The Goon Sax - Boyfriend
★★★★
Named after a cheap wine popular in their native Australia, The Goon Sax are a school age indie-pop trio who sound as though they only learned to play their instruments yesterday. But their lyrics are so on-point, and the harmonies chime so sweetly, that the DIY aesthetic works perfectly. On this single from their Up To Anything album, singer Louis Forster (son of Robert Forster from The Go-Between's) says that if he had a boyfriend, he'd cut that person's hair. Wit, charm... free haircuts? Sounds like a deal to me.
Car Seat Headrest - Fill In The Blanks
★★★
"If I were split in two I would just take my own fists / So I could beat up the rest of me..." Will Toledo is a 23-year-old songwriter from Virginia who, clearly, struggles with issues of self-esteem. His new album Teens of Denial is a follow-up to last year's critically acclaimed Teens of Style.
Roisin Murphy - Mastermind
★★★
The title references one of The Dubliners' bawdiest old showstoppers. So one might assume Roisin Murphy's Take Her Up To Monto album would represent a dramatic change in direction for the former Moloko singer. This single, however, suggests otherwise. Mastermind is a dense, multilayered and idiosyncratic piece of electronica, very much in the vein of last year's Hairless Toys album. The new album drops July 8th. She plays Longitude a week later.
Kweku Collins - Stupid Rose
★★★
Stupid Rose finds 19-year-old rapper Kweku Collins on a romantic mission. But struck, belatedly, by two major reservations: The first about the intended recipient of his largess. The second concerning the means he has chosen to express his affection. Not since Andre3000 warned that "roses really smell like poo-oo-oo", on Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Beneath album, has the floral industry received such bad press.
