David Emery Online

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…

Radiohead x Kendrick Lamar

There’s two things I like about this.

Firstly, if you mash up my favourite album from 2022 with my favourite album of 2000, and you do it this well, there’s no way I’m not going to write about it.

Secondly, posting a mashup clip from YouTube, found on another blog, seems so deeply noughties that I’m getting nostalgic whiplash. Be right back, I’m just going to put this on my Facebook wall.

The Last Dinner Party, Glastonbury 2023

Blur - Live at Colchester Arts Centre

Stepping out of Colchester station you are presented with a giant Asda lurking off a roundabout, which is connected to another roundabout which, too, is connected to yet another roundabout. I did not stop to check whether that third roundabout is, indeed, hooked up to the first one as well, but I would not be surprised if it were so. All of which to say; Colchester is a town in England, similar in structure and form to so many others. Maybe a little prettier then most, though, with sprinklings of ancient walls and a river with lush greenery drooping over and into it; all of that sharing the space with Nando’s and H&M and Zizzi and countless other chains that wearily cling on across the country, sandwiched between empty resurants and shuttered shops.

I come from a town that could fit the description above almost exactly—other then it being a Tesco not an Asda, and there being an additional roundabout between it and the station—so I say this with love: It is the sort of place you only visit for a reason. Maybe you need to get your MOT sorted at the KwikFit, maybe it’s for that big shop. My reason would have absolutely infuriated my thirteen year old self.

I was exactly the right age to buy into the idea that some music was good and some music was bad. CDs were expensive, and you had to be sure—really sure—that what you were buying was worth the fifteen pounds or so you’d saved up. And of course, once you’d done so that decision was locked in. It was good, and you would revel in telling everyone of your refined taste and excellent spending choices. The conviction of a young teenager with a limited purchasing power is strong, and those definitive decisions would spread through a friend group like a virus. It was this landscape that Blur vs Oasis was born into.

I am unsure of the origins of why, or who was patient zero, but my friend group and I were very much on team Oasis. My first gig was Oasis, supported by The Verve, at Earls Court. My dad took me and we stood on the second barrier, not that far from the front, and I was awestruck. On the other hand Blur, deep in their Country House and Girls and Boys era, seemed somewhat silly and irrevant. It wasn’t until their self titled fifth album—which coincidently came out in the same year that Oasis’s infamously bloated third album ‘Be Here Now’—when I started properly paying attention. Blur revelled in trying new things, reinventing themselves time and time again, which was in stark contrast to the unfortunately diminishing returns from the boys from Manchester.

That reinvention continues with new song The Narcissist, from forthcoming album The Ballard of Darren, which got its live debut in a converted church in Colchester last Friday night. Nestled in the encore between the aforementioned Girls and Boys, and perennial favourite Tender, The Narcissist was a standout, which is impressive for a song that was less than twenty four hours old and surrounded by bonafide hits. It is reinvention by the way of introspection, the lyrics sounding world weary in a way that the best Blur songs do, the sound sounding fuller and more rounded then they have before, especially with Graham’s harmonies.

The rest of the set was a study in setlist selection, mixing in deep cuts, a smattering of new songs, and hit after hit without even getting to all of them. Yes, we were all a little older—the crowd were about as wild as you’d expect for an audience that fell in love with a band some thirty years ago—but it felt like Blur have found something, an indefinable spark, that they haven’t had for some time.