The Friday Dispatch
Nicky Wire, Bartees Strange, Hamilton Leithauser, The Vices and more
Nicky Wire and the unity in opposition
As Manic Street Preachers reveal new record Critical Thinking, the band’s spokesman and OG edgelord Nicky Wire shares the secret of how he’s endured and evolved across a career spanning four decades.
With lyrics written predominantly by Wire with the exception of a handful of songs penned by singer James Dean Bradfield, the Manics’ 15th studio album is an unforgiving act of self-interrogation with age as its grand inquisitor. “The ultimate betrayal tends to be of yourself,” Wire shares. “In an era of such fictionalised reality, I think it pushed me to look inward. I’ve always been kind of infinitely interested in myself – and not in a narcissistic way – but because it’s always felt like the final refuge of dependability. Knowledge is internal. I just went off with myself a bit, really… the chronic self-doubt, even toward the point of self-loathing. There’s certainly no epidemic of failure in the band or anything, but I felt a strange inertia in myself. I guess I wanted to figure out my own problems because it seems insurmountable to have any view on the macro problems in our society.”
During the writing of 2021’s The Ultra Vivid Lament, Wire was mourning the death of his parents and it was coloured with a “warmer sort of melancholia” because of it, a kind of comfort. But Critical Thinking, he feels, is a record of opposites; the way things find togetherness despite their polarities.
Despite the unforgiving self-interrogations and unflattering reflections of the record, on the other side of it, Wire is left with absolute gratitude. “I’m so grateful to be living where I am with the people I know in a rarefied, sheltered existence in some ways,” he shares. “I’m not extravagant, but financial security is in itself a massive fucking pleasure. I’m grateful for the fact we’re not in a war zone because you realise how circumstances for others are a million times more dire than your own, and sometimes you need to have that moment where you look in the mirror and find a deep understanding of what you can do next. We’re learning not to be so terrified of our own shadow, and it’s a long shadow.”
Out this week is HONESTY’s U R HERE; Squid’s Cowards; Biig Piig’s 11:11; Heartworms’ Glutton for Punishment; Oklou’s choke enough; and Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory’s self-titled. Nell Smith's posthumous debut solo Anxious was announced for an April release, as was Naked and Famous singer Alisa Xayalith’s first solo record Slow Crush.
Bartees Strange is cracking open his coffin
Horror directors tend to have a recognisable stylistic mark – an audio or visual sensibility that follows them from one film to the next, even as their subjects and subgenres shift. John Carpenter has his synth scores, Guillermo Del Toro his fixation on spindly monster men, and though he practices an entirely different discipline, Bartees Strange has a similar habit. The Baltimore-based singer, songwriter, producer, and bandleader (born Bartees Cox Jr.) evades a signature sound, smash-cutting from midwest emo riffs to rap verses to house beats and pop choruses however it suits him, but he links each of his albums with references and recurring motifs. He fit the mould of a fearful auteur he announced the title and concept of his third LP, Horror, directing everyday fears into his shapeshifting music.
In practice, Strange comes across more Ari Aster dread than Sam Raimi splatstick. On “Sober” – a restless, Fleetwood Mac-esque groove – he confronts the fear of perpetual romantic dysfunction. On “17”, the record’s emotional climax, he confronts the existential fear he’s carried through his life as a Queer, Black person (“The first time that I felt impending doom / was realising I’m too Black for the room”). The minimal, folky “Baltimore” sags with the weariness of a life lived in fear of your surroundings, moving from city to city in search of a safe place to call home (he calls the titular city “as safe as it gets,” and “a perfect place to plop down”). He says working through these fears can make you stronger, and it can also make you an object of fear yourself.
From the archive…
Since the world has gone crazy for Dylan once again, enjoy this rather off-the-cuff moment captured of Bob with Joan Baez as they unpack his writing process and the fact that he, unbeknownst to her, decided to go off and get married.
The introduction…
With the release of their latest album, Before It Might Be Gone, Groningen four-piece The Vices – Simon, Mathew, Jonathan and Floris – are cementing themselves as ones to watch.
Describe your sound… Rock, soul, psychedelic, blues, rock and roll.
How you started making music together… Simon and Floris met in high school. Floris was kissing a girl for the first time when this hyperactive kid started running around them while screaming enthusiastically. This kid was Simon. After a couple of years, we met Mathew through an audition. We had been doing some auditions and nothing really felt right. But then Mathew came in and holy shit, the man could drum. There was this chemistry. After being in a different band with the three of us for some years the music changed and the old band didn't feel right anymore. In 2019 The Vices were born and two weeks before our first show we realised we needed an extra band member. Simon had known Jonathan (Jona) since they were little kids and we knew Jona was very creative and musical. So Floris called him and asked if he wanted to join the band and told him the first show would be in two weeks supporting Yungblud in a sold-out venue. Jona hung up. Minutes later he called back and said that he wanted to do it, but got kinda scared. That's how we all started playing together.
