David Emery Online

Shadows by Goddess & Ex:Re

I have two playlists that I update regularly and listen to almost every day. The first — #20 — is my favourite twenty songs right now, no more no less, and roughly corresponds to the tracks I post on here. If it makes it to #20, it makes it to the blog.

The other — imaginatively titled “New Music” — is a seventy seven hour long dumping ground of any new music that comes out that I might want to listen to. Every week I trawl through the new releases — songs and albums — and if there’s anything interesting I’ll add it to the playlist. Then I’ll listen to all of it on shuffle. Every once in a while I’ll sweep through and clean out anything that I’ve been skipping too much.

The one and only album by Ex:Re — the solo moniker for Elena from Daughter — has been in my New Music playlist, in full, ever since it came out in 2018. It’s a no skips record. But, being a solo project, and Daughter still very much being a going concern, it always felt like a one off.

And yet, here we are in 2025 with a new Ex:Re track. Well, sort of. This track is from a project called “Goddess”, which is created and curated by ex Savages drummer Fay Milton, and it brings some of that Savages energy to the depth of Elena’s vocal, and it all works exceptionally well.

Guericke's Unicorn by Beirut

Beirut is an artist that I have slowly found indispensable — a soothing balm for the soul whenever I most need it. His last album “Hadsel” wormed it’s way in to my listening habits to such a great extent that it was #5 in my most played albums last year, despite it coming out the year before.

The press release for this new song reports that the album that it comes from, “A Study Of Losses”, was commissioned by a Swedish circus. Judging by “Guericke’s Unicorn”, which is beautiful, circuses may be an A&R source that has been, up until this point, sorely overlooked.

Besties by Black Country, New Road

Black Country, New Road’s recent live album is one I frequently go back to — in fact, I’m going to put it on right now, wait a minute — and while it’s increasingly clear that we are unlikely to get studio versions of those songs, if what we do get are as good as this first track from new album “Forever Howlong”, we’ll be doing ok.

Everything is romantic by Charli xcx & Caroline Polachek

I realise that I have failed to properly post about Brat, apologies. It feels almost inappropriate to mention it in 2025, such is its foundational position in the 2024 zeitgeist, but yet here we are, in a post-Brat hellscape.

The original Brat is a masterpiece, of course, building on everything that Charli has been assembling piece by piece for years. But, somehow, the remix album “brat and it’s completely different but also still brat” is, to my mind, even better. It is not a remix album in a traditional sense, but a meta-reworking of the whole thing, capturing in audio form not just an interesting new take on the songs, but also a commentary on the cultural impact of the original album itself. While also, somehow, simultaneously deepening the aforementioned cultural impact, with the addition of Billie Eilish on ‘Guess’, and the version of ‘Girl, so confusing’ — a song, originally sub-tweeting Lorde, which, now, features Lorde.

However, with all of that to the side, the highlight of both Brat and the Brat remix is this version of Everything is Romnatic featuring Caroline Polachek, which is far deeper than it has any right to be.

Wanna Start A Band? by Sleigh Bells

I had an unfortunate nu-metal phase in my teenage years — we all do things we regret, it could have been worse — but that primed me to be a fan of Sleigh Bells from the start. Not that they are nu-metal in any discernible way, I’m not here to slander them, but there’s a certain aggression that I think connects them both.

Interestingly, you could also draw a through line from Sleigh Bells to Brat — pop at it’s core, but revelling in an attempt to corrupt and break it.

This new song is great and weird. It’s good to have them back.

2024 in Music

If you checked my Apple Music Replay it would tell you that for the 3rd year in a row Taylor Swift was my post listened to artist, and who am I to argue with a data story like that? That stat was bolstered by her latest album — The Tortured Poets Department — which I thought was one of her best, especially the second disc (i.e. the one with all the songs produced by Aaron from The National).

Two other albums got heavy repeat listening: Charli xcx’s Brat (and the superb remixed version “Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat”), and latecomer GNX by Kendrick Lamar, proving why you should always wait until January 1st to do an end of year wrap up.

Other highlights include Vampire Weekend, Four Tet, Fontaines D.C., Fabiana Palladino, The Smile (who released two albums, the first one being better, slightly), Nilüfer Yanya, Sault and many, many others.

TRANSA by Red Hot Org

If you haven’t heard of Red Hot, they are a charity that have been putting out sublime music complications for many years, and the latest one, Transa — spotlighting trans and non-binary artists — is no exception.

It is a formidable undertaking, weighing in at almost 4 hours long and featuring over 100 artists — including Sharon Van Etten, Perfume Genius, a twenty six minute long André 3000 track, and a stunning Arthur Baker and Pharoah Sanders song that also features Peter Hook from New Order on bass, Stuart Braithwaite from Mogwai on guitar, and Four Tet on guitar and percussion.

Reincarnated by Kendrick Lamar

I didn’t get as hyped as everyone else over the Drake back and forth, but this is a great victory lap from Kendrick.

Also — a good reminder, as ever, not to write your end of year lists too soon.

Collaborative Playlists in Apple Music

The latest version of iOS—17.3—just dropped*, and with it comes a great and long overdue update to Apple Music: Collaborative Playlists.

There’s delightful touches throughout, including emoji reactions per song, which strikes me as just the right amount of social in a Music app.

If you want to test it out, update to 17.3 and add something good (no pressure) to my shared playlist (link below).

* Can operating systems “drop”, or is that reserved for sneakers and hipster brewery collabs? Needs research.

Apple Music Replay ‘23

Apple Music Replay ‘23 just launched—I say ‘launched’, but you can actually get your stats all year round, so it’s just the final year recap that’s fresh.

Either way, this just makes me wonder what a Taylor x Four Tet remix would sound like…