Waves definitely takes this one.



Sad Palace – Breeze

A band that labels their music as supernatural groove rock was clearly born in the wrong decade. Images of big flares, long leopard print coats, long hair, bad beards and moustaches and prolific use of the words “cool man” and “vibey” are instantly brought to mind. Sad Palace also state that they’re from the ‘south coast’ which hints that they are probably not from Brighton; because it often seems that many a band from outside of that particular seaside city seems embarrassed of its location. Having said that, this very blog tags itself as being from ‘south-central’ so maybe I have something in common with Sad Palace. Certainly an earlier model of Sad Palace, with a different name, featured on Breaking More Waves, way back in 2011 and subsequently did OK on blog aggregator Hype Machine. You’d have to call in the cavalry before I could bear to tell you the name of that previous version though. 

With just two tracks on line, newbie Breeze is a bit all over the place, but in a good way. Like free-jazz gone indie. So, let’s call it free-indie. So, that’s south coast free indie supernatural groove rock. Yeah man. Breaking More Waves digs this.



The XX – On Hold

By now you’ve surely heard this? But just in case you haven’t, here we find The XX returning with a piece of pure magic. Incorporating a pitch shifted sample of Hall and Oates I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do), Jamie, Oliver and Romy manage to create something that is clearly the work of The XX but also shows a subtle development in their sound. Even though the words might be sad: “When are where did we grow cold/” the song sounds positively uplifting. The finest of comebacks.