The Friday Dispatch

Reneé Rapp, Alaska Reid, Talk Talk and Strange Ranger

Reneé Rapp is done trying to convince people that she’s an artist

“I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard from friends or mutual friends that my exes are saying a song is about them,” snickers actress and singer Reneé Rapp.

“You are not significant enough in my life for me to write a song about you. With all due respect, I'm not thinking about you. I don't miss you. I hope you're doing well. I heard you're not, but that's not my problem. It just is what it is. Odds are it's not about you, but if it feels like it is, then please run with it. Most of the time, it's just men who assume it's about them and it’s not. Or if it is, I hope it keeps you up at night,” she grins. “I write about everybody. If you don't want to be a part of my music career, just don't be a part of my life.”

Rapp grew up in Huntersville, North Carolina and spent her childhood performing in musical theatre. Eventually this led her to New York, that aforementioned Broadway gig, and then to screens everywhere after landing her first TV role in The Sex Lives of College Girl. When it premiered, her character Leighton Murray, a rich girl from New York who realises she’s a lesbian, resonated with audiences and instantly became a fan favourite. Although this catapulted her into the mainstream, it’s something Rapp has always seen as, to put it bluntly, a means to an end. Just a few weeks after talking to Best Fit, she’d let the world know that she’d be stepping away from the role entirely.

At 23, Rapp has already lived a lot of life. The aptly titled closing track to her debut record Snow Angel - released next week - is named after her current age, a song that was written around the time of her birthday in January. It’s Rapp at her most honest — hoping and wishing that she cares less as the year goes by. How is that working out for her? “Good in a lot of ways,” she admits. “I have reached a point in my life where I care so much, but I do not give a fuck.That is where I'm at. I don't even really know what that means, but it feels so accurate every time I say it. I care much less about the things that I did when I was 22. I'm also just growing up — I'm better at communicating now even though I actually still let people walk all over me. I'm much more passive now. I can care but it doesn't keep me up at night anymore.”

Alaska Reid is on the rise

Alaska Reid is recounting the words of her old classical voice coach in her childhood town of Montana: “whatever you do, don’t have boring music."

Reflecting on those early days, she recalls, “I started with her when I was six. She was this older lady who had a bunch of homeopathic remedies and a shag-carpeted home. She had this ad of a woman, an 80s cutout – she was like, ‘look how sexy she is! See how she’s holding her mouth? It’s perfect – aaaaaah!”

Now 27, Reid has just released her debut album, Disenchanter. It’s a record that’s filled with gut-punch lyrics and cinematic soundscapes primarily informed by her country background and hyperpop surroundings. It’s anything but boring, and a welcome challenge to the folk and rock records of 2023.

Sitting in the beige-marbled basement of an East London coffee shop, Reid clad in a suede jacket that hints at her grunge-rock past, whilst the dragon ring that snakes around her finger nods to her love of fantasy literature. She’s currently splitting her time between LA, where she’s resided for the past decade, and London, the hometown of her boyfriend – none other than PC Music mastermind A.G. Cook.

Cook helped produce Disenchanter, and the result is a blend of Reid’s folk-rock roots with Cook’s love for synths. Reid helmed the lyrics, and Cook was left to produce the majority of the album; you can hear many of his personal touches such as the cooing end vocals of “Seeds”. “We met ages ago, it was more of a relationship thing – I didn’t know his music. I thought he was a DJ,” she laughs.

Something old, something new

Every week, one of Best Fit's writers or editors share their recommendations of two records they love - one from the past, one from the present. This week, Best Fit writer Will Yarbrough on Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk (1988) and Pure Music by Stranger Ranger (2023).

Cracking the UK Top 10 only made Talk Talk mastermind Mark Hollins more disillusioned with the music industry. Which says a lot. This guy didn’t just mock lip-synching during the music video of one of their biggest hits (“It’s My Life”). He even despised the very instrument that they used to write their biggest hits – synthesiser.

Their fourth effort for EMI – a label the group duly had a fractious relationship with – Spirit of Eden was compiled across hundred of marathon recording sessions. The band jammed for 12 hours a day, often in total darkness, losing track of time as they ebbed and flowed with the same patient, invisible yet undeniable force of the tide. "The Rainbow" bends from jazzy, whale-bellowed ambience to loping, electromagnetic Delta blues all before Hollis utters a word.

EMI didn't get what they paid for. The label sued the band, claiming the album was "commercially unsatisfactory". Critics were far more receptive, though at such a loss for how to describe it that they invented a new genre. But when I listen to Spirit of Eden, I don't hear a loud rebuke of commercialism or the birth of post-rock. I hear a band reaching a higher power. "Take my freedom", Hollis pleads, basking in the reverential glow of a golden organ. Talk Talk went completely silent after one more album. But by letting the holy spirit be their guide, they never sounded more liberated.

"I was freaking out": That's Strange Ranger drummer Nathan Tucker talking about their new album. He had ample reason to worry. I'd freak out too if two of my vocalists (Isaac Eiger and Fiona Woodman) broke up while we were recording. And if that's not uncomfortable enough for you, keep in mind that the band also happened to be trapped at a cabin in the woods during a blizzard.

Then again, Strange Ranger have always been caught in transition. This is the same band who changed their name after just one 70-minute album. Formed by Eiger and Fred Nixon (vocals and bass), who grew up in Montana jamming to Modest Mouse, the high school bandmates have since come a long way from the lonesome crowded west.

Nothing they test-drove popped on my radar, though there were signs that Strange Ranger were capable of Pure Music. 2022's No Light In Heaven mixtape was cut from these same snowbound sessions. Still, those dips into chillwave only hinted at how far they were willing to throw themselves into the deep end. While I can hear those pastel smears of My Blood Valentine’s distorted guitar acting as kindling deep in throes of "She's on Fire", what catches my ear are the headfirst dives into club music. Just listen to "Blue Shade", which drops like a tear into trip-hop.

By album's end, this band sound more like Daft Punk than another MBV clone. That's a shocking transformation, but with Pure Music, Strange Ranger lock onto a sound that fits their name.

We have three vinyl copies of Pure Music to give away - enter the competition here.

Watch Body Type cover Amyl and The Sniffers live in session for Best Fit

“Amyl and The Sniffers rip so hard so we wanted to have a stab at one of their classics,” Australian four-pieceBody Type tell Best Fit of their cover choice. “”Got You” is so cute and sexy but also perfectly feral and we loved giving a BT twist.”

Body Type’s Best Fit session is the latest in our covers series – working with our friends at Crouch End Studios in North London – and follows the release of the band’s second album Expired Candy, and ahead of their Australian tour dates that begin today (11 August).

Listen to the week in new music by following our Discovery playlist

Dropping at midnight every Thursday, follow our 20-track playlist for a taste of the best new music from the most exciting breaking artists.

These are the songs our editors and writers have on repeat right now, taken from the hundreds of tracks released in the last seven days. Leading the selection this week are amazing cuts from urika’s bedroom, Provoker, Lifesize Teddy, SOFT LAD and coverstars Deja Blu.