May_Aug(25).mp3

This past summer has been challenging for several reasons. Moving, changing jobs, settling into a new town, money, leaving friends, etc. However, music has been the glue that has kept me excited, emotional, and engaged with the world over the past four months, as it so often does throughout the year.

I’ve been fortunate enough to experience an abundance of live music during the summer season, going to a couple of festivals and a few live shows for good measure. Piggybacking off of my love Charli XCX’s Brat last year, I was able to see her celebrate the album for a second year running with a couple of live performances within the space of a week. I’ve also continued the Magdalena Bay obsession, catching them three times during June, as their second album, Imaginal Disk, further cements a place in my musical heart.

Of course, as always, there’s been plenty of fresh music to listen to and discover, as I’ve mostly been occupied with new releases, of which there have been sooo many throughout the summer.

I’ll try to keep this as concise as possible, but there’s been an awful lot of new music to soak in and keep me moving from May through August.

Fancy That – Pink Pantheress

I’ve been a big fan of Pink Pantheress for some time now, after finding her through a YouTube compilation a few years back. I once likened her songs to Millions sweets, in the sense that they’re these short, sharp, and sweet little tunes that are highly addictive. I’ll easily fall into cycles of listening to a single song of hers fifty times in a row, comfortably.

With her latest mixtape, Fancy That, she’s delivered another impeccable selection of catchy tunes that showcase some of her best production to date. Pantheress has obviously blown up on the international scene over the past few years, but it’s amazing to hear how a clearly higher production budget has melded into her sound. The whole twenty-minute EP is made up of noughties-nostalgia-laced bangers, with some great sampling.

“Illegal” has, of course, exploded in recent months, and it’s easily one of the best cuts from the project, but my personal favourite remains “Stateside”, with its compulsively catchy hook. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what it is about Pantheress' tunes that I love so much, but in short, her soft vocals on upbeat, high-tempo dance-pop is a sure-fire formula for success, and one that I continue to enjoy.

Festival Sounds – We Love Green and Lido

I’ve already posted about Paris’ We Love Green festival in some capacity through a recent photography blog, but the centrepiece of the event was, of course, the music. I had the pleasure of seeing some of my favourite recent discoveries live, as well as exploring new sounds that have gone on to define my summer. I also attended one day of London's two-week-long Lido festival, during which I got to catch some of my recent favourite artists and further explore new discoveries.

FKA Twigs

I’ve been aware of FKA Twigs for a while now, but it was her headlining at We Love Green that prompted me to give her music a proper listen. In the days leading up to the festival, I was blaring her latest album, Eusexua, which I’ve come to be really fond of.

The album has a mostly upbeat and distinctly Y2K-leaning sound, despite the searching and contemplative lyrics found in many of the tracks. The songs range from soothing, with the likes of the titular track and “Girl Feels Good”, to playful, with “Childlike Things”.

I think the strength of Twigs’ vocals can get lost in the production, and for as much as choreography and showmanship took prominence during her live show, her soft vocal delivery brought me to tears, as she performed a beautiful rendition of “cellophane” towards the end of the set.

I’m a huge fan of the latest single, “Perfectly”, and am looking forward to Eusexua Afterglow, which seems to be a sequel project of sorts, that’s just a couple of months away.

Miki

I can’t recall exactly when or why I first heard Miki’s music, but whether through the algorithm or by some other element of chance, I started listening to her recent EP graou sometime in May. I was excited to learn after the fact that she’d be performing at We Love Green, not to mention at the festival’s smallest stage, promising a more intimate set.

Her self-labelled “pop électronique” is surprisingly laid-back in its sound, as the French-Korean artist displays an almost spoken-word-like delivery for most of her songs, which are often punctuated with deft, harmonic interludes. Her live performance was one of the standouts of the entire festival for me, as she frequently launched herself into the crowd and was met with enthusiastic and open arms.

There’s an energy about Miki’s sound that transcends my personal language barrier, and I’ve found myself throwing on her short yet sweet EP quite often around the flat. I’m contemplating catching her show in Bruxelles later this year, but we’ll see where the financial cards land. Until then, her debut LP, industry plant drops in early October, which I’m eagerly anticipating.

Gesaffelstein

I discovered Mike Lévy, stagename Gesaffelstein, completely by accident after waiting for forty minutes at the wrong stage to see Magdalena Bay. Before dashing off to catch my dream-pop favs on the other side of the festival, I did stay to indulge in the unique brand of dark electro for which the French producer is famed.

I was enamoured by his hypnotic set, which I had the pleasure of experiencing in full a week later at Lido festival. Lévy dons a black, reflective mask that shimmers during shows, and has illuminating eyes that light up at the climax of his hard-hitting electro tracks. It makes for quite the spectacle and further adds to the oppressive and intense atmosphere invoked by the artist’s sonic style.

Lévy’s sets, both at We Love Green and Lido were two of the most entrancing, as it was so easy to get lost in his dark, pulsating sounds. I’ve since picked up and listened through Aleph, and will be rummaging through the rest of the Gesaffelstein discography through autumn and winter, seasons for which it seems fitting.

i quit – Haim

I was first made aware of HAIM through Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza (2021), in which the youngest sister of the trio, Alana, plays a prominent role. Even now, I still think of them as ‘the sisters from that PTA film’, but as a group, HAIM are obviously much more than that. It’s only with the release of their fourth album, i quit, that I’ve given them the time of day, and I really like this project!

