Four years after his excellent album Vega Intl. Night School, Neon Indian returns with his first song in Spanish. “Toyota Man” is an upbeat slice of funky chillwave, with satirical lyrics about immigration and the American dream. At this time of worldwide identitarian closure and extremism, this pro-immigrant anthem is more than welcome.

In the self-directed video, Alan Palomo recreates his own story, from Monterrey to Austin. It also features a piñata version of Trump, that we would love to smash but actually not for the candies it contains, as well as a nod to Bob Dylan‘s politically charged visuals for “Subterranean Homesick Blues“. About the video, Palamo explained:

[su_quote]“Toyota Man” was filmed along the road map of what essentially was my path to American citizenship: Monterrey, the Nuevo Laredo border, San Antonio, and finally Austin. The process is a multiple decade commute known by many Latinos and other Americans. Though my music has always been generally apolitical, I realized when recording this song that it was impossible to write biographically (in the rhetorical context of the Trump administration) without being entirely that: political. The story of my family, which before felt commonly American, was suddenly politicized. Recognizing the absurdity of it all, I thought it would be refreshing to address the social narrative around immigration through comedy — nods to Benny Hill, misremembered San Antonio car commercials, and School House Rock. My family and I had a ton of fun making this and I hope it’s equally as fun to watch. Enjoy![/su_quote]

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Catch Neon Indian on tour:

11/14 Brooklyn NY @ Elsewhere

11/16 Washington DC @ 9:30 Club

11/17 Boston MA @ Big Night Live

11/20 Montreal QC @ L’Astral

11/21 Toronto ON @ Velvet Underground

11/22 Detroit MI @ El Club

11/23 Chicago IL @ Metro

11/24 St. Paul MN @ Turf Club

11/26 Omaha NE @ Slowdown

11/27 Denver CO @ Bluebird Theater

11/29 Salt Lake City UT @ Metro

Even before she had released a proper studio album, SOPHIE was already regarded as one of the most gifted and innovative producers of the 2010s. Arguably the best thing to come out of the whole PC Music gang, the producer’s music has left a lasting mark in the pop landscape without amounting to more than twenty officially released tracks. The terms “bubblegum bass” and “hyper-pop” will always be tied to her, which is particularly remarkable considering how scarce her officially released body of work is.

Coming out three years after her only other long-player “Product” (an eight-track compilation of singles released between 2013 and 2015), “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” is being rightly advertised as SOPHIE’s debut album. This isn’t a particularly innovative move, though it’s one that says a lot about her countercultural attitude in relation to the music business. Mostly due to financial reasons, the streaming era has brought in an unlikely revival of the album, but SOPHIE didn’t seem to want to take part in all of that – she kept releasing singles at a relatively meagre rate, and when the time came for her to finally put out her first studio album, she made the announcement in the most understated of fashions: “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” would see the light only ten days after its announcement without an accompanying single.

Considering the precedent that she set with “Product” and that the album’s first three tracks had already been released as singles in the same order as they appear in the final tracklist, one could think that the seemingly lack of fanfare that has accompanied “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” means that this is little more than a cash-grab compilation without the bigger picture in mind. Nothing could be further from the truth. SOPHIE’s debut studio LP is no rushed, non-sensical compilation of stand-alone tracks; in fact, it’s closer to being a well-planned concept album. What is this concept album exactly about? Well, that is less clear.

A cursory glance through professional and fan reviews reveals that the only common point in people’s interpretations of “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” is its reluctance to be categorized in a clear-cut manner. What seems to me the most appealing reading of it is that “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” is a pop album about pop music. Starting off with the anthemic, almost clichéd “It’s Okay To Cry” and finishing with the nine-minute long industrial frenzy of “Whole New World/Pretend World”, SOPHIE’s debut album is a journey through her vision of pop music as a multifarious space where wildly different moods can cohabitate. Whether what is coming through the speakers is a quintessential pop ballad that wouldn’t feel out of place in mainstream radio (“It’s Okay To Cry”), an ambient track that would force Boards of Canada to just retire and try to get new jobs (“Pretending) or a loud, breakcore-influenced stomper (“Whole New World/Pretend World”), “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” succeeds in delivering a series of different moods with meticulous precision. There is something here for everyone, as if the album were a sort of statement about pop music as society’s only shared safe space.

