Features Tracks: The Antlers, How To Dress Well & More

It’s Friday, and this week we’ve been spoilt for new tracks. Where to begin? Don’t worry too much because the lovely writers of DIY have gathered together and exchanged tips, and here is the majestic end result. Enjoy!

The Antlers – Palace

It’s been a while since I last properly spent time with The Antlers– Benicassim 2011, to be precise - but I still remember how ‘Drift Dive’ skipped across the beachy haze in a melancholy fanfare of drawn-out trumpet peels and cascading wave-tunnels of pounding rhythm, far more than anything else that weekend. The Antlers are a curious mix of the old pal that always sticks by you, and that rose-tinted ex that you still love – at least until they put ‘Hospice’ into the CD player and break your weeping little heart all over again. It’s easy to get slightly morose talking about The Antlers, and their newest song ‘Palace’ befits it. Heartbreaking brass cries out over the top of a continuous, simple piano riff that maintains steady time, and by the time Peter Silberman comes in with that falsetto..well, it’s just a bit overwhelming really, init? (El Hunt)

First Aid Kit – My Silver Lining

When they started out, the focus was on Johanna & Klara Söderberg’s aka First Aid Kit’s age; mid-teens talented beyond anyone’s years, let alone theirs. Somehow throughout their albeit fairly short career so far, they haven’t been lumped in with any ‘coming of age’ chatter. Instead, they’ve just written better songs. Step-by-step. Now the focus, instead of how many years they share between them, is about how many festival stages they’ll top. The Swedish duo haven’t written their biggest chorus or most anthem-friendly song with ‘My Silver Lining’, but the pair’s knack for frontloading songs with sweet, lifting hooks hasn’t shifted one jot. Directed by a dusky, mid-west desert flow, bone dry production is backed by hurrah-ing strings and the kind of ‘wooh’-heavy refrains that could easily sit comfy in a nursery rhyme, they’re that accessible. First Aid Kit’s ascent isn’t stopping abruptly, then. Nor has there ability to write songs that sound naggingly familiar and still unlike anything they’ve penned before.(Jamie Milton)

Conor Oberst – Governor’s Ball

It’s been a good week for the First Aid Kit sisters. Not only have they announced their return with a stonker of a new single, they offer sweet sounding backing vocals here on the newest cut from Conor Oberst’s latest record, which offers more than a tip of the hat to the New York music festival with the same name. Tales are told of a guy rolling up ‘with his friends in a caravan…sat by himself on a patch of grass whilst the rest are like bricks in a wall’. Anyone who has experienced the tightly knotted crowds at festivals must have at some point taken time to contemplate the huge mass of life resembling brickwork stretching into the horizon, before being distracted by the allure of the opposite sex and the drugs they offer (‘pieces of sky’, as described by Oberst), and spent the rest of the weekend in a haze. If you haven’t, then no fear, as Oberst spins a golden tale here, with the accompaniment of brass, keys and handclaps. The irony isn’t lost that this ode to festivals is likely to be sung back to Oberst at the many festivals he plays this summer-although, with a song this good, it deserves to be sung by the masses. (Joe Sweeting)

How To Dress Well – Repeat Pleasure

How To Dress Well has always been a peddler of super-emotive music, but as of late it’s easier to hear Tom Krell’s own narrative behind the project moniker. “Even broken, my heart will go on,” sings Krell, and his voice is as crystal clear as a bottle of Fiji water. Starting out as a scuffing guitar melody kicking over long grass, ‘Repeat Pleasure’ gathers a following of plunking bass, cascading synthesizer, and even a guitar solo. One happy parade of skipping melodic genius, Krell is a Rn’B Pied Piper, fully in control of every single element. (El Hunt)

Lana Del Rey – Meet Me In The Pale Moonlight

If one image had to be used to describe Lana Del Rey, it would be a star. Sure – it might seem cheesier than Alex James doing Eurovision – but it’s true. ‘Born To Die’ was drenched with emotion and saudade, combining romanticised Great-Gatsby idealism with a spangled glazing of vintage America, swooning into the arms of music lovers across the world. Every track had a star quality, and was coated with an ineffable magical atmosphere that made it all the more delectable. Even though musically the style has been tweaked a little in new leaked track ‘Meet Me In The Pale Moonlight’, as an artist Lana Del Rey remains nothing but a proper popstar. It twinkles in a new glittery jacket of funk guitars and a grooving bassline - with Del Rey’s vocals a touch more uplifting than before – injecting her music with a shot of disco-pizzazz. It’s a ruddy exciting hint of what may be to come - glowing in its cape of glitterball pop – and is, in every sense of the word, nothing short of stellar. (Kyle MacNeill)

