Latest news with #dreampop
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Men I Trust Adds Live Grit to Gorgeous, Shimmering Dreampop Songs at Brooklyn Tour Launch: Concert Review
Canadian indie outfit Men I Trust seems beamed down from the heavens to be a headphones band. Lead singer and guitarist Emmanuelle Proulx's gentle vocals float along over a textured dreampop sound built alongside guitarist Jessy Caron and keyboardist Dragos Chiriac. The lyrics about romance and longing fit both modes the band operates in: The airy studio versions of their material, and the group's popular 'Forever Live Sessions' releases, which find the musicians huddled together and playing live. How is the group's sound translated to a live-with-audience show? Men I Trust launched the Equus North American Tour at Brooklyn's Lena Horne Bandshell on Friday night, and it's clear the band has perfected a third branch of their sound: a dynamic, road-ready live act. 2025 has been a prolific year for the group, as it included the release of its fifth and sixth studio albums, 'Equus Asinus' in March and 'Equus Caballus' in May. While the former was a slight stylistic diversion, relying more on acoustic sounds and the tempos notched down, the latter continued the unhurried but bouncy rhythm section on many of their best-known compositions. Supplemented by longtime touring bandmates Eric Maillet on drums and mononymic bassist Alexis, Men I Trust opened a career-spanning set with the bright, synth-heavy new song 'To Ease You.' One thing that separates the band from dreampop peers is the surprisingly swinging rhythm section, in which a structured bassline dances around a steady drumbeat. This heartbeat allows for propulsion even when the vibe is demure, and the opening chug of 'To Ease You' set the tone that even with hushed melodies, the set would keep moving. Perhaps the group's biggest live strength is their steadfast commitment to play in the pocket, with parts that best serve the song. Besides a guitar solo or two, the arrangements are locked in, eschewing showboating to blend seamlessly with each other. Their sound flowed on tracks like fan favorite 'Tailwhip,' with Maillet's driving but tasteful drum line creating structure for Alexis' muted, funk-influenced bass, with Chiriac's siren-inspired synth interplaying with the two guitarists, laying down pedal-distorted riffs under Proulx's fragile, gorgeous vocal line. It's a tricky balance, but the band (and the hard-working sound experts at the venue) let every well-balanced note shine through. Hearing the group's work recontextualized live also allows some of their influences to shine through even brighter. The guitars of 'Where I Sit' recall quirky '80s bands like Oingo Boingo, where 'Carried Away' is made more muscular live and sounds like a deconstruction of a forgotten grunge anthem. 'Serenade of Water' finds the group approaching trip hop, with a searching guitar line run through an expressive pedal, while 'Seven' feels like it could be a b-side to Eagles' 'The Long Run,' with a lick and rolling rhythm straight out of 1979. Despite all of these dips into the rock music songbook, all of the jams are unmistakably Men I Trust, synthesizing these ideas in tasteful ways to nudge their sound, not break it. Ending their encore by pogoing through the upbeat tracks 'Worn Down' and 'Billie Toppy,' the dancing crowd showed the power of a band turning up their amps and going large. While many Men I Trust songs began in the privacy of hushed bedrooms or small studios, the ace songwriting and Proulx's soulful vocals can touch thousands in a crowd. Best of Variety The Best Albums of the Decade
The Guardian
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Add to playlist: Sarah Meth's resplendent, intimate songwriting and the week's best new tracks
From North LondonRecommended if you like Helena Deland, Billie Eilish, Okay Kaya Up next Headlining Bermondsey Social Club, 30 July; playing Green Man festival, Brecon Beacons, August London-based singer-songwriter Sarah Meth makes eerie, skeletal dream-pop cut through with a self-deprecating, very online sense of humour. A scan of her artist page on any streaming service offers a gratifying biography of an artist slowly but surely chipping away at her style in search of a distinct point of view: the lounge jazz stylings of 2020's Dead End World give way to piquant, post-King Krule bedroom pop on 2022's Leak Your Own Blues and Billie Eilish-ish pathos on 2023's Steps EP. What could feel like a dog's dinner of genres is held together by Meth's warm, laconic voice and knack for resplendent but pathologically small-scale production. Winnies, a song from last year's NY ILY single, is built atop a delirious, translucent organ line. Unlike many of her songs, which deal in winking self-subjugation, Winnies is about a blooming sense of self-determination, and Meth smartly plays it as something that could disappear at any moment. At a recent show at London's Theatreship, a cabaret theatre on a boat in Canary Wharf, Meth previewed new songs that alternated between amenable folk music in the style of Julia Jacklin and Angel Olsen, and shimmery, skew whiff pop songs that she sang over a prerecorded track. The modes proved surprisingly complementary – indie music ego and id, maybe, or a real-time battle between extroversion and introversion. The new songs were indelible