Summer 2012 Releases - Part 1 

These watery months that lead us into the first vestiges of summer are a reminder that festival season is fast approaching; an exciting time for any music lover and one that will thankfully, yet shamefully, be my first. But what makes this time of year doubly exciting from a personal perspective is the vast array of new releases from artists that have been sprung into the spotlight upon the back of their previous LP successes. There are four new releases, however, that are grabbing my attention the most. For the sake of symmetry and fairness, there are two from each side of the pond. From Britain: throwbacks from a bygone era and from the US: two emerging heavyweights of the popular alternative music scene. 

First up, Richard Hawley’s Standing on the Sky’s Edge that was released on Parlophone records last Monday 7^th May. One could seek criticism in this overtly grandiose and wistful album title but it appears that the Sheffield crooner has gone back to his real strength – his guitar playing. With what Hawley has described as his “angry” record, it has earned rave reviews from far and wide and looks set to gain more admirers following headlining performances at festivals such as Latitude this summer. Whilst I didn’t enjoy this record as much as I thought I would (I had incredibly high expectations), I can still see tracks like Leave Your Body Behind You going down a treat at festivals with it’s anthemic and northern wall of sound qualities.

Despite the title and release date unconfirmed, 2012 will most likely see the reappearance of a Manchester band who had been toiling through the doldrums until a combination of songwriting excellence and a fruitful collaboration with fellow Mancunians brought I am Kloot to the forefront of public consciousness. The culmination of this rise can be seen in The Sky at Night receiving a nomination for the 2010 Mercury Music Prize only to eventually lose out to The xx for their debut album. A recent tweet from Elbow’s Mark Potter – producer alongside Guy Garvey for both I am Kloot’s last and, we think, next LP – suggests that one of I am Kloot’s new tracks “will kick your balls in!” Perhaps not the first thing that would spring to mind when describing the impact of IAK track, but we get the sentiment! 

With what could appear - like Hawley’s - as a pretentious-sounding album title, one might hypothesise that they were setting themselves up for a large fall but with Potter and Garvey’s eye for the orchestral, IAK delivered a wonderful collection of tracks that were able to match the title’s grand ambition. Putting Elbow’s influence to one side for a moment, John Bramwell conjured some poignant moments and truly memorable lyrics; my favourite of which being from Fingerprints where the line “If heaven is a place upon your skin || That I may have touched from without to within” is so stunningly embroiled in pathos when Bramwell repeats the line at the track’s conclusion.

One suspects that Bramwell would have been wary of the criticism that would inevitably come his way with what one might consider rather syrupy album motifs like the homage to the north in “See the stars and constellations || Sit beneath their congregation” on Northern Skies. Equally obvious is the idea of radiation from distant suns falling over you as the dawn breaks on Radiation. However, The Sky at Night doesn’t come across syrupy at all; it is honest, unashamedly romantic and basically, just downright beautiful. Let’s hope for something similar when the new release comes around.