2022 has been a spectacular year for music. From confessional hip-hop, to stellar experimental pop, dance floor burners, and gorgeous, ’70s-inflected balladry, the year brought us a glorious range of sounds and styles. And looking forward, it seems the music world won’t be slowing down any time soon: last week, alt-rock titans Paramore brought us ‘The News’, the second preview of their highly anticipated seventh album arriving in February 2023.
The agitated rager follows comeback single, ‘This Is Why’, which was named NME’s second-favourite song of the year. Writing about the single’s placement among 2022’s 50 best songs, Erica Campbell wrote: “With its slow crawling synth and cymbals eventually erupting into a full funk fest, ‘This Is Why’ gave us just what we wanted: an innovative pop-punk moment from a band already responsible for so many.”
‘The News’ this week’s additions to NME Radio, joined by a choice cut from Bree Runway’s surprise EP, the latest single from FLO, and more.
Check out the newest additions to NME Radio 1 and 2 below:
On the A List:
Paramore
‘The News’
Paramore are worn out by a bombardment of headlines in ‘The News’, the second single of their upcoming record ‘This Is Why’. Behind angular guitars and an unsettling chord progression, Hayley Williams searingly assesses the state of today’s world: “A war, a war on the far side / On the other side of the planet”. As if sonically replicating the impact of a never-ending news cycle, the band careens along, Zac Farro’s pummelling drums leading the way while Williams barks her imperative refrain: “Turn on, turn off the news”. – Eli Ordonez
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Bree Runway
‘Pick Your Poison ft. Stormzy’
NME 100 alumi Bree Runway teams up with Stormzy for a tender ode to an old flame with ‘Pick Your Poison’, taken off the former’s surprise EP ‘Whoa, What A Blur!’. Stormzy kicks off the track delivering its sentimental hook, deftly using alcohol as a metaphor for the intoxication of love and devastation of heartbreak: Meanwhile Runway effortlessly sings emotive bars atop a laidback dancehall beat, proving she can move your heart as much as your body. – EO
