Marina & The Diamonds - Fear And Loathing

“Nice to be back,” her website states.

With this song it’s more than nice. Quite simply this new material from Marina and the Diamonds sets our pulses racing, faster than ever before. Fear and Loathing is a massive development from her previous work, darker, more introspective and full of weight. "I live my life in bitterness and fill my heart with emptiness," she sings before continuing "I’m done with trying to have it all and ending up with not much at all." Then there's the positive conclusion; that freedom and inner satisfaction can be obtained. “Baby, you don't have to live your life in fear, the sky is clear, is clear of fear. I don't want to live of fear and loathing.”

The simple but beautiful video symbolises change and ridding yourself of fear perfectly through the cutting of hair. We uttered an audible gasp when we first saw it, wondering if Marina was going to go the whole hog and do a bald-Britney, but thankfully this is a lot more restrained.

Marina’s blog titles the video Electra Heart – The Start. Talking to Popjustice today Marina said "Electra Heart is the antithesis of everything that I stand for. And the point of introducing her and building a whole concept around her is that she stands for the corrupt side of American ideology, and basically that’s the corruption of yourself. My worst fear - that’s anyone’s worst fear - is losing myself and becoming a vacuous person. And that happens a lot when you’re very ambitious."

The song is utterly fantastic. The video (of which there are more parts to come to tell a whole story, the next episode of which is released next Monday) is utterly fantastic. Her potential is becoming fulfilled. It’s great to have you back Marina. Really great.

Music That Made Me #31 - The Cardigans - Sick & Tired

During the mid 90’s The Cardigans became my new favourite band. The first time I heard them was with Sick & Tired on GLR radio, which in many ways was a precursor to BBC 6 Music. At first I was sure it was a group from the 60’s; the sunny saccharine cuteness of the lead singer’s voice and the chirpy instrumentation surely couldn’t be from anywhere else. Yet it transpired that the Cardigans were a new group from Sweden and a few months later they were coming to England to play. The song seemed completely at odds with much of the emerging Britpop scene – this was music that gleamed with light rather than something that swaggered with laddish bombast.

As the band walked on stage at Camden Dingwalls they were everything I hoped they would be. Nina, the singer, stood at the front, sporting a shift dress, hand on hip, gently swaying her other arm and clicking her fingers whilst a good looking bunch of boys with bowl haircuts created hooky, catchy pop gems full of knowing ironic retro-references. They even covered a heavy rock song in a jazzy cocktail lounge style. They were brilliant and I was in love. .

The Cardigans was the first band that I ever saw more than a couple of gigs of on a particular tour, taking a week off work to follow them round the country when they formed part of the NME Brat Bus soiree. I got to meet the band and at their Nottingham show they even invited me in to watch their soundcheck, so impressed were they with my commitment to them. I remember sitting in the venue on my own, listening as Nina sang to just me and melting. .

Later years would see The Cardigans become international stars with their disco-influenced pop hit Lovefool, which featured on the soundtrack of the Baz Luhrmann film Romeo & Juliet and big hit singles such as Erase / Rewind and My Favourite Game, before they veered into darker less commercial territories that produced some of their finest work with later albums. It was this song that first grabbed my heart though and it still sounds fresh and effervescent today as it did then.

The Saturday Surf #14

With everyone seemingly off on holiday (or vacation if you live in the US) and at summer music festivals, August is the calm before the storm of new releases that occur between September and November preceding the moment when everyone starts writing their albums / tracks of the year recommendations and ones to watch lists for next year. We’ve already started compiling artists and albums that are heavyweight contenders for featuring on our end of year round ups and without giving anything much away we reckon there’s a number of Ones To Watch for 2012 that we’ve already featured on the blog – possibly even in one of these weekly round-ups that we call the Saturday Surf – sweeping up tracks that didn’t quite get a full blog post.

Because of this calm month this week’s surf is another short one. Just three spicy tracks to content your ears.

