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| Photo - Dominic Berthiaume & Delphine Snyers |
We are told that - Hélène Barbier seeds melodies that ferment in her head, pairing hummable lines with alien tunes conjured in someone else’s psyche across time and space. Siamese fragments. She creates an imbalance through juxtaposition. Four simple notes become evocative alongside four disorienting, different notes, and this simplistic rule has become a basis for complex play. In Beehive Candy terms, this is something worth checking out and based on 'Lapin' we can't wait to hear more.
Joy and anxiety come together on Panorama, Hélène Barbier's new album due Nov 14, 2025. Characterized by haunting melodies, stripped-down choruses, and a subtle layer of nonchalance that reinforces the magnetism of the songs, this avant-pop album was crafted over a period of three years. Born in response to the stress caused by certain events that disrupted the daily life of the Montreal singer and bassist, these nine tracks sound as if they were postcards sent at different moments in life, even if their intriguing lyrics leave room for interpretation.
Though it is a very personal album, Panorama is also a collective effort. After taking the time to refine her songs and remove elements she felt were superfluous, Hélène Barbier called on Ben Lalonde and Joe Chamandy (Retail Simps), with whom she has been making music for many years, as well as Claire Paquet, Thomas Molander, Samuel Gougoux (Corridor, Trafic des Airs, Victime), Wes MacNeil (Night Lunch), Mélanie Venditti, Alexandra Levy (Ada Léa), Meg Duffy (Hand Habits), and producer Emmanuel Éthier.
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Liverpool's John Witherspoon delivers his most emotionally complex single yet with 'My Baby', released a couple of days back, as the final preview of his third studio album One Of Them, due October 31st.
Serving as the album's closing track, this deeply personal composition showcases a masterful balance between intimate vulnerability and musical ambition. Opening with delicate, lullaby-like qualities ‘My Baby’ immediately draws listeners into Witherspoon's tender sonic world. Recorded live with a band, the track's gentle opening belies its eventual transformation into an anthemic statement, building organically from whispered to triumphant. Witherspoon's vocals echo the sultry croon of Arctic Monkeys' recent work, lending the track a contemporary sophistication that bridges nostalgic romance with modern appeal.
What appears on the surface as a sweet romantic ballad reveals layers of complexity beneath. Born during a period of writer's block, Witherspoon turns his creative struggles into art, and the self-referential line,
"Did the dreaded verse one where the writer is blocked." “I had the whole structure and melody down before I had a single lyric, which is very rare for me," he explains. This meta-textual breakthrough opened the floodgates for what would become his most nuanced exploration of human connection.
The song's emotional core draws inspiration from a moving story about a mother and son's reconciliation, which Witherspoon combined with his own experiences of familial relationships. The song's ambiguity allows for multiple interpretations. "It ends up being about 3 or 4 different people, but for the listener they've amalgamated into one," he explains. The track also features a callback to the album's opening song 'True Love', creating satisfying bookends for the overall piece.
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| Photo - Luca Bailey |
London sextet Home Counties today unveil new single 'Meet Me In The Flat Roof', a tongue-in-cheek homage to London's flat roof pubs - the latest preview of the band's eagerly awaited second album 'Humdrum', out 24th October via Submarine Cat Records - produced by Al Doyle (of Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem). The band have also announced a new in-store tour to celebrate the release of the album, with stops in Liverpool, Oxford, Kingston, Southsea and Southampton.
Both love letter and self-critique, new single 'Meet Me In The Flat Roof' calls out the smugness of bragging about “authentic” haunts while inevitably fuelling their gentrification. With lines that swing from knowing humour (“Can’t believe you’ve not been here before / Your friend’s been? I bet I’ve been way more”) to surprising tenderness (“Red wine on the crimson carpet / Accidental but unnoticed and it feels like love”), the track captures the cultural superiority complex hidden inside taste and habit.
Musically, it’s one of the album's most lush and memorable moments. Dreamy guitars and stacked harmonies bloom into a soaring middle eight - a section Doyle pushed the band to write after what had originally been an instrumental gap. The result is a song that turns the resolutely mundane into one of the album’s most unexpectedly moving highlights.
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