William Arcane – Reflected

On previous singles, South London producer William Arcane wasted no time in getting to the point. Jagged, forthright electronica was his game and he wanted everybody to know about it - fast. He reaches the same heights on ‘Reflected’, but given the minute-long abstract opening, he’s also keen to create a journey instead of two head-spinning pop tracks this time round. ‘Reflected’ links up with ‘Fade’ for a new single - the two don’t so much combine as completely intertwine. It’s in ‘Reflected’’s buzzsaw synths and knife-sharp aesthetic that things really get going, Arcane again achieving a balance between adventure and immediacy. (Jamie Milton)

Drake - Draft Day

Ever since ‘Nothing Was The Same’, it’s unlikely that Drake’s stopped to take a day off. After sharing new track ‘Draft Day’, he then gave us another one yesterday called ‘Days In The East’. He continues paying homage to 90s artists, this time looping a hypnotic, 5 second sample from Lauryn Hill’s ‘Doo-Wop (That Thing)’ on ‘Draft Day’. “Draft day… Johnny Manziel…” he starts as a smiling picture of Manziel himself surrounded by women looks back. He even shoehorns in a Hunger Games reference. Drake’s played this routine before. In 2011 he loaded himself up with three new songs including ‘Club Paradise’ before ‘Take Care’ came out- none of them made the album, so don’t be surprised if these are (albeit fantastic) one-offs. (Aurora Mitchell)

Fickle Friends – P L A Y

It’s probably fair to say that Brighton is still topping the bill as the new music hub of the UK, brimming with swirling synth; pop from IYES, Royal Blood’s alt - rock, all the way to the delicate, electronic sounds being pioneered by the likes of Phoria and Kanzi. Its five piece Fickle Friends, though, who are leading the way for new-wave pop, producing tracks which fizz and jitter with buoyancy, catchy hooks which persist in holding attention from start to finish. They create, above all, songs which overflow with optimism, revelling in a kind of carefree bliss that commands you to dance. Following up their stellar debut ‘S W I M’, latest track ‘P L A Y’ is no exception; all glitchy guitar pulses, saccharine vocals, climactic drum clatters and celestial synth patterns. An initially steadier jaunt than its predecessor, it’s not long before ‘P L A Y’ snowballs to an equally anthemic chorus, exuding a boundless charisma which proves this quintet are far more than just a one hit wonder. (Laura Eley)

Florrie – Free Falling

Drummer/singer/songwriter Florrie has graciously took the lid off another tantalising musical concoction brewed up using her unmistakeable pop formula, and by god it’s potent. Continuing to infuse pulsating electro grooves with the newfound love of Bhangra-influenced melodies she demonstrated on previous single ‘Seashells’, ‘Free Falling’ is further given the Florrie patent through her signature use of lyrical content – sparse and repetitive, but undeniably effective. Coupled with the hypnotic delivery she utilises as she mesmerisingly sings the verse, sings the verse, sings the verse, ‘Free Falling’ currently holds pride of place as 2014’s benchmark for how to write a punchy, no-filler pop song. (Joshua Pauley)

Aztecs – Bad Blood

Aztecs have made this music lark look all too easy. Within months of their old band coming to its sad demise, two of the party gleefully headed straight into the studio with smiles on their faces, whistling the tune of their first ever release ‘Bad Blood’. Without delay and before they even knew it, it’s out there in the form of a spaghetti western lyric video. A lyrically downbeat and melancholy track offset by a soundtrack of summer, chocka withsoaring synths and calypso guitar riffs, they feel like the musical offspring of Lorde and Vampire Weekend. It gives the impression that the Aztecs are a surefire hit on the fast approaching festival season, and we don’t have to wait long to find out - there are more releases scheduled very soon. (Joe Dickinson)