Song of the Week - Nadine Shah - Greatest Dancer

I’ve been a fan of Nadine Shah for some time now. Probably like many people I first discovered her music by way of BBC 6 Music. I think Nadine herself realises how important 6 Music has been in her career. The first time I saw her live she stared into the audience, smiled and proclaimed: “Ah! The smell of 6 Music is here.”

As Nadine gets ready to release her 5th album Filthy Underneath, I’m pleased to report that the quality of her songs just gets better and better. Latest track Greatest Dancer is no exception.  Featuring stomping glam-rock marching drums (a few years ago we might have referred to them as Gary Glitter drums, but that’s probably best not done now is it?) and gloriously raw stabs of synth (Is it even possible to make electronic music sound raw rather then polished? It appears so) the song is a triumph. And let’s not forget Shah’s voice. She makes a song about sitting watching Strictly Come Dancing on TV sound celestial.

The song heads up this week’s Breaking More Waves New Music Playlist (which you can find and follow by clicking here). Get ready for it to lift you up and as S Club 7 once suggested, reach for the stars.

Nadine Sha - Greatest Dancer

Nadine Shah · Greatest Dancer

Song of the Week - Wynona - Feeling For Edges

Today’s song of the week comes from Southampton based Natalie Woodward and Rich Willats, who jointly call themselves Wynona and describe their music as ‘Mum-Jean’ rock. I’m not quite sure what that is but I’m all for inventing genres so I’ll go with it.

However, a warning to all mums in jeans. The rules of pop Chapter 12 section 3.7 specifically state that jeans shouldn’t be worn over the age of 33 and a third (it’s all tied up with jeans being a revolutionary trouser and once you’re over that age, revolution stops). However, a further rule hidden away in section 7.2 of the same chapter clarifies that once you get over 45 the jean wearing can start again, because at that point you’re too old too care and you are probably wearing terribly cut elasticated waist Asda Value jeans anyway. So, a note to all, check your age and ditch those jeans if you’ve hit the marker. Note this rule also applies to dads. Although Dad-Jean rock is probably not a genre I would want to hear as I suspect it would contain a lot of landfill indie.

Enough of this pointless waffle though. (Warning if you’re new to Breaking More Waves, that’s what this blog does; pointless waffle – if you want serious music journalism try The Quietus or such like).

Let’s talk about the music.

Wynona’s song is called Feeling For Edges and clocks in at a short-lived 2 minutes and forty one seconds. It throws us back to the hazy, jangly, wistful days of bands like The Sundays in its construction. It’s all gentle guitars and pretty melodies that sing of being on the brink of finding yourself but being stuck there; “I’ve been sitting on fences for the longest time.”

Feeling For Edges is laid back alt-acoustic-pop at its loveliest, kissing the ears in all the right places. It might not be pushing any boundaries, but sometimes (despite the song being called Feeling For Edges) beauty can be found in the middle.

You’ll find this one on the Breaking More Waves New Music Weekly Playlist this week, which is updated every Friday (yes, that's today). Click here to listen to that and follow.

Wynona - Feeling For Edges

Wynona · Feeling For Edges

 

Song of the Week - Danielle Durack - Good Dog

 

It’s a new year, so here’s a new start.

No more just posting the occasional introducing-style post called NEW.

I’m going (partly) back to what I did before, with at least one post every seven days, with a favourite new release from the previous week.

Let’s title them Song of the Week shall we? Good huh? It took me a long time to think of that. Honest. 

I’ll keep doing the occasional introducing post as well.

To tie things up neatly the Song of the Week will always be a tune that features on the Breaking More Waves New Music Weekly playlist (another originally titled thing I do – which you can follow on Spotify). So if you have already listened to this week's edition, you'll have heard this one and know how gorgeous it is.

So here we go. Song of the Week #1 is Good Dog by Nashville’s Danielle Durack. For fans of the sort of sad girl acoustic folk-pop that the likes of Phoebe Bridgers writes, Good Dog seems to be a song about a dog waiting for and missing its owner: “I’ve been waiting by the window in the dark, keeping quiet, sat listening for your car.” However, as the song continues it seems that Danielle is projecting some of her own insecurities into the song as well. It's not just a cute song about her canine pal.

Tender, bruised and beautiful, the one thing you probably wouldn’t expect an introspective song like Good Dog to have is a rather comical (but kind of sad) video featuring a lonely hot dog sausage. But that's exactly what it has.  Trigger warning for sausage lovers – the ending is brutal. You'll either laugh or cry. Possibly both.

Danielle releases the follow up to her album No Place in February 2024 and it’s called The Escape Artist. You can order it through Bandcamp now by clicking here. She also has a number of US shows in February and March. Alas at the moment for those of us in the UK there’s no sign of dates here, but let’s keep everything crossed for something in the future.

Danielle Durack - Good Dog

Albums of the Year 2023

 It’s the final day of 2023 which means it’s time to post a list of my favourite albums from this year.

There’s no big commentary here, it’s just a simple list, because I figure at this stage you’re probably bored of big long commentaries justifying why album X deserves it’s place at number 89 on a list of ‘THE DEFINITIVE 100 BEST ALBUMS OF 2023’ list.

It’s also a list of just 10 records, because frankly does anyone really care what my 89^th favourite is? You probably don’t even care what my top 10 consists of, so going further than that is maybe just too much. If you really do want more though, you can find my Top 30 over on Spotify by clicking here. 

So here you are. The Breaking More Waves favourite albums of 2023. Compare them with your own. If we have a few similar and there are some on this list that you haven’t heard of, it might be worth giving them your time.

The fact that Spotify Wrapped tells me I’m the type of person that listens to an album from start to finish means that there's a big bunch of people out there that don't. More than ever we live in an age where not only people’s temperaments seem to get ever shorter but so do attention spans. This is bad news for albums, particularly for artists producing long, sprawling, often challenging listens. Who wants to sit through over an hour and 15 minutes of Lana Del Rey’s lengthy flawed beauty that is Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd when other internet sources can give you a 30 second blast of everything you think you need? The Tiktokification of music is killing patience. But greater long term reward requires that patience. So yes, I will sit through Lana’s new record from start to finish with no interruption multiple times. 

Therefore, if nothing else you can rest assured that the 10 records on this list are ones that have truly made a lasting impression on me in 2023. It was quite a battle between Caroline and Lana for number 1, but Caroline just shaved it – maybe the flawed beauty of Lana’s record just had slightly too many flaws?

Favourite Albums of 2023

1. Caroline Polachek – Desire, I Want To Turn Into You

2. Lana Del Rey – Did you know there’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard

3. Moyka – Movies, Cars & Heartbreak

4. Young Fathers – Heavy Heavy

5. boygenius – the record

6. Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan – The Nation’s Most Central Location

7. Fever Ray – Radical Romantics

8. Laura Groves – Radio Red

9. Glume – Main Character

10. Lanterns On The Lake - Versions Of Us

Caroline Polachek - Smoke from Desire, I Want To Turn Into You

1.

Caroline Polachek · Smoke