Down with boring.
T H E BI G M O O N ! B LO S SO M S! SO C C E R M O M M Y ! M U RA MAS A! GEORGI A! HA RRY ST YL ES! LOADS MOR E!
are ‘back’ with a f**king awesome new album, eh?
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BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB Everything else has gone wrong! At least
Issue 40 February 2020 readdork.com
VICTORIA PARK LONDON E3
TAME IMPALA CARIBOU
GLASS ANIMALS WHITNEY
ROLLING BLACKOUTS C.F. KELLY LEE OWENS
HOLY F + MANY MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED
INDEX
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February 2020 | readdork.com | Down With Boring
26
Ø4 2Ø
Intro Hype
ED’S LETTER BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB
They’ve been away, but they’re back! Back!! Back!!! with their best album yet.
36
After a barnstorming debut album - and a Mercury nod to boot - The Big Moon are reborn, and better than ever.
32
SOCCER MOMMY
With her palette in place, Sophie Allison has a theory all of her very own.
S tephen
Ø7
Features Incoming
HMLTD
GEORGIA
Not content with delivering some of 2019’s biggest bangers, Georgia has a whole album of them for 2020.
12
MURA MASA
With a cast of notable mates in tow, Alex Crossan is in the form of his life.
16
Allie X
5 Lily Moore
22
Best Coast
49 Liz Lawrence
31
Billie Marten
31 Lucy Rose
31
Blossoms
With a debut album finally locked and loaded, HMLTD are ready to stand on their own terms.
1Ø
** BAND INDEX ** BAND INDEX **
GENGAHR
With Bombay Bicycle Club’s Jack Steadman in the chair, Gengahr are free to be themselves.
Bloxx
DRUG STORE ROMEOS
Freshly signed to Fiction Records, three piece Drug Store Romeos are ready for dream pop romance.
42
BLOSSOMS
More than just another indie band, with their new album, Blossoms are ready to prove they’re much, much more.
‘EDITOR’ @STEPHENACKROYD
15
22 MUNA
15
Mura Masa Bombay Bicycle Club 26, 46 Nasty Cherry
12, 49 22
Brian Fallon
11 No Rome
18
Brockhampton
5 NOISY
21
Caribou
12 Poliça
46
Claud
24 Rae Morris
31
Dan Deacon
47 Rosaliá
Drug Store Romeos
20
Dua Lipa
18
Dune Rats
47
Ed O’Brien
12
Far Caspian
22
Fletcher
22
Frances Quinlan
49
Gengahr
16, 49
Georgia
10, 47
Girl In Red
2Ø
42, 48 Marika Hackman
6
14
Sam Fender
18
Sea Girls
49
Sharon Van Etten
31
Silverbacks
21
Sløtface
46
Soccer Mommy
32
Squirrel Flower
47
Stormzy
18
Supergrass
5, 48
Tate McRae
21
Taylor Swift
11
Grimes
18 The 1975
11
Haim
17 The Amazons
5
Harry Styles Hayden Thorpe HMLTD
4 The Big Moon 36, 49 12 The Killers
18
7 The Wants
25
Holy Fuck
46 Twenty One Pilots
15
La Roux
47 Twin Atlantic
47
Lauran Hibberd
22 Tyler The Creator
12
Lewis Capaldi
15 Vukovi
47
Liam Gallagher
18 Wargasm
21
ON THE DORK STEREO THIS MONTH... HARRY STYLES
TAME IMPALA
FINE LINE
The Slow Rush
Look, Dearest Reader. We have to admit, we weren’t quite as cockand-indeed-ahoop about our Hazza’s debut album as some, but the follow up. Yes, Mr Styles, you can stay. ‘Adore You’ is O�icially Ace.
Kev’s back with a brand new album ahead of a headline appearance at All Points East this summer. Expect vibes.
LAUV
Changes Taken from the
former Dork cover star’s debut album - due ‘imminently’ ‘Changes’ is a birrova low key emosh-o-bop. Yes. That is a thing. Shut up.
understand we’re sort of enamoured with Sophie Allison’s second full-length. It’s a corker!
BEABADOOBEE
SOCCER MOMMY
Don’t You (Forget About Me)
If you read the feature from this month’s issue, you’ll
The best cover version of 2019. No question. No arguments allowed.