For as much as the group have proclaimed this to be their ‘single’ album, which it is to a degree, it’s absolutely a great album about relationships, or more specifically, the ending of one. While many tracks boast the empowering feeling of being single and ‘quitting’ on relationships and love, many more capture the heartache in love that comes with a fading romance. “Everybody’s trying to figure me out”, “Cry”, and “Blood on the tracks” are the best examples of tracks focused on the latter, whilst my favourite song from the record, “Relationships”, questions the point of long-term romantic endeavours – “don’t they end up all the same?”

I must say that I love the variety of instruments used by the group, all of which come together to give the album a classic soft-rock sound. Listening to the album in full whilst travelling to Portland, Dorset, was a refreshing experience, the gorgeous coastal views complementing HAIM’s sound in a way I can’t fully describe.

Virgin – Lorde

Interestingly, Lorde’s Pure Heroine is the first album that I saved to my Spotify account back in 2013, quickly followed by the Arctic Monkeys' AM and a few Eminem records (obviously). The album was something of a staple for me throughout Sixth Form, and I would often listen to it whilst playing Fifa into the early hours of the morning as a late teen. As such, I already have a strong feeling of nostalgia attached to Lorde and her music. One thing I couldn’t get over at the time of Pure Heroine’s release was the fact that the Kiwi singer-songwriter is only a year older than I am!

Fast forward some twelve years, and I’ve dipped in and out of Lorde’s work sporadically, mostly revisiting her debut album when the mood for her layered vocal harmonies has struck. Now with the release of her fourth album, Virgin, I’ve got another Lorde record that I’m happy to dive into from time to time, as this most recent project is her closest sonically to Pure Heroine.

Unsurprisingly, the album is a vulnerable piece of work, as Lorde lays her feelings, thoughts, and anxieties bare in a fashion that’s typical of her songwriting. Most of the songs here feature her trademark layered vocals, with many slowly building to a wonderfully overbearing climax. Other instrumentals stay stripped back and purposefully barren, matching the nakedness of the lyrics they accompany.

I’ve always appreciated how Lorde bares her soul through music. I can understand how some see her as performative and detached, but she’s a true artist and has been fortunate and talented enough to take an avenue that has allowed her to flourish. While she never looks to meet the expectations of her prior work, a core sound is consistent, nonetheless.

It’s funny how music can bookend certain parts of your life. When Pure Heroine first came out, I was starting on a journey to move away from home, Lorde’s music following me through A-Levels all the way to university, and independence. Now, Virgin has been a part of the soundtrack to my next move, the 35-minute album being one of the last that I listened to in full whilst walking around some of my favourite spots in Poole for a final time.

It might be cheap to say that this is Lorde’s most mature project to date, but the girl whose music I formed such a connection with at sixteen is clearly a woman here. The album’s standouts for me are “Man of the Year”, “Current Affairs”, “Clearblue”, and “David”.

Let God Sort Em Out – Clipse

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t jump on the Clipse bandwagon when Let God Sort Em Out dropped, but the album was getting such an incredible reception that I felt compelled to check it out. Aaannd, yep, it’s fucking great.

The big standout for me here is the production, which is unbelievably good. Every single song on the project has an insane beat behind it, some of which are accompanied by these nasty synth notes that are just perfect – I’m thinking specifically of “P.O.V.”, which also has an amazing beat switch.

Pusha T and Malice come through with impeccable vocal delivery and flow, the brothers’ lyrics ranging from the sombre and reflective to biting, cold, and callous. “Grace of God” is an incredible closer, and all of the features perfectly match the vibe of the tracks on which they appear.

My first few weeks in Brighton are intrinsically linked to this album, which has breezed by during early morning bike rides to work and late-night moving shenanigans. A highly replayable album that I’ve had blaring around the flat for days at a time.

Ethel Cain

I discovered Hayden Anhedönia through the Turning the Tables channel on YouTube. I don’t really sit through the father-son duo's videos in full, but they listen to a healthy variety of music, so I keep an eye on what they’ve uploaded. Late in June, the pair reacted to Preacher’s Daughter, Anhedönia’s first full-length LP released as Ethel Cain. Honestly, from the first highly reverbed vocals, I was enamoured, and Ethel Cain has gone on to absolutely dominate my listening habits over the past couple of months.

First, there’s an atmosphere created through Anhedönia’s music that, to me, is incredibly vivid. Her sounds paint a picture of different places that I can clearly place myself in when listening to her music: windy, woodland-dominated southern roads during a storm, hazy fields, abandoned homes, empty wooden churches, murky basements, seedy motel rooms. There’s an aesthetic quality to the music that’s cinematic, allowing me to soak into the rich world being created through sound. What’s more, almost every track slowly builds to a euphoric climax, the layered instrumentation and vocals growing in power as the runtime goes on. It’s here where the potentially off-putting track lengths pay off, as seven minutes or more fly past.