and exciting: memorable odes to growing up, and falling in and out of love, that stand out in a crowded field of indie-pop newcomers. Shaad D'Souza Debby Friday – Bet on Me'Scared of what just might happen / If I go ahead and bet on me,' the Canadian pop star exhales over anxious breakbeats, building to a cheerleader chant riotous with self-belief. LS Galya Bisengalieva – Alash-kala (The Bug Reflection) From a new EP also featuring an ambient reinterpretation by KMRU, this remix of Alash-kala sees Kevin 'The Bug' Martin blow the Kazakh-British composer's lonely, glacial crackle up to an end-of-days cataclysm. LS Danny L Harle & PinkPantheress – StarlightHarle is a hard dance revivalist and a pop producer for Caroline Polachek and Dua Lipa, and both impulses cohere on this soft-donk stomper with Grimes-ish vocals from PinkPantheress. BBT Agriculture – BodhidharmaAnyone lamenting the loss of Black Sabbath this week should turn to this crushing post-metal anthem, with a splendid sky-scorching riff as well as eerie sound design and quiet-loud thrills. BBT Geese – TaxesAfter frontman Cameron Winter became an indie darling thanks to his classic solo debut Heavy Metal, Geese return with a winner: a rumpled slacker tune that straightens up and sticks out its chest for a joyful chorus. BBT SJ – OzilWith cool, softly swinging jazz obliterated by the arrival of a hard-headed drill beat, the Tottenham MC sprinkles references to his footballing past with the nimbleness of a boy-wonder midfielder. [Not on Spotify] BBT Fever Ray – Now's the Only Time I Know (Therapy Session) Karin Dreijer is releasing an album of studio mixes of live versions of old songs: this spooked song about domesticity from their 2009 debut becomes a savage, ravey exorcism. LS Subscribe to the Guardian's rolling Add to Playlist selections on Spotify.
The Guardian
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Add to playlist: Sarah Meth's resplendent, intimate songwriting and the week's best new tracks
From North LondonRecommended if you like Helena Deland, Billie Eilish, Okay Kaya Up next Headlining Bermondsey Social Club, 30 July; playing Green Man festival, Brecon Beacons, August London-based singer-songwriter Sarah Meth makes eerie, skeletal dream-pop cut through with a self-deprecating, very online sense of humour. A scan of her artist page on any streaming service offers a gratifying biography of an artist slowly but surely chipping away at her style in search of a distinct point of view: the lounge jazz stylings of 2020's Dead End World give way to piquant, post-King Krule bedroom pop on 2022's Leak Your Own Blues and Billie Eilish-ish pathos on 2023's Steps EP. What could feel like a dog's dinner of genres is held together by Meth's warm, laconic voice and knack for resplendent but pathologically small-scale production. Winnies, a song from last year's NY ILY single, is built atop a delirious, translucent organ line. Unlike many of her songs, which deal in winking self-subjugation, Winnies is about a blooming sense of self-determination, and Meth smartly plays it as something that could disappear at any moment. At a recent show at London's Theatreship, a cabaret theatre on a boat in Canary Wharf, Meth previewed new songs that alternated between amenable folk music in the style of Julia Jacklin and Angel Olsen, and shimmery, skew whiff pop songs that she sang over a prerecorded track. The modes proved surprisingly complementary – indie music ego and id, maybe, or a real-time battle between extroversion and introversion. The new songs were indelible and exciting: memorable odes to growing up, and falling in and out of love, that stand out in a crowded field of indie-pop newcomers. Shaad D'Souza Debby Friday – Bet on Me'Scared of what just might happen / If I go ahead and bet on me,' the Canadian pop star exhales over anxious breakbeats, building to a cheerleader chant riotous with self-belief. LS Galya Bisengalieva – Alash-kala (The Bug Reflection) From a new EP also featuring an ambient reinterpretation by KMRU, this remix of Alash-kala sees Kevin 'The Bug' Martin blow the Kazakh-British composer's lonely, glacial crackle up to an end-of-days cataclysm. LS Danny L Harle & PinkPantheress – StarlightHarle is a hard dance revivalist and a pop producer for Caroline Polachek and Dua Lipa, and both impulses cohere on this soft-donk stomper with Grimes-ish vocals from PinkPantheress. BBT Agriculture – BodhidharmaAnyone lamenting the loss of Black Sabbath this week should turn to this crushing post-metal anthem, with a splendid sky-scorching riff as well as eerie sound design and quiet-loud thrills. BBT Geese – TaxesAfter frontman Cameron Winter became an indie darling thanks to his classic solo debut Heavy Metal, Geese return with a winner: a rumpled slacker tune that straightens up and sticks out its chest for a joyful chorus. BBT SJ – OzilWith cool, softly swinging jazz obliterated by the arrival of a hard-headed drill beat, the Tottenham MC sprinkles references to his footballing past with the nimbleness of a boy-wonder midfielder. [Not on Spotify] BBT Fever Ray – Now's the Only Time I Know (Therapy Session) Karin Dreijer is releasing an album of studio mixes of live versions of old songs: this spooked song about domesticity from their 2009 debut becomes a savage, ravey exorcism. LS Subscribe to the Guardian's rolling Add to Playlist selections on Spotify.
