A slew of Autumn dates for the Yorkshire region have just been announced and here is our selection of the best in the next week and months
English singer/songwriter BETH ORTON has released the new song “Fractals”. The new music arrives as Orton prepares to hit the road in support of her first LP in six years -Weather Alive – with a mix of in-store shows and headline live dates planned in the coming weeks, ending at Brudenell Social Club on the 16th of this month. Already the array of released tracks has positioned Weather Alive as the album of Orton’s esteemed career which she herself calls a collaboration with the self, also her first self-produced LP in her nearly 30-year career. Recently Orton was also at the helm of the camera for her self-directed video for “Friday Night” shot in Hydra, Greece.
NINA NESBITT has released her eagerly anticipated new album ‘Älskar’ via Cooking Vinyl. Highlights of the album campaign have so far included exceeding the phenomenal career landmark of a billion streams, as well as playing two huge stadium shows as guests to Coldplay, which saw her duet with Chris Martin on ‘Let Somebody Go’. The record builds upon the huge success of her 2019 set ‘The Sun Will Come Up, The Seasons Will Change’ which took her to a global audience and won influential fans such as Taylor Swift.
Nina told us, “‘Älskar’ is about love in all its raw forms, whether that be my relationship, family, friends, or learning to love myself. I really like the dynamics of the album. It has that Swedish feel to it, as I got to work with a lot of my idols from the pop scene there. But it also has a Scottish element too – the storytelling and the folk – which influenced the other half of it.” As we’ve heard from singles such as ‘When You Lose Someone’ and ‘Pressure Makes Diamonds’, ‘Älskar’ switches confidently between confessional, emotionally-charged songwriting and instantly addictive modernist pop bangers. The record’s new focus track ‘I Should Be A Bird’ comes from its introspective side, its acoustic guitar melody providing the backdrop for a lyric which tackles the complicated emotions of being an empath and trying to set boundaries when those close to you are struggling. As Nina explains, “My first reaction is to help them through it but sometimes you can make it worse by being there too much.” She is embarking upon a UK and European headline tour which starts in November, including a date at Leeds University Stylus on the 13th.
Striking a chord with listeners thanks to their dynamic ear for melody and unfiltered songwriting, DEHD are the critically hailed, unashamedly idiosyncratic trio whose unique blend of weirdness, warmth and wit has sparked an adulatory fanbase across the world. Their new album Blue Skies is still Dehd – just more wild and wonderful than ever before. Another jolt of timely hope, only with twice the power. 2022 has been the ultimate roller-coaster for rising alt-rockers Dehd. Hitting many millions of streams, playing several sold-out worldwide shows and garnering widespread critical acclaim is just the tip of the iceberg of a whirlwind 6 months, and today they offer a taste of brand new material with “Eggshells”, a song which shows Dehd in a different, more reflective light than ever before. You can catch the at The Brudenell on November 20th
Grammy-nominated and critically-acclaimed songwriter COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS returns with “These Are The Good Old Days”; a new single from her forthcoming album ‘Loose Future’, which arrives on 7th October via Fat Possum. It arrives as Courtney announces a run of UK headline dates for 2023, following a series of intimate in-store shows. She open the tour at the Brudenell Social Club on March 1st 2023. New single “These Are The Good Old Days”, was inspired by a favourite saying of Courtney’s uncle, and is a gently-arranged reminder to live in the moment. The single is the third to be released from ‘Loose Future’, which was announced in June with the breezy and synth-abetted “Satellite” and the album’s arresting title track. Her latest single arrives on the heels of a US tour supporting Wilco, that came about after Jeff Tweedy caught Andrews’ set at the Black Deer Festival in the UK and invited her on stage to perform Wilco’s “California Stars”.