Color Theory
READDORK.COM
3
THE BIG MOON
You’re not daft, Dear Reader. You’ll have noticed already. Not content with having two covers on our last issue, we’ve decided to do it again - and what a lovely pair we’ve got, too. We’ve long been champions of The Big Moon - they even graced the front of one of our very first issues back in 2016 - but we’re sure of one thing. Their new album, ‘Walking Like We Do’ is glorious. That we can match them up with returning heroes like Bombay Bicycle Club is even better. Returning after a spell away, their comeback record ‘Everything Else Has Gone Wrong’ is a remarkable piece of work - quite possibly their best to date. Both bands will be teaming up for a UK tour around the time you read this - you really should make sure you’re there. That’s not all we’ve got in the way of exceptionally good news this month, though. With everything from the magnificent Soccer Mommy to the poptastic Georgia, via indie legends Blossoms and more, 2020 is off to a great start.
26 46
EVERYTHING ELSE HAS GONE WRONG... FEBRUARY 2020
DORK
Having marked the end of their five-year hiatus with an anniversary trip down memory lane, Bombay Bicycle Club are learning to look forwards. Reintroducing Jack, Jamie, Ed and Suren - determined seekers of positivity in a world of doom. Words: Jenessa Williams. Photos. Sarah Louise Bennett.
READDORK.COM
32
COLOR THEORY Let’s not get all transatlantic about the spelling on
Soccer Mommy’s new album - as she steps up a gear, the follow up to 2018’s ‘Clean’ has its own unique palette. Words: Jenessa Williams. Photos. Sarah Louise Bennett.
FEBRUARY 2020
DORK
33 READDORK.COM
36
MOON
It’s been a long time coming, but PC Music’s shiniest gem has a debut album on the books. Watch out, Planet Pop! Words: Jenessa Williams. Photos. Sarah Louise Bennett.
FEBRUARY 2020
DORK
NLIGHT 37
After a barnstorming debut album - and a Mercury nomination to boot - The Big Moon are back for a second round. They’re better than ever before. Words: Ali Shutler. Photos. Sarah Louise Bennett.
READDORK.COM
It would be easy to see Blossoms as just another indie band, but that would be selling them short. Never pausing for breath, new album ‘Foolish Loving Spaces’ is a revelation. Words: Jamie Muir.
43 READDORK.COM
INCOMING THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE LATEST NEW RELEASES
Bombay Bicycle Club
ee
Sløtface
46
Deleter
FEBRUARY 2020
DORK
surprising record that could just be their best yet. From the warmth of ‘Is It Real’, to the darker guitar riffs and rapid-fire monotone vocals of the title track, there is an urgency and insistence to the album that all-too-few band revivals manage. The results are intoxicating. The perfect summation of Bombay’s own musical journey, the record manages the neat trick of settling happily with one foot in the ‘Flaws’ era without ever losing sight of their bigger guitar moments. And throughout, gorgeous moments reside everywhere. Whether on the poignant ‘Good Day’, or the more
triumphant ‘I Can Hardly Speak’, it is not strictly true to say that it sounds like they have never been away. Instead, it is more that absence has made their sound grow stronger. ‘Eat, Sleep, Wake’ shimmers beautifully, while ‘People People’ basks in the glow of some meaty riffs. With a more contemplative thread running through, there is a sense of a band growing up alongside their own music rather than trying to stay forever young. Wherever you find yourself, this is a record that indeed proves that after all, not quite everything has gone wrong. Jamie
MacMillan
eeee
Holy Fuck
eeeee
RETURNING DURING SOME results are a lush, ever-
When We Stay Alive Policia’s third album ‘When We Stay Alive’ is a record imbued with all the intensity and emotional reflection a life changing event can provoke. In early 2018 singer and creative focal Channy Leaneagh suffered an almost fatal fall that left her immobile for months. The subsequent album that emerges after that dark period of uncertainty and pain is one of healing and hope. It’s a lucid and perfectly measured collection of pristine synth pop with just the right amount of discordant edge like on the pulsating opener ‘Driving’, while Leaneagh’s vocals sound strong throughout highlighting someone determined to make up for lost time. There’s a deep meditative quality to the music here like on the glorious yearning ballad ‘Forget Me Now’ and the final three song quiet storm that closes the record. Fully recovered and focused on her art, this is the sound of Policia reasserting themselves as masters of the synth pop craft. Martyn Young
Everything Else Has Gone Wrong
