From London
Recommended if you like Heavenly, CSS, the Teenagers
Up next I Have to Get Hotter out now
The Femcels’ music is euphoric and depressive, sometimes ironic but mostly sincere, often high-tempo, and all delivered with wired, unvarnished vocals. In that sense, it is 80s and 90s twee reincarnate; move past their band’s shitposty name and you’ll find that Rowan Miles and Gabriella Turton have a lot to offer when it comes to exploring the chills and thrills of young womanhood in 2020s London.
Following in the footsteps of Heavenly and Tiger Trap, their sometimes-sung, sometimes-spoken lyrics are specifically and unapologetically feminine, given an update for the modern era: the Femcels’ debut album I Have to Get Hotter, released earlier this year, touches on catastrophic body image, coding, clout and boys who are more interested in their phones than other human beings, among other things. Everything is slicked with irony, but there’s a lot of icky, darkly funny truths in the Femcels’ music, like when Miles talks about DMing a rock star who “really wants to see me when his kids’ spring break is over”.
Aesthetically, the Femcels draw largely from 2000s and early 2010s electroclash and indie-pop; the sound of I Have to Get Hotter, steered by Bassvictim’s Ike Clateman and Leo Fincham, AKA Worldpeace DMT, is a fizzy, ahistorical genre-mash that draws liberally from CSS, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, Vampire Weekend, Grouplove and a whole host of other bands from that era that were largely unrelated at the time. (It also features a cover of Shelley Duval’s He Needs Me in the style of the one-album-wonders the Teenagers.) The sheer excitement that radiates from the Femcels’ music makes it easy to let their exploration of bad taste go without question; I Have to Get Hotter is freaky and sharply observed, a perfectly unholy mix for a time like this. Shaad D’Souza
This week’s best new tracks
Kelsey Lu – Running to Pain
Songwriting where the massive ambition is matched by quality and intention: Lu returns with a giant synthpop ballad about masochistically finding life-force in a callous lover. BBT
My New Band Believe – Love Story
After his giddy and brilliant recent single Numerology, former Black Midi man Cameron Picton cuts the tempo for this deeply moving song: a declaration of love as he cooks the evening dinner. BBT
Flo – Leak It
With a beat reminiscent of Nelly Furtado’s Promiscuous, the British girl band double down on that track’s sexual confidence as they elect to make their thirst traps public. The chorus is pure girls-night euphoria. BBT
Lily Seabird – Demon in Me
The Vermont songwriter is on the verge of a breakout. This acoustic waltz about wanting to self-actualise tries out elegant orchestration before spilling into gloriously unruly feedback. A lesson in letting the demon out. LS
Cola – Conflagration Mindset
Tim Darcy, the doleful and poetic frontman of the reliably excellent US indie rockers, lost his house in the LA wildfires, and that prompts a wider existential reflection here: “Make room for sorrow / It’ll make room for you.” BBT
Priori – Nesting Chamber (ft Gavsborg)
Like a cold front rushing into a bank of warm weather, this is an outrageously sensual splicing of dub techno and funky house, with catchy toasting from Gavsborg locked into the groove. BBT
Slippers – Wants for Everyone
The new one from the LA band is classic jangle-pop with an indie-slacker bent, but there’s a trace of 60s girl groups in the simultaneously carefree and melancholy chorus. BBT
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