Best Of: January 2021
Well fuck me dead, the first month of 2021 is done and dusted.
If you follow me you’d of seen that I’m still figuring out how I’ll approach Laundry Echo in 2021. Sorry for the slow start. Life outside of Laundry Echo is going great. I’ve deleted all the social media off my phone. My herb garden is established to the point it looks like the kind you’d see outside of an organic café with a 4.7 star rating from over 200 reviews on Google. I ran 5km the other day. My mixed netball team is top of the table. So that’s all good.
Other things that are good are these incredible new music releases from the first month of 2021.
Carla Geneve - Dog Eared
Every now and then a song comes along that at every turn makes you think “this song could not possibly get any better”, then it continues to get unbelievably better and better. Dog Eared, the third single off Carla Geneve’s upcoming debut album Learn To Love It, is one of those songs.
Never failing to find a further gear, Dog Eared is truly phenomenal. From opening line to explosive chorus, to the scream self referential of the first line, to the defeated “ugh” in closing. I struggle to think of a song that has rocked me so hard on its first listen. Or its fifth. Or its thirtieth.
With each single off Learn To Love It, Carla Geneve has shown a depth to her songwriting, construction and presence entirely unrivalled. Three songs in and we’re in Album of the Year territory already.
Subsonic Eye - Nature of Things
I really can’t emphasise enough how entirely absorbed I have been in Nature of Things, the third studio album from Singapore based outfit Subsonic Eye.
It’s a beautifully aware and entirely natural slice of life, packaged up and served as swirling mix of indie pop sensibility and noise rock drive. There are moments of intimacy in Nature of Things that explore feelings from just wanting to be tucked tightly into bed, the death of a beloved cat, and the nauseating nature of repetition in life.
Musically moving between delicate, explosive and experimental, Nature of Things is one of 2021’s first great albums.
Cheekface - Emphatically No.
I lost track of the times I said “Fuck, that’s a great lyric.” whilst listening to Los Angeles trio Cheekface’s second album Emphatically No. for the first time. Since that first listen, and now deep into my twentieth, I’ve realised every lyric on Emphatically No. deserves the label of being a god damn great lyric.
A remarkably considered, pointed and perfectly constructed album that somehow sounds slack and approachable. Like a stream of consciousness recorded throughout the course of 2020, chopped up and rearranged to summate the feelings of a year that ultimately fucking sucked. The final product being something that contrasts the year it was created in with a blinding brilliance.
Bring crying back, touch all the dogs and don’t get hit by a car. Take these lyrics and make them your mantra for 2021.
The Clockworks - Enough Is Never Enough
By pure chance I got served a sponsored ad on Instagram from a Byron Bay based radio station, using the film clip for Galway punk band The Clockworks latest single Enough Is Never Enough as it’s featured content. That’s a convoluted sentence, it’s a convoluted way to find new music and I’m certain there is a breach of copyright in the actuality of it; but who needs a publicist right?
Opening on the brilliant one two punch lyric of “It was a Tuesday, and it was… bleak”, Enough Is Never Enough will instantly grab your attention. Rousing and riling, this is punk cut to it’s purest of purposes. Taking the exhaustion of the everyday struggle and turning it into a rallying cry. Pushing a finger into the chest of contemporary culture and asking questions of racism, inequality and poverty.
Sure it came out in November, but listen to Enough Is Never Enough now.
The Burley Griffin - Hong Kong
I’ve been fortunate to be friends with some brilliantly talented and truly beautiful people over the years. Few standout quite like Evan Buckley of The Burley Griffin. Genuine and truly good, Evan is a firework display that I want to grow old watching light up the skies.
Latest single Hong Kong is a song I’ve heard live countless times over the years in living rooms, bedrooms, and on stage. Yet recorded and fully realised it still strikes with a surprise and subtly that sets the hairs down the back of my neck to a state of salute.
A beautiful folk song that swells and drives forward towards a brilliant crescendo. Hong Kong tells a story of stoned nights in cities far from home, relationship breakdown and falling apart. This is narrative driven songwriting at its finest.
I’m so very proud of you Evan, this is beautiful my friend.
King Stingray - Get Me Out
Mark down Yolŋu surf-rock as your new favourite genre of music. King Stingray of Yirrkala in North-East Arnhem Land are two songs into their career. Yet, with influences both ancient and modern, they’re forging their own path with the confidence of a band with decades more experience behind them.
Get Me Out cruises through a story of leaving the city, heading bush and making it home again. Inspired by a true story of a family member getting lost in Melbourne and polished on the road; watching the sun set and realising that as long as we are under the one sun, we are never truly far from home.
It’s a beautiful song that blends spacious guitars, with a rousing native tongue, driving didgeridoo, stomping drums and some shredding for good measure. Get Me Out is incredible.
