DOWN WITH BORING
ISSUE 44 JUNE 2020 READDORK.COM
MUSIC FOR CARS
The 1975
Notes On A Conditional Form
DH00753
22 May 2020
DIRT Y HI T
INDEX
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June 2020 | readdork.com | Down With Boring
2Ø
Ø4 Intro 2Ø Features 16 Hype 46 Incoming
** BAND INDEX ** BAND INDEX **
Alfie Templeman 50 KennyHoopla
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ED’S LETTER
THE 1975
At one point, ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ was set to be The 1975’s final statement. Now, it’s possibly the start of something new.
34
After dropping the first cut from their new album, the world changed around The Aces and turned it into something far, far bigger.
4Ø
RINA SAWAYAMA
Responsible for one of the albums of the year so far, Rina is fast becoming a pop powerhouse.
Arlo Parks
A story of one man and his best mate - a drum machine.
Ø8
Best Ex Blossoms Bombay Bicycle Club
BTS
ALMA
KELLY LEE OWENS
Charli XCX
46 7
Christopher Cross
31
Crack Cloud
19
Creeper
38
Dead Pony
More than just a TikTok sensation.
38
Drug Store Romeos
10
Powfu
16
FKA Twigs Fontaines DC Georgia
15 Sports Team
ORLANDO WEEKS
19 15 48 15 9
7, 15, 20
31 The Academic 15, 19
15, 47
Hinds
13 19
Soccer Mommy
31 Soko 15 Sorry
Hayley Williams
11, 48
Sinead O’Brien 11
47
The Aces
34, 48
The Big Moon
The Howl 46 & The Hum
IDER
A first-time father dropping a solo debut, ex-Maccabee Orlando Weeks is in fine form.
‘EDITOR’ @STEPHENACKROYD
31
Pizzagirl
47 Silverbacks
Honey Lung
S tephen
44, 47
11 Run The Jewels
Greta Thunberg
CREEPER
17
Phoebe Bridgers
Glass Animals 13, 15 The 1975
Back from the dead, Creeper are better than ever before.
44
15, 47
Olivia Dean
19 Rolling Blackouts CF
Everything Everything
POWFU
11 18
Rina 31 Sawayama 15, 40, 47
Empress Of
16
19
Orlando 15, 49 Weeks
Cutty Ranks
Plans on lockdown, Kelly Lee Owens is at peace with what comes next.
14
15 Moses Sumney
Brad Stank
It’s taken a while to get there, but Alma’s debut album has finally arrived.
12
19 Larry Pink The Human 15 LAV 46 Matt Bellamy 11 Mealtime
Aluna
LA PRIEST
6, 47
7 The Temptations
15 48 31
Jack Garratt
46 Tim Healy
31
Jade Hairpins
46 Vistas
48
Jehnny Beth
46 Walt Disco
15
Katie Malco
47 Weird Milk
13
Kelly Lee Owens
12 Westerman
48
ON THE DORK STEREO THIS MONTH... SPORTS TEAM
Deep Down Happy Finally coming out after a Covid-related delay, Sports Team’s debut is basically the perfect antidote to all this crushingly serious, world changing stuff we’re surrounded with. A concentrated dose of anti-Boring.
PHOEBE BRIDGERS
Use Me
She’s got a meaty role on The 1975’s new album, but that’s simply a preview to what our Pheebs has coming next. Her second full-length is both highly anticipated and - obviously - really really bloody good.
Bangers. Bangers. Bangers. Bangers. Bangers. Bangers. Bangers. Bangers. Bangers. Bangers. Bangers. Bangers. Bangers. Bangers. Bangers. Bangers. Bangers. Bangers. Bangers. BANGERS.
Punisher
PVRIS
CREEPER
THE 1975
Sex, Death & The Infinite Void
Notes On A Conditional Form
They went away at the end of their first album - seemingly sacrificing themselves to the big rock gods in the sky. Reinvented on their return, this is Creeper more ridiculously good than ever before.
We listened to this album solidly for six weeks before writing a single word. Six weeks! So if you want to come at us, Barry, after one spin at midnight on New Music Friday, you can fuck off. Got it? Lovely.
