Every Monday, Add of the Week unveils all the new songs going into the 88Nine on-air playlist, with one hand-picked selection put in the spotlight by a member of our music team.
This is our last round of adds for the year, so we decided to crank up the generosity by giving two new tracks the star treatment — the first of which carries a message that slides right into a certain much-discussed holiday a week from today. Well, sort of.
“Grace” is the recent single from U.K. punk band IDLES that raises a few questions as you listen, the most demanding being something along the lines of: “Wait, punk band?” As you’ll hear after hitting the play button on the video above, this is not in-your-face rock. There is no shouty talk-singing here. Frontman Joe Talbot opts instead for a gentler, dream-like approach pulled from the Thom Yorke Emotive Vocals Institute. It’s a nice fit for a tune with a chorus of:
No god, no king
I said, love is the thing
No crown, no ring
I said, love is the thing
IDLES worked with renowned producer Nigel Godrich for this and many other tracks that’ll appear on upcoming album TANGK (out Feb. 16), so the Radiohead-ish vibes make sense. As for the kumbaya message, Talbot said in a release, “The song came from nowhere and everything. It was a breath and a call to be held. The only words or singing that came from our sessions with Nigel, and I needed it, truly. All is love.”
When it comes to the vocal approach, there’s some connective tissue between the IDLES tune and this week’s other add, “Spinning” from Wishy. The relatively recent two-person team-up featuring Kevin Krauter (who previously played in Hoops and did some solo stuff) and Nina Pitchkites also goes with a hazy, low-keyish singing style for this selection from their just-released EP, Paradise.
Where the tracks diverge is how they stack their sound and their message. Whereas IDLES applied their “everybody get together try to love one another” lyrics with boom and bass, Wishy is bright and almost sunny-sounding while describing a more personal love situation that seems to be at a turning point:
Driving through this blizzard
And I’m talking to myself
Running through my mind
I know I’ve put me on a shelf
Things may come
And things may go
I didn’t know me then
I don’t know me now
Spinning around on the kitchen floor
I don’t know what I’m dancing for
Honey it’s been about me
Listen to Wishy’s “Spinning” below, and keep your ears open for both of this week’s adds as you tune in 88Nine over the air or stream it here on the website and on our mobile app.
