SO.CO Team
New Music Monday: 13th November 2023
We've a veritable all-queens mix for this week's New Music Monday, with five absolute belters from the leading ladies of the UK music scene. So lets get down to it, straight in, no messing. Drink, headphones, you know the drill.
Nothing Hurts Like A Girl - girli
In 2023, girli firmly cemented her spot as a bona-fide queer-pop icon, and her live shows, built on punk, dance and pop foundations, became something of a must see. The first track to be released from her second album, Matriarchy, suggests little will change in 2024.
Jasmine - Arlo Parks
With a deluxe edition of her album My Soft Machine in the offing, Arlo Parks has dropped a cover of the 2013 Jai Paul track Jasmine, complete with a Joel Barney directed promo video. It’s a glitched out and blissed out cover and one which Parks really makes her own.
Houdini - Dua Lipa
Dua Lipa’s big comeback is going to be huge. The Kevin Parker and Danny L Harle produced pop gem already feels like the biggest track of the year. It opens like Soulwax, becomes a bit Daft Punk, and then here’s Dua, warning that if you don’t keep her interest, she’ll be off like a shot. Fair enough, really.
Obvious - Baby Queen
Reflecting on the life that Baby Queen (Bella Latham) left behind in Durban, South Africa, in order to follow her musical ambitions, Obvious is yet another example of Latham’s uncanny ability to craft a mournful, but ultimately aspirational hook. Steeped in sadness, it’s one of the most beautiful songs she’s released thus far.
Nice To Meet You - PinkPantheress ft Central Cee
Two of the UK’s biggest current musical exports collide on Nice To Meet You, and it is predictably brilliant. Central Cee returns the favour after PinkPantheress offered up her TikTok hit Just For Me for Cench to sample on his 2021 track Obsessed With You, and the interplay between the two is genuinely superb.
Words: Thomas Jackson
Header Image: girli @ SXSW 2023 by Thomas Jackson