Megan Thee Stallion is back with a vengeance on her latest album drop, ‘Traumazine’. The pop-culture juggernaut is still doing hot girl shit, though this time with an edge we’ve never seen from her before. In NME’s four-star review, we highlighted that though “the album features more deep cuts than you’d expect from a Megan Thee Stallion record, it shows just how she’s pushed her pen since ‘Good News’, while also illustrating her broad musicality”.
The record’s house banger ‘Her’ is our latest addition to the NME Radio A List this week; alongside other additions including the second preview to Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ highly anticipated comeback album, a highlight from Kasabian’s latest project, and new tunes from Dog Race, PVA, PinkPantheress and Sam Gellaitry and more.
Here’s what we’ve added to NME 1 and 2 this week.
On the A List:
Megan Thee Stallion
‘Her’
As Drake’s and Beyonce’s 2022 releases seem to suggest, hip-hop is set on bringing house music back to the spotlight. With ‘Her’, Megan Thee Stallion throws her gauntlet in the house revival. Against a thumping bassline, Megan boasts of her impeccable style in bouncy bars like “Hoes must’ve just seen me and they playin’ catch-up / Bitches lookin’ like lil’ Megans playin’ dress-up”.
In true Megan Thee Stallion fashion, all this culminates in a bouncing hook bound to draw every eye in the room to herself: “I’m her… / She… / Take a pic, it’s me… / Tell your friends this her…”. – Eli Ordonez
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
On the B List:
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
‘Burning’
The New York City indie titans strike again with ‘Burning’, the second preview of ‘Cool It Down’, their anticipated first album in almost a decade. The moody, retro-tinged track finds its first sparks in Karen O’s signature vocals. “Ooh / Lay your red hand on me, baby,” she coos before the track explodes with a propulsive beat and reverb-drenched guitars. This track, along with their previous collaboration with Perfume Genius, suggests we’re in for a darkly cinematic full-length to come. – EO
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Kasabian
‘STRICTLY OLD SKOOL’
Leicester rockers Kasabian have returned with new album ‘The Alchemist’s Euphoria’, their first record with Serge Pizzorno stepping up as frontman. The project sees them favouring a more electronic production style, which the breezy ‘STRICTLY OLD SKOOL’ showcases. A syncopated electronic beat leads the way as Pizzorno admires his subject’s old school style: “From a place where time forgot / Now you’re the one who calls the shots / When I could never be that cool / You’re old school” – EO
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Dog Race
Terror
Bedford goth revival newcomers Dog Race introduce themselves in dramatic fashion with their peppy debut single, ‘Terror’. The aptly-named track, produced by South London dance duo Pregoblin’s Jessica Winter, features catchy, Cure-ready guitars, a steady beat and singer Katie Healey’s unsettling vocal delivery, a musical formula which would incite a moshpit on one night and keep you awake on another. – EO
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
PVA
‘Bad Dad’
PVA have delivered the fourth preview of their upcoming debut full-length, ‘BLUSH’. The South London genre-hoppers juxtapose synthesisers and drum machine beats with post-punk agitation and gloom. Singer Ella Harris’ morosely weaves a tale from the perspective of a father whose family withholds dark secrets (“Sonny says the most terrible things / When he lays awake at night / And I’m singing to him / And he screams in his sleep”), leaving us all the more intrigued and unsettled. – EO
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
On the C List:
PinkPantheress & Sam Gellaitry
‘Picture in my mind’
‘90s revivalist PinkPantheress teams up with Scottish producer Sam Gellaitry for sprightly new single, ‘Picture in my mind’. The former’s distinctly angelic vocals grace the track’s minimal sped-up disco beat, constructed with a rubbery bassline, forceful kick drums and vibrant pianos. As the track progresses, the duo subtract more and more elements of the song, until all that remains are their voices in unison against saccharine ambience. – EO
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Omar Apollo
‘Endlessly’
Omar Apollo is back with breezy new tune ‘Endlessly’, from the ‘Marfil’ edition of his major-label debut, ‘Ivory’. Originally a 30-second interlude off the aforementioned release, the track receives complete production treatment in this full-length version. Its minimal arrangement gives Apollo plenty of space to shine as a singer, as he stacks layers of vocal harmonies in this buoyant love song. In a four-star review, NME called ‘Ivory’ a “a collection of gorgeous, sultry songs that contend with the angst of feeling like you’re the only person who is truly awake and alive in an otherwise sleepy world”. – EO
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Alvvays
‘Easy On Your Own?’
On their second preview for upcoming comeback album ‘Blue Rev’, Canadian dream-pop outfit Alvvays bemoan the humdrum of adulthood. “‘Cause we’re always / Crawling in monochromatic hallways / Dream we pull a one-eighty some day,” sings Molly Rankin against the appropriately nostalgic, ‘90s-inspired jangle of guitars. This powerful yet relatable track is an exciting glimpse of the band’s first full-length in five years. – EO
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Working Men’s Club
‘Cut’
Off their latest full-length offering ‘Fear Fear’, Working Men’s Club take us through a simultaneously hypnotic and spirited odyssey in ‘Cut’. Built around a cyclical chord progression and a lively beat, the track reflects on the repetition of modern life as frontman Syd Minsky-Sargeant laments: “All the time it’s just running around my soul” like a mantra. In NME’s review of ‘Fear Fear’, we reflected that “Working Men’s Club certainly wear the trauma well, but this riveting exploration truly thrives by seeking the light beyond the gloom”. – EO
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music