Look. Let’s face it, I’m getting bored. Not of music. Not of writing about it in my own warped way. But this musicians in the bath thing. I’m all washed up over it. I’ve tapped into it far too much for my own good. It’s time to clean up and move onto something else before the bubble bursts. I'm pulling the plug on it. (OK I’ll stop now) If you follow me on Twitter (here) or if you’ve spent anything more than a couple of minutes scanning through this blog, you’ll probably know that I’ve posted a huge amount about musicians releasing promotional photos that feature them in the bath. Somebody once told me that in today’s fast moving society if you want to make a point you have to keep saying it over and over for anyone to take notice - the turnover of information is so quick, so much gets lost. It’s why I’ve been banging on about this a lot - to the point where I've become more annoying than I usually am. I hope by now at least one or two of you, when you see yet another musician posing in the bath to promote their music (and trust me you will see more of them, of that there is no doubt) will think to yourselves: “Gosh there’s another. Breaking More Waves was right.” I also hope you’ll agree that: 1. It’s a really odd thing to do. No other profession would consider promoting their product by getting its manufacturer to pose in the bath – naked or clothed. 2. But then musicians are odd people. Nice (generally), but odd. 3. What’s even weirder though is that lots of journalists will put these pictures on their publications and make no commentary on it at all. As if putting a picture of a naked (or clothed) musician sitting in the bath is the most natural thing to do in the world. Of course some of these journos will claim ‘It’s all about the music.” IN WHICH CASE WHY PUT A BLOODY PICTURE OF THE ARTIST ON YOUR SITE OR PUBLICATION ANYWAY? Just write about and post the music and stop contradicting yourselves* 4. Journalists are also very odd. OK, I’ll calm down now. This is meant to be a music blog. Here’s another picture of an artist sitting in the bath. It’s her second song released to the world and her second bath picture. And talking of seconds, here’s a second (not 'sophomore' as seems to be the trend with a lot of American influenced music writers - guys, quit it's use please, the word isn't even understood in many English speaking countries outside of the US) thought; maybe it’s not odd at all. Maybe it is in fact the new norm. Maybe I’m odd for thinking that a nice photo of a musician holding their instrument (maybe even playing it) would be a decent and sensible thing to have. Mind you, I’m not sure how interesting a picture of a ‘laptop producer’ staring at his Macbook Pro would be. Maybe all laptop producers should still sit in the bath. So what of Rhain’s second song? Josephine is a piece of highly unorthodox piano and string based pop that (as I suggested in my introductory piece about her in February) will appeal to fans of Joanna Newsom and Regina Spektor. From the opening line where we find her singing of watching the subject of the song sleeping in solitude it has a slightly menacing, obsessive, observant air to it. “What kind of blood do you bleed, ‘cos all I can taste is metallic lustre,” she intones. You almost expect her to break out into a cackle of witch like evil laughter after that line. “They told me you are with another, so I crave you even more. I creep a little closer to you, want to hear the breath that you breathe,” she adds later. OK, it’s all slightly uncomfortable listening, but hell, isn’t that better than listening to some guy sing about how you used to call him on his cellphone, and now you’re drinking champagne with some girls he doesn’t know? I’d say it’s 100% better. Maybe Drake needs to up his bath picture game to be a little more interesting. Oh hold on… what’s this?
Damn. I really should have known shouldn't I? Here's the song. Rhain - Josephine *Of course I'm fully aware that the beauty of any art form, including writing is the occasional contradiction.
Here at Breaking More Waves HQ there’s one part of the year that I always looking nervously forward to. It's around the middle of May - when two major musical events on my calendar occur. One is Brighton’s Great Escape, Europe’s largest new music festival, the other is Eurovision, Europe’s largest new music song contest. Why the anxiousness? It's whilst I wait to see if the two dates will conflict. Thankfully for the last couple of years the events have been on consecutive weekends and I've been able to enjoy both. Now yes, I fully understand that some of you will sneer at Eurovision (especially in the UK) but you won’t find any ridicule in my house. After all, this is the competition that not only gave us a band that made some of the catchiest (and towards their end saddest) pop songs of all time (ABBA), but more recently brought us Euphoria by Loreen, a glorious piece of dance pop that I will never grow tired of hearing. Why do I mention Eurovision right now? Because of new Irish artist Lyra. I could quite imagine her appearing on a stage at Great Escape, but equally I could visualise Broken Down, the third song she has released from her debut EP W.I.L.D (which stands for Wake Induced Lucid Dream), and the first I’ve featured on the blog, being Ireland’s entry for the international song contest. It’s a belter of a tune with a message of resilience. It manages to be both colossal with a tribe of passionate beating drums and a power-surging vocal delivery (fans of Florence and the Machine will no doubt approve) but also tender and intimate in its starting moments as Lyra sings of being broken. You can just imagine the flamethrowers, the wind machines and of course the army of drummers backing a spectacular performance that would make Johnny Logan proud. Lyra’s debut EP is released on the 15th July. The preliminary dates of next year's Eurovision Song Contest are 9th May (First Semi-Final), 11th May (Second Semi-Final), and 13th May (Grand Final) 2017. The definitive dates will be announced as soon as the host city is known. The Great Escape has not yet confirmed its plans for 2017. I’m hoping it’s waiting for Eurovision to confirm fully to avoid a clash. Lyra - Broken Down
I’ve already featured Mother by Jerry Williams on the blog, but now the song’s got a video treatment. Just in case you missed it first time round, this one’s a naggingly upbeat piece of day-glo indie pop that burns with a tuneful brightness. Of course chirpy sounding pop music sometimes needs to come with a warning stating ‘May Become Annoying’ but thankfully this isn’t the case here, particularly as Jerry isn’t shouting about how life is fantastic and everything’s perfect. Instead she sings of running home through the rain and not feeling herself. The video itself is a performance piece that fits with the general chirpiness of the music, with Jerry playing around on a bike, pulling some shapes and swapping roles with her band. Extra marks as well for the best pair of trousers I’ve seen this week – other indie pop acts take note. There’s more to life than skinny jeans and leather jackets. Jerry Williams - Mother (Video)
The last post on Breaking More Waves was about Sofi Tukker and now here I am, in what is probably a first for this blog, writing about them immediately again. The first post was because they recently banged out a delightful tune called Awoo from their forthcoming Soft Animals EP (which incidentally features a giraffe on the cover, always a good idea, after all one of the best pop videos of the last few years (here) had a giraffe in it). Now Team Tucker and Team Sophie (I’ve yet to decide which team I’m on yet, at the moment I want to vote for them both) have released their first ever video for Drinkee. You’ll probably remember Drinkee from back in 2015. It’s an absurdly addictive track that mixes a snappy guitar riff with Brazilian poetry and some house grooves; because of its brilliance it even found itself on an Apple watch advert. Last night I went to see the band play live in London. Many elements of their live show are incorporated into the video, namely Sophie’s halter neck and white flared trousers garb, the band's ability to do a cool head roll (at 2:05) and the weird instrument they have that appears to be some sampler pads on some sort of rotary pole (at 2:15). Sadly the jungle backdrop and Tucker’s immensely cool water sip moment ( at 1:08) didn’t make it into the live gig this time round, but they did manage a few choreographed dance moves, including Sophie attempting ballet even though she admitted she can’t do ballet at all. Sofi Tukker is my new favourite pop band. Go see them live, listen to their Soft Animals EP and watch this video to make your life that much better. Sofi Tukker - Drinkee (Video)
