Daydreamin: The Maccabees - "Unknown" (Given To The Wild, 2012)

Just while love remembers: Χάζευα πρόσφατα τα τελευταία live που έκαναν φέτος το Καλοκαίρι οι Maccabees με αφορμή τη διάλυση τους -την οποία εδώ και μήνες είχαν ανακοινώσει- και συνειδητοποίησα πόσο πολύ θα λείψουν από την Indie σκηνή οι αγαπημένοι Βρετανοί. Μας χάρισαν τέσσερις αξιοπρεπέστατους δίσκους, εξέλιξαν τον ήχο τους, μένοντας ταυτόχρονα πιστοί στο indie rock ιδίωμα, όπως το ζήσαμε κατά τη διάρκεια των 00s και μας χάρισαν αρκετά διαμαντάκια. Το "Unknown" είναι ένα πολύ υποτιμημένο κομμάτι τους και σίγουρα ένα από τα αγαπημένα μου. Μουσική που σε ταξιδεύει. Τόσο απλά και όμορφα.

The Band: The Maccabees (Brighton, UK)
Line Up: Orlando Weeks (vocals), Hugo White (guitar), Felix White (guitar, vocals), Sam Doyle (drums)

The Track: "Unknown"
The Album: Given To The Wild (2012)
The Sound: Indie Rock, Post-Punk Revival, Art Rock
And Says...

Just while love, just while love, just while love remembers
Just while love, just while love, just while love remembers
Unknow me as hard as it seems
Decide it and feel light on the breeze
And it’s alright, you can lean it, you can lean it... on me
And I know it’s all you can see and to shake it
To make it fall from the tree
And you’re called into the water
And it holds you like a tropical disease
And you lean into the weather and it drops you, drops you
Just while love remembers
I was given these lungs
And I won’t be ashamed no more
We were ripped from those arms
They no longer protect us

Unknow me pour me away
Just while love remembers
I was given these lungs
And I won’t be ashamed no more
We were ripped from those arms
They no longer protect us

Just while love, just while love remembers
Just while love, just while love remembers
Just while love, just while love remembers

Daydreamin: The XX - "Performance" (I See You, 2017)

If I scream at the top of my lungs, Will you hear what I don't say?:
Πανέμορφο τραγούδι από το φετινό δίσκο των ταλαντούχων Λονδρέζων, που μπορεί να μην κυκλοφόρησαν το album της χρονιάς, απέδειξαν ωστόσο για μία ακόμη φορά, πως αξίζουν της αναγνώρισης που απολαμβάνουν. Το "Performance" δε στηρίζεται στις ενορχηστρώσεις του, παρά μόνο στη σαγηνευτική φωνή  της Ronnie και τους υπέροχους στίχους του. Απλά και και διακριτικά βρίσκεται στα  ομορφότερα κομμάτια της χρονιάς.


The Band: The XX (London, UK)
Line Up: Romy Madley Croft (vocals, guitar), Oliver Sim (bass, vocals), Jamie Smith [Jamie xx] (drum machine, samples)
The Track: "Performance"
The Album: I See You (2017)
The Sound: Indie, Indie Pop, Indietronica
And Says...

If I scream at the top of my lungs
Will you hear what I don't say?
If I dance like I'm on a stage
Will you see I seem out of place?
If I put on a disguise
Will you think everything's alright?
If I leave before the end
Will you forget that I was there?

When you saw me leaving
Did you think I had a place to go?
Since you stopped believing
I've had to put on my own show

I'll put on a performance
I'll put on a show
It is a performance
I do it all so
You won't see me hurting
When my heart it breaks
I'll put on a performance
I'll put on a brave face

Even when I was hiding
You could always find me
Now you've stopped looking for me
But I'm still playing hide and seek
I want you to notice
But you just don't see
The show is wasted on you
So I perform for me

When you saw me leaving
Did you think I had a place to go?
Since you stopped believing
I've had to put on my own show

I'll put on a performance
I'll put on a show
It is a performance
I do it all so
You won't see me hurting
When my heart it breaks
I'll put on a performance
I'll put on a brave face

Don't Stop Groovin: The Last Shadow Puppets - "Used To Be My Girl" (Everything You 'Ve Come to Expect, 2016)

The odyssey, came down, kind of hard on me:
Χρειάζονται συστάσεις? Ο Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) & ο Miles Kane είναι ουσιαστικά ορόσημα σε αυτό που ονομάζουμε Βρετανικό Indie rock από τα 00s και μετά. Δημιούργησαν το 2007 το project group Last Shadow Puppets και με τη δισκάρα The Age Of Understatement του 2008, μας ανάγκασαν να αναμένουμε με αγωνία τον διάδοχο, που ήρθε τελικά οκτώ ολόκληρα χρόνια αργότερα. To περσινό Everything You Have Come To Expect όμως δεν ανταποκρίθηκε στις προσδοκίες μας τελικώς και ήταν επιεικώς μέτριος δίσκος. Είχε ωστόσο τις πολύ καλές στιγμές του. Το "Used To Be My Girl" έχει Indie rock σφραγίδα και είναι σίγουρα μία από αυτές.


