Wednesday 20 June 2012

The Sound of Arrows - Conquest

We've grown pretty fond of The Sound of Arrows at Popsiculture, to the extent that a new video makes me squeal with excitement in a frankly quite girly way.

Last week was one of those occasions, as the video for Conquest - the new single from TSOA's debut album Voyage - dropped into the Popsiculture inbox.

The single's officially released on June 25th, but you can already buy the track as a digital download as part of Voyage, and you can watch the video below.


It's a typically TSOA production, with lavish visuals and a unique fantasy world created specifically to tell the story of Conquest (and filmed entirely on location in Barcelona).

As usual, there's plenty of questions left unanswered at the end of the track, but you're still taken on a pretty awesome journey, and it only takes a few minutes of your time.

I'm a huge fan of The Sound of Arrows' work so far, and hoping to see plenty more from them in the months to come - with such production levels going into each video, though, it's easy to see why they can sometimes be spaced a good few months apart.
Voyage (Bonus Track Version) - The Sound of Arrows

Monday 18 June 2012

The Futureheads - Beeswing

If you read our review of The Futureheads live at RNCM on April 13th, you may have been holding out for an a capella single release from the boys - and they've finally come up with the goods.

Beeswing is a cover of the Richard Thompson classic, a subtle and moving tale of lost love that recounts a relationship that lasts "as long as there's no price on love".

Like many of Thompson's story-telling tunes, it's doomed from the start; no glorified view of eternal love here.



The Futureheads' interpretation is a punchy version with a character all of its own, and had its official release as a single in its own right on June 18th.

You may have heard the track already - we featured it in our review of The Futureheads' a capella album Rant back in early April - but it's great to see the levels of interest in the boys' voice-only work are high enough to support a single release.

All I can really add is that the rest of the album is well worth a listen too, and the button below will take you to the album page on iTunes if you want to preview the rest.
Rant (Bonus Version) - The Futureheads

Friday 15 June 2012

The Fresh & Onlys - Yes or No

Yes or No, the latest single from The Fresh & Onlys, is out on Monday, and there's just time for us to feature it as a Free Music Fridays treat.

Use the player below to preview the track, or visit SoundCloud to download a copy of your own for free.



Yes or No is a deliberately anthemic love song, a questioning tale of what went wrong in a soured relationship.

The Fresh & Onlys' bassist, Shayde Sartain, sums it up: "It was meant to be an anthem, but I guess you could say it was more desperate - the overwhelming desire to please someone, and then feeling as though you have failed and being confused by that."

Despite that, it's not a sad song, but delivers plenty of energy over the course of a fast-paced and melodic two and a half minutes.

We'll be keeping track of The Fresh & Onlys in the months to come, with their fourth LP, Long Slow Dance, currently slated for a September 3rd release date.