A loved-up set of singles featuring Jessica Winter, Your French Girlfriend, pencil and more!

It’s Valentine’s Day and more than a few artists have noticed! This week’s essential listens include loved-up ventures from Jessica Winter, Your French Girlfriend, Woody Green and Frank Lloyd Wleft & Nina Winder-Lind, along with singles from pencil, Most Things, Eric Tormey and PleasureInc..

pencil – ‘Sparkling Water’

A unique and singular measure of a pencil song seems to be how seamlessly it might accompany life’s most filmically pensive moments; whether it be gazing ruminatively out of a rain-speckled bus window, or emotionally succumbing to seasonal metamorphosis in perfect synchronicity with the yielding crumple of a leaf under your shoe, the London group continue to cultivate a sound with this rich and distinctive ‘overcast’ quality. pencil’s latest single ‘Sparkling Water’, released via State51, is further evidence for this hypothesis, the 5-piece blotting their ink into a palette of lush, uncluttered indie-folk textures punctuated by the subtle beauty of violinist Coco Inman’s contributions. Tender and pliant, like soft clay billowing atop a potter’s wheel, the band describe ‘Sparkling Water’ as “the sound of a shared daydream. We swim together through a fantasy that threatens to become a nightmare, both playful and fearful in equal measure”. (Hazel Blacher)

Jessica Winter – ‘L.O.V.E.’

Jessica Winter’s new single ‘L.O.V.E.’ is about longing, not just for a particular person, but for the feeling of love itself. The track is full of ingenious little hooks that propel it along towards an expansive chorus that swoons with the longing embedded in the words. A new anthem as suited to the dancefloor as it is to a solo night at home with a ready meal and a bottle of wine. (Lloyd Bolton)

Your French Girlfriend – ‘Can’t Stop Loving You’

‘Can’t Stop Loving You’ is the swooning, majestic new single that fulfils the romantic promise of the name Your French Girlfriend. Where previous single ‘Secrets’ detailed a far more troubled romantic situation, this track is a straight-ahead ballad of devotion. The delivery is a mix of classic mid-20th Century pop and more recent soul and indie influence, touches of synth, a sensitivity to space and boxy drums giving it a contemporary sheen. (Lloyd Bolton)

Most Things – ‘Shops!’

Signing to So Young’s label imprint, also home to Lime Garden, Cardinals, Slow Fiction, Folly Group, London duo Most Things have shared their 2-minute debut single, ‘Shops!’. The track feels like of mixture of Pixies with a New York post-punk twang, blasé, detached vocals representative of the mundane humdrum from being inundated with the relentless onslaught of modern-day living. Most Things will be celebrating the release with a London gig on 2^nd March for So Young’s upcoming Barbican takeover. (Brad Sked)

Woody Green – ‘Only Roses’ / ‘My Darling Girl and I’

‘Only Roses’ is a sweet Valentine’s single that crawls out from a guitar/vocal intro into a lush, fluttering bedroom symphony. Doo-wop vocals trade off with Rubber Soul melodies, underscored by rolling clarinets and a swaying bassline. Its tumbling chorus has the steadfast dedication of a true love, particularly as it loops into its outro, as Green sings of a love to which “only roses” can testify. B-Side ‘My Darling Girl and I’ is a one-take recording reportedly made freshly after the lyrics had been set to their melody. The intimate recording, with cars rushing by in the background, perfectly suits the lyrics, which flash like fragments of a memory. A sweet and melodious Valentine’s pair indeed. (Lloyd Bolton)

PleasureInc., ‘Trousers with Fake Pockets, Why?’

Norwich’s prime party band are back with another addictive single. In keeping with recent single ‘Fool’, the track leans further into the band’s synthesis of hip-hop elements with a gleefully sleazy indie setup. The excellently titled ‘Trousers with Fake Pockets, Why?’ captures the band’s ability to bring flashes of pop perfection undercut with a humour that relishes the process of DIY recording. Opening with the sarcastic throwaway line “I’m having so much fun”, it feels like we’re outside the latest PleasureInc. party. Are you coming in or what? (Lloyd Bolton)

Frank Lloyd Wleft ft. Nina Winder-Lind – ‘How Did I Let Myself Fall So In Love With You?’

Frank Lloyd Wleft is joined by Nina Winder-Lind of The New Eves on his latest single, ‘How Did I Let Myself Fall So In Love With You?’. Wleft’s passion for American music and culture, paired with his British poetic wit, produces a delightful and downright country number. ‘How Did I Let Myself Fall So In Love With You?’ is a no-nonsense, boot scootin’ submergence into American country music with its call and response melodies between Wleft and Winder-Lind gently bobbing over jangly guitars and sprawling fiddle. The pair manage to capture an unfeigned cheeriness though the playful lyrics are not entirely carefree. (Otis Hayes)

Eric Tormey – ‘Death’s Door’

Releasing their first material in 6 years, Margate-based songwriter and producer Eric Tormey has returned with ‘Death’s Door’. Tomney was the frontperson of the Brighton/Margate doom-psych-grunge-pop megalodons Gang, who’s eternal sledgehammer of fuzz was always coated in immense songwriting. Tormey has retained their ability to write great songs, with a gut-wrenching, jangly, melancholy-filled grunge ballad. The Margate marvel has already teased future material, and if their back catalogue with Gang and the self-produced ‘Death’s Door’ is anything to go by, we can’t wait for more. (Brad Sked)