SOPHIE’s debut album is as ahead of its time as it is uncanny and uncomfortable. Some of these sounds are meant to put people off, but there is still something irresistible in them that makes you press play again and again. There is an industrial, sometimes even violent drive behind songs like “Ponyboy” or “Faceshopping”, the latter’s transition into the unexpectedly poppy bridge being so jarring and sudden that it turns it into one of the most puzzling pieces of her career. That all-pervasive vehemence is promptly balanced by the Björk-meets-A.G. Cook “Is It Cold in the Water?” and “Infatuation”, whose progressive build-up liberates all the tension accumulated in the previous songs. After taking yet another left turn with a couple of ambient tracks, the album finishes off with its two strongest and most frantic songs. “Immaterial” is an epileptic banger that could be regarded as old-school SOPHIE (is there’s actually such a thing), while “Whole New World/Pretend World” is simply an emotional and inexplicably touching odyssey through unexplored sonic universes.

One of the album’s most impressive accomplishments is that the artist’s presence is felt behind this myriad of styles and genres, which brings us back to the opening paragraphs of this review. This is no hodgepodge; this is an avant pop album that succeeds in defining SOPHIE as the eternally indefinable. “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” thrives on fluidity, liquid song structures and repetition to create an experience that is simply unparalleled: for forty minutes, you’re in SOPHIE’s world, and god knows what is going on there.

That “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” feels more like a radically left-turn, mid-career album rather than a debut speaks volumes about her status as one of the most genuinely unique artists of our age. She is someone for whom the word “experimental” falls short of its aim. However, it’s hard not to be disappointed that she has decided to play left field even before reaching her peak as a bona-fide pop artist. Sure,”Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” is an amazing album, and a hypothetical, more straightforward record would probably leave less of an enduring impression in pop history, but the most selfish part of me wishes that we would have got a full-on, “EMOTION”-like SOPHIE album with true crossover potential. But enough with the wishful thinking – listening to “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” is simply one of the most remarkable and breath-taking musical experiences that one can go through, and it is quite likely that it will be remembered as an avant-pop landmark for years to come.

Following up on a series of singles with flamboyant productions from SOPHIE and The Horrors‘ frontman Faris Badwan, Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth, the two teenagers behind the moniker Let’s Eat Grandma, unveil a stirring ballad about mental health as fourth single. About the track, Jenny Hollingsworth stated:

[su_quote]The realisation as you get older that some things are more complicated, and from the outside looking at a person you can’t always see how difficult some problems are to solve..[/su_quote]

Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingsworth of Let’s Eat Grandma have just announced the release of their sophomore album “I’m All Ears”. Following up to first single “Hot Pink“, which was produced by SOPHIE and The Horrors‘ lead vocalist Faris Badwan, they just shared “Falling Into Me”. David Wrench (Frank Ocean, Caribou) is also credited on the album.

About “I’m All Ears”, Rosa Walton detailed:

[su_quote]It’s about getting to know someone and getting over your fears about feeling insecure.[/su_quote]

Jenny Hollingsworth added:

[su_quote]Some of the lyrics reference being in control as a woman in a romantic relationship, and being the one to initiate. It’s the importance of if you feel something, tell them. Because you don’t know what’s going to happen in life, you might as well just do it.[/su_quote]

“I’m All Ears” will be released on June 29 via Transgressive. Check the full tracklisting below:

Whitewater

Hot Pink

It’s Not Just Me

Falling Into Me

Snakes & Ladders

Missed Call (1)

I Will Be Waiting

The Cat’s Pyjamas

Cool & Collected

Ava

Donnie Darko

Follow the girls via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Recently, Let’s Eat Grandma made a surprising come back with SOPHIE-produced single “HOT PINK“. The British duo comprised of childhood friends Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth have now shared a video. The two Transgressive Records signings bring us into a city at night and the atmosphere perfectly fits their new sound.

