Now Hear This: Tame Impala, Agnes Obel, Blaenavon and Selena Gomez, plus spotlight artist Odd Morris

Pitchfork Paris festival is taking place this weekend, so the Now Hear This column is teetering between last week’s horde of new releases and songs that have dropped this week, too.

Tame Impala is back with new single “It Might Be Time”, a return to Kevin Parker’s fuzzy psych-rock sound that sweeps the listener along in a siren’s wail of synths. It’s the first track from forthcoming album The Slow Rush, the follow-up to 2015’s Currents.

I’m really excited about Agnes Obel’s return. Her mesmerising single “Island of Doom” precedes new album Myopia, which is being released next year. As per her previous records, Obel placed herself in isolation for writing, recording and mixing: “The albums I’ve worked on have all required that I build a bubble of some kind in which everything becomes about the album,” she says.

Selena Gomez surprised fans last week with not one, but two new tracks. Both, in their own way, celebrate self-love and independence; “Lose You To Love Me” is a tender piano ballad that mourns a relationship while simultaneously moving on, and “Look At Her Now” is a sultry pop number with a more defiant tone.

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Blaenavon have released their wonderful album Everything That Makes You Happy after a difficult period for lead singer Ben Gregory, who suffered a stress-related breakdown two years ago. He’s recovering, and the album previously announced for January 2019 is now finally out. I’ve been taking it for a spin and love opener “I Want You” and “All Your Vanity”, but the whole album’s great, so go and listen.

Michael Kiwanuka, who I interviewed last week ahead of his brilliant new self-titled album, has released the single “Solid Ground”. It’s one of the most startling tracks on the record, simply because the energy elsewhere is so buoyant and jazz-infused; “Solid Ground”, by contrast, is almost eerily quiet – it reminds me a lot of Chris de Burgh’s “A Spaceman Came Travelling”.

Do I talk about new Coldplay? OK, let’s do it. Yes, Coldplay are back. No, I don’t understand why they revealed their new album’s tracklist in the classified adverts of a local newspaper (although fair play for trying to shake up the traditional album announcement). It’s their first since 2015’s A Head Full of Dreams and is, supposedly, an “experimental” record. That sounds ominous.

“Orphans”, the first single, is harmless but not particularly mindblowing (but it’s Coldplay, so what did I expect?). “Arabesque” is a lot more fun, like a cowboy version of Bastille’s “Send Them Off” complete with bolshy horns. Chris Martin singing in French, however… absolument pas.

Here’s some proper French music: Mali-born artist Aya Nakamura is the reigning queen of France’s rap scene thanks to her resplendent songs about female empowerment and making money. She just released a deluxe version of her self-titled second album that includes some great bonus tracks, including “40%”, which is a great excuse to dive back in (or discover it for the first time).

My spotlight artist this week is Odd Morris, a Dublin-formed band who run in the same circle as a bunch of other exciting artists coming out of the city, including Fontaines DC, Murder Capital and Just Mustard. They’ve got their own sound, though – more shoe-gaze than post-punk, and very melodic. I’m into their grunge-y new single “Lilac Leaves”, which they discuss in the Q&A below:

– Hey guys, how's your 2019 been so far?

It's been class; a lot of firsts for us both musically and personally – from playing festivals to releasing music, it’s been a good year so far. Just looking forward to our first London show in a couple of weeks.“

– Tell me a bit about the band and this new track, ”Lilac Leaves"

Yea we all went to school together, hence the name: O.D Morris wrote our secondary school maths book. Lilac Leaves was written just before Daragh [vocalist] moved out of his gaf which is why the lyrics are scattered with floral references. He was using the growth of his garden as a metaphor to address forgiveness within a turbulent relationship. The photographs that are used for the track’s artwork were taken by Irish artist Charlie Joe Doherty. There's something strong yet vulnerable about a bare human body and we think it requires strength and empathy to forgive, but empathising can place you in a vulnerable position. We’re really happy with how it turned out – everyone should go check out Charlie's work on Instagram too.

– Your sound stands out from a bunch of the breakthrough Irish bands from this year – who are you most influenced by?

Our influences vary but are equally kind of unknown too because we all have such different personal tastes, from electronic music to jazz to traditional Irish music through to indie stuff too. It's difficult to pinpoint one or two specific artists. We all love and admire the bands who you're most likely referring to, so whatever goes on down the hall in our rehearsal space is definitely playing a part in our sound too - they're some of the most creative artists around at the moment. We’re excited to be a part of it.

– What do you have lined up for 2020?

We've got a headline show at the end of January at Whelans in Dublin. We're really focusing on that and just seeing what happens next to be honest. We're writing all the time and plenty of having fun. It's an enjoyable journey.