New Music Round-Up: The Murder Capital, Sam Fender, Youth Lagoon

A quiet week? I’ll take it.

I love writing these new music round-ups. Keeping up with an endless stream of releases is challenging at the best of times, but the vague commitment to writing regular summaries provides a helpful incentive. There are several reasons they aren’t a fixed weekly feature, but these can be distilled into one general theme — I have limited time to write and the freedom to explore a range of topics is my priority. This flexibility explains why you ended up with a deep dive on a fifty-year-old power pop classic last week.

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This week, I’m circling back to new music, focusing on three of the more prominent new releases. None of them are debuts and you will probably be familiar with all three artists.

With the spectacular Gigi’s Recovery, Dublin’s The Murder Capital created one of 2023’s best albums. Reuniting with renowned producer John Congleton, the band’s approach on Blindness (Human Season) feels looser and the sound is often more raucous, even if the touchstones — Radiohead, Whipping Boy, The Horrors, Interpol — are familiar. Early reviews have grumbled about the record’s flow, with its many shifts in style and tempo seen as disruptive. I disagree. I hear a band unafraid to mix things up, following their own vision. And the results are often thrilling. The gigantic guitar assault and pummelling drums of “Can’t Pretend To Know” provide an ideal canvas for James McGovern’s impressive voice, which sounds terrific throughout this record. The anthemic “Words Lost Meaning” sounds like a live favourite in the making, but the more subdued centrepiece “Love Of Country” is my highlight, recalling as it does Laughter’s Fifth era Love as Laughter. You can keep your Fontaines D.C. — Blindness is the work of Ireland’s finest active band at the top of their game.

Youth Lagoon’s fifth album Rarely Do I Dream (Fat Possum) is one of those beautifully dreamy records that critics like me describe as hypnagogic because it sounds fancier than dreamy. If it sounds cinematic — there’s another beloved music critic word — it’s probably because its inspiration is a stash of childhood home movies belonging to the man behind Youth Lagoon, Trevor Powers. Rarely Do I Dream is the sound of recently unearthed memories and snapshots of simpler times, washing over you in a way that rewards both active and passive/background listening. It’s not as bombastic as The Murder Capital and it doesn’t serve up as much playlist fodder, but it’s a thing of outstanding beauty and my Album of the Week.

Lastly, we have Sam Fender’s third album, People Watching (Capitol). Fender has become an unlikely superstar in the U.K., despite sounding very much like a polished War On Drugs tribute act. The wider appeal of his impeccably produced Springsteenian heartland rock is lost on me, but he’s a decent enough songwriter and his vignettes of working-class life in 21st century Britain are certainly heartfelt and worthwhile. I just wish they weren’t all buried in a ridiculously dense mix. Let’s hope Fender gets the message and makes his own Nebraska because there is real talent here.

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I also listened to French garage/psych band The Limiñanas (a solid example of the genre) and Trupa Trupa’s Mourners EP (arty Polish post-punk), which both deserve a spin. But that’s your lot for today.

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