This year I’ve witnessed the Plastic Mermaids experience (and it really is an experience – not just a regular gig) twice. The first was in Rough Trade record shop in Bristol. Unlike most in store gigs, it wasn’t a stripped back low-key affair playing a handful of songs before the band nip off to try and sell you some merchandise and get down the pub. Instead it was a full show, with the stage crammed full of technology and even some arena-like confetti explosions. Fast forward a few months to End of the Road Festival where the band opened the Woods Stage on a Sunday lunchtime with a tinsel clad dancing choir, an operatic guest vocalist and one of the most life affirming sets I’ve seen this year. If I was going to point you in the direction of one band to go and see live it would be Plastic Mermaids. They’ll make your heart flutter and maybe even boom. Now, after quite a hiatus, there’s new studio recorded material. 1996 is everything you’d expect from this band; a beautifully trippy pop song that fearlessly heads off the map yet never feels anything other than being perfectly complete. It’s accompanied by one of the strangest yet weirdly sweet videos you’ll see all year, as a man falls in love with a robot. The water ski scenes are both hilarious and beautiful at the same time. For those of you who know the Isle of Wight (from where the band hail) you’ll undoubtedly recognise the ex-Tube Isle of Wight railway carriages. Next time I hope they can fit one of the Island's hovercraft's into proceedings as well. It’s great to have Plastic Mermaids back. 1996 absolutely delivers as a song and based on the material they’ve been playing live, the album, when it comes, is going to be an absorbing and monumental listen. Plastic Mermaids - 1996
From the impassioned rock thrills of Gang of Youths to the heartening pop of G-Flip to the so sassy it hurts dance-party thrills of Confidence Man I’ve probably discovered more great music coming out of Australia in the last couple of years than at any time before. Here’s another. Jeffe (pronounced in the same way as us Brits would pronounce Geoff) first put out a track called Whoever You Love I’m Cool around the end of 2017. However, with its minimalist rubbery sounding electro pulse and not trying too hard vocal delivery, 2nd single Undecided (released just a few weeks ago) is the one that hits home. There are some neat lyrical turns of phrase on this record that I particularly like: “Caffeine, nicotine singing nine crimes.” Or “Pick apart the pudding in my mouth, pull apart the seams that are loving again.” Never mind what she’s singing about, these phrases just sound good. Already crowned as one to watch by Triple J Unearthed in Australia and having supported the likes of Lanks, Alex The Astronaut, Stella Donnelly and the aforementioned G-Flip Jeffe is clearly picking up some traction. Now Breaking More Waves is adding its little push as well. This is cool pop for the cool kids. Jeffe - Undecided
“If she’s got a few more hooks and massive bangers ready in the wings she could be a star,” I said of Alice Chater back in August. Well, here’s her new song Hourglass. And guess what? It’s a banger. With some hooks. Last time she grabbed the discotastic melody of Ring My Bell by Anita Ward for her song Heartbreak Hotel and this time she’s only gone and bloody sampled The Human League’s Don’t You Want Me, which any wedding / pub / party DJ will tell you is absolutely guaranteed to get persons of a certain age group up on the dance floor. Then there’s the fact that Alice pulls some serious shapes in this one-shot video. Imagine if Britney Spears was a phone and you could upgrade her. Likewise Madonna. Or even perhaps Lady Gaga. Your new model would be Alice Chater. If mainstream pop goes through cycles of highs and lows then at the moment it's largely going through a bit of a low. Alice Chater seems to be trying to change that. Alice Chater - Hourglass
This is the first time I’ve featured Sody (real name Sophie Dyson) on Breaking More Waves, even though the just turned 18 year-old has been releasing fully realised pop music for the last couple of years and has already played Glastonbury. I caught her in the BBC Introducing Tent in 2017 playing to a very receptive crowd. However, I’m very much making some space for her new release Maybe It Was Me, as it's her strongest song so far. It’s one that reminisces on a past relationship, her first, and finds her reflecting on her actions: “I was selfish, couldn’t help it,” she sings at one point before more self-blame comes along: “Maybe it was me who fucked it up.” Of course, when things go wrong in a relationship it’s easy to blame someone, be it yourself, the other person, or someone else. It’s much harder to just accept that break-ups are often an inevitable part of dating and that incompatibilities are really no one’s fault. And talking of breaks, I’d like to suggest that given the right ones (and perhaps an edit of the swear word in the song) Maybe It Was Me could easily find itself being played out on UK Radio – either Radio 1 or 2. It distances itself from some of her earlier electro-pop work and wears its heart on its sleeve as a simple but beautifully melodic ballad. You can find Sody out on tour with Tom Walker and Breaking More Waves favourite Maisie Peters later this month around the UK. Sody - Maybe It Was Me
