Your New Music Monday selections offer up the long-awaited return of Beck Hansen, Swedish pop queen Léon and local gems:
It’s the final countdown until the release of Cowtown psych rockers Un Chien’s newest single, “Amarillo,” arriving Tuesday, June 7 via Hand Drawn Records. Combining ethereal harmonies from their fellow Fort Worth artist Gollay with beguiling jingle-jangle hooks, “Amarillo” has all the hallmarks of the consummate summer hit. Un Chien’s second full-length, Where We Belong, arrives July 20.
Dallas songwriter Nicholas Altobelli may best known for his gentle jams, but just in time for the election season, he’s sprung “Exit Polls” on us. This new stand-alone single features assist from wunderkind John Dufhilo (The Deathray Davies, Apples In Stereo, Cliffs of Insanity, I Love Math) and Chris Holt (Sorta, The Slack, Don Henley), and mines the Nick Lowe and Velvets veins for inspiration.
Autumn marks the mighty return of The Head & The Heart, following a nearly two-year hiatus which saw the various members dipping into new projects and frontman Josiah Johnson taking a much-needed rest. The beloved Seattle five-piece also just made the move from Sub Pop to Warner Brothers, who’ll release their third studio album, Signs Of Light, on September 19. Mark your calendar for October 30, as they make a swing through Dallas on their upcoming fall tour, playing the South Side Ballroom with UK singer-songwriter Declan McKenna. (P.S. — You can catch The Head & The Heart at South Side Ballroom on Oct. 30. Tickets go on sale to the public on Friday, June 10 at 10am, but you can get yours early using the code “KXT” on Thursday, June 9 starting at 10am!)
Our spidey-sense dictated that the name of this breakout Swedish will be on the tips of everyone’s tongue here in a few months, on the strength of the first strains of “Tired Of Talking.” No huge surprise that it went straight to number one on Hype Machine and that she counts another pop queen, Katy Perry, as one of her first supporters. You can now add Léon to the long list of Swedish pop queens putting Scandinavia on the map as Ground Zero for generating some of the best music on the planet.
And last but not least, we believe in our heart of hearts that the return of Beck is indeed something to celebrate. Last summer we got an inkling of what to expect output-wise with in the post-Morning Phase phase with “Dreams,” and last week, when “Wow” dropped out of the sky like manna from the heavens, we were suitably wowed. Pun intended. Welcome back, Beck.
XOXO
Gini.
