Friday Night Firefight – Time Zones

Label mates of the fabulous Nina, please say hello to Friday Night Firefight. New tune ‘Time Zones’ is a bit Owl City meets The 1975 with some bubbly synthwork too. Promising stuff.

 

Saffari – Dial Up

Mexico’s finest retrowaver is back with a delicious and dreamy new tune – say hello to ‘Dial Up’. The synths have a vaguely exotic feel to them and ‘Dial Up’ will be a welcome addition to our sun lounger playlist for holiday season in 2020.

Ora The Molecule – Here Comes The Hotstepper

Ora The Molecule have been exploring all sorts of sounds and styles across their releases over the past year or so. That experimentation continues in the form of an entirely unexpected disco cover of Ini Kamoze’s ‘Here Comes The Hotstepper’ – it’s ridiculously good fun. Get down.

 

Now, Now – Lonely Christmas

Loving the synthtastic festive single from Now, Now. ‘Lonely Christmas’ has hints of Muna but with the sax and guitar solos at the end it also recalls The Midnight. It’s quite lovely.

Kids At Midnight – Can I Come Home

From the first few icy synth sounds we knew we were going to enjoy the latest single from Kids At Midnight. ‘Can I Come Home’ is emotronica of the highest order – like Cyndi Lauper taking on the ‘Drive’ soundtrack.

Madonna – I Don’t Search I Find (Honey Dijon RADIOMIX)

Madonna’s ‘Madame X’ placed third on our albums of the year run down we published at the weekend. So excited for the live show at the London Palladium next month – we just know it’s going to be an incredible night of theatre. Folks have not been paying enough attention to the dazzling remix sets M has been putting out for this record. Just last week the Honey Dijon remixes of ‘I Don’t Search I Find’ arrived and boy are they good. The one we include you for here could have come from the ‘Deeper And Deeper’ era – loving the 90s house feel.

Teases & Dares – Top 50 Albums of 2019

Yep it’s that time again. We have been putting this together for a few weeks now and the final order changed yet again at the last minute (although the top two was locked down some time ago). It’s always a challenge to pick 50 and there are some great albums which just missed out. However, here’s our list for everyone to love, hate, pick apart, marvel at etc. There’s a Spotify playlist too with our favourite track from each of the records. Here’s to more great albums in 2020. Best non-LP tracks of 2019 coming soon.

1.  Lana Del Rey, Norman F***** Rockwell
2.  Grace Lightman, Silver Eater
3.  Madonna, Madame X
4.  Jenny Lewis, On The Line
5.  Seb Wildblood, Sketches Of Transition
6.  MUNA, Saves The World
7.  Weyes Blood, Titanic Rising
8. Holiday Sidewinder, Forever Whatever
9.  Bat For Lashes, Lost Girls
10. Chromatics, Closer To Grey
11. Octo Octa, Resonant Body
12. Bella Boo, Once Upon A Passion
13. Sui Zhen, Losing, Linda
14. Jessica Pratt, Quiet Signs
15. Noah, Thirty
16. Shura, Forevher
17. Self Esteem, Compliments Please
18. Isle Of You, Party Until We’re In Love
19. Carly Rae Jepsen, Dedicated
20. Hannah Cohen, Welcome Home
21. New Arcades, Returning Home
22. Maud Geffray & Lavinia Meijer, Still Life
23. ROOM8, Transduction
24. James Blake, Assume Form
25. Ariana Grande, Thank U, Next
26. Cub Sport, Cub Sport
27. Blue Hawaii, Open Reduction Internal Fixation
28. Satin Jackets, Solar Nights
29. Cassius, Dreems
30. Haelos, Any Random Kindness
31. Men I Trust, Oncle Jazz
32. Taylor Swift, Lover
33. Vast Hill, More Than You Imagined
34. Leon, Leon.
35. Lou Rebecca, Restless
36. Morabeza Tobacco, Morabeza Tobacco
37. Hatchie, Keepsake
38. Ainslie Wills, All You Have Is All You Need
39. Bananarama, In Stereo
40. Caroline Polachek, Pang
41. Sharon Van Etten, Remind Me Tomorrow
42. Boy Harsher, Careful
43. KLP, Giver
44. Angel Olsen, All Mirrors
45. Ali Barter, Hello, I’m Doing My Best
46. IDER, Emotional Education
47. Broods, Don’t Feed The Pop Monster
48. Lisel, Angels On the Slope
49. Tove Lo, Sunshine Kitty
50. Savoir Adore, Full Bloom