rock and roll fables

music, comics, and media in a rock'n' roll world

BAIT Captures Anxiety In A Bottle On Electric Electro-Industrial Hybrid Sea Change

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This is it! The one you’ve been waiting for. Forget all other artists because BAIT is here with your most favorite debut of 2022 (Aside from labelmates A Cause In Distress at least). The brainchild of ex-Baddies vocalist Michael Webster and accompanied by former bandmate Jim Webster along with Luke Branch and MRE (Who also produced the record), Sea Change is an anxiety-ridden journey told in 10 parts. If any record captures the feel of uncertainty that the last 2 years has wrought it’s this one with even the recording lending itself to the atmosphere and opting (Mostly out of necessity) for more remote and separate sessions to capture it all.

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Singles! BAIT, “My Tribe”

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It’s so funny to me that a regular annual column for a blog I used to write for (“I Read AP’s 100 Bands You Need To Know In ____ So You Don’t Have To” over on Pop!Blerd which you can read here) over 10 years ago led me to Baddies which led me to Michael Webster which led to BAIT (And eventually Cool Thing Records who have yet to disappoint in the new music department). Life’s funny that way.

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Singles! BAIT, “DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA”

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Is 2022 the year of BAIT?!?! Gahd, we hope so. Michael Webster is back with an aural attack that’s even more visceral and in-your-face than anything found on the last BAIT outing in 2017 (Or the singles that followed, which we’ve reviewed, since). And if “DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA” is a sign of what’s to come on their upcoming new full-length (Sea Change, out April 1st on Cool Thing Records), then the whole of the music world are in for quite the sonic treat.

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Singles! BLAB, “Insurance”

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One mark of a great artist in this reviewer’s mind is when you see their name listed somewhere, whether it’s in passing on a streaming site or a random social media post or press release, and a song of theirs immediately comes to mind. Just by seeing that moniker in print somewhere. BLAB is that kind of artist making the kinds of songs that are instantly recognizable as their own and, better still, hard to forget.

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Singles! Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly., “Drift”

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Much like producer Mark Ronson’s records under his own name, Sam Duckworth exudes a fantabulous flair when stepping out from behind the mixing board and letting his freak flag fly on his own under the moniker of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. And much like Ronson, what Duckworth creates on latest single “Drift” is a far cry from the many collaborations and production credits that already illuminate his name.

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Singles! BLAB, “Eton Mess”

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How can you go wrong with two minutes of driving, unfiltered RAWK?!?! The answer is: You can’t! Especially when it’s as infectious as the most recent release from Southend’s BLAB. When last we left Frances Murray (BLAB), the singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist was laying out this raucous “contemporary cautionary tale of woe” on “Casual Sex” (Which you can read in our review here) but this time around, BLAB has set their sights on the Tories and the British government for “Eton Mess”.

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Singles! Suspects, “The Mental Health Act”

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Nobody really does driving anthems theses days. Sure, there’s bands like Foo Fighters putting out Pop puff disguised as Rawk but where is the new Springsteen? Gaslight Anthem? Against Me!? Bueller??? Hopefully the UK’s Suspects can rectify this gross negligence in the current music community with “The Mental Health Act”, the title track from their forthcoming new EP. Because it’s huge. And anthem driven. And just what we all needed.

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Singles! A Cause In Distress, “Paraffin”

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There’s only a handful of artists around nowadays who can release a new single that you just know will deliver without hearing a single note and, I’m sure we’ve said this before about them but, A Cause In Distress is one of those rarities who also hearken back to a time when new music drops were rightly cherished and celebrated.

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Singles! Beckie Margaret, “FF”

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Beckie Margaret, Chapter 3: When last we left our fearless heroine in the pages of Rock And Roll Fables she had just unleashed her second single, “Divine Feminine”, on the masses (Read our review here) which continued the sonic story on the road towards her highly anticipated debut full-length. We pick up late this March with the sultry soliloquy that is “FF” which gives listeners even more insight into a larger wondrous world and Margaret’s broad musical palette.

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Singles! A Cause In Distress, “Modern Commerce”

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As a primer to prepare to sit down and listen to the latest single from A Cause In Distress I took it upon myself to listen to their previous one, “Lumbering”, over and over. And over and over again. And over some more (Okay, like five times in a row tops). You know, for research. And also because that debut single from the Southend trio is still so effing good (Read our review here). So, you can guess where the expectations are for “Modern Commerce”, yeah?

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