About the video, Let’s Eat Grandma detailed:

[su_quote]We’re trying to navigate through a city where people’s perceptions of reality are becoming more and more distorted in the fear that we’ll end up the same way.[/su_quote]

Balan Evans, who directed the video, added:

[su_quote]Quite often when I’m coming up with ideas it’s just one image that starts the process. In this instance, it was the pixel stretching, there was something intriguing about it, enjoyably off, from that point you have a small foothold on which to build. The song had a really strong digital feel, so I wanted to input that into the aesthetic. The image of a tall building with a strong coloured light was something from an old memory that has stayed with me, and it felt like a fun idea, another building block.[/su_quote]

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Let’s Eat Grandma have also announced a tour. If you want to know more about it, follow the duo over Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

LEG’s reputation has rocketed in the past year with backings from us here at Highclouds, NME and Guardian Music amongst many others. Their band name, which immediately invites interest, was actually decided on minutes before their first gig and stems from an old grammatical joke which highlights the importance of a comma…

Let’s Eat Grandma’s first album “I, Gemini” is a refreshing break from albums that are made to please. It is made to divide opinion.

LEG do not hide from their experimental and unusual style and instead embrace it despite any qualms some may have with it. As an album, “I, Gemini”, seems to work beautifully. The sheer range of styles amongst the ten tracks is startling and they combine together to take you on a light yet dark, bumpy yet smooth, eery but happy, rollercoaster ride.

We start in a state of mild relaxation with the floaty and synth-infused “Deep Six Textbook” which lulls you into a false sense of serenity. You are then introduced to Let’s Eat Grandma at their finest and most varied with “Eat Shiitake Mushrooms“ which includes everything from a glockenspiel solo to a rap breakdown! “Sax in the City” is the summit of this mountainous album where you can enjoy the view because after this we enter a gloomy and unsettling place.

You enter the void via “Chocolate Sludge Cake” and are secured in there by the uneasy sounds of “Rapunzel” and “Sleep Song”. These tracks may well make your palms sweat and put the lights on for safety. They are eerily brilliant. They epitomize the character and charisma that Let’s Eat Grandma possess. Their pure versatility and randomness is second to none. We are dragged out of the woods late on by a two-part track and then shoved on our way by a short and sharp little ukelele number, which clears your sinuses and makes you wonder where you’ve been for the last 20 minutes.

Let’s Eat Grandma’s debut album, “I, Gemini”, will undoubtedly divide opinion but surely that’s the point. The extreme experimental desire these two artists possess is what we love and the carefree attitude to put it out there for the world to listen to without pausing to wonder whether it will good or not is refreshing. Experimentation and exploration is what the two girls are about and long may they continue!

We love the girls here at Highclouds and their track “Eat Shiitake Mushrooms” got one of our finest reviews in our rising section. Check it out here. Following on from that Let’s Eat Grandma have released a video to accompany it. As you would expect, it is mind-bending and trippy and compliments the track perfectly. It creates a wonderful juxtaposition by showing Walton and Hollingworth performing in an eerie forest, blacked out and illuminated by sporadic colours whilst simultaneously in other shots they are harmlessly playing in the woods and riding their bikes merrily, like many teenage girls would be.

Let’s Eat Grandma‘s video for “Eat Shiitake Mushrooms” was directed by Ben Sommers. Like the track, it is mind-bending and trippy!

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These two incredibly talented and refreshingly original artists are making waves in the wake of their album. Live shows have been getting stunning reviews, their show in Electrowerkz, London received a comprehensive review from The Guardian and their performance was wonderfully weird as we all hoped. Let’s Eat Grandma evoke so many emotions with their music and performances that you jump from delight to fear to ecstasy to space and back all within a 6-minute song. Which we obviously love.

The duo continues to tour the UK in the coming months, topped off with a performance at Latitude Festival in July, and their highly anticipated album is set for release on June 17 via Transgressive. Pre-order it here!