August is done, and that can only mean one thing: it’s time for another edition of Noteworthy Nods – our monthly round-up of the 20 singles currently refusing to leave our stereo alone.
As ever, expect a heady mix of urgent new discoveries, reader recommendations and fresh anthems from the favourites we keep coming back to. Got a track we’ve missed? Don’t keep them to yourselves – send your recommendations and submissions HERE.
So, to get the musical juices flowing, here are just a few examples of this month’s standout cuts:
Leading the charge, Dublin’s Basht. turn the endless churn of the news cycle into a breathless post-punk rush on “Terror TV.” Guitars flash as alliances shift, narratives mutate, and the news cycle becomes one long, numbing transmission. A ferocious taste of their forthcoming debut.
Next up, Lacross Club return after a year away with “Everyone Knew,” a scuffed-up, ear-ringing blast about the dead-eyed machinery of office life. Corporate greed, soul-sapping routine, and the nagging suspicion that we’ve somehow agreed this is normal collide in a restless squall of serrated guitars and pounding drums. In short, a satisfyingly abrasive first taste of their forthcoming EP.
Keeping the momentum going, Bloc Party make the bewilderment of falling hard for someone sound almost weightless on “Pigwig,” a buoyant, guitar-led rush from their forthcoming Anatomy of a Brief Romance. Kele Okereke’s conversational delivery lends the song an appealing intimacy, while its gloriously sticky chorus does the rest. Named after a private pet name borrowed from a Beatrix Potter character, “Pigwig” finds the singer turning a very particular romantic memory into something disarmingly universal: the moment when love catches you completely off guard.
This month also saw Australian outfit The Buoys share “Alone In Vegas,” the latest taste of their forthcoming Concrete Cowboy, due October 23. Described by the band as a quasi-sequel to Desert Hearts (1985), which leaves the fate of its two leads, Cay and Vivian, hanging in the balance, the song imagines what might have happened next. In doing so, The Buoys reveal a softer, more vulnerable side, trading some of their usual punch for something warmer and more wistful.
Elsewhere, Glasgow punks Gallus shared new single ‘MK Des (Miss Out)’ ahead of the release of their forthcoming sophomore album Life Is Bliss, due for release on 25 September via Marshall Records. A reflective meditation on change, memory and watching familiar places disappear, the song takes its title from a man the band met while recording their debut in Milton Keynes, whose stories of missed opportunities stayed with them. Years later, they found themselves feeling much the same way.
And these tracks are just scratching the surface of the full playlist we’ve put together this month, jumping from quiet introspection to full-throttle adrenaline. We’re confident our August favourites will give you more than enough new sounds to keep you going until we return at the end of September.
Turn It Up.
Twenty tracks. New discoveries, old favourites and everything in between. Hit play and savour this month’s Noteworthy Nods.
Alongside our weekly track picks, Noteworthy Nods also brings you regular videocast interviews with the artists we’re genuinely excited about. You can catch every episode on the playlist HERE, featuring everyone from The Enemy and Kula Shaker to Stanleys, Bilk, The Subways, Lottery Winners, The Slow Readers Club, and Shed Seven, alongside a deep archive of essential voices.
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