Welcome to another installment of my weekly recurring feature where I pick newly released songs I like. Let’s get to it without further ado. All tunes except for the last song appeared yesterday (January 7).
Dope Lemon/Rose Pink Cadillac
Dope Lemon is the solo project of Australian singer-songwriter Angus Stone. He first started to release music in 2007 with his sister as part of folk-pop duo Angus & Julia Stone. To date, four albums by the duo have appeared. In April 2009, Stone’s solo debut Smoking Gun came out under the pseudonym Lady of the Sunshine. Starting with his third solo album Honey Bones from April 2016, he has used the Dope Lemon moniker. Rose Pink Cadillac, co-written by him and Elliott Hammond, is the bouncy, funky title track of Stone’s fifth and latest solo release.
Best Coast/All Alone
I think this may be the first time I’m featuring a music artist in back-to-back Best of What’s New installments. Last week, I picked Best Coast’s then-most recently released song Leading. The rock duo, which includes songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Bethany Cosentino and guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Bobb Bruno, was formed in 2009 in Los Angeles. Borrowing again from their Apple Music profile: Drawing inspiration from ’60s surf rock and girl groups, Best Coast’s noisy lo-fi sound gave a nod to contemporaneous acts like Hot Lava, the Vivian Girls, and Brilliant Colors. Best Coast’s first year saw a flurry of little releases. Best Coast had become something of a sensation by the time 2009 came to a close. Fast forward to yesterday and the deluxe issue of Best Coast’s fourth studio album Always Tomorrow. Here’s one of the new tunes, All Alone, written by Cosentino – nice pop-rock!
Gang of Youths/In the Wake of Your Leave
Gang of Youths are an Australian indie rock band formed in Sydney in 2011 by principal songwriter David Le’aupepe (lead vocals, guitar). The other members include Jung Kim (lead guitar, keyboards), Tom Hobden (violin, keyboards, guitar), Max Dunn (bass) and Donnie Borzestowski (drums). According to their Apple Music profile, the group’s 2015 debut album The Positions tackled Le’aupepe’s painful divorce and mental health struggles against hard-charging indie rock topped with his tumultuous baritone. Rather than dwell in darkness, though, Gang of Youths’ anthems spin true stories of trauma into triumphant badges of survival and even hopefulness. Witness the empowering, Springsteen-worthy pulse driving “Let Me Down Easy,” from 2017’s Go Farther in Lightness. After winning four ARIA Awards for that record, the band became the inaugural performers on the Australian edition of MTV Unplugged in 2018. In the Wake of Your Love, credited to all members of the group, is a new single from their upcoming third studio album Angel in Realtime scheduled for February 25.
Dirty Honey/Let’s Go Crazy
Let’s wrap up this post with one of my favorite discoveries from last year: Los Angeles rock band Dirty Honey and their new single Let’s Go Crazy. If you’re familiar with Prince, the title of the song may be familiar. It’s actually a tune he originally recorded for his sixth studio and soundtrack album Purple Rain released in June 1984. Dirty Honey, who were formed in 2017 and are influenced by bands like Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and Black Crowes, do a nice job putting Prince’s funky pop-oriented tune into a classic rock type of song – pretty cool! Their rendition came out on December 31 – another tune I swear I didn’t see in iTunes’ new releases when I checked that day.
Last but not least, here’s a playlist of the above tunes:
Sources: Wikipedia; Apple Music; YouTube; Spotify
Dirty Honey….this song like some of their others sounds like good old fashion 70’s rock…
Best Coast…it may be just me but it has a hint of Stevie Nicks…just a little.
Gang of Youths sounds really good…really good pop/rock.
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Thanks, Max. As you know, I dig classic rock, so Dirty Honey make me smile. I also think it’s a cool rock rendition of Prince’s song!
This week, I had a bit of a hard time identifying four new tunes I sufficiently like. In the end, I’m pretty happy with what I found.
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They did give it the classic rock treatment!
I think you did…Dope Lemon was different…I didn’t like it at first but then it grew on me…it IS different.
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In these posts, I sometimes deliberately push a bit beyond my comfort zone. In the case of the Dope tune (btw, what a name, Dope Lemon!), I pretty much liked it from the beginning. However, some of the other tracks I sampled from his album spoke less to me. As such, I don’t see myself becoming a Dope Lemon fan, but I should probably give it some more listening before forming a more definite opinion about him.
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I know…Dope Lemon! At first my brain read Dope Lennon lol.
It’s good for us to go beyond our comfort zone but I don’t do it enough.
It turned out pretty good and very different than what I’m use to.
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I agree it’s a good thing to expose yourself to something different. I’ll admit at the end of the day, I happily keep coming back to my beloved classic rock, blues and ’60s/’70s soul! 🙂
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Yea I can see that. I try to do more and find new things…with Jeff, you, Graham, and you…you three are my new music places to go.
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All good tunes Christian. I really like the songs I’ve heard by Gang of Youths, and I like Dirty Honey’s take on “Let’s Go Crazy”. It really showcases their Aerosmith influence.
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Thanks. I thought of Aerosmith as well, especially Steven Tyler when it comes to Dirty Honey’s lead vocalist.
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Dope Lemon is a great band name. Alas, while I thought the tune was kinda funky, I didn’t much like his nasally voice. I liked the next two tunes but the killer here is ‘Let’s Go Crazy.’ The Prince tune is one of my favorites. I had it on my workout tape (back when we used cassettes) and heard it so much I got sick of it. I certainly couldn’t imagine hearing it any other way Led Z – sorry Dirty Honey really did a nice job with it.
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As a classic rock guy, I like what I’ve heard from Dirty Honey thus far. While there’s definitely some Zep in there, this tune reminds me more of Aerosmith.
It’s funny, I’ve never gotten much into Prince, but when I saw the title of the Dirty Honey tune, it immediately rang a bell. In fact, since I already had covered Dirty Honey a few times, it was largely my curiosity that made me listen to their new single.
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Oh boy, I love me some Prince. He was the whole package – writer, singer, performer. And great guitar player. We saw him once and it was just a great show. Unbelievably that was some 25 years ago!
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My longtime music buddy and former band mate from Germany also is a Prince fan. He has introduced me to some of his music.
BTW, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t mean to imply Prince wasn’t a great musician and artist. Still, I just never got too much into his music.
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No, sure, totally got it.
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