Posted on Friday 9th July 2021 at 15:00
Another Friday means a whole host of new music released for your listening pleasure! This week, we check out the latest new albums and EPs from Tom Odell, Cassia, Inhaler and Drug Store Romeos!
Tom Odell – monsters
Brit and Ivor Novello award-winning songwriter, plus platinum-selling, chart-topping artist Tom Odell releases his new album 'monsters' on Columbia Records. After a dark period of mental health stalked most of his 2018 and 19, Odell wrote his way through it, eventually letting down his guard and pouring his feelings into new music that forms his fourth album, 'monsters'. It feels like both a daring creative rebirth and a solidifying of Odell’s strengths.
Buy your tickets to see Tom Odell in Nottingham and Bristol here.
Cassia – Magnifier
Cassia make music to take control of their emotions. When the Macclesfield trio (Rob Ellis - lead vocals / guitar, Lou Cotterill - bass and Jake Leff - drums) first formed, they used song writing to embellish reality, covering up dull days with colourful tunes. Now they're crafting powerful, intentional songs that cut straight to the heart: drifting through their daydreams and daily anxieties as if in real time, giving space to doubts, fears and self-reflection. The result is empowering, for the band as much as the listener.
The last twelve months have been a time of deep introspection for the trio, who have been holed up together in Berlin, living, writing and recording in the same house. Stranded far from their loved ones, and with their joyful live shows on hold, they've playfully dubbed it 'Casa de Cassia'. The stillness and focus is worlds apart from their life as a band until now. In their airy top-floor studio, dislocated from all that's familiar, Cassia have found real fulfilment in writing about the every-day: no more covering up. 'Magnifier', and its sister record, February's 'Powerlines EP', are the first releases that Cassia have made, start to finish, without anyone else in the room. "We've worked with amazing engineers and producers in the past," acknowledges Rob, "but this time it feels entirely ours. It sounds exactly how we want it to sound."
Buy your tickets to see Cassia live in Bristol, Manchester and Nottingham here.
Inhaler – It Won't Always Be Like This
Inhaler’s debut album 'It Won’t Always Be Like This' is a record that sees Elijah Hewson, Josh Jenkinson, Robert Keating and Ryan McMahon turn their early promise into something special, an album teeming with expansive indie-rock grooves and soaring anthems. Includes the single 'Cheer Up Baby', a swooping, epic singalong alongside newly recorded versions of early fan favourites 'My Honest Face' and title track 'It Won’t Always Be Like This'.
Buy your tickets to see Inhaler at Nottingham's Rock City here.
Drug Store Romeos – Secret Plan
Drug Store Romeos formed at college in nearby Farnborough when childhood friends Jonny (Gilbert) and Charlie (Henderson) pinned an ad about finding a bassist for their new band to the school’s notice board – Sarah (Downie) replied and quickly proved herself a better vocalist than either of them. The trio spent the subsequent 24 hours discussing their love of Stereolab over messenger and watching Portishead and Mild High Club videos in the college’s computer lab.
The band soon cut their teeth playing live at college, at Guildford Boiler Room and Aldershot West End Centre, rather than the familiarly trodden paths in London although they did frequent Brixton Windmill as often as three times a week at one point; carrying all of their equipment back to Fleet by train as none of the band were old enough to drive. The 3am walk home from Fleet station, with amps and flight cases slung over their shoulder, would become a rite of passage; the quiet countryside influencing their hushed atmospheric sound and nocturnal aesthetics as much as their shared affection for Suburban Lawns, Broadcast, and Tom Tom Club.
Lyrical abstractness / concrete meaning. Danceability / lyingdownability. Minimalism / fullness. Introspective melancholy / playfulness. Lo fi / hi fi. Drug Store Romeos play with the senses and flip the expectations, finding the sweet spot every time.
Buy your tickets to see Drug Store Romeos at this year's Dot To Dot Festival here.