of this generation’s darkest times both socially and politically, Bombay Bicycle Club’s message couldn’t be clearer. The world might be going to shit (if it hasn’t got there already), but solace and hope can always be found somewhere. And with perfect timing this, the fifth album from indie pop’s favourite indie popsters, is just the comfort blanket that’s required. With various solo projects emerging to mixed success over the last few years, the fears were that 2014’s ‘So Long, See You Tomorrow’ marked the final moments for the band. But tomorrow has finally come, and the
Poliça
There’s always been something scrappy about Holy Fuck. Often opting not to rehearse and sometimes quite literally throwing things together, their past four albums have been a hodgepodge of dance music chaos. With their fifth album, ‘Deleter’, It feels like this affably scrappy approach has finely worn out its welcome a little. Things do get off to a great start. Opener ‘Luxe’ rumbles and groans like two plates of metal grinding against each other. Coupled with the almost folksy vocals of Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, it creates an interesting juxtaposition that makes ‘Luxe’ feel like some forgotten house classic that’s warped with the years. But after the opening salvo, Holy Fuck slips into a predictable pattern. That isn’t to say it’s a bad record, because what Holy Fuck do, they do with such an enviable precision and passion. But ‘Deleter’ doesn’t really bring anything we haven’t heard already. While no one else is doing it quite like Holy Fuck, it almost feels like this lack of competition has brought a lack of innovation. Chris Taylor
Sorry For The Late Reply
eeee
’Sorry for the Late Reply’ documents Norway punks Sløtface’s past few years, much of it spent touring the world in support of their acclaimed debut ‘Try Not To Freak Out’. ‘Telepathetic’ is sugary sweet grunge-pop, with striking nods to Veruca Salt and other 90s bands whose sole purpose is to soundtrack a high-school rom-com. There are shocks of immigrant power punk too, such as the album’s opener ‘S.U.C.C.E.S.S’ and later on ‘Passport’, which are nothing short of triumphant. Haley Shea has an incredible ability to pen heartbreakingly honest and relatable poetry, the most notable being ‘Stuff ’, a quintessential heartbreak anthem with an irritatingly beautiful back and forth whining riff, capturing the mood of the aftermath of a breakup perfectly. From the personal to the political, Sløtface second full-length is a relevant, relatable and rebellious effort of amped up and fucked up punky guitar pop. Jasleen Dhindsa
Twin Atlantic Power
eee
Dune Rats
Hurry Up And Wait
eee
Georgia Seeking Thrills
eeeee While Georgia’s 2015 debut was an experimental exercise in pop, pulling inspirations from every corner and resulting in a glitchy, industrial, electro, talk-singy record (whew), ‘Seeking Thrills’ takes that and injects it with a major dose of fun. Undoubtedly, this album’s brightest spark is ‘About Work The Dancefloor’. With its looping synths, twinkly keyboards and absolute nonsense hook, it’s so infectious, and as joyous as a Carly Jeppo sadbanger. That MIA attitude and delivery from Georgia’s debut is still there on ‘Mellow’ and ‘Ray Guns’, but this time with a shiny PC Music spin. ‘Mellow’, also featuring a verse from Shygirl, is particularly groovy. A little tenderness creeps in on ‘Til I Own It’, a chugging ballad that should certify Georgia a proper pop star. If you weren’t already convinced of Georgia’s versatility, ‘Seeking Thrills’ probably won’t convince you of it either, but only because this record goes way more full ‘cool indie pop’ than eclectic and experimental. She’s still lightyears ahead, just having a lot more fun. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a solid groovy dance record that’s euphoric and melancholic, ‘Seeking Thrills’ is it. Abigail Firth
Vukovi
Fall Better
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Back ck with more hyper rock, and a sharp, sugar-laced tongue, Scottish pop-punkers Vukovi are fighting fit and ready for round two with ‘Fall Better’. Ambition hurtling in the form of instrumental/sample tracks that set a dystopian scene ready to be demolished, their evolution is clear. Digging deep to stand up for the disenfranchised, Vukovi’s neon-coloured bite is fiercer than ever, but there’s something smothering the explosive nature sonically; instead of a visceral feeling that consumes you, it seems compressed, holding their wild-eyed nature back. Thankfully, there’s heart which outweighs anything else. Steven Loftin
Dan Deacon Mystic Familiar
