My new music picks of the week: Josephine, Amy MacDonald, The Temper Trap and School of Seven Bells

Josephine is a Manchester-based singer-songwriter, with a strong regional and celebrity following; Guy Garvey (Elbow) has named her as one of his top tips for future success. Josephine’s sound has been described as soulful and eclectic, with her single ‘A Freak A’ being a perfect representation of the genre. Speaking about the addictive track, she has said that:

(‘A Freak A’) is a celebration really, of understanding what you are and holding on to it…‘A Freak A’ is a way of saying we are all capable and allowed to be more than one thing.

Josephine is performing at Manchester’s first Lady Rock Festival on Saturday 26th May 2012 at the Rugby Club in Cheadle. The festival aims to ‘bring a bit of girl power back to the 21st century’ and will feature music, comedy and performance/participatory art across the site’s numerous, themed areas. Each and every one of the acts will be female (or female fronted). For more information and to buy tickets to the festival, please visit www.ladyrockfestival.com.

 

Amy MacDonald has announced details of her third album via her official website this week. The album, ‘Life In A Beautiful Light’ will be released on June 11th, 2012 and the first single will be ‘Slow it Down.’ MacDonald’s second, million-selling album, ‘A Curious Thing’ (2010) spawned five hit singles including ‘This Pretty Face’ and ‘Don’t Tell Me That It’s Over.’ MacDonald has been busy writing material for her third album over the past two years and if this new track is any indication, Amy fans are in for a real treat come summer.

 

The Temper Trap will release their second, self-titled album on May 21st, 2012 (UK), with the first single to be released being announced as ‘Need Your Love.’ The album will be released on May 18th, 2012 in Australia/NZ/Germany and June 5th, 2012 in the US/Canada. After enjoying an Easter weekend of Noriyuki “Pat” Morita’s finest work, I am simply delighted that the band has decided to take inspiration from The Karate Kid films for their latest music video. The premise of the video being; what would have happened had Johnny been taken under Mr Miyagi’s wing. “Sacrilege!”, I hear you yell; I concur, yet I greatly enjoyed the musical morbid curiosity.

 

On the strength of hearing the sublime synth sounds of ‘Lafaye’, I recently purchased School of Seven Bells’ latest album, ‘Ghostory‘. I can’t recommend the record enough. Every track is worthy of a single release and their sound is quite unlike anything that’s been doing the rounds over the past few years. Their sound thrills and throws you in equal measure; very much an assault on the senses and an adventure ride of an album. I have a couple of favourite tracks, one of those being, ‘Scavenger’. The band has announced a couple of UK dates over the summer and I am keeping my fingers crossed for one in the North West region. I include this track here as my personal recommendation for a potential hit single on these shores.

 

www.myspace.com/thisisjosephine / www.amymacdonald.co.uk / www.sviib.com / www.thetempertrap.com

shelleyhanveywriter 🙂