Smother cover

Smother

Released

It’s bit like Brett Anderson of Suede fronting Talk Talk, but with a pleasingly crass Eighties sense of pleasure. Singer Hayden Thorpe is playing the deadly minx with a poetry degree, lurking about uni with a vial of Freaky Stuff. Neither rock nor pop, this would like have been called Decadent Art a hundred years ago and it’s a good thing nobody ever stamped out any of that stuff.

Sasha Frere-Jones

Recommended by

Suggestions
Overgrown cover

Overgrown

James Blake
Big Balloon cover

Big Balloon

Dutch Uncles
Blind Date Party cover

Blind Date Party

Bill Callahan, Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Thee Black Boltz cover

Thee Black Boltz

Babatunde Adebimpe
Too Bright cover

Too Bright

Perfume Genius
Franz Ferdinand cover

Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand
Live Music cover

Live Music

The Strange Boys
Born Horses cover

Born Horses

Mercury Rev
Horizon cover

Horizon

Trash Kit