Alpaca Sports are Andreas Jonsson, Amanda Åkerman and Lisle Mitnik (Tiny Fireflies, Fireflies, Very Truly Yours). It’s six years since their second album, From Paris With Love, came out and one can imagine that their twee pop formula may have changed, matured, grown up. With their new song Tomorrow I’ll Be Fine, out today on Elefant Recors, it’s (thankfully) very soon clear that it’s not the case. Listening to indie pop with adolescent characteristics is a source of comfort and relief for everyone of us and Alpaca Sports once again don’t let us down. Since they might be the group that currently best represents that crystalline pop sound (think of Aztec Camera, The Field Mice, Belle And Sebastian, Orange Juice, Sambassadeur), that’s why the arrival of new songs is such big news for all of us grown up adolescents. Tomorrow I’ll Be Fine is the first advance single of their upcoming new album, and it makes all the good things about the band clear: their sensitivity, exquisite vocals, jangling guitars, unforgettable choruses, and a mix of drum machines and live drums.

Even if we are destined to wait until next February to listen to the new album, The Smile You Send Out Returns To You -which, ideed, will be releases 28^th February 2025 on Last Night From Glasgow- from our beloved Constant Follower, we are nevertheless blessed with the release of a new single.
After the wonderful Whole Be, out in August and produced by Dan Duszynski of Loma, Constant Follower release All Is Well -again produced by Duszynski- a song that’s heavy and uplifting at the same time, as it usually happens with great songwriting. This new song is dedicated to McAll’s young friend Jake, who was killed while in the care of the NHS Forth Valley Psychiatric services. There is also an astonishing video for All Is Well, filmed and directed by Edinburgh-based videographer & photographer Kris Boyle.
Constant Follower (the project of Stirling acoustic guitarist singer and noisemaker Stephen McAll with guitarist Andrew Kurd Pankhurst) debut album Neither Is, Nor Ever Was was critically lauded, earning recognition from the SAY Award, while 2023 release Even Days Dissolve was a remarkable union with primitive guitarist Scott William Urquhart. A double A-side single, Turn Around For Me / See You Soon followed earlier this year.

Step by step, song after song, we are approaching Lila Tristram new record. Here at TRISTE©, you know, we are fond of her voice and her artistic vision since Our Friends pt. I & II were released in 2020, but the record that has conquered our hearts was Black and White Memories Ignited by the Scent of Springtime Explode in Colour, a collaborative project with The Last Dinosaur’s Jamie Cameronwas, released on cassette via Modern Aviation in December 2022. Then home -a set of 5 intimate songs- arrived and we were entrapped for good. Now, after a couple of years hidden in a remote countryside studio with a 5-piece “rock” band, Lila Tristram opens a new chapter. First came Sounds Like Easter in May, then the magnificent Baby in July and, yesterday, Closer struck our loving ears.

Francesco Amoroso per TRISTE©

“The fire is out, and spent the warmth thereof,
(This is the end of every song man sings!)
The golden wine is drunk, the dregs remain,
Bitter as wormwood and as salt as pain;
And health and hope have gone the way of love
Into the drear oblivion of lost things.
Ghosts go along with us until the end;
This was a mistress, this, perhaps, a friend.
With pale, indifferent eyes, we sit and wait
For the dropped curtain and the closing gate:
This is the end of all the songs man sings.“
(Ernest Christopher Dowson – Dregs)

Chi li ha sempre seguiti lo sapeva già da qualche giorno, ma adesso è ufficiale: dopo sedici anni (forse potremmo dire “dopo ventiquattro anni”, a essere buoni, visto che i due lavori della band usciti negli anni 2000, dopo che Bloodflower aveva inaugurato il nuovo millennio, sarebbe meglio dimenticarli) The Cure -o i Cure, come abbiamo sempre detto in questa periferia dell’impero- tornano con un nuovo album: Songs Of A Lost World uscirà in tutto il mondo il prossimo 1° novembre (il giorno dei morti… sarà un caso?). Ora sappiamo che l’album conterrà otto lunghi brani (e già ci chiediamo se ci sarà spazio anche per la solita canzoncina che, negli anni ottanta, al primo ascolto ci faceva gridare allo scandalo per la sua banalità e per il suo essere “troppo commerciale” e che poi abbiamo finito per cantare -magari con le lacrime agli occhi- per qualche decennio) e che ne esiste una versione doppia con gli stessi brani (?) strumentali e una versione BLU RAY (una versione Blu Ray? Siamo ancora negli anni dieci?). Alcuni dei brani sono già stati eseguiti dal vivo durante il tour Shows of a Lost World, che lo scorso anno ha girato il mondo e coinvolto più di un milione di persone. Possiamo anche, finalmente, ascoltare (nella sua versione definitiva in studio) il primo brano dell’album (la cui playlist definitiva è, al momento, ancora segreta): si tratta di Alone, già suonato per aprire ogni concerto di quel tour.
Tutte queste notizie, probabilmente, le avrete già lette altrove, magari con maggior dovizia di particolari. E, quindi, perché riproporle qui?