Listener Songs of the Week: New tracks by Alabama Shakes, U2, Beck, Leroy Clampitt, QOTSA, and more

You can’t help but notice that a number of American artists believe the Trump regime may be coming to an end. And – inspired perhaps by the likes of Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come and Curtis Mayfield’s optimistic soul pop – are reaching into spiritually inclined lyrics and, tempered with a sense of sadness as this one is, feel the winds of change. The great voice of Brittany Howard who fronts Alabama Shakes certainly leans towards Mayfield’s falsetto soul in places here, but the strength of her own style is what carries this beyond the reference. There’s a weight in the opening instrumental passages which then lifts with “it’s gonna take more than prayers to change this place, its gonna take a lot of ‘I don’t know if I can’. They beat us down ...” . Then towards the end of the five minutes-plus arrangement elevated by Marvin Gaye-like orchestration, Howard sings “whatever’s coming, let it come. There’s no man that can make me run, all the hell that we put through each other can make us so strong”. – Graham Reid

Beck offers more widescreen string-enhanced dreamy acoustic balladry on the way to new album Ride Lonesome, due out in September. Among the ensemble backing him on this one is veteran super-bassist Stanley Clarke, possibly the only man who has played with Jeff Beck and this one. He’s on unshowy double bass underneath a string section that briefly gets caught in its own swirling breeze. – Russell Baillie

This second single from one of Australia’s premier singer-songwriter talents in advance of her forthcoming album The Gem (September 25) follows her enjoyably lightweight poppy Get Away from Me (I Think I’ll Love You Soon) but takes another direction. Somewhere along the line of country soul and brooding folk ballad, she addresses a difficult past as she sings “I wish I’d help back then, I wish I’d had better friends … I got through, yeah, I’ll be fine. Still I wish someone at been there at the time.” With backing vocals by the Maes (Elsie and Maggie Rigby), I Wish is another announcement that Jacklin is a writer of depth and an emotive singer. – Graham Reid

U2 has a 50th anniversary coming up this year and already sound to be in a chipper mood with this first single from an as-yet untitled new album. It’s a piece of happy bluster enhanced by the production touches of Jacknife Lee that sounds like it could have sprung from their back-to-basics early 2000s albums. Not sure if there’s a song saying anything beneath it all, but the video shot mostly on top of a bus in Mexico City will give old fans a sense of déjà vu. Yes, this time the street actually has a name. – Russell Baillie

On a much different street, American left-field hard rock institution QOTSA make a soft return with a Tex-Mex-ish bleakly bittersweet ballad about a relationship that is rockier than the song is. It gets a his-and-hers flavour care of the harmonies between frontman Josh Homme and country singer Nikki Lane. No album apparent, but the single arrives with the news that the band return to play at Spark Arena, Auckland on December 20.

Also heading towards a 50th anniversary is the Liverpool gothic-psychedelic outfit who were rivals to U2 in the-post-punk early 1980s, before splitting at the end of the decade and reforming at the end of the 1990s with frontman Ian McCulloch and guitarist Will Serjeant and various ring-ins. This first single from new album Apples for Isaac isn’t going to get them mistaken for anyone else (well maybe The Church), and it adds something atmospheric and scenic to that small playlist, “songs which mention the Belgian capital” – see also Men at Work’s Down Under, and Luna’s 23 Minutes in Brussels. Nice animated video too.

The LA-based, Grammy-nominated, Waikato-raised, NZ producer whose studio and co-write clients have included Lilly Allen, Madison Beer, Laufey, Sabrina Carpenter, Six60, and Chelsea Jade, is heading to his own debut solo album Get Happy. Ricky Martin completes a four-track EP. Despite being a tribute of sorts (“guy knew how to make a smash”) to the Puerto Rican onetime superstar and his biggest hit (“do you even know living La Vida Loca even means?”), it’s a charmingly low-key song that tells a story of teenage memories. He might be living the dream as a California song doctor, but Clampitt’s side-hustle has plenty of less-is-more pop likeability

After his powerful political single Black Jesus (“a menacing poke at White Christian Nationalists” we said), US-based expat Matty J. continues to signal his first solo album for three decades with this equally dark and brooding piece which took on a new meaning with a cancer diagnosis. Metaphorically dealing with inner suffering and depression, it now sounds more literal (“if I fall before tomorrow … when the battle’s in your blood do you ever really learn?”) but still sounds optimistic by accepting life’s baggage, failings and shortcomings. Quiet, almost stealthy and elevated by the vocal backing from 7Hoodies. Ironically his album (date unconfirmed) is Beautiful Mess, the same title as Gin Wigmore’s new album, both artists having been through their trials and singing of surviving. – Graham Reid

The female voice in Ireland’s dark, melancholy but frequently extraordinary band Lankum, Radie Peat steps out with this solo single, her hypnotic interpretation of a fairly obscure traditional ballad of yearning and the troubles in a relationship. As with Lankum’s traditional songs, it is spun out with an almost psychedelic drone placing her voice multi-tracked central and soaring when required. Quite a beautiful lyric video too. Love travels a hard road here, but the singer forgives the one she loves despite the emotional cost. No sign of a solo album but this certainly makes for wishful thinking about one. – Graham Reid

French composer Guillaume Connesson (b.1970) is becoming better and better known. He was in NZ last year when one of his flute concertos was performed, and Auckland Philharmonia is staging his large-scale Cosmic Trilogy on September 3. The 40-minute work, partly inspired by cosmologist Stephen Hawking, tells the history of the universe from start to finish. Its suitably rambunctious first movement, “Aleph”, is the big bang. – Richad Betts