New Music Friday #1

Hello again. 

As you may well know, most new music is released on Fridays to optimise streams and radioplay over the weekend. Today (possibly as it's Valentine's) we have a whole crop of lovely new tunes! See what I did there? 

First up is Sabrina Carpenter's 'Short n' Sweet' Deluxe. I've yet to listen to all the bonus tracks, but Please Please Please ft. Dolly Parton(!!!) has been on repeat for me today. I absolutely love her style and aesthetic and it was so lovely to see her scoop up 2 Grammys earlier this month and now doing this collab with Dolly. They could easily play each other at different times in their lives and the feature doesn't sound forced at all. In fact, this will be the version I listen to going forward. (Sorry girls, it's already been added to the roadtrip playlist!)

Next up is Bon Iver's 'Everything is Peaceful Love' from the upcoming album 'SABLE, fABLE' out on 11th April. I must admit over the last few years I've felt very "meh" about Bon Iver - aside from his contributions to Folklore and Evermore. SABLE EP, however, was a different game altogether. I loved it on first listen and felt new but still familiar. 'Everything is Peaceful Love' is a chilled laid-back bop to take us into spring and I can't wait to see what other gems will be on the new album. 

Out today is also The Lumineers' album, 'Automatic'. I've only heard the title track so far but I'm feeling a more developed sound from when I last listened to them. Again, The Lumineers are another band I went through a "meh" phase (it's not you, it's me!) so I'm excited to hear the rest of this album. I saw them live back in 2019 but after all the hits were played, the songs tended to blur into one and it's one of a very few gigs I've left early. Don't get me wrong, there's quite a few songs by them that I love, but at the time it didn't feel like they had the hits to be playing the Manchester AO Arena when we saw them. I'm looking forward to seeing what this new album brings and what future setlists will look like.

Finally, this isn't a Friday release, but I'm including it all the same. 'Things I Left Behind' by Joni popped up on my Spotify homepage - suggestions I usually ignore - but something made me listen and I've already had 'Avalanches' playing a few times today. It also sounds familiar like I may have heard it on TikTok but I don't think I have. Either way, this is another EP that needs a few more listens to get my teeth into but I'm liking what I've heard so far. I'm also interested to know how a Tuesday release would work for a smaller artist like Joni as she would've no doubt missed the traffic from all the Friday releases.

I'd like to say this will be a regular post every Friday but we'll see how we go!

Speak soon.

B.