The Band: The Last Shadow Puppets (Sheffield, UK)
Line Up: Alex Turner (vocals, guitar, tambourine), Miles Kane (vocals, guitar), James Ford (drums, percussion)

The Track: "Used To be My Girl"
The Album: Everything You 've Come To Expect (2016)
The Sound: Indie, Indie rock, Chamber Pop
And Says...

Colour pictures of re-entry
Voices calling down the hall
I wanted you to know
You’re the only one that bent me
This far out of shape
Don’t make no mistake

I’m a liar, I’m a cheat, a leech, a thief
The outside looks no good and there ain’t nothing underneath
Darling can’t you see, my heart melted in the heat
My heart melted in the heat like yours

First impressions of the century
Two way mirror one way street
Good cop bad cop routine
Black-light animal print boogie
Left in a heap a kiss on either cheek

I’m a phoney, I’m a fake, a fraud, a snake
Gimme all your love so I can fill you up with hate
Girl I’m in a state, my heart melted yesterday
My heart melted yesterday like yours

The odyssey, came down kind of hard on me
The here and now so suddenly
Became a different world
Finally, I slipped out of reality
It must all be imaginary
She used to be my girl

Used to be my girl
Used to be my girl
Used to be my girl
Used to be my girl

Listen & Score: Radical Face - "Everything Costs" (The Family Tree:The leaves, 2016)

Dreams, like coins down a well: Ο Radical Face είναι ουσιαστικά ο τριάντα-πεντάχρονος Αμερικανός τραγουδιστής/τραγουδοποιός/μουσικός Ben Cooper. Με το παρόν σχήμα έχει κυκλοφορήσει 5 δίσκους, με πιο πρόσφατο το εικονιζόμενο The Family Tree:The Leaves του 2016. Ουσιαστικά πρόκειται για το τελευταίο μέρος της τριλογίας The Family Tree και διαδέχθηκε το The Roots (2011) και The Branches (2013). Και τα τρία κινούνται στο χώρο, του indie folk/pop και τα τρία είναι υπέροχα. Στην ιστορία του The Leaves πρωταγωνιστεί η Οικογένεια "The Northcotes" ξεδιπλώνοντας μας τη ζωή τους. Από το δίσκο ξεχωρίζω τα "Rivers In The Dust", "The Road To Nowhere", "Bad Blood" και τέλος το αγαπημένο και μοναδικό "Everything Costs" που ακούμε παρακάτω. Μόλις το ακούσετε και το λατρέψετε και εσείς, ασχοληθείτε και με τον υπόλοιπο δίσκο αλλά και γενικά με τον ταλαντούχο κύριο B. Cooper, γιατί το αξίζει πραγματικά.

                                                                                                        Listen & Score: 8/10
The Band: Radical Face (a.k.a Ben Cooper) (Jacksonville, USA)
The Track: "Everything Costs"
The Album: The Family Tree:The leaves (2016)
The Sound: Indie, Indie folk, Indie pop
And Says...

Dreams, like coins down a well
Till I realized I was dumb for believin'
To the bird with no flight
The skies don't ever offer respite
So I wandered off
And went to fill the halls of my shadow
But everything costs
Proof was etched into the backs of my hands

I heard you say that you'd lost, you'd lost, you'd lost your way
But I don't think you had much to lose, that house was never built for you
And I ain't gonna hang my head for them, for them
And I ain't gonna let them paint the truth with sin
And I ain't gonna tell you it's okay but at the end of the day
You were just something they'd blame

Face, pressed into your hands
Couldn't tell if you were crying or laughing
They both sound the same
when you ain't got no skin in the game
So I took up the fight
And the roaring in my head was like the thunder
Until I uncurled my fists
And allowed myself to not give a damn

I heard you say that we'd lost, we'd lost, we'd lost, we'd lost our way
But I don't think we had much to lose that path was never built for us
And I ain't gonna hang my head for them, for them
And I ain't gonna let them paint the truth with sin
And I ain't gonna tell you it's okay but at the end of the day
You were just something they'd blame