THIS UPDATE: FRIDAY 6TH MAY 2022
From the breezy pop genius of Carly Rae Jepsen to the fuck-off attitude of Willow Kayne, this week hasn’t been shy of great new tracks. In order to help you cut through the noise, we’ve sifted through the pile and plucked out a few of the best. If you want more, subscribe to our weekly New Music Friday edit The Cut on Spotify, and never miss out again.
HRH Queen of the Pop Bops Carly Rae Jepsen hath returned, Dearest Reader, and this time she’s all about the vibes. ‘Western Wind’ doesn’t rank high in terms of CRJ’s most direct hits, but that’s not a criticism. This time around, she’s taking a different path. Floating on its titular breeze, there’s something refreshingly relaxed about the start of this latest era. Still an earworm, in an over-saturated, constantly shouting world, Carly Rae Jepsen has become an oasis of serene calm.
When he first burst onto the scene, nobody ever really stopped to consider what a legacy would look like for Jamie T. A fizzing tablet dropped into the hangover cure of mid-00s hedonism before heading out for a second round, he was an artist who existed in a glorious polaroid moment. It’s to his credit, then, that he’s turned that immediate flash of excitement into something far more substantial. 2022’s Jamie T has lost none of that direct brilliance, but ‘The Old Style Raiders’ takes youthful exuberance and makes it stadium epic. At times, it recalls U2 – something nobody would have dared suggest on the strength of ‘Sheila’ – and yet it’s never remotely bloated or grandiose. Growing up, but not growing old, Jamie T remains a lesson in chaotic class to all of us.
A TikTok joke gone further than ever expected – and yes, it’s very easy to be far too cynical about this-kind-of-thing in the face of a bit of fun – ‘Cate’s Brother’ is a track that’s been teased out to breaking point. And honestly, that kind of fits. Nothing about it is dialled below 11. Running in the lineage of ‘Stacy’s Mom’, it’s big, brash and unashamedly goofy. Even in amongst the noise, there are still whipsmart flashes of what makes Maisie Peters so special, though. A line about how saying ‘his’ name tastes like “violets, rum and summer” has the sort of flourish her peers would often mistakenly leave on the bench, before a chorus that presses pause as a moment of clarity snaps into focus. Even in the slightly silly, Maisie Peters stands apart.
Willow Kayne has long established herself as ‘one’ to ‘watch’ – a whirlwind of attitude and call-it-out directness, it’s the fact she never holds back that fills her music with such raw electricity. So much so that the refrain of an artist speaking back to The Man packs enough much-needed snotty bite to push past familiarity as it storms out the door. Take that vibrant sizzle and point it towards building the kind of positive force the world so desperately needs right now, and Willow Kayne can be anything she wants.
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