UKNY for January 3
beabadoobee's Bea Kristi (photo by Callum Harrison, PR)
As we slowly segue to 2021 and look ahead to new music, another reminder of the abundance of terrific albums and songs that got us through a terrible year — some of which might have been overlooked. You chose your musical lifebuoys in our annual Listeners Poll, and on "UKNY" tonight at 11, a few more of mine too. Londoner Bea Kristi, who records as beabadoobee, translates the gritty exuberance of Nineties rock with contemporary melancholy and candor on her debut album, Fake It Flowers, while Welsh musician Kelly Lee Owens survived her own three-year road of grief by writing and recording, emerging with a visceral, beautiful blueprint of healing via her second release, Inner Song.
Nubya Garcia, dubbed "queen" by her ardent fans, is one of Britain's most exciting jazz saxophonists, band leaders and composers; her debut album, Source, is a vibrant excavation of the Trinadadian and Guyanese roots of her family. South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini infuses rapturous spirituality throughout his Blue Note debut, Modes of Communication: Letters from the Underworlds, while London/Cambridgeshire collective Black Country, New Road brazenly mix jazz, punk, Krautrock, and bone-dry wit into their thrilling single "Science Fair," found on their forthcoming debut album, for the first time, released on Ninja Tune on February 5.
All of that, plus a double dose of Brighton via Porridge Radio and Lost Horizons, Dutch newcomer la loye, Lianne La Havas, and more on "UKNY," Sundays from 11p.m.-midnight, on 90.7, streaming online and found in the Weekend Archives after broadcast.
Songs played:
1. beabadoobee, “Worth It,” Fake It Flowers
2. Katy J. Pearson, “Something Real,” Return
3. Lost Horizons feat. Penelope Isles, “Halcyon,” In Quiet Moments
4. Porridge Radio, “Sweet,” Every Bad
5. Kelly Lee Owens, “Wake-Up,” Inner Song
6. Lianne La Havas, “Sour Flower,” Lianne La Havas
7. Little Simz, “one life, might live,” Drop 6 EP
8. Black Country, New Road, “Science Fair,” for the first time
9. Nubya Garcia, “The Message Continues,” Source
10. Paul McCartney, “Seize the Day,” McCartney III
11. (The Hague, NL) la loye “i’m still asleep,” single
12. (umGungundlovu, SA) Nduduzo Makhathini, “Sziwa Nguwe,” Modes of Communication: Letters from the Underworlds
