Camera Obscura return with their fifth studio album ‘Desire Lines’, released on 4AD. The songs on ‘Desire Lines’ are bright, bold and full of space and joy. ‘Troublemaker’ tells us it was going to be one hell of a year, ‘New Year’s Resolution’ talks about admitting things and kissing like you mean it whilst ‘Cri Du Coeur’ takes us on a journey, daydreaming about the past.
Disclosure have topped the UK album charts with their debut album ‘Settle’ released 3rd June through PMR/Universal Island. The album follows a string of successful singles including ‘Latch’ ft. Sam smith, ‘White Noise’ feat. AlunaGeorge, which entered the UK singles chart at No. 2, and most recent single ‘You & Me’ feat. Eliza Dolittle.
Crystal Fighters release their highly anticipated second album ‘Cave Rave’ today. To write the album, the band retreated to the Basque hills that they consider to be their spiritual home, and wrote ‘Cave Rave’ in its entirety during this two-month spell. The album is rich in musical influences - from Hispanic and African dance to Mexican electronic music 3bal alongside folk and psychedelia.
Several Universal Music Publishing songwriters feature in Music Weeks' top 20 Q1 2013 UK Hit Songwriters list - with Bastille’s songwriter Dan Smith making the top spot, with the help of singles ‘Pompeii’ and ‘Flaws’.
Gabrielle Aplin's debut album 'English Rain', released on 13th May through Parlophone Records, has entered the Uk album charts at No. 2. The album was recorded with Mike Spencer (Rudimental, Alex Clare) in his Buckingham studio over a period of 6 months. Gabrielle wrote or co-wrote all the new songs on the album, and played the majority of the instruments herself.
Marques Toliver releases his debut album ‘Land Of CanAan’ today. The album follows his critically acclaimed ‘Butterflies Are Not Free’ EP, for which the New York Times praised him for his "considerable talent," and which led Line of Best Fit to note, “there’s an overwhelming sentiment that this boy is going to be a very important feature of music to come over the next few years."
With a life that spanned more than 100 years and a catalogue that boasted over 1000 songs, Irving Berlin epitomised Jerome Kern's famous maxim that "Irving Berlin has no place in American music - he is American music." Irving Berlin would have been 125 years old on May 11 2013, and to commemorate this anniversary we’ve pulled together a selection of his classic songs.
Dot Rotten’s debut album ‘Voices In My Head’ is set for released today on Virgin EMI, containing the singles ‘Karmageddon’, ‘Are You Not Entertained’, ‘Keep It On A Low’ and ‘Free’. ‘Voices In My Head’ is full of epic melodies and beautiful production, wrapped around Dot’s ever-questioning lyrics on the human condition and the meaning of life – it’s a record of both ambition and intent.
Two years on from the release of his Mercury nominated debut album ‘Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam’, Ghostpoet releases his second studio album ‘Some Say I So I Say Light’.
Moving in a more experimental direction, the album pits industrial beats against sonorous piano lines - topped by Ghostpoet’s hypnotising voice sounding “like a man old before his time”. Ghostpoet is the master of creating poetry from mundane situations – from the disarmingly honest ‘Meltdown’ about a relationship where the couples simply drift apart, to ruminations on dim sum and noodles on ‘MSI musmiD’.
Noah and the Whale release their fourth studio album today, ‘Heart of Nowhere’. The album opens with an instrumental, string-led burst of sound, before the brazen pop of the title track kicks in, featuring vocals from Anna Calvi. ‘Lifetime’ is full of a yearning for the past, inspired by the feeling of seeing your friends get married, whilst ‘There Will Come a Time’ explores another of the album’s major themes – friendship.