Cold Specks – Holland

If you read more than just this blog the chances are you’ll have already come across Cold Specks. She’s previously gone under the names Basket of Figs and the Hotel Ghost, but it’s her new emotive blend of folk and soul that has made a lot of people sit up and pay attention. If you’re a fan of Laura Marling, PJ Harvey, Anna Calvi and other similar female vocalists that bring a smoky heaviness to their songs then Cold Specks will sit very nicely in your collection. Holland is her first piece of harnessed weighty gospel from the dark.

Holland by Cold Specks

Alex Winston – Velvet Elvis

Before posting this track we checked back to see what we’ve said about Alex Winston in the past so that we didn’t repeat ourselves. Somehow, miraculously we’ve never posted about her. In fact there are a number of artists (tUnE-yArDS being a great example) that we adore but they somehow have never made it onto the pages of Breaking More Waves. We guarantee that by the end of this year we’ll have rectified that error though. For those who haven’t heard of Alex Winston yet, she’s a deliciously quirky singer that sounds like a cross between a cutesy bubble-gum Regine Chassagne from Arcade Fire, Kate Bush and a pop-version of Joanna Newsom. Velvet Elvis is her new single and this November she’ll be out supporting The Naked & Famous on their UK tour - we'll see you at the front for that.

Alex Winston - Velvet Elvis

Bear’s Den – Fickle Love (Demo)

Remember Cherbourg? We wrote about them a couple of times back in 2009. Now click play below and you’ll hear the distinctive voice of Andrew Davie, the bands lead singer intoning “I don’t feel a thing for you anymore.” Bear’s Den is his new project out of the Communion stable and if this demo is anything to go by it’s a name to look out for. Fickle Love is an epic windswept alt.folk song full of earthy power – the kind of thing that Snow Patrol may have done if they’d chosen a folk route rather than heading towards mainstream blandness. There’s very little internet presence for the band yet but we understand that the group are supporting The Maccabees in a low key festival warm up show in Breaking More Waves home city of Portsmouth at the Wedgewood Rooms on the August 8.

Bear's Den - Fickle Love (demo)

Gabrielle Aplin - New Waves

Not another singer songwriter with an acoustic guitar and a bunch of sweet songs you cry? Well bear with us, for Gabrielle Aplin is exceptionally good. The 18 year old Bath based singer has developed, with no record company help whatsoever, a significant fan base by what is now becoming the new-norm for singer songwriters; cover versions posted on You Tube. Her cover of Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream has received over 250,000 hits and her version of The Liar and the Lighter by You Me At Six (streaming below) is nearing half a million. Along the way she’s covered Ellie Goulding, Coldplay and Bruno Mars, some of the songs on piano, others on acoustic guitar. Inevitably there are going to be comparisons to Birdy who has already found popularity in the UK with her Bon Iver and XX cover versions, but Aplin also has her own songs. It was one of these songs - Reverse (streaming below)– that Gabrielle uploaded onto the BBC Introducing website and as a result of that was invited to perform a session with BBC Wiltshire last summer. Since then she’s self-released 2 EP’s, performed on the acoustic stage at Glastonbury and been invited to record a further session with the BBC. Now she gets the Breaking More Waves treatment.

So why is Aplin growing in popularity? Here's a possible answer. There’s a reaction against the over engineered plastic pop that dominates the charts. Traditional singers, songs and instrumentation are having a re-birth. But these are not greying and wrinkled singer-songwriters wheeled out from the 70’s mumbling and grumbling that music isn’t what it used to be. Instead we have a new breed of young musicians who are endearing themselves to the public and having huge commercial success. It’s why acts such as Mumford & Sons, Adele, Ed Sheeran and the aforementioned Birdy are selling records in major quantities. It’s why it wouldn’t surprise us at all if Gabrielle Aplin is one of the next new kids on the block to get a record deal and grow from internet sensation to daytime radio mainstay.

Gabrielle Aplin is connecting with people using two key ingredients – delightful alluring songs and the power of the internet. This post offers yet another small piece of that.

Reverse by Gabrielle Aplin

Liar And The Lighter by Gabrielle Aplin