UKNY for May 18
Soot Sprite (photo by Corey Eyres, PR)
The Exeter trio with the charming moniker of Soot Sprite released their equally charming — and robust — debut album called Wield Your Hope Like a Weapon on Friday. Like most emerging bands, they've had their share of sacrifices, struggles (and line-up shifts) to get to this moment, and on the track "Vicious Cycles," singer and guitarist Elise Cook sums all things 2025 concisely: "I can't seem to navigate this hell." On "UKNY" tonight at 11p.m., that very track from this terrific young band.
Also in tonight's hour, Midnight Rodeo, a rising psychedelic-pop band from Nottingham with another well-named debut album, Chaos Era, due out July 11. Obongjayar has plenty to say about British politics on his new single "Jellyfish," found on his forthcoming album, Paradise Now, plus news of his first North American tour dates in July.
Seminal Zamrock maestros Witch return with a new album, SOGOLO, on June 14 and Sault quietly dropped their fantastic new album, 10, in late April. Finally, the backstory accompanying the late Nell Smith's first and only debut solo album, Anxious, is tragic ... but her buoyant album is a testament to her promise and the joyful impact of her voice. I'll dig more deeply into that beautiful posthumous album, begun when Nell was just 15, and produced by Jack and Lily Wolters of Penelope Isles.
British and global releases, leaning on the new, on "UKNY," Sundays 11 p.m.-midnight, on 90.7FM, streaming online and in the Archives after broadcast.
Songs played:
1. (ZM) Witch, “Queenless King,” SOGOLO
2. Elbow, “Sober,” Audio Vertigo Echo EP
3. (NG-UK) Obongjayar, “Jellyfish,” Paradise Now
4. Punchbag, “Pretty Youth,” I’m Not Your Punchbag EP
5. Junk Drawer, “Nids Niteca,” Days of Heaven
6. Midnight Rodeo, “Daisy,” Chaos Era
7. Nell Smith, “Daisy Fields,” Anxious
8. Sault, “T.H.,” 10 (or X)
9. corto.alto, “32.Dip (108),” 30/108 bonus track
10. (UK-US) Caroline feat. Caroline Polachek, “Tell Me I Never Knew That,” Caroline 2
11. Skunk Anansie, “Lost and Found,” The Painful Truth
12. Soot Sprite, “Vicious Cycles,” Wield Your Hope Like a Weapon
13. (CA) Whitney K, “Rosy,” single
14. (IS-US) Laufey, “Tough Luck,” A Matter of Time
15. Firestations, “Bloodstone Hill,” Many White Horses
