Listen Tracks: The Kills, Celeste, Lykke Li and more

Behind every great album inevitably lies a collection of nearly-made-its; you can only fit a certain number of tracks on a record (unless you’re The 1975), so sometimes a perfectly good cut has to bite the dust. The excellently-named ‘Little Bastards’ - The Kills’ forthcoming B-sides and rarities release - celebrates the could-have-beens, and if ‘Raise Me’ (an offcut from the band’s 2008 LP ‘Midnight Boom’) is anything to go by, there lies gold in them there shores. A bare-bones blues-rock stomper that pares the percussion back to what sounds like handclaps and someone banging a bin lid, it takes Alison’n’Jamie’s knack for making something gritty and massive out of not very much at all, and acts as a reminder that, still now, few do it cooler than these two. (Lisa Wright)

There’s something about Celeste’s voice that makes any track she puts her name to - or lends her vocals to, more specifically - feel like a bona fide classic. And unsurprisingly, her latest offering - her contribution to the soundtrack of new Netflix film The Trial of the Chicago 7 - manages to continue that tradition too. Tapping into more – ahem - classic influences like The Beatles and Elton John, ‘Hear My Voice’ is a majestic plea with her listeners to stand up and pay attention, reflecting the plight of the film’s protagonists. “Hear my voice, hear my dreams / Let us make a world, world, in which in I believe,” she offers up gloriously, succinctly. And judging by the power of her latest track, we’ll, we’d be idiots if we didn’t heed her advice. (Sarah Jamieson)

Translated as ‘The Bridge’, Lykke Li’s first solo track back since 2018’s ‘So Sad So Sexy’ marks the Swedish singer’s first ever offering in her native language - a move that feels particularly fitting following a year rooted in self-reflection and a certain kind of personal reckoning. That ‘Bron’ tackles the deep pain of a break-up (“I will not cry more tears, because I cannot forgive…”) makes her move to her mother tongue an affective one, but no matter the linguistic vehicle, her knack for an emotively soaring melody and tender vocal remains the same. (Lisa Wright)

Ostensibly a lament to the increasing feeling of dread that Kevin Morby felt as day turned to night having recently relocated back home to Kansas, ‘Sundowner’ also cleverly doubles up as something altogether more existential. Doing his best Bob Dylan, plucked over gentle, simple acoustic strings, the title track from the singer’s incoming third LP makes full use of Kevin’s rambling storyteller charm: “Oh, I went to the market but the market was closed/ Sign on the window said, ‘The hours devour us’”. Poignant and gentle, there’s a sadness to ‘Sundowner’, but one that’s also strangely lovely. (Lisa Wright)

Breezy guitars and a real sense of honesty bring the latest track from London duo’s Babeheaven to life. “I lie back, try not to think / But my head’s on the ceiling. My mind’s on the craziest things,” sings the band’s Nancy Andersen in, offering your an insight into the angst-filled nights that often plague us all. But ‘Craziest Things’ doesn’t feel heavy with insomnia; instead it’s a comforting, jazz-inflected delight.

Tags: Babeheaven, Celeste, Kevin Morby, Lykke Li, The Kills, Listen, Features, Tracks