It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Emmy The Great. Her last solo album, Virtue was released in 2011. And we also had the wonderful This Is Christmas collaboration with Tim Wheeler in the same year. She says that her new EP, simply named S, is a move away from her previous introspective work to engage with the world around her. S is for… the first letter of every song on the EP.

The single, ‘Swimming Pool’, is a beautiful, ethereal song that transports you to a better world. A clean, new, blue world. A world full of hope. It shimmers like light reflecting from the surface of the water and makes you want to dive in. Tom Fleming from Wild Beasts’ voice slides effortlessly and perfectly against Emma’s and brings a deeper melancholia to the song.

‘Social Halo’ is a gentle song that flows back and forth like waves, there is an undercurrent of electricity to it though. It reflects on how tenuous our projections of ourselves are. Describing someone as cold by using the line “the opposite of volcano” is beautifully succinct.

And then there’s ‘Solar Panels’. Who knew someone could write a catchy song about solar panels?! It’s a synthesiser-laden comment on the world’s energy and the California sun. It’s uplifting with a dance vibe, offering a sense of optimism – “Hope is spinning like a windmill”.

‘Somerset (I Can’t Get Over)’ is not, in fact, a reference to the rolling hills of the English countryside south of Bristol, but to novelist Somerset Maugham. It’s a gentle ballad offering broken hearts discovered in literature. Books re-read and unable to let go. Clinging on to the past. It finishes with the heart-rending plea “Please don’t get over me”.

The whole experience feels so fleeting. It’s an EP that definitely leaves you wanting more. S is for… sublime.

S is available from amazon and iTunes.

It’s safe to say that The Auteurs completely passed me by when they were a going concern. Head honcho Luke Haines’ ability to coin a noticeable album title or two managed to catch my eye with Christie Malry’s Own Double Entry but it wasn’t until 2011s 9½ Psychedelic Meditations On British Wrestling Of The 1970s And Early '80s that I took the plunge and gave the man a listen. Definitely one of my better music-related decisions of recent years.

With Adventures In Dementia Haines crams such elements of the British experience as Skinner & Baddiel, singing Jerusalem at the rugby, caravan holidays and Mark E. Smith into six tracks that are a joy to listen to again and again. His loving chronicles of nostalgia for a myriad examples of UK culture from the last 40+ years, albeit it's doubtful he actually misses football violence, bring to mind the works of Iain Sinclair (a link I may have made previously).

The country punk of opening track 'Caravan Man' tools along at a pace no caravan has ever safely been pulled at and you can imagine the protagonists of Sightseers happily having it on repeat as they drive around on their killing spree. With a total running time of only around 15 minutes this is a perfectly formed example of the EP format. Where many acts would have one main song and fill the space out with pointless remixes of the same or equally pointless cover versions Haines has crafted a gem that hopefully heralds the delivery of a new full length work later in the year.     

Adventures In Dementia is available from amazon.

I suspect it’ll be a big year for Låpsley. Word of her grew during 2014; whispers of a teenager who was producing interesting sounds and vocals from her bedroom in Southport – culminating in a place in the BBC Music’s Sound Of 2015 longlist, and her debut EP Understudy.

You’ll recognise the opener ‘Falling Short’ – it’s garnered quite a bit of radio play, and has been championed by DJs like Annie Mac and BBC Introducing’s Huw Stephens. It’s sparse – almost haunting – with piano chords chiming away underneath Låpsley’s unique vocal. There’s something about her voice which makes you sit up and listen; but I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. Nevertheless, the movement between her natural voice and manipulated vocals works brilliantly and highlights the heartfelt lyrics throughout all of her songs.

Lyrics like, “Sweeping through on a dark night/Lifting me up into arms tight/Open up my mind/And it becomes you” or “And it’s times like these/That you wish you were/A 8896 wishing bird/And nobody seems to fly at your level/Just go faster than the others” from ‘8896’.

Or the bereft-sounding “You keep shaking me off to another on the dance floor” from closer ‘Dancing’; a mournful song of lost love at the disco, where Låpsley – real name Holly Fletcher – describes herself as always being “an understudy” with “two left feet”.

Perhaps it’s the stripped back nature of Låpsley’s music that makes you stop and listen a little harder. Maybe it’s the longing in her voice, or the interesting loops and electro-trickery. Whatever it is, Understudy is a promising EP, and though only four tracks long, shows fantastic potential.

Understudy is available from iTunes.

Having remained current in our thoughts at the end of 2014 with the release of the $ingle$ 2 compilation album the continually creative Ty Segall kicks off the new year with a quartet of all new songs, released as a double 7” set which in turn doubles as old-style 3D glasses through which to appreciate the full effect of the release’s cover art. That’s the gimmicky element dealt with – what about the songs?

‘Mr. Face’ itself is a pretty stripped back number for the most part, not an ounce of fuzz in earshot for the first couple of minutes, allowing Segall to make use of quite an angelic vocal styling. After that point though it gets nicely wild whilst retaining the sweet vocal line. 'Circles' is thankfully not a cover of the old Fleur De Lys number but instead a nicely punky track featuring some off-kilter flute in the background. This pounds along enjoyably.

Moving on to disc two, as it were, 'Drug Mugger' chugs along at a good pace throughout, without ever really nailing it's colours to the mast yet that's not to say it's at all unenjoyable. Rounding out the collection is 'The Picture', a ballad-like track of folky whimsicality you'd be hard pushed to ascribe to Segall if heard out of context, revealing another string to his bow. 

Mr. Face is available from Famous Class Records and iTunes.