Irish Times
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Ólafur Arnalds & Talos: A Dawning review – Five stars for this emotion-filled celebration of Eoin French's life
A Dawning Artist : Ólafur Arnalds & Talos Label : Deutsche Grammophon Operating under the stage name Talos, Eoin French was an unheralded virtuoso of Irish dream pop. Each of his three studio albums was sublime in its own distinct way, whether conjuring beautifully untethered soundscapes or cradling his expressive voice in otherworldly folk arrangements. Halfway between My Bloody Valentine and The Lord of the Rings, these were songs that took you somewhere else, constructed with an artisan's eye for detail (French was a qualified architect) and a poet's mastery of emotion. Sadly, French died last year aged just 36. The depth of that loss is underscored by his posthumous new release. A Dawning is a collaboration with the Icelandic composer, producer and DJ Ólafur Arnalds that brims with feeling yet is ultimately not an elegy for French but a celebration of his life. Given the context, it's an understandably challenging listen at times. But, in its totality, it is also a hugely comforting one, and credit is due to Arnalds for persevering with finishing the project on his own at his studio in Reykjavík. READ MORE Arnalds is renowned for his sweeping, cinematic work, as perhaps best exemplified by the soundtrack to the ITV drama Broadchurch. Here, however, it is the moments of intimacy that land the heaviest, such as when French takes vocals on the hushed Signs, singing of 'our setting sky / that burns across the ocean'. It's a poignant image that locates the song in west Co Cork, where a substantial chunk of the LP was recorded and where the coastline can offer stunning views of the Atlantic. Much of A Dawning was written before French became unwell. For that reason it feels trite to read it as a swansong or his way of saying goodbye to his audience. There is also the fact that his voice has always been marked by melancholy, and A Dawning is in the same register of regretful wonder. That hush falls heavy as morning snowfall on Bedrock. Here a stark piano backs French's high-pitched voice; think the Weeknd or Bon Iver standing on a clifftop of the Beara Peninsula, singing to the sheep and the waves. Because Arnalds and French are so dialled into each other musically, it can be challenging to say where one's contribution ends and the other's begins. That they had a natural chemistry was first identified by Mary Hickson , who encouraged them to work together at her Sounds from a Safe Harbour festival, in Cork. 'She seemed very sure that we would get along musically,' Arnalds has commented. 'She was right, of course. It was the start of an incredible, inspiring, heartbreaking but heartfelt journey that took us places we could never have imagined in our wildest dreams.' Holed up together in a hotel suite – not the sort of place redolent of epic sunsets or craggy cliffs – they hit it off immediately. Signs, the first song they wrote, crackles with the aura of artists comfortable in each other's company. The process continued even after French's cancer diagnosis: the material is alive with a diaristic sense of time in place, such as on the gossamer-light West Cork. Beautifully attuned, French and Arnalds evoke the craggy majesty of the hinterland around French's home in Clonakilty, where it can feel as if you have travelled to the ends of the earth and that nothing is left but sky, sea and mystery. The record's centrepiece, paradoxically, arrives right at the end, with We Didn't Know We Were Ready. Be warned that this is a heart-wrenching number that is going to reduce even the most insensitive listener to a quivering wreck. It opens with French wondering about the meaning of life and beyond: 'With the answers at our feet / Will we break the grounds beneath?' The song is a hurricane of feeling packed into four minutes, as was made clear when Arnalds performed it on The Tommy Tiernan Show, on RTÉ, accompanied by Dermot Kennedy, The Staves and the track's co-writers, Niamh Reagan and Ye Vagabonds. They will play it again when Sounds from a Safe Harbour hosts an evening in French's memory in September. If this astonishing record is any clue, it promises to be a tear-jerker for the ages.
