Monday, 1 May 2017

New Music: Introducing - Sigrid


Now that we’re one third of the way through the year what are your most played songs of 2017 so far? In terms of albums here at Breaking More Waves Towers the five 2017 releases that I’ve listened to most are Stormzy, Laura Marling, Alice Jemima. The Big Moon and Depeche Mode. Something for everyone in those five I think. As far as singles go, the big three are Lorde’s Green Light, Alt-J’s 3WW and Norway’s Sigrid with her online hit Don’t Kill My Vibe.

When Don’t Kill My Vibe first burst out into the public arena by way of a very high placing on Spotify’s New Music Friday playlist back in February there was, in certain quarters, an amount of cynicism that this was a big label throwing dollars at the song to make it a break through hit – after all it was even cropping up on posts by hipster indie blogs who very rarely feature mainstream pop music. This view was compounded because before Don’t Kill My Vibe Sigrid had released a handful of singles in Norway with little fanfare and then all of a sudden, with the help of management company MADE and Island Records, BOOM!

But irrespective of marketing, Don’t Kill My Vibe remains a great pop tune – with thoughtful lyrics, a hooky warlike chorus and dynamic production; Sigrid herself has described her music as ‘aggressive pop’. With such an impressive first worldwide release the potential difficulty for Sigrid would be maintaining the momentum, but two new tracks, Plot Twist (which continues the same fierce electronic style with a human touch) and the piano ballad Dynamite (which shows that Sigrid isn’t just about the bangers – I particularly like that her vocal isn’t 100% smooth and you can hear a slight rasp to it on the song) give reason to at least hope that Sigrid might be around for a while yet.

In the UK Sigrid plays The Deaf Institute in Manchester on May 15th, London’s Hoxton Bar & Kitchen (sold out) on the 17th May and Brighton’s Great Escape Festival on the 18th May. She’s also playing Latitude and Wilderness festivals this summer and has a further show at the Scala in London on 13th September. Sigrid’s debut EP is out this Friday.

Sigrid - Don't Kill My Vibe (Video)



Sigrid - Plot Twist



Sigrid - Dynamite (Acoustic)


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