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From its very first moment, ‘Mystic Familiar’ envelops you in its world. It feels like a truly complete Dan Deacon album. His previous ones, even the more conceptual ‘America’, were more disparate. Here, with a thematic through-line of ageing and coping with seismic changes, this maximalist creation is brought into focus. Deacon has always been a playful musician, someone utterly bored with the ordinary. There’s always been this feeling that, if he’s not making someone dance, smile, laugh or find their own world in his music, then he’s failed. ‘Mystic Familiar’ succeeds in doing all of those things, and it feels like a wonderful new evolution for a restless artist. Chris Taylor
Squirrel Flower
I Was Born Swimming
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The first time you listen to ‘I Was Born Swimming’, you might wonder: Did Marika Hackman get a new stage name? This is the effect newcomer Squirrel Flower has on her listeners. Blanketed within the gentle melodies and solemn vocals, lyrics like ‘Slapback’’s “If you slap me/I’ll slap you right back,” and ‘Belly Of The City’’s “I know the darkness just as much as you do” audiably shudder. ‘Eight Hours’, sloshes with warm, bluesy currents, and tender,
fireplace instrumentals coo out of ‘Seasonal Affective Disorder’. With a name like ‘I Was Born Swimming’, it’s hard to ever leave want to the water when it ripples as gorgeously as this record does. Hailey Johnson
La Roux
Supervision
ee
Five years can be an eternity in the pop world, but not an insurmountable time away if you’re someone with as weighty a reputation as La Roux. After all, Elly Jackson has been here before with a similar time lapse
between her self-titled debut and the eventual follow-up, ‘Trouble In Paradise’. Sadly, lightning hasn’t struck for a third time. Leaning once more heavily into her love of MJ and Prince, Elly’s distinctive falsetto ushers in the opening track ‘21st Century’. The problem though, as with comeback single ‘International Woman Of Leisure’, is that it forgets to bring a memorable chorus with it. If ever a record could be damned with faint praise, it’s this one. Everything’s fine, nothing’s especially bad. It all just feels a bit ‘meh’. Disappointingly safe, it may be just enough to get her back in the game for now but not one to keep her in it for long Jamie MacMillan READDORK.COM
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It’s been eight years since Dune Rats’ first burst out of whichever party they were presumably born at and showed their music to the wider world. A lot’s happened in that time, but third album ‘Hurry Up and Wait’ firmly proves that the band are just as irreverent and hard-partying as ever. Highlights include ‘Stupid Is As Stupid Does’, featuring K Flay, a track about a relationship gone wrong with an infectious singalong chorus about fucking everything up, and ‘No Plans’, an ode to the frustrations of being in a band. If there’s one addition to the music this time around, it’s a vein of cynicism and a slow realisation that maybe the party does have to stop at some point. Early track’ Rubber Arm’ is a reflection on wasting your life, while ‘Rock Bottom’ does exactly what it says on the tin, with lyrics about your boss being half your age and waiting for a bus when you’re already late. It’s still presented in the same scuzzy Aussie punk style, with surf guitars and catchy hooks, but strip it back to the lyrics, and it all gets a bit... bleak. ‘Hurry Up and Wait’ is still as much fun as throwing a house party on your birthday, but there’s a lingering sense that you’ve ruined your mum’s furniture and the hangover might not be worth the drunken high. The sunglasses are still on, but they’re only there to cover up how very, very tired everyone is. Jake Hawkes
‘POWER’ is a stark move away from Twinny’s earlier work. Drawing from their love of the likes of Depeche Mode, it’s a surprisingly interesting record. ‘Oh! Euphoria!’ is a statement of electronic intent with some seriously sexy synths, single ‘Novocaine’ is an absolute rager, and ‘I Feel It Too’ is slick and catchy, with its guitars working in perfect harmony with some arpeggio synths to great effect. However, while it is a solid album, some songs feel a bit meh such as the two interludes that don’t really serve much purpose other than for Sam and the boys to flex their synthy muscles. Overall, it’s enjoyable, but a little patchy in places. Josh Williams
Down with boring.
Issue 40 February 2020 readdork.com
THE BIG MOON
Back! Back!! Back!!!
are going interstellar with album two.
+
BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB! BLOSSOMS! SOCCER MOMMY! MURA MASA! GEORGIA! MORE!