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THE ACES
Well, it’s here. Delayed, then delayed a bit more, then held back a touch longer, then just a little extra wait to add a few bits - ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ has been a long time coming, but - spoiler alert - it’s been worth it all. Like everything The 1975 do, there’s no doubt their fourth album will be divisive. We feel it’s a record that needs time and consideration to truly appreciate. Firmly not the band of their first two albums, instead it’s sprawling, inventive and following its own creative spirit. It shifts in movements, little narratives or stories, sonic threads or recurring vibes scattered throughout. It’s more ambitious than even ‘A Brief Inquiry...’ before it, but on a far smaller, more personal scale. Warm, honest and often painfully sincere, it’s also not the record indicated by its two most impacting public moments to date. ‘People’ is the bombast that comes before the album starts proper, while ‘If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)’ is the echo of what the band were before. Around it sits something new, but also something without peer. Like Radiohead stepped up with ‘Kid A’ and ‘Amnesiac’, so Music For Cars has seen The 1975 pull apart from the pack. What comes next, we don’t know - but over 14 pages dedicated to one of the most important bands of their generation, one thing will become obvious. They’re not done yet.
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8 LA Priest
ALMA
INTRO
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THE BEATING HEART OF POP.
3 DAYS. MORE THAN 200 ACTS. OVER 210,000 VIEWERS. IT’S A HOME RUN! (THAT’S MORE THAN GO TO GLASTONBURY!)
Our online music festival in aid of the NHS Charities Together Covid-19 Urgent Appeal HOMESCHOOL went quite well, actually.
JUNE 2020
DORK
5 WELL, THAT WAS SOMETHING, WASN’T IT DEAR READER? In case you’ve been stuck under a rock for the past few weeks, you probably noticed our online music festival, Homeschool, took place across the early May bank holiday weekend. Announced in our last issue, and in aid of the NHS Charities Together Covid-19 Urgent Appeal, nearly 250 artists provided various sets, shows and contributions across three days and six virtual stages - and over 210,000 of you tuned in. That’s more people than were set to attend Glastonbury 2020! Not bad, people From big names like Circa Waves, The Amazons and Tom Grennan, through to indie legends such as We Are Scientists and Ash, Dork faves Indoor Pets, IDER, Will Joseph Cook, SWMRS, Gengahr and The Aces, and new upstarts L Devine, mxmtoon, Cavetown, Bloxx, Alfie Templeman, Another Sky and more, it was one hell of a weekend. Thanks to everyone who tuned in - and before you ask; no, we’ve not decided to do Homeschool 2. Yet. P
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M JUNE 2020
DORK
THE 1975
After a longer wait than originally advertised, ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ is finally here. 22 tracks that see THE 1975 in more ambitious, expansive form than ever before, we dialled in to a locked down Matty Healy to delve deep into the minds of the most important band of their generation. Turns out, he had some stuff to say too. Words: Ali Shutler. Portraits: Jordan Curtis Hughes. Live photography: Patrick Gunning, Sarah Louise Bennett.
THE 1975 HAVE NEVER STOPPED. Their self-titled debut came in 2013, followed by ‘I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it’ in 2016 and ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’ in 2018. All three records got to Number 1 in the UK, as well as earning them gongs at The BRITs and Ivor Novellos, plus two Mercury Prize noms. They’ve headlined London’s The O2 six times, Brixton Academy eight times and scored a bill-topping slot at last year’s Reading & Leeds. They’ve been hated, they’ve been adored and now, as they prepare to release ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ at a time where the world is in violent flux, The 1975 are one of the biggest, and most beloved, bands around. But it’s not getting any easier. When The 1975 first exploded onto the scene with the neon-lit romance of their debut, they were - to put it bluntly - despised. (“It’s still our
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weirdest album. Everyone talks about each album being so different, and they are, but it’s the first one that’s really different.”) What people didn’t get, though, was that their hyper poppy, deeply conceptual music was their way of being rebellious. “We thought making a pop record was really punk because we didn’t do that. We forgot that people didn’t know who ‘we’ were,” admits Matty. “It took a while to get that it was an authentic expression.” For those who did get it, The 1975 quickly became a band to believe in. To live by. Others wrote them off as insincere or annoying, hoping they’d quickly go to The Great Indie Dumper In The Sky. They had other ideas, though. ‘I like it when you sleep’ furthered the battle lines as they took the criticism and turned it into colourful armour. When they performed ‘The Sound’ at The BRITs in 2017, messages taken from the song’s video like “unconvincing emo
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ying On My Mind...
THE ACES dropped the first track from their new record, and then saw the world change around it to give it an altogether different twist. Fitting, given ‘Under My Influence’ sounds every bit like the album of right now.
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Words: Abigail Firth.
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THE ACES
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eaming READDORK.COM
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R JUNE 2020
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R a RINA SAWAYAMA
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RINA SAWAYAMA was always going to be a pop mastermind, but with her debut album out and already gaining the kind of critical acclaim that makes a career, she’s quickly becoming something far more than she ever imagined. Words: Ali Shutler.
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