Tell us the story behind your album cover… Before It Might Be Gone is a story about someone who looks into the mirror for the first time and realizes that inner change is needed. The album cover tells an important aspect of this journey of inner change. During the journey, it can become hard to like yourself and to see the good sides. At times everything can feel fragile and dark. One of the most beautiful things that can happen to you if you’re in such a place is coming home. Home can be anything. I mean it in the broadest sense of the word. Coming home and finding unconditional love. A pure form of love that endures even your darkest moments. That’s what the family dinner on the album cover represents to us.
Best show you’ve ever played… It was a headline show in a sold-out venue with 2000 people. On that night we were so locked in. Everything felt intense and right. The energy on stage and in the audience was wild. In jamming and improvising, we kept finding each other in new ways. It felt really good and made us happy.
Before It Might Be Gone is out now
Hamilton Leithauser on Randy Newman
Randy's the ultimate character writer. On my last record The Loves of Your Life, I tried to write each song about a specific character, but I didn't necessarily put myself in their mouth as much as he does on this record. I always come back to him, because I think he's one of the greatest at putting personality into the lyrics.
The dude in the song is such a terrible guy. Randy's great at using his words to bring out the nastiest people in America. If you listen to “Sail Away” and “Louisiana 1927” and all of those songs, it's sort of a lighthearted take on really dark perceptions about America.
We did a fundraiser for my kids - who go to a public school in Brooklyn – and they asked me to sing. So I did a couple of my songs, then I did “Sail Away” which is a song sung firsthand by a slave trader. It's this really nasty sales pitch for how great America is, but I got some complaints, because people were like, “What the hell is he singing?” They didn't get the humour or recognise the message. So I was like, “Lighten up, this is a civil rights song. I mean, give me a fucking break, man.”
I got a phone call from the principal, and I had to explain what the song was. I was terrified man.
Something Old, Something New
Every week, we share recommendations from the Best Fit community — one from the past, another from the present. This week, Substack Editor Laura David takes on Romeo + Juliet’s Superbad (2024) and Ryan Beatty’s Calico (2023).
Romeo + Juliet (Ngubo Masongo) is one of the industry’s best kept secrets. With two records to his name, Masongo — who has a relatively minimal Internet paper trail — feels like a genius working away in solitude, just waiting to be discovered. His 2024 record Superbad was no exception from this trend and is an album I hope gets its time in the sun soon. Clocking in at just 27 minutes, it’s an astonishingly cinematic and dynamic listen that accomplishes a lot with very little. Taking cues from the likes of Frank Ocean, Steve Lacy, and early Omar Apollo, it perfects that luscious, saccharine 2010s R&B vibe.
From opener “The Doors (Part I)”, each track bleeds into the next, inviting you to wander through tasteful horns, addictively auto-tuned vocals, and blissed out guitars. Tracks like “Superbad” and “Beserk97” are, sonically, just incredible amounts of fun to listen to, while others like “The Place Beyond The Pines” pull back the curtain on Masongo’s abilities as a writer and lyricist.
In the wake of the Grammys, I wanted to take a moment to highlight the work of a lesser-acknowledged winner, Ryan Beatty, who took home some hardware for his participation on COWBOY CARTER. In 2023, Beatty released a record that is truly one of my all-timers and a cherished perfect ten, Calico. It’s an album where you just listen and go, Ah, they’ve done it – where everything has landed for the artist; they know themselves and are settled. Calico is a record I just want to step inside and live in — even as it tackles the hardships of existential crises, of love won and love lost and love drifting out there in between, of trying to find a place for yourself in between many. It’s got that signature Beatty layering and airiness to it, notably on the triumphant and expansive songs “Bruises Off The Peach” and “Andromeda,” while still feeling radically intimate (“Cinnamon Bread”, “Little Faith”). And, of course, anyone who can work Infinite Jest into the opening lyrics of a track is a friend of mine.
Listen to the week in new music by following our Discovery playlist
Dropping at midnight every Thursday, follow our playlist for a taste of the best new music from the most exciting breaking artists – 20 new tracks, top-loaded from the last five days in music and on repeat in the Best Fit office right now. Leading the selection this week are new tracks from Léa Sen, she’s green, Joon Gloom, Punchlove, Clutter, and coverstars Bedridden.
“I got fired thank God.”