We’ve added some unmissable singles from coronated rock titans to this week’s NME Radio playlist: Liam Gallagher’s stonking new single ‘Everything’s Electric’ which was co-written with Dave Grohl, and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ first song with John Frusciante in over a decade, ‘Black Summer’.
Throw in cutting edge pop songs from Mitski, Mallrat, Flume, Rosalía and Bree Runway, and you’ve got a potent list of new additions to NME Radio.
Here’s what we’ve added to NME 1 & 2 this week:
On the A List:
Mitski
‘Stay Soft’
Mitski embraces crystalline synth-pop euphoria on ‘Stay Soft’, a single from her newly released album ‘Laurel Hell’. Though Mitski is beloved for her devastatingly forthright songs on consuming emotion, ‘Stay Soft’ shows her enigmatic side as a songwriter and storyteller. Doomy and dramatic, it spins a sexually charged tale of obsession and mutual destruction. – Karen Gwee
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
alt-J
‘The Actor’
On their fourth album ‘The Dream’, Alt-J’s Joe Newman told NME that he’d begun to write more from his own voice instead of leaning on fictional imagery and characters: “a big step forward for me”. But on ‘The Actor’, the band still indulge in a bit of tongue-in-cheek myth-making. As they explained in a statement: “Hollywood, 1982. Another hopeful young movie star arrives in search of The Dream. What follows is a tale of desperation, drugs and death in LA’s most famous hotel. It’s ‘The Actor’.” – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
On the B List:
Liam Gallagher
‘Everything’s Electric’
‘Everything’s Electric’ is the first single of Liam Gallagher’s new album ‘C’MON YOU KNOW’ – and it was co-written by Dave Grohl, who also drums on the track. In a five-star review, NME’s Jordan Bassett called ‘Everything’s Electric’ “a little more future-facing than the classically minded singles from his last two solo albums”. It’s definitely a compelling preview of a record that Liam’s called “80 per cent a bit peculiar”. – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Rosalía
‘Saoko’
Next month, Spanish pop artist Rosalía releases her third album ‘Motomami’, the highly anticipated follow-up to her acclaimed breakout ‘El Mal Querer’. Since that record, which synthesised flamenco and modern avant-pop, she’s become a darling of the urbano genre and worked with the likes of The Weeknd, J Balvin and Bad Bunny. The flirty ‘Saoko’, which goes into a thrilling jazzy interlude, proves she’s not done expanding her sonic horizons. – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Mallrat
‘Your Love’
Move over, ‘Charlie’ – Mallrat has a new signature song. The Australian artist Grace Shaw has begun an exciting new chapter with ‘Your Love’, a track that pulls snappy electronic beats, vocal glitches, dreamy synths, a Gangsta Pat sample and a heady, repetitive hook into a compelling whole. It’s the work of a canny pop auteur. – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Joy Crookes
‘19th Floor’
Joy Crookes wanted her 2021 debut album ‘Skin’ to be a personal record, and nowhere is that intent more obvious than on its second track ‘19th Floor’. A celebration of her grandmother and her journey as an immigrant to the United Kingdom, ‘19th Floor’ finds Crookes, who’s of Bangladeshi and Irish heritage, soberly meditating on her roots. – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
On the C List:
Red Hot Chili Peppers
‘Black Summer’
Red Hot Chili Peppers have welcomed John Frusciante back into the fold for new album ‘Unlimited Love’, which drops in April. Its first single is the melancholy-tinged ‘Black Summer’, which features a sizzling solo by Frusciante that fans have been waiting for since 2006’s ‘Stadium Arcadium’. – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Nova Twins
‘K.M.B.’
Nova Twins indulge in some bloodlust on new single ‘K.M.B.,’ which stands for ‘Kill My Boyfriend’. This revenge fantasy is the first preview of the duo’s new album ‘Supernova’, which they’ve said “is made out of dreams, triumphs and colourful nightmares. When you get to the other side, you will always come out a winner.” – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Flume
‘Say Nothing’ featuring MAY-A
Flume teams up with fellow Aussie MAY-A for ‘Say Nothing’, the lead single off his next album ‘Palaces’. The producer born Harley Streten has already moved the pop dial with his beguiling yet accessible future bass, but the layered, unpredictable ‘Say Nothing’ proves that he’s not resting on his laurels just yet. – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Bree Runway
‘Pressure’
NME 100 and pop statement-maker Bree Runway’s latest single ‘Pressure’ is slinky and confident, Bree flaunting her vocal versatility with different flows and styles. “I am a flamingo in a world full of pigeons. I want to be as bright as possible,” she cheekily said of the song in her NME cover story in January. – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Wings Of Desire
‘Perfect World’
On their new single, Wings Of Desire carve out a ‘Perfect World’ in under five minutes. The latest from Chloe Little and James Taylor, formerly of INHEAVEN, is a dream pop song that thrums with hope and anticipation. “‘Perfect World is about everything around you falling apart so that something even better can form in its place,” they’ve said in a statement. “Out with the old and in with the new as they say. It’s a melancholy sweetness against a backdrop of industrial optimism.” – KG
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
The post NME Radio Roundup 14 February 2022: Liam Gallagher, Mitski, alt-J and more appeared first on NME.
