Lucky Number Music

Today Samantha Urbani shares “Time Keeps Slipping“, the final single to be revealed from her forthcoming debut album Showing Up which releases this Friday 22nd September.

The Santigold-esque funk-pop of “Time Keeps Slipping” pairs glassy midi strings with a satisfyingly squelching bassline and features an ethereal sample of London based 80s pop duo Rexy’s cult track “Running Out of Time“. This fierce and self-referential ode is the perfect lead-in for Urbani’s long-awaited debut album release and follows recent singles “Showing Up”, “One Day at a Time” and “More Than a Feeling”, further revealing the shades and depths of Urbani’s impeccably crafted LP.

The lyrics see Urbani wryly reflecting on her early experiences in music, especially with her band Friends: “I was on a quest of anarchy, to rip apart success and pedigree… I became the hot commodity, with no way to avoid hypocrisy”.

Samantha says “This is my autobiography of my music career, the loopholes of being an anti-capitalist professional artist. To be the underdog but gain popularity. What do you do when your integrity mission has run its course? Because it’s crossed the line into hypocrisy. This may cause paralysis and the feeling of time passing in suspended animation hurts. Friends the band was a punk band, it’s paradoxical for something pure, resistant, radical, and anti-establishment to last in success in this world”.

A stunning piano-led rendition of “Bootleg Firecracker“, stripped down by Middle Kids lead singer and songwriter Hannah Joy, who describes the track as a song “about the power, magic and risk of intimacy. Sometimes it is easier to hide ourselves away from others. We’ve all experienced rejection. But sometimes we put ourselves out there and are received, loved, delighted in.”

Dream Wife released their electrifying third album, Social Lubrication, earlier this Summer to critical acclaim. Known for their explosive live shows, Dream Wife go stateside later this week with a string of dates kicking off in NYC at Brooklyn Made. To celebrate their forthcoming run of live shows, they today share brand new track “Love You More”, recorded during the Social Lubrication album sessions. Drawing from the likes of Pixies and Hole for inspiration, the band says, “‘Love You More’ is not your typical love song, but a love song to the self and choosing to love perfectly imperfect bodies. It has a gritty underbelly, dealing with self-acceptance, body dysmorphia, disaster capitalism, climate collapse and depression. From the micro to the macro, the song explores the relationship between the self and both the body and the earth as experiences of home, as a vessel for feeling.”

The band have also today announced a handful of new European shows and festival appearances, and five further UK headline dates for early 2024. This October and November they will be touring widely across the UK and Europe, including performing at Pitchfork Paris and their biggest London show to date, at Electric Brixton. See all their tour dates and get your tickets on their website here.

Today Samantha Urbani unveils “Showing Up“, the title track, and Prince-inspired opener, of her forthcoming debut album (out September 22nd).

“Showing Up” follows the release of recent singles “One Day at a Time” and “More Than a Feeling” and introduces the album’s prevailing lyrical preoccupation: the fraying of personal and professional relationships – often leading to unequal power dynamics – and her continued commitment to showing up when it matters. “I’ve always been the tough one, to take care when you’re tired / Suck it up and hold your trembling hand when you’re out there being admired,” she coos over tubular bell effects and raspy bass guitar, later confessing, “Sometimes I wish I had more of a taste for vengeance / Sometimes I wish I’d been born more of a capitalist.”

For Urbani, it was crucial to emphasise the importance of being emotionally present, be that by showing up for a romantic partner or by rejecting the toxic individualism of capitalist society to help affect positive change. Samantha says of the single:

“It took many iterations to find its most final form of power, just like me and anyone else who’s been thrashed around again and again. I always believed in it though, and finally re-recorded the intro verse during mixing, just as we were considering scrapping it. Counted it in like Prince, and cranked up the backbeat. Pretty simple and classic formula: power in vulnerability.”

The accompanying self-directed music video follows Samantha on a tender, near melancholic solo travel day from LA to NY- seemingly unsure of what or who awaits her. Filled with easter eggs that call back to Friends’ 2011 “I’m His Girl” music video and style choices reminiscent of ‘90s New York City music culture (including Samantha’s Coogi sweater, a nod to Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighbourhood and the Notorious B.I.G. – and an original bomber jacket from Madonna’s ‘Blonde Ambition’ tour), the DIY video is a multi-layered testament to the deep intentionality and razor sharp creative vision that shapes every facet of Samantha’s artistry.

Watch the video below, listen to the track here and pre-order the Showing Up album here.

To celebrate the release of Showing Up, Samantha has announced an album launch show at The Market Hotel in Brooklyn, NYC, on Friday 20th October. Tickets are available now.

Sydney-based three-piece Middle Kids today release their latest single “Highlands”, which showcases everything that has made them such a formidable force in recent years. The band take the bare-bones of indie-rock (guitar, bass, drums) and elevate their songs with an astonishing and euphoric vocal performance, scorching production and an incomparable pop-sensibility. The result is a song which grabs the listener from the opening bars and doesn’t let go for a thrilling three-and-a-half minutes.

“Highlands” is the band’s second song to be produced by Jonathan Gilmore, who is renowned for his work with The 1975 and Beabadoobee (amongst others). The song follows their recent single “Bootleg Firecracker” which weaved together intricate acoustic melodies and unconventional drum production which set it apart from their previous repertoire and ushered in a new era for the band.

The new single is accompanied by an extraordinary video directed by Toby Morris who took the band to shoot in the New South Wales highlands surrounding Jindabyne. The spectacular beauty of the region is offset by stunt driving, helicopters, horses, motorcycles and the Southern Hemisphere’s largest car-wrecking yard. The visual feast matches the ferocious immediacy of the song.

Lead singer and songwriter Hannah Joy said of the song: “Since I was young, I’ve had this yearning to be free. In this song I used an image of the ‘highlands’ as a euphoric place where I have the space to be me, and you have the space to be you. Part of the imagery comes from my Scottish heritage, which my grandmother was always so proud of. I recorded some big slow piano chords which Tim mangled into the atmospheric hits in the intro.

When we finished the song with Jon Gilmore in the UK, he thought it was important that the song felt punky, like a bunch of teenagers practising in their garage. So, there are these 2 energies fighting it out – the constricted energy of the domestic space and the wide open energy of the highlands. We have a friend who calls this kind of music ‘yearncore’. It’s that impatient energy that says, ‘I can’t keep waiting, I need a change’.”