The second attraction is the vocals. I’ve always been a sucker for a great female vocalist: Mamma Cass, Judy Collins, Françoise Hardy, and Doris Day, to name only a handful. I listened to several tracks on Preacher’s Daughter out of order, acquainting myself with Anhedönia’s sound further before fully diving into the entirety of the demanding seventy-five-minute album. Nearly every track blew me away in terms of the Floridan’s vocal delivery. Beautiful, harmonious, and powerful, but almost always deeply aching – her voice is magnificent.

Lastly, Anhedönia’s are some of the best lyrics I’ve come across in quite some time. Preacher’s Daughter has been praised for its narrative-driven angle, telling the tragic story of the fictitious Ethel Cain. The lyrics are beautiful in their poeticism, as Anhedönia, again, paints an incredibly clear picture of people, places, and the feelings attached to them. The same is the case for her latest album, Willoughby Tucker, I Will Always Love You, which is a prequel to Preacher’s Daughter that drops the reverb in favour of a more acoustic sound. The two albums are sisters of a sort, similar in feeling and tone, but very different sonically.

There are honestly too many tracks for me to reference individually, but if I have to name a few, I must mention “House in Nebraska”, which is a tragic expression of longing and regret that has brought me to tears on several occasions. “Thoroughfare” is another favourite cut from Preacher’s Daughter and one that I think best showcases Anhedönia’s penchant for storytelling as she traces the westward journey of a hitchhiking Ethel Cain.

From Willoughby Tucker, “Waco, Texas” is the obvious highlight. It’s astonishing how quickly a fifteen-minute song can rush by when you’re lost in the sound. The lyrics read more like a long poem, with only one portion being repeated as a hook of sorts. I’m also a massive fan of the instrumental/ambient tracks littered throughout the album, the standout being “Willoughby’s Theme”. That said, the transition from “Radio Towers” to the overwhelmingly downbeat “Tempest” is so smooth that I see the pair as essentially one sixteen-minute song.

I’d also be remiss not to mention the vocal powerhouse that is “Michelle Pfeiffer”, the opening track from Anhedönia’s just-as-affecting 2021 EP, Inbred. In more recent times, I’ve also found myself drifting off to her 2025 drone-ambient album, Perverts. This ten-track project, which runs at a staggering ninety minutes, is made up of soft vocal performances, excruciatingly long drones, and some frankly disturbing instrumentation and distortion, all of which I’ve found to be oddly relaxing during the hot summer nights.

It’s hard to overstate both how affecting and centring Anhedönia’s music has been during this period of personal change. On good days and bad, her sounds have been a constant whilst I’ve uprooted my life and moved along the coast. Preacher’s Daughter and Willoughby Tucker will forever be attached to a trying yet exciting time in my life, and for that, I’m grateful.

I’m utterly in love with Anhedönia’s sound and haven’t tired of any of her works for the better part of three months. Incredibly excited to see her perform this October.

Support Acts – Blue Hawaii, Kate Peaches, Frozemode

I think one of the things I’ve appreciated most about going to gigs over the past year has been getting exposed to new music that I otherwise wouldn’t have found courtesy of support acts. I’ve been fortunate enough to see some great support acts in recent months, my favourites being Frozemode, Blue Hawaii, and Kate Peaches.

Frozemode are a British underground rap group whose blend of rap-rock gave serious N.E.R.D vibes during their insanely energetic opening performance for Denzel Curry in June. Blue Hawaii opened for Rebecca Black with a noughties-leaning, electro-pop sound that’s been floating in my rotation since March.

Finally, Kate Peaches, a local performer from Brighton, stood in as a last-minute opener for Black Honey, and I was blown away by her synthy, dreamy, power-pop tunes that perfectly fit the tone for the show. I’m looking forward to keeping up with all these acts in some capacity and hope to see them blow up further in the future.

Reload It

• NEVER ENOUGH – Turnstile

• Dead – Black Honey

• Insulin – Black Honey

• Cherry Bomb – Isabella Lovestory

• ScheiBe – Lady Gaga

• Perfectly – FKA Twigs

• my mind is a mountain – Deftones

• No Broke Boys – Disco Lines, Tinashe

• Taxman – Junior Parker

• unpopular parts of a pig – Mclusky

• people person – Mclusky

• money machine – 100 gecs

• Sanjuro – Denzel Curry, 454

• ringtones (remix) – 100 gecs, Charli XCX, Rico Nasty, Kero Kero Bonito

• Teeth – Mallrat

• True Religion – Shygirl, Isabella Lovestory, Pink Pantheress

• Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t (My Baby) – Louis Jordan

• Just the Two of Us – Bill Withers, Grover Washington Jr

• Derezzed – Daft Punk

• eat, sleep, slay, repeat – horsegiirL

• Glue – BICEP

• Fame is a Gun – Addison Rae

• Rhymes Like Dimes – MF DOOM, DJ Cucumber Slice

• Bros – Wolf Alice

• No Hard Feelings – Wolf Alice

• Mercurial World – Magdalena Bay

• You Lose